bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Integration of Web2Quest Technology into Multicultural Curriculum in Teacher Education
Authors: Lin Li-Mei Grace , Ward Chris L.
Published: October 2011

The study examines the attitudes and past experiences of pre-service teachers and teacher educators in Taiwan and the U.S. regarding the use of Web2Quests to promote multicultural education. The demographics in many countries are increasingly changing, especially regarding the growth of students from diverse backgrounds. In all classrooms, teachers need to have high levels of multicultural competency to create welcoming and equitable learning environments. However, multicultural education in the curriculum of many teacher education programs is still limited. Technology is an extremely useful tool that can enhance learning experiences for both teachers and students. Technology can be implemented to foster multicultural education in interesting and engaging ways. The study shows that the majority (about 93%) of the pre-service teachers and teacher educators who responded to the survey both in Taiwan and the United States enjoyed the Web2Quest strategy and viewed it to be effective in promoting higher-level thinking and social constructivist activities. Participants suggested that professional development is needed to help teachers design effective WebQuests, especially using the new version of WebQuests which utilizes Web 2.0 technologies. This professional development may have a significant impact when preparing teachers and, ultimately, students to be productive global citizens.
Structuring CSCL Through Collaborative Techniques and Scripts
Authors: Pozzi F. , Hofmann L. , Persico D. , Stegmann K. , Fischer F.
Published: October 2011

This paper is rooted in the research field of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), where the debate is lively around whether and to what extent structuring the interactions among students enhances the effectiveness of the collaborative process. The paper discusses two different design approaches to structuring collaboration: the former approach, adopted in the context of an Italian online course, is based on the use of a set of collaborative techniques, while in the latter, proposed in a German context, collaboration scripts are used to guide students step-by-step. The study describes and then compares the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches. What can be learned from the two experiences? Is there any possibility – and with what advantages – of integrating the two approaches, so as to gain from both?
Learners at the Wheel
Authors: Good Judith
Published: October 2011

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of programming environments which are freely available for use by novice programmers, particularly children and young people. What is interesting about these environments is the level of sophistication that they offer in terms of their development and support features, but also the motivating and engaging contexts that they provide, where programming is a means to a creative end rather than an end in itself. Furthermore, these environments can no longer be considered independent of their broader context of use, where the social and collaborative aspects of learning play a crucial role. This article considers five such environments: Scratch, Alice, Looking Glass, Greenfoot and Flip, examining their characteristics, and investigating the opportunities they might offer to educators and learners alike. It suggests that their learner centredness plays an important role in their appropriation and use. By looking at changes in the development of such languages and environments, the article considers the implications for both research and for education, particularly in light of the current computational thinking agenda.
Participative Typologies
Authors: Gonçalves Andrea de Oliveira , Gonçalves Rodrigo de Souza , Weffort Elionor Farah Jreige
Published: October 2011

This paper analyses the relationship between the so-called participative communities and their participants’ influence on local public health policies discussions through health councils in the cities of Porto Alegre, Brazil and Montevideo, Uruguay. Work was carried out through a qualitative comparison research (Sartori e Morlino, 1994), opting for a multiple-case study (Yin, 2003) and by using Likert (1967), Rifkin et al. (1989), and Demo (1996) as main theoretical references. Results achieved by the content analysis showed that the Health Council of Porto Alegre tends to present a larger level of community participation, i.e., the organization having an influence on local health policy discussions. As to the Health Council of Montevideo, the level of participation tends to be limited, i.e., the organization has little influence on local health policy discussions.
Regulating Patients’ Access to Healthcare Services
Authors: Reibling Nadine , Wendt Claus
Published: October 2011

Although some healthcare systems have introduced gatekeeping that forces patients to choose a general practitioner for a longer period, other systems rely on a free choice of doctors. This paper analyzes how these instruments affect differences in healthcare utilization in European countries. Using data from the first wave of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement, the authors investigate how access regulations affect a) the overall level of ambulatory healthcare usage, and b) disparities in utilization among groups with different educational and income levels. The data show that access regulation affects patients’ decisions to see a doctor and reduces the extent of specialist healthcare used. Cost sharing could not be related to inequities among income groups; however, gatekeeping has favorable effects on reducing inequality, and the respective healthcare systems show lower levels of inequality among groups with different levels of education.
Enhancing Engineering Education Learning Outcomes Using Project-Based Learning
Authors: Debnath Mousumi , Pandey Mukeshwar
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a case study of how project-based learning (PBL) can be seen as a pedagogical innovation for Jaipur Engineering College and Research Centre, Jaipur, India (JECRC) for better recruitment drives for on-campus recruitments. The practical knowledge of engineering, basic knowledge of engineering design, soft skills or personal competences can be correlated with the academic performance and recruitment status. Project based learning (PBL) is a learner-centric pedagogy where the learner is expected to take responsibility for his or her own learning. PBL uses in-depth and rigorous classroom projects to facilitate learning and assess student competence. Students have projects as a compulsory course in their curriculum in the final semester of engineering. The challenge to acquire knowledge and skills during their project gives a student an opportunity to develop their weaker skills and enhance their practical knowledge of engineering. This study has been successful in helping students acquire a high rate of actual skill and technical learning. The learning outcomes of the PBL-course can be correlated with their success in recruitment and academic performances.
A Logit Model for Budget Allocation Subject to Multi Budget Sources
Authors: Bagloee Saeed A. , Reddick Christopher G.
Published: October 2011

In a complex and extended system such as a government, the proper allocation of the budget to its sub-entities is always a major challenge. As such for cases like governments, a situation in which multiple budget sources with different concerns available to the sub-entities is common. This study develops an applicable model for large-scale cases in which identifying the flow of capital or budget from (multiple) sources to the sub-entities is sought. Since the influential factors to the allocation process may be mingled with some unknown parameters (as well as known factors) a logit model is developed from past panel data. The logit model is based on the concept of utility, which quantifies the advantage of approaching budget-sources for the sub-entities. Then the budget allocation problem of logit form is written as a mathematical programming formulation for which Successive Coordinate Descent (SCD) method is proposed as the solution algorithm. In this paper, the proposed methodology is tested numerically. The results of this study show there is strong evidence that some of the entities’ properties can be altered in order to achieve a better budget allocation.
The Semiotics of Cybernetic Percept-Action Systems
Authors: Cariani Peter
Published: October 2011

In this paper, a semiotic framework for natural and artificial adaptive percept-action systems is presented. The functional organizations and operational structures of percept-action systems with different degrees of adaptivity and self-construction are considered in terms of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relations. Operational systems-theoretic criteria for distinguishing semiotic, sign-systems from nonsemiotic physical systems are proposed. A system is semiotic if a set of functional sign-states can be identified, such that the system’s behavior can be effectively described in terms of operations on sign-types. Semiotic relations involved in the operational structure of the observer are outlined and illustrated using the Hertzian commutation diagram. Percept-action systems are observers endowed with effectors that permit them to act on their surrounds. Percept-action systems consist of sensors, effectors, and a coordinative part that determines which actions will be taken. Cybernetic systems adaptively steer behavior by altering percept-action mappings contingent on evaluated performance measures via embedded goals. Self-constructing cybernetic systems use signs to direct the physical construction of all parts of the system to create new syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relations. When a system gains the ability to construct its material hardware and choose its semiotic relations, it achieves a degree of epistemic autonomy, semantic closure, and pragmatic self-direction.
Signs Conveying Information
Authors: Stjernfelt Frederik
Published: October 2011

This paper introduces Peirce’s notion of proposition, “Dicisign.” It goes through its main characteristics and argues that its strengths have been overlooked. It does not fall prey to some of the problems in the received notion of propositions (their dependence upon language, upon compositionality, upon human intention). This implies the extension of Peircean Dicisigns is wider in two respects: they comprise 1) propositions not or only partially linguistic, using instead gesture, picture, diagrams, etc.; 2) non-human propositions in biology studied by biosemiotics.
Self-Organization and Peirce’s Notion of Communication and Semiosis
Authors: Queiroz João , Loula Angelo
Published: October 2011

Semiosis can be described as an emergent self-organizing process in a complex system of distributed sign users interacting locally and mutually affecting each other. Contextually grounded, semiosis is characterized as a pattern that emerges through the cooperation between agents in a communication act, which concerns an utterer, a sign, and an interpreter. Some implications of this approach are explored in the context of Artificial Life experimental protocols. To model communication as a self-organized process, the authors create a scenario to investigate a potentially self-organizing dynamic of communication, via local interactions. According to the results, a systemic process (symbol-based communication) emerges as a global pattern (a common repertoire of signs) from local interactions, without any external or central control.
How Technologies Can Localize Learners in Multicultural Space
Authors: Ahamer Gilbert
Published: October 2011

