bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
La diglossie arabe revisitée.Quelques réflexions à propos de la situation
Authors: Laroussi Foued
Published: March 2013

Partant du modèle catalo-occitan, l’auteur de l’article essaie d’analyser la diglossie arabe, non seulement en Tunisie, mais aussi au Maghreb, tout en montrant les limites de l’approche ferguso-fishmanienne.Le modèle choisi permet de mettre l’accent sur les aspects conflictuels de la diglossie, car il ne se limite pas aux manifestations synchroniques du processus diglossique.Dans cette perspective, il pose la problématique du discours épilinguistique qui s’inscrit dans le processus qui se focalise sur l’opposition langue/dialecte, ainsi que celui de la minoration linguistique.Et après, passé en revue les différentes dénominations de la langue arabe, l’auteur propose trois étiquettes à savoir l’arabe littéraire ancien, l’arabe littéraire moderne et l’arabe maternel.Pour neutraliser ces oppositions entre ces différentes variétés de la langue arabe qui posent un vrai problème social et politique au Maghreb, il faut d’abord évacuer la thèse de langue non scientifique qui caractérise idéologiquement l’arabe maternel, ainsi que les catégories de langue sans morne, langue basse, langue non-nationale, langue du profane.
A Constructive Approach for Conceptual Database Design
Authors: Locuratolo Elvira
Published: March 2013

The chapter focuses on the conceptual database design evolution, by introducing concepts which are common to both information systems and software engineering researches. An optimization algorithm of partitioning, based on the decomposition of objects and on the inheritance of attributes, is proposed and extended. The extended algorithm, which defines a formal constructive mapping from conceptual to logical database models, aims to show how some updates reflecting modifications occurring in real life can affect the conceptual database design. The chapter evidences the idea that model design, which retains quality aspects, such as maintainability and re-usability over a long lifetime, also suggests appropriate implementations which can be characterized by innovation and productivity. Algorithms of partitioning have been exploited within a database design methodology for quality, a method of re-engineering, and recently, in concept theory for digital preservation.
Project Management and Diagramming Software
Authors: Rapsing Rizaldy
Published: March 2013

There are numerous methods in managing project activities. Apart from it all, people involved in the project must carefully consider the project’s objectives, timeline, cost, and roles of the participants. The complexity of the project challenges them in estimating, planning, scheduling, budget monitoring, resource management, and documentation. Many use word processors, presentations, or graphic software for some of these activities, but project management and diagramming software are offered now, supporting almost all of these tasks. This chapter aims to make readers aware of the different software that they can use in project management and diagramming. It lists the currently available commercial software, shareware, and freeware; and reviews four project management and two diagramming software.
Software Development Methodologies for Cloud Computing
Authors: Alsmadi Izzat
Published: March 2013

Cloud computing is recently taking a significant focus in the information technology fields as a possible future trend for how computer services and applications can be provided to users or businesses. Cloud computing is utilizing the recent large expansion of Internet and network technologies where the increase in the data size and transfer speed made it possible to make the Internet or the cloud a possible host for all or most users’ applications and data. With this new technology, several changes are expected to occur in the information technology fields and systems to adapt to this field or technology. In this chapter, the author focuses on the possible impact on the way software companies will develop their software products. For example, the traditional client server system architecture is expected to be significantly impacted with cloud computing new framework. All software development concepts and activities will be revisited to discuss what things can be different in the cloud computing paradigm.
Software Security Engineering – Part II
Authors: Traore Issa , Woungang Isaac
Published: March 2013

This chapter explains the major objectives of a security policy, with focus on how applications that can protect data at all access points can be developed. Access control models and their known issues are discussed. From a security policy prospective, the security design principles and modeling using the UML are also discussed. In addition, an informal discussion on potential software security metrics that can be used for security measurement, and that are currently the purpose of active research, is conducted. Finally, a discussion on security testing involving the use of these metrics, are discussed. Several examples are used to illustrate the studied concepts.
A Comparative Analysis of Software Engineering Approaches for Sequence Analysis
Authors: Ahmad Muneer , Jung Low Tang , Zaman Noor
Published: March 2013

DNA is considered the building block of living species. DNA sequence alignment and analysis have been big challenges for the scientists for many years. This research presents a comparative analysis of state of the art software engineering approaches for sequence analysis, i.e. genome sequences in particular. Sequence analysis problems are NP hard and need optimal solutions. The underlying problems stated are duplicate sequence detection, sequence matching by relevance, and sequence analysis by approximate comparison in general and by using tools, i.e. Matlab and multi-lingual sequence analysis. The usefulness of these operations is also highlighted, and future expectations are described. The proposal describes the concepts, tools, methodologies, and algorithms being used for sequence analysis. The sequences contain the precious information that needs to be mined for useful purposes. There is high concentration required to model the optimal solution. The similarity and alignments concepts cannot be addressed directly with one technique or algorithm; a better performance is achieved by the comprehension of different concepts.
Adaptive Edge-Preserving Smoothing and Detail Enhancement for H.263 and H.264 Video
Authors: Kim Ji-Hye , Lee Ji Won , Park Rae-Hong , Park Min-Ho , Shin Jae-Seob
Published: March 2013

For removing undesirable artifacts in video coding, a large number of filtering methods have been proposed as post-processing and in-loop processing. This chapter proposes a pre-processing method of motion-adaptive edge-preserving smoothing and detail enhancement for H.263 and H.264 video, in which temporal and spatial edges are used to define Region Of Interest (ROI). In the proposed pre-processing method, trilateral filtering with three types of weights (domain, range, and temporal weights) is used for smoothing non-ROI region while preserving temporal/spatial edges. In the proposed pre-processing method, the temporal weight preserves temporal edges within ROIs and smoothes details within non-ROI. The proposed pre-processing method can make video coding more efficient under the restricted bit-rate condition. The parameter values for weight functions of a trilateral filter are selected depending on the classification of motion and edginess, and proper filtering is performed with adaptive parameter values. Experimental results with a number of H.263 and H.264 test sequences show the effectiveness of the proposed method in terms of the visual quality, the peak signal-to-noise ratio, and the mean opinion score.
Image Denoising via 2-D FIR Filtering Approach
Authors: Hua Jingyu , Kuang Wankun
Published: March 2013

Image denoising has received much concern for decades. One of the simplest methods for image denoising is the 2-D FIR lowpass filtering approach. Firstly, the authors make a comparative study of the conventional lowpass filtering approach, including the classical mean filter and three 2-D FIR LowPass Filters (LPF) designed by McClellan transform. Then an improved method based on learning method is presented, where pixels are filtered by five edge-oriented filters, respectively, facilitated to their edge details. Differential Evolution Particle Swarm Optimization (DEPSO) algorithm is exploited to refine those filters. Computer simulation demonstrates that the proposed method can be superior to the conventional filtering method, as well as the modern Bilateral Filtering (BF) and the Stochastic Denoising (SD) method.
Dimension Reduction of Local Manifold Learning Algorithm for Hyperspectral Image Classification
Authors: Ding Sheng , Chen Li , Li Jun
Published: March 2013

This chapter addresses the problems in hyperspectral image classification by the methods of local manifold learning methods. A manifold is a nonlinear low dimensional subspace that is supported by data samples. Manifolds can be exploited in developing robust feature extraction and classification methods. The manifold coordinates derived from local manifold learning (LLE, LE) methods for multiple data sets. With a proper selection of parameters and a sufficient number of features, the manifold learning methods using the k-nearest neighborhood classification results produced an efficient and accurate data representation that yields higher classification accuracies than linear dimension reduction (PCA) methods for hyperspectral image.
Maximising Technology Usage in Research Synthesis of Higher Education Professional Development Research
Authors: Stewart Cherry , Horarik Stefan , Wolodko Keith
Published: March 2013

Research synthesis, a systematic accumulation, analysis, and reflection on a full body of relevant empirical evidence related to a particular research question, is a time-consuming and arduous task requiring the inclusion of multiple research points of view in the analysis process. LeximancerTM, lexical analysis, and concept mapping software has provided a method for reducing vast pools of research literature down to highly desirable research literature portions. It is not the authors’ intention to provide an analysis of the documents retrieved for the research synthesis, but rather to articulate a method of content analysis that incorporates the use of technology to assist in the initial steps of a research synthesis. This chapter promotes the use of technology tools to enhance the critical review of evidence-based publications to make the identification of relevant articles more efficient and effective.
Beyond the Boundaries
Authors: Olcott Don
Published: March 2013

The rapid increase in internationalism and borderless higher education by public and for-profit universities is changing the face of the global higher education landscape. Today, universities have more opportunities for serving campus-based international students and extending their programs and research on the international stage. Students also have more choices than ever before in navigating their educational future and are becoming active consumers of global HE. Language, culture, and social norms are as critical as any educational strategies used to build and sustain international partnerships. An understanding, tolerance, and humility about the educational process in other countries is a necessity for building successful partnerships. Borderless higher education is highly complex and involves various risks for colleges and universities and the need to justify foreign ventures or adventures to key stakeholders at home. The “new global regionalism” will accelerate HE competition for students, and the global destination choices for students may drive more students to remain in their region than going to traditional destinations such as the US, UK, and Australia. Universities will function more like businesses, and their foreign partnerships and campus international recruitment will be based on leveraging profitable revenues to supplement their composite educational enterprise. This will be accentuated by reduced government funding and the need to temper continuous tuition and fee increases. Quality assurance agencies will exert greater pressure on universities to maintain accountability, program standards, and alignment with their core mission. University chief executives will need to navigate a range of complex issues before leading their universities into unchartered international waters. Indeed, some universities have no business in the business of borderless higher education. This chapter explores borderless higher education.
Managing Project-Based Workplace Learning at a Distance
Authors: Osborne Jo
Published: March 2013

This case description outlines the development of a Master’s course in Clinical Leadership involving a partnership arrangement between the University of Tasmania and a New South Wales (NSW) Area Health Service, where partners are based in different states, and course participants complete their studies predominantly in distance mode. Workplace learning through project implementation is core to the course. The university takes responsibility for the development and delivery of online units, while the health service partner has major responsibility for the coordination and assessment of workplace learning assignments, with the academic moderation of the university teaching team. The integration of theory-based units with project implementation has been well received by course participants. Distance factors provide significant challenges for course implementation. Early course evaluations have informed revisions to unit structures, but changes in the client base may force revisions to course delivery to maintain participant access to study materials and activities. Lecturers, health service instructors, course participants, and their workplace supervisors are all affected by changing dynamics.
eCampusAlberta
Authors: Donovan Tricia , Paterson-Weir Janet
Published: March 2013

eCampusAlberta is one of the fastest growing online consortia in North America. It currently provides over sixty credentials fully online to learners in hundreds of communities across Alberta, Canada. Developed in 2002, eCampusAlberta is a consortium of fifteen publicly funded colleges, polytechnics, and universities in western Canada. This strategic partnership was developed by senior executives across the institutions in an effort to increase access to online learning opportunities province-wide. The consortium leveraged existing networks of senior executive officers and informed leaders across the member institutions to build a framework to support the implementation of the consortium. Since its inception, eCampusAlberta has inspired collaboration across member institutes and has had a significant transformative effect on the post-secondary landscape in Alberta. To date, over 47,000 learners have participated in courses offered via the consortium.
Pre-Service Teacher Education for the Management of Actual and Virtual Classes
Authors: Stevens Ken
Published: March 2013

The development of Internet-based school networks, facilitating the creation of virtual classes, has implications for the professional education of teachers who are increasingly likely to teach both face-to-face and online. In the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, pre-service teachers are being prepared for networked school environments within which on-site and online teaching and learning are required. Teachers are provided with a structure within which to manage collaboration that includes learning circles and cybercells. Within networked school environments, virtual classes have been developed for teaching an expanding range of subjects at high school level.
Supporting Teachers in Optimizing Technologies for Open Learning
Authors: Laurillard Diana
Published: March 2013

Teachers using open learning, who wish to make good use of digital technologies in their teaching and learning designs, have some difficult issues to confront. The chapter begins with the idea that only teachers have the knowledge, experience, and appropriate context for developing digital learning methods. It makes the case for giving teachers sufficient time and professional development to achieve the skills and new thinking needed, and specifically for the idea that teachers should be in the forefront of innovation needed for using new technology. Using a formal representation of what it takes for an organisation to innovate, it outlines the teacher requirements for being able to innovate in learning design. On this basis, it illustrates what we might do, using online design tools, to support teachers in their work as they construct new technology-based forms of teaching and learning for open learning.
The Casual Academic in University Distance Education
Authors: Higgins Katrina , Harreveld R. E.(Bobby)
Published: March 2013

Contextual changes in Australian universities such as the growth of the Internet, a new student population, and an emphasis on re-education and lifelong learning are manifest in a repositioning of distance education from the margins to the centre of concern. In addition, recent reform imperatives have future implications for distance education as it is considered integral to delivering on Australian Government policy in terms of increased socially inclusive engagements in university education. However, there is scant policy conversation about the experiences of academics who deliver distance education programs. In addition to this, the delivery of distance education is often undertaken by academics employed in a casual capacity. The experiences of the teaching workforce in distance education need to be explored and issues addressed if the future of distance education in higher education is to be a sustainable one for meeting the needs of university education in the new millennium.
Using Systems Engineering for the Development of Decision Making Support Systems (DMSS)
Authors: Vallance S. , Duffy A. , Whitfield R. I. , Mendibil K. , Hird A. , McCabe J. , Turner N.
Published: March 2013

Decision Making Support Systems (DMSS) can mitigate the risks involved in highly uncertain processes where novelty is high, such as NPD resource management. However such systems manipulate complex organisational information and require embedding within the business it operates within. There is a risk of poor acceptance in the business if the DMSS does not take into account a number of business related considerations. Utilising a systems approach literature was analysed, from which a set of considerations pertinent to the development of DMSS was elicited. Through the assessment of a number of System Development Methodologies (SDM), it was found that no one System Development Methodology (SDM) took into account all considerations identified. There is therefore a clear gap in current research and a real need for such a methodology which addresses the considerations identified.
Understanding Organisational Decision Support Maturity
Authors: Daly Mary , Adam Frederic
Published: March 2013

Forty years after Gorry and Scott Morton’s seminal paper on DSS, supporting decisions in organisation is still a critical objective. Given the elapsed time since DSSs were first introduced, it is important to gauge the scope and quality of decision support provided to managers. Using Executive MBA students as informants about decision making in their organisations, the authors carried out 10 case studies of Irish organisations to assess their maturity in terms of decision support usage. The findings indicate that, in the vast majority of firms, decision support is still not available to help manage in situations involving high levels of abstraction. As was the case at the beginning of the history of DSS, the operational level is still where DSSs are used most consistently across firms. Furthermore, this study illustrates that engaging with managers on the topic of decision making is difficult, given the possibility of bias and misrepresentation inherent in the reality of decision making.
Hierarchical Database Model for Querying Economic Network Independence Distribution
Authors: Taofiki Akinwale Adio
Published: March 2013

The development of the internet has been triggering numerous mutations in the visualization of actors in economic network independence distribution (ENID) of goods. ENID overcomes the physical barriers of shop-floor space so unprecedented variety of products could be offered to the customers. Avoidance of expensive trade space allows suppliers to reduce price compared to those in the physical world. User friendly and easy contact with the supplier of the goods make shopping very convenient. Despite these advantages of ENID, there is a need to develop better theories about how this system should behave in order to protect participants’ interests. This work employed hierarchical database model using B-tree and pre-order algorithm to insert and traverse participant records for easy processing. N-level models were adopted to calculate each level and sub-level cluster commission. The implementation was carried out using C# and sql. The application of the model permits the participants to query any information about ENID for on line real time decision makings.
Identification of Natural Images and Computer Generated Graphics Based on Hybrid Features
Authors: Peng Fei , Liu Juan , Long Min
Published: March 2013

Examining the identification of natural images (NI) and computer generated graphics (CG), a novel method is proposed based on hybrid features. Since the image acquisition pipelines are different, some differences exist in statistical, visual, and noise characteristics between natural images and computer generated graphics. Firstly, the mean, variance, kurtosis, skew-ness, and median of the histograms of grayscale image in the spatial and wavelet domain are selected as statistical features. Secondly, the fractal dimensions of grayscale image and wavelet sub-bands are extracted as visual features. Thirdly, considering the shortage of the photo response non-uniformity noise (PRNU) acquired from wavelet based de-noising filter, a pre-processing of Gaussian high pass filter is applied to the image before the extraction of PRNU, and the physical features are calculated from the enhanced PRNU. In the identification, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier is used in experiments and an average classification accuracy of 94.29% is achieved, where the classification accuracy for computer generated graphics is 97.3% and for natural images is 91.28%. Analysis and discussion show that the method is suitable for the identification of natural images and computer generated graphics and can achieve better identification accuracy than the existing methods with fewer dimensions of features.
A Model for Hybrid Evidence Investigation
Authors: Vlachopoulos Konstantinos , Magkos Emmanouil , Chrissikopoulos Vassileios
Published: March 2013

With the advent of Information and Communication Technologies, the means of committing a crime and the crime itself are constantly evolved. In addition, the boundaries between traditional crime and cybercrime are vague: a crime may not have a defined traditional or digital form since digital and physical evidence may coexist in a crime scene. Furthermore, various items found in a crime scene may worth be examined as both physical and digital evidence, which the authors consider as hybrid evidence. In this paper, a model for investigating such crime scenes with hybrid evidence is proposed. Their model unifies the procedures related to digital and physical evidence collection and examination, taking into consideration the unique characteristics of each form of evidence. The authors’ model can also be implemented in cases where only digital or physical evidence exist in a crime scene.
Hypothesis Generation and Testing in Event Profiling for Digital Forensic Investigations
Authors: Batten Lynn , Pan Lei , Khan Nisar
Published: March 2013

The need for an automated approach to forensic digital investigation has been recognized for some years, and several authors have developed frameworks in this direction. The aim of this paper is to assist the forensic investigator with the generation and testing of hypotheses in the analysis phase. In doing so, the authors present a new architecture which facilitates the move to automation of the investigative process; this new architecture draws together several important components of the literature on question and answer methodologies including the concept of ‘pivot’ word and sentence ranking. Their architecture is supported by a detailed case study demonstrating its practicality.
A Mobile Market
Authors: Hayes Thomas J. , Walker Mary M.
Published: March 2013

As schools deploy mobile web capabilities, students have the ability to connect anytime, anywhere giving universities an important tool to engage and connect with university target markets. With mobile based internet usage expected to exceed desktop usage within the next four years this study focuses on understanding the role of this technology in connecting with prospective and current students. Research conducted with college students demonstrates that the usage of mobile technology is highest among this age segment and must be taken into consideration when communicating to its student base. Furthermore, the implications from this study suggest that mobile app features have value for current students and is in line with their usage of mobile technology and represent an important channel for reaching students. Finally, the paper focuses the need to develop content that can be measured and analyzed for effectiveness and that is in line with the university’s brand.
Mediating Effects of Study Outcomes on Student Experience and Loyalty
Authors: Quintal Vanessa Ann , Shanka Tekle , Chuanuwatanakul Pattamaporn
Published: March 2013

This paper aims to examine whether expectations of the student experience have an impact on student loyalty that is mediated by expectations of study outcomes at their university. To achieve this, a 15-minute pen and paper survey was self-administered to a convenience sample of students at a major university in Western Australia. The total sample size was 400 students, with 200 students each drawn from the home and international student populations. Findings suggest the university’s image and facilities that prepare students for career, personal and academic development were positively related to home student loyalty, while teaching and support services that prepare students for career development were positively related to both home and international students’ loyalty. Since the global trend is toward a customer-oriented model, universities can remain competitive by providing the ‘gestalt’ student experience that helps students to achieve their study outcomes and develop loyalty toward their university.
Higher Education Marketing
Authors: Constantinides Efthymios , Stagno Marc C. Zinck
Published: March 2013

The importance of the Internet as commercial platform is by now universally recognized, and businesses increasingly adopt online marketing channels at the cost of traditional ones. The social media, being second generation (Web 2.0) internet applications, allow interaction, one-to-one communication, customer engagement, and user generated content. The interest of higher education institutions in social media as part of the marketing toolkit is increasing, but little is known about the potential of these channels in higher education marketing strategies. Even less is known about the role of social media as influencers of future students in the choice of study and university. This article presents the results of a study identifying the role and importance of social media on the choice of future students for a study and university in comparison with the traditional university marketing channels in the Netherlands. The study identifies and describes three market segments among future students based on their use of the social media.
Using Social Network Sites for Higher Education Marketing and Recruitment
Authors: Rekhter Natalia
Published: March 2013

In this paper, the author examines how the rapid penetration of Social Network Sites (SNSs) into everyday life affects higher education marketing. Among unique features offered by SNSs are unprecedented trackability of students’ interests, immediacy in responses, targeted personalization of marketing efforts, and low institutional financial obligations. Growth in Internet Penetration Rates and strong international SNSs membership suggests further globalization of marketing strategies and inclusion of lower income countries into targeted markets. Concerns associated with the use of SNSs include dearth of fluency in the sites’ content and operation among admission personnel, lack in users’ privacy, and absence of control over the content. The skyrocketing evolution of SNSs surpasses the corresponding research as do applications of SNSs for higher education marketing. As the result, this qualitative study had to draw information from the variety of secondary sources including blogs, web reports, group discussions, comments, forums, videos, etc.
Digital Dome versus Desktop Display in an Educational Game
Authors: Jacobson Jeffrey
Published: March 2013

A visually immersive display can make an educational game more effective, if concepts are embodied in an information-rich space and the interaction/perception design exploits the egocentric view that the display affords. For example, ancient Egyptian temples juxtapose language and symbol in an architecture meant to be understood from the inside. In this study, students, ages 11 through 14, played an educational game based on a virtual temple. In an unstructured test in which students produced their own guided tours of the temple, those who played the game in a digital dome showed better factual recall (P < 0.05) than those who used a standard desktop.
Virtual Learning Environments. The oLTECx
Authors: D’Alba Adriana , Najmi Anjum , Gratch Jonathan , Bigenho Chris
Published: March 2013

