Mobile Phones on Sheep

A recent paper has been published by Zainab Al-Rubaye on Detection on Lameness in Sheep using wearable sensor technology (at the moment an Android phone)

Al-Rubaye Z., Al-Sherbaz A., McCormick W., Turner S. (2018) Sensor Data Classification for the Indication of Lameness in Sheep. In: Romdhani I., Shu L., Takahiro H., Zhou Z., Gordon T., Zeng D. (eds) Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing. CollaborateCom 2017. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 252. Springer, Cham

• DOI  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00916-8_29
  

Abstract
Lameness is a vital welfare issue in most sheep farming countries, including the UK. The pre-detection at the farm level could prevent the disease from becoming chronic. The development of wearable sensor technologies enables the idea of remotely monitoring the changes in animal movements which relate to lameness. In this study, 3D-acceleration, 3D-orientation, and 3D-linear acceleration sensor data were recorded at ten samples per second via the sensor attached to sheep neck collar. This research aimed at determining the best accuracy among various supervised machine learning techniques which can predict the early signs of lameness while the sheep are walking on a flat field. The most influencing predictors for lameness indication were also addressed here. The experimental results revealed that the Decision Tree classifier has the highest accuracy of 75.46%, and the orientation sensor data (angles) around the neck are the strongest predictors to differentiate among severely lame, mildly lame and sound classes of sheep.


More details available at:
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327865785_Sensor_Data_Classification_for_the_Indication_of_Lameness_in_Sheep_13th_International_Conference_CollaborateCom_2017_Edinburgh_UK_December_11-13_2017_Proceedings


Relate Links

• Prototype Ovine Disease Detection - Vet Times
• Fitbit for Sheep

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Changing Minds

A chapter on multitasking in Higher Education has recently been published in a new book Higher Education Computer Science by a member of the Computing team Liz Coulter-Smith.


Coulter-Smith L (2018) "Changing Minds: Multitasking in Lectures"  Higher Education Computer Science DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98590-9_1


Abstract
This chapter takes a multidisciplinary approach to multitasking. Media multitasking has, consequently, become a frequent topic amongst academics yet some remarkable new research reveals we may not be taking into full account the changes to our students’ ability to learn given the changes to their brains. The risks of multitasking to student achievement has been well researched yet many of the positive related developments in the neurosciences are less well known. This chapter reviews some of this research bringing together information foragingInformation foraging theory, cognitive control and confirmation bias as they relate to the multitasking Generation Z student in higher education. Some significant research findings are discussed including using laptops and similar devices in the classroom. A small survey underpins these discussions at the end of the chapter highlighting student perspectives on multitasking during lectures.



All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Mining rules in e-commerce applications

Xue, James (2018) Mining association rules for admission control and service differentiation in e-commerce applications. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. 1942-4795.

To read more go to https://doi.org/10.1002/widm.1241

Abstract

Workload demands in e‐commerce applications are very dynamic in nature, therefore it is essential for internet service providers to manage server resources effectively to maximize total revenue in server overloading situations. In this paper, a data mining technique is applied to a typical e‐commerce application model for identification of composite association rules that capture user navigation patterns. Two algorithms are then developed based on the derived rules for admission control, service differentiation, and priority scheduling. Our approach takes the following aspects into consideration: (a) only final purchase requests result in company revenue; (b) any other request can potentially lead to final purchase, depending upon the likelihood of the navigation sequence that starts from current request and leads to final purchase; (c) service differentiation and priority assignment are based on aggregated confidence and average support of the composite association rules. As identification of composite association rules and computation of confidence and support of the rules can be pre‐computed offline, the proposed approach incurs minimum performance overheads. The evaluation results suggest that the proposed approach is effective in terms of request management for revenue maximization.

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Computing for Social Good 7: Importance of Student Volunteering

Volunteering, It is good for the students, communities and the University: Reflections on STEM volunteering

Invited Talk around reflections on student volunteering at the "Higher Education for the Development of Iraq Conference" 14-15th September 2018 London. The conference aimed at looking at the integration between the work of the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the development needs in Iraq; by identifying problems in all sectors and contributing to the creation of a knowledge economy. 
This talk fitted under "This section is about the problems and challenges face the Iraqi economy which can be resolved by higher education outcomes." https://www.farismedia.co.uk/read-more  

e economy.

• https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29166-6_10

Volunteering, It is good for the students, communities and the University : Reflections on STEM volunteering from Scott Turner

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

University of Northampton - teaching and researching Blockchain recognition

Taken from: University of Northampton recognised for being one of a handful of institutions teaching and researching Blockchain

The University of Northampton has been recognised as one of only a handful of Higher Education (HE) institutions worldwide which are teaching or carrying out Blockchain research.

Blockchain is a shared, replicated ledger that underpins technology such as cryptocurrency, but also sets out to provide the foundation for the next generation of transactional applications.

Blockchain analyst website Diar has included the University of Northampton in a list of just 28 HE providers that teach aspects of Blockchain and/or conduct research into it.

Northampton does both.

Postgraduate students on the MSc Computing course are taught elements of Blockchain, including a general introduction to the basic concepts, plus coding and programming techniques.

Meanwhile, various Northampton academics, led by Senior Lecturer in Education, Dr Cristina Devecchi,  have collaborated on a Blockchain project to help Syrian refugee children which has been promoted by the United Nations.

Dr Scott Turner, who teaches Blockchain on the MSc Computing course, has also delivered a talk with colleague Ali Al-Sherbaz about the subject to the British Computing Society.

The University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Nick Petford, said: “It is good to see the work of the University of Northampton recognised as contributing to the academic and practical development of Blockchain.

“The technology offers a new way of looking at old problems with great potential to innovate across a wide range of our research activities from education and humanitarian aid to supply chain management.”

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon