Virtual Concept Research Articles

The Evolution of Virtual Concept of Education: Analysis of the Revealed Preferences and Digital Challenges

Distance education offers flexibility and accessibility to students with diverse needs and contexts. However, it is crucial to understand the factors that motivate students to choose this educational modality, especially in programs like Public Accounting, which require specific skills. The general objective of this article is to analyze the determinants in the decision to study the Public Accounting Program in a distance or virtual modality at the National Open and Distance University (UNAD). A mixed methodology is employed, supported by authors such as Creswell (2014), combining quantitative and qualitative data, and using the Probit model to identify factors influencing this choice. A significant finding is that tuition cost, the Saber 11 test score and parents' education are significant variables affecting students' decisions, with tuition cost having the greatest influence on the probability of choice.

Impact analysis of real and virtual concept drifts on the predictive performance of classifiers

In the domain of machine learning and predictive analytics, classifiers hold significant importance as they are instrumental in extracting valuable patterns and enabling precise predictions from data. However, data distributions in streams are rarely stable in real-world circumstances and may evolve over time. Concept drifts, or dynamic changes in the data, have a major impact on how well classifiers predict outcomes. Furthermore, virtual concept drifts have become equally essential when dealing with the development of virtual environments and synthetic data production tools. This study employs a range of conventional classifiers, and ensemble models to examine the effects of real and virtual concept drifts on the predictive performance of classifiers. In order to ensure the conclusions are applicable to a wide range of domains, the study will be undertaken on a variety of datasets. The generation of incremental data streams from historical records with drifting patterns will replicate real concept drifts. Synthetic data will be incorporated into the training and testing sets to introduce virtual concept drifts. The classifier models are then assessed using the benchmark metrics for performance on these datasets. Comparative evaluations are conducted to evaluate the classifiers’ robustness and adaptability in the face of real and virtual concept drifts. The results of this study will shed light on the performance of various classifiers and models in dynamic data environments while offering helpful insights to businesses for developing machine learning applications that are more resilient. The research examined the impact of real and virtual concept drifts on classifier performance, using three models: Streaming Random Patches (SRP), Adaptive Windowing (ADWIN), and Streaming Random Patches with Adaptive Windowing (SRP-ADWIN). The study found that the SRP-ADWIN ensemble model outperformed SRP and ADWIN individually, effectively adapting to changing data distributions, and showed improved predictive accuracy of 98.63% for virtual drift and 86.46% for real drift.

Biot-consistent framework for wave propagation with macroscopic fluid and thermal effects

SUMMARY In principle, wave propagation in porous media can simultaneously trigger macroscopic fluid flow and thermal flow, which can be described by Biot's poroelasticity and Lord–Shulman thermoelasticity, respectively. The physical processes of those effects are significantly different, but phenomenologically, they can lead to identical wave attenuation and dispersion and are hard to be distinguished. By using Biot's virtual concept entropy flow, the Biot-consistent General Linear Solid (the GLS) framework and matrix notation, a rigorous and convenient tool is provided to reveal the similarities and disparities between poroelasticity and thermoelasticity. By using the same framework, a Biot-consistent thermo-poroelastic model is proposed to consider macroscopic effects of fluid and thermal flows simultaneously in an elegant way. These similarities allow us to directly translate many of the available results in poroelasticity to thermoelasticity and vice versa by a simple change of notation. The disparities indicate a fundamental difference in physical mechanisms. Plane-wave analysis shows that the primary P-wave modes of thermoelasticity and poroelasticity are all GSLS-equivalent (Generalized Standard Linear Solid) and can be identical if the model parameters are selected properly. However, the corresponding slow-wave modes have significantly different phase velocity dispersion although the attenuation spectra of which are identical. Such a surprising result can be explained by the GSLS non-equivalence of the slow-wave modes and the fundamentally different mechanisms. As expected, the thermo-poroelastic model predicts four wave modes, which are the fast- and slow-P, temperature (T wave) and S waves. Two attenuation peaks due to, respectively, the thermal- and fluid-flow effects are predicted for the fast-P wave. The slow-P wave mode due to fluid flow is influenced by the thermal effects, but the T wave seems unaffected by the fluid flow. The thermo-poroelastic model is then applied to laboratory observations at 200–106 Hz for the brine-saturated tight sandstone under 35 MPa effective pressure. The unified model provides a convenient framework for studying geothermal exploration, thermal-enhanced oil recovery and other applications involving temperature variations within the porous rock.

Football Augmented Reality Media Application for Student Learning Interests

Learning by drip with the media is a way of learning that can increase the interest in learning. This learning can be enhanced by applying augmented reality media. The application of augmented reality emphasizes the implementation of learning with a more diverse and interactive virtual concept. The learning dribbling model applied in this study is a direct and indirect learning model with augmented reality. This study aims to achieve the thesis on (1) the influence of the application of augmented reality in soccer ball dribbling equipment on students' learning interests and (2) the increase in students' interest in learning to use augmented reality football dribbling devices. This research method is a pre-empirical design with a quantitative descriptive approach. The study design used was a pre-test-post-test group design. Data collection was carried out using observation, interview and questionnaire techniques. Observation techniques were used to observe the target audience, interviews were used to collect data, while angle distribution was used to determine student interest in learning. The results show that there is an effect of augmented reality media on soccer dribbling material on learning interest of grade VIII-5 students at Junior high school of 1 Nganjuk, expressed as a significance value of 0.000 < 0.05 and student interest in learning in grades VIII-5 at Junior high school of 1 Nganjuk 1 Nganjuk using augmented reality media on soccer dribbling equipment increased to 6.4% when being treated.

Efficient simulation strategy to design a safer motorcycle

This work presents models and simulations of a numerical strategy for a time and cost-efficient virtual product development of a novel passive safety restraint concept for motorcycles. It combines multiple individual development tasks in an aggregated procedure. The strategy consists of three successive virtual development stages with a continuously increasing level of detail and expected fidelity in multibody and finite element simulation environments. The results show what is possible with an entirely virtual concept study—based on the clever combination of multibody dynamics and nonlinear finite elements—that investigates the structural behavior and impact dynamics of the powered two-wheeler with the safety systems and the rider’s response. The simulations show a guided and controlled trajectory and deceleration of the motorcycle rider, resulting in fewer critical biomechanical loads on the rider compared to an impact with a conventional motorcycle. The numerical research strategy outlines a novel procedure in virtual motorcycle accident research with different levels of computational effort and model complexity aimed at a step-by-step validation of individual components in the future.

Engaging clinical end users in the development of an outcome measurement protocol for paediatric communicative health systems

Purpose To develop a conceptual framework of the factors likely to influence clinicians’ use of a new participation-focused outcome measurement protocol in a large paediatric speech-language pathology program. Method A convenience sample of 27 end users (clinicians, managers) were recruited from Ontario, Canada’s Preschool Speech and Language Program. Participants engaged in one virtual concept mapping session in groups of five to six during which they learned about the new protocol, and generated statements in response to a prompt asking them to identify factors that would influence their use of the protocol. Following all sessions, participants asynchronously sorted and rated all statements, and data were analysed using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses. Result Six themes were identified: (1) response from families; (2) use of resources; (3) feasibility and clinical utility; (4) relevance and value-added for clinicians; (5) streamlining policies and guidelines; and (6) delivery, administration, and modification of tool. Response from families, feasibility and clinical utility, and use of resources received the highest importance ratings. Conclusion Concept mapping methodology was used to engage clinicians and managers to identify the barriers to a new implementation protocol for outcome measurement. Results will support future research and implementation efforts.

A New Large Scale SVM for Classification of Imbalanced Evolving Streams

Classification from imbalanced evolving streams possesses a combined challenge of class imbalance and concept drift (CI-CD). However, the state of imbalance is dynamic, a kind of virtual concept drift. The imbalanced distributions and concept drift hinder the online learner’s performance as a combined or individual problem. A weighted hybrid online oversampling approach,”weighted online oversampling large scale support vector machine (WOOLASVM),” is proposed in this work to address this combined problem. The WOOLASVM is an SVM active learning approach with new boundary weighing strategies such as (i) dynamically oversampling the current boundary and (ii) dynamic weighing of the cost parameter of the SVM objective function. Thus at any time step, WOOLASVM maintains balanced class distributions so that the CI-CD problem does not hinder the online learner performance. Over extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world streams with the static and dynamic state of imbalance, the WOOLASVM exhibits better online classification performances than other state-of-the-art methods.

Art Design Method of Industrial Products Based on Internet of Things Technology and Virtual VR.

The Internet of Things technology transmits and shares physical information on the Internet, and describes the continuous world through scattered data. From the perspective of internal characteristics, the efficient interconnection of large-scale heterogeneous network elements is composed of the Internet of Things and imported from abroad, so there has been a high degree of accumulation in foreign countries so far. In 1980, the United States proposed a virtual reality concept called VR for short. Embedded virtual VR technology usually uses equipment to close the user's senses and temporarily isolate the user from the actual environment. This article also discusses the design of industrial products, the continuous development of big data, artificial intelligence, and additive material manufacturing technology to make the design methods and manufacturing processes of industrial products more scientific and systematic, and promote the diversity and precision of industrial product design. Social informatization plays an important role in all areas of digital technology design. Parametric design has changed the design thinking mode of designers and formed new design trends and styles. Taking the search for relationships and rules as the starting point of the design and the algorithm as the core content of the design are very different from traditional design ideas. The computer age has not only cultivated new styles but also cultivated new artistic design techniques for industrial products. Designers should strive to explore the potential functions of algorithm technology and focus on smarter and more logical design and production processes. In this paper, through the research of the Internet of Things technology and virtual VR, it is applied to the research of the artistic design method of industrial products, aiming to promote its better development.

Virtual Team Adaptation: Management Perspective on Individual Differences

In the contemporary business world, digital transformations have undergone vast and important developments over the last several decades, and they have aided in the development of the virtual team concept, in which geographically dispersed team members work to achieve a common goal. Virtual teams, according to the literature, suffer from process losses more frequently than their face-to-face counterparts. Although just a few studies have looked at the effects of individual differences in virtual teams, this study fills in the gaps by examining the impact of individual differences: age disparity (AD), gender disparity (GD), language competency (LC), and IT competency (ITC) from the management perspective on virtual team adaptation in the Sri Lankan private sector. A survey was used to collect data from a sample of 175 private sector companies in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the data was analyzed using partial least squares path modeling (PLS) to test the study’s hypotheses. The results indicated that the hypotheses were statistically significant only in the language competency and IT competency and their effects were in the expected direction. Future research could benefit from the perceptions of employees in public sector organizations.

Tertiary level English Language Teachers' Use of, and Attitudes to Alternative and Online Assessments during the Covid-19 Outbreak

This study aims to investigate the English language teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of alternative and online assessments adopted during the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, in Saudi Arabia. The current study employs a descriptive method, and the data were collected using a survey questionnaire, which consists of 33 closed-ended and four open-ended questions. The participants were 102 (46 male and 56 female) teachers of English at Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaires were administered online via Google Form. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for quantitative responses, whereas content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative responses collected from the open-ended questions. The findings revealed that the teachers had mixed reactions towards alternative and online assessments. The online assessments adopted were in form of both alternative and traditional types, administered via Blackboard. It was found that portfolios and oral presentations were the most frequently used forms of alternative assessments by the English language teachers at the time of Covid-19. Other types of alternative assessments, including, online collaborative/peer assessment, self-assessment, virtual concept map, concept map, article review, and mini-project, were claimed to be less used by the teachers. However, the teachers’ top priority was summative assessment, where by the traditional exams were in fact still be used in online assessment. In addition, teachers reported constraints related to time for the assessments, need for computer literacy, possibility of cheating, and technical issues, when adopting online assessments. However, they believed online assessment covered the content of the course of study. Teachers also reported that students did not initially like online assessment but later warmed to it as it proved easier to do well in. Finally, pedagogical implications are discussed based on the study findings.

VIRTUAL LABORATORY FOR SUPPORTING COURSE OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

Fast developments in industrial revolution 4.0 have necessities in a shifting of education. Lecturers in the industrial engineering department of Swiss German University are expected to bring technology-based innovation to achieve success in learning. Since the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, where all activities are restricted by health protocol, the need for physical laboratory transformation into a virtual concept has increased. This research aims to analyse a virtual laboratory especially for supporting the learning activity of industrial automation. The virtual machine duplicates the real machine running in a simulated environment. Open-source software such as OpenPLC and Node-RED are used as tools for students to study and learn about industrial automation. A group of students did the final project by utilizing this virtual laboratory and then the final evaluation of course performance was carried out based on the students’ responses from the lecture assessment on the course of industrial automation. In addition, based on the user acceptance test of Node-RED training modules, 44.4% of participants consider good enough, another 44,4% consider great, and 11,1% of participants consider excellent. As a result, the virtual laboratory may effectively and efficiently support the knowledge transfer to the students.

Информационная безопасность на пространстве "больших данных"

The purpose of this work is to develop the foundations of a new approach to the problem of information security in the context of "Big Data" technologies. The purpose of obtaining and processing information about the subject area is their subsequent use for the formation of targeted impacts on the control object. At the same time, observation and awareness of what is happening with the object was previously carried out through a certain system of informatization of the subject's activity, i.e. indirectly, and the implementation of the decision was carried out within the framework of the control object, i.e. directly. Under the conditions of Digital Transformation, the impact on the control object is carried out not directly, but on its "Digital Twin" with subsequent reduction, if necessary, of this impact on the physical control object. Thus, a system of digitalization of the subject's activity appears. When implementing such systems, one of the main principles is the principle of system security (ensuring information security). However, its implementation is hampered by the fact that "Big Data" technologies are associated not so much with their large volumes, but also with the need to process a variety of consolidated data that have a different structure, classification and indexing schemes. In this regard, it is proposed to analyze the DIKW-model and analyze the essence of the concepts included in it, which will make it possible to proceed to DIKW processing using "Big Data" technologies. At the same time, it becomes necessary to solve two problems: assessing the impact of the degree of consolidation of data, information and knowledge on the increase in their importance in ensuring the information security of the subject of the "Big Data" space and assessing the critical mass of data, information and knowledge available in the "Big Data" space, with from the point of view of their complex joint processing and obtaining more important information on their basis. To establish the necessary balance between the need for information exchange and the permissible restrictions on the dissemination of data, information and knowledge, a new virtual concept is introduced - "Information Boundary" and the issue of ensuring information security is reduced to the task of pragmatically justified access restriction for all levels of the DIKW-model and the concept of "DIKW - security. An intensional approach is proposed for controlling "Information Boundaries" in the process of using "Big Data" technologies, which ensures the transition from static solutions to the issues of ensuring the subject's information security to the implementation of dynamic procedures for such control using elements of Artificial Intelligence, monitoring this space and predicting one's "place" in the "Big Data" space.

Virtual Gene Concept and a Corresponding Pragmatic Research Program in Genetical Data Science.

Mendel proposed an experimentally verifiable paradigm of particle-based heredity that has been influential for over 150 years. The historical arguments have been reflected in the near past as Mendel’s concept has been diversified by new types of omics data. As an effect of the accumulation of omics data, a virtual gene concept forms, giving rise to genetical data science. The concept integrates genetical, functional, and molecular features of the Mendelian paradigm. I argue that the virtual gene concept should be deployed pragmatically. Indeed, the concept has already inspired a practical research program related to systems genetics. The program includes questions about functionality of structural and categorical gene variants, about regulation of gene expression, and about roles of epigenetic modifications. The methodology of the program includes bioinformatics, machine learning, and deep learning. Education, funding, careers, standards, benchmarks, and tools to monitor research progress should be provided to support the research program.

Highly Efficient Transformerless Inverter with Flying-Capacitor Buck–Boost for Single-Phase Grid-Connected PV Systems

Grid-connected inverters (GCI) are commonly used in PV system applications to generate a regulated AC current to feed into the grid. Transformerless inverters are the most advanced inverters that are used in industry, which provide efficiency with smaller size and lower cost. This paper proposes a grid-connected single-phase transformerless inverter with the technology of common ground and the virtual DC bus concept. In this topology, the grid neutral is connected directly to the PV ground, which generates a constant common mode voltage (CMV), thus leading to the elimination of the leakage current caused by the PV array’s parasitic capacitance. The proposed inverter has a buck–boost circuit with a flying capacitor to generate the DC bus for a negative power cycle, four switches, and two diodes. A unipolar sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) technique is used which reduces the output filter requirements. In addition, only one switch carries the load current during the active states of both the negative and positive power cycle, thus minimizing the conduction losses. One more advantage presented in the proposed inverter is its ability to charge the flying capacitor during all operation states due to the existence of the buck–boost circuit. Design and theoretical calculations were conducted in this paper to optimize the losses. Moreover, the PSIM simulation was used to validate the proposed topology inverter, verify the performance by showing leakage current elimination, and achieve unipolar voltage in the output bus. The simulation results show a peak efficiency of 98.57% for a 2 kW inverter, which agrees with the theoretical calculations.

