Dissemination and Cultural Change as an Alternative Business Value Proposition in the Construction Industry: Manni Group Case Study

There is a gap of knowledge between practitioners about the off-site construction. For this reason, the Manni Group case study presented in this article highlights the positive role of dissemination as business value proposition support in the context of off-site construction industry. The Manni Group involved opinion leaders, professionals, universities and industrial partners in a network of dissemination that, going beyond the concept of advertising, it generated a multiple effect of value creation between the direct and indirect involved stakeholders. Dissemination emerges as a model of action that creates impacts on cultural change. It is scalable and applicable in many areas where actors have the right competences to manage the dissemination. Wherever there is a knowledge gap or friction towards new techniques and methodologies, the model is able to create value for companies and stakeholders involved in the emerging network.

Computer-aided autism diagnosis based on visual attention models using eye tracking

An advantage of using eye tracking for diagnosis is that it is non-invasive and can be performed in individuals with different functional levels and ages. Computer/aided diagnosis using eye tracking data is commonly based on eye fixation points in some regions of interest (ROI) in an image. However, besides the need for every ROI demarcation in each image or video frame used in the experiment, the diversity of visual features contained in each ROI may compromise the characterization of visual attention in each group (case or control) and consequent diagnosis accuracy. Although some approaches use eye tracking signals for aiding diagnosis, it is still a challenge to identify frames of interest when videos are used as stimuli and to select relevant characteristics extracted from the videos. This is mainly observed in applications for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. To address these issues, the present paper proposes: (1) a computational method, integrating concepts of Visual Attention Model, Image Processing and Artificial Intelligence techniques for learning a model for each group (case and control) using eye tracking data, and (2) a supervised classifier that, using the learned models, performs the diagnosis. Although this approach is not disorder-specific, it was tested in the context of ASD diagnosis, obtaining an average of precision, recall and specificity of 90%, 69% and 93%, respectively.

ON A CERTAIN LOCAL IDENTITY FOR LAPID–MAO'S CONJECTURE AND FORMAL DEGREE CONJECTURE : EVEN UNITARY GROUP CASE

Lapid and Mao formulated a conjecture on an explicit formula of Whittaker–Fourier coefficients of automorphic forms on quasi-split reductive groups and metaplectic groups as an analogue of the Ichino–Ikeda conjecture. They also showed that this conjecture is reduced to a certain local identity in the case of unitary groups. In this article, we study the even unitary-group case. Indeed, we prove this local identity over p-adic fields. Further, we prove an equivalence between this local identity and a refined formal degree conjecture over any local field of characteristic zero. As a consequence, we prove a refined formal degree conjecture over p-adic fields and get an explicit formula of Whittaker–Fourier coefficients under certain assumptions.

The pretence in education of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities

The phenomenon of pretence in the Polish educational system of the person with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) will be analized in the context of sociological concept of pretence by Jan Lutynski (1990). The subject of the study was the educational reality of the person with PIMD. Two main questions were formulated. What is the educational reality of the person with PIMD in the micro- and macrosystem context? What is happening in this educational reality? The study was conducted in interpretative paradigm based on quantitative research model using instrumental group case study. The subjects of the study were the people with PIMD (15) and school staff (57). During the study participant observertion, quantitaive deepened interview were used. The symptoms of pretence in education of the person with PIMD on the nmacrosystem level were visible in the form of inconsistencies in the legal acts regulating the course of education. On the microsystem level the manifestation of the pretence was the phenomenon of the “empty minutes” (i.e. time at school not used for the benefit of the person’s development). The results of the study on the macrosystem level suggest lack of the transparency of the legal acts. On the microsystem level the need of developing applicable standards in education of the people with PIMD.