MaGrid: A Language-Neutral Early Mathematical Training and Learning Application

in International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (in press)

Given that the use of educational technologies is increasingly popular in kindergarten and among young students, these technologies have been shown to be able to solve the difficulties (existing in school ... [more ▼]

Given that the use of educational technologies is increasingly popular in kindergarten and among young students, these technologies have been shown to be able to solve the difficulties (existing in school) that are either not possible to be solved in traditional schooling or cost a lot of time and resources. In this paper, we present a pedagogical training and learning application called MaGrid (Math on Grid), which has been developed to foster early mathematical skills in pre-schoolers. MaGrid is a tablet-based application, which provides a wide range of training tasks targeting fundamental mathematical concepts for the preschool level. The language-neutral property of MaGrid is an innovative aspect that makes MaGrid different from existing mathematical training applications. This property may reduce the barrier of language from mathematical education for second language learners encountered in multilingual school settings. MaGrid allows individual learning in an interactive way and provides real-time feedback. Moreover, MaGrid is capable of recording students’ activities while working on the training tasks, which can help teachers and parents keep track of a student’s progress in different tasks and observe potential training-related improvements over time. Finally, we describe a series of experiments carried out using the MaGrid application during special training and assessment sessions in several preschools in Luxembourg. [less ▲]

Algebraic thinking, pattern activities and knowledge for teaching at the transition between primary and secondary school.

in Educational Studies in Mathematics (in press), DOI 10.1007/s10649-018-9820-9

Of princesses, paladins, and player motivations: Gender stereotypes and gendered perceptions in video games

in Pietschmann, Daniel; Liebold, Benny; Lange, Benjamin (Eds.) et al Digital hunter-gatherers: An evolutionary psychology approach to digital games (in press)

Video games have been labeled a male space, and playing video games an activity created by men and for men (Fox & Tang, 2014; see also Lange & Schwab, this volume). The present chapter analyses the ... [more ▼]

Video games have been labeled a male space, and playing video games an activity created by men and for men (Fox & Tang, 2014; see also Lange & Schwab, this volume). The present chapter analyses the typical roles of male and female video game characters, their presentation in games, their effects, and how players perceive these characters. To this end, gender in video games will be analyzed on different levels. Although women and men share the same overall interest in playing video games as a medium for entertainment, they differ substantially with regard to genres and game titles they prefer. These gender differences have been attributed to the overrepresentation of male characters in video games, uninviting game contents that strongly rely on competition and physical aggression, and the stereotypical portrayal and scripted behavioral patterns of hyper-masculine or “macho” male and sexualized female game characters. The issue of gender portrayals in video games will be discussed in the light of theoretical considerations on evolved dispositions that differ by sex versus the social structural account that attributes sex differences to the differing placement of women and men in the social structure. It will be argued that both theoretical approaches make similar predictions regarding gender-specific video game preferences. [less ▲]

Belgian Judicial Actors and the Establishment of the Punishment of Collaboration with the Enemy in the East Cantons.

in Bost, Mélanie; Vrints, Antoon (Eds.) Doing Justice in Wartime. Multiple Interplays between Justice and Population during the two World Wars (in press)

La Lotharingie en question : identités, oppositions, intégration / Lotharingische Identitäten im Spannungsfeld zwischen integrativen und partikularen Kräften

Book published by CLUDEM (in press)

Vom Abklingen der „Phantomschmerzen“. Die Bundesrepublik und „Eupen-Malmedy“ (1949-1985)

in Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins. Aachener Geschichtsverein (in press), 119/120

A co-located partitions strategy for parallel CFD-DEM couplings

E-print/Working paper (in press)

In this work, a new partition-collocation strategy for the parallel execution of CFD–DEM couplings is investigated. Having a good parallel performance is a key issue for an Eulerian-Lagrangian software ... [more ▼]

In this work, a new partition-collocation strategy for the parallel execution of CFD–DEM couplings is investigated. Having a good parallel performance is a key issue for an Eulerian-Lagrangian software that aims to be applied to solve industrially significant problems, as the computational cost of these couplings is one of their main drawback. The approach presented here consists in co-locating the overlapping parts of the simulation domain of each software on the same MPI process, in order to reduce the cost of the data exchanges. It is shown how this strategy allows reducing memory consumption and inter-process communication between CFD and DEM to a minimum and therefore to overcome an important parallelization bottleneck identified in the literature. Three benchmarks are proposed to assess the consistency and scalability of this approach. A coupled execution on 280 cores shows that less than 0.1% of the time is used to perform inter-physics data exchange. [less ▲]

Challenges in completing EMU: asymmetric competition vs fiscal harmonisation. A case study of the Benelux countries

in Journal of Contemporary European Research [=JCER] (2019)

This paper aims to investigate the concept, context and socio-economic consequences of fiscal competition in the integrated economic space of EMU in completion, to pinpoint the positive and negative ... [more ▼]

This paper aims to investigate the concept, context and socio-economic consequences of fiscal competition in the integrated economic space of EMU in completion, to pinpoint the positive and negative factors at work via a case study of the Benelux countries – both founder members of the EU and pioneers of EMU – and to examine the impact on European and international regulations in the field. In particular, it will endeavour to provide a comprehensive interpretation of fiscal policy in the Benelux countries via a comparative approach and from a historical perspective. It will look at the development of respective domestic fiscal policies, driven by national interests and by membership of a Community that is subject to requirements in terms of harmonisation and taxation, but also by constant contact (and frequent clashes) with the multilateral international environment. [less ▲]

Simultaneous finite element analysis of circuit-integrated piezoelectric energy harvesting from fluid-structure interaction

in Mechanical Systems & Signal Processing (2019), 114

Flow-driven piezoelectric energy harvesting is a strongly coupled multiphysics phenomenon that involves complex three-way interaction between the fluid flow, the electromechanical effect of the ... [more ▼]

Flow-driven piezoelectric energy harvesting is a strongly coupled multiphysics phenomenon that involves complex three-way interaction between the fluid flow, the electromechanical effect of the piezoelectric material mounted on a deformable substrate structure and the controlling electrical circuit. High fidelity computational solution approaches are essential for the analysis of flow-driven energy harvesters in order to capture the main physical aspects of the coupled problem and to accurately predict the power output of a harvester. While there are some phenomenological and numerical models for flow-driven harvesters reported in the literature, a fully three-dimensional strongly coupled model has not yet been developed, especially in the context of flow-driven energy harvesting. The weighted residuals method is applied to establish a mixed integral equation describing the incompressible Newtonian flow, elastic substrate structure, piezoelectric patch, equipotential electrode and attached electric circuit that form the multiphysics fluid-structure interaction problem. A monolithic numerical solution method is derived that provides consistent and simultaneous solution to all physical fields as well as to fluid mesh deformation. The approximate solution is based on a mixed space-time finite element discretization with static condensation of the auxiliary fields. The discontinuous Galerkin method is utilized for integrating the monolithic model in time. The proposed solution scheme is illustrated in the example of a lid driven cavity with a flexible piezoelectric bottom wall, demonstrating quantification of the amount of electrical energy extractable from fluid flow by means of a piezoelectric harvester device. The results indicate that in order to make reliable predictions on the power output under varying operational states, the realization of strong multiphysics coupling is required for the mathematical model as well as the numerical solution scheme to capture the characteristics of flow-driven energy harvesters. [less ▲]

Sprachliche Voraussetzungen

in Kiel, Ewald; Herzig, Bardo; Maier, Uwe (Eds.) et al Handbuch Unterrichten in allgemeinbildenden Schulen (2019)