scholarly journals A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF KERALAM THROUGH CARTOONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-123
Author(s):  
Basil Thomas

The surplus number of comic magazines that existed in Keralam even before the official formation of the state in 1956 reinstates the affinity of the Malayalam speaking people towards cartoons. The social situations and the functioning of various institutions like education and employment were a source of inspiration for the cartoonists from Keralam. The high literacy rate of Keralam is not the product of a single day. The foundation work of this had started even before the formation of the state. This paper tries to analyse the education system of Keralam portrayed in the cartoons of cartoonists Toms, Aravindan and Thomas. The cartoons of Toms, Aravindan and Thomas portray the day to day life of Keralam in their social cartoons, including the school life and college life of the period of the second half of the twentieth century. There are two phases in the development of the education sector in Keralam: the first phase focusing mass education where the major capital investor was the state itself and private investment was not encouraged. The second phase witnessed a fast paced growth and urbanization after the 1970s because of the large scale migrant remittance. The changing faces of the education system of Keralam can be seen in the cartoons of these select cartoonists.

Complexity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiwen Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan Zhou ◽  
Xing Guo ◽  
Jintao Wu ◽  
Qiang He ◽  
...  

The K-means algorithm is one of the ten classic algorithms in the area of data mining and has been studied by researchers in numerous fields for a long time. However, the value of the clustering number k in the K-means algorithm is not always easy to be determined, and the selection of the initial centers is vulnerable to outliers. This paper proposes an improved K-means clustering algorithm called the covering K-means algorithm (C-K-means). The C-K-means algorithm can not only acquire efficient and accurate clustering results but also self-adaptively provide a reasonable numbers of clusters based on the data features. It includes two phases: the initialization of the covering algorithm (CA) and the Lloyd iteration of the K-means. The first phase executes the CA. CA self-organizes and recognizes the number of clusters k based on the similarities in the data, and it requires neither the number of clusters to be prespecified nor the initial centers to be manually selected. Therefore, it has a “blind” feature, that is, k is not preselected. The second phase performs the Lloyd iteration based on the results of the first phase. The C-K-means algorithm combines the advantages of CA and K-means. Experiments are carried out on the Spark platform, and the results verify the good scalability of the C-K-means algorithm. This algorithm can effectively solve the problem of large-scale data clustering. Extensive experiments on real data sets show that the accuracy and efficiency of the C-K-means algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms under both sequential and parallel conditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Cai ◽  
Yi Lu ◽  
Hugo Sheward

Objectives: To provide a historical review on the evolution of contemporary Chinese nursing unit design and contextual factors that drive the design and changes. Background: China is undergoing a major healthcare construction boom. A systematic investigation of the characteristics and development of Chinese nursing unit design is warranted to help U.S. healthcare designers to provide design that fits the local context. Methods: The investigation is developed in two phases. The first phase is a large-scale spatial analysis of 176 Chinese acute care unit layouts from three periods: 1989–1999, 1999–2004, and 2005–2015. In addition to qualitative descriptions of the nursing unit typologies, the percentage of various typologies, patient room (PR) types, the number of beds, visibility from nurse station (NS) to PRs, and access to natural light during each period were evaluated quantitatively. The second phase defined key factors that shape Chinese nursing unit design through expert interviews. Results: Significant differences were found between design in these three periods. Chinese nursing unit size has continuously grown in the number of beds. Most PRs have shifted from three-bed to double-bed rooms. Most Chinese hospitals use single corridor, racetrack, and mutated racetrack layouts. Mutated racetrack has taken over single corridor as the dominant configuration. The access to southern sunlight remains important. The average visibility from NS to some PRs is restricted by the preferences of allocating most PRs on the south side of a unit. Conclusions: Chinese nursing unit design has undergone transformations to fit the local cultural, socioeconomic context and staffing model.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Sara Kasmaienezhad-Fard ◽  
Tajularipin Sulaiman ◽  
Nor Hayati Alwi ◽  
Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Ayub

The Malaysian education system has transformed from the traditional to the modern, albeit keeping to textbooks as the main teaching material. Among the factors determining the quality of textbooks, color is an important one, especially in primary school textbooks. Suitably applied, it will enrich classroom instruction and aid the learning process. This research was designed to run in two phases, and the data collected were analyzed by SPSS software. In the first phase, the colors used in the pictures of Year-4 English textbook were evaluated. Next, the color preferences of 384 students in the fourth grade of national primary schools were collected. Data from the first phase show that out of 901 textbook pictures, 792, 733, and 412 respectively use primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Data from the second phase show the students highly interested in tertiary colors. The results of this study reveal important points for textbook quality improvement. Knowing what colors students like allows illustrators to consider age levels, not only when illustrating textbooks but also when creating pictures for other materials.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (04) ◽  
pp. 647-663
Author(s):  
SEZER GÖREN

