The Role of Universities in Stimulating Regional Development and Educating Global E´lites

At the start of the Twenty-First Century, European universities must play a number of roles in terms of social and economic development. In particular, they must increasingly serve as engines for local and regional development, thus filling a niche that only seems logical for them. At the same time, universities will form e´lites, particularly local e´lites; however, those universities that are world-class institutions will and should educate global e´lites. In performing the latter role, European universities in the Twenty-First Century will reassume a role, seized by American universities in the Twentieth Century, which they had successfully played in the Nineteenth Century.     

Virtual laboratory—Using a hand movement recognition system to improve the quality of chemical education

The rapid development of information and communication technologies has enabled the development of interfaces, which allow the recognition of the gestures and movements of the user. These interfaces, due to their affordable prices, are available to a wide range of users. They are called natural user interfaces (NUI). NUI are commonly used in game consoles and electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets. We used the Kinect sensor from Microsoft in our studies to identify the movements and gestures of the user. This interface was used by us in teaching Chemistry in a Middle School and High School by developing a virtual chemical laboratory, which is based on a system of hand movements. We have analyzed the gestures and movements of the virtual chemical laboratory user to determine how they raise the effectiveness in chemical education. The results show how much better students work with a virtual laboratory, when studied by us in chemical areas, that concerned remembering information, understanding information, applying their experience in situations familiar to them from school and in solving chemical problems.     

Digital competences of residents in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in the light of the polish training project “E-active”

Education and Information Technologies - The purpose of the article is to describe the trainings implemented as part of the project “E-Active Residents of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian and...     

Digital processing of radar signals using industrial computers with vector AltiVec units

Radar systems usually had used digital signal processors for signal processing in the past. Such an approach has changed after introduction of a new type of general purpose PowerPC processor with very fast vector units called AltiVec. This new type of processor could realize various tasks performed earlier by several specialized processors. For instance it could be used for digital signal processing, tracking, fusion of data or communication with other functional blocks of radar. Its versatility and speed proved to be a superior solution in modern radar systems. It could also be programmed using C language instead of an assembler, what facilitated software development. Unfortunately the memory subsystem of computers built using this type of processor appeared to be too slow, and consequently slowed down the calculations. Therefore, the signal-processing software written for PowerPC processors with AltiVec vector units had to be accordingly optimized. The paper presents various optimization techniques and their effect on mean processing time of signal-processing software.The computer system built of industrial computers connected by the internal Ethernet is also presented in the paper. Individual computers of this system contain the multi-core PowerPC processors equipped with AltiVec vector units. The experimental model of the system is used for real-time digital processing of the multi-stream radar signals. The presented results of theoretical and experimental investigations show that the system is an effective, universal and cheaper computational platform than the corresponding, traditional multiprocessor platforms using the signal processors. Selected example recipes of writing the optimum and reliable application software are also given.     

The socio-economic effectiveness of education

The authors discuss the factors which predetermine research into the effectiveness of education and the role of economics in educational research. Three fundamental research areas are identified: macroeconomic research into the relations between the national economy and culture and the educational system, economic aspects of the functioning of education, and cost-effectiveness in individual terms. The principles of planning and its implications for policy are discussed and the role of research on expenditure and costs defined. The effects of education are shown as being of two kinds, direct and indirect, and their relative importance for planning is considered and illustrated with examples from the authors' own research in Poland. Finally, the quantitative and qualitative aspects of extensive and intensive development policies and their relationship to overall national economic development are investigated and a number of conclusions drawn.

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Résumé Les auteurs discutent les facteurs qui conditionnent la recherche consacrée au rendement de l'éducation ainsi que la rôle de l'économie dans la recherche sur l'éducation. Ils distinguent trois domaines fondamentaux de la recherche: premièrement, la recherche macro-économique portant sur les relations entre la culture ou l'économie nationale et le système d'éducation; deuxièmement les aspects économique du processus d'éducation; troisièmement les études de rendement en fonction du coût de l'éducation par téte. L'article discute les principes de la planification et ses implications en termes de politique de l'éducation et cherche à définir les effets de la recherche sur les dépenses et les coûts. On montre que les conséquences du processus d'éducation sont de deux types et leurs importance relative du point de vue de la planification est mise en évidence et illustrée par des exemples empruntés aux recherches des auteurs sur la Pologne. En conclusion, l'article éclaire les aspects tant quantitatifs que qualitatifs des politiques de développement extensif et intensif de l'éducation dans leurs relations au développement global de l'économie nationale pour en tirer un certain nombre de remarques finales. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A0010002 00003

     

Modeling parameters that characterize pacing of elite female 800-m freestyle swimmers