Technological innovations can be used in many ways to enhance the suitability of global learning. A newly developed online-supported curriculum “Global Studies” takes account of the necessities of interdisciplinary, intercultural and interparadigmatic learning. The history and genesis of such an innovative curriculum is embedded in a national umbrella organisation focusing on development studies. As the interdisciplinary core, a new lecture on the fundamentals of Global Studies has been implemented in 2010/11 that envisions team teaching and interdisciplinary perspectives. The web platform allows students to present their professional views and discuss them in a peer review. Dialogue and discourse are enhanced by repeated change of roles which is enriched by the broad international and intercultural backgrounds of the participating students. Cultures of understanding are generated and widened as a prerequisite for future careers in development cooperation, diplomacy and transnational organisations.
Video Conferencing to Enhance the Lives of Children Living with Disabilities
Authors: Fitzpatrick Jane , O’Reilly Hugh , Holey Liz
Published: October 2011

Approximately 200,000,000 children are born with or will acquire a disability during their lifetimes. In the developing world the situation is much worse, where a lack of education and resources and cultural norms conspire against the disabled child. In countries where resources are scarce, children who are disabled may be neglected and abandoned by society. This paper examines a project that provided effective training for developing world care givers of abandoned disabled children. The project started as a ‘tips and tricks’ for transfer of physiotherapy skills to inner city care givers in Kingston, Jamaica, using video conferencing. It developed into a bespoke, accredited training course for inner city caregivers as more partners were attracted to the project.
A Lexicon for User Driven Healthcare
Authors: Ross Susan
Published: October 2011

What do the terms Learning Healthcare Systems, Participatory Medicine,  Evidence-based Medicine, Narrative Medicine, Patient-centered Medicine, and Health 2.0 mean? What is their connection to each other, to User-Driven Healthcare, and, most importantly, to real people—healthcare providers and healthcare consumers?  In this paper, the author presents current definitions of these abstractions to begin to compile a glossary of terms, a lexicon of sorts, for all stakeholders in the emerging field of User-Driven Healthcare.
Securing Health-Effective Medicine in Practice
Authors: Whitaker Rupert
Published: October 2011

The movement for public participation in medical practice and its governance (‘participative medicine’) lacks an understanding of the historical and theoretical contexts within which it has emerged. This paper discusses the problems with physician-centred medicine (previously called ‘the medical model’), administrator-centred medicine (‘managed health-care’), patient-centred medicine, and participative medicine. The concept of health-effectiveness of medical services is emphasised as fundamental in an applied, critical theory of medical practice that equates health-effectiveness with pro-social medical services. The critical theory provides a framework for understanding the movement’s purpose, its misuse by consumerist methods, and the problems when medicine is delivered by pro-market or provider-centred systems, as shown most notably in the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry by the British government. The paper outlines the Tuke Institute model of health-effective services, secured by participative medical practice and its governance and integrated with translational science. Together, the Tuke Institute model and the critical theory provide a scientific framework by which to determine the health-effectiveness of different models of practice through properly scientific research, indicating the necessity of studying models of practice as complex interventions.
The RTBP – Collective Intelligence Driving Health for the User
Authors: Waidyanatha Nuwan , Dekker Sabrina
Published: October 2011

The Real Time Biosurveillance Program (RTBP) Pilot, is an active collaboration between multipartners that is utilizing collective intelligence to improve rural health outcomes, in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, India. This paper presents how the RTBP is detecting, preventing, and therefore, improving the health systems of these two nations through the use of ICT to strengthen health reporting systems. It puts forth the challenges that the RTBP pilot has faced initially, and how they have been addressed. The RTBP is also differentiated from other mHealth initiatives by acknowledging how it is not disease specific and how it engages all stakeholders, from the receipients, the health workers, and the government.
Caregiver Perspective
Authors: Lasky Tamar
Published: October 2011

My 82 year old mother came to live with me two years ago. She had had Type II diabetes for several decades, and had developed weakness and gait disturbances (loss of balance and falls) in the past few years. She has a degenerative brain disorder, progressive supranuclear palsy, often mistaken for Parkinson’s disease in its early stages, and had fallen numerous times, before coming to live with me, and while in my house. Her bones must be made of rubber because she never broke a hip, just developed nasty looking bruises, and, she refused to use a cane or walker. That can’t go on forever, and one day she fell, got up, fell again, said she was fine, but did not get out of bed.
Improving WLAN Performance by Modifying an IEEE 802.11 Protocol
Authors: Sarkar Nurul I.
Published: October 2011

One of the limitations of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) protocol is its low bandwidth utilization under medium-to-high traffic loads resulting in low throughput and high packet delay. To overcome performance problems, traditional IEEE 802.11 DCF (“DCF”) protocol is modified to the buffer unit multiple access (BUMA) protocol. The BUMA protocol achieves a better system performance by introducing a temporary buffer unit at the medium access control (MAC) layer to accumulate multiple packets and combine them into a single packet (with a header and a trailer) before transmission. This paper provides an in-depth performance evaluation (by simulation) of BUMA for multiuser ad hoc and infrastructure networks. Results obtained show that the BUMA is more efficient than that of DCF. The BUMA protocol is simple and its algorithm (software) can be upgraded to 802.11 networks requiring no hardware changes. The BUMA protocol is described and simulation results are presented to verify the performance.
Performance Evaluation of a Three Node Client Relay System
Authors: Andreev Sergey , Galinina Olga , Vinel Alexey
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors examine a client relay system comprising three wireless nodes. Closed-form expressions for mean packet delay, as well as for throughput, energy expenditure, and energy efficiency of the source nodes are also obtained. The precision of the established parameters is verified by means of simulation.
What Drives Malaysian E-Government Adoption?
Authors: Chong Alain Yee-Loong
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the author investigates the factors that affect the adoption of e-government in Malaysia. Variables like perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, compatibility, trust and demographic profiles of users are included in this research. Data was collected from 418 respondents, and multiple regression analysis is employed to test the research model. The results show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, compatibility, trust and age have significant relationships with e-government adoption. The results from this study are useful for Malaysian government in formulating appropriate strategies to improve the adoption of e-government applications in Malaysia.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior of Information System Personnel
Authors: Chou Tzy-Yuan , Jiang James J. , Klein Gary , Chou Seng-Cho T.
Published: October 2011

Leader-member exchange (LMX) represents the quality of interaction between leaders and members of a work unit, such as the information system function within an organization. LMX is expected to improve organizational citizenship behavior, beneficial behaviors not explicitly rewarded, but prior research has failed to establish this link satisfactorily. To determine the influence of LMX in the IS environment, a model is developed based on the background in the IS and management literature that considers LMX an important contributor to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In turn, organizational commitment influences both work quality and organizational citizenship behaviors in a beneficial way. The model is confirmed with a sample of IS professionals in Taiwan. The results show that effective communication and coordination is crucial between leaders and subordinates at levels within the organization not previously considered.
Improving Small Firm Performance Through Collaborative Change Management and Outside Learning
Authors: Menkhoff Thomas , Wah Chay Yue
Published: October 2011

This empirical-exploratory article sheds light on the change management approaches used by Chinese owner-managers of small firms in Singapore and their openness toward strategic learning. The paper examines widespread common-sense assumptions that ethnic Chinese adopt mostly directive-coercive (autocratic) change management approaches, which may stifle innovation. Great diversity exists amongst small firm owners in Asia with regard to their change leadership practices, and respective change implementation approaches are contingent on both demographic variables and situational forces like the urgency of change, the degree of resistance to change, and/or the dynamics of the environment in which the firms operate. Data from a SME survey in Singapore (n = 101) serves to substantiate several propositions about change management of Chinese owner-managers of SMEs in Singapore. Three hypotheses about the openness of SME owner-managers to outside sources of learning are presented to ascertain the prediction that such knowledge can give SMEs a performance headstart by helping them to work smarter.
Chinese Manufacturing
Authors: Zhu Valerie , Sun Linyan
Published: October 2011

In the past three decades, Chinese economy has been arresting the worldwide attention for its double-digit growth rate. Playing a leading part in general economic development, Chinese manufacturing has been contributing a substantial portion in the total GDP growth. However, a national key project, the Research of China National Manufacturing Strategy, has found in the last several years that Chinese manufacturing has already lost its competitiveness due to the void of cheap labor force (New Labor Law in China), the rising costs of raw materials and energies, and the more rigid requirements for environmental protection. Chinese manufacturing has met its Waterloo and calls for an urgent business transformation if it wants to survive and sustain its development. Based on fundamental research, authors of this paper propose a new business conceptual model, SERVICE-MANUFACTURING, which focuses on the seamless marriage of service and manufacturing and how this new model can be implemented in real business practices.
Display Content Adaptation Using a Force Sensitive Office Chair
Authors: Riener Andreas
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the author introduces a novel method for non-invasive, implicit human-computer interaction based on dynamically evaluated sitting postures. The research question addressed is whether or not the proposed system is able to allow for non-obtrusive screen content adaptation in a reading situation. To this end, the author has integrated force sensor array mats into a traditional office chair, providing sitting postures/gestures of the person seated in real time. In detail, variations in the center of pressure were used for application control, starting more generally with usability assessment of cursor control, breaking them down to simple(r) pan and zoom of screen content. Preliminary studies have indicated that such a system cannot get close to the performance/accuracy of keyboard or mouse, however its general usability, e.g., for handicapped persons or for less dynamic screen content adaptation, has been demonstrated and some future potential has been recognized.
The Problems of Jurisdiction on the Internet
Authors: Curran Kevin , Lautman Róisín
Published: October 2011