DOA estimation based on sum\u2013difference coarray with virtual array interpolation concept

The sum–difference coarray is the union of difference coarray and the sum coarray, which is capable to obtain a higher number of degrees of freedom (DOF) than the difference coarray. However, this method fails to use all information provided by the coprime array because of the existence of holes. In this paper, we introduce the virtual array interpolation into the sum–difference coarray domain. After interpolating the virtual array, we estimate the DOA by reconstructing the covariance matrix to resolve an atomic norm minimization problem in a gridless way. The proposed method is gridless and can effectively utilize the DOF of a larger virtual array. Numerical simulation results verify the effectiveness and the superior performance of the proposed algorithm.

Detecting virtual concept drift of regressors without ground truth values

Regression analysis is a standard supervised machine learning method used to model an outcome variable in terms of a set of predictor variables. In most real-world applications the true value of the outcome variable we want to predict is unknown outside the training data, i.e., the ground truth is unknown. Phenomena such as overfitting and concept drift make it difficult to directly observe when the estimate from a model potentially is wrong. In this paper we present an efficient framework for estimating the generalization error of regression functions, applicable to any family of regression functions when the ground truth is unknown. We present a theoretical derivation of the framework and empirically evaluate its strengths and limitations. We find that it performs robustly and is useful for detecting concept drift in datasets in several real-world domains.

Neo-Despotism as Anti-Despotism

I treat despotism as a virtual concept. Thus it is necessary to expose its actualizations even when it appears as its opposite, refusing to recognize itself as despotism. I define despotism initially as arbitrary rule, in terms of a monstrous transgression of the law. But since the monster is grounded in its very formlessness, it cannot be demonstrated. However, one can always try to de-monstrate it through disagreements. In doing this, I deal with despotism not as a solipsistic undertaking but as part of a constellation that always already contains two other elements: economy and voluntary servitude. I give three different – ancient, early modern and late modern – accounts of this nexus, demonstrating how despotism continuously takes on new appearances. I conclude, in a counter-classical prism, how the classical nexus has evolved in modernity while the focus gradually shifted towards another triangulation: neo-despotism, use and dissent.

Digital and distributed project management in mechanical engineering studies – a case study

The acceleration of product development requires clear and systematic project management as a guideline and reference point for engineers from different backgrounds, different organizations and different cultures. Project management has therefore been part of the education of mechanical engineers for years. During the last years product development projects evolved the need for agile and lean management methods. So concepts originated from software development influence the organization of even pure mechanical engineering departments. Multidisciplinary product development projects can nowadays hardly do without scrum.Now, the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly transformed student cohorts from local classrooms into distributed teams from one day to the other. The basics of engineering project management could neither be explained nor trained in classroom teaching. Accidental discussions did not take place. Asking was difficult and feedback loops could not be closed. Exams in presence could not be carried out and has been transformed into some kind of homework assignment. The individual student got out of focus and learning success began to slip away. This contribution provides a case study how the sudden restrictions led to the implementation of a digital and virtual concept in teaching project management for mechanical engineering studies. It shows how classic project management is taught in a blended lecture set-up with asynchronous videos, synchronous web meetings and project based learning in a bachelor course. It further shows how agile project management is used to keep the close contact between student and teacher during student thesis. It also explains how scrum is applied to organize self-learning in a master course. The focus of this contribution is on the implementation of known methods with digital project management and communication tools. Finally, an attempt is made to compare the previous classroom teaching and the new digital teaching.

A new virtual platform for organic and printed electronics

OPE journal sat down with Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, CEO at TechBlick, to talk about his company’s new, fully virtual conference concept that debuts in 2021

Constructing online concept maps in CMap Cloud collaboratively: Connecting pathways in case scenarios.

Learning metabolic pathways is vital for understanding biochemical processes and all of their implications for life. Their learning in the virtual environment is complex and generative learning strategies, such as the construction of online conceptual maps, can help in this process. This article presents a proposal for the collaborative construction of virtual concept maps on metabolism by students in the CMap Cloud browser application (free). A sequence of steps is suggested, which include online group brainstorming and discussions, peer assessment, and teachers feedback. This proposal is flexible and can be adapted to the didactic and technological reality of each teacher.