bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Are scale-based techniques enough for learners to convey their UX when using a Learning Management System?
Authors: Nakamura Walter T. , Marques Leonardo C. , Rivero Luis , Oliveira Elaine H. T. de , Conte Tayana
Published: March 2019

As technology evolves, learning institutions have sought to invest in new learning technologies. Many universities have been adopting platforms designed to support the learning process, called Learning Management Systems (LMSs), to complement face-to-face learning, as well as to support distance learning. This widespread adoption of LMSs raises the need for evaluating them regarding aspects related to quality in use, such as User eXperience (UX). UX is very important in e-learning context, given that it may influence learner’s attitude towards the use of the LMS. Despite its importance, few studies evaluated the UX of LMSs. Moreover, researchers have been using generic techniques to evaluate them. In this context, there is no evidence of studies conducted to identify whether these techniques can fully capture the experience conveyed by these platforms. This paper presents an analysis of two UX evaluation techniques (User Experience Questionnaire, and Integrated Experience Acceptance Model) applied to an LMS called Edmodo. We carried out a study with 34 students, divided into two groups, to evaluate the UX of Edmodo and obtain their perceptions about the technique they used. We also gathered the difficulties faced by the students during the execution of the tasks on the platform, while correlating those difficulties with learning issues. In addition, we performed a qualitative analysis in order to better understand the results. Regarding Edmodo, the results showed that the students perceived its UX as positive. Regarding the techniques, both groups considered them easy to use and useful. However, around 41% of the students in both groups reported that they were not able to fully evaluate their UX using the techniques. The qualitative results allowed the identification of positive and negative aspects that researchers may consider during the improvement or development of new UX evaluation techniques.
Abordagem Participativa de Desenvolvimento de Jogos Digitais Educacionais no Contexto Escolar
Authors: Morais Dyego Carlos Sales , Pontual Falcão Taciana
Published: March 2019

Educandos que tiveram acesso desde a infância ou possuem facilidade de uso de tecnologias demandam abordagens educacionais inovadoras que atendam às suas características de aprendizagem. As iniciativas recentes vão além do uso de jogos e propõem que os educandos possam construí-los, desenvolver habilidades de design e programação e aprender conteúdos curriculares de maneiras mais atraentes. No entanto, integrar desenvolvimento de jogos digitais ao contexto educacional envolve vários aspectos relacionados ao engajamento estudantil na estrutura de arranjos escolares, incluindo questões gerenciais e pedagógicas de projetos que se inserem nesse meio. Esta pesquisa analisa dois processos escolares de desenvolvimento de jogos e identifica aspectos que promovem o engajamento dos educandos. Os resultados compõem um modelo de desenvolvimento de jogos no contexto educacional.
Identificação, Análise e Priorização de Requisitos de Aplicações Gamificadas para Apoio ao Ensino de Crianças com Síndrome de Down
Authors: Souza Igor V. de , Moura J. Antão B. , Honório Joaquim J. C. M. , Ghirello-Pires C. S. A. , Terton Uwe
Published: March 2019

A síndrome de Down (SD) é a causa genética mais comum de deficiência intelectual no mundo, exigindo maior atenção, principalmente, no que diz respeito aos processos de alfabetização. Apesar dos esforços de trabalhos anteriores, ainda são escassos estudos que auxiliem no processo de alfabetização e aquisição de linguagem e que proporcionem simultaneamente educação e diversão. Este trabalho apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa que visa elicitar e validar requisitos que podem nortear o desenvolvimento de softwares gamificados que auxiliem no processo de alfabetização e aquisição da linguagem para crianças com SD, de forma lúdica. Para tanto, o estudo elicitou os requisitos a partir da revisão de literatura, análise de produtos de softwares e entrevistas com especialistas e pessoas com SD. Os resultados sugerem indícios de que os requisitos encontrados podem auxiliar o processo de alfabetização na SD. Este trabalho contribui com o desenvolvimento de aplicações para aquisição da linguagem e alfabetização em crianças com SD, considerando que ele fornece informações sobre requisitos, suas classes e suas validações, servindo futuramente como um guia para o desenvolvimento de softwares gamificados.
Atitudes face às licenças parentais em Portugal
Authors: Wall Karin , Correia Rita B. , Gouveia Rita
Published: March 2019

As políticas públicas em matéria de licenças para cuidar de filhos menores sofreram alterações importantes nas últimas décadas. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as atitudes da população portuguesa face às licenças parentais com base no inquérito ISSP sobre família e género de 2014. Partindo de várias perspetivas teóricas, identificam-se os fatores que influenciam as atitudes face à duração e à partilha das licenças. Os resultados mostram o impacto do contexto institucional (regime legal atual), do contexto normativo e do posicionamento social. Analisam-se os desfasamentos entre políticas e preferências e discutem-se as implicações dos resultados.
Atitudes face à divisão do trabalho familiar em Portugal em 2002 e 2014: mudanças e continuidades
Authors: Ramos Vasco , Rodrigues Leonor Bettencourt , Correia Rita B.
Published: March 2019

Este artigo pretende analisar a evolução das atitudes face à divisão conjugal do trabalho em Portugal, entre 2002 e 2014. Um dos objetivos centrais é o de aferir em que medida a evolução observada corresponde a uma modernização das atitudes. Avaliam-se igualmente as hipóteses de uma complexificação dos padrões atitudinais ou, em alternativa, de uma cristalização em torno de padrões atitudinais dicotómicos. Para tal foi efetuada uma análise comparativa das atitudes dos portugueses aferidas nos módulos Família e Género do ISSP (International Social Survey) em dois períodos distintos — 2002 e 2014 — sendo, de seguida, avançados alguns fatores explicativos para os padrões atitudinais encontrados. Mas se os padrões atitudinais encontrados em 2002 sofrem em 2014 uma evolução inequívoca, é também clara alguma incongruência nas atitudes dos portugueses em relação à conciliação do trabalho com a família, especialmente quando existem filhos pequenos. Estes e outros resultados são analisados à luz das especificidades do contexto socioeconómico português no período analisado e dos contributos de alguma investigação recente sobre as questões de género nas atitudes dos portugueses.
Decision Making Under Uncertainty
Authors: Kochenderfer Mykel J. , Amato Christopher , Chowdhary Girish , How Jonathan P. , Reynolds Hayley J. Davison , Thornton Jason R. , Torres-Carrasquillo Pedro A. , Üre N. Kemal , Vian John
Published: March 2019

An introduction to decision making under uncertainty from a computational perspective, covering both theory and applications ranging from speech recognition to airborne collision avoidance.

Many important problems involve decision making under uncertainty—that is, choosing actions based on often imperfect observations, with unknown outcomes. Designers of automated decision support systems must take into account the various sources of uncertainty while balancing the multiple objectives of the system. This book provides an introduction to the challenges of decision making under uncertainty from a computational perspective. It presents both the theory behind decision making models and algorithms and a collection of example applications that range from speech recognition to aircraft collision avoidance.

Focusing on two methods for designing decision agents, planning and reinforcement learning, the book covers probabilistic models, introducing Bayesian networks as a graphical model that captures probabilistic relationships between variables; utility theory as a framework for understanding optimal decision making under uncertainty; Markov decision processes as a method for modeling sequential problems; model uncertainty; state uncertainty; and cooperative decision making involving multiple interacting agents. A series of applications shows how the theoretical concepts can be applied to systems for attribute-based person search, speech applications, collision avoidance, and unmanned aircraft persistent surveillance.

Decision Making Under Uncertainty unifies research from different communities using consistent notation, and is accessible to students and researchers across engineering disciplines who have some prior exposure to probability theory and calculus. It can be used as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in fields including computer science, aerospace and electrical engineering, and management science. It will also be a valuable professional reference for researchers in a variety of disciplines.
Designing Publics
Authors: Le Dantec Christopher A.
Published: March 2019

An exploration of design considerations in the design of technologies that support local collective action.

Contemporary computing technologies have thoroughly embedded themselves in every aspect of modern life—conducting commerce, maintaining and extending our networks of friends, and mobilizing political movements all occur through a growing collection of devices and services designed to keep and hold our attention. Yet what happens when our attention needs to be more local, collective, and focused on our immediate communities? Perhaps more important, how can we imagine and create new technologies with local communities? In Designing Publics, Christopher Le Dantec explores these questions by designing technologies with the urban homeless. Drawing on a case study of the design of a computational infrastructure in a shelter for homeless women and their children, Le Dantec theorizes an alternate vision of design in community contexts.

Focusing on collective action through design, Le Dantec investigates the way design can draw people together on social issues and create and sustain a public. By “designing publics” he refers both to the way publics arise out of design intervention and to the generative action publics take—how they “do design” as they mobilize and act in the world. This double lens offers a new view of how design and a diverse set of design practices circulate in sites of collective action rather than commercial production.
Accessing and Browsing Information and Communication
Authors: Rice Ronald E. , McCreadie Maureen , Chang Shan-Ju
Published: March 2019

An interdisciplinary study of the basic human activities of accessing and browsing.

This book contends that accessing and browsing information and communication are multidimensional and consequential aspects of the information user's entire experience and of general human behavior. Problems in information creation, processing, transmittal, and use often arise from an incomplete conceptualization of the "information seeking" process, where information seeking is viewed as the intentional finding of specific information. The process has traditionally been considered to begin with some kind of search query and end with some kind of obtained information. That, however, may be only the last, most easily observable—and perhaps not even primary—stage of a complex sequence of activities.

This book reviews related theory, research, practice, and implications from a wide range of disciplines. It also analyzes converging forms of information, including mass media, online information services, the Internet and World Wide Web, libraries, public spaces, advertisements, and organizational communication. Extensive case studies illustrate the theoretical material.
Bits to Bitcoin
Authors: Day Mark Stuart , Jennings C.A.
Published: March 2019

An accessible guide to our digital infrastructure, explaining the basics of operating systems, networks, security, and other topics for the general reader.

Most of us feel at home in front of a computer; we own smartphones, tablets, and laptops; we look things up online and check social media to see what our friends are doing. But we may be a bit fuzzy about how any of this really works. In Bits to Bitcoin, Mark Stuart Day offers an accessible guide to our digital infrastructure, explaining the basics of operating systems, networks, security, and related topics for the general reader. He takes the reader from a single process to multiple processes that interact with each other; he explores processes that fail and processes that overcome failures; and he examines processes that attack each other or defend themselves against attacks.

Day tells us that steps are digital but ramps are analog; that computation is about “doing something with stuff” and that both the “stuff” and the “doing” can be digital. He explains timesharing, deadlock, and thrashing; virtual memory and virtual machines; packets and networks; resources and servers; secret keys and public keys; Moore's law and Thompson's hack. He describes how building in redundancy guards against failure and how endpoints communicate across the Internet. He explains why programs crash or have other bugs, why they are attacked by viruses, and why those problems are hard to fix. Finally, after examining secrets, trust, and cheating, he explains the mechanisms that allow the Bitcoin system to record money transfers accurately while fending off attacks.
GMOs Decoded
Authors: Krimsky Sheldon
Published: March 2019

The debate over genetically modified organisms: health and safety concerns, environmental impact, and scientific opinions.

Since they were introduced to the market in the late 1990s, GMOs (genetically modified organisms, including genetically modified crops), have been subject to a barrage of criticism. Agriculture has welcomed this new technology, but public opposition has been loud and scientific opinion mixed. In GMOs Decoded, Sheldon Krimsky examines the controversies over GMOs—health and safety concerns, environmental issues, the implications for world hunger, and the scientific consensus (or lack of one). He explores the viewpoints of a range of GMO skeptics, from public advocacy groups and nongovernmental organizations to scientists with differing views on risk and environmental impact.

Krimsky explains the differences between traditional plant breeding and “molecular breeding” through genetic engineering (GE); describes early GMO products, including the infamous Flavr Savr tomato; and discusses herbicide-, disease-, and insect-resistant GE plants. He considers the different American and European approaches to risk assessment, dueling scientific interpretations of plant genetics, and the controversy over labeling GMO products. He analyzes a key 2016 report from the National Academies of Sciences on GMO health effects and considers the controversy over biofortified rice (Golden Rice)—which some saw as a humanitarian project and others as an exercise in public relations.

Do GMO crops hold promise or peril? By offering an accessible review of the risks and benefits of GMO crops, and a guide to the controversies over them, Krimsky helps readers judge for themselves.
The Tales Teeth Tell
Authors: Smith Tanya M.
Published: March 2019

What teeth can tell us about human evolution, development, and behavior.

Our teeth have intriguing stories to tell. These sophisticated time machines record growth, diet, and evolutionary history as clearly as tree rings map a redwood's lifespan. Each day of childhood is etched into tooth crowns and roots—capturing birth, nursing history, environmental clues, and illnesses. The study of ancient, fossilized teeth sheds light on how our ancestors grew up, how we evolved, and how prehistoric cultural transitions continue to affect humans today. In The Tales Teeth Tell, biological anthropologist Tanya Smith offers an engaging and surprising look at what teeth tell us about the evolution of primates—including our own uniqueness.

Humans' impressive set of varied teeth provides a multipurpose toolkit honed by the diet choices of our mammalian ancestors. Fossil teeth, highly resilient because of their substantial mineral content, are all that is left of some long-extinct species. Smith explains how researchers employ painstaking techniques to coax microscopic secrets from these enigmatic remains. Counting tiny daily lines provides a way to estimate age that is more powerful than any other forensic technique. Dental plaque—so carefully removed by dental hygienists today—records our ancestors' behavior and health in the form of fossilized food particles and bacteria, including their DNA. Smith also traces the grisly origins of dentistry, reveals that the urge to pick one's teeth is not unique to humans, and illuminates the age-old pursuit of “dental art.” The book is generously illustrated with original photographs, many in color.
Urgency in the Anthropocene
Authors: Lynch Amanda H. , Veland Siri
Published: March 2019

A proposal to reframe the Anthropocene as an age of actual and emerging coexistence with earth system variability, encompassing both human dignity and environmental sustainability.

Is this the Anthropocene, the age in which humans have become a geological force, leaving indelible signs of their activities on the earth? The narrative of the Anthropocene so far is characterized by extremes, emergencies, and exceptions—a tale of apocalypse by our own hands. The sense of ongoing crisis emboldens policy and governance responses that challenge established systems of sovereignty and law. The once unacceptable—geoengineering technology, for example, or authoritarian decision making—are now anticipated and even demanded by some. To counter this, Amanda Lynch and Siri Veland propose a reframing of the Anthropocene—seeing it not as a race against catastrophe but as an age of emerging coexistence with earth system variability.

Lynch and Veland examine the interplay between our new state of ostensible urgency and the means by which this urgency is identified and addressed. They examine how societies, including Indigenous societies, have understood such interplays; explore how extreme weather and climate weave into the Anthropocene narrative; consider the tension between the short time scale of disasters and the longer time scale of sustainability; and discuss both international and national approaches to Anthropocene governance. Finally, they argue for an Anthropocene of coexistence that embraces both human dignity and sustainability.
The Spider's Thread
Authors: Holyoak Keith J.
Published: March 2019

An examination of metaphor in poetry as a microcosm of the human imagination—a way to understand the mechanisms of creativity.

In The Spider's Thread, Keith Holyoak looks at metaphor as a microcosm of the creative imagination. Holyoak, a psychologist and poet, draws on the perspectives of thinkers from the humanities—poets, philosophers, and critics—and from the sciences—psychologists, neuroscientists, linguists, and computer scientists. He begins each chapter with a poem—by poets including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Theodore Roethke, Du Fu, William Butler Yeats, and Pablo Neruda—and then widens the discussion to broader notions of metaphor and mind.

Holyoak uses Whitman's poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider” to illustrate the process of interpreting a poem, and explains the relevance of two psychological mechanisms, analogy and conceptual combination, to metaphor. He outlines ideas first sketched by Coleridge—who called poetry “the best words in their best order”—and links them to modern research on the interplay between cognition and emotion, controlled and associative thinking, memory and creativity. Building on Emily Dickinson's declaration “the brain is wider than the sky,” Holyoak suggests that the control and default networks in the brain may combine to support creativity. He also considers, among other things, the interplay of sound and meaning in poetry; symbolism in the work of Yeats, Jung, and others; indirect communication in poems; the mixture of active and passive processes in creativity; and whether artificial intelligence could ever achieve poetic authenticity. Guided by Holyoak, we can begin to trace the outlines of creativity through the mechanisms of metaphor.
Food Routes
Authors: Metcalfe Robyn
Published: March 2019

Finding opportunities for innovation on the path between farmer and table.

Even if we think we know a lot about good and healthy food—even if we buy organic, believe in slow food, and read Eater—we probably don't know much about how food gets to the table. What happens between the farm and the kitchen? Why are all avocados from Mexico? Why does a restaurant in Maine order lamb from New Zealand? In Food Routes, Robyn Metcalfe explores an often-overlooked aspect of the global food system: how food moves from producer to consumer. She finds that the food supply chain is adapting to our increasingly complex demands for both personalization and convenience—but, she says, it won't be an easy ride.

Networked, digital tools will improve the food system but will also challenge our relationship to food in anxiety-provoking ways. It might not be easy to transfer our affections from verdant fields of organic tomatoes to high-rise greenhouses tended by robots. And yet, argues Metcalfe—a cautious technology optimist—technological advances offer opportunities for innovations that can get better food to more people in an increasingly urbanized world.

Metcalfe follows a slice of New York pizza and a club sandwich through the food supply chain; considers local foods, global foods, and food deserts; investigates the processing, packaging, and storage of food; explores the transportation networks that connect farm to plate; and explains how food can be tracked using sensors and the Internet of Things. Future food may be engineered, networked, and nearly independent of crops grown in fields. New technologies can make the food system more efficient—but at what cost to our traditionally close relationship with food?
Carbon Capture
Authors: Herzog Howard J.
Published: March 2019

A concise overview of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), a promising but overlooked climate change mitigation pathway.

The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide (CO2), and these CO2 emissions are a major driver of climate change. Carbon capture offers a path to climate change mitigation that has received relatively little attention. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Howard Herzog offers a concise guide to carbon capture, covering basic information as well as the larger context of climate technology and policy. Carbon capture, or carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), refers to a suite of technologies that reduce CO2 emissions by “capturing” CO2 before it is released into the atmosphere and then transporting it to where it will be stored or used. It is the only climate change mitigation technique that deals directly with fossil fuels rather than providing alternatives to them.

Herzog, a pioneer in carbon capture research, begins by discussing the fundamentals of climate change and how carbon capture can be one of the solutions. He explains capture and storage technologies, including chemical scrubbing and the injection of CO2 deep underground. He reports on current efforts to deploy CCS at factories and power plants and attempts to capture CO2 from the air itself. Finally, he explores the policies and politics in play around CCS and argues for elevating carbon capture in the policy agenda.
Fun, Taste, & Games
Authors: Sharp John , Thomas David
Published: March 2019

Reclaiming fun as a meaningful concept for understanding games and play.

“Fun” is somewhat ambiguous. If something is fun, is it pleasant? Entertaining? Silly? A way to trick students into learning? Fun also has baggage—it seems inconsequential, embarrassing, child's play. In Fun, Taste, & Games, John Sharp and David Thomas reclaim fun as a productive and meaningful tool for understanding and appreciating play and games. They position fun at the heart of the aesthetics of games. As beauty was to art, they argue, fun is to play and games—the aesthetic goal that we measure our experiences and interpretations against.

Sharp and Thomas use this fun-centered aesthetic framework to explore a range of games and game issues—from workplace bingo to Meow Wolf, from basketball to Myst, from the consumer marketplace to Marcel Duchamp. They begin by outlining three elements for understanding the drive, creation, and experience of fun: set-outsideness, ludic forms, and ambiguity. Moving from theory to practice and back again, they explore the complicated relationships among the titular fun, taste, and games. They consider, among other things, the dismissal of fun by game journalists and designers; the seminal but underinfluential game Myst, and how tastes change over time; the shattering of the gamer community in Gamergate; and an aesthetics of play that goes beyond games.
Qualitative Representations
Authors: Forbus Kenneth D.
Published: March 2019

An argument that qualitative representations—symbolic representations that carve continuous phenomena into meaningful units—are central to human cognition.

In this book, Kenneth Forbus proposes that qualitative representations hold the key to one of the deepest mysteries of cognitive science: how we reason and learn about the continuous phenomena surrounding us. Forbus argues that qualitative representations—symbolic representations that carve continuous phenomena into meaningful units—are central to human cognition. Qualitative representations provide a basis for commonsense reasoning, because they enable practical reasoning with very little data; this makes qualitative representations a useful component of natural language semantics. Qualitative representations also provide a foundation for expert reasoning in science and engineering by making explicit the broad categories of things that might happen and enabling causal models that help guide the application of more quantitative knowledge as needed. Qualitative representations are important for creating more human-like artificial intelligence systems with capabilities for spatial reasoning, vision, question answering, and understanding natural language.

Forbus discusses, among other topics, basic ideas of knowledge representation and reasoning; qualitative process theory; qualitative simulation and reasoning about change; compositional modeling; qualitative spatial reasoning; and learning and conceptual change. His argument is notable both for presenting an approach to qualitative reasoning in which analogical reasoning and learning play crucial roles and for marshaling a wide variety of evidence, including the performance of AI systems. Cognitive scientists will find Forbus's account of qualitative representations illuminating; AI scientists will value Forbus's new approach to qualitative representations and the overview he offers.
Mismatch
Authors: Holmes Kat
Published: March 2019

How inclusive methods can build elegant design solutions that work for all.

Sometimes designed objects reject their users: a computer mouse that doesn't work for left-handed people, for example, or a touchscreen payment system that only works for people who read English phrases, have 20/20 vision, and use a credit card. Something as simple as color choices can render a product unusable for millions. These mismatches are the building blocks of exclusion. In Mismatch, Kat Holmes describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion. Inclusive design methods—designing objects with rather than for excluded users—can create elegant solutions that work well and benefit all.

Holmes tells stories of pioneers of inclusive design, many of whom were drawn to work on inclusion because of their own experiences of exclusion. A gamer and designer who depends on voice recognition shows Holmes his “Wall of Exclusion,” which displays dozens of game controllers that require two hands to operate; an architect shares her firsthand knowledge of how design can fail communities, gleaned from growing up in Detroit's housing projects; an astronomer who began to lose her eyesight adapts a technique called “sonification” so she can “listen” to the stars.

Designing for inclusion is not a feel-good sideline. Holmes shows how inclusion can be a source of innovation and growth, especially for digital technologies. It can be a catalyst for creativity and a boost for the bottom line as a customer base expands. And each time we remedy a mismatched interaction, we create an opportunity for more people to contribute to society in meaningful ways.
Metamodeling
Authors: Agrawal Subhash C.
Published: March 2019

In recent years, many approximate methods have been developed for analyzing queueing models of complex computer systems. These ad hoc methods usually focus on specific aspects of system operation, and appear to be different from one another, making it difficult to see the underlying principles of model development, to understand the relationship between different models of the same system, or to apply the existing methods to new situations. This book presents the first systematic study of approximation methods in queueing network modeling and of the way these methods are developed. Metamodeling identifies the underlying modeling process and provides tools and techniques for model development that will allow students and researchers to sort through the many different methods, understand them, and apply them to new problems. Using the metamodeling characterization, the book surveys and classifies a large number of approximation methods, catalogs a large number of useful model transformations, characterizes iterative solution procedures and gives theorems for proofs of convergence. This work has led to several other significant results, most notably: an approximation that works well for systems containing semaphores that serialize processes; and the discovery of multiple stable operating points for systems in which there are processes at several priority levels.

Contents Queueing Network Models of Computer Systems • The Structure of the Modeling Process • Behavior Sequence Transformations and Models with Shadow Servers • State Space Transformations • Consistent Solution, Iteration, and Convergence

This book inaugurates the MIT Press series in Computer Systems (Research Reports and Notes), edited by Herb Schwetman.
Performance and Evaluation of LISP Systems
Authors: Gabriel Richard P.
Published: March 2019

This final report of the Stanford Lisp Performance Study, conducted over a three year period by the author, describes implementation techniques, performance tradeoffs, benchmarking techniques, and performance results for all of the major Lisp dialects in use today. A popular highlevel programming language used predominantly in artificial intelligence, Lisp was the first language to concentrate on working with symbols instead of numbers. Lisp was introduced by John McCarthy in the early 1960s (McCarthy's LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual published in 1962 is available in paperback from The MIT Press) and its continuous development has enabled it to remain dominant in artificial intelligence. Performance and Evaluation of LISP Systems is the first book to present descriptions on the Lisp implementation techniques actually in use and can serve as a handbook to the implementation details of all of the various current Lisp expressions. It provides detailed performance information using the tools of benchmarking (the process of utilizing standardized computer programs to test the processing power of different computer systems) to measure the various Lisp systems, and provides an understanding of the technical tradeoffs made during the implementation of a Lisp system. The study is divided into three major parts. The first provides the theoretical background, outlining the factors that go into evaluating the performance of a Lisp system. The second part presents the Lisp implementations: MacLisp, MIT CADR, LMI Lambda, S-I Lisp, Franz Lisp, MIL, Spice Lisp, Vax Common Lisp, Portable Standard Lisp, and Xerox D-Machine. A final part describes the benchmark suite that was used during the major portion of the study and the results themselves.

Performance and Evaluation of Lisp Systems is included in the Computer Systems series, Research Reports and Notes, edited by Herb Schwetman.
Performance Analysis of Data-Sharing Environments
Authors: Dan Asit
Published: March 2019

Large transaction-processing applications, such as banking, flight reservations, telecommunications, and networking, demand increasingly high throughput and fast response times. Coupling multiple systems for database transaction processing can provide these systems with higher capacity and availability at a lower cost. Data sharing is one promising architecture for such an environment.This monograph develops a comprehensive model for analyzing the design and performance of a complex data-sharing environment that consists of multiple, loosely coupled transaction-processing nodes with a common database at the disk level. By capturing the salient features of this data sharing architecture database buffers at each node with their buffer management policies, concurrency control, buffer coherency, nonuniform database access, and CPU queueing delay - the model can be used to answer a number of design questions about scalability, buffer utilization, skewed access, policy selection, and optimal system configuration. Included are two new submodels, for private and shared buffers.
The Reasoned Schemer
Authors: Friedman Daniel P. , Byrd William E. , Kiselyov Oleg
Published: March 2019

Extending the functional language Scheme with logical constructs in order to help the functional programmer think logically and the logic programmer think functionally.

The goal of The Reasoned Schemer is to help the functional programmer think logically and the logic programmer think functionally. The authors of The Reasoned Schemer believe that logic programming is a natural extension of functional programming, and they demonstrate this by extending the functional language Scheme with logical constructs—thereby combining the benefits of both styles. The extension encapsulates most of the ideas in the logic programming language Prolog. The pedagogical method of The Reasoned Schemer is a series of questions and answers, which proceed with the characteristic humor that marked The Little Schemer and The Seasoned Schemer. Familiarity with a functional language or with the first eight chapters of The Little Schemer is assumed. Adding logic capabilities required the introduction of new forms. The authors' goal is to show to what extent writing logic programs is the same as writing functional programs using these forms. In this way, the reader of The Reasoned Schemer will come to understand how simple logic programming is and how easy it is to define functions that behave like relations.
Semantics, Tense, and Time
Authors: Ludlow Peter
Published: March 2019

According to Peter Ludlow, there is a very close relation between the structure of natural language and that of reality, and one can gain insights into long-standing metaphysical questions by studying the semantics of natural language. In this book Ludlow uses the metaphysics of time as a case study and focuses on the dispute between A-theorists and B-theorists about the nature of time. According to B-theorists, there is no genuine change, but a permanent sequence of events ordered by an earlier-than/later-than relation. According to the version of the A-theory adopted by Ludlow (a position sometimes called "presentism"), there are no past or future events or times; what makes something past or future is how the world stands right now.

Ludlow argues that each metaphysical picture is tied to a particular semantical theory of tense and that the dispute can be adjudicated on semantical grounds. A presentism-compatible semantics, he claims, is superior to a B-theory semantics in a number of respects, including its abilities to handle the indexical nature of temporal discourse and to account for facts about language acquisition. Along the way, Ludlow develops a conception of "E-type" temporal anaphora that can account for both temporal anaphora and complex tenses without reference to past and future events. His view has philosophical consequences for theories of logic, self-knowledge, and memory. As for linguistic consequences, Ludlow suggests that the very idea of grammatical tense may have to be dispensed with and replaced with some combination of aspect, modality, and evidentiality.

Bradford Books imprint
A Social History of Engineering
Authors: Armytage W. H. G.
Published: March 2019

How social and economic conditions have precipitated advances in engineering.

A Social History of Engineering shows how social and economic conditions in each age have precipitated advances in engineering. There are, in short, economic, political, and philosophical implications in changing technologies. While the book begins with the Stone Age, the Greeks, and the Romans, the bulk of the volume concentrates on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A Social History of Engineering reflects Professor Armytage's special subject area interests, namely nineteenth-century industrial society, radical and socialist movements, the history of professional organization, and the study of higher and technical education.
State Variables and Communication Theory
Authors: Baggeroer Arthur B.
Published: March 2019

Although state variable concepts are a part of modern control theory, they have not been extensively applied in communication theory. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate how the concepts and methods of state variables can be used advantageously in analyzing a variety of communication theory problems. In contrast to the impulse response and covariance function description of systems and random processes commonly used in the analysis of communication problems, Professor Baggeroer points out that a state variable approach describes these systems and processes in terms of differential equations and their excitation, which is usually a white-noise process. Theoretically, such a description provides a very general characterization on which a large class of systems, possibly time varying and nonlinear, can be modeled. Practically, the state variable approach often provides a more representative physical description of the actual dynamics of the systems involved and, most importantly, can lead to solution techniques that are readily implemented on a computer and that yield specific numerical results.

The work focuses on how state variables can be used to solve several of the integral equations that recur in communication theory including, for example, the Kahunen-Loeve theorem, the detection of a known signal in the presence of a colored noise, and the Wiener-Hopf equation. The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the development from first principles of the state variable solution techniques for homogeneous and inhomogeneous Fredholm integral solutions. The second part considers two specific applications of the author's integral equation theory: to optimal signal design for colored noise channels, and to linear estimation theory.

The main thrust of the material presented in this book is toward finding effective numerical procedures for analyzing complex problems. Professor Baggeroer has combined several different mathematical tools not commonly used together to attack the detection and signal design problems. Numerous examples are presented throughout the book to emphasize the numerical aspects of the author's methods. If the reader is familiar with detection and estimation theory and with deterministic state variable concepts, the ideas, techniques, and results contained in this work will prove highly relevant, if not directly applicable, to a large number of communication theory problems.

MIT Research Monograph No. 61
Thermodynamics for Chemical Engineers
Authors: Bett K. E. , Rowlinson J. S. , Saville G.
Published: March 2019

This textbook covers the thermodynamics needed by chemical engineers both in their engineering and in their chemistry; it is intended for use in all undergraduate and some graduate-level courses. The authors emphasize a rigorous yet concise presentation of the fundamental chemical concepts governing the behavior of single and multicomponent mixtures, including phase and chemical equilibria. In the application of these concepts, consideration is given to the presentation of experimentally measured thermodynamic properties, and to their prediction for real fluids and their mixtures using methods founded on statistical mechanics. Several applications involving the transfer of heat and work that are of special importance to chemical engineers are studied in detail to show the use of thermodynamics in improving performance. The book is written in SI units and contains worked examples, exercises, and problems.
Speaking Code
Authors: Cox Geoff , McLean Alex
Published: March 2019

The aesthetic and political implications of working with code as procedure, expression, and action.

Speaking Code begins by invoking the “Hello World” convention used by programmers when learning a new language, helping to establish the interplay of text and code that runs through the book. Interweaving the voice of critical writing from the humanities with the tradition of computing and software development, in Speaking Code Geoff Cox formulates an argument that aims to undermine the distinctions between criticism and practice and to emphasize the aesthetic and political implications of software studies.

Not reducible to its functional aspects, program code mirrors the instability inherent in the relationship of speech to language; it is only interpretable in the context of its distribution and network of operations. Code is understood as both script and performance, Cox argues, and is in this sense like spoken language—always ready for action.

Speaking Code examines the expressive and performative aspects of programming; alternatives to mainstream development, from performances of the live-coding scene to the organizational forms of peer production; the democratic promise of social media and their actual role in suppressing political expression; and the market's emptying out of possibilities for free expression in the public realm. Cox defends language against its invasion by economics, arguing that speech continues to underscore the human condition, however paradoxical this may seem in an era of pervasive computing.
Computational Models of Referring
Authors: van Deemter Kees
Published: March 2019

An argument that computational models can shed light on referring, a fundamental and much-studied aspect of communication.

To communicate, speakers need to make it clear what they are talking about. The act of referring, which anchors words to things, is a fundamental aspect of language. In this book, Kees van Deemter shows that computational models of reference offer attractive tools for capturing the complexity of referring. Indeed, the models van Deemter presents cover many issues beyond the basic idea of referring to an object, including reference to sets, approximate descriptions, descriptions produced under uncertainty concerning the hearer's knowledge, and descriptions that aim to inform or influence the hearer.

The book, which can be read as a case study in cognitive science, draws on perspectives from across the cognitive sciences, including philosophy, experimental psychology, formal logic, and computer science. Van Deemter advocates a combination of computational modeling and careful experimentation as the preferred method for expanding these insights. He then shows this method in action, covering a range of algorithms and a variety of methods for testing them. He shows that the method allows us to model logically complicated referring expressions, and demonstrates how we can gain an understanding of reference in situations where the speaker's knowledge is difficult to assess or where the referent resists exact definition. Finally, he proposes a program of research that addresses the open questions that remain in this area, arguing that this program can significantly enhance our understanding of human communication.
Maintenance Architecture
Authors: Sample Hilary
Published: March 2019

An inventive examination of a crucial but neglected aspect of architecture, by an architect writing to architects.

Maintenance plays a crucial role in the production and endurance of architecture, yet architects for the most part treat maintenance with indifference. The discipline of architecture values the image of the new over the lived-in, the photogenic empty and stark building over a messy and labored one. But the fact is: homes need to be cleaned and buildings and cities need to be maintained, and architecture no matter its form cannot escape from such realities. In Maintenance Architecture, Hilary Sample offers an inventive examination of the architectural significance of maintenance through a series of short texts and images about specific buildings, materials, and projects. Although architects have seldom choose to represent maintenance—imagining their work only from conception to realization—artists have long explored subjects of endurance and permanence in iconic architecture. Sample explores a range of art projects—by artists including Gordon Matta-Clark, Jeff Wall, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles—to recast the problem of maintenance for architecture. How might architectural design and discourse change as a building cycle expands to include “post-occupancy”?

Sample looks particularly at the private home, exhibition pavilion, and high-rise urban building, giving special attention to buildings constructed with novel and developing materials, technologies, and precise detailing in relation to endurance. These include Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House (1929), the Lever House (1952), the U.S. Steel Building (1971), and the O-14 (2010). She considers the iconography of skyscrapers; maintenance workforces, both public and private; labor-saving technology and devices; and contemporary architectural projects and preservation techniques that encompass the afterlife of buildings. A selection of artworks make the usually invisible aspects of maintenance visible, from Martha Rosler's Cleaning the Drapes to Inigo Manglano-Ovalle's The Kiss.
Script Changers
Authors: Peppler Kylie , Santo Rafi , Gresalfi Melissa , Salen Tekinbaş Katie
Published: March 2019

Helping students create interactive and animated stories about positive change in their communities.

Script Changers shows the ways that stories offer a lens for seeing the world as a series of systems. It provides opportunities for students to create interactive and animated stories about creating positive change in their communities. These projects utilize the Scratch visual programming environment.