The rapid development in new technologies and media and widespread access to the Internet is changing how people teach and learn. Recognizing the potential of technology, schools and universities are placing more content online from fully deliverable courses to course catalogs, course registration, and college admissions. People are able to gain access to a multitude of information with one click. Online learning environments range from authentic, real-time environments to simulations, as well as 2D and 3D virtual environments. This paper explores the use of a 2-dimensional, narrative-based, virtual learning environment (VLE) created by doctoral students to orient potential students to their university departments’ degree programs, faculty, and course offerings. After exploring the environment, participants were surveyed about their experiences. Findings include validation of the instrument, possible correlations relating to learning through games, engagement, and game design. Emerging themes and suggestions for future research are presented in this paper.
Virtual Tutor Training
Authors: Mason Lee L. , Jeon Tae , Blair Peter , Glomb Nancy
Published: March 2013

In this study, the experiences and beliefs of volunteer tutors using a multi-user virtual environment to teach literacy instruction are examined to get a better understanding of the benefits and challenges of learning within this environment. Literacy tutors who were teaching adults with poor reading skills served as participants. During the study, participants delivered direct instruction reading lessons to researchers in Second Life and adult learners during live face-to-face tutoring sessions. Immediately following each session in Second Life, tutors were provided with corrective feedback on specific teaching behaviors. Data on rate of acquisition and generalization from the virtual environment to the natural environment was collected for each participant. At the conclusion of the study, tutors were asked to describe their experiences of learning to teach in a multi-user virtual environment. Results indicate that effective teaching behaviors trained in a virtual environment generalize to face-to-face instruction. However, tutors tended to disagree with the researchers’ perceptions of what constitutes effective teaching practices.
Learning to Become Citizens by Enacting Governorship in the Statecraft Curriculum
Authors: San Chee Yam , Gwee Susan , Tan Ek Ming
Published: March 2013

Citizenship education is important in developing nations, where establishing a vital sense of statehood, belonging, and common purpose amongst citizens presents political leaders with significant challenges. This paper examines the enactment of an innovative citizenship education learning program based on the Statecraft X curriculum. The authors hold that it is essential for student learning to be engaged in and studied performatively, in the everyday context of students’ situated action and participation in discursive practices. Consequently, the curriculum involves school students using a 24/7 mobile learning game played on Apple iPhones—Statecraft X—to enact governorship in the game world Velar. In addition, students construct their ideal, but fictional, world Bellalonia via the “play of imagination” as part of a Play-between-Worlds curriculum model. Empirical findings show that (a) dispositional shifts on several values and beliefs related to governance and citizenship were significantly “better” for intervention group students compared with control group students, and (b) intervention group students demonstrated significantly improved learning gains, compared with control group students, in respect of a summative essay writing task on governance and citizenship, evaluated on the criteria of relevance, perspective, and voice.
Strategies to Teach Game Development Across Age Groups
Authors: Prayaga Lakshmi , Coffey James W. , Rasmussen Karen
Published: March 2013

The process of game development can be used as a highly motivating learning experience geared to the teaching and learning of a variety of skills in students of varying ages. This article presents a description of a conceptual framework for teaching and learning based on game creation, including pedagogical foundations, a model of instruction for game development, age-related issues relative to learning tasks, and the basic aspects of game development. The authors compare the expectations for types of concepts and technologies employed with middle and high school students versus those employed with college-level students in game development. Projects that illustrate these differences are then presented, and the article closes with a summary and conclusions.
Optimizing the Psychological Benefits of Choice
Authors: Cummings James J. , Ross Travis L.
Published: March 2013

This paper suggests that the paradox of choice can be resolved in game environments by promoting heuristics-based decision-making, thereby maintaining player freedom while also avoiding the potential negative consequences of excessive deliberation. To do this, the informational cues relevant to such decisions must be made transparent, allowing players to employ fast and frugal tools from the brain’s adaptive toolbox to make the same optimal choices that they might otherwise make after extended deliberation. Developers can design for such transparency not only by creating choice experiences in which options can be assessed and compared through clear metrics and attributes, but also by designing social systems in which the choices and successes of others can be easily identified and used for informing one’s own future decisions.
Videogames and the Ethics of Care
Authors: Murphy John , Zagal José
Published: March 2013

Videogames have the potential to create ethical experiences and encourage ethical reflection. Usually, this potential is understood in the context of the dominant moral theories: utilitarianism and Kantianism. However, it has been argued that a complete moral theory must also include the concept of an ethics of care. This paper utilizes the ethics of care as an alternative lens for examining the ethical frameworks and experiences offered by videogames. The authors illustrate how this perspective can provide insights by examining Little King’s Story and Animal Crossing: City Folk. Little King’s Story’s fictive context, gameplay, and asymmetrical power relationships encourage the player to care for the citizens of his or her kingdom. In Animal Crossing: City Folk, the player is a member of a community that encourages him or her to care for his or her neighbors as part of a larger interconnected social ecosystem. Both games encourage players feeling an emotional attachment to the game’s characters, and the value placed in these relationships becomes the motivation for further ethical player behavior. The conclusion outlines future research questions and discusses some challenges and limitations of a care ethics perspective.
Investigating Youth’s Life Online Phenomena
Authors: Jamaludin Azilawati , San Chee Yam
Published: March 2013

This paper examines the dialectics between living in offline and digitally-mediated worlds and how youth construct their identity and sense of self, negotiate meaning, and make sense of their social experiences. Situating the study within the context of the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WoW), the authors investigate the interplay between the everyday, situated lives of five digital youth gamers, aged 18 to 25, and their activities and ‘lived practices’ in WoW. Findings suggest a recurrent theme that challenges ascribed dichotomies between youth’s presence in the offline and online world in terms of their identities in play, sense of embodiment, and orientation toward work, play, and the spirit of communitas within WoW. Exploration of such a phenomenon indicates a more intimately enmeshed and dialectically coupled experience of youths’ in their contextual traversals, providing a fundamental conceptual understanding of the impact of youths’ exodus to the virtual world and its implications for 21st century teaching and learning. The outcomes address theoretical challenges associated with the interpretation of 21st century literacy performances that may be characterized as a need to move away from static and linear narratives of development to a more divergent becoming of learners through the learning process.
Relations Between Videogame Play and 8th-Graders’ Mathematics Achievement
Authors: Tobias Scott , Rudy Duane , Ispa Jean
Published: March 2013

This study explores whether any relationships exist between math performance scores on the Missouri Assessment Plan (MAP), its subscales and time spent playing the child’s favorite videogame given the game’s spatial content and cognitive complexity. Relationships between gender and math scores were also examined. Findings indicate no main effect of time spent playing, spatial content, or level of complexity of games on math performance. However, several math scores interacted with time spent playing one’s favorite video game, such that higher levels of math performance occurred when participants played games high in spatial content at low amounts of time. A similar interaction occurred when examining complexity of the game and time spent playing. The study provides preliminary evidence that it may be important to consider the spatial or complexity content of videogames in addition to time spent playing when addressing the relationship between videogame play and adolescent math performance.
Procedural Ethos
Authors: Evans Michael A.
Published: March 2013

How is it that serious games are actually persuasive? Ian Bogost’s work on serious (or persuasive) games provides essential philosophical foundations for the genre though, as the article demonstrates, sufficient detail of argument is lacking. Bogost uses the model of classical rhetoric to demonstrate that games can make arguments through “procedural rhetoric,” which he exemplifies with games like Molleindustria’s McDonald’s Videogame, a title that can best be identified as parody. However, such games, while attempting to make persuasive arguments, lack classical requisites for persuasion, leaving room for further critical inquiry and development of understanding of how serious games work. To be considered persuasive, serious games should additionally demonstrate the components of ethos, which include: phronesis (practical knowledge, factual basis), arête (integrity, virtue), and eunoia (goodwill, concern for the hearer). It is insufficient for serious games to have procedural rhetoric without taking account of procedural ethos. Analyses of the McDonald’s game and the ReDistricting Game are conducted for an initial verification of this proposal. This description of how serious games can be persuasive can provide additional conceptual tools to game developers, instructional designers, and educational scholars attempting to leverage serious games for intentional, productive, and predictable learning.
Analysis of the Performance of Eigenfaces Technique in Recognizing Non-Caucasian Faces
Authors: Khan Imran , Sudirman Sud
Published: March 2013

Facial detection and recognition technologies are rapidly becoming an important area in many computer systems ranging from system security and biometric authentication to online social networks. However, despite of many years of research, a perfect solution to facial detection and recognition has yet not been found. As one of the earliest techniques, Eigenfaces had become one of the most popular benchmarks in this field. The technique itself, though far from providing a perfect solution, had been used by researchers to compare their proposed algorithms. The authors’ observation of the literature on and surrounding the area of facial detection and recognition found that there is a severe lack of tests and comparison of these techniques on non-Caucasian facial images. This paper aims to provide some lights into this vacuity and to assess the performance of the benchmark technique using non-Caucasian face databases
Online Social Networking
Authors: Molok Nurul Nuha Abdul , Ahmad Atif , Chang Shanton
Published: March 2013

The professionalization of computer crime has resulted in a shift in motivation away from bragging rights towards financial gain. As a result, the operational tactics of cyber criminals is beginning to incorporate reconnaissance and intelligence gathering to inform attack planning. This paper discusses why information leakage in general, and Online Social Networking (OSN) in particular, has become a source of intelligence for attackers. Further, the paper profiles a range of security measures available to organizations to combat information leakage through OSN and identifies future directions for research into security culture and behaviour change.
Expressive OWL Queries
Authors: Kremen Petr , Kostov Bogdan
Published: March 2013

Web Ontology Language ontologies become more and more popular in complex domain modeling for their high expressiveness, flexibility and well defined semantics. Although query languages adequate in expressiveness to OWL reasoning capabilities were introduced before, their implementations are rather limited. In this paper, the authors study SPARQL-DLNOT, an extension of one of these query languages, SPARQL-DL, and present novel evaluation and optimization techniques for efficient SPARQL-DLNOT execution. As queries become complex easily, they also present a novel graph-based visualization that simplifies query construction and maintenance. Presented techniques and algorithms were implemented in the Pellet reasoner and in their novel Protégé plug-in OWL2Query.
Adimen-SUMO
Authors: Àlvez Javier , Lucio Paqui , Rigau German
Published: March 2013

In this paper, the authors present Adimen-SUMO, an operational ontology to be used by first-order theorem provers in intelligent systems that require sophisticated reasoning capabilities (e.g. Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Engineering, Semantic Web infrastructure, etc.). Adimen-SUMO has been obtained by automatically translating around 88% of the original axioms of SUMO (Suggested Upper Merged Ontology). Their main interest is to present in a practical way the advantages of using first-order theorem provers during the design and development of first-order ontologies. First-order theorem provers are applied as inference engines for reengineering a large and complex ontology in order to allow for formal reasoning. In particular, the authors’ study focuses on providing first-order reasoning support to SUMO. During the process, they detect, explain and repair several important design flaws and problems of the SUMO axiomatization. As a by-product, they also provide general design decisions and good practices for creating operational first-order ontologies of any kind.
“I’ve Got a Situation and Would Appreciate Your Experience”
Authors: Murillo Enrique
Published: March 2013

Virtual Communities of Practice (CoPs) that are launched and managed by organizations have been amply documented in KM literature, but extra-organizational virtual CoPs have received little coverage. This study performs an ethnography of an extra-organizational Usenet-based CoP of tax professionals, using a longitudinal Social Network Analysis to map a tight-knit long-lived community and identify its members. The result is a naturalistic description of the ways in which the Wenger dimensions of Mutual engagement, Joint enterprise and Shared repertoire manifest themselves in day-to-day interactions in an online CoP. The study highlights how energetic voluntary participation by members produces a successful long-lived virtual CoP, even in the absence of organizational KM or IT resources. For independent professionals, extra-organizational virtual CoPs can provide a powerful support group and the means to constantly update their personal competence. For organizations intent on developing formalized CoPs, these results are a useful reminder that member commitment is the ultimate driver of a CoP’s success.
Next-Generation Sequencing Identifies MicroRNAs that Associate with Pathogenic Autoimmune Neuroinflammation in Rats
Authors: Bergman Petra , James Tojo , Kular Lara , Ruhrmann Sabrina , Kramarova Tatiana , Kvist Anders , Supic Gordana , Gillett Alan , Pivarcsi Andor , Jagodic Maja
Published: March 2013

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to regulate most biological processes and have been found dysregulated in a variety of diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). In this study, we characterized miRNAs that associate with susceptibility to develop experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats, a well-established animal model of MS. Using Illumina next-generation sequencing, we detected 544 miRNAs in the lymph nodes of EAE-susceptible Dark Agouti and EAE-resistant Piebald Virol Glaxo rats during immune activation. Forty-three miRNAs were found differentially expressed between the two strains, with 81% (35 out of 43) showing higher expression in the susceptible strain. Only 33% of tested miRNAs displayed differential expression in naive lymph nodes, suggesting that a majority of regulated miRNAs are EAE dependent. Further investigation of a selected six miRNAs indicates differences in cellular source and kinetics of expression. Several of the miRNAs, including miR-146a, miR-21, miR-181a, miR-223, and let-7, have previously been implicated in immune system regulation. Moreover, 77% (33 out of 43) of the miRNAs were associated with MS and other autoimmune diseases. Target genes likely regulated by the miRNAs were identified using computational predictions combined with whole-genome expression data. Differentially expressed miRNAs and their targets involve functions important for MS and EAE, such as immune cell migration through targeting genes like Cxcr3 and cellular maintenance and signaling by regulation of Prkcd and Stat1. In addition, we demonstrated that these three genes are direct targets of miR-181a. Our study highlights the impact of multiple miRNAs, displaying diverse kinetics and cellular sources, on development of pathogenic autoimmune inflammation.