bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Innovation in Accounting Tasks: Empirical Study in Two Professional Groups
Authors: Vicente Célia Cristina da Silva , Cardoso Maria João , Laureano Raul Manuel da Silva
Published: October 2016

The aim of this study is to contribute to the knowledge on innovation in accounting tasks, from the point of view of two professional groups. Its goals are: evaluating the importance given by the professionals to accounting tasks; identifying whether there is convergence between the two professional groups, regarding the importance of the tasks; examining whether there is an association between the professionals’ individual characteristics and the importance they attach to the tasks. Two professional groups were surveyed: 105 financial officers of the top 500 Portuguese companies; and 412 Chartered Accountants. The results obtained allowed us to conclude that the respondents attach more importance to the traditional tasks, linked to the concept of a monetary-oriented accountant, and less importance to the more innovative tasks, related to business strategy; there is no convergence between the two professional groups in terms of the importance of the accountants’ participation in the strategic tasks. Regarding the association between individual characteristics and the level of importance assigned to the accounting tasks, we found an influence of the following characteristics: gender; academic degree of the professionals; and the institution where that degree was obtained.
Educational Leaders and the Program Evaluation Dissertation with Logic Model
Authors: Stewart Tricia J.
Published: October 2016

This chapter explains what educational evaluation is, why it makes sense to teach about evaluation (program, policy, and curricular) in educational leadership programs, information about two programs (the University of Rochester and Alabama State University) that have successfully incorporated evaluation dissertations, the components of an evaluation based dissertation that include a logic model, and other items to consider for those who are interested in implementing this type of dissertation into a professional practice doctorate program. Incorporating evaluation into doctoral coursework yields many benefits to students. Initially, it provides a real world based approach for teaching the rigorous research skills required for the eventual completion of a dissertation.
Dynamics of Public Training in a University Setting
Authors: Morolong Bantu , Lekoko Rebecca , Magang Veronica
Published: October 2016

The case presented in this chapter submits a general consensus about the role of leadership in a university public training program. Focusing on short training programs provided by the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of Botswana, there are some indications that the effectiveness of these training is compromised by a number of issues. Emerging from reflective evaluations and experiences from coordinators are issues of relevance, feedback loop, inclusiveness and training goals. In the light of our understanding of different goals of training, it becomes clear that current public training at the University of Botswana focus more on the conceptual understanding along with occupational at the expense of other areas of public training. The analysis reveals some shortcomings in a number of aspects that calls for a multi-task, multi-skilled leader who can serve well as a strategic decision-maker, partner with clients; skilled designer and marketer of training programs.
Teacher Effect Model for Impacting Student Achievