Objective Analysis Of Data Research Articles

Epidemiología y factores de riesgo asociados a displasia broncopulmonar en prematuros menores de 32 semanas de edad gestacional

ObjectivesTo describe risk factors of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in very preterm infants in the first weeks of life. Material and methodsRetrospective cohort study of preterm infants ≤ 32 weeks of gestational age and birth weight ≤ 1500 g. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors for bronchopulmonary dysplasia in the first weeks of life. ResultsA total of 202 newborns were included in the study (mean gestational age 29.5 ± 2.1 weeks), 61.4% never received invasive mechanical ventilation. The incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia was 28.7%, and 10.4% of the patients were diagnosed with moderate–severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia.Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was independently associated with gestational age at birth (p < 0.001; OR = 0.44 [95% CI = 0.30–0.65]), the need for mechanical ventilation on the first day of life (p = 0.001; OR = 8.13 [95% CI = 2.41–27.42]), nosocomial sepsis (p < 0.001; OR = 9.51 [95% CI = 2.99–30.28]) and FiO2 on day 14 (p < 0.001; OR = 1.39 [95% CI = 1.16–1.66]). Receiving mechanical ventilation at the first day of life (p = 0.008; OR = 5.39 [95% CI = 1.54–18.89]) and at the third day of life (p = 0.001; OR = 9.99 [95% CI = 2.47–40.44]) and nosocomial sepsis (p = 0.001; OR = 9.87 [95% CI = 2.58–37.80]) were independent risk factors for moderate–severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. ConclusionsGestational age at birth, mechanical ventilation in the first days of life and nosocomial sepsis are early risk factors for bronchopulmonary dysplasia. The analysis of simple and objective clinical data, allows us to select a group of patients at high risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in whom it could be justified to act more aggressively, and shows areas for improvement to prevent its development or reduce its severity.

Research of effects of plant preparation with integrated action in cough therapy in school children

Introduction. Cough accompanies an acute infectious process in the respiratory tract. The article focuses on the symptomatic treatment of cough using a modern herbal preparation with complex action and standard therapy.Goal. To study the effects of a herbal preparation with complex action in the treatment of cough in children.Materials and methods. The study included 72 patients of both sexes (mean age 14.6 ± 2.3 years) with a symptom of unproductive/unproductive cough, against the background of acute bronchitis or community-acquired pneumonia.Results and discussion. When using a herbal preparation with complex action was used in ¾ of the children, cough decreased by the 3rd day and in most patients it stopped by the 10 th day. The severity of daytime and nighttime coughs decreased by 3.0–3.5 points, the number of seizures decreased to 2–4 per day, the duration of seizures also decreased significantly, the median of this indicator in the main group reached 0 points. In both groups, the proportion of patients with seizure frequency of no more than 4 per day increased. While taking a herbal preparation, a more pronounced decrease in all indicators of cough by 3.5 times was noted throughout the treatment, and the corresponding effects developed 3 days ahead of time against the background of a full course of therapy. The average value of the efficacy and safety assessment given by the medical researchers to the action of the herbal preparation with complex action was 3.6 points. Analysis of objective and subjective data based on the results of evaluating case histories and individually developed questionnaires for patients on drug tolerance showed equivalence in terms of excellent and good results. Against the background of the full course of treatment with the herbal preparation, a 1.8 times more pronounced decrease in the characteristics of the cough syndrome was noted.Conclusion. The drug has shown high efficacy and safety, which makes it possible to recommend it as a symptomatic therapy for cough in school-age children as part of a combination or monotherapy.

Methodological Tools for Evaluating Effectiveness of Capital Construction Projects of Oil Producing Enterprises

Due to the fact that most of the large oil fields in Russia, characterized by high production costs, are at the final stage of development; the issue of cost optimization has become increasingly important in recent years. The main cost items at oil and gas enterprises are design and construction (reconstruction) of oil field facilities. Analysis of currently used methods for ranking oil and gas projects has shown that all of them are inherently subjective, since they are based on expert opinion. The authors have developed a methodological tools for evaluating the effectiveness of capital construction projects of oil field facilities (for example, construction work on the site for inventory receiving bridges and lifting units), which allows to eliminate the influence of expert opinion as much as possible and, consequently, significantly improve the quality and validity of management decisions. The choice of the optimal project is based on a two – level assessment (stage 1– technical assessment, stage 2 – economic assessment). At each stage, an integral indicator is determined by calculation based on the results of objective data analysis and using the developed algorithms. Thus, it is possible to judge the effectiveness of any project without being based on a subjective approach in the assessment with the help of expert opinion.

A Systematic Review of the Calcium Content of the Normal Human Prostate Gland

Introduction: There is much lack of knowledge concerning most prostatic malfunction, especially the reasons and detailed nature of its pathologies. In spite of advances in medical science, the differential diagnosis of prostatic pathologies has steadily increased in complexity and controversy. A proposal has been made that prostatic calcium (Ca) content determinations may aid in resolving these issues for prostate disorders and especially as an indicator of its carcinoma risk. As a result many measurements of normal prostatic Ca have been made. Materials and methods: Here we analyze data published concerning Ca prostatic levels in healthy subjects. In all 1911 items in the literature of the years dating back to 1921 were identified in the following databases: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science and ELSEVIER-EMBASE. This data was subject to an analysis employing both the “range” and “median” of means. In this way the disparate nature of published Ca content of normal prostates was evaluated. From the papers examined, 36 were selected for the objective analysis of data from their 1357 healthy patients.. Results: On a wet mass basis prostatic Ca levels spanned the interval from 73 mg/kg to 1280 mg/kg with 360 mg/kg as the median of their means. It is accepted that the prostatic Ca content is contingent on a wide variety of aspects of the host’s milieu, including androgen levels, zone of human prostate sampled, relative amounts of different types of prostatic tissue studied, Ca content of food and drink, Ca supplement intake, age, and the method of analysis. Conclusions: The data encompassed a wide range of values and the sample was small, hence it is advisable that further studies be performed.

Analysis and Optimization of Low‐Speed Road Noise in Electric Vehicles

When a certain electric vehicle is driving at a constant speed of 40 km/h on the rough asphalt road, the rear passenger can obviously feel the ear pressure, which seriously affects the comfort. Through the analysis of objective data, it was found that the problem was caused by the road excitation, which leads to the coupling between the mode of the backup door and the mode of the acoustic cavity, and causes the resonance of the car cavity, thus causing the ear pressure sensation. To solve this problem, this paper optimizes the backup door by means of experiment and simulation, increases the dynamic vibration absorber, makes its modal frequency avoid the acoustic cavity modal frequency, and achieves the purpose of reducing the interior noise. After optimization, the vehicle noise is reduced by 8 dBA at 42 Hz under 40 km/h working condition of rough road surface, and the ear pressure sensation is reduced at the same time, thus improving the NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) performance of the vehicle.

Automated identification of leukocyte subsets improves standardization of database-guided expert-supervised diagnostic orientation in acute leukemia: a EuroFlow study

Precise classification of acute leukemia (AL) is crucial for adequate treatment. EuroFlow has previously designed an AL orientation tube (ALOT) to guide toward the relevant classification panel and final diagnosis. In this study, we designed and validated an algorithm for automated (database-supported) gating and identification (AGI tool) of cell subsets within samples stained with ALOT. A reference database of normal peripheral blood (PB, n = 41) and bone marrow (BM; n = 45) samples analyzed with the ALOT was constructed, and served as a reference for the AGI tool to automatically identify normal cells. Populations not unequivocally identified as normal cells were labeled as checks and were classified by an expert. Additional normal BM (n = 25) and PB (n = 43) and leukemic samples (n = 109), analyzed in parallel by experts and the AGI tool, were used to evaluate the AGI tool. Analysis of normal PB and BM samples showed low percentages of checks (<3% in PB, <10% in BM), with variations between different laboratories. Manual analysis and AGI analysis of normal and leukemic samples showed high levels of correlation between cell numbers (r2 > 0.95 for all cell types in PB and r2 > 0.75 in BM) and resulted in highly concordant classification of leukemic cells by our previously published automated database-guided expert-supervised orientation tool for immunophenotypic diagnosis and classification of acute leukemia (Compass tool). Similar data were obtained using alternative, commercially available tubes, confirming the robustness of the developed tools. The AGI tool represents an innovative step in minimizing human intervention and requirements in expertise, toward a “sample-in and result-out” approach which may result in more objective and reproducible data analysis and diagnostics. The AGI tool may improve quality of immunophenotyping in individual laboratories, since high percentages of checks in normal samples are an alert on the quality of the internal procedures.

Comprehensive safety evaluation of metallurgical crane based on AHP and entropy weight method

The determination of safety evaluation weight of most engineering equipment mainly depends on the subjective experience of experts, which ignores the objective requirements of indicator status evaluation, is unable to satisfy the needs of the evaluation system with the advances in modern equipment health monitoring technology. Hence, the authors establish a safety evaluation model to form a comprehensive weight using experience factors, based on the objective weighting of the entropy weight method (EWM) and the subjective weighting of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), to integrate the objective analysis data and subjective prior knowledge. Then, a safety evaluation system with state value as the main consideration was built on the combination of knowledge and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Finally, the availability of the proposed evaluation method was verified by the example.

Clinicopathological characteristics of mucin phenotype and its relation to the malignant potential in early differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma

Objectives Mucin phenotype is a tool to classify gastric cancer, but the relationship between mucin phenotype and its malignancy is still controversial. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between mucin phenotype and the malignant potential of gastric cancer. Methods A total of 82 cases of early-stage differentiated adenocarcinoma (submucosal invasion cases) obtained from surgeries were studied by immunohistochemistry. Gastric mucin phenotype and E-cadherin expression were analyzed in the mucosal and submucosal layer. E-cadherin expression was analyzed by using imaging software (ImageJ) for objective data analysis. Furthermore, the mucin phenotypic shift was analyzed from mucosa to submucosa. Results We found that: (1) tumors with intestinal mucin phenotype had statistically more venous invasion in the submucosal lesion; (2) tumors with an intestinal phenotype that showed venous invasion in the submucosal lesion had a higher percentage of tumors that showed loss of phenotype; (3) no dominant change in E-cadherin expression was observed from the mucosa to submucosa. Conclusion Tumors with loss of phenotype and submucosal intestinal phenotype showed predominantly more venous invasion, so examining the identification of phenotypes and phenotype shifts can be expected to be a factor that influences treatment strategies after endoscopic treatment or after surgical resection.

Onomastic research in the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: Origin, current state, and prospects

This article analyses the basic stages of onomastic studies development at the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine since the 1950s till the present within the Potebnia Institute of Linguistics. The paper focuses on Institute’s main directions and ideas, e.g., etymological research in hydronymics, anthroponimics, oikonimics, and ethno- nimics based on the traditions of comparative-historical approach. It also reveals important issues of contemporary studies as follows: 1) the etymology of proper nouns, i.e., personal, geographical and ethnic names, with respect to the systematic and historical approaches; 2) lexicographic studies on anthroponyms, hydronyms, and oikonyms; analysis of modern onimicon of Ukraine in accordance with current spelling norms of Standard Ukrainian; 3) systematization of the Ukrainian onomastic research and indexes. The achievements of the Ukrainian onomastics are reinterpreted through the lenses of numerous monographs, scientific collections, and historical and etymological dictionaries of hydronyms and oikonyms. A periodical Study of Onomastics and Etymology is viewed as a successful case of cooperation with the Ukrainian Language Insti-tute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and regional onomastic centers to share the outcome of national onomastic research outside Ukraine. The article outlines main goals that the Ukrainian academic onomastics must achieve, such as the following: 1) to develop Ukrainian onomastic science on the basis of objective data analysis, e.g., from the characteristics of a single fact to the concept formulation; 2) to expand the empirical basis of onomastic research; 3) to promote outcomes of onomastic studies among students of national Ukrainian universities. Keywords: onomastics, onomastic card index, onomastic studies, traditions of comparative-historical linguistics, onomastics group in the Department of History of the Ukrainian Language and the Institute of the Ukrainian language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

МИФ О РАЗРУШЕНИИ ХЕРСОНЕСА: ЭПИЗОД ЛИТЕРАТУРНОГО ОСВОЕНИЯ КРЫМА

In travel literature of the 19th century (P.I. Sumarokov, V.B. Bronevsky, I.M. Muraviev-Apostol, E.D. Clark, F. Dubois de Montpere, K. Omer de Gell and others), there was a legend that ancient Chersonesus was destroyed to extract building materials for the construction of Sevastopol. The objective data analysis shows that it is a literary myth that originates from the work of P.S. Pallas “Observations Made During Traveling Over Southern Provinces of the Russian State in 1793–1794” (1799–1801). The scholar argued that the “destruction” of Chersonesus was a consequence of the active construction of Sevastopol in the 1780s–1790s. In 1818, P.S. Pallas’s viepoint was supported by N.M. Karamzin, whose History of the Russian State tells (with reference to P.S. Pallas) that Chersonesus was destroyed “to take stones to construct houses in Sevastopol”. Since then, this version of the events has become a commonplace in almost any text about Chersonesus. At the same time, some European authors (E.D. Clark, K. Omer de Gell) used this “common place” as an instrument of political propaganda. It has been documented that only four objects of modest scale were built out of Chersonesus stone in 1783: a chapel, a smithy, a pier and an admiral’s house. Then, they started to produce building materials in F.F. Mekenzi’s estate and in the Inkerman quarries, which made the industrial extraction of stone in Chersonesus impractical. Why did the experience of the first city constructions entail such generalizing conclusions in P.S. Pallas’s book? The reconstruction of the historical situation allows to single out two main reasons. That time Crimea was considered a fragment of classical antiquity acquired by Russia. The remains of ancient constructions became the primary object of literary and research interests. However, the first travelers were deceived in their expectations, since in Crimea they mostly found medieval monuments erected on the site of ancient ones. Modern archaeologists know that in the 6th – 7th centuries ancient Chersonesus was completely rebuilt, which explains the scantiness of ancient traces. However, in the era of P.S. Pallas, it was easier to explain the absence of antique artifacts by the destruction caused by those who built Sevastopol. Yet there was another reason. Sevastopol quickly became the most populous city on the peninsula. This led to spontaneous development and unauthorized extraction of building materials, including the territory of Chersonesus. It was impossible to tackle the problem of protecting ancient monument at the level of local initiatives and funds. The exaggerations found in P.S. Pallas’s writing can be explained by the awareness of the spontaneous threat to the ruins of the ancient polis. A small fragment of the text written by P.S. Pallas about the destruction of Chersonesus was rather a signal of alarm calling for measures to preserve the settlement, than a strictly historical statement. This signal, relayed by many literary texts, eventually caused the required reaction – Chersonesus became an object of historical heritage protection. However, at the same time, P.S. Pallas’s text turned into a mythologeme, firmly entrenched in literary ideas about the history of Chersonesus and Sevastopol.

An analysis of configurations of relationship quality dimensions to explain sources of behavioral outcomes in globalized manufacturing

