Search

The use of tangible interfaces in teaching has been proved more effective, user -friendly and helpful in collaborative learning departments, when compared to traditional teaching approaches. In particular, the tangible interface “Makey Makey” is a modern tool that enhances collaboration between pupils, with positive results in education, despite the limited research done on this interface so far. “Makey Makey” succeeds in motivating and engaging young learners in the learning process, showing better performance and scoring results. In addition, its use in teaching has been shown to benefit the learning process in every age learning group.The development and use of such an innovative teaching/learning approach helps young learners perceive the educational process in a different way and assimilate new cognitive fields more effectively. Moreover, educators profit as well, as they can eliminate difficulties and teach more efficiently using examples based on their teaching approach, while enhancing young learners’ parallel skills as well. This study will confirm previous research results stating that assimilation of new concepts is easier with tangible interfaces than with graphical ones, as well as that young learners participating in the survey have shown significant progress in knowledge acquisition when compared to their prior knowledge.

The use of Internet technology has changed the way people interact rendering face-to face and verbal communication a trend of the past. Thus, a new world has been created for young people, who send emails, visit websites, use webcams, chat rooms and instant messaging through social media for communication. As a result, a new type of bullying, cyber bullying has emerged. The present study aims to investigate the extent of cyber bullying in Greece in terms of: a) gender and cyber bullying, b) hours spent on line and cyber bullying, c) cyber bullying and traditional bullying victims and d) cyber bullying victims and family relations. The sample consisted of 466 participants, 27% of which (N=128) were less than 18 years old. A standardized questionnaire was formulated for data collection and Chisquare, statistical test was used to test the research hypotheses formulated. The results revealed significant theoretical and practical implications, as the majority of the research questions confirmed the relationship between cyber bullying and traditional bullying victims, as well as cyber bullying victims and family relations.

A high‐quality daily runoff time series of the Lake Como inflow and outflow, the longest for Italian Alps, was reconstructed for the 1845–2016 period in the Adda river basin. It was compared with contemporary monthly precipitation and temperature observations and estimated potential evapotranspiration losses. Trend analyses were conducted for daily flow maxima and 7‐day duration minima of inflows into the lake showing a non‐significant decrease and a significant increase, respectively. Although the annual precipitation time series exhibits a non‐significant decrease, annual runoff volumes decrease with a rate of −136 mm⋅century−1, with a significance level of 5%. Possible causes of variability of rainfall and runoff as North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Western Mediterranean Oscillation indexes and sunspot activity were also explored. Wavelet spectra analyses of monthly precipitation and runoff show some changes in the energy both at small and large scales and are effective in pointing out phenomena as droughts and the effects of dams' regulation. Conversely, wavelet coherence spectra indicate a weak correlation of NAO and sunspots with precipitation. In addition, the analysis of temperature and potential evapotranspiration tendencies suggests that the decrease of runoff has to be ascribed mostly to anthropogenic factors, including water abstraction for irrigation and increased evapotranspiration losses due to natural afforestation and, only in part, to climatic variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important tasks a hydrologist must face is to estimate the hydrological risk (i.e. probability) of a variable exceeding a certain threshold. This risk is often expressed in terms of a Return Period, T, and refers to the failure of the hydraulic structure which controls this variable. Sometimes the "structure" is simply the river embankmentsthe failure of which means their overtopping by the river. The widely adopted definition of T, in a problem regarding the maxima of hydro-logical variables, is "the average time elapsing between two successive occurrences of an event exceeding a given magnitude of the natural variables". Conventional approaches for the estimation of T involve a single natural variable (i.e. flood peak, maximum rainfall intensity, etc.) and its frequency analysis. However, a univariate approach in complex problems ignores the effect of other significant variables leading to different risk levels for each quantity of interest and resulting in an inaccurate estimate of the risk-often wrongfully set equal to the risk of the hydrological event. For example, if one considers the flood inflow in a lake around which establishments are positioned, the variable to be investigated relating to risk assessment is the lake water level. The same water level may occur from very different flood hydrographs, even when the same initial water level and specific spillway characteristics are taken into account. We considered this a result of the interaction of three joint factors: the hydrograph's peak, volume and shape. Consequently, we apply a multivariate distribution framework (using copula functions) in order to find a region where all underlying events are assigned to the same risk-associated here to the maximum water level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]