bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Data Mining and Business Intelligence
Authors: Hsu Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

Most businesses generate, are surrounded by, and are even overwhelmed by data — much of it never used to its full potential for gaining insights into one’s own business, customers, competition, and overall business environment. By using a technique known as data mining, it is possible to extract critical and useful patterns, associations, relationships, and, ultimately, useful knowledge from the raw data available to businesses. This chapter explores data mining and its benefits and capabilities as a key tool for obtaining vital business intelligence information. The chapter includes an overview of data mining, followed by its evolution, methods, technologies, applications, and future.
Neural Data Mining System for Trust-Based Evaluation in Smart Organizations
Authors: Wong T. T.
Published: May 2011

Nowadays, many enterprises manufacture and distribute their products or services globally, and quite a number of smart organizations are formed on the Internet and are expected to evolve to a strategically important e-business model. Although information and communication technologies (ICT) and knowledge management plays an important role in linking the core and partner companies, it remains subservient to the humans that form the smart organizations. This chapter identifies two instances in which trust-based evaluations of partners in the smart organizations are applicable. A review of the literature indicates that neither researchers nor practitioners agree on a single model of interfirm trust that applies to all partner evaluation contexts. A decision-support system based on neural network and data mining technologies is proposed. A case example is given to illustrate a trust-based evaluation in real situation.
Mining for Mutually Exclusive Items in Transaction Databases
Authors: Tzanis George , Berberidis Christos
Published: May 2011

Association rule mining is a popular task that involves the discovery of co-occurences of items in transaction databases. Several extensions of the traditional association rule mining model have been proposed so far; however, the problem of mining for mutually exclusive items has not been directly tackled yet. Such information could be useful in various cases (e.g., when the expression of a gene excludes the expression of another), or it can be used as a serious hint in order to reveal inherent taxonomical information. In this article, we address the problem of mining pairs of items, such that the presence of one excludes the other. First, we provide a concise review of the literature, then we define this problem, we propose a probability-based evaluation metric, and finally a mining algorithm that we test on transaction data.
Data Warehouse Refreshment
Authors: Simitsis Alkis , Vassiliadis Panos , Skiadopoulos Spiros , Sellis Timos
Published: May 2011

In the early stages of a data warehouse project, the designers/administrators have to come up with a decision concerning the design and deployment of the back-stage architecture. The possible options are (a) the usage of a commercial ETL tool, or (b) the development of an in-house ETL prototype. Both cases have advantages and disadvantages. However, in both cases the design and modeling of the ETL workflows have the same characteristics. The scope of this chapter is to indicate the main challenges, issues, and problems concerning the manufacturing of ETL workflows, in order to assist the designers/administrators to decide which solution suits better to their data warehouse project and to help them construct an efficient, robust and evolvable ETL workflow that implements the refreshment of their warehouse.
A Hyper-Heuristic for Descriptive Rule Induction
Authors: Pham Tho Hoan , Ho Tu Bao
Published: May 2011

There are in general three approaches to rule induction: exhaustive search, divide-and conquer, and separate-and-conquer (or its extension as weighted covering). Among them, the third approach, according to different rule search heuristics, can avoid the problem of producing many redundant rules (limitation of the first approach) or non-overlapping rules (limitation of the second approach). In this chapter, we propose a hyper-heuristic to construct rule search heuristics for weighted covering algorithms that allows producing rules of desired generality. The hyper-heuristic is based on a PN space, a new ROC-like tool for analysis, evaluation, and visualization of rules. Well-known rule search heuristics such as entropy, Laplacian, weight relative accuracy, and others are equivalent to ones proposed by the hyper-heuristic. Moreover, it can present new non-linear rule search heuristics, some are especially appropriate for description tasks. The non-linear rule search heuristics have been experimentally compared with others on the generality of rules induced from UCI datasets and used to learn regulatory rules from microarray data.
Finding Non-Coincidental Sporadic Rules Using Apriori-Inverse
Authors: Koh Yun Sing , Rountree Nathan , O’Keefe Richard
Published: May 2011

Discovering association rules efficiently is an important data mining problem. We define sporadic rules as those with low support but high confidence; for example, a rare association of two symptoms indicating a rare disease. To find such rules using the well-known Apriori algorithm, minimum support has to be set very low, producing a large number of trivial frequent itemsets. To alleviate this problem, we propose a new method of discovering sporadic rules without having to produce all other rules above the minimum support threshold. The new method, called Apriori-Inverse, is a variation of the Apriori algorithm that uses the notion of maximum support instead of minimum support to generate candidate itemsets. Candidate itemsets of interest to us fall below a maximum support value but above a minimum absolute support value. Rules above maximum support are considered frequent rules, which are of no interest to us, whereas rules that occur by chance fall below the minimum absolute support value. We define two classes of sporadic rule: perfectly sporadic rules (those that consist only of items falling below maximum support) and imperfectly sporadic rules (those that may contain items over the maximum support threshold). This article is an expanded version of Koh and Rountree (2005).
Algebraic Reconstruction Technique in Image Reconstruction Based on Data Mining
Authors: Qu Zhong
Published: May 2011

Image reconstruction is one of the key technologies in industrial computed tomography. In this paper, an efficient iterative image reconstruction algorithm in industrial computed tomography with the narrow fan-beam projection based on data mining was discussed in detail. In image reconstruction, algebraic technique has un-replaceable advantage when data is incomplete or noise is high. However algebraic method has been highly limited in applications for its low reconstruction speed. In order to resolve this problem, the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) as a new iterative method, is introduced to accelerate the iteration process and increase the reconstruction speed. Experiment results clearly demonstrate that the algorithm reconstruction technique can effectively improve the quality of images reconstruction in dealing with incomplete projection or noisy projection data.
Metadata- and Ontology-Based Semantic Web Mining
Authors: Aufaure Marie Aude , Le Grand Bénédicte , Soto Michel , Bennacer Nacera
Published: May 2011

The increasing volume of data available on the Web makes information retrieval a tedious and difficult task. The vision of the Semantic Web introduces the next generation of the Web by establishing a layer of machine-understandable data, e.g., for software agents, sophisticated search engines and Web services. The success of the Semantic Web crucially depends on the easy creation, integration and use of semantic data. This chapter is a state-of-the-art review of techniques which could make the Web more “semantic”. Beyond this state-of-the-art, we describe open research areas and we present major current research programs in this domain.
Core Principles of Educational Multimedia
Authors: Torrisi-Steele G.
Published: May 2011

The notion of using technology for educational purposes is not new. In fact, it can be traced back to the early 1900s during which school museums were used to distribute portable exhibits. This was the beginning of the visual education movement that persisted throughout the 1930s, as advances in technology such as radio and sound motion pictures continued. The training needs of World War II stimulated serious growth in the audiovisual instruction movement. Instructional television arrived in the 1950s but had little impact, due mainly to the expense of installing and maintaining systems. The advent of computers in the 1950s laid the foundation for CAI (computer assisted instruction) through the 1960s and 1970s. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that computers began to make a major impact on education (Reiser, 2001). Early applications of computer resources included the use of primitive simulation. These early simulations had little graphic capabilities and did little to enhance the learning experience (Munro, 2000).
Multimedia Technologies in Education
Authors: Cirrincione A.
Published: May 2011

MultiMedia Technologies (MMT) are all that kind of technological tools that make us able to transmit information in a very large meaning, transforming information into knowledge through stimulating the cognitive schemes of learners and leveraging the learning power of human senses. This transformation can acquire several different forms: from digitalized images to virtual reconstructions, from simple text to iper-texts that allow customized, fast, and cheap research within texts; from communications framework like the Web to tools that enhance all our sense, allowing complete educational experiences (Piacente, 2002b).
Evaluating Learning Management Systems
Authors: Passerini Katia
Published: May 2011