The relationship between jurisdiction and the internet has been the subject of wide ranging discussion ever since the boom in domestic internet usage. Without clear legislation, laws have been created on an ad hoc basis, often in response to specific cases. It is difficult to predict whether any one law will ever be sufficient to cope with the great variety of alleged crimes which take place on the internet. This paper discusses the problems associated with jurisdiction on the internet, presenting sample cases which have influenced the current laws and have fuelled a long term debate that continues to get more heated especially in recent times with UK celebrities being exposed on sites such as Twitter.
Feature Selection Based on Minimizing the Area Under the Detection Error Tradeoff Curve
Authors: Fui Liau Heng , Isa Dino
Published: October 2011

Feature selection is crucial to select an “optimized” subset of features from the original feature set based on a certain objective function. In general, feature selection removes redundant or irrelevant data while retaining classification accuracy. This paper proposes a feature selection algorithm that aims to minimize the area under the curve of detection error trade-off (DET) curve. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is employed to search for the optimal feature subset. The proposed method is implemented in face recognition and iris recognition systems. The result shows that the proposed method is able to find an optimal subset of features that sufficiently describes iris and face images by removing unwanted and redundant features and at the same time improving the classification accuracy in terms of total error rate (TER).
Application of Genetic Algorithm to Minimize the Number of Objects Processed and Setup in a One-Dimensional Cutting Stock Problem
Authors: Brandão Julliany Sales , Coelho Alessandra Martins , Vasconcellos João Flávio V. , Neto Luiz Leduíno de Salles , Pinto André Vieira
Published: October 2011

This paper presents the application of the one new approach using Genetic Algorithm in solving One-Dimensional Cutting Stock Problems in order to minimize two objectives, usually conflicting, i.e., the number of processed objects and setup while simultaneously treating them as a single goal. The model problem, the objective function, the method denominated SingleGA10 and the steps used to solve the problem are also presented. The obtained results of the SingleGA10 are compared to the following methods: SHP, Kombi234, ANLCP300 and Symbio10, found in literature, verifying its capacity to find feasible and competitive solutions. The computational results show that the proposed method, which only uses a genetic algorithm to solve these two objectives inversely related, provides good results.
Urban Versus Rural
Authors: Murgante Beniamino , Danese Maria
Published: October 2011

Until a few decades ago it was very easy to distinguish between city and country: in most cases the edge was defined by defensive barriers. In recent times, the relationships between urban and rural areas completely changed, placing the country in a subordinate position. Consequently, many terms have been coined in order to describe the new phenomena taking place between city and country. The term adopted, “periurban area”, despite its large use, does not have a clear and unambiguous definition. Such various approaches are due to the complexity of the phenomenon to be analyzed and to the huge variety of territorial contexts in which it may reveal. The phenomenon is characterized by urban growth with soil consumption generating loss of competitiveness for agricultural activities. This paper defines more precise rules in order to describe the periurban phenomenon, using techniques of spatial statistic and point pattern analysis. This approach has been tested in the case of study of Potenza municipality. Interest in this area comes after the earthquake of 1980, when a large migration of inhabitants began towards the countryside around Potenza.
Spatial Pattern Mining for Soil Erosion Characterization
Authors: Selmaoui-Folcher Nazha , Flouvat Frédéric , Gay Dominique , Rouet Isabelle
Published: October 2011

The protection and the maintenance of the exceptional environment of New Caledonia are major goals for this territory. Among environmental problems, erosion has a strong impact on terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. However, due to the volume of data and its complexity, assessment of hazard at a regional scale is time-consuming, costly and rarely updated. Therefore, understanding and predicting environmental phenomenons need advanced techniques of analysis and modelization. In order to improve the understanding of the erosion phenomenon, this paper proposes a spatial approach based on co-location mining and GIS. Considering a set of Boolean spatial features, the goal of co-location mining is to find subsets of features often located together. This system provides useful and interpretable knowledge based on a new interestingness measure for co-locations and a new visualization of the discovered knowledge. The interestingness measure better reflects the importance of a co-location for the experts, and is completely integrated in the mining process. The visualization approach is a simple, concise and intuitive representation of the co-locations that takes into consideration the spatial nature of the underlying objects and the experts practice.
Rapid Evaluation of Arid Lands (REAL)
Authors: Dugas Daniel P. , DeMers Michael N. , Greenlee Janet C. , Whitford Walter G. , Klimaszewski-Patterson Anna
Published: October 2011

Management of desert grasslands requires rapid, low technology, coarse assessment methods that provide a triage-like prioritization for the manager. Such approaches necessitate the ability to quickly and effectively identify coarse-scale plant communities that provide guidance for this prioritization. Complex, computer intensive digital image classification of Landsat TM data, while marginally successful, requires time, equipment, and expertise not always available in such environments. This study identifies landform boundaries in the Armendaris Ranch, New Mexico by visual inspection of Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper imagery and topographic maps using traditional photoreconnaissance techniques. Employing predetermined hierarchical landform classifications, it was possible to map plant communities using ecological relationships that exist between the general physiographic and vegetation settings in the area and representative geomorphic landform-mapping units. The authors’ field work verified the plant community map using a random walk approach and visual inspection. This synthetic expert opinion-based approach proved successful and is repeatable in other arid rangeland settings.
A GIS Methodology for Assessing the Safety Hazards of Abandoned Mine Lands (AMLs)
Authors: Dolney Timothy J.
Published: October 2011

Abandoned mine lands (AMLs) associated with past coal-mining scar Pennsylvania’s landscape with environmental and safety hazards. Reclamation projects eliminate and reduce hazards AMLs pose. Due to the large number of AMLs and limited funds, precedence is given to reclaim the most hazardous sites first. These sites are identified through an assessment process that assigns priorities to AMLs. However, priorities are out-dated and do not accurately reflect the current spatial distribution of land use and census data. This article presents a GIS methodology for the prioritization of AMLs using the process of extrapolation and focal statistics. By incorporating current assessment techniques into GIS with current land use and census data, AML priorities were reassigned to accurately reflect the current spatial landscape. Results indicate that current AML priorities assigned by the state do not accurately reflect current land use and census data and underestimate the safety hazards of many sites, including high priority sites.
Cultural Dasymetric Population Mapping with Historical GIS
Authors: Towers George
Published: October 2011

There has been a recent flurry of interest in dasymetric population mapping. However, the ancillary coverages that underlie current dasymetric methods are unconnected to cultural context. The resulting regions may indicate density patterns, but not necessarily the boundaries known to inhabitants. Dasymetric population mapping is capable of capturing the cultural commonality and community interaction that define social spaces. Dasymetric mapping may be improved with methodologies that reflect the ways in which social spaces are established. This research applies a historical GIS methodology for identifying early 20th Century agricultural neighborhoods in southern Appalachia. The case study is intended to encourage discovery of additional methods for mapping population on the scale of lived experience.
Applied Geospatial Perspectives on the Rock Art of the Lake of the Woods Region of Ontario, Canada
Authors: Norder John W. , Carroll Jon W.
Published: October 2011

This study examines the role of rock art in the construction of Woodland Period (300 BC to AD 1700) hunter-gatherer landscapes in the Lake of the Woods region of northwestern Ontario. The authors examine the distribution of documented pictograph sites relative to the locations of rock formations where the geologic conditions would have favored the placement of pictographic rock art but are absent. Point pattern analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and least cost path analysis were used to analyze the findings. The authors suggest that pictograph sites were placed at points on the landscape along water routes to facilitate information exchange among highly mobile hunter-gatherers.
Showing the Past
Authors: Siabato Willington , Fernández-Wyttenbach Alberto , Bernabé-Poveda Miguel-Ángel
Published: October 2011

Spatial Data Infrastructures have become a methodological and technological benchmark enabling distributed access to historical-cartographic archives. However, it is essential to offer enhanced virtual tools that imitate the current processes and methodologies that are carried out by librarians, historians and academics in the existing map libraries around the world. These virtual processes must be supported by a generic framework for managing, querying, and accessing distributed georeferenced resources and other content types such as scientific data or information. The authors have designed and developed support tools to provide enriched browsing, measurement and geometrical analysis capabilities, and dynamical querying methods, based on SDI foundations. The DIGMAP engine and the IBERCARTO collection enable access to georeferenced historical-cartographical archives. Based on lessons learned from the CartoVIRTUAL and DynCoopNet projects, a generic service architecture scheme is proposed. This way, it is possible to achieve the integration of virtual map rooms and SDI technologies bringing support to researchers within the historical and social domains.
Information Technology Resources Virtualization for Sustainable Development
Authors: Pankowska Malgorzata
Published: October 2011

Today, business organizations seem to be involved in the processes of sustainable development. Therefore, not only economic indicators of performance are considered but also the environmental responsibility is equally important. The environmental responsibility covers social responsibility and natural environment responsibility. The latter demands taking into account promotion of sustainable use of renewable natural resources, reducing the emissions and wastages, decrease of energy consumption. The first part of the paper includes presentation of benefits resulting from IT (Information Technology) resources virtualization, grid computing and cloud computing development. The second part contains a model of IT governance for sustainability.
A Closed-Loop Logistics Model for Green Supply Chain Management
Authors: Basiri A. H. , Shemshadi A. , Tarokh M. J.
Published: October 2011

Recently, with the environmental crisis, Green supply chain management (or GSCM), and in particular closed loop supply chain model, has received considerable attention by researchers. Closed loop supply chain model aims at reduction of waste and generating profit for enterprises through integrating forward and reverse logistics. Unfortunately, there is limited research on general models for closed loop supply chains in literature. In this paper, extending and enhancing previous models, a general model is proposed for closed loop supply chains using linear programming. The goal of this study is to minimize the leakage of a closed loop supply chain to avoid waste and reduce SCM costs.
Resistance of Cell in Fractal Growth in Electrodeposition
Authors: Shaikh Y. H. , Khan A. R. , Patange K. B. , Pathan J. M. , Behere S. H.
Published: October 2011

This paper presents the study of dynamic electrical resistance of the electrodeposition cell during the growth metallic dendrites showing fractal character. The electric resistance of the circular electrodeposition cell is measured in real time using a computer based data acquisition system. The data acquisition system constructed is capable of measuring the cell voltage and the current through the cell under program control at pre-decided intervals. This allows for the measurement of the dynamic electrical resistance of the electrodeposition cell. The system is based on standard analogue to digital controller ADC interfaced to the computer through the printer port.
Existence of Positive Solutions of Nonlinear Second-Order M-Point Boundary Value Problem
Authors: Wong F. H. , Chyan C. J. , Lin S. W.
Published: October 2011

Under suitable conditions on, the nonlinear second-order m-point boundary value problem has at least one positive solution. In this paper, the authors examine the positive solutions of nonlinear second-order m-point boundary value problem.
A Constructive Approach to the Evolution of the Planning Ability
Authors: Minoya Kenichi , Unemi Tatsuo , Suzuki Reiji , Arita Takaya
Published: October 2011

Human beings have behavioral flexibility based on a general faculty of planning for future events. This paper describes the first stage of a study on the evolution of planning abilities. A blocks world problem is used as a task to be solved by the agents, and encode an inherent planning parameter into the genome. The result of computer simulation shows a general tendency that planning ability emerges when the problem is difficult to solve. When taking social relationships, especially in the collective situation, into account, planning ability is difficult to evolve in the case that the problem is complex because there is a conflict between personal and collective interests. Also, the simulation results indicate that sharing information facilitates evolution of the planning ability although the free rider problem tends to be more serious than the situation where agents do not share information. It implies that there is a strong connection between evolution of the planning ability and symbolic communication.
Generating Fully Bounded Chaotic Attractors
Authors: Elhadj Zeraoulia
Published: October 2011

Generating chaotic attractors from nonlinear dynamical systems is quite important because of their applicability in sciences and engineering. This paper considers a class of 2-D mappings displaying fully bounded chaotic attractors for all bifurcation parameters. It describes in detail the dynamical behavior of this map, along with some other dynamical phenomena. Also presented are some phase portraits and some dynamical properties of the given simple family of 2-D discrete mappings.
Intuitionistic Fuzzy 2-Metric Space and Some Topological Properties
Authors: Lohani Q.M. Danish
Published: October 2011

The notion of intuitionistic fuzzy metric space was introduced by Park (2004) and the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy normed space by Saadati and Park (2006). Recently Mursaleen and Lohani introduced the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy 2-metric space (2009) and intuitionistic fuzzy 2-norm space. This paper studies precompactness and metrizability in this new setup of intuitionistic fuzzy 2-metric space.
A Metaheuristic Approach to the Graceful Labeling Problem
Authors: Mahmoudzadeh Houra , Eshghi Kourosh
Published: October 2011

In graph theory, a graceful labeling of a graph G = (V, E) with n vertices and m edges is a labeling of its vertices with distinct integers between 0 and m inclusive, such that each edge is uniquely identified by the absolute difference between its endpoints. In this paper, the well-known graceful labeling problem of graphs is represented as an optimization problem, and an algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization metaheuristic is proposed for finding its solutions. In this regard, the proposed algorithm is applied to different classes of graphs and the results are compared with the few existing methods inside of different literature.
Discrete Artificial Bee Colony Optimization Algorithm for Financial Classification Problems
Authors: Marinakis Yannis , Marinaki Magdalene , Matsatsinis Nikolaos , Zopounidis Constantin
Published: October 2011

