bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A New Reassigned Spectrogram Method in Interference Detection for GNSS Receivers
Authors: Sun Kewen , Jin Tian , Yang Dongkai
Published: September 2015

Interference detection is very important for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. Current work on interference detection in GNSS receivers has mainly focused on time-frequency (TF) analysis techniques, such as spectrogram and Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD), where the spectrogram approach presents the TF resolution trade-off problem, since the analysis window is used, and the WVD method suffers from the very serious cross-term problem, due to its quadratic TF distribution nature. In order to solve the cross-term problem and to preserve good TF resolution in the TF plane at the same time, in this paper, a new TF distribution by using a reassigned spectrogram has been proposed in interference detection for GNSS receivers. This proposed reassigned spectrogram method efficiently combines the elimination of the cross-term provided by the spectrogram itself according to its inherent nature and the improvement of the TF aggregation property achieved by the reassignment method. Moreover, a notch filter has been adopted in interference mitigation for GNSS receivers, where receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) are used as metrics for the characterization of interference mitigation performance. The proposed interference detection method by using a reassigned spectrogram is evaluated by experiments on GPS L1 signals in the disturbing scenarios in comparison to the state-of-the-art TF analysis approaches. The analysis results show that the proposed interference detection technique effectively overcomes the cross-term problem and also keeps good TF localization properties, which has been proven to be valid and effective to enhance the interference Sensors 2015, 15 22168 detection performance; in addition, the adoption of the notch filter in interference mitigation has shown a significant acquisition performance improvement in terms of ROC curves for GNSS receivers in jamming environments.
Simulations of Interdigitated Electrode Interactions with Gold Nanoparticles for Impedance-Based Biosensing Applications
Authors: MacKay Scott , Hermansen Peter , Wishart David , Chen Jie
Published: September 2015

In this paper, we describe a point-of-care biosensor design. The uniqueness of our design is in its capability for detecting a wide variety of target biomolecules and the simplicity of nanoparticle enhanced electrical detection. The electrical properties of interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) and the mechanism for gold nanoparticle-enhanced impedance-based biosensor systems based on these electrodes are simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software. Understanding these properties and how they can be affected is vital in designing effective biosensor devices. Simulations were used to show electrical screening develop over time for IDEs in a salt solution, as well as the electric field between individual digits of electrodes. Using these simulations, it was observed that gold nanoparticles bound closely to IDEs can lower the electric field magnitude between the digits of the electrode. The simulations are also shown to be a useful design tool in optimizing sensor function. Various different conditions, such as electrode dimensions and background ion concentrations, are shown to have a significant impact on the simulations.
Multi-Wavelength Based Optical Density Sensor for Autonomous Monitoring of Microalgae
Authors: Jia Fei , Kacira Murat , Ogden Kimberly
Published: September 2015

A multi-wavelength based optical density sensor unit was designed, developed, and evaluated to monitor microalgae growth in real time. The system consisted of five main components including: (1) laser diode modules as light sources; (2) photodiodes as detectors; (3) driver circuit; (4) flow cell; and (5) sensor housing temperature controller. The sensor unit was designed to be integrated into any microalgae culture system for both real time and non-real time optical density measurements and algae growth monitoring applications. It was shown that the sensor unit was capable of monitoring the dynamics and physiological changes of the microalgae culture in real-time. Algae biomass concentration was accurately estimated with optical density measurements at 650, 685 and 780 nm wavelengths used by the sensor unit. The sensor unit was able to monitor cell concentration as high as 1.05 g·L−1 (1.51 × 108 cells·mL−1) during the culture growth without any sample preparation for the measurements. Since high cell concentrations do not need to be diluted using the sensor unit, the system has the potential to be used in industrial microalgae cultivation systems for real time monitoring and control applications that can lead to improved resource use efficiency.
An Apta-Biosensor for Colon Cancer Diagnostics
Authors: Raji Mojgan , Amoabediny Ghasem , Tajik Parviz , Hosseini Morteza , Ghafar-Zadeh Ebrahim
Published: September 2015

This paper reports the design and implementation of an aptasensor using a modified KCHA10a aptamer. This aptasensor consists of a functionalized electrodes using various materials including 11-mercaptoandecanoic acid (11-MUA) and modified KCHA10a aptamer. The HCT 116, HT 29 and HEp-2 cell lines are used in this study to demonstrate the functionality of aptasensor for colon cancer detection purposes. Flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy and electrochemical cyclic voltammetry are used to verify the binding between the target cells and aptamer. The limit of detection (LOD) of this aptasensor is equal to seven cancer cells. Based on the experimental results, the proposed sensor can be employed for point-of-care cancer disease diagnostics.
Step Response Characteristics of Polymer/Ceramic Pressure-Sensitive Paint
Authors: Pandey Anshuman , Gregory James
Published: September 2015

