bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Virtual Property in Virtual Worlds
Authors: Adrian Angela
Published: May 2010

Digital technology is detaching information from the physical plane, where property law of all sorts has always found definition. Throughout the history of intellectual property law, the proprietary assertions of thinkers and inventors have been focused not on their ideas, but on the expression of those ideas. The ideas themselves, as well as facts about the phenomena of the world, were considered to be the collective property of humanity. One could claim franchise, in the case of copyright, on the precise turn of phrase used to convey a particular idea or the order in which facts were presented. Law protected expression. To express was to make physical. One did not get paid for the idea but for the ability to deliver it into reality. The value was in the conveyance and not the thought conveyed. In other words, the bottle was protected, not the wine. (Barlow, 2004)
Intellectual Property and Virtual Worlds
Authors: Adrian Angela
Published: May 2010

As stated previously, virtual worlds are created by computer code which is designed to act like real world property. (Fairfield, 2005) Also noted earlier was the emergent certainty that digital technology is detaching information from the physical plane, which, in turn, disrupts the foundations of property law. The next question posed was, should this virtual property be protected and regulated in the same manner as real world property? The answer was perhaps. However, first, another aspect of property law should be considered, intellectual property. A good deal of computer code is just one step away from pure idea. Like ideas, it is non-rivalrous; that is, one person’s use of the code does not stop another person from using it. (Fairfield, 2005) This kind of code is deemed to be protected by intellectual property law. (Lessig, 1999; Geist, 2003; O’Rourke, 1997) Intellectual property protects the creative interest in non-rivalrous resources. Richard Posner (2000) noted: “Intellectual property is characterized by heavy fixed costs relative to marginal costs. It is often very expensive to create, but once it is created the cost of making additional copies is low, dramatically so, in the case of software, where it is only a slight overstatement to speak of marginal cost as zero. Without legal protection, the creator of intellectual property may be unable to recoup his investment, because competitors can free-ride on it; and so legal protection can expand output rather than, as in the usual case of monopoly reduce it.”
Mischief and Grief
Authors: Adrian Angela
Published: May 2010

Perhaps more that any other branch of the law, tort has been the battleground of social theory (Prosser, 1977). According to Black’s Law Dictionary (1990), a tort is “a private or civil wrong or injury, including action for bad faith breach of contract, for which the court will provide a remedy in the form of an action for damages (K.Mart.Corp.v.Ponsock, 732 P.2d 469 (Nev. App.) A violation of a duty imposed by general law or otherwise upon all persons occupying the relation to each other which is involved in a given transaction (Coleman.v.California.Yearly.Meeting. of.Friends.Church, 81 P.2d 469 (Ca. App.). There must always be a violation of some duty owing to plaintiff (claimant), and generally such duty must arise by operation of law and not be mere agreement of the parties.” Individuals wish to be secure in their person against harm and interference, not only as to their physical integrity, but as to their freedom to move about and their peace of mind. This is important whether they are at home in Bournemouth or at home in a virtual world like Second Life. When an individual is at home in Second Life, they are represented by their avatar. This avatar is the characterisation of them which is valuable and persistent. Avatars embody real people who want food and clothing, homes, goods, money, entertainment, and to be secure and free from disturbance in the right to have these things in their virtual environments. They want to work and deal with others whilst protected against the interference with their private lives, their relationships, and their honour and reputation. In any society, it is inevitable that these interests shall come into conflict. The gaming community calls people who promote conflict “griefers”. Griefers are people who like nothing better than to kill team-mates or obstruct the game’s objectives. Griefers scam, cheat and abuse, often victimising the weakest and newest players. In games that attempt to encourage complex and enduring interactions among thousands of players, “griefing” has evolved from being an isolated nuisance to a social disease.
Beyond Griefing
Authors: Adrian Angela
Published: May 2010

Because there is so much money involved in virtual worlds these days, there has been an increase in criminal activity in these worlds as well. The gaming community calls people who promote conflict “griefers”. Griefers are people who like nothing better than to kill team-mates or obstruct the game’s objectives. Griefers scam, cheat and abuse. Recently, the have begun to set up Ponzi schemes. In games that attempt to encourage complex and enduring interactions among thousands of players, “griefing” has evolved from being an isolated nuisance to a social disease. Much in the same way crime has become the real world’s social disease. Grief is turning into crime. Some consider virtual worlds to be a game and therefore outside the realms of real law and merely subject to the rules of the game. However, some virtual worlds have become an increasingly important as a method of commerce and means of communication. In most circumstance the law is reluctant to intrude into the rules of the game, but it will do if necessary. (Lastowka & Hunter, 2004) Criminal law applies in virtual worlds as it does in the real world, but not necessarily in the manner that a player would expect or want. The law looks at the real consequences of actions, not the on-screen representations. (Kennedy, 2009)
Keys for Administration of Reconfigurable NoC
Authors: Dafali Rachid , Diguet Jean-Philippe
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents an analysis of current needs in the domain of Reconfigurable Network on chip. We first detail our motivations for NoC reconfiguration, which is followed by a description of our model for Reconfigurable Network on chip in relation with the usual OSI network layers. Then, we propose a study of outstanding research issues of current work and open issues organized into three topics: dynamic reconfiguration administration, network infrastructure reconfiguration and network protocol reconfiguration. To finish, we present our strategy for reconfiguration and introduce a self-adaptive Network Interface architecture as a part of the configuration manager.
Dynamic Reconfigurable NoCs
Authors: Rana Vincenzo , Santambrogio Marco Domenico , Corbetta Simone
Published: May 2010

The aim of this chapter is the definition of the main issues that arise when dealing with the design of a NoC-based reconfigurable system. In particular, after the definition of the target architecture, several factors, requirements and constraints that have to be taken into account during the design of reconfigurable NoCs will be described and analyzed. The second part of this chapter will focus on the main issues in dynamic reconfigurable NoCs design, such as the definition of a layered approach, of a packet-switched communication infrastructure, of a proper routing mechanism and of a communication protocol support. Finally, the last part of this chapter will deal with the description of the most relevant implementation details, such as the placement of the bus-macros, the design of the network switches and the physical implementation of the routing mechanism.
Automatic Test Sequence Generation for State Transition Testing via Ant Colony Optimization
Authors: Srivastava Praveen Ranjan , Baby
Published: May 2010

Software testing is a key part of software development life cycle. Due to time, cost and other circumstances, exhaustive testing is not feasible, that’s why there is need to automate the testing process. Generation of the automated and effective test suit is a very difficult task in the software testing process. Effective test suite can decrease the overall cost of testing as well as increase the probability of finding defects in software systems. Testing effectiveness can be achieved by the State Transition Testing which is commonly used in, real time, embedded and web-based kind of software system. State transition testing focuses upon the testing of transitions from one state of an object to other states. The tester’s main job is to test all the possible transitions in the system. This chapter proposed an Ant Colony Optimization technique for automated and fully coverage state-transitions in the system. Through proposed algorithm all the transitions are easily traversed at least once in the test-sequence.
Against All Odds, from All-Girls Schools to All-Boys Workplaces
Authors: Griffiths Marie , Richardson Helen
Published: May 2010

The trend for women to be severely under-represented in the UK ICT (information and communication technology) sector persists. Girls continue, year in year out, to excel in academia whilst initiatives are put in place to challenge the gender employment gap in ICT1 professions. As part of a larger research study of women in the ICT labour market, over 500 women were asked about their initial routes into ICT; this included educational backgrounds, influential factors and perceptions of that transition. In analysing the findings we attempt to explain the tendency for women in our sample group to come from single-sex schools and to have a predilection for mathematics and the sciences, then move into male dominated educational and work environments. Our findings report on the personal experiences of women’s unsuspecting trajectory into the UK ICT sector.
Absent Women
Authors: Blomqvist Martha
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents a study on the use of research based information on gender and IT education disseminated by Swedish newspapers between 1994 and 2004. The predominant content of the newspaper articles concerns the lack of women, and refers mostly to reports presenting statistics. A gender-blind discourse is almost nonexistent in the articles, meaning that the small proportion of women in IT education on the whole is understood as a problem. A masculinity-connoted discourse – assuming a close relationship between masculinity and technology – and a feminized discourse – based on the idea that women have qualities and skills important in the area of IT – are both given a significant voice, so that the link between masculinity and technology is strengthened and that a gender dichotomy is confirmed. However, a differentiated discourse, which acknowledges gender variations among women as well as men, has had little impact in the newspapers.
Gendered Distance Education Spaces
Authors: Rensfeldt Annika Bergviken , Riomar Sandra
Published: May 2010

This chapter problematizes how gender is constructed and used in the arguments of flexible distance education. By using a gender and space analysis we destabilise the open, flexible and liberating features of distance higher education spaces, that are supposed to favour women. The questions are; How are the spaces of distance education gendered, and What power asymmetries are produced? The empirical material is Swedish education policies, mainly from the 1990s, concerned with the issue of creating new educational opportunities through a more open and flexible higher education. The chapter provides insights into the gender power asymmetries of these educational spaces through three lines of arguments: gendered technology use, off-campus studies and the home as place for learning. It is concluded that these spaces are characterized by enclosure and restrictions that risk “keeping women in place”, and thus need to be questioned and challenged by feminist readings.
Human Cognition in the Design of Assistive Technology for Those with Learning Disabilities
Authors: DaCosta Boaventura , Seok Soonhwa
Published: May 2010

This is the first of three chapters serving as the introduction to this handbook which addresses the relationship between human cognition and assistive technologies and its design for individuals with cognitive disabilities. In this chapter the authors introduce the human information processing system. They discuss the modal model of memory, a basic framework offering the most popular explanations behind the active processes used in the construction of new knowledge. In doing so, the authors examine the three memory stores comprising the modal model which are responsible for the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information. The authors then discuss ways in which to increase learning. Altogether, they present the approach that technology for learning should be created with an understanding of design principles empirically grounded in the study of how the human mind works, particularly when it comes to the design of assistive technologies for individuals with learning disabilities.
Social Orthotics for Youth with ASD to Learn in a Collaborative 3D VLE
Authors: Laffey James , Stichter Janine , Schmidt Matthew
Published: May 2010

Online systems, especially 3D virtual environments, hold great potential to enrich and expand learning opportunities for those who are challenged by traditional modes of instruction and interaction. In the process of developing a 3D Virtual Learning Environment to support the development and practice of social competence for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, the iSocial project explored and advanced ideas for social orthotics in virtual environments. By social orthotics the authors mean structures in the environment that overcome barriers to facilitate social interaction and social learning. The vision of social orthotics in a 3D world is to be both assistive and adaptive for appropriate social behavior when the student, peers and guide are represented by avatars in a 3D virtual world designed to support learning and development. This chapter describes the formulation of social orthotics for avatar orientation and conversational turn-taking and describes experiences and lessons from early tests of prototype orthotics.
Using Software to Deliver Language Intervention in Inclusionary Settings
Authors: Wilson Mary Sweig , Pascoe Jeffrey
Published: May 2010

Language intervention focusing on syntax is an essential component of programs designed to meet the educational needs of children with language disabilities as it provides a foundation for improved communication and literacy. Yet there are challenges to providing individualized syntax intervention on a daily basis in inclusionary settings. The use of assistive technology in the form of language intervention software provides one means to address these challenges. This chapter describes the background, rationale, and use of software designed to provide receptive syntax intervention to build sentence comprehension and use in pre-school and elementary children with disabilities. The software is also appropriate for at-risk students in districts providing early intervening services in a response to intervention model as well as English language learners. Included is an overview of advances in linguistic theory and research that have dramatically increased our understanding of language and how it is acquired by typically and atypically developing children, and which informed the curricular design of the software described. The results of field-testing under naturalistic conditions in classrooms, where regular use of the software was associated with accelerated language development, are also reviewed.
The Role of Metaphors in the Interpersonal Discourse of Online Forums
Authors: Vayreda Agnès , Núñez Francesc
Published: May 2010

This chapter focuses on the role that metaphors play in the social relationships of people who use CMC. We analyze the metaphors used by contributors to three different electronic fora when they refer to the process of interaction. One of our main objectives is to show that the study of metaphors allows us to understand how CMC users reach agreement as to the nature of the social space that they inhabit and what behavior is considered to be appropriate or inappropriate in such a space. This chapter will show that metaphors facilitate the construction of social life and allow CMC users to propose norms of behaviour; they also facilitate the process of identification, generate confidence in a group, and orient users to the cultural contexts in which social action takes place.
Universalized Workplace Education
Authors: Remtulla Karim  A.
Published: May 2010

