What's in It for Me? Incentives,Learning, and Completion in Massive Open Online Courses

This study investigated the distribution of incentives (e.g., certificates, badges) for massive open online course (MOOC) completion, and relationships between incentives and MOOC outcomes. Participants were 779 MOOC students internationally who participated in at least 303 different MOOCs offered by at least 12 providers. MOOC participants most commonly intended to receive, and in actuality received, free and paid course certificates of completion; other incentives (e.g., digital badges, postsecondary credits) were far less common. In addition, MOOC participants' intentions to receive both free and paid certificates were consistently and positively related to perceived learning and course completion, net other factors. (Keywords: massive open online courses, MOOCs, motivation, incentives, microcredentials, certificates of completion)     

A comparison between two different automated total 25-hydroxyvitamin D immunoassay methods using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Introduction

Total 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] is the most reliable indicator of vitamin D status. In this study, we compared two automated immunoassay methods, the Abbott Architect 25-OH Vitamin D assay and the Roche Cobas Vitamin D total assay, with the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Materials and methods

One hundred venous blood samples were randomly selected from routine vitamin D tests. Two of the serum aliquots were analyzed at the Abbott Architect i2000 and the Roche Cobas 6000’s module e601 in our laboratory within the same day. The other serum aliquots were analyzed at the LC-MS/MS in different laboratory. Passing-Bablok regression analysis and Bland-Altman plot were used to compare methods. Inter-rater agreement was analyzed using kappa (κ) analysis.

Results

The Roche assay showed acceptable agreement with the LC-MS/MS based on Passing-Bablok analysis (intercept: -5.23 nmol/L, 95% CI: -8.73 to 0.19; slope: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.77 to 1.15). The Abbott assay showed proportional (slope: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.67 to 0.85) and constant differences (intercept: 17.08 nmol/L; 95% CI: 12.98 to 21.39). A mean bias of 15.1% was observed for the Abbott and a mean bias of -14.1% was observed for the Roche based on the Bland-Altman plots. We found strong to nearly perfect agreement in vitamin D status between the immunoassays and LC-MS/MS. (κ: 0.83 for Abbott, κ: 0.93 for Roche) using kappa analysis.

Conclusion

Both immunoassays demonstrated acceptable performance, but the Roche Cobas assay demonstrated better performance than the Abbott Architect in the studied samples.Key words: 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, chromatography, immunoassay, methods, tandem mass spectrometry     

Characterization of two-dimensional cellular automata over ternary fields

The set of papers [3], [4], [6] and [7] (Chattopadhyay et al., 1999; Dihidar and Choudhury, 2004; Khan et al., 1997, 1999) deals with the behavior of the uniform two-dimensional cellular automata over binary fields (Z₂). Some structural properties and precise mathematical models using matrix algebra over the field Z₂ are reported for characterizing the behavior of two-dimensional nearest neighborhood linear cellular automata with null and periodic boundary conditions [3], [4], [6] and [7] (Chattopadhyay et al., 1999; Dihidar and Choudhury, 2004; Khan et al., 1997, 1999). In this paper, we characterize two-dimensional linear cellular automata transformations by using matrix algebra built on Z₃. We analyze some results for two-dimensional CA with rule numbers 2460N and 2460P. Finally, we investigate the dimension of the kernel of two-dimensional cellular automata defined by the rule number 2460N.     

Bridging the gap between higher education and the Telecommunications Engineering Sector

In this paper, the growth of the telecommunication sector in Pakistan and consequent development in the related professional education is studied. The widening gap between the telecommunication industry and associated education sector is identified. The higher educational programs in Pakistan have grown very rapidly to meet the needs of the explosive growth in the telecommunications＇ engineering sector but this growth is not in synchronization with the requirements of the industry due to non-existence of collaboration and co-operation between the two. The professional education in telecommunication in Pakistan and the higher educational degree programs are very precisely focused on producing quality graduates with refined technical and mathematical skills While the telecom sector in Pakistan is in principle a service provider and a consumer market that mainly requires engineers for operation and maintenance related activities. As such the skills imparted by the education sector are rarely utilized, which results in dissatisfaction among the telecommunications＇ engineers. A survey of both the telecommunication sector and the academia has been conducted along with detailed discussions to explore the reasons for this ever-increasing gap, ways and means to arrest this trend and future course of action for the academia and the telecom sector to develop. A study related to other emerging technical fields like computer science has also been made for the comparison. On the basis of this extensive exercise outlined above, measures have been suggested to bridge the gap between the education and the industrial needs of the telecom sector. By adopting these measures not only our education sector will become more beneficial to the industry, but the industry would also get the advantage of immense potential of young graduates and the academic research.     

Quantum-Inspired Blockchain-Based Cybersecurity: Securing Smart Edge Utilities in IoT-Based Smart Cities

Blockchain plays a vital task in cybersecurity. With the exerted efforts for realising large-scale quantum computers, most current cryptographic mechanisms may be hacked. Accordingly, we need a quantum tool utilised for designing blockchain frameworks to have the ability to be executed in the level of digital computers and resist the probable attacks from both digital and quantum computers. Quantum walks may be utilised as a quantum-inspired model for designing new cryptographic algorithms. In this paper, we present a new authentication and encryption protocol based on quantum-inspired quantum walks (QIQW). The proposed protocol is utilized to build a blockchain framework for secure data transmission among IoT devices. Instead of using classical cryptographic hash functions, quantum hash functions based on QIQW are employed for linking blocks of the chain. The main advantages of the presented framework are helping IoT nodes to effectively share their data with other nodes and full control of their records. Security analysis demonstrates that our proposed protocol can defend against message attack and impersonation attacks, thus ensuring secure transmission of data among IoT devices.