Experiments and numerical simulations have been used in this work to understand the step response characteristics of Polymer/Ceramic Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PC-PSP). A recently developed analytical model describing the essential physics in PC-PSP quenching kinetics is used, which includes the effect of both diffusion time scale and luminescent lifetime on the net response of PC-PSP. Step response simulations using this model enables an understanding of the effects of parameters, such as the diffusion coefficient of O2 in the polymer/ceramic coating, attenuation of excitation light, ambient luminescent lifetime, sensitivity, and the magnitude and direction of pressure change on the observed response time scales of PC-PSP. It was found that higher diffusion coefficient and greater light attenuation lead to faster response, whereas longer ambient lifetime and larger sensitivity lead to slower response characteristics. Due to the inherent non-linearity of the Stern-Volmer equation, response functions also change with magnitude and direction of the pressure change. Experimental results from a shock tube are presented where the effects of varying the roughness, pressure jump magnitude and luminophore probe have been studied. Model parameters have been varied to obtain a good fit to experimental results and this optimized model is then used to obtain the response time for a step decrease in pressure, an estimate of which is currently not obtainable from experiments.
Novel X-ray Communication Based XNAV Augmentation Method Using X-ray Detectors
Authors: Song Shibin , Xu Luping , Zhang Hua , Bai Yuanjie
Published: September 2015

The further development of X-ray pulsar-based NAVigation (XNAV) is hindered by its lack of accuracy, so accuracy improvement has become a critical issue for XNAV. In this paper, an XNAV augmentation method which utilizes both pulsar observation and X-ray ranging observation for navigation filtering is proposed to deal with this issue. As a newly emerged concept, X-ray communication (XCOM) shows great potential in space exploration. X-ray ranging, derived from XCOM, could achieve high accuracy in range measurement, which could provide accurate information for XNAV. For the proposed method, the measurement models of pulsar observation and range measurement observation are established, and a Kalman filtering algorithm based on the observations and orbit dynamics is proposed to estimate the position and velocity of a spacecraft. A performance comparison of the proposed method with the traditional pulsar observation method is conducted by numerical experiments. Besides, the parameters that influence the performance of the proposed method, such as the pulsar observation time, the SNR of the ranging signal, etc., are analyzed and evaluated by numerical experiments.
Towards Low Energy Atrial Defibrillation
Authors: Walsh Philip , Kodoth Vivek , McEneaney David , Rodrigues Paola , Velasquez Jose , Waterman Niall , Escalona Omar
Published: September 2015

A wireless powered implantable atrial defibrillator consisting of a battery driven hand-held radio frequency (RF) power transmitter (ex vivo) and a passive (battery free) implantable power receiver (in vivo) that enables measurement of the intracardiac impedance (ICI) during internal atrial defibrillation is reported. The architecture is designed to operate in two modes: Cardiac sense mode (power-up, measure the impedance of the cardiac substrate and communicate data to the ex vivo power transmitter) and cardiac shock mode (delivery of a synchronised very low tilt rectilinear electrical shock waveform). An initial prototype was implemented and tested. In low-power (sense) mode, >5 W was delivered across a 2.5 cm air-skin gap to facilitate measurement of the impedance of the cardiac substrate. In high-power (shock) mode, >180 W (delivered as a 12 ms monophasic very-low-tilt-rectilinear (M-VLTR) or as a 12 ms biphasic very-low-tilt-rectilinear (B-VLTR) chronosymmetric (6ms/6ms) amplitude asymmetric (negative phase at 50% magnitude) shock was reliably and repeatedly delivered across the same interface; with >47% DC-to-DC (direct current to direct current) power transfer efficiency at a switching frequency of 185 kHz achieved. In an initial trial of the RF architecture developed, 30 patients with AF were randomised to therapy with an RF generated M-VLTR or B-VLTR shock using a step-up voltage protocol (50–300 V). Mean energy for successful cardioversion was 8.51 J ± 3.16 J. Subsequent analysis revealed that all patients who cardioverted exhibited a significant decrease in ICI between the first and third shocks (5.00 Ω (SD(σ) = 1.62 Ω), p < 0.01) while spectral analysis across frequency also revealed a significant variation in the impedance-amplitude-spectrum-area (IAMSA) within the same patient group (|∆(IAMSAS1-IAMSAS3)[1 Hz − 20 kHz] = 20.82 Ω-Hz (SD(σ) = 10.77 Ω-Hz), p < 0.01); both trends being absent in all patients that failed to cardiovert. Efficient transcutaneous power transfer and sensing of ICI during cardioversion are evidenced as key to the advancement of low-energy atrial defibrillation.
EPPS: Efficient and Privacy-Preserving Personal Health Information Sharing in Mobile Healthcare Social Networks
Authors: Jiang Shunrong , Zhu Xiaoyan , Wang Liangmin
Published: September 2015