Pacing offers a potential avenue for enhancement of endurance performance. We report here a novel method for characterizing pacing in 800-m freestyle swimming. Websites provided 50-m lap and race times for 192 swims of 20 elite female swimmers between 2000 and 2013. Pacing for each swim was characterized with five parameters derived from a linear model: linear and quadratic coefficients for effect of lap number, reductions from predicted time for first and last laps, and lap-time variability (standard error of the estimate). Race-to-race consistency of the parameters was expressed as intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). The average swim was a shallow negative quadratic with slowest time in the eleventh lap. First and last laps were faster by 6.4% and 3.6%, and lap-time variability was ±0.64%. Consistency between swimmers ranged from low-moderate for the linear and quadratic parameters (ICC = 0.29 and 0.36) to high for the last-lap parameter (ICC = 0.62), while consistency for race time was very high (ICC = 0.80). Only ~15% of swimmers had enough swims (~15 or more) to provide reasonable evidence of optimum parameter values in plots of race time vs. each parameter. The modest consistency of most of the pacing parameters and lack of relationships between parameters and performance suggest that swimmers usually compensated for changes in one parameter with changes in another. In conclusion, pacing in 800-m elite female swimmers can be characterized with five parameters, but identifying an optimal pacing profile is generally impractical.     

The effect of progressively increased physical efforts on visual evoked potentials in volleyball players and non-athletes

We assessed the effect of physical effort with increasing intensity on neural activity in the visual pathway in volleyball players (n = 10) and non-athletes (n = 10). Participants performed three 10-min tests of increasing intensity on a cycle ergometer. Each participant was assigned individual workloads below the lactate threshold (40% [Vdot]O(2max)), at the lactate threshold (65-75% [Vdot]O(2max)), and above the lactate threshold (80% [Vdot]O(2max)). Four recordings of visual evoked potentials were made: pre-exercise and immediately after each of the three subsequent tests. We assessed neural activity of the visual pathway by examining the amplitude and latency of the N75, P100, and N135 components of the visual evoked potentials waveform. Pre-exercise P100 wave latency was shorter (P < 0.05) in volleyball players than in non-athletes. In non-athletes, the latency of P100 following the first and second effort (40% and 65-75% [Vdot]O(2max)) was reduced compared with pre-exercise (P < 0.01). However, P100 latency increased and P100 amplitude decreased after the third test (80% [Vdot]O(2max)) in non-athletes. In contrast, no significant changes in the latency or amplitude of visual evoked potentials were observed in the athletes in the three tests. Neural conductivity in the visual pathway after exercise might be at least partially dependent on the individual's personal training adaptation status.     

An approach toward the development of core syllabuses for the anatomical sciences

There is increasingly a call for clinical relevance in the teaching of the biomedical sciences within all health care programs. This presupposes that there is an understanding of what is “core” material within the curriculum. To date, the anatomical sciences have been poorly served by the development of core syllabuses, although there have been commendable attempts to define a core syllabus for gross anatomy in medicine and for some medical specialties. The International Federation of Associations of Anatomists and the European Federation for Experimental Morphology aim to formulate, on an international basis, core syllabuses for all branches of the anatomical sciences. This is being undertaken at the initial stage using Delphi Panels consisting of a team of anatomists, scientists, and clinicians who evaluate syllabus content and accord each element/topic “essential,” “important,” “acceptable,” or “not required” status. Their initial conjectures, published on the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists' website, provide merely a framework to enable anatomical (and other cognate learned) societies and individual anatomists, clinicians, and students to comment upon the syllabuses. This article presents the concepts and methodological approaches underlying the hybrid Delphi process employed. Preliminary findings relating to the development of a neuroanatomy core syllabus are provided to illustrate the methods initially employed by a Delphi Panel. The approach is novel in that it is international in scope, is conceptually democratic, and is developmentally fluid in terms of availability for amendment. The aim is to set internationally recognized standards and thus to provide guidelines concerning anatomical knowledge when engaged in course development. Anat Sci Educ 7: 302–311. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.     

An update on the status of anatomical sciences education in United States medical schools

Curricular changes continue at United States medical schools and directors of gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, neuroscience/neuroanatomy, and embryology courses continue to adjust and modify their offerings. Developing and supplying data related to current trends in anatomical sciences education is important if informed decisions are going to be made in a time of curricular and course revision. Thus, a survey was sent to course directors during the 2012–2013 academic years to gather information on total course hours, lecture and laboratory hours, the type of laboratory experiences, testing and competency evaluation, and the type of curricular approach used at their institution. The data gathered were compared to information obtained from previous surveys and conclusions reached were that only small or no change was observed in total course, lecture and laboratory hours in all four courses; more gross anatomy courses were part of an integrated curriculum since the previous survey; virtual microscopy with and without microscopes was the primary laboratory activity in microscopic anatomy courses; and neuroscience/neuroanatomy and embryology courses were unchanged. Anat Sci Educ 7: 321–325. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.     

Compressed sensing for real measurements of quaternion signals

The paper concerns compressed sensing methods in the quaternion algebra. We prove that it is possible to uniquely reconstruct – by ?₁ norm minimization – a sparse quaternion signal from a limited number of its real linear measurements, provided the measurement matrix satisfies so-called restricted isometry property with a sufficiently small constant. We also provide error estimates for the approximated reconstruction of a non-sparse quaternion signal from noisy and noiseless data.