A real time communication between deaf and hearing people is still a barrier that isolates the deaf people from the hearing world. Over ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. However, most of the...A real time communication between deaf and hearing people is still a barrier that isolates the deaf people from the hearing world. Over ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. However, most of them can only learn how to communicate using sign language at school. One of the reasons is that the hearings parents have neither enough time nor support to learn sign language to communicate and support their children. Not surprisingly, the deaf finds difficulties in the oral-only education. Since many other hearing pupils do not even know about the existence of sign language, they cannot communicate directly with the deaf without a sign language interpreter. Therefore, to enable a face-to-face conversation between deaf and hearing people, it is important not only to sustain real time conversation between the deaf and their hearing counterparts but also to equip the hearing with basics of sign language. However, speech to sign conversion remains a challenge due to dialectal and sign language variation, speech utterance and lack of sign language written form. In this paper, a solution named Face-to-Face Conversation Deaf and Hearing people—FFCDH is proposed to address above issues. FFCDH supports real time conversation and also allows the hearing to learn the signs with the same meaning as the deaf understand. Moreover, FFCDH records the speech of the hearing and converts it into signs for the deaf. It also provides deaf with an option to adjust volume of their speech by displaying volume of their voice. The performance of the system in supporting the deaf has been evaluated by using a real test-bed. The obtained results show that English and Japanese daily conversation phrases can be recognized with over 90 percent accuracy on average. The average coherent of simple content is over 94 percent. However, when the speech includes long and complex phrases, the average accuracy and the coherent are slightly lower because the system could not comprehend long and complex context at large scope.展开更多
Face-to-face Videoconferencing is a popular option for many large organizations because it minimizes the need for travel. Instead of continually paying for traveling expenses, a company can either pay to set up a high...Face-to-face Videoconferencing is a popular option for many large organizations because it minimizes the need for travel. Instead of continually paying for traveling expenses, a company can either pay to set up a high speed network which has many usages （including videoconferencing） or they can rent time on an existing network. Employees will also no longer be burdened with the need to travel. While face-to-face videoconferencing performance is heavily influenced by the underlying hardware and software, a good video compression scheme can help make the best use of videoconferencing and provide a high quality picture. H.263 standard is now widely used for real-time video communications over a range of networks including the Internet. A frame work for better understanding the H.263 including the implementation of encoder and decoder for face-to-face videoconferencing is presented. This software was written in C＋＋ language, running under the Microsoft Windows operating system.展开更多
Online English learning as an outcome of the rapid development of the Internet has got a wider and wider market in China. However, problems of varieties have also occurred along its way. People never stop thinking of ...Online English learning as an outcome of the rapid development of the Internet has got a wider and wider market in China. However, problems of varieties have also occurred along its way. People never stop thinking of better strategies either in designing online course wares or tutorials to help smooth the learning process. My experience as a tutor is that interaction of affective domain and higher levels of cognitive domain of Bloom＇s Taxonomy plays an important role in face-to-face tutorials of online English learning.展开更多
Background: Transversal competences are included in the United Nations Organization 2030 Agenda for the formation of staff professional in higher education, having disciplinary and transversal skills to develop indivi...Background: Transversal competences are included in the United Nations Organization 2030 Agenda for the formation of staff professional in higher education, having disciplinary and transversal skills to develop individual, professional, social, and entrepreneurship at present time, creative individuals being able to solve social problems via collaboration. The aim was to evaluate the transversal competences developed by graduates, specialists in nursing with the accompaniment of clinic tutorship. Methods: Qualitative, phenomenological, and interpretative research. The informants were seven graduates from the Unique Program of Nursing Specialties (UPNS), from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one participant from each knowledge field: Nursing in the Elderly, Public Health, Neurology, Physical and Sports Culture, Oncology, and two participants from Adult in Critical Condition. Information collection was through a focal group, and data analysis according to the principles of Souza Minayo. Signed informed consent was obtained previously. Results: Five categories with 24 sub-categories emerged. Category 1, Student’s perception on clinic tutorship specialty. Category 2, Competences promoted by clinic tutorship according to student’s experience. Category 3, Experiences about clinic tutorship planning. Category 4, Challenges faced by the student in the evaluation of clinic tutorship. Category 5, Opportunity fields in clinic tutorship from students’ experiences. Conclusion: Graduate students from the specialties describe transversal competences related with decision taking, collaborative work, and increase of population welfare, as well as generic disciplinary competences. The analogy of a social hinge between the clinic tutor and the student is highlighted, which allows to identify mobile and fixed components while the bolt that binds mentor with mentee is learning, by means of the accompaniment by an expert. .展开更多
Community forest management groups (CFMGs) in Bhutan exhibit participatory forest management practices that recognize the importance of community’s collective participation in the management of natural forest resourc...Community forest management groups (CFMGs) in Bhutan exhibit participatory forest management practices that recognize the importance of community’s collective participation in the management of natural forest resources. This approach involves the community in the stewardship of designated forest areas and resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods and realization of forest conservation objectives. The increase of CFMGs in the country has been successful. However, research on the extent of gender-inclusive participation in CFMGs is either insufficient or missing vis-à-vis the allocation of decision-making power. Therefore, this study analyzes the factors influencing gender participation in CFMGs and their integration into decision-making processes. Primary data were collected from 12 study sites spanning 4 regions, complemented by secondary data from the Forest Department. Regression models were used to identify factors significantly influencing CFMG member participation in decision-making. The empirical results of this study reveal that gender is a significant factor influencing participation in CFMG decision-making. The study concludes that there is insufficient participation of women members in decision-making processes. Therefore, consideration of gender should be included in the development phase of the CFMG policy in addition to promoting awareness of inequity between gender and the promotion of leadership roles for women in CFMGs.展开更多
文摘A real time communication between deaf and hearing people is still a barrier that isolates the deaf people from the hearing world. Over ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. However, most of them can only learn how to communicate using sign language at school. One of the reasons is that the hearings parents have neither enough time nor support to learn sign language to communicate and support their children. Not surprisingly, the deaf finds difficulties in the oral-only education. Since many other hearing pupils do not even know about the existence of sign language, they cannot communicate directly with the deaf without a sign language interpreter. Therefore, to enable a face-to-face conversation between deaf and hearing people, it is important not only to sustain real time conversation between the deaf and their hearing counterparts but also to equip the hearing with basics of sign language. However, speech to sign conversion remains a challenge due to dialectal and sign language variation, speech utterance and lack of sign language written form. In this paper, a solution named Face-to-Face Conversation Deaf and Hearing people—FFCDH is proposed to address above issues. FFCDH supports real time conversation and also allows the hearing to learn the signs with the same meaning as the deaf understand. Moreover, FFCDH records the speech of the hearing and converts it into signs for the deaf. It also provides deaf with an option to adjust volume of their speech by displaying volume of their voice. The performance of the system in supporting the deaf has been evaluated by using a real test-bed. The obtained results show that English and Japanese daily conversation phrases can be recognized with over 90 percent accuracy on average. The average coherent of simple content is over 94 percent. However, when the speech includes long and complex phrases, the average accuracy and the coherent are slightly lower because the system could not comprehend long and complex context at large scope.
文摘Face-to-face Videoconferencing is a popular option for many large organizations because it minimizes the need for travel. Instead of continually paying for traveling expenses, a company can either pay to set up a high speed network which has many usages （including videoconferencing） or they can rent time on an existing network. Employees will also no longer be burdened with the need to travel. While face-to-face videoconferencing performance is heavily influenced by the underlying hardware and software, a good video compression scheme can help make the best use of videoconferencing and provide a high quality picture. H.263 standard is now widely used for real-time video communications over a range of networks including the Internet. A frame work for better understanding the H.263 including the implementation of encoder and decoder for face-to-face videoconferencing is presented. This software was written in C＋＋ language, running under the Microsoft Windows operating system.
文摘Online English learning as an outcome of the rapid development of the Internet has got a wider and wider market in China. However, problems of varieties have also occurred along its way. People never stop thinking of better strategies either in designing online course wares or tutorials to help smooth the learning process. My experience as a tutor is that interaction of affective domain and higher levels of cognitive domain of Bloom＇s Taxonomy plays an important role in face-to-face tutorials of online English learning.
文摘Background: Transversal competences are included in the United Nations Organization 2030 Agenda for the formation of staff professional in higher education, having disciplinary and transversal skills to develop individual, professional, social, and entrepreneurship at present time, creative individuals being able to solve social problems via collaboration. The aim was to evaluate the transversal competences developed by graduates, specialists in nursing with the accompaniment of clinic tutorship. Methods: Qualitative, phenomenological, and interpretative research. The informants were seven graduates from the Unique Program of Nursing Specialties (UPNS), from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one participant from each knowledge field: Nursing in the Elderly, Public Health, Neurology, Physical and Sports Culture, Oncology, and two participants from Adult in Critical Condition. Information collection was through a focal group, and data analysis according to the principles of Souza Minayo. Signed informed consent was obtained previously. Results: Five categories with 24 sub-categories emerged. Category 1, Student’s perception on clinic tutorship specialty. Category 2, Competences promoted by clinic tutorship according to student’s experience. Category 3, Experiences about clinic tutorship planning. Category 4, Challenges faced by the student in the evaluation of clinic tutorship. Category 5, Opportunity fields in clinic tutorship from students’ experiences. Conclusion: Graduate students from the specialties describe transversal competences related with decision taking, collaborative work, and increase of population welfare, as well as generic disciplinary competences. The analogy of a social hinge between the clinic tutor and the student is highlighted, which allows to identify mobile and fixed components while the bolt that binds mentor with mentee is learning, by means of the accompaniment by an expert. .
文摘Community forest management groups (CFMGs) in Bhutan exhibit participatory forest management practices that recognize the importance of community’s collective participation in the management of natural forest resources. This approach involves the community in the stewardship of designated forest areas and resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods and realization of forest conservation objectives. The increase of CFMGs in the country has been successful. However, research on the extent of gender-inclusive participation in CFMGs is either insufficient or missing vis-à-vis the allocation of decision-making power. Therefore, this study analyzes the factors influencing gender participation in CFMGs and their integration into decision-making processes. Primary data were collected from 12 study sites spanning 4 regions, complemented by secondary data from the Forest Department. Regression models were used to identify factors significantly influencing CFMG member participation in decision-making. The empirical results of this study reveal that gender is a significant factor influencing participation in CFMG decision-making. The study concludes that there is insufficient participation of women members in decision-making processes. Therefore, consideration of gender should be included in the development phase of the CFMG policy in addition to promoting awareness of inequity between gender and the promotion of leadership roles for women in CFMGs.
