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This research investigates the impact of virtual laboratories (VLabs) based on artificial intelligence (AI) on developing students’ motivation toward learning mathematics. A semi)experimental approach is used to achieve the research objectives. The research sample, consisting of 80students from the seventh grade, is selected by the purposeful sampling approach. The research sample is randomly distributed into three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. The first group of 26 students is taught using the AI-based VLabs, while the second group of 27 students is taught using a VLab based on 3D visual imaging, and the third group, a control group consisting of 27 students, is taught using the traditional approach. The research instrument, a questionnaire for learning motivation, was designed after ensuring its validity and reliability. The findings of the motivation questionnaire indicate that students in the first experimental group have more motivation to learn mathematics than students in the second experimental group and the control group. The results also show that the students in the second experimental group have more motivation to learn mathematics than the students in the control group. Given the said findings, the research recommends using virtual laboratories based on artificial intelligence and all its applications in the learning process due to their impact on students’ mathematics learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imagine you are a scientist, working on collections. You have your pet taxon and you need information which is distributed in a number of books and publications but also in the specimens deposited in Museums or Herbaria. Instead of paying visits to these establishments, around the world, you wish there was a means to transform all the information you need into a digitized form of the physical objects, you can reach from the screen of your laptop, tablet or cell phone. You dream you were able to watch, inspect and even dissect the type material you need online but also to compare it with others they way sequences are blasted against large databases, these days. You plan to make global research on this taxon and try to derive patterns from both the molecular and organismal level of the biological organization and to link the patterns resulting to the drivers of change for this taxon. This is the vision of the Virtual Museum of Natural History and one of the ways to achieve this vision is to address the "collections on demand" requirement. One of the possible means to address this requirement is the digitization through the use of the micro-ct technology. The micro-CT virtual laboratory (vLab), developed by LifeWatchGreece research infrastructure (RI), makes it possible the online exploration and dissemination of micro-CT datasets, which are only rarely made available to the public due to their large size and a lack of dedicated online platforms for the interactive manipulation of 3D data. This presentation shows the development of such a "collections on demand" function, implemented by the SYNTHESYS+ project (DiSSCo RI), which combines such highthroughput technologies, that is micro-ct and genomics, to address the scientific community's requirements. We show that this approach to combine patterns deriving from the application of novel techniques, which represent different kinds of observations is possible and we propose certain case studies as examples. The innovation aspects of this function include: #8226; Expansion and development of cost models for Collections on Demand; #8226; Development of standards and guidelines for exchange of collection-derived imaging data; #8226; Construction of new data pipelines and standard workflows, enabling access to complex digital content such as 3D scans; #8226; Development of novel molecular lab protocols, workflows and informatics pipelines, to enable large scale; #8226; DNA sequencing of NH collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Infrastructures (RIs) are facilities, resources and services used by scientists to perform research and support innovation. A number of EU research infrastructures [e.g. e- Science and Technology European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (LifeWatch) European Research Iinfrastructures Consortium (ERIC); The European lifesciences Infrastructure for biological Information (ELIXIR); the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC ERIC); the European Research Infrastructure for Imaging Technologies in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (uroBioImaging ERIC)] have been building Virtual Research Environments (VREs), which include many virtual laboratories (vLabs) offering, one stop data access to scientists, high computational capacity and collaborative research platforms in support of the requirements of the digital science. This presentation gives examples on the use of the vLabs developed by LifeWatch ERIC which have subsequently been taken up as web services by other RIs. The RvLab operates on a high-performance computer cluster, and has been used in order to analyse various properties of taxon equality, with a focus on marine species. This taxonomic information on marine biota is organized and made publicly available through the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) that delivers more than 250,000 described valid species names. Although scientists consider an equal status (in terms of contribution to overall diversity) to each taxon used in taxonomy, biogeography, ecology and biodiversity, the question "are all taxa equal?" has never been tested at a global scale. We present evidence that this question can be addressed by applying relatedness indices (Taxonomic Distinctness) over the entire WoRMS metazoan tree. The virtual micro-CT laboratory (Micro-CT vLab), which can be used by the members of the scientific community interested in the digitisation methods and biological collections, makes the micro-CT data exploration of natural history specimens freely available over the internet. Micro-CT vLab makes it possible the online exploration and dissemination of micro-CT datasets, which are only rarely made available to the public due to their very large size and a lack of dedicated online platforms supporting the interactive manipulation of 3D data. Examples of how these vLabs can be used by other RIs are provided [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]