This chapter looks at the socio-cultural implications of universalized education for workers. A universalized education for workers by workplace e-learning happens through hypermedia-centric, constructivist-based workplace e-learning that configures technologies, constructivism, and instructors, for a knowledge-based workplace. Workplace e-learning for workplace adult education and training has changed over the past decade with respect to the changes and complexities of the learning process. This is especially true given the growing prevalence of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Distance education in the tertiary sector is looked at to see what is revealed from workplace adult education and training encounters with workplace e-learning. This raises questions about workplace e-learning for a global workforce. Workplace e-learning epitomizes a constructivist practice in the workplace; heavily based on European and Western industrialized values; and, remains unconcerned with the culturally specialized adult learning needs and goals of a diverse, global, and multi-facetted, cohort of adult learners. Looking primarily at the constructivist turn in distance education, perspectives of epistemology, ontology, and pedagogy, are referenced that support this trend. The universalizing ramifications of this hypermedia- centred, constructivist trend in workplace e-learning for workplace adult education and training are concerning for a global and diverse cohort of adult learners, who will come to represent the workforce in the future. Technique is increasingly used as the omnibus answer for all learners’ needs and goals. ‘Technology’ increasingly replaces epistemology and ontology as the singular perspective for authentic learning. Some of the unseen, conformist, and persuasive effects of technology, constructivism, and instructors, are now problematized for a global workforce.
Primacy of Commodified Knowledges
Authors: Remtulla Karim  A.
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the cultural paradigm of ‘commodified knowledges’ in the workplace. This cultural paradigm is the second of two paradigms discussed in this book that shape socio-culturally insensitive, technological artefactual approaches to workplace e-learning research and study. Subsequently, this paradigm also socially reshapes workplace e-leaning historicity for workplace adult education and training, resulting in socio-cultural impacts on the workforce. ‘The knowledge-based economy’ as a concept of the global age comes from the various schools of thought. Each of the theories forwarded by these schools of thought continues to influence knowledge-based economic policy today, whether in regards to information-based societies; knowledge products; knowledge workers; or, technological innovations. These are the global policies that afford commodified knowledges their priority in the (knowledge-based) workplace. Organizations specifically concerned with knowledge governance, now invest in practices better known as ‘knowledge management’. Organizational apparatuses such as strategic priorities, value chains, and business processes, all become appropriated towards the materialization and reification of knowledge as an economic commodity for the benefit of the workplace. ‘Business process reengineering’ continues to have impact on the workplace as both a mandate and method for knowledge management towards the commodification of knowledge in the workplace. Workplace e-learning for workplace adult education and training now becomes another means for commodified knowledges through continuously reengineered knowledge management apparatuses. For workplace e-learning, adherence to the belief in the primacy of commodified knowledges leads to two workplace e-learning scenarios: (a) dehumanizing ideologies (see Chapter 9); and, (b) social integration (see Chapter 10).
Decomposition by Instrumental Instruction
Authors: Remtulla Karim  A.
Published: May 2010

This chapter undertakes a socio-cultural critique of the ‘instrumental instruction’ workplace e-learning scenario. This scenario includes workplace e-leaning interventions that are designed to culturally decompose the workforce through abilities, beliefs, and behaviours. The goal is to use workplace e-learning to make workers more able to cope with periodic and on-going ICT innovation and business process change within organizations. An exploratory case study brings together the elements of process, technology, and culture. This provides a more holistic understanding of the experiences of the workforce and management when it comes to continuous ICT innovation, business process change, and a culture of instrumentalism. All this bears significant socio-cultural impacts on the workforce that come about through the workplace e-learning scenario of instrumental instruction. Socio-cultural insensitivity from workplace e-learning, in this scenario, comes from the basic, unquestioned assumption that workers are essentially socially flawed and culturally inferior; accountable for overcoming their socio-cultural flaws and inferiorities; and, need to be decomposed by workplace e-learning, through abilities, beliefs and behaviours, to meet the expectations of the infallible and commodified workplace. Workplace e-learning is now increasingly relied upon by organizations to provide the instrumental instruction that brings about cultural change in the workforce in terms of cultural decomposition of the workforce. In the wider marketplace, technological innovation in the ICT sector, accompanied by business process change in organizations, continues to culturally influence workplace e-learning industry trends and strategies. Workplace e-learning industry trends and strategies also culturally shape workplace e-learning. Instrumental instruction from workplace e-learning thus signifies the instrumentalization of instruction for workers, by workplace e-learning through their abilities, beliefs and behaviours, to culturally decompose the workforce for a knowledge- based workplace.
Homogenization through Social Integration
Authors: Remtulla Karim  A.
Published: May 2010

This chapter produces a socio-cultural critique of the ‘social integration’ workplace e-learning scenario to homogenize the workforce through organizational communications; workplace design and organizational development; recruitment, rewards, and retention; and, learning and knowledge management. Workplace e-learning for workplace adult education and training, as a result of the normalization of skills and competencies and the commodification of knowledges, becomes progressively more homogenized. This leads to an increasingly socially integrated workplace. The socio-cultural impacts are understood through the homogenization of the modes and media of workplace e-learning. An exploratory case study considers some of the socially integrationist repercussions of this homogenizing trend in workplace e-learning for workplace adult education and training. The modes of learning are becoming more homogenized through policies, value chains, and business processes. The media of learning are becoming more homogenized through workplace e-learning artefactual foci. Socio-cultural insensitivity from workplace e-learning, in this scenario, comes from the basic, unquestioned assumption that workers are essentially socially flawed and culturally inferior; accountable for overcoming their socio-cultural flaws and inferiorities; and, need to be homogenized by workplace e-learning, through communications, design, recruitment, and learning, to meet the expectations of the infallible and commodified workplace. Social integration by workplace e-learning happens through the application of homogenizing modes and media towards organizational communications; workplace design and organizational development; recruitment and retention; and, learning and knowledge-building, to socially integrate the workforce for a knowledge-based workplace. Social integration, as an analytical metaphor for workplace e-learning, also reveals and exposes some of the unseen, conformist, and persuasive, outcomes that inexorably lead towards pedagogies of workforce alienation and contingency.
A Primer of Ubiquitous Computing Challenges and Trends
Authors: André da Costa Cristiano , Barbosa Jorge Luis Victoria , Cavalheiro da Silva Luciano , Yamin Adenauer Corrêa , Geyer Cláudio Fernando Resin
Published: May 2010

The growing availability of wireless networks and the proliferation of portable devices have made mobile computing a reality. Furthermore, the widespread use of location systems stimulates the creation of context-aware and adaptive systems. Ubiquitous computing integrates and extends these approaches through a new proposal where users’ applications are available in a suitable adapted form, wherever they go and however they move. In this scenario, issues related to development of software need to be tackled. This chapter reviews essential concepts of the ubiquitous computing area, its evolution, and challenges that must be managed. To deal with these issues, the authors describe the main requirements for the development of ubiquitous software. This analysis starts with the discussion of limitations in the use of traditional programming models, and then goes on to the proposition of techniques to address these limitations. The authors trust that this discussion can help the future development of ubiquitous applications.
Values between Systems
Authors: Sicart Miguel
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors define ethical gameplay as a consequence of game design choices. The authors propose an analytical model that defines ethical gameplay as an experience that stems from a particular set of game design decisions. These decisions have in common a design method, called ethical cognitive dissonance, based on the conscious creative clash between different models of agency in a game. This chapter outlines this method and its application in different commercial computer games.
Sideways into Truth
Authors: Hoffman Erin
Published: May 2010

We often discuss the interactive medium as being possibly the ultimate in “meta” studies, touching virtually every discipline, and yet we rarely discuss it in serious terms of that other most comprehensive of humanities: philosophy. Correspondingly, philosophy and the traditional humanities have historically distanced themselves from games, relegating them to some curious and inconsequential sub-study of cultural anthropology if they are studied at all. Yet it is the very human foundational compulsion to contemplate death—as will be shown through the works of philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Ernest Becker—that drives much of the violent content that makes the video game medium a lightning rod for cultural scrutiny and controversy. The chapter explores two video games—the controversial Super Columbine Massacre RPG!—through the lens of existential death-anxiety to show how video games represent contemplation of fundamental ethical concerns in the human experience.
Reacting to Re: Activism
Authors: Macklin Colleen
Published: May 2010

This case study of the big urban game Re:Activism examines moments where failures in the game’s design revealed how the design process itself is a set of ethical choices and actions, illustrating specific strategies for integrating more interesting choices into games. Ethics in a game is not inherent; it is enacted through rules, mechanics and play. This chapter is a “thick description” of the first time Re:Activism was played in which the losing team paradoxically had the kind of engaging experience the designers sought to create.
The Mechanic is the Message
Authors: Brathwaite Brenda , Sharp John
Published: May 2010

This chapter provides two entry points into Brenda Brathwaite’s series The Mechanic is the Message, a group of six non-digital games that explore difficult topics. Brathwaite writes from the perspective of the game’s designer, covering the inception of the series, its inspirations and the challenges inherent in working with content one might deem questionable in the game space. Sharp, on the other hand, writes from the perspective of a game designer and an art historian and critiques the game’s entry and reception into both the world of art and games.
Intelligent Automatic Guided Vehicles
Authors: Berman Sigal , Edan Yael
Published: May 2010

Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) based material handling systems have become the most widely used method of transporting pallets and parts between workstations in flexible manufacturing systems. Their primary advantages include increased routing flexibility, space utilization, safety, and reduced overall operational cost. Key issues to address during the design of an AGV system include selection of AGV platform, flow path design, and fleet size determination. During run time AGV system functionality includes: system management, (AGV allocation), navigation (establishing conflict free routes), and load transfer (material pick up and deposit mechanisms). Autonomous AGV systems offer numerous advantages in comparison to traditional systems. The following chapter will discuss the state-of-the-art in AGV systems concentrating on AGV run time functionality and AGV system performance measurement.
Visual Feedback for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots
Authors: Usai Andrea , Di Giamberardino Paolo
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, we describe a homography approach to vision based feedback for nonholonomic mobile robots control. Differently than other approaches based on homography or fundamental matrix, our method has been developed to be robust to reference features loss, during the robot movement. This allows us to implement an arbitrary control law without the need of a teach-by-showing stage. In the chapter, the use of a stereo camera system to improve the observer accuracy and to perform an auto-calibration of the stereo-head pose is investigated. Experimental results are provided to show the performances of the proposed system state estimation, using an eye-in-hand mobile robotic platform.
Artificial Neural Networks to Improve Current Harmonics Identification and Compensation
Authors: Wira Patrice , Abdeslam Djaffar Ould , Mercklé Jean
Published: May 2010

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have demonstrated very interesting properties in adaptive identification schemes and control laws. In this work, they are employed for the on-line control strategy of an Active Power Filter (APF) in order to improve its performance. Indeed, neural-based approaches are synthesized to design adaptive and efficient harmonic identification schemes. The proposed neural approaches are employed for compensating for the changing harmonic distortions introduced in a power distribution system by unknown nonlinear loads. The implementation of the ANNs has been optimized on a digital signal processor for real-time experiments. The feasibility of the implementation has been validated and the neural compensation schemes exhibit good performances compared to conventional approaches. By their learning capabilities, ANNs are able to take into account time-varying parameters such as voltage sags and harmonic content changes, and thus appreciably improve the performance of the APF compared to the one obtained with traditional compensating methods.
An Adaptive Framework for Power Components Dynamic Loadability
Authors: Piccolo Antonio , Siano Pierluigi , Rigatos Gerasimos
Published: May 2010

In electrical competitive markets, where deregulation and privatisation have determined changes in the organizational structures of the electricity supply industry as well as in the operation of power systems, utilities necessitate to change dynamically the loadability rating of power components without penalizing their serviceability. When assessing network load capability, the prediction of the Hot Spot Temperature (HST) of power components represents the most critical factor since it is essential to assess the thermal stress of the components, the loss of insulation life and the consequent risks of both technical and economical nature. In this chapter a general adaptive framework for power components dynamic loadability is proposed. In order to estimate the effectiveness of the adaptive framework, based on grey-box modelling, a specific case study, concerning the problem of forecasting the HST of a mineral-oil-immersed transformer, is presented.
Robust Fault Detection Based on State Observers for Networked Control Systems
Authors: Zhu Zhang-qing , Chen Chunlin
Published: May 2010

With the development of network and control technology, networked control systems (NCS) have been widely studied recently, especially in the area of complex industrial systems. The system model and states observer based approach is very important for the fault detection (FD) and diagnosis of NCS. This chapter focuses on robust fault detection methods based on states observer. States observers on NCS with short time-delay and uncertain time-delay are both discussed and designed without changing the structure of the systems. The corresponding theorems are systematically given and proved. The methods of robust fault detection on NCS are proposed and some typical examples are demonstrated to test the presented methods.
Security and Privacy Management for Learning Management Systems
Authors: Hommel Wolfgang
Published: May 2010

Once a prototype for a Learning Management System (LMS) has successfully been set up and tested, the demand for putting it into production use rises. However, seamlessly integrating an LMS into existing data center infrastructures is a challenging task whose complexity is often underestimated. In this chapter we take a risk-driven approach (“what could go wrong?”) to discuss the real-world operation of a fully-featured LMS from the perspective of security and privacy management. First, the authors analyze their LMS-specific security goals and the related threats to LMS components. They then investigate how an LMS security policy should be established and which technical controls can be used for implementation, enforcement, and auditing by the LMS administrators as well as by the system and network administrators. Finally, the authors discuss the benefits of inter-organizational LMS usage when it is based on identity federation technologies, and the new security and privacy challenges it brings.
Plagiarism Detection Tools in Learning Management Systems
Authors: Butakov Sergey , Shcherbinin Vladislav
Published: May 2010

The main objectives of this chapter are to review the state-of-the art in plagiarism detection methods, discuss the most popular software tools available on the market and describe the new open architecture for plagiarism detection tools. The proposed architecture emphasizes the extensibility feature that allows it to be easily adapted for handling new types of assignments in the future. This chapter shows how the proposed architecture was implemented in a desktop application and a server-side plug-in for the Moodle course management system. An extended set of user trials is provided to support the proposed solutions. This set includes extensive tests for intra-corpal and internet plagiarism searches, tests with non-English assignments and promising results on cross language plagiarism detection.
Leading Toward Improved Collaboration
Authors: Cook Vickie , McElwrath Kara L.
Published: May 2010