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the role of configurations of relationship quality dimensions for explaining sources of behavioral outcomes in the globalized manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approachA joint analysis of behavioral and objective performance data from globalized manufacturing links perceptual customer metrics that relate to dimensions of relationship quality (i.e. attitudinal loyalty, perceived customer orientation, customers’ perceived innovativeness of the supplier and perceived customer influence on supplier innovation) with behavioral outcomes (i.e. share of wallet (SOW) and customer account profitability). Using data from a global business-to-business (B2B) customer survey together with archival performance data from a multinational mechanical engineering firm, a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is performed.FindingsThe fsQCA results suggest that perceptual customer metrics related to innovation can be relevant aspects of relationship quality, in line with Anderson and Mittal’s (2000) satisfaction-repurchase-profitability chain framework and its adaptation to SOW. However, the underlying complexities in the different combinations of attributes in the recipe are such that they are not equifinal in leading to higher SOW or higher profitability. This paper finds indications for non-linearities between perceptual measures investigated and profitability of customer accounts, with particular relevance for the role of perceived customer orientation, perceived product innovativeness of the supplier and attitudinal loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis faces a number of limitations, starting with its reliance on cross-sectional survey data, which does not enable us to account for feedback mechanisms, for example, arising from customer perceptions regarding innovation aspects. The lack of a multidimensional conceptionalization of the perceptual customer constructs may have limited the analysis, considering also recent evidence from retail companies in the furniture sector in Spain, suggesting that the multidimensional conceptualization of relationship value explained satisfaction and loyalty levels to a greater extent than the one-dimensional conceptualization (Ruiz-Martínezet al., 2019).Practical implicationsIn terms of managerial implication, the results suggest that customers perceive limited value in participating in the focal firm’s innovation value chain funnel, hence customer loyalty cannot be bought using simple incentive strategies. The results with regard to customer account profitability suggest that B2B customers investigated here may distinguish when interacting with their globalized supplier in the innovation funnel: they may see a positive customer value when the innovation is a product, and thus, relation-specific, whereas they may see limited customer value when innovation is considered in more generic terms (customers’ perceived influence on supplier innovation in general).Originality/valueThis paper starts from the premise that perceptual customer metrics can matter for supplier performance, as the customer relationship and customer value management research has shown. However, there is limited empirical evidence from globalized manufacturing sectors incorporating perceptual constructs in behavioral outcomes, and limited evidence assessing customer-perceived value in such sectors through alternate approaches to main-effects focused analyzes. We employ qualitative comparative analysis using fuzzy sets (Russoet al., 2019) to address these gaps, focusing on two key behavioral outcomes, namely, customer account profitability and SOW.

Predicting Employee Attrition Using Machine Learning Techniques

There are several areas in which organisations can adopt technologies that will support decision-making: artificial intelligence is one of the most innovative technologies that is widely used to assist organisations in business strategies, organisational aspects and people management. In recent years, attention has increasingly been paid to human resources (HR), since worker quality and skills represent a growth factor and a real competitive advantage for companies. After having been introduced to sales and marketing departments, artificial intelligence is also starting to guide employee-related decisions within HR management. The purpose is to support decisions that are based not on subjective aspects but on objective data analysis. The goal of this work is to analyse how objective factors influence employee attrition, in order to identify the main causes that contribute to a worker’s decision to leave a company, and to be able to predict whether a particular employee will leave the company. After the training, the obtained model for the prediction of employees’ attrition is tested on a real dataset provided by IBM analytics, which includes 35 features and about 1500 samples. Results are expressed in terms of classical metrics and the algorithm that produced the best results for the available dataset is the Gaussian Naïve Bayes classifier. It reveals the best recall rate (0.54), since it measures the ability of a classifier to find all the positive instances and achieves an overall false negative rate equal to 4.5% of the total observations.

Comprehensive Economic Evaluation of Our Provinces Factor-based Analysis

According to the different conditions of the research objects, 10 indicators of economic representation in 2018 are selected for 31 provinces and cities in the country, and the objective and reasonable data analysis of economic indicators is carried out by using factor analysis method, and the ranking of provinces and cities in the country is obtained according to the level of their comprehensive evaluation scores. According to the score of provincial and municipal indicators, the economic situation of 31 provinces and cities in China is classified and analyzed. And put forward the feasibility suggestion to the economic imbalance of each province and city.

Climate changes in European Russia in 2001-2018

From the data of observations at 43 aerodromes in European Russia and the neighboring countries for 2001-2018, linear trends are calculated of temperature, humidity, and pressure, and then compared against the temporal changes in pressure field patterns. The latter are estimated on the basis of objective analysis data, using a special software. The linear trends show that the trends of annual-mean and season-mean temperature are positive practically at all the sites, though mean temperature in separate months can exhibit both decrease (in January) and strong increase (in December and summer months). The annual mean dew-point deficit increases in time almost everywhere, while surface pressure increases in the north (larger) part of the area and decreases in its south part. It is shown also, by means of objective classification of pressure field patterns, that the growth of cyclonic situations occurrence frequency dominates in the south part of the area, and the growth of anticyclonic situations occurrence frequency dominates in its main, north part. This result is consistent with the pressure trends distribution over the area.

Multi-wavelength imaging of HPTLC plates using a constructed illumination chamber with a smartphone camera as the detector

In this article, we present a new type of inexpensive multi-illumination source chamber. The innovation makes use of a smartphone camera which possesses the ability of capturing multiple images. Its performance was compared to a commercially available densitometer. Similar devices and suitable strategies for data analysis will help to solve diverse classification and/or regression problems, which will be far beyond a TLC characterization of ink samples. The multi-illumination chamber was used in an exemplary forensic application. The differences in the chemical composition of various brands of fountain pen inks were revealed on images of high-performance thin-layer chromatographic plates. Reducing image data simplified the visualization and facilitated a multivariate exploratory of the ink samples. Compared to the samples that were characterized by single wavelength densitograms, the multi-wavelength characterization using the illumination chamber with a smartphone camera or densitometer improved the clustering tendency of studied samples and enhanced their interpretation. The constructed chamber for multi-wavelength imaging is an inexpensive alternative (ca. 20 Euros) to the commercially available densitometers. The discussed approaches for image acquisition and chemometric data processing support a more reliable and objective analysis of TLC multi-wavelength data.

Identifying and testing conservation decision thresholds in temperate montane grasslands

Conservation decision thresholds have most often been described within the context of triggering management actions necessary to maintain an ecological system within a desired state. Thresholds are also applied within conservation legislation, often as triggers to determine when certain regulations may or may not apply. In many applications, thresholds have been criticized for being subjective, inconsistent and open to bias and rather than being derived from sound and objective analysis of ecological data they can result from undocumented judgement and opinion. Although judgement and opinion may be necessary for setting decision thresholds in circumstances where appropriate data are lacking, a failure to use structured processes for obtaining, analysing and presenting these can result in contentious, unsubstantiated thresholds. This paper demonstrates how thresholds for identifying grassland conservation values, for the purposes of decision making under vegetation clearing legislation, can be estimated from simple floristic indicators after combining the judgment of multiple experts through hierarchical modelling. Using two stages of elicitation and modelling, the resulting conservation value states were found to be consistent and predictable, correlated with known paddock-level disturbance history and congruent with prior condition states that define an endangered grassland ecosystem. While the thresholds, and the underpinning coefficients, may not reflect the opinion of all grassland ecologists, they are transparent, testable and can be updated or modified to incorporate additional criteria and a greater diversity of stakeholders. The approach could be adopted to similar contexts in other vegetation types where policy or regulatory decision triggers are required.

Infrared thermography and capillaroscopy in the diagnosis of Raynaud's phenomenon.

Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) is a relatively common disease. There are two distinct forms of RP - primary (PRP), where no other associated diseases are present, and secondary (SRP), where RP is associated with other diseases. It can be challenging to differentiate between RP and other diseases through medical history alone, due to the episodic nature of RP. Objective analysis of anamnestic data was performed in our study using infrared thermography (IRT) and a cold pressor test (CPT). Capillaroscopy was performed to assess morphological changes in the acral circulation. Patients with a history of cold hands were included in the study. IRT was performed before and after the CPT, and then capillaroscopy was performed. The results (including epidemiologic data) were statistically evaluated. A total of 150 patients were included in the study. Summarisation of the results from the IRT and capillaroscopy determined the final diagnosis - 4.7% acrocyanosis, 10.7% physiologic findings, 31.3% PRP, 29.3% borderline SRP and 24% SRP. The coldest fingers following the CPT were, in most patients, the 2nd and 3rd fingers. The correlation between the presence of connective tissue disease and the diagnosis of borderline SRP and SRP was significant (P=0.0001). Using the combination of the IRT and capillaroscopy in the diagnostic algorithm for RP has its justification. IRT distinguishes healthy patients from patients with RP, and capillaroscopy can then be used to differentiate PRP from SRP. IRT can also detect which fingers are more affected, and then these can direct the focus of capillaroscopy.

