bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multiplexed Analysis of Cage and Cage Free Chicken Egg Fatty Acids Using Stable Isotope Labeling and Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Torde Richard , Therrien Andrew , Shortreed Michael , Smith Lloyd , Lamos Shane
Published: December 2013

Binary stable isotope labeling couple with LC-ESI-MS has been used as a powerful non-targeted approach for the relative quantification of lipids, amino acids, and many other important metabolite classes. A multiplexed approach using three or more isotopic labeling reagents greatly reduces analytical run-time while maintaining excellent sensitivity and reproducibility. Three isotopic cholamine labeling reagents have been developed to take advantage of the pre-ionized character of cholamine, for ESI, and the ease by which stable isotopes can be incorporated into the cholamine structure. These three cholamine labeling reagents have been used to relatively quantify three fatty acid samples simultaneously. The quantification resulted in the observation of 12 fatty acids that had an average absolute error of 0.9% and an average coefficient of variation of 6.1%. Caged versus cage-free isotope labeling experiments showed that cage-free eggs have an increased level of omega-3 fatty acids as compared to caged eggs. This multiplexed fatty acid analysis provides an inexpensive and expedited tool for broad-based lipid profiling that will further aid discoveries in the mechanisms of fatty acid action in cells.
Changes in Blood Pressure and Lipid Levels in Young Women Consuming a Vitamin D-Fortified Skimmed Milk: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Authors: Toxqui Laura , Blanco-Rojo Ruth , Wright Ione , Pérez-Granados Ana , Vaquero M.
Published: December 2013

Vitamin D exerts a variety of extra-skeletal functions. Aim: to know the effects of the consumption of a vitamin D-fortified skimmed milk on glucose, lipid profile, and blood pressure in young women. Methods: a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind parallel-group trial of 16 weeks duration was conducted in young women with low iron stores who consumed a skimmed milk fortified with iron and 200 IU/day (5 μg) of vitamin D (D-fortified group, n = 55), or a placebo without vitamin D (D-placebo group, n = 54). A reference group (n = 56) of iron-sufficient women was also recruited. Results: baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was inversely correlated with total-cholesterol (r = −0.176, p = 0.023) and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-chol) (r = −0.176, p = 0.024). During the assay, LDL-cholesterol increased in the D-placebo group (p = 0.005) while it tended to decrease in the D-fortified group (p = 0.07). Neither group displayed changes in total-cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-chol), triglycerides or glucose levels. Systolic (p = 0.017) and diastolic (p = 0.010) blood pressure decreased during the assay in the D-fortified group without significant differences compared to the D-placebo. Conclusion: consumption of a dairy product fortified with vitamin D reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure but does not change lipid levels in young women.
PAPE (Prefractionation-Assisted Phosphoprotein Enrichment): A Novel Approach for Phosphoproteomic Analysis of Green Tissues from Plants
Authors: Lassowskat Ines , Naumann Kai , Lee Justin , Scheel Dierk
Published: December 2013

Phosphorylation is an important post-translational protein modification with regulatory roles in diverse cellular signaling pathways. Despite recent advances in mass spectrometry, the detection of phosphoproteins involved in signaling is still challenging, as protein phosphorylation is typically transient and/or occurs at low levels. In green plant tissues, the presence of highly abundant proteins, such as the subunits of the RuBisCO complex, further complicates phosphoprotein analysis. Here, we describe a simple, but powerful, method, which we named prefractionation-assisted phosphoprotein enrichment (PAPE), to increase the yield of phosphoproteins from Arabidopsis thaliana leaf material. The first step, a prefractionation via ammonium sulfate precipitation, not only depleted RuBisCO almost completely, but, serendipitously, also served as an efficient phosphoprotein enrichment step. When coupled with a subsequent metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) step, the phosphoprotein content was highly enriched. The reproducibility and efficiency of phosphoprotein enrichment was veriﬁed by phospho-speciﬁc staining and, further, by mass spectrometry, where it could be shown that the final PAPE fraction contained a significant number of known and additionally novel (potential) phosphoproteins. Hence, this facile two-step procedure is a good prerequisite to probe the phosphoproteome and gain deeper insight into plant phosphorylation-based signaling events.
Hierarchical Recognition Scheme for Human Facial Expression Recognition Systems
Authors: Siddiqi Muhammad , Lee Sungyoung , Lee Young-Koo , Khan Adil , Truc Phan
Published: December 2013

Over the last decade, human facial expressions recognition (FER) has emerged as an important research area. Several factors make FER a challenging research problem. These include varying light conditions in training and test images; need for automatic and accurate face detection before feature extraction; and high similarity among different expressions that makes it difﬁcult to distinguish these expressions with a high accuracy. This work implements a hierarchical linear discriminant analysis-based facial expressions recognition (HL-FER) system to tackle these problems. Unlike the previous systems, the HL-FER uses a pre-processing step to eliminate light effects, incorporates a new automatic face detection scheme, employs methods to extract both global and local features, and utilizes a HL-FER to overcome the problem of high similarity among different expressions. Unlike most of the previous works that were evaluated using a single dataset, the performance of the HL-FER is assessed using three publicly available datasets under three different experimental settings: n-fold cross validation based on subjects for each dataset separately; n-fold cross validation rule based on datasets; and, ﬁnally, a last set of experiments to assess the effectiveness of each module of the HL-FER separately. Weighted average recognition accuracy of 98.7% across three different datasets, using three classifiers, indicates the success of employing the HL-FER for human FER.
Calibrationless Parallel Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Joint Sparsity Model
Authors: Majumdar Angshul , Chaudhury Kunal , Ward Rabab
Published: December 2013

State-of-the-art parallel MRI techniques either explicitly or implicitly require certain parameters to be estimated, e.g., the sensitivity map for SENSE, SMASH and interpolation weights for GRAPPA, SPIRiT. Thus all these techniques are sensitive to the calibration (parameter estimation) stage. In this work, we have proposed a parallel MRI technique that does not require any calibration but yields reconstruction results that are at par with (or even better than) state-of-the-art methods in parallel MRI. Our proposed method required solving non-convex analysis and synthesis prior joint-sparsity problems. This work also derives the algorithms for solving them. Experimental validation was carried out on two datasets—eight channel brain and eight channel Shepp-Logan phantom. Two sampling methods were used—Variable Density Random sampling and non-Cartesian Radial sampling. For the brain data, acceleration factor of 4 was used and for the other an acceleration factor of 6 was used. The reconstruction results were quantitatively evaluated based on the Normalised Mean Squared Error between the reconstructed image and the originals. The qualitative evaluation was based on the actual reconstructed images. We compared our work with four state-of-the-art parallel imaging techniques; two calibrated methods—CS SENSE and l1SPIRiT and two calibration free techniques—Distributed CS and SAKE. Our method yields better reconstruction results than all of them.
Illumination of the Spatial Order of Intracellular pH by Genetically Encoded pH-Sensitive Sensors
Authors: Benčina Mojca
Published: December 2013

Fluorescent proteins have been extensively used for engineering genetically encoded sensors that can monitor levels of ions, enzyme activities, redox potential, and metabolites. Certain fluorescent proteins possess specific pH-dependent spectroscopic features, and thus can be used as indicators of intracellular pH. Moreover, concatenated pH-sensitive proteins with target proteins pin the pH sensors to a definite location within the cell, compartment, or tissue. This study provides an overview of the continually expanding family of pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins that have become essential tools for studies of pH homeostasis and cell physiology. We describe and discuss the design of intensity-based and ratiometric pH sensors, their spectral properties and pH-dependency, as well as their performance. Finally, we illustrate some examples of the applications of pH sensors targeted at different subcellular compartments.
Gas Chromatography Analysis with Olfactometric Detection (GC-O) as a Useful Methodology for Chemical Characterization of Odorous Compounds
Authors: Brattoli Magda , Cisternino Ezia , Dambruoso Paolo , De Gennaro Gianluigi , Giungato Pasquale , Mazzone Antonio , Palmisani Jolanda , Tutino Maria
Published: December 2013

The gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) technique couples traditional gas chromatographic analysis with sensory detection in order to study complex mixtures of odorous substances and to identify odor active compounds. The GC-O technique is already widely used for the evaluation of food aromas and its application in environmental fields is increasing, thus moving the odor emission assessment from the solely olfactometric evaluations to the characterization of the volatile components responsible for odor nuisance. The aim of this paper is to describe the state of the art of gas chromatography-olfactometry methodology, considering the different approaches regarding the operational conditions and the different methods for evaluating the olfactometric detection of odor compounds. The potentials of GC-O are described highlighting the improvements in this methodology relative to other conventional approaches used for odor detection, such as sensoristic, sensorial and the traditional gas chromatographic methods. The paper also provides an examination of the different fields of application of the GC-O, principally related to fragrances and food aromas, odor nuisance produced by anthropic activities and odorous compounds emitted by materials and medical applications.
Splenic FDG uptake predicts poor prognosis in patients with unresectable cholangiocarcinoma
Authors: Pak K. , Kim S.-J. , Kim I. J. , Kim D. U. , Kim K. , Kim H. , Kim S. J.
Published: December 2013

Aim: Diffuse splenic 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake has shown to be associated with concurrent inflammation. We evaluated the prognostic value of diffuse splenic FDG uptake for predicting prognosis in cholangiocarcinoma patients. Patients, methods: Sixty-four patients with unresectable cholangiocarcinoma performed Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) using FDG between July 2009 and April 2012. Patients were divided into two groups according to splenic FDG uptake relative to hepatic FDG uptake. Eleven patients showing splenic FDG uptake exceeding hepatic uptake were included in group A, while 53 patients with hepatic FDG uptake exceeding splenic uptake were included in group B. Prognostic factors for overall survival were evaluated using log-rank test. Variables with a probability of less than or equal to 0.1 on univariate analysis were considered as possible independent factors. Cox-proportional hazards Cholangiocarcinoma, a malignant neoplasm of biliary epithelium, is a rare disease with an increasing incidence worldwide (19). The chances of survival with cholan- giocarcinoma depend on its location and model was used to analyze univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: Mean standardized uptake value of the liver (Liver SUVmean)/ Spleen SUVmean (L/S) ratio <1 (p = 0.0034), WBC > 10 000 (p = 0.1155) and CEA >30 (p = 0.0946) were predictors of overall survival on univariate analysis. In a subsequent multivariate analysis, L/S ratio <1 remained a significant independent predictor of poor prognosis (HR 6.0153, 95% CI, 1.7193-21.0460, p = 0.0052). Conclusion: Our study has shown that splenic FDG uptake could be a predictor of overall survival of unresectable cholangiocarcinoma patients.
CHAOTIC FEATURE EXTRACTION AND NEURO-FUZZY CLASSIFIER FOR ECG SIGNAL CHARACTERIZATION
Authors: Nejad Hadi Chahkandi , Khayat Omid , Razjouyan Javad
Published: December 2013

In this paper, a neuro-fuzzy network is employed to classify the ECG beats based on the extracted chaotic features. Six groups of ECG beats (MIT-BIH Normal Sinus rhythm, BIDMC congestive heart failure, CU ventricular tachyarrhythmia, MIT-BIH atrial fibrillation, MIT-BIH Malignant Ventricular Arrhythmia and MIT-BIH supraventricular arrhythmia) are characterized by the six chaotic parameters including the largest Lyapunov exponent and average of the Lyapunov spectrum (related to the chaoticity of the signal), time lag and embedding dimension (related to the phase space reconstruction) and correlation dimension and approximate entropy of the signal (related to the complexity of the signal). Finally, six structures of the neuro-fuzzy network (in terms of the type of fuzzy set, the number of fuzzy sets per variable and the number of learning epochs) were employed to perform the ECG beats classification based on all extracted features for two lengths of the signals. It was found that all respective chaotic features are discriminative and they improve the classification rate of ECG beats. Also, it is shown that a minimum length of the signal is needed for exhibitive feature extraction and for the higher lengths of the signal (in time) no significant improvement is achieved in feature extraction and calculations. The criteria for the classification task are considered as accuracy, specificity and sensitivity which all together comprehensively demonstrate the capability and performance of the classification. Some conclusions are drawn and they are discussed at the end of the paper.
Knowledge Recovery
Authors: Burke Maria E. , Speed Chris
Published: December 2013

The ability to “write” data to the Internet via tags and barcodes offers a context in which objects will increasingly become a natural extension of the Web, and as ready as the public was to adopt cloud-based services to store address books, documents, photos, and videos, it is likely that we will begin associating data with objects. Leaving messages for loved ones on a tea cup, listening to a story left on a family heirloom, or associating a message with an object to be passed on to a stranger. Using objects as tangible links to data and content on the Internet is predicted to become a significant means of how we interact with the interface of things, places, and people. This chapter explores this potential and focuses upon three contexts in which the technology is already operating in order to reflect upon the impact that the technology process may have upon social processes. These social processes are knowledge browsing, knowledge recovery, and knowledge sharing.
Global Tracking Systems in the Australian Interstate Trucking Industry
Authors: Karp Jann
Published: December 2013

Technology, trucking, and the surveillance of workers in the workplace: helpful or a hindrance? Technological advances are produced by the creative ideas individuals: these ideas then become selling items in their own right. Do tracking devices effectively regulate traffic breaches and criminality within the trucking industry? The data collection was conducted in the field while the authors rode as a passenger with truck drivers on long-haul trips. The complexities of tracking systems became more apparent as the authors listened to the men and placed their narratives in a broader context for a broader audience. The results of the work indicated that the Global Positioning System (GPS) has a role in the management of the industry as a logistics tool, but that there are limitations to the technology. The drivers use the devices and also feel the oppressive oversight when managers use the data as a disciplinary tool.
Privacy and Pervasive Surveillance
Authors: Rubel Alan
Published: December 2013

This chapter analyzes some tools of pervasive surveillance in light of the growing philosophical literature regarding the nature and value of privacy. It clarifies the conditions under which a person can be said to have privacy, explains a number of ways in which particular facets of privacy are morally weighty, and explains how such conceptual issues may be used to analyze surveillance scenarios. It argues that in many cases, surveillance may both increase and decrease aspects of privacy, and that the relevant question is whether those privacy losses (and gains) are morally salient. The ways in which privacy diminishment may be morally problematic must be based on the value of privacy, and the chapter explains several conceptions of such values. It concludes with a description of how some surveillance technologies may conflict with the value of privacy.
Uberveillance and Faith-Based Organizations
Authors: Wigan Marcus
Published: December 2013

Uberveillance extends the responsibilities of faith-based organisations to the power imbalances now emerging. This is less a matter of governance and strategy, and more one of the core values of faith-based organisations. These might be regarded from an ethical or moral standpoint, but the approach taken is to focus on the constituencies of faith-based organisations and the imperatives that have been woven into their aims and values. The specific ways in which such disempowerments emerge and the functional importance of making organizational responses are considered. Acknowledgement is made of the Science and Society Council of the Churches of Scotland, who catalysed the expression and articulation of these issues.
Getting Past Our Assumptions about Web 2.0 and Community Building
Authors: DePew Kevin Eric , Spangler Sarah , Spiegel Cheri Lemieux
Published: December 2013

While many social media technologies present opportunities to create Networked Knowledge Communities (NKCs), hierarchies among users, content managers, and programmers persist. In the classroom, instructors must manage these power dynamics, yet few have been trained to critically examine technological programs’ affordances to see how they foster community or not. The authors examine a blog assignment for a pedagogy course in which students, after posting several entries, are required to analyze the class’s blog usage to address whether a community was formed through the social media. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the blog assignment the authors learned that while several students claim that the limited number of interactive posts resulted because the instructor did not model community-forming behaviors, community is too complex to impose upon a group. As a result, the authors conclude that instructors, as “programmers” of the rhetorical and instructional situations, need to design and articulate the desired outcomes of community building.
An Exploratory Study in an Emerging Approach to E-Learning
Authors: Vu Phu , Vu Lan , Cao Vien , Fadde Peter
Published: December 2013

The number and range of MOOC courses seem to be expanding constantly, making it difficult for researchers to describe MOOC and to prescribe principles of MOOC design and delivery. In this study, the authors joined several MOOC courses in order to investigate the aspects of online learning that are familiar, but that may be amplified in massive and open e-learning. These include technical issues, learner interactions on discussion boards, and learners’ concerns with grades. By counting and categorizing learners’ posts made on discussion boards in nine courses, the authors found that MOOC learners remain focused on grades, and that their interactions are more often social than indicative of deep learning.
Knowledge Sharing for Improving Effectiveness of University-Industry Collaborations
Authors: Nemati-Anaraki Leila , Heidari Azadeh
Published: December 2013

Knowledge is one of the most important strategic resources in industrial organizations. Knowledge sharing is a mechanism to capture, disseminate, transfer, and apply useful knowledge. For these reasons, knowledge sharing has become a strategic issue as a source of funding for university research and as a policy tool for economic development for industrial organizations. Collaborations between universities and industrial organizations can play an important role in the areas of knowledge sharing. There are many factors that can affect collaboration between industrial firms and universities. This chapter begins with the description of the term knowledge. It discusses knowledge sharing and collaborations between universities and industrial organizations and the importance of communicational channels, especially information and communication technologies and university libraries. Finally, this chapter proposes a conceptual model for knowledge sharing collaborations between universities and industrial organizations.
Visuality and the Difficult Differences in Networked Knowledge Communities
Authors: August Anita
Published: December 2013

This chapter argues that as Networked Knowledge Communities (NKCs) become increasingly the way knowledge is constructed, represented, and circulated, visuality in information-based societies is also being shaped, and shaped by, the interactive and collective ideologies of digital technology environments. Like the written text, which constructs and imposes hegemonic ideals of identity through discursive practices, visual representations of identities also serve as powerful discursive reservoirs of subordinating representations. By focusing on NKCs as an epistemic space that reflects, recirculates, and reacts to bodies of knowledge produced by the institutions of power in the larger social culture, this chapter examines the vulnerability of subjugated identities to normative processes of identity formation in digital networked communities. This inquiry positions visuality not as a subordinate and incomprehensible form of discourse to the written text, but as a symmetrical and understandable discursive practice and democratizing pedagogy imbued with all the possibilities and inadequacies that come with interpreting identity and the difficult differences. Without question, globalization is a key factor in this debate despite the lack of transparency in its meaning and use. However, despite its resistance to a comprehensive definition, globalization will provide an important ideological framing from which to begin this argument given its loosening of sociopolitical, cultural, economic, and technological borders.
A Case Study on Data Quality, Privacy, and Entity Resolution
Authors: Decker William , Liu Fan , Talburt John , Wang Pei , Wu Ningning
Published: December 2013

This chapter presents ongoing research conducted through collaboration between the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Arkansas Department of Education to develop an entity resolution and identity management system. The process includes a multi-phase approach consisting of data-quality analysis, selection of entity-identity attributes for entity resolution, development of a truth-set, and implementation and benchmarking of an entity-resolution rule set using the open source entity-resolution system named OYSTER. The research is the first known of its kind to evaluate privacy-enhancing, entity-resolution rule sets in a state education agency.
Business Intelligence for Healthcare
Authors: Cook Jack S. , Neely Pamela A.
Published: December 2013

Using an interpretive case study approach, this chapter describes the data quality problems in two companies: (1) a Multi-Facility Healthcare Medical Group (MHMG), and (2) a Regional Health Insurance Company (RHIS). These two interpretive cases examine two different processes of the healthcare supply chain and their integration with a business intelligence system. Specifically, the issues examined are MHMG’s revenue cycle management and RHIS’s provider enrollment and credentialing process. A Data and Information Quality (DIQ) assessment of the revenue cycle management process demonstrates how a framework, referred to as PGOT, can identify improvement opportunities within any information-intensive environment. Based on the assessment of the revenue cycle management process, data quality problems associated with the key processes and their implications for the healthcare organization are described. This chapter provides recommendations for DIQ best practices and illustrates these best practices within this real world context of healthcare.
Principled Reference Data Management for Business Intelligence
Authors: Milman Ivan , Oberhofer Martin , Pandit Sushain , Zhou Yinle
Published: December 2013

Most large enterprises requiring operational business processes (e.g., call center, human resources, order fulfillments, billing, etc.) utilize anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand instances of legacy, upgraded, cloud-based, and/or acquired information management applications. Due to this vastly heterogeneous information landscape, Business Intelligence (BI) systems (e.g., enterprise data warehouses) receive unconsolidated data from a wide-range of data sources with no overarching governance procedures to ensure quality, consistency, or appropriateness. Although different applications deal with their own flavor of data (e.g., master data, metadata, unstructured and structured data, etc.), reference data (residing in code tables) is found invariably in all of them. Given the critical role that BI plays in ensuring business success, the fact that BI relies heavily on the quality of data to ensure that the intelligence being provided is trustworthy and the prevalence of reference data in the information integration landscape, a principled approach towards management, stewardship, and governance of reference data becomes necessary to ensure quality and operational excellence across BI systems. In this chapter, the authors discuss this approach in the domain of typical reference data management concepts and features, leading to a comprehensive solution architecture for BI integration.
Effective Measurement of DQ/IQ for BI
Authors: Sundararaman Arun Thotapalli
Published: December 2013

DQ/IQ measurement in general and in the specific context of BI has always been a topic of high interest for researchers. The topic of Data Quality (DQ) in the field of Information Management has been well researched, published, and studied. Despite such research advances, there has been very little understanding either from a theoretical or from a practical perspective of DQ/IQ measurement for BI. Assessing the quality of data for a BI System has been one of the major challenges for researchers as well as practitioners, leading to the need for frameworks to measure DQ for BI. The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of the existing frameworks for measurement of DQ for BI, analyze the gaps therein, review proposed solutions, and provide a direction for future research and practice in this area.
Data Profiling and Data Quality Metric Measurement as a Proactive Input into the Operation of Business Intelligence Systems
Authors: Delaney Scott
Published: December 2013

Business intelligence systems have reached business critical status within many companies. It is not uncommon for such systems to be central to the decision-making effectiveness of these enterprises. However, the processes used to load data into these systems often do not exhibit a level of robustness in line with their criticality to the organisation. The processes of loading business intelligence systems with data are subject to compromised execution, delays, or failures as a result of changes in the source system data. These ETL processes are not designed to recognise nor deal with such shifts in data shape. This chapter proposes the use of data profiling techniques as a means of early discovery of issues and changes within the source system data and examines how this knowledge can be applied to guard against reductions in the decision making capability and effectiveness of an organisation caused by interruptions to business intelligence system availability or compromised data quality. It does so by examining issues such as where profiling can be best be applied to get appropriate benefit and value, the techniques of establishing profiling, and the types of actions that may be taken once the results of profiling are available. The chapter describes components able to be drawn together to provide a system of control that can be applied around a business intelligence system to enhance the quality of organisational decision making through monitoring the characteristics of arriving data and taking action when values are materially different than those expected.
Challenges of Structure and Organization in Medium-Sized Content
Authors: Chakrabarty Madhavi M.
Published: December 2013

Organizational knowledge management resources are a combination of articles, guidelines, and process documents. The content in these resources typically ranges from about a few words to a few hundred words. These pieces of content are called medium-sized content. While most organizations do not pose a limit on how long or short each content piece should be, most content sizes default to this limit due to various reasons. Assigning a metadata and taxonomy to the medium-sized content pieces are challenging because of a limited number of repetition of keywords, the limited size of the content, and the existence of other content without which this content is not conceptually complete. This results in challenges for knowledge managers in organizing and structuring this content as well as making it intelligent enough for search engines and business intelligence tools. This chapter presents an approach to creating metadata for these content pieces by proposing a three structure metadata consisting of a static part, a dynamic part, and a conceptual part that links to other pieces of related information.
The Value of Data Quality
Authors: Hillard Robert
Published: December 2013

Almost everyone acknowledges the importance to business of data quality, however most organisations treat it as a technology issue. Increasingly, organisations are moving from cost recovery models to ones where they reward behaviours that develop their data as an asset. At their core, these models recognise that businesses live in an information economy that needs to be reflected at the micro level within the enterprise with individuals being rewarded as “information traders.” Introducing a trading approach to information changes, the mindset of the originators and managers of information who become motivated to maximise the value of the content they are responsible for. Just like any other resource, poor quality directly impacts its value. The approach also creates the opportunity to move the focus of data governance away from what is often perceived to be compliance activities to helping to establish pricing and the market as a whole.
Data Protection and BI
Authors: Brien Daragh O
Published: December 2013

Data Protection (DP) and Privacy are increasingly important quality characteristics of Information, particularly in the context of Business Intelligence and Big Data. This relationship between Data Protection and Information Quality (IQ) is often poorly understood, and DP itself is often misunderstood as being an issue of security control rather than information governance. This chapter examines the relationship between DP, IQ, and Data Governance (DG). It provides an overview of how techniques and practices from IQ and DG can ensure that BI projects are grounded on appropriate privacy controls that ensure that the right information is being used in the right way by the right people to answer the right questions.
Challenges and Solutions when Designing and Teaching Online Courses
Authors: Bachner Jennifer
Published: December 2013

This case identifies the common challenges associated with teaching and developing online courses in higher education and proposes solutions to address these challenges. The solutions employ emerging technologies that facilitate (1) intellectual engagement through progressive inquiry, (2) collaboration among students, (3) continuous feedback, and (4) learning that takes place both within and outside of “class time.” The technologies discussed in the case advance these four learning principles and include online labor markets, collaborative annotation programs, interactive textbooks, and assessments that provide immediate grading and feedback. The examples used throughout the case are largely drawn from courses that were taught as part of a Master of Arts in Government Program. Although the courses focus primarily on the study of governance, politics and research methods, the technologies described would be useful in a wide range of academic courses, including those in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and information sciences.
Faculty Participation in Online Higher Education
Authors: Hoffman Michael S.
Published: December 2013

In the past decade, enrollments in distance education, and specifically online education, have grown dramatically in the United States. According to the 2009 Sloan Report (Allen & Seaman, 2010), enrollments in online courses increased from 9.6% of total postsecondary enrollments in 2002 to 25.3% in 2009. Unfortunately, a number of barriers exist that may result in an inability of higher education institutions to provide quality online education programming in sufficient scale to meet the expected student demand. The Managing Online Education report (Green, 2010) identifies the resistance of faculty towards teaching in an online environment as foremost among ten factors that “impede institutional efforts to expand online education programs” (p. 1). An understanding of the factors that both motivate and discourage faculty member participation in online education programs is critical if institutions are to leverage their existing faculty to meet the current and future demand for online education. This case study first presents a number of motivating and inhibiting factors and then discusses how St. Bonaventure University leveraged these factors in an attempt to boost faculty participation in online education.
Navigating the Lack of Face Time
Authors: Rucks-Ahidiana Zawadi
Published: December 2013

The online classroom provides instructors with the ultimate challenge of replicating a face-to-face setting without having actual face time. Both new and experienced online instructors struggle with limited communication and personal connections in the online classroom. Teaching online is missing the visual cues of confused facial expressions and raised hands to signal the need for elaboration or clarification. Additionally, instructors rarely meet their online students or get to know who they are as individuals. In attempting to navigate the differences caused by this lack of personal contact, online instructors take on expanded and new responsibilities, including orienting students to online learning, communicating with students, monitoring student progress, creating community, managing the online course, and providing feedback. This chapter explores the unique challenge of teaching online and how online instructors address their responsibilities with these challenges in mind. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 23 online instructors from two community colleges, the analysis described below includes insight from instructors from disciplines ranging from Math and Chemistry to English and Humanities with a range of experience in online instruction including first semester online instructors and 10 year veterans.
Game On! Teaching Foreign Language Online
Authors: Carter-Cram Kim
Published: December 2013

This case discusses the development and delivery of a course designed to teach elementary French at the university level in a fully online environment. Included in the discussion are issues related to the problematics of creating an interactive locus where effective communication in the target language can take place both between the instructor and the student and between students. The study examines attitudes about teaching (and learning) language online, how the textbook industry has attempted (or not) to deal with the advent of more online second language instruction, and how advances in tools available to instructors in the Learning Management System can both help and hinder the successful development and deployment of a course in second language instruction. Also examined here are questions of student motivation and retention, and proposed solutions to both problems via innovative quest-based gamification of course lessons and materials.
Hard-Learned Lessons
Authors: Weissinger Sandra E. , Esmail Ashraf
Published: December 2013

After Hurricane Katrina, numerous studies and policy reports addressed the plight of higher education in New Orleans (AAUP (2007) and McClue, Esmail, and Shepard (2009) serve as examples). Of importance to this chapter are those works that focus on the well-being and renewal strategies of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the city (Cook-Dormoh, 2007) and, in particular, the role that technology plays in addressing the needs of displaced students and strengthening online degree generating programs. This chapter investigates the work of one particular HBCU—North-South—that, post Katrina, had great hopes of building online classes and programs of study. The goal, as articulated by school officials just after Katrina, was twofold: to attract the former student population and to develop a permanent, disaster-ready alternative to traditional on-the-ground classes. Data demonstrate that work to build and maintain online classes has been fragmented, declining significantly by 2008 and benefiting students in a select few programs.
Beyond the Horizon
Authors: North Diane M. T.
Published: December 2013

The mission of this chapter is to explain the extensive step-by-step process involved in creating and teaching an online university humanities course based upon the primary educational philosophy called “constructivism.” Instead of using a distance learning or correspondence model, the University of Maryland University College’s learning approach focuses on “construction and engagement” or intensive interaction among students and professors. This social engagement (professor to student and student to student) requires more time, energy, and thought on the part of students and faculty members than face-to-face teaching. As a case study in teaching the History of the American West online within an intensive eight-week course length, this chapter provides concrete information about the course’s required concepts, skills, goals and objectives, project assignments, conference participation requirements for threaded discussions, assessment methods, and grading rubrics. The case study also addresses the current challenges facing the implementation of the course and offers recommendations. Although some of the details specifically relate to teaching a history course, they are applicable to any humanities course.
Orchestrating an Enrollment Management Transformation
Authors: Pedersen Karen L. , Hayes Terri , Copeland Tim
Published: December 2013

This case chronicles the beginnings of an enrollment management transformation currently underway at The Extended Campuses of Northern Arizona University. After flat enrollments for three plus years, the organization executed a phased plan to alter the university’s enrollment trajectory. A complete reorganization, an intentional effort to operationalize enrollment marketing best practice, and the establishment of a data-driven organization comprise the foundations of the first phase of the plan. While specific to Northern Arizona University, the case will also highlight six foundations for initiating any enrollment management transformational journey.
Ethical Challenges and Adaptive Solutions Regarding Support of Online Graduate Student Research in Regions with Limited Infrastructure
Authors: Endicott Leilani , Sherer Jenny
Published: December 2013

Online graduate programs have a unique opportunity to serve students in global regions that have limited infrastructure (and thus fewer educational opportunities) due to remoteness, poverty, violent conflict, ideological values that might not necessarily support educational access for all people, or other reasons. In many cases, students in these regions feel a particularly urgent need to attain educational goals, obtain scientific training, and conduct research that can help improve conditions for their community. However, the same infrastructure limitations that make education and social research so desperately necessary (e.g., shortcomings in government, commerce, law enforcement) can also present barriers to the completion of a graduate program, especially one that involves original data collection. In the cases that follow, the authors discuss how the Western (especially North American) scientific research system can be adapted to better support the ethical and pragmatic challenges of graduate students conducting research in regions with infrastructure limitations. The tension is that Western academic, regulatory, and procedural standards are sometimes prohibitive to the completion of studies in regions with conditions that limit the functioning and sustainability of the infrastructure that would normally provide a foundation for the collection and analysis of data. University faculty and staff must find ways to uphold the standards of science in a manner that is flexible and adaptive.
Learning across Multiple Spaces
Authors: Fedeli Laura , Rossi Pier Giuseppe , Giannandrea Lorella
Published: December 2013

This chapter deals with four different case studies represented by graduate and post-lauream courses run at the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism at University of Macerata (Italy). These cases synthesize the research developed in the last 10 years by the teaching staff who have promoted the activation of e-learning in the institution. The choice to present different contexts, from blended solutions where face-to-face courses are integrated with online environments to fully online courses, is framed in a new pedagogical perspective; that is, the need to focus on the methodologies and strategies is recognized as successful in e-learning in order to improve the quality of traditional instruction developed in the presence of higher education institutions. This process shifts attention from “quality of e-learning” to “quality through e-learning.” In fact, the differentiated and flexible use of technologies is aimed at helping students become more involved in the educational setting and to help them contextualize their studies more effectively.
What’s in a Game?
Authors: Virkar Shefali
Published: December 2013

Much as been written about e-government within a growing stream of literature on ICT for development, generating countervailing perspectives where optimistic, technocratic approaches are countered by far more sceptical standpoints on technological innovation. This body of work is, however, not without its limitations: a large proportion is anecdotal in its style and overly deterministic in its logic, with far less being empirical, and there is a tendency for models offered up by scholarly research to neglect the actual attitudes, choices, and behaviour of the wide array of actors involved in the implementation and use of new technology in real organisations. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of the Ecology of Games framework and the Design-Actuality Gap model, this chapter focuses on the conception and implementation of an electronic property tax collection system in Bangalore (India) between 1998 and 2008. The work contributes to not just an understanding of the role of ICTs in public administrative reform, but also towards an emerging body of research that is critical of managerial rationalism for an organization as a whole, and which is sensitive to an ecology of actors, choices, and motivations within the organisation.
Designing Serious Games for People with Disabilities
Authors: Evett Lindsay , Ridley Allan , Keating Liz , Merritt Patrick , Shopland Nick , Brown David
Published: December 2013

Serious games are effective and engaging learning resources for people with disabilities, and guidelines exist to make games accessible to people with disabilities. During research into designing accessible interfaces and games, it was noted that people who are blind often report enjoying playing Wii Sports. These games are pick-up-and-play games for casual and non-gamers. They have simplified rules and a natural and intuitive feel. Games designed specifically for players with particular disabilities are often not of interest to other players and take a lot of development time. Because of their niche market, these games are not widely available, developed, or maintained. In contrast, games like Wii Sports are cheap and available, and represent an exciting opportunity as inclusive games. Two blind players were introduced to the games and found Wii Tennis the most accessible. The blind players learned to play the game quickly and easily, found it enjoyable and engaging, and could play competitively against each other, as well as a sighted opponent. Small accessibility enhancements of the existing game could enhance the game for other players. In this paper, implications for the design of accessible, inclusive games are discussed.
Designing Educational Games
Authors: Tang Stephen , Hanneghan Martin
Published: December 2013

Play has been an informal approach to teach young ones the skills of survival for centuries. With advancements in computing technology, many researchers believe that computer games1 can be used as a viable teaching and learning tool to enhance a student’s learning. It is important that the educational content of these games is well designed with meaningful game-play based on pedagogically sound theories to ensure constructive learning. This chapter features theoretical aspects of game design from a pedagogical perspective. It serves as a useful guide for educational game designers to design better educational games for use in game-based learning. The chapter provides a brief overview of educational games and game-based learning before highlighting theories of learning that are relevant to educational games. Selected theories of learning are then integrated into conventional game design practices to produce a set of guidelines for educational games design.
Games and Simulations
Authors: Akilli Göknur Kaplan
Published: December 2013

Computer games and simulations are considered powerful tools for learning with an untapped potential for formal educational use. However, the lack of available well-designed research studies about their integration into teaching and learning leaves unanswered questions, despite their more than 30 years of existence in the instructional design movement. Beginning with these issues, this chapter aims to shed light on the definition of games and simulations, their educational use, and some of their effects on learning. Criticisms and new trends in the field of instructional design/development in relation to educational use of games and simulations are briefly reviewed. The chapter intends to provide a brief theoretical framework and a fresh starting point for practitioners in the field who are interested in educational use of games and simulations and their integration into learning environments.