Showing papers by "Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown published in 2014"

An application of classification models to predict learner progression in tertiary education

Abstract: This paper reports on an application of classification models to identify college students at risk of failing in the first year of study. Data was gathered from three student cohorts in the academic years 2010 through 2012. Students within the cohorts were sampled from a range of academic disciplines (n=1074), and were diverse in their academic backgrounds and abilities. Metrics used included data that are typically available to colleges such as age, gender and prior academic performance. The study also considered psychometric indicators that can be assessed in the early stages after enrolment, specifically, personality, motivation and learning strategies. Six classification algorithms were considered. Model accuracy was assessed using cross validation and was compared to outcomes when models were applied to a subsequent academic year. It was found that mature students were more complex to model than younger students. Furthermore, 10-fold cross validation accurately estimated model performance when modeling younger students only, but over-estimated model accuracy when modeling mature students.

Increasing in-class student engagement using Socrative (an online Student Response System)

Abstract: This paper draws on primary and secondary research to analyse the effectiveness of the Socrative cloud-based Student Response System (SRS) in improving student engagement and the learning experience, compared with the traditional lecture setting. For lecturers considering a move to a cloud-based SRS, this paper examines the potential pay-offs and pitfalls, identifies free online options available and assesses the efficacy of the Socrative SRS from the perspective of lecturers and students.

Digital forensics investigations in the Cloud

Abstract: The essentially infinite storage space offered by Cloud Computing is quickly becoming a problem for forensics investigators in regards to evidence acquisition, forensic imaging and extended time for data analysis. It is apparent that the amount of stored data will at some point become impossible to practically image for the forensic investigators to complete a full investigation. In this paper, we address these issues by determining the relationship between acquisition times on the different storage capacities, using remote acquisition to obtain data from virtual machines in the cloud. A hypothetical case study is used to investigate the importance of using a partial and full approach for acquisition of data from the cloud and to determine how each approach affects the duration and accuracy of the forensics investigation and outcome. Our results indicate that the relation between the time taken for image acquisition and different storage volumes is not linear, owing to several factors affecting remote acquisition, especially over the Internet. Performing the acquisition using cloud resources showed a considerable reduction in time when compared to the conventional imaging method. For a 30GB storage volume, the least time was recorded for the snapshot functionality of the cloud and dd command. The time using this method is reduced by almost 77 percent. FTK Remote Agent proved to be most efficient showing an almost 12 percent reduction in time over other methods of acquisition. Furthermore, the timelines produced with the help of the case study, showed that the hybrid approach should be preferred to complete approach for performing acquisition from the cloud, especially in time critical scenarios.

Municipal Solid Waste Management in Indonesia

Abstract: Solid Waste Management Act 18/2008 is expected to bring major changes and new challenges in waste management in Indonesia, which will serve as the umbrella for sound MSW managements in Indonesia. The basic approach of this law is waste reduction through 3Rs as the first priority, and the next is proper waste handling.

The Social Pillar of Sustainable Development A literature review and framework for policy analysis

Abstract: There is a need to develop a clearer understanding of what the social pillar of sustainable development means and how it relates to the environmental pillar. This article contributes to this proces...

Non-cognitive Factors of Learning as Predictors of Academic Performance in Tertiary Education.

Abstract: This paper reports on an application of classification and regression models to identify college students at risk of failing in first year of study. Data was gathered from three student cohorts in the academic years 2010 through 2012 (n=1207). Students were sampled from fourteen academic courses in five disciplines, and were diverse in their academic backgrounds and abilities. Metrics used included noncognitive psychometric indicators that can be assessed in the early stages after enrolment, specifically factors of personality, motivation, self regulation and approaches to learning. Models were trained on students from the 2010 and 2011 cohorts, and tested on students from the 2012 cohort. Is was found that classification models identifying students at risk of failing had good predictive accuracy (> 79%) on courses that had a significant proportion of high risk students (over 30%).

Complex Predicates and Light Verb Constructions in Modern Irish

Abstract: This paper characterises complex predicates and light verb constructions in Modern Irish. Light verbs are attested in many of the world’s languages (Alsina, Bresnan & Sells, 2001; Butt, 1995, 2003). Cross linguistically, there appears to be a common class of verbs involved in these constructions and generally there is agreement that light verbs contribute to the formation of complex predicates. Light verbs seem have a non-light or ‘heavy’ verb counterpart. In this paper we discuss the light verb constructions (LVC) as found in modern Irish and how they form complex predicates. We claim that the light verb (LV) encodes the event process initiation (or cause) and the matrix verb indicates the bounded component or result. In light verb constructions, the matrix verb appears in Modern Irish syntax as a verbal-noun form. The function of light verbs in these constructions is to modulate the event and sub-event semantics. We distinguish between auxiliary verbs constructions (AVC) and those constructions involving complex predicated and light verbs (Aikhenvald & Dixon, 2006; Anderson, 2006). We provide evidence based on an analysis of Irish data that shows how aspect and argument structure considerations are resolved for the complex predicate within the light verb construction via the linking system between semantics and syntax. We motivate a functional account, based on Role and Reference Grammar (Nolan, 2012; Nolan & Diedrichsen, 2013; Van Valin, 2005; Van Valin & LaPolla, 1997), that appeals to the analysis of complex predicates within a consideration of the layered structure of the clause.

The "THREADS" of biosystems engineering

Abstract: . The core concepts, or threads, of biosystems engineering are variously understood by those of us within the discipline but have never been unequivocally defined due to the discipline’s early stage of development. This complicates the use and interpretation of terminology, as well as compatibility of the programs of study, compared to other well-established engineering disciplines. A common definition of the emerging discipline of biosystems engineering is clearly needed at the international level.

Automatic Generation and Population of a Graphics-Based Driving Simulator: Use of Mobile Mapping Data for Behavioral Testing of Drivers

Abstract: A stereo image and high-accuracy positional data were used to generate and populate a low-fidelity graphics model. The data were acquired by a simple mobile mapping system. The use of positional data made it possible to generate automatically a sparse model consisting of a road, central road marking, a green area, and a skybox. This allowed for several applications, such as the synchronization of the model with the video and the semiautomatic population of road signs into the model data. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the model and the video as viable sources for behavioral testing of drivers. The correlations between driver speed in response to the model and the video are presented; this presentation allows for an examination of the effect of the fidelity of the driving simulator's visual cue stream. The study results were used to compare driver speed in a real vehicle with driver speeds in the video and model roads, with correlations of 84.6% (between video and ground truth), 87.3% (between mod...

Ecosystem evaluation of post sand mining land in Cimalaka, Sumedang

Abstract: This research was conducted to evaluate ecosystem function of post-sand mining land in northern side of Layapan, Cimalaka, Sumedang, West Java (S 6 o 47’ 33.68” and E 107 o 58’18.73”, 744 m above sea level). Microclimate and soil characteristics measurements were carried out to describe the physical and chemical characteristics of the land. Vegetation analysis was conducted with plotting method. Ecosystem Function Analysis, including Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) has been used to analyze the function of landscape. The results showed that average light intensity, air temperature and humidity were 15.2x10 3 ± 7.3x10 3 lux, 29.1±1.02 o C and 69.7±7.5%. High light intensity made the air temperature rouse higher than normal, which is between 17.1 o C to 22 o C. As for the soil, soil organic content was 4-11%, porosity 4.65-24.43%, macronutrient content was low and C/N ratio was high. The results showed that LFA value for land stability was 33.24%, water infiltration 37.2%, nutrient cycle rate 15.28%. Those numbers showed that land condition was poor. From the LFA data, it was also known that vegetations had the highest contribution for all LFA parameters. From vegetation analysis, herbs species were 67 while bushes only 9, which at least 40 species were invasive alien species. Species with highest Important Value (IV) from herb was Cajanus scarabaeoides and from bush was Mimosa pigra . Both of them are members of Fabaceae. It was concluded that the soil of this post sand mining land was highly nutrient poor; critical and couldn’t perform the regulation, habitat and biomass production function of ecosystem.

Theoretical and computational considerations of linking constructions in Role and Reference Grammar

Abstract: This paper proposes a view of the linguistic construction in Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) in which constructions are posited to be structured grammatical objects with a unique constructional signature that uniquely identifies them. We argue that the construction has an input and an output, and that it contains a local workspace in which the processing of the various lexical and grammatical rules applies, according to the constraints within the constructional object. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that the RRG account of constructions is an under-utilised resource that deserves a wider application to problems in cross-linguistic analysis (Nolan & Diedrichsen, 2013; Nolan & Perinan, 2014). As a functional grammar with strong claims of adequacy, RRG has however had several challenges from Construction Grammar (Butler & Martin Arista, 2009; Goldberg, 2006; Michaelis, 2006, 2010). This paper addresses a number of these challenges. In the view of constructions presented here, the linking over the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic interfaces resides in the body of the construction, and the construction interacts with the lexicon which provides lexical information relevant to the construction. The constructions reside in a construction repository. This model of constructions delivers a means to address the challenges posed to the RRG account of the role and place of constructions within a lexicalist functionalist model of grammar.

‘Ghettos of the Mind’: Realities and Myths in the Construction of the Social Identity of a Dublin Suburb:

Abstract: The Republic of Ireland became a country of net immigration for the first time in 1996 and a large body of literature has since examined, at macro and meso levels, migration rates and flows, impact...

Geodemographic model variable selection spacial data mining of the 2011 Irish census

Abstract: Building geodemographic models using census data is not new. However, many of the models are built commercially and often little is published about how the models are designed and created. One of the important steps to building any geodemographic system is identifying the variables that will produce meaningful and application-relevant clusters. Unfortunately many of the commonly used methodologies for feature selection cannot be used on the census data and so were not available for clustering tasks. This resulted in a more objective-focused approach being taken when choosing variables. This paper outlines the reasons more commonly-used feature selection techniques could not be used, and then explains the alternative approaches and methodologies that were used to select variables to help build an Irish geodemographic model.

Extending a lexicalist functional grammar through speech acts, constructions and conversational software agents

Abstract: This paper advances a model of conversational agents in a computational framework that builds on the notion of speech act performatives from discourse within a functional model of grammar. We describe the language specific elements of the intelligent conversational agents paradigm and how it can be usefully employed in the modelling of human language in software through use of agent-embedded speech acts. The linguistic model employed is Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). We propose a view in which a conversational agent has ‘internal’ and ‘external’ models to support the speech acts. The internal model of the agent is concerned with the internal state of the agent, based upon the intersection at any given time on the agent’s internal beliefs, desires, and intentions, known as BDI states. The external model of the agent is composed of an interaction model with its world (human and other agent). Importantly, the conversational agent also has a language model in software that is related to its interaction model to support bi-directional communication in human language through speech acts. For this, we employ the RRG model to motivate the design of the language model and use the RRG bi-directional linking system. We present a framework that connects the intelligent conversational agents paradigm to the RRG model of language. This has significance in that it has potential for use with linguistically oriented ontological semantics modelling and as a framework for testing of hypotheses on languages to support claims of adequacy within a functional approach. It also extends the breadth of computational work within RRG.

An analysis into using unstructured non-expert text in the illicit drug domain

Abstract: The Pillreports.com database was mined in order to determine if the free-text fields in the database could be of use in differentiating regular pills from those that have been adulterated, i.e. contains ingredients not comparable to MDMA. The data was download and extracted using RapidMiner and Xpath queries. A Naive Bayes and SVM binary classification model was created. Pre-processing techniques of tokenisation, n-gram creation, stop-word removal, stemming as well as feature selection by weights were applied to the data, resulting in a 15 point improvement in the model. In addition we are reporting on a comprehensive cluster analysis. Frequent terms and differences between clusters were visualised using word clouds. Clusters were compared with values contained in nominal fields. Model results and interpretation are provided at various preprocessing stages. Key phrase extraction is identified as an area of possible future work.

Aplikasi Rekomendasi Buzzer untuk Pemasaran Produk dengan Prediksi Profil Pengguna Twitter

Abstract: Perkembangan situs jejaring sosial secara tidak langsung berdampak pada cara pemasaran sebuah produk, yaitu dengan menggunakan jasa Buzzer. Permasalahan yang muncul adalah bagaimana menentukan Buzzer yang cocok untuk sebuah iklan produk. Makalah ini memanfaatkan model prediksi profil pengguna twitter untuk merekomendasikan buzzer yang cocok untuk sebuah iklan. Pemilik iklan akan menentukan sasaran pasar iklan tersebut, prioritas profil pengguna yang menjadi sasaran pasar, dan daftar kandidat buzzer yang dianggap cocok. Sistem akan memberikan rekomendasi berupa ranking dari setiap buzzer dengan menghitung kecocokan sasaran pasar dan profil para pengikut buzzer. Sebagai pengujian, dilakukan pencocokan hasil rekomendasi sistem dengan interaksi sebenarnya untuk 6 iklan. Hasil pengujian menunjukkan bahwa nilai NDGC rata-rata untuk 6 iklan yang diuji sangat tinggi yaitu sebesar 0.90. Hasil rekomendasi Buzzer yang diberikan sistem sesuai dengan total interaksi pengguna pada iklan tersebut. Pemilihan parameter pada profil statis dan dinamis juga sudah dapat merepresentasikan sasaran pasar sebuah iklan. Kata Kunci buzzer, sasaran pasar, prediksi profil pengguna, NDCG.

Analysing the Irish 2011 General Election party manifestos and Irish political statements from the Irish Parliament (Dáil) using text analytics

Abstract: This research paper uses text visualisation methods, such as Wordclouds, to emphasis the key terms used by different political parties throughout the 2011 Irish Parliament (Dail) period; this includes the final sessions of the 30th Dail before the 2011 General Election and the entire 2011 sessions of the 31st Dail. Using term frequencies this research clearly shows the topics that were important to each relevant political party. This study also highlights the key differences that may reside between what a political party stated clearly in their election manifesto and what was written on Dail transcript records during the course of 2011. The main objective of this research is exploring and understanding ways in which key political information can be summarised and subsequently displayed in an intuitive visual fashion as a guiding education facility.

Engineering teaching and learning: A contemporary globalization style

Abstract: With the appearance of globalization and hence the digital era, education has become more accessible and challenging than ever. Consequently, each field of education becomes broader, knowledge has been reduced to a commodity, authorities ripen into management schisms and information becomes redundant and somehow uncontrolled. Perhaps the contemporary young generation are more savvy, cunning and market oriented than their counterparts in the 20th Century. Certainly, this questions the stereotypical concepts of traditional engineering education at graduate and post graduate levels. This paper is an attempt to highlight and share some experience towards contemporary teaching and learning in Engineering with practical examples.