Nature-inspired methods are used in various fields for solving a number of problems. This study uses a nature-inspired method, artificial bee colony optimization that is based on the foraging behaviour of bees, for a financial classification problem. Financial decisions are often based on classification models, which are used to assign a set of observations into predefined groups. One important step toward the development of accurate financial classification models involves the selection of the appropriate independent variables (features) that are relevant to the problem. The proposed method uses a discrete version of the artificial bee colony algorithm for the feature selection step while nearest neighbour based classifiers are used for the classification step. The performance of the method is tested using various benchmark datasets from UCI Machine Learning Repository and in a financial classification task involving credit risk assessment. Its results are compared with the results of other nature-inspired methods.
Dynamic Assignment of Crew Reserve in Airlines
Authors: Moudani Walid , Mora-Camino Félix
Published: October 2011

The Crew Reserve Assignment Problem (CRAP) considers the assignment of the crew members to a set of reserve activities covering all the scheduled flights in order to ensure a continuous plan so that operations costs are minimized while its solution must meet hard constraints resulting from the safety regulations of Civil Aviation as well as from the airlines internal agreements. The problem considered in this study is of highest interest for airlines and may have important consequences on the service quality and on the economic return of the operations. A new mathematical formulation for the CRAP is proposed which takes into account the regulations and the internal agreements. While current solutions make use of Artificial Intelligence techniques run on main frame computers, a low cost approach is proposed to provide on-line efficient solutions to face perturbed operating conditions. The proposed solution method uses a dynamic programming approach for the duties scheduling problem and when applied to the case of a medium airline while providing efficient solutions, shows good potential acceptability by the operations staff. This optimization scheme can then be considered as the core of an on-line Decision Support System for crew reserve assignment operations management.
Performativity in Practice
Authors: Mulcahy Dianne
Published: October 2011

In the context of neo-liberal education policy reform, professional teaching standards have become one of the main means of managing improvements to school teaching and assuring its quality. Using the methodology of material semiotics in association with video case data of classroom teaching (in this case, school geography teachers) and their students, the author treats a set of standards in action, towards conducting an ontological inquiry. Bringing the performative perspective of actor-network theory to bear not only is sociality taken into account but also materiality. This paper argues that standards are best understood as shifting assemblies of practice whose nature defines and enacts teacher identity and teacher professional knowledge differently in different locations. The conclusion is drawn that while teaching standards ‘clot’ and can serve to standardise practices of teaching, they are not stable entities. The variable ontology that they manifest challenges the managerialist impulses that tend to drive standards work in education. Altogether, the paper seeks to augment existing accounts of standards within the field of the sociology of science (Bowker & Star, 1999; Star, 2010; Timmermans & Berg, 2003; Timmermans & Epstein, 2010) and contribute to its subfield, the sociology of standards.
(Un)Locating Learning
Authors: Tscholl Michael , Patel Uma , Carmichael Patrick
Published: October 2011

This paper presents an account of field research into case-based learning in a management course, guided by the questions: ‘what is making change in this setting’, and ‘where is learning located’. Multiple forms of relations between human and nonhuman entities were identified through extensive research, which, analytically does not sit well with more traditional understandings of learning or case-based learning. A critique of those understandings is offered, drawing on concepts from post-modernism and adopting sensibilities from actor-network theory, follow the action in the setting. The authors demonstrate that the case is an assemblage of heterogeneous connections that are made by the teacher and then by the students in the classroom. In working with ANT sensibilities, examination found that tracing the action offers radically different accounts and possibilities for education research and practice. The pragmatic issues in following the action and the challenge of staying coherent and ambivalent are acknowledged.
Knowledge in Networks
Authors: Rimpiläinen Sanna
Published: October 2011

This paper discusses a methodological dilemma proposed by engaging actor-network theory (ANT) in studying collaborative research practices of researchers in a large interdisciplinary project. The paper sets the context of this large publically funded project (‘Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based learning’) between Education and Computer Sciences, currently being undertaken by a consortium of six UK universities and three international partners. While a strand of ANT states that knowledge ‘emerges as continuously generated effects of webs of relations within which they are located’ (Law 2007), it is very vague in terms of how precisely does that knowledge emerge and how to study that. The methods -question was further complicated by the existence of multiple, potentially conflicting epistemological positions present at the project – how to study these without having to pass a value judgement in terms of their validity and reliability? The specific focus of the discussion is what might be termed the epistemology of actor-network theory, with particular consideration of the Principle of Symmetry. The paper suggests reading ANT through John Dewey’s Pragmatism and assesses ideas to take forward from this discussion in order to study interdisciplinary research work.