Mobile healthcare social networks (MHSNs) have emerged as a promising next-generation healthcare system, which will significantly improve the quality of life. However, there are many security and privacy concerns before personal health information (PHI) is shared with other parities. To ensure patients’ full control over their PHI, we propose a fine-grained and scalable data access control scheme based on attribute-based encryption (ABE). Besides, policies themselves for PHI sharing may be sensitive and may reveal information about underlying PHI or about data owners or recipients. In our scheme, we let each attribute contain an attribute name and its value and adopt the Bloom filter to efficiently check attributes before decryption. Thus, the data privacy and policy privacy can be preserved in our proposed scheme. Moreover, considering the fact that the computational cost grows with the complexity of the access policy and the limitation of the resource and energy in a smart phone, we outsource ABE decryption to the cloud while preventing the cloud from learning anything about the content and access policy. The security and performance analysis is carried out to demonstrate that our proposed scheme can achieve fine-grained access policies for PHI sharing in MHSNs.
Comparative Exergoeconomic Analyses of Gas Turbine Steam Injection Cycles with and without Fogging Inlet Cooling
Authors: Athari Hassan , Soltani Saeed , Rosen Marc , Mahmoudi Seyed , Morosuk Tatiana
Published: September 2015

The results are reported of exergoeconomic analyses of a simple gas turbine cycle without a fogging system (SGT), a simple steam injection gas turbine cycle (STIG), and a steam injection gas turbine cycle with inlet fogging cooler (FSTIG). The results show that (1) a gas-turbine cycle with steam injection and simultaneous cooling has a higher power output than the other considered cycle; (2) at maximum energy efficiency conditions the gas turbine has the highest exergy efficiency of the cycle components and the lowest value of exergy efficiency is calculated for the fog cooler, where the mixing of air and water at greatly different temperatures causes the high exergy destruction; and (3) utilization of the fogging cooler in the steam injection cycle increases the exergy destruction in the combustion chamber. Furthermore, the simple gas turbine cycle is found to be more economic as its relative cost difference, total unit product cost, and exergoeconomic factors are less than those for the two other configurations. However, its efficiency and net power output are notably lower than for the gas turbine with steam injection and/or fog cooling. The total unit product cost is highest for the simple gas turbine with steam injection.
Sharing Benefits in Transboundary Rivers: An Experimental Case Study of Central Asian Water-Energy-Agriculture Nexus
Authors: Jalilov Shokhrukh-Mirzo , Varis Olli , Keskinen Marko
Published: September 2015

Cooperation in transboundary river basins is challenged by the riparian countries’ differing needs for water use. This is the case especially in Amu Darya Basin in Central Asia, where upstream Tajikistan is building the Rogun Hydropower Plant (RHP) to increase its energy security, while the downstream countries oppose the plant due to the feared negative impacts to their irrigated agriculture. Several experimental scenarios illustrate how the concept of benefit sharing could be used as a framework to investigate these water-energy-agriculture linkages in a transboundary context. Using a hydro-economic model, we investigate the economic benefits of various scenarios emphasizing agricultural and/or energy production, thus benefiting the riparian countries uniquely. Subsequently, we discuss how benefit-sharing arrangements with different forms of compensations could be used as a mechanism to facilitate transboundary cooperation. Our results indicate that several scenarios have a potential to increase the total energy-agriculture benefits in the basin. Yet, agreeing on the actual benefit-sharing mechanism between the countries poses special challenges as each may require countries to give up some of their anticipated maximum potential benefits. The presented scenarios provide a potential starting point for debates over benefit-sharing arrangements across countries needing to address the water-energy-agriculture nexus.
The Constitutional Right to the Protection of the Environment in the Netherlands
Authors: Verschuuren Jonathan
Published: September 2015

Depuis 1983, le droit à l'environnement est un droit fondamental inscrit dans l'article 21 de la Constitution des Pays-Bas. Toutefois, il ne s'agit pas d'un droit des citoyens, mais d'un devoir de l'Etat. Cet article étudie les obligations qui en découlent pour les pouvoirs législatif, exécutif et judiciaire et observe une certaine réticence à recourir à l'article 21, qui conserve pour le moment une valeur plus morale que strictement juridique.
Le juge administratif : juge vert ? Le point de vue d'un avocat
Authors: Pittard Yves
Published: September 2015

Le juge administratif est-il un protecteur efficace de l'environnement ?

S'en tenant à des considérations techniques tirées de la pratique et de l'observation quotidiennes du contentieux administratif, l'avocat est enclin à répondre positivement à la question ainsi posée.

S'il est vrai qu'elle est liée à un certain nombre d'éléments qui, pour partie, échappent à sa maîtrise (délais de sa saisine, restrictions apportées à l'utilisation du mécanisme de l'exception d'illégalité, modalités d'exécution [ou d'inexécution] de ses décisions), l'efficacité de la protection assurée par lui ne paraît pas, pour autant, sérieusement contestable.