As more and more learning is adapted to the Web 2.0 environment, it becomes imperative that faculty and students have the ability to collaborate through instant file sharing in a secure environment. Faculty, staff, and students of colleges and universities are more likely to click on or choose ‘File-Save’ than to file work in a physical filing cabinet today. Processing, managing, and storing these electronic files is much less structured than filing systems of the past. There is a critical need to manage the explosion of e-mail, documents, chat, and other content. Document creation to the ultimate disposition and storage of documents in both the function of teaching and learning, as well as the administrative functions within a university setting, requires process management that will provide a secure solution. The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) chose to purchase a Xythos product branded as eDocs to the university community, which provided a basic content management solution. The ABACUS (central guiding priorities) method of critique was used to determine the best possible solution. In this chapter, the authors will discuss how the Xythos product was chosen and how this choice impacted the pedagogy of online learning at UIS.
Developing Student e-Portfolios for Outcomes-Based Assessment in Personalized Instruction
Authors: Vat Kam Hou
Published: May 2010

This chapter investigates the pedagogical issues of student electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) in the context of personalized instruction for undergraduate education. The discussion elaborates on the educational potential of an e-portfolio system in facilitating an outcomes-based assessment of student achievements. The chapter illustrates practical examples of integrating theory and practice aimed at assisting a meaningful investigation of an e-portfolio system with a focus on inquiry-based student assessment. The objective of such an inquiry is to enhance and encourage student learning, especially learning by doing. Key issues and the necessary institutional support for an outcomes-based and personalized model of education in support of a portfolio learning system are identified. The interrelationship of portfolio assessment to curriculum and pedagogy and required changes to teaching and learning are described. The relevant learning theories that underpin the portfolio form of assessment are deliberated to caution how best to manage the use of e-portfolios for student learning and assessment. Looking beyond, it is expected that the e-portfolio system is an important element to support outcomes-based education involving collaboration from both faculty and students in pursuit of a quality learning experience.
Software Tools and Virtual Labs in Online Computer-Science Classes
Authors: Riabov Vladimir V. , Higgs Bryan J.
Published: May 2010

The authors share their experiences in teaching various online computer-science courses (via the Blackboard™ and synchronous web conferencing tools) and using state-of-the-art free-license software tools for conducting online virtual labs and numerous students’ projects. The labs were designed to help students explore modern sophisticated techniques of computer-system analysis and design, programming in C/C++ and Java, data communication in networking systems, system simulation and modeling, image processing, multimedia applications, Web development, and database design and management. All the online courses include lab-based projects that provide students with knowledge, instructions, and hands-on experience, and motivate them in selecting topics for technology overviews and research studies.
Security across Disparate Management Domains in Coalition MANETs
Authors: Srivatsa Mudhakar , Agrawal Dakshi , McDonald Andrew D.
Published: May 2010

Designing a coalition network for chaotic environments (e.g., responding to a large catastrophe) is challenging because such systems cannot rely on availability of a fixed communication or a security infrastructure. In such situations, a coalition may use Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs) to communicate and to extend its operational reach and tempo. In this scenario, bootstrapping security and networking protocols requires that networking protocols cannot assume full existence of operational security protocols and vice-versa. In this chapter, the authors outline a realistic bounded resource adversary model and examine bootstrapping problems in the physical & link layer and the routing layer with the goal of identifying new research challenges and novel solution methodologies. In particular, (i) the authors examine secure link key set up protocols at the physical & link layer that neither use computationally intensive PKI mechanisms nor assume pre-configured shared keys between nodes that belong to different coalition partners, (ii) identify new security issues owing to power saving intra-domain routing protocols that use sophisticated packet matching and forwarding mechanisms; in a coalition setting they also examine inter-domain routing protocols that preserve domain autonomy and yet permits scalable network monitoring and misbehavior detection, (iii) examine identity management issues in MANETs and outline a wireless fingerprinting approach to condone a malicious node from spoofing and forging one or more identities on the network.
Ontology Theory, Management and Design
Authors: Jaziri Wassim , Gargouri Faiez
Published: May 2010

Ontologies now play an important role in providing a commonly agreed understanding of a domain and in developing knowledge-based systems. They intend to capture the intrinsic conceptual and semantic structure of a specific domain. Many methodologies, tools and languages are already available to help anthologies’ designers and users. However, a number of questions remain open: what ontology development methodology provides the best guidance to model a given problem, what steps to be performed in order to develop an ontology? which techniques are appropriate for each step? how ontology’ lifecycle steps are upheld by the software tools? how to maintain an ontology and to evolve it in a consistent way? how to adapt an ontology to a given context? To provide answers to these questions, the authors review in this chapter the main methodologies, tools and languages for building, updating and representing ontologies that have been reported in literature.
From Temporal Databases to Ontology Versioning
Authors: Sassi Najla , Brahmia Zouhaier , Jaziri Wassim , Bouaziz Rafik
Published: May 2010