This paper maintains that the use of multimedia content in Web-based instruction - facilitated by the proliferation and standardization of learning management systems (LMS) - calls for the extension of traditional multimedia design and evaluation guidelines to the Web. The compliance with these guidelines needs to be thoroughly evaluated by any institution using (or planning to use) Web-based learning management systems. In addition to providing criteria and examples for the evaluation of these systems, the paper discusses survey questions that can be used for university-wide assessments of the design effectiveness of technologies that support learning. As an example, the proposed evaluation instrument is applied to a learning management system developed at a large university in the United States. While the assessment refers to one system, the model, the instructional and design evaluation criteria, and the questionnaire are built for use in any organization conducting a formative and summative evaluation or a selection of learning technologies.
Current Status of Mobile Wireless Technology and Digital Multimedia Broadcasting
Authors: Shim J. P. , Ahn Kyungmo , Shim Julie M.
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of wireless mobile technology, its applications, with a focus on Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) technology. The paper also explores the research methodology regarding users’ perception on DMB cellular phones and presents empirical findings. Implications for future research are presented. The report attempts to provide stimulating answers by investigating the following questions: (1) Do users perceive easy access to DMB applications as a satisfactory service offered by DMB service providers? (2) Do users perceive high-quality DMB program content as a satisfactory service offered by the DMB service providers? (3) Are there differences between different age groups in terms of their perception of DMB phone prices, phone usage time, program content, and services?
Multimedia Capture, Collaboration and Knowledge Management
Authors: Vdaygiri S. , Goose Stuart
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents methods and technologies from Siemens Corporate Research that can assist in the process of creating multimedia collaborative knowledge bases: capture, querying, visualization, archiving, and reusability of multimedia knowledge bases. A selection of Siemens products in the healthcare and communication domains are introduced, above which novel multimedia collaboration and knowledge management technologies have been developed by the authors. With examples, it is explained how in concert these technologies can contribute to streamlining the processes within healthcare enterprises, telemedicine environments and home healthcare practices.
Multimedia Systems and Content-Based Retrieval
Authors: Deb S.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present a basic introduction of the two very important areas of research in the domain of information technology, namely, multimedia systems and content-based image retrieval. The latter is still a widely unresolved problem. We discuss some of the works done so far in content-based image retrieval in the context of multimedia systems.
A Multimedia-Based Threat Management and Information Security Framework
Authors: Joshi J. B.D. , Shyu M. , Chen Shu-Ching , Aref W. , Ghafoor A.
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the key challenges in the design of multimedia-based scalable techniques for threat management and security of information infrastructures. It brings together several multimedia technologies and presents a conceptual architectural framework for an open, secure distributed multimedia application that is composed of multiple domains employing different security and privacy policies and various data analysis and mining tools for extracting sensitive information. The challenge is to integrate such disparate components to enable large-scale multimedia applications and provide a mechanism for threat management. The proposed framework provides a holistic solution for large-scale distributed multi-domain multimedia application environments.
Multimedia for Mobile Devices
Authors: Curran Kevin
Published: May 2011

Mobile communications is a continually growing sector in industry and a wide variety of visual services such as video-on-demand have been created which are limited by low-bandwidth network infrastructures. The distinction between mobile phones and personal device assistants (PDA’s) has already become blurred with pervasive computing being the term coined to describe the tendency to integrate computing and communication into everyday life. New technologies for connecting devices like wireless communication and high bandwidth networks make the network connections even more heterogeneous. Additionally, the network topology is no longer static, due to the increasing mobility of users. Ubiquitous computing is a term often associated with this type of networking.
Audio Watermarking
Authors: Acevedo A. G.
Published: May 2011

The recent explosion of the Internet as a collaborative medium has opened the door for people who want to share their work. Nonetheless, the advantages of such an open medium can pose very serious problems for authors who do not want their works to be distributed without their consent. As new methods for copyright protection are devised, expectations around them are formed and sometimes improvable claims are made. This chapter covers one such technology: audio watermarking. First, the field is introduced, and its properties and applications are discussed. Then, the most common techniques for audio watermarking are reviewed, and the framework is set for the objective measurement of such techniques. The last part of the chapter proposes a novel test and a set of metrics for thorough benchmarking of audio watermarking schemes. The development of such a benchmark constitutes a first step towards the standardization of the requirements and properties that such systems should display.
Provisioning of Multimedia Applications across Heterogeneous All-IP Networks
Authors: Tsagkaropoulos M. , Politis I. , Dagiuklas T. , Kotsopoulos Stavros A.
Published: May 2011

With the opening of the telecommunication market and the emergence of low-cost and heterogeneous wireless access technologies, it is envisaged that next-generation network and service providers will not only vary in the deployed access technology but also in their business models and structures. Such providers will differ from large providers such as the current telecom providers offering multiple services and covering large geographical areas, down to small providers offering certain services such as conferencing or messaging only or covering small geographical areas such as a coffee shop or a shopping mall. Further, while in the current networking environment, a home provider of a user is usually represented by a large telecom provider; in such a heterogeneous environment, any trustworthy entity such as an application provider, a banking entity, or a credit card provider that is capable of authenticating the user and marinating his usage profile can act as a home provider. Towards this vision this article discusses the issues that concern the establishment of multimedia applications across heterogeneous networks.
Semantic Multimedia Information Anaylsis for Retrieval Applications
Authors: Magalhaes J. , Rüger Stefan
Published: May 2011

Most of the research in multimedia retrieval applications has focused on retrieval by content or retrieval by example. Since the classical review by Smeulders (2000) a new interest has grown immensely in the multimedia information retrieval community: retrieval by semantics. This exciting new research area arises as a combination of multimedia understanding, information extraction, information retrieval and digital libraries. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of analysis algorithms to extract semantic information from multimedia content. We discuss statistical approaches to analyse images and video content and conclude with a discussion regarding the described methods.
Multimedia Computing Environment for Telemedical Applications
Authors: Murthy V. K. , Krishnamurthy E. V.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the system design for a multimedia telediagnostic computing environment (MMTE) for telemedical applications. Such an environment requires the design of: (i) a wired-in or wireless computing facility based on currently available technology with a high bandwidth for fast, reliable, and efficient communication of data, voice, and image; (ii) a database query system to access data, voice, and medical images from a fixed server to the mobile or fixed hosts; and (iii) suitable audiovisual software communication tools among the cooperating fixed and mobile hosts to help visualize pointer movements remotely (telepointers) and for teleconferencing. Appropriate software and hardware tools for the design of the cooperative environment are described. We also provide an up-to-date bibliography.
Student-Generated Multimedia
Authors: Mitchell Mathew
Published: May 2011

This entry looks at the role of student-generated multimedia (SGM) in helping students more effectively achieve meaningful outcomes. The entry first looks at the theory and research behind multimedia learning and then goes on to address the specific case of student-generated multimedia. Mayer (2001) defined multimedia as the presentation of material using both words and images, and then subsequently defined multimedia instruction as a “presentation involving words and pictures that is intended to foster learning” (p. 3). The implications of these definitions are important because they delineate two key aspects to thinking about multimedia. First, multimedia products do not need to use video, animation, or interactivity. More importantly, Mayer’s definitions focus on multimedia’s potential benefits as a learning tool rather than as a technological device.
Cognitive Functionality of Multimedia in Problem Solving
Authors: Zheng Robert
Published: May 2011

Teaching problem solving can be a challenge to teachers. However, the challenge is oftentimes not due to a lack of skills on the part of learners but due to an inappropriate design of media through which the problem is presented. The findings of this study demonstrate that appropriately designed multimedia can improve learners’ problem solving skills because of the cognitive functions such media have in facilitating mental representation and information retrieval and maintenance, as well as reducing cognitive load during the problem solving process. Suggestions were made on how to apply interactive multimedia to teaching and learning.
Incorporating and Understanding the User-Perspective
Authors: Gulliver Stephen R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces a selection of studies relating to each of the multimedia senses — olfactory (smell), tactile/haptic (touch), visual (sight), and auditory (sound) — and how such studies impact user perception and ultimately user definition of multimedia quality. A model of distributed multimedia is proposed, to allow a more structured analysis of the current literature concerning video and audio information. This model segregates studies implementing quality variation and/or assessment into three discrete information abstractions (the network, media, and content levels) and from two perspectives (the technical and user perspectives). It is the objective of the author that, by placing current research in context of a quality structure, the need for fuller incorporation of the user perspective in multimedia quality assessment will be highlighted.
Making Money with Open-Source Business Initiatives
Authors: Lowry Paul Benjamin , Grover Akshay , Madsen Chris , Larkin Jeff , Robins William
Published: May 2011

Open-source software (OSS) is software that can be used freely in the public domain but is often copyrighted by the original authors under an open-source license such as the GNU General Public License (GPL). Given its free nature, one might believe that OSS is inherently inferior to proprietary software, yet this often is not the case. Many OSS applications are superior or on par with their proprietary competitors (e.g., MySQL, Apache Server, Linux, and Star Office). OSS is a potentially disruptive technology (Christensen, 1997) because it is often cheaper, more reliable, simpler, and more convenient than proprietary software.
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) in Korea
Authors: Baek Seung , Kim Bong Jun
Published: May 2011

The launch of portable Internet, alongside mobile Internet technology and cellular technology, is a new milestone, converging wireless with wired technology. Along with these new technologies, a new telecommunication service has been introduced and has received much attention from the Korean public. This is the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) service. DMB is a digital multimedia service combining telecommunications with broadcasting technologies. DMB enables users to watch various multimedia contents on their phone screens while they are on the move. Since DMB services in Korea are the first in the world, the Korean Government has much interest in DMB services. However, the repeated failures in establishing a regulatory framework for DMB and ill-defined roles of players in the DMB industry interfere the diffusion of DMB in the Korean market. As the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications makes progress, proper modifications of existing regulatory frameworks should be made in order to guarantee success of DMB service in Korea. This chapter reviews DMB technology, its business model, its market structure, and its policy. In particular, it explores business opportunities around DMB services and identifies major issues that must be solved to launch DMB services successfully.
QoS Adaptation in Multimedia Multicast Conference Applications for E-Learning Services
Authors: Deusdado Sérgio , Carvalho Paulo
Published: May 2011