This paper presents an efficient redundancy removal technique for hierarchical optimization of FSM networks. In this technique, we first remove redundant transitions from the state transition graph (STG) of the driven FSM, M2, of the cascaded network by applying a reachability analysis to the composite machine, M1 → M2, once and for all. Then, a k-wise complete test suite for M2 is generated from the new STG of the driven FSM. Redundancy identification consists of two phases. In the first phase, almost all of the detectable stuck-at faults are identified by fault simulation using the k-wise test suite. During the second phase, each fault f that is undetected by k-wise tests is injected in M2 to obtain [Formula: see text] in the topologically sorted order one by one. Then the equivalence check of two FSMs M2 and [Formula: see text] in the environment where [Formula: see text] is driven by M1 is done. If a fault is found to be undetectable in the second phase, it is a redundant fault and kept in M2 ([Formula: see text] is taken as M2). Finally, simultaneous removal of redundant faults is done at logic level. We present experimental results to provide a comparison of the data produced by the state-of-the-art FSM network optimizer and show the effectiveness of our approach.


Author(s):  
I. F. Yurchenko ◽  

Purpose: study, analysis, assessment of opportunities, advantages and prospects, as well as difficulties, barriers, risks and feasibility of creating, introducing and using innovative technologies for managing agricultural production on reclaimed lands. The methodological basis of the work is based on the study, generalization and comparison of structural, functional, technological, ergonomic and other significant factors of information systems that characterize their shortcomings and opportunities for the development of highly productive and environmentally sustainable agricultural production. Results: an analysis of the formation of digitalization of domestic agricultural production showed the need to attract actively private investment in the agricultural sector of the economy, which in turn led to the need for large-scale information coverage of the benefits and risks of digitalization as a powerful factor in increasing the investment attractiveness of agribusiness. The priority and promising directions of digitalization of the reclamation sector of the economy are identified and characterized. The advantages of using automated technologies for managing the reclamation regime of agroecosystems are shown, which ensure the cost-effectiveness of automation. Along with the indicators of the expected effect, the factors characterizing the complexities, difficulties and risks of failure to achieve the planned investment efficiency, which consideration contributes to the leveling (elimination) of these restrictions, are considered. Proposals are formulated to improve the information and analytical resource for substantiating the effectiveness of digitalization and the state influence on its formation based on the development of platform technologies. Conclusions: intensification of work on the analysis, assessment and coverage of the state of digitalization of the crop production system with the ability to access it for all interested participants in agribusiness will motivate the entrepreneurs to invest in the latter.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basma Makhlouf Shabou

Purpose – This paper aims to present a recent study on the definition and measurement of quality dimensions of public electronic records and archives (QADEPs: Qualités des archives et documents électroniques publics). It develops an original model and a complete method with tools to define and measure electronic public data qualities within public institutions. It highlights also the relationship between diplomatics principles and the measurement of trustworthiness of electronic data in particular. This paper presents a general overview of the main results of this study, with also illustrative examples to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring the qualities of electronic archives in the context of public institutions. Design/methodology/approach – This research was conducted in two phases. The first one was the conceptual phase in which the quality dimensions were identified and defined with specific sets of indicators and variables. The second phase was the empirical phase which involved the testing of the model on real electronic documents belonging to several public institutions to validate its relevance and applicability. These tests were performed at the Archives of the State of Wallis and the Archives of the State of Geneva, thanks to different measurement tools designed especially for this stage of the research. Findings – The QADEPs model analyzes the qualities of electronic records in public institutions through three dimensions: trustworthiness, exploitability and representativeness. These dimensions were divided into eight sub-dimensions comprising 17 indicators for a total of 46 variables. These dimensions and their variables tried to cover the main aspects of quality standards for electronic data and public documents. The study demonstrates that nearly 60 per cent of the measured variables could be automated. Research limitations/implications – The QADEPs model was defined and tested in a Swiss context on a limited sample of electronic public data to validate, essentially, its feasibility. It would be useful to extend this approach and test it on a broader sample in different contexts abroad. Practical implications – The decisionmaking of records retention in organizations and public institutions in particular is difficult to establish and justify because it is based generally on subjective and non-defendable practices. The QADEPs model offers specific metrics with their related measuring tools to evaluate and identify what is valuable and what is eliminable within the whole set of institutional electronic information. The model should reinforce the information governance of those institutions and help them control the risks related to information management. Originality/value – The current practice of archival appraisal does not yet invest in a meticulous examination of the nature of documents that should be preserved permanently. The lack of studies on the definition and measurement of the qualities of electronic and public electronic records prevents verification as to whether archival materials are significant. This paper fills in some of the gaps.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelhamid ZAIDI

Abstract Object datasets used in the construction of object detectors are typically manually annotated with horizontal or rotated bounding rectangles. The optimality of an annotation is obtained by fulfilling two conditions (i) the rectangle covers the whole object (ii) the area of ​​the rectangle is minimal. Building a large-scale object dataset requires annotators with equal manual dexterity to carry out this tedious work. When an object is horizontal, it is easy for the annotator to reach the optimal bounding box within a reasonable time. However, if the object is rotated, the annotator needs additional time to decide whether the object will be annotated with a horizontal rectangle or a rotated rectangle. Moreover, in both cases, the final decision is not based on any objective argument, and the annotation is generally not optimal. In this study, we propose a new method of annotation by rectangles, called Robust Semi-Automatic Annotation, which combines speed and robustness. Our method has two phases. The first phase consists in inviting the annotator to click on the most relevant points located on the contour of the object. The outputs of the first phase are used by an algorithm to determine a rectangle enclosing these points. To carry out the second phase, we develop an algorithm called RANGE-MBR, which determines, from the selected points on the contour of the object, a rectangle enclosing these points in a linear time. The rectangle returned by RANGE-MBR always satisfies optimality condition (i). We prove that the optimality condition (ii) is always satisfied for objects with isotropic shapes. For objects with anisotropic shapes, we study the optimality condition (ii) by simulations. We show that the rectangle returned by RANGE-MBR is quasi-optimal for the condition (ii), and that its performance increases with dilated objects, which is the case for most of the objects appearing on images collected by aerial photography.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (05) ◽  
pp. 1450026 ◽  
Author(s):  
VASILY LUBASHEVSKIY ◽  
TARO KANNO ◽  
KAZUO FURUTA

Recovery of society after a large-scale disaster generally consists of two phases, short- and long-term recoveries. The main goal of the short-term recovery is to bounce the damaged system back to the operating standards enabling residents in damaged cities to survive, and fast supply with vital resources to them is one of its important elements. We propose a general principle by which the required redistribution of vital resources between the affected and neighboring cities can be efficiently implemented. The short-term recovery is a rescuer operation where uncertainty in evaluating the state of damaged region is highly probable. To allow for such an operation, the developed principle involves two basic components. The first one of ethic nature is the triage concept determining the current city priority in the resource delivery. The second one is the minimization of the delivery time subjected to this priority. Finally a certain plan of the resource redistribution is generated according to this principle. Several specific examples are studied numerically. It elucidates, in particular, the effects of system characteristics such as the city limit capacity in resource delivery, the type of initial resource allocation among the cities, the number of cities able to participate in the resource redistribution, and the damage level in the affected cities. As far as the uncertainty in evaluating the state of damaged region is concerned, some specific cases were studied. It assumes the initial communication system has crashed and formation of a new one and the resource redistribution proceed synchronously. The obtained results enable us to consider the resource redistribution plan governed by the proposed method semi-optimal and rather efficient especially under uncertainty.


2019 ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rostislav I. Kapeliushnikov

Using published estimates of inequality for two countries (Russia and USA) the paper demonstrates that inequality measuring still remains in the state of “statistical cacophony”. Under this condition, it seems at least untimely to pass categorical normative judgments and offer radical political advice for governments. Moreover, the mere practice to draw normative conclusions from quantitative data is ethically invalid since ordinary people (non-intellectuals) tend to evaluate wealth and incomes as admissible or inadmissible not on the basis of their size but basing on whether they were obtained under observance or violations of the rules of “fair play”. The paper concludes that a current large-scale ideological campaign of “struggle against inequality” has been unleashed by left-wing intellectuals in order to strengthen even more their discursive power over the public.


Author(s):  
Chiedza Simbo

Despite the recent enactment of the Zimbabwean Constitution which provides for the right to basic education, complaints, reminiscent of a failed basic education system, have marred the education system in Zimbabwe. Notwithstanding glaring violations of the right to basic education by the government, no person has taken the government to court for failure to comply with its section 75(1)(a) constitutional obligations, and neither has the government conceded any failures or wrongdoings. Two ultimate questions arise: Does the state know what compliance with section 75(1)(a) entails? And do the citizens know the scope and content of their rights as provided for by section 75(1)(a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe? Whilst it is progressive that the Education Act of Zimbabwe as amended in 2020 has addressed some aspects relating to section 75(1)(a) of the Constitution, it has still not provided an international law compliant scope and content of the right to basic education neither have any clarifications been provided by the courts. Using an international law approach, this article suggests what the scope and content of section 75(1)(a) might be.


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