The problem of versioning is present in several application areas, such as temporal databases, real-time computing and ontologies. This problem is generally defined as managing changes in a timely manner without loss of existing data. However, ontology versioning is more complicated than versioning in database because of the usage and content of ontology which incorporates semantic aspects. Consequently, ontology data models are much richer than those of database schemas. In this chapter, the authors are interested in developing an ontology versioning system to express, apply and implement changes on the ontology.
Ontology Based Multimedia Indexing
Authors: Brut Mihaela , Sedes Florence
Published: May 2010

The chapter goal is to provide responses to the following question: how the ontologies could be used in order to index and manage the multimedia collections? Alongside with reviewing the main standard formats, vocabularies and ontology categories developed especially for multimedia content description, the chapter emphasis the existing techniques for acquiring ontology-based indexing. Since a fully automatic such technique is not possible yet, the chapter also proposes a solution for indexing a multimedia collection by combining technologies from both semantic Web and multimedia indexation domains. The solution considers the management of multimedia metadata based on two correlated dictionaries: a metadata dictionary centralizes the multimedia metadata obtained through an automatic indexation process, while the visual concepts dictionary identifies the list of visual objects contained in multimedia documents and considered in the ontology-based annotation process. This approach facilitates as well the multimedia retrieval process.
De-Coupling Groups in Space and Time
Authors: Burden Kevin , Atkinson Simon
Published: May 2010

Prior to the Web, we had hundreds of years of experience with broadcast media, from printing presses to radio and TV. Prior to email, we had hundreds of years experience with personal media – the telegraph, the telephone. But outside the Internet, we had almost nothing that supported conversation among many people at once. The radical change was de-coupling groups in space and time. To get a conversation going around a conference table or campfire, you need to gather everyone in the same place at the same moment. By undoing those restrictions, the Internet has ushered in a host of new social patterns, from the mailing list to the chat room to the weblog. (Shirky, 2003)
Democratic Deliberation in Online Consultation Forums
Authors: Wang Kevin Y.
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines the extent to which the Internet can represent a place for negotiation, consensus building, and civic participation using Singapore’s online consultation portal and the debate over the decision to build the nation’s first casino resort as a case study. The structural design of the consultation portal and the entire content of a discussion thread with 508 posts were analyzed with a conceptual framework drawn from previous studies of democratic deliberation. Findings suggest that while the forum reflects some criteria for deliberation, the lack of transparency and government participation raises the question over the quality of the discourse and overall effectiveness of this online medium. Current challenges, recommendations, and directions for future research and development are discussed.
"The Secret is Out!"
Authors: Black Laura W. , Bute Jennifer J. , Russell Laura D.
Published: May 2010

This chapter provides a case study of how social support is communicated through online interaction on a weight loss community website. The site has many features including member profiles, journals, discussion boards, exercise and food trackers, and charts to help members keep track of their weight loss efforts. Members set goals, write journal entries, comment on one another’s journals, upload photos, join groups and challenges, and discuss concerns issues related to diet, exercise, lifestyle changes, and other issues in their lives. Through analyzing journal entries and discussion forum comments, we discern how members demonstrate and respond to social support with one another. We also investigate the ways in which features of the online interaction and social networking help people communicate support. This study offers implications for facilitators or web designers who want to create online spaces that foster supportive communication, particularly related to health concerns.
Blended Learning in Engineering Curricula through the Meaningful Use of ICT Tools
Authors: Juang Yih-Ruey
Published: May 2010

Blended learning, which combines various ICT tools into conventional face-to-face classroom activities, has proved to be more effective in enhancing the learners’ motivation, communication skills and learning achievement than teaching by employing a single approach. The meaningful use of ICT tools is critical to the successful promotion and implementation of blended learning. This case introduces a study of blended learning using the WIRE model that links pre-class warm-up, interaction in class, and review as well as post-class exercises into a continuous learning experience with basic to advanced mental skills. The WIRE model has been experimented in the Department of Information Management of a university of science and technology in Taiwan. The findings from the learning achievement, questionnaire, and focus group interview revealed some significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the degree of motivation, interaction between teacher and students, and collaboration among students. The WIRE model can thus help enhance learning motivation, interaction between teacher and students and among students, and learning achievement.