Developing An Improved Heart Rate Monitor With Work-Out Training Android Application And Real Time Audio Coaching

TechnoHeart is a digital way of monitoring heart rate using a Heart Rate Monitor device and an android phone. Moreover, this is made more special through its work-out training which is designed to help users set and achieve their target heart rate and monitor at what training intensity they are during a strenuous exercise. The training is made more interactive as the application has its real-time audio coaching. The need for this application comes from three sources; First, some athletes, non-athletes and even doctors are still using the traditional way of getting the heart rate; Second, training intensity is not monitored and target heart rate is not achieved; Third, most mobile developments do not tailor the need of users who undergo work-out training. With the following needs, objectives were set; First, to connect an HRM (Heart Rate Monitoring) device to an android mobile device and display individual’s heart rate in digital form through mobile; Second, to create a work-out training program using the Karvonen Formula; Third, to enable users know one’s target heart rate by using a Karvonen calculator; Fourth, to notify users in real time with every sudden change and the needed action in order to keep an effective training exercise. The project is to explore this and other similar concepts to develop a design that optimally satisfies all of these objectives. The project addresses all of these objectives while meeting the constraints given. The project was deployed in three different sets of users: The University of Mindanao Athletes, The elderly users aging from 50-80 years old and the other users aging from 12-49 years old. The researchers recommend the use of TechnoHeart for athletes and non-athletes who are aiming for an effective cardiovascular training. And for the next researchers, they can focus on the compatibility of the said application to other mobile platforms like iOS, Blackberry, Windows and etc. And also, they may upload application in the internet such as in social networking sites or any features that would make this project more usable.

Attitude of Teachers, Administrators and Policy Makers Towards Inclusive Education

This study was conducted to measure the attitude of teachers, administrators and policy makers towards inclusive education. It was conducted to achieve the following objectives: 1) to construct an attitude towards Inclusive Education Scale; 2) to measure attitude of representative sample of stake holders towards IE; 3) t o find out difference between the attitude of special education and regular education teachers; 4) to find out difference between the attitude of female and male teachers both in regular and special education; 5) to find out difference between the attitude of rural and urban respondents; 6) to find out difference among the attitude of teachers, administrators and policy makers. An intensive review of related literature covered the to topics such as concept of inclusive education, emergence of Inclusive Education, International initiatives of inclusive education, benefits of inclusive education, National commitments, barriers for inclusive education, reservations about inclusive education, attitude, factors influencing attitude about inclusive education. A five point Likert Scale instrument was developed for the study. A panel of experts examined the content validity of instrument. Analysis of the data showed reliability of the instrument was .79. Instrument was piloted and improved then it was administrated for data collection. The population of the study comprised all the teachers, administrators and policy makers working in the province of Punjab. A sample of the 590 respondents was selected randomly. As many as 432 teachers, 108 administrators and 50 policy makers were selected from both special education and regular education systems. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the responses of the sample and inferential statistics were used to compare the differences among the sample. Different comparisons were made during the analysis of data on following basis age, academic qualification, professional qualification, regular and special education, personal relation with persons with disability, experience of interaction with persons with disability, monthly income, mother tongue, gender, living area, administrative division, marital status, professional experience and profession. Findings of the research showed that objectives of the study have been achieved. It was concluded that teachers, administrators and policy makers had positive attitudes towards inclusive education.