The evolution of the World Wide Web service has incorporated new distributed multimedia conference applications, powering a new generation of e-learning development and allowing improved interactivity and prohuman relations. Groupware applications are increasingly representative in the Internet home applications market, however, the Quality of Service (QoS) provided by the network is still a limitation impairing their performance. Such applications have found, in multicast technology, an ally contributing for their efficient implementation and scalability. Additionally, considering QoS as a design goal at the application level becomes crucial for groupware development, enabling QoS productivity to applications. The applications’ ability to adapt themselves dynamically according to the resources availability can be considered a quality factor. Tolerant real-time applications, such as video conferences, are in the frontline to benefit from QoS adaptation. However, not all include adaptive technology able to provide both end-system and network quality awareness. Adaptation, in these cases, can be achieved by introducing a multiplatform middleware layer responsible for tutoring the applications’ resources (enabling adjudication or limitation) based on the available processing and networking capabilities. Congregating these technological contributions, an adaptive platform has been developed integrating public domain multicast tools, applied to a Web-based distance learning system. The system is user-centered (e-student), aiming at good pedagogical practices and proactive usability for multimedia and network resources. The services provided, including QoS adapted interactive multimedia multicast conferences (MMC), are fully integrated and transparent to end-users. QoS adaptation, when treated systematically in tolerant real-time applications, denotes advantages in group scalability and QoS sustainability in heterogeneous and unpredictable environments such as the Internet.
Quality of Service Issues in Mobile Multimedia Transmission
Authors: Sharda Nalin
Published: May 2011

The focus of this chapter is on the quality of service (QoS) aspects involved in transmitting multimedia information via mobile systems. Multimedia content and applications require sophisticated QoS protocols. These protocols need to manage throughput, delay, delay variance, error rate, and cost. How errors are handled in a multimedia session can have significant impact on the delay and delay variance. Coding and compression techniques also influence how the final presentation is transformed by the impediments encountered on a mobile network. Providing the user with the ability to negotiate between cost, quality, and temporal aspects is important, as this allows the user to strike a balance between these factors. In moving from 2G to 3G, and, over the next decade to 4G mobile networks, the ability to transmit multimedia information is going to improve constantly. Nonetheless, providers must develop viable economic models and user interfaces for providing differentiated QoS to the users.
Perceptual Multimedia
Authors: Ghinea Gheorghita , Chen Sherry Y.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we describe the results of empirical studies which examined the effect of cognitive style on the perceived quality of distributed multimedia. We use two dimensions of Cognitive Style Analysis, Field Dependent/Independent and Verbaliser/Visualiser, and the Quality of Perception metric to characterise the human perceptual experience. This is a metric which takes into account multimedia’s infotainment (combined informational and entertainment) nature, and comprises not only a human’s subjective level of enjoyment with regards to multimedia content quality, but also his/her ability to analyse, synthesise and assimilate the informational content of such presentations. Results show that multimedia content and dynamism are strong factors influencing perceptual quality.
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for Emerging All-IP Networks
Authors: Sher Muhammad , Carvalho de Gouveia Fabricio , Magedanz Thomas
Published: May 2011

Today the traditional telecommunication technology is declining because of popularity and increasing demand of Voice over IP (VoIP) due to the reason that deployment, maintenance and operation of data networks based on IP infrastructure are less costly than the voice networks. Consequently, it is straight forward to think relaying all types of communications on data networks rather than maintaining in parallel two network technologies. On the other hand we see today increasing demand of integrated multimedia services, bringing together internet applications with telecommunications. In prospect of these global trends, the mobile communications world has defined within the evolution of cellular systems an all-IP network vision which integrates cellular networks and Internet. This is the IP Multimedia System (IMS) (3GPP, TS 23.228 (2005)), namely overlay architecture for provisioning of multimedia services, such as VoIP and videoconferencing on top of globally emerging 3G broadband packet networks.
Implementing Seller Agent in Multiple Online Auctions
Authors: Anthony Patricia
Published: May 2011

Online auctions are becoming extremely popular because of the convenience that it offers to the consumers. Much work has been done in designing bidding strategy that can be utilized by bidders who want to participate in online auctions. However, very little work has been done on the seller’s strategy for online auctions. In any online auction, the final selling price of the item is unknown until the auction closes. This price is dependent on several factors such as the number of bidders participating in the auction, how much each bidder is willing to pay for the product, how many online auctions are selling the same item as well as the duration of each auction. Each item to be auctioned off has a reserved price set by the seller. Setting the reserved price too high for the item will result in the item not being sold and setting the price too low may result in profit reduction or even loss. Deciding on the reserved price of an item to be auctioned off is not a straightforward decision. This paper reports on a preliminary implementation of a seller agent that recommends a reserved price for a given item to be auctioned off by the seller. The seller agent’s objective is to suggest a reservation price that guarantees the sale of the item within a given period (as required by the seller) with a profit.
Improved Privacy
Authors: Abumani K. , Nedunchezhian R.
Published: May 2011

Data mining techniques have been widely used for extracting non-trivial information from massive amounts of data. They help in strategic decision-making as well as many more applications. However, data mining also has a few demerits apart from its usefulness. Sensitive information contained in the database may be brought out by the data mining tools. Different approaches are being utilized to hide the sensitive information. The proposed work in this article applies a novel method to access the generating transactions with minimum effort from the transactional database. It helps in reducing the time complexity of any hiding algorithm. The theoretical and empirical analysis of the algorithm shows that hiding of data using this proposed work performs association rule hiding quicker than other algorithms.
Determination of Optimal Clusters Using a Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Tushar  , Roy Shibendu Shekhar , Pratihar Dilip Kumar
Published: May 2011

Clustering is a potential tool of data mining. A clustering method analyzes the pattern of a data set and groups the data into several clusters based on the similarity among themselves. Clusters may be either crisp or fuzzy in nature. The present chapter deals with clustering of some data sets using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm and Entropy-based Fuzzy Clustering (EFC) algorithm. In FCM algorithm, the nature and quality of clusters depend on the pre-defined number of clusters, level of cluster fuzziness and a threshold value utilized for obtaining the number of outliers (if any). On the other hand, the quality of clusters obtained by the EFC algorithm is dependent on a constant used to establish the relationship between the distance and similarity of two data points, a threshold value of similarity and another threshold value used for determining the number of outliers. The clusters should ideally be distinct and at the same time compact in nature. Moreover, the number of outliers should be as minimum as possible. Thus, the above problem may be posed as an optimization problem, which will be solved using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The best set of multi-dimensional clusters will be mapped into 2-D for visualization using a Self-Organizing Map (SOM).
Data Mining in the Social Sciences and Iterative Attribute Elimination
Authors: Scime Anthony , Murray Gregg R. , Huang Wan , Brownstein-Evans Carol
Published: May 2011

Immense public resources are expended to collect large stores of social data, but often these data are under-examined thereby missing potential opportunities to shed light on some of society’s pressing problems. This chapter proposes and demonstrates data mining in general and an iterative attribute-elimination process in particular as important analytical tools to exploit more fully these important data from the social sciences. We use an iterative domain-expert and data mining process to identify attributes that are useful for addressing distinct and nontrivial research issues in social science—presidential vote choice and living arrangement outcomes for maltreated children—using the American National Election Studies (ANES) from political science and the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) from social work. We conclude that data mining is useful for more fully exploiting important but under-evaluated data collections for the purpose of addressing some important questions in the social sciences.
A Machine Learning Approach for One-Stop Learning
Authors: Alvarez Marco A. , Lim SeungJin
Published: May 2011

Current search engines impose an overhead to motivated students and Internet users who employ the Web as a valuable resource for education. The user, searching for good educational materials for a technical subject, often spends extra time to filter irrelevant pages or ends up with commercial advertisements. It would be ideal if, given a technical subject by user who is educationally motivated, suitable materials with respect to the given subject are automatically identified by an affordable machine processing of the recommendation set returned by a search engine for the subject. In this scenario, the user can save a significant amount of time in filtering out less useful Web pages, and subsequently the user’s learning goal on the subject can be achieved more efficiently without clicking through numerous pages. This type of convenient learning is called One-Stop Learning (OSL). In this paper, the contributions made by Lim and Ko in (Lim and Ko, 2006) for OSL are redefined and modeled using machine learning algorithms. Four selected supervised learning algorithms: Support Vector Machine (SVM), AdaBoost, Naive Bayes and Neural Networks are evaluated using the same data used in (Lim and Ko, 2006). The results presented in this paper are promising, where the highest precision (98.9%) and overall accuracy (96.7%) obtained by using SVM is superior to the results presented by Lim and Ko. Furthermore, the machine learning approach presented here, demonstrates that the small set of features used to represent each Web page yields a good solution for the OSL problem.
Online Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Software Training Through the Behavioral Modeling Approach
Authors: Chen Charlie C. , Shaw R. S.
Published: May 2011

The continued and increasing use of online training raises the question of whether the most effective training methods applied in live instruction will carry over to different online environments in the long run. Behavior Modeling (BM) approach—teaching through demonstration—has been proven as the most effective approach in a face-to-face (F2F) environment. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 96 undergraduate students who were taking a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 course in a university in Taiwan. The BM approach was employed in three learning environments—F2F, online synchronous and online asynchronous classes. The results were compared to see which produced the best performance, as measured by knowledge near-transfer and knowledge far-transfer effectiveness. Overall satisfaction with training was also measured. The results of the experiment indicate that during a long duration of training no significant difference in learning outcomes could be detected across the three learning environments.
What Factors Promote Sustained Online Discussions and Collaborative Learning in a Web-Based Course?
Authors: Wang Xinchun
Published: May 2011

Although the pedagogical advantages of online interactive learning are well known, much needs to be done in instructional design of applicable collaborative learning tasks that motivate sustained student participation and interaction. This study investigates the factors that encourage student interaction and collaboration in both process and product oriented computer mediated communication (CMC) tasks in a Web-based course that adopts interactive learning tasks as its core learning activities. The analysis of a post course survey questionnaire collected from three online classes suggest that among others, the structure of the online discussion, group size and group cohesion, strictly enforced deadlines, direct link of interactive learning activities to the assessment, and the differences in process and product driven interactive learning tasks are some of the important factors that influence participation and contribute to sustained online interaction and collaboration.
Introduction
Authors: Abdoullaev Azamat
Published: May 2011

Today, computers anchored to electronic measuring devices, transducers, and telemetric systems are increasingly transforming into worldwide integrated information processing networks. And ontology science and engineering is getting a long-awaited and fully deserved recognition of a critical factor in the 21st century information and communications technology (ICT); above all, in building knowledge-driven intellectual technologies, meaningful machines and reasoning systems, the engine and driving force of the Global Knowledge Society (Novik, Abdoullaev, 1991). Providing the unifying modeling schemes and languages for sophisticated information technology, the cornerstone of knowledge societies, ontology is bridging the real world and the information universe, giving the dynamic world modeling fundamentals, principles, constructs, representations, and schemes for building a radically new class of intelligent technologies and knowledge systems, Ontological Technology.
How to Reason about the World
Authors: Abdoullaev Azamat
Published: May 2011

Along with substances of all kinds, states of all manner, and changes of all types and exemplifications, relationships of all sorts and instances appear to be among the prime constituents of the universe as a whole and its realms, regions, and domains as the world of nature, the universe of society, and the domain of minds. Hence, knowledge of relations, as the causeeffect relationship, constitutes the basic core of real knowledge and, consequently, the logical fundament for all basic kinds of reasoning about the world. Since all reasoning upon reality, its particular classes, parts and features, is eventually to be founded on the underlying relations of substances, states, changes, and analogies, as well as on the meta-relations of whole-part, comparison, contrast, identity, resemblance, and difference. To adequately represent and consistently reason about reality is vitally important not only for human beings but also for prospective intelligent machines driven by the ontological models of the world comprehending the logical models of possible worlds. A widely practiced logical tradition to represent the world in terms of abstract classes, properties, and relations or purely mathematical objects, functions, and relations looks to be a main conceptual obstacle to creating effective reasoning systems. Since the likewise artificial conceptualizations of the world are missing out the core of things, their nature and reality, providing the ontological ground and making true the truth. These would-be reasoning systems will not work effectively because of their built-in incapacity to work out any complex real problems or situations or challenges. Above all other things, such intelligent systems will be unable to see the difference of physical, mental, or social objects so that to recognize their attributes, qualities, properties, states, changes, and relations.
A Methodology for Model-Driven Service Engineering Based on IDEF
Authors: Karakostas Bill , Zorgios Yannis
Published: May 2011

Chapter II introduced universal service concepts (i.e. concepts that apply to any type of organization and service). In that chapter, we argued that services are so ubiquitous, that it is hard to think of any organization that does not offer services of some sort to internal (i.e., its own departments, divisions, employees) or external consumers (customers, partners). Yet, despite its ubiquity, a service is often hard to pinpoint and describe, even by its own providers.
Animations in Science Education
Authors: Ivarsson Jonas , Karlsson Göran
Published: May 2011

The overall aim of this chapter is to explore some of the pedagogical potentials, as well as limitations, of animations displaying complex biochemical processes. As a first part of our larger research project, a learning environment was developed where visualisations by means of 3-D animations depicted some of the processes in the carbon cycle. In the analysis we describe how three groups of students made use of and reasoned about the computer animations. In relation to the aim, three salient themes are discernible in the video material of the students’ reasoning; the risk of focusing the attention on misleading aspects of the animation, the possible occurrence of a form of isolated reasoning, and, the students’ varying understandings of what resources they are expected use when performing a given task.
One to One Computing and Teacher Transformation
Authors: Kitchenham Andrew
Published: May 2011

This chapter outlines a recent study on 1:1 computing and teacher transformation. It begins with an introduction to the theoretical framework of transformative learning and an overview of the professional literature dealing with 1:1 computing and teacher transformation. The study is then outlined, including the sampling procedures, participant background, and methodologies used. The remainder of the chapter presents the findings and conclusions related to the central theme of whether 1:1 computing transforms teachers. The chapter concludes with implications for the future.
Microcultures, Local Communities, and Virtual Networks
Authors: Lalueza José Luis , Crespo Isabel , Bria Marc
Published: May 2011

Through a case study, we will exemplify how ICT can be used in a collaborative way to constitute the foundations of intercultural projects in local and global communities. First, we present a local learning community based on the Fifth Dimension model where, adopting a collaborative model, each of its activities departed from the traditional teaching-learning form based on transmission. Collaboration mediated by ICT in local computer-supported learning communities, understood to be borderer zones that are not the exclusive property of any one specific cultural group, has the potential to generate genuine neo-cultures in which participants can share meanings and appropriate artefacts. Second, the same approach is adopted to analyse the dialogue established between educational researchers and technologists. Setting out with different goals, both groups engaged in a borderer activity involving the development of educational artefacts that could be accessed via the Internet. Common participation in those activities gave rise to a set of shared beliefs, knowledge, behaviours and customs, i.e. a network of meanings that crystallised into a common microculture.
Digital Epistemologies and Classroom Multiliteracies
Authors: Lotherington Heather
Published: May 2011

Contemporary conceptualizations of literacy as socially and culturally situated practice must be framed in our digitally-mediated, glocalized societies where networked communication technologies have created innovative texts opening up new literacies and demanding new pedagogies. This chapter discusses a Toronto-based program of collaborative school-university action research that aims to develop a pedagogy of multiliteracies in an urban elementary school. The project engaging our research collective is about guiding children to rewrite traditional children’s stories as individualized digital narratives that enfold their cultural understandings and community languages. Situated within current epistemological questions about what it means to become a literate person in the 21st century, our project responds to reciprocal educational challenges: How can we facilitate the acquisition of relevant literacies for contemporary children experiencing divergent home, school, community and societal practices? How can we redesign curricula and assessment to be socially responsive and responsible?
Lost in the Funhouse, is Anyone in Control?
Authors: McRobb Steve , Jefferies Pat , Stahl Bernd Carsten
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, a framework which models at a high level the interactions between technology, pedagogy and ethics is applied to the interpretation of a case study. The case study describes a student excluded from his course as a result of administrative error. Since his studies are, in part, mediated through a Virtual Learning Environment, the exclusion takes on additional impacts not anticipated by the human actors, and proves surprisingly difficult to undo even once the error is acknowledged. This reveals problematic aspects of the interaction between the domains. Conflicts between the aims and interests of the various stakeholders, combined with misunderstandings of the way that the technology operates, provide obvious surface causes of the problem. However, analysis reveals that the deeper cause lies in the fact that the life world of education has been colonised by a system that replaces human communication, and thus inevitably presents ethical problems.
Philosophy of Web-Based Mediation
Authors: Mäkinen Olli
Published: May 2011

This chapter deals with the influence of mediation in different kinds of virtual environments, e.g. virtual conferences, e-learning platforms, distance learning environments and surroundings, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and various other user interfaces. Mediation is a means in which messages, discussion and behaviour are becoming more and more conceptual and abstract and have an effect on our social being. As a result of mediation there is no first-hand experience of reality, everything is constructed, and in virtual reality we have receded a long way off from real life. Mediation affects our capability to make independent ethical decisions. The same process is discerned in all the social and commercial practice where it is rationalized by processing techniques or when it is made virtual. Here mediation is studied from a phenomenological perspective. Quantification, modelling and regulation also describe aspects of mediation. This chapter is a review article and an opening in mediational ethics based on classical philosophy.