Effects of teacher role on student engagement in WeChat-Based online discussion learning

The online discussion format has proven itself to be useful for promoting student collaboration and for accomplishing better learning outcomes. As a popular instant message software in China, WeChat has been commonly adopted for supporting academic group discussions. Many studies have explored how teacher facilitation affects students' learning performance in the synchronous or asynchronous discussion settings. However, the conclusions are not consistent and there is relative less research about the effects of teacher role on student engagement in the context of online discussion using the semi-synchronous tool-WeChat. This study began by identifying three dimensions of student engagement: behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and emotional engagement. A quasi-experiment was then conducted to compare student engagement among experiment groups (with teacher facilitation) and control groups (without teacher facilitation). A total of 46 college students were divided into eight groups and asked to discuss two specific topic tasks. To evaluate participants' behavioral and cognitive engagement, this study used a more objective data analysis method by applying content analysis rather than only based on surveys. Participants were required to complete a questionnaire to report their emotional engagement. The results show the behavioral and cognitive engagement of the experimental group with teacher facilitation were significantly higher than that of the control group without teacher facilitation. However, there was no significant effect of teacher facilitation on participants’ emotional engagement in the experimental group. It is also found that the emerging student leaders show similar positive effects of teacher facilitation towards improving behavioral and cognitive engagement. Future studies about the moderating effects of teaching experience and student leaders are also needed.

A pedagogy of data and Artificial Intelligence for student subjectification

ABSTRACT How do we teach and learn with our students about data literacy, at the same time as Biesta (2015) calls for an emphasis on ‘subjectification’ i.e. ‘the coming into presence of unique individual beings’? (Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy. Routledge) Our response to these challenges and the datafication of higher education, is a hands-on approach to building an open, collaborative pedagogy of data literacy, based on Bayesian Networks (BNs) (Pearl, J. 1985. Bayesian Networks: A Model of Self–Activated Memory for Evidential Reasoning. Los Angeles: University of California (Computer Science Department)). BNs can be used to merge subjective views of the learning process with objective data analysis from the learning environment; BNs are visual data constructs and, unlike other Machine Learning approaches that obfuscate and complexify, BNs can be developed to reveal relationships from observations. In this paper, we share ways in which teachers and students can work together in a praxis approach to use data to ‘read the world’ around them (Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. 125).

Text and phone calls: user behaviour and dual-channel communication prediction

The contact list size of modern mobile phone users has increased up to hundreds of contacts, making contact retrieval a relatively difficult task. Various algorithms have been designed to predict the contact that a user will call at a given time. These algorithms use historical call data to make this prediction. However, modern mobile users do not just make calls, but also rely on various communication channels like text messages and calls to maintain their social relations. Despite the prevalence of multiple communication channels, predictive analysis of these channels has not been studied so far. Hence, this study deliberated on proposing a predictive model for dual-channel (text and calls). This study initially investigated the dual-channel communication behaviour of smartphone users by using a mixed approach i.e. subjective and objective data analysis and found many peculiarities. It was observed that the preferred communication channel was different for various contacts, even for a single user. Although the cost-effective texts were found to be more popular over phone calls, a significant proportion of user pairs seemed to prefer calls for most of their communication. A generic predictive framework for the dual-channel environment was proposed based upon these findings. This model predicts the next communication event by modelling temporal information of call and text on a 2D plane. This framework has three variations which not only predict the person who will be contacted at a particular time but also predict the channel of communication (call or text). Finally, the performance of different versions of the algorithm was evaluated using real-world dual-channel data. One version of the predictive model outperformed the other variations with a prediction accuracy over 90 percent, while the other variations also performed well.