S'agissant de l'accès au prétoire, et même si elle est souvent jugée par trop restrictive, la jurisprudence relative à l'appréciation de l'intérêt donnant qualité pour agir ne devrait pas constituer un véritable obstacle à l'exercice des recours. Par ailleurs, il ne saurait être fait grief au juge de faire preuve de frilosité dans l'exercice de son contrôle sur les décisions contestées.

Bien au contraire, chaque fois que les normes au respect desquelles il doit veiller lui ménagent des « espaces de liberté », il en use dans le sens de la protection de l'environnement.

Sans doute, les délais de jugement sont-ils souvent invoqués pour mettre en doute l'efficacité de l'intervention du juge.

Il est toutefois permis de s'interroger sur le point de savoir si cette lenteur, combinée avec un maniement adroit du mécanisme du sursis à exécution, ne serait pas, en définitive, plus préjudiciable aux intérêts des maîtres d'ouvrages qu'à ceux des défenseurs de l'environnement.

Enfin, si jusqu'à maintenant, les conditions d'exécution de ses décisions échappaient très largement au juge, alors même qu'il en va pourtant de sa crédibilité, la loi du 8 février 1995 devrait apporter une amélioration sensible à la situation antérieure.

Les tribunaux et les cours pourront en effet, pour assurer l'exécution de leurs décisions, adresser des injonctions à l'autorité administrative, en les assortissant, le cas échéant, d'une astreinte.
Latent ruthenium–indenylidene catalysts bearing a N-heterocyclic carbene and a bidentate picolinate ligand
Authors: Schmid Thibault E , Modicom Florian , Dumas Adrien , Borré Etienne , Toupet Loic , Baslé Olivier , Mauduit Marc
Published: September 2015

A silver-free methodology was developed for the synthesis of unprecedented N-heterocyclic carbene ruthenium indenylidene complexes bearing a bidentate picolinate ligand. The highly stable (SIPr)(picolinate)RuCl(indenylidene) complex 4a (SIPr = 1,3-bis(2-6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazolidin-2-ylidene) demonstrated excellent latent behaviour in ring closing metathesis (RCM) reaction and could be activated in the presence of a Brønsted acid. The versatility of the catalyst 4a was subsequently demonstrated in RCM, cross-metathesis (CM) and enyne metathesis reactions.
Factors That Promote and Impede the Academic Success of African American Students in Prelicensure Nursing Education: An Integrative Review
Authors: Murray Teri A.
Published: September 2015

Background:

The aim of this review is to identify factors that impact the academic success of African American nursing students in prelicensure nursing education programs, given the need for RN health care workers to be more reflective of the general U.S. population.

Method:

A literature review was conducted to integrate the findings of the research related to African American nursing students in entry-level nursing programs to identify perceived barriers and supports to their retention and graduation.

Results:

The review revealed alienation, isolation, and being different as barriers to success. Academic support, mentoring, and integration and inclusivity were factors that helped promote success.

Conclusion:

Recommendations for the establishment of diversity and inclusivity plans, structured enrichment and academic support services, mentorship, and activities that fostered student engagement and integration were actions that could contribute to the academic success of African American nursing students. [
J Nurs Educ.
2015;54(9, Suppl.):S74–S81.]
Promoting Success of Ethnic Minority and Male Students in an Accelerated, Entry-Level Master of Nursing Program: The SUSTAIN Program
Authors: Cowan Patricia A. , Weeks Y’Esha , Wicks Mona Newsome
Published: September 2015

Background:

Diverse health care workers are essential to meet the needs of a diverse U.S. population. Ethnic minorities and men are frequently underrepresented in the nursing profession and within schools of nursing. Although many nursing schools have implemented programs to improve retention and academic success of these students, the lack of success is, in part, a reflection of program ineffectiveness.

Method:

A nursing college developed the multifaceted SUSTAIN (
S
cholarships for
U
nderrepresented
S
tudents in an
A
ccelerated
I
nitial
N
ursing) program to promote ethnic minority and male students’ success in an accelerated entry-level master of nursing program. Students engaged in mentoring, academic support, and service-learning activities.

Results:

Participants (
N
= 51) achieved 100% retention and graduation rates and a 92% first-time NCLEX-RN
®
examination pass rate. Program students participated in professional organizations and held leadership roles within the college.

Conclusion:

Implementation of a program focused on student retention and success is recommended for diverse students enrolled in accelerated entry-level master of nursing programs. [
J Nurs Educ.
2015;54(9, Suppl.):S112–S115.]
Redemption through MOOCs?
Authors: Starr-Glass David
Published: September 2015

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received considerable publicity over the last few years. Since they offer costless learning experiences, many have seen them as a way of reducing the costs of higher education. A commonly suggested approach is that learners should be able to take a range of MOOCs and use their certificates of completion to assemble a portfolio that reflects their learning accomplishments, with separate educational market-providers offering services such as advisement, assessment, and accreditation of the portfolio content. It is speculated that this fracturing, or disaggregation, of the current higher educating system would allow learners greater choice and reduce the costs of obtaining accredited degrees. This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges presented by MOOCs and the economic and educational implications of a proposed disaggregation of the higher education system. The analysis suggests that disaggregation would not necessarily reduced costs, but that it would inevitably destroy much of the unpaid-for-value that resides for graduates in the current aggregated system of higher education.
Using Visualization to Understand Transformations in Learning and Design in MOOCs
Authors: Williams Roy , Mackness Jenny , Pauschenwein Jutta
Published: September 2015

MOOCs have captured the attention of large numbers of learners (and a few venture capitalists). Clearly something exciting and different is happening which is transforming how people learn, what people learn, as well as how learning events are designed and valued. This chapter attempts to understand these transformations, using a visualization tool (Footprints of Emergence) which enables learners, teachers, designers and researchers to reflect on, articulate, and learn from these reflections. The tool enables all of them to map the emergent and transformational aspects of learning in large groups, such as MOOCs. It requires the person engaging with the learning process to be honest and courageous – because they are engaging not only with their learning, but also with themselves and their own identities – personal, social, cultural and professional. Epistemic and ontological shifts in transformative learning are difficult, even scary and unsettling. We demonstrate how the Footprints of Emergence described here can help people to navigate through the uncertainty and unpredictability with some degree of reassurance.
Toward Mobile Assisted Language MOOCs
Authors: Read Timothy , Bárcena Elena
Published: September 2015

MOOCs are presented in this article as a fundamental change in the access to education in the world. While not necessarily a completely new invention, the technological context was ripe for them to take off and become established as an important step forward in providing open education for a large number of people. It is argued that MOOCs, if correctly structured and managed, can harness the best of both formal and informal learning, to help students develop their receptive, productive and interactive language competences. It is, therefore, possible to talk about Language MOOCs, or LMOOCs, as a sub-field within MOOC research and practice. Activities that revolve around collaboration and peer review, resting upon basic linguistic notions of the target language, while arguably not as fruitful or enjoyable as direct interaction with native speakers, can still greatly motivate students to experiment with new language and become more proactive than they would in other learning environments. Furthermore, while focussing on the mistakes of other students, they are implicitly reviewing and refining their own comprehension and production. If mobile assisted language learning, or MALL, is talked about as the application of mobile technology to language learning, then given the potential of such technology to increase both the access of students to LMOOCs and also provide them with complementary tools for the courses, we can begin to talk about Mobile Assisted LMOOCs, or MALMOOCs. In this chapter, the nature of LMOOCs is discussed together with the potential role of mobile devices, argued to be the digital equivalent of the Swiss army knife, offering a rich and flexible way of interacting with the real world based upon the array of sensors present and the apps that can be installed on them.
The Role of Information System within Enterprise Architecture and their Impact on Business Performance
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: September 2015

This chapter introduces the role of Information Systems (IS) within enterprise architecture and their impact on business performance, thus explaining the theoretical and practical concepts of Information Technology (IT), technical alignment, IS capabilities, IS effectiveness, enterprise architecture, and business performance; the implementation of IT strategy; and the importance of IS within enterprise architecture and their impact on business performance; and the application of IS within enterprise architecture and their impact on business performance. The focus on the role of IS within enterprise architectures and their impact on business performance by utilizing IT based on the practical application of IT, technical alignment, IS capabilities, and IS effectiveness is to connect people, processes, and technology for the purpose of maximizing corporate IT, technical alignment, IS capabilities, and IS effectiveness. Applying IS within enterprise architecture will greatly enhance business performance and reach business goals in digital age.
Service-Driven Computing with APIs
Authors: Jayathilaka Hiranya , Krintz Chandra , Wolski Rich
Published: September 2015

While both SOAP and REST have been used widely to implement Web services and software integration, over time REST has emerged as the predominant approach. REST provides developers with a lower barrier to entry for implementation and greater development flexibility than SOAP. Its architectural conventions and best practices can be integrated into Web services incrementally as opposed to the all-or-nothing adoption of SOAP. In order to achieve generality, SOAP standards are extensive, rigid, and complex. This complexity can lead to implementations that introduce significant overhead on the network bandwidth consumption, execution times, and throughput of SOAP services, especially in the emerging resource-restricted mobile realm. This chapter provides an overview of the logical and physical design of modern Web services and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the predominant styles. It provides evidence and reasoning behind the emergence of REST as the leader for the development of next-generation Web APIs and services. The chapter also delineates the key technologies that underlie REST and describes emerging and future research directions in support of REST-based APIs and service development.
Website Usability
Authors: Falk Louis K. , Sockel Hy , Chen Kuanchin
Published: September 2015

The original conceptualization of usability was ease of use, this was later expanded into a multi-dimensional construct in ISO standards and usability literature. Such an expansion is seen as an improvement, since cross-study comparison or benchmarking cannot objectively be done without a common set of usability components being defined. The current issue lies in how these components are operationalized, measured and validated. Although ISO standards ties usability to contextual situations, recent research has started to also recognize psychographic and demographic variations within the same context. The purpose of this study is to review web site usability as it relates to ISO standards (more specifically ISO 9126, ISO 9241 and ISO/IEC 25010) and existing usability studies. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided.
Application of Data Mining in e-Commerce
Authors: Chajri Mohamed , Fakir Mohamed
Published: September 2015

The web in recent years has been a big trend, which helped make it a source of information and essential in the various fields of research, in particular, the commercial area that represents the e-commerce (electronic commerce). However, the competition in the e-commerce sites is very tight. This has pushed companies to conserve and retain customers rather than seeking to expand its market share by conquering politically. These requirements have introduced the extraction of knowledge from data in e-commerce sites, using data mining techniques. This article will be an introduction to the concept of data mining, a definition of economic concepts related to e-commerce, and the authors' approach to the application of data mining techniques in e-commerce.
Connecting Communication to Curriculum and Pedagogy in Online Environments
Authors: Boboc Marius
Published: September 2015

This chapter relies on the analysis of communicative patterns, discursive sequences, and instructional strategies featured in an entirely online graduate level course featuring a combination of compulsory and optional chat sessions. Findings emphasize the use of communication dynamics to promote social presence and socially-mediated learning in online learning communities, which, for the purpose of this research project, are represented by the required synchronous discussions used in class. Recommendations focus on employing a flexible pedagogy that takes into account student characteristics, appropriate instructional and technological tools and strategies, course cadence or pace, creating and maintaining an online learning community, as well as clear and engaging communication. Further considerations relate to ensuring the identification of specific purposes for online chat sessions, their integration into the entire set of instructional strategies and resources, clear procedures for online discussion topic selection, and the associated grading policy.
Development of an Interactive Immersion Environment for Engendering Understanding about Nanotechnology
Authors: Schönborn Konrad J. , Höst Gunnar E. , Palmerius Karljohan E. Lundin , Flint Jennifer
Published: September 2015

The advent of nanoscientific applications in modern life is swiftly in progress. Nanoscale innovation comes with the pressing need to provide citizens and learners with scientific knowledge for judging the societal impact of nanotechnology. In rising to the challenge, this paper reports the developmental phase of a research agenda concerned with building and investigating a virtual environment for communicating nano-ideas. Methods involved elucidating core nano-principles through two purposefully contrasting nano “risk” and “benefit” scenarios for incorporation into an immersive system. The authors implemented the resulting 3D virtual architecture through an exploration of citizens' and school students' interaction with the virtual nanoworld. Findings suggest that users' interactive experiences of conducting the two tasks based on gestural interaction with the system serve as a cognitive gateway for engendering nano-related understanding underpinning perceived hopes and fears and as a stimulating pedagogical basis from which to teach complex science concepts.
Using Andragogy and Bloom's Digital Taxonomy to Guide E-Portfolio and Web Portfolio Development in Undergraduate Courses
Authors: DiMarco John
Published: September 2015

This chapter offers suggestions and discussion on e-portfolio teaching approaches and how andragogy and Bloom's Digital Taxonomy can be weaved into teaching and learning to create active learning through e-portfolio development. The chapter connects andragogy (Knowles, 1980) and integrates the educational objectives in the cognitive domain put forth by Bloom in 1956 and then updated by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) and eventually aligned to the digital realm by Churches (2009) to use as a model for teaching Web portfolio development in undergraduate courses. The Web portfolio has value for the student as a real-world tool for use in career advancement. It can be integrated into curriculum by faculty as a platform for assessment of higher-level cognitive objectives. This chapter includes a framework for a portfolio seminar course and how it implements Web portfolio (e-portfolio) components, which may provide a model for faculty developing future e-portfolio courses.
Unraveling a Progressive Inquiry Script in Persistent Virtual Worlds
Authors: Pellas Nikolaos
Published: September 2015

The radical utilization of collaborative learning processes in Three-Dimensional (3D) multi-user virtual worlds has been widely investigated. However, a study to delineate a comprehensive pedagogical model aimed at facilitating the same productive-argumentative knowledge practices is still lacking. This chapter presents the most reliable principles of contemporary socio-cognitive learning theories and teaching models. These socio-cognitive constructs can reinforce the majority of collaborative social-cultural students' pursuits and capabilities in the learning process in order to better handle their cohesion or coordination with other peers in 3D multi-user virtual worlds. Consequently, with the adaptation of the Progressive Inquiry (PI) teaching model, this chapter proposes a novel framework for the implementation of this model in online collaborative processes that can be held in 3D multi-user virtual worlds. Educational implications for a reputable instructional format with the conjunction of the PI model and further suggestions are also discussed.
Mobile Engagement
Authors: Evans Elizabeth
Published: September 2015

The evolution of mobile technologies with the capacity to act as conduits to narrative media has led to the emergence of increasingly transmedia and pervasive storytelling practices. This chapter interrogates a mobile phone-based pervasive drama, The Memory Dealer (Lander, 2010), and a focus group run with participants, focusing on two “shifts” within the performance: from internally focused narrative (via headphones) to externally focused narrative (via public speakers) and from an individual experience to a communal experience. By considering how The Memory Dealer's audience responded to such shifts, it becomes possible to consider the inherent nature of being “an audience” of transmedia narrative. It is argued that the experimental pervasive forms facilitated by mobile technologies raises the potential to critically re-examine the nature of media engagement and the technological, social, and cultural dynamics that shape and are shaped by that engagement.
PIR
Authors: Huang Xiaobing , Zhao Tian , Cao Yu
Published: September 2015

Multimedia Information Retrieval (MIR) is a problem domain that includes programming tasks such as salient feature extraction, machine learning, indexing, and retrieval. There are a variety of implementations and algorithms for these tasks in different languages and frameworks, which are difficult to compose and reuse due to the interface and language incompatibility. Due to this low reusability, researchers often have to implement their experiments from scratch and the resulting programs cannot be easily adapted to parallel and distributed executions, which is important for handling large data sets. In this paper, we present Pipeline Information Retrieval (PIR), a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for multi-modal feature manipulation. The goal of PIR is to unify the MIR programming tasks by hiding the programming details under a flexible layer of domain specific interface. PIR optimizes the MIR tasks by compiling the DSL programs into pipeline graphs, which can be executed using a variety of strategies (e.g. sequential, parallel, or distributed execution). The authors evaluated the performance of PIR applications on single machine with multiple cores, local cluster, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platform. The result shows that the PIR programs can greatly help MIR researchers and developers perform fast prototyping on single machine environment and achieve nice scalability on distributed platforms.
Intermedia and Transmedia User Experience with Multi-Touch Apps
Authors: Kritzenberger Huberta
Published: September 2015

In the Web of devices, information and services are designed for multi-device use. As each device has its specific characteristics, inter-device adjustments and adaptations result in inconsistent inter-device (system) models. They are perceived by users on visual and functional experience layers as well as on information architecture and prevent users from building transparent mental models. Evidence from case studies reveals the nature of cognitive information processing in this situation of rich user experience. Consistency design rules seem to be insufficient to overcome the rich user experience problems, as users' exploration of inconsistencies lead to interaction problems. In consequence, a systemic intermedia perspective is needed. This is explored in this chapter.
Avatars in E- and U-Learning
Authors: Szmigiel Raymond , Lee Doris
Published: September 2015

Avatars are virtual agents or characters that graphically represent users within virtual environments. Avatars can be implemented in three-dimensional (3-D) virtual environments for training purposes. While there are promising findings indicating that avatars can enhance the learning experience, conclusive and generalized evaluations cannot be made at this time. The effectiveness of these virtual agents in a learning context remains an open question. The purpose of this chapter is to present background information on the definitions and use of avatars in e-based, virtual learning environments and to address the applicability of avatars to ubiquitous learning (u-learning). This chapter examines the available empirical research on the effectiveness of avatars in facilitating social interactivity, motivation, and collaborative learning in 3-D environments. Finally, this chapter provides suggestions for future studies on the design of avatars in both e- and u-learning.
E-SERVCON and E-Commerce Success
Authors: Lai Jung-Yu
Published: September 2015

Convenience has become an important indicator of e-commerce systems success. Based on the information systems management and marketing literature, this study explores how customer convenience in using functions and services affects e-commerce systems success. It proposes and analyzes a re-specified e-commerce system model based on the updated DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model with a new variable, e-commerce/electronic service convenience. The proposed model re-specifies and validates e-commerce systems success where continuance intention is proposed as a dependent variable and its relationship with independent variables such as information quality, system quality, e-service convenience, perceived usefulness and satisfaction are discussed. Partial least squares structural equation modeling technique is employed to analyze data collected by 210 users of business-to-consumer e-commerce systems in Taiwan. Findings indicate that continuance intention was found to be influenced by both satisfaction and perceived usefulness, which were found to be significant precursors of information quality, system quality, and e-service convenience. These results strongly support our contention that e-service convenience is an important factor affecting e-commerce systems success. They also offer practitioners and managers deeper insights into successful e-commerce systems implementation as well as aid researchers interested in testing related theories.
A Virtual Learning Process Environment and Comparison with Conventional E-Learning Systems
Authors: Adesina Ayodeji , Molloy Derek
Published: September 2015

Learning is a complex process; an in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of learning processes can help to improve the formulations of effective methods, tools, and technologies to support and enhance learning through the effective management of learning processes. VLEs such as Moodle help facilitate the management of educational courses for students, in particular by helping lecturers and students with course administration. However, the management of the process of learning is inadequate. Once educational course materials are made available on the VLEs, analyses such as what students do with the course materials are difficult to observe in a real-time manner. Therefore, there is a need for the administration and management of the process of learning. This chapter presents a Virtual Learning Process Environment (VLPE) that is based on the Business Process Management (BPM) technology conceptual framework. In contrast to traditional e-learning systems, VLPE focuses on learning process management through the orchestration of flexible education pedagogies around course materials in the form of learning process workflows. Consequently, the effectiveness of any adopted pedagogy can be re-assessed, re-evaluated, and reformed by course designers with the potential to improve course design and learning outcomes.
Web Services in China
Authors: Dong Dong , Sun Lizhe , Sun Zhaohao
Published: September 2015

This chapter examines Web services in China. More specifically, it examines the state-of-the-art of China's Web services in terms of cloud services, mobile services, and social networking services through exploring several leading Web service providers in the ICT industry, including Alibaba, Tencent, China Mobile, and Huawei. This research reveals that the Chinese culture has played an important role in the success of China's Web services. The trade-off ideology and communication conventions from Chinese traditional culture, as well as Mao Zedong thought, greatly influenced the development of China's Web services. The findings of this chapter might facilitate the research and development of Web services and better understanding of the growth in China's ICT industry, as well as future trends.
M-Learning
Authors: Pelet Jean-Eric , Khan Jashim , Papadopoulou Panagiota , Bernardin Emmanuelle
Published: September 2015

From the perspective of improving e-learning, the free access and user friendliness of User Generated Content (UGC) tools, such as social media, embedded onto mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, make them attractive to be adopted by students and professors in many institutions around the world. This chapter presents the results of an exploratory study on the use of smart phones and social media, identifying differences among countries, focusing on the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). The objective is to facilitate the understanding of the rapidly evolving and expanding technology of smart phones and social media and explore its potential for m-learning purposes. Results show that social media and mobile devices can be effectively combined in a promising way to enable m-learning.
Evaluating Social Interaction and Support Methods over Time
Authors: Kopp Birgitta Maria
Published: September 2015

This research focuses on the evaluation of social interaction and support methods for computer-supported collaborative learning over the period of one semester. Specifically, there are three main topics for investigation: first, the subjective evaluation of social interaction and support methods, second, the students' perceptions of these over time, and third, the correlations between social interaction and support methods. Results indicate a specific pattern regarding important aspects of social interaction indicating possible problems in group dynamics (especially relating to taking responsibility). This evaluation pattern remains nearly constant over time. Furthermore, correlation analyses show strong connections between the design of group work and group dynamics, indicating a positive influence of support methods on problematic dimensions of social interaction. As this relation is strongest during the middle phase of collaboration, this study gives a first indication that also CSCL groups may go through the storming and norming stage of collaboration. These findings substantiate the necessity of providing support for computer-based learning.
How Interface Design and Search Strategy Influence Children's Search Performance and Evaluation
Authors: Jochmann-Mannak Hanna , Lentz Leo , Huibers Theo , Sanders Ted
Published: September 2015

This chapter presents an experiment with 158 children, aged 10 to 12, in which search performance and attitudes towards an informational Website are investigated. The same Website was designed in 3 different types of interface design varying in playfulness of navigation structure and in playfulness of visual design. The type of interface design did not have an effect on children's search performance, but it did influence children's feelings of emotional valence and their evaluation of “goodness.” Children felt most positive about the Website with a classical navigation structure and playful aesthetics. They found the playful image map Website least good. More importantly, children's search performance was much more effective and efficient when using the search engine than when browsing the menu. Furthermore, this chapter explores the challenge of measuring affective responses towards digital interfaces with children by presenting an elaborate evaluation of different methods.
Creating a Community of Practice in Learning
Authors: Uy Ebenezer , Yu Eusebio
Published: September 2015

Social media plays a huge part in Filipinos' lives. In the area of learning, the proponents observed the emergence of an online community of practice using Facebook groups that has over 350 members. The aim of the chapter is to answer the question: How do online communities of practice engage students to learn and build new knowledge? The objective is to propose a framework that will guide readers to build their own online community of practice based on its learning context. To achieve the objective, the proponents use the inductive approach of grounded theory using action research. Results show that community members used different Facebook features to support their ongoing community of practice. Further studies may also assess the applicability of the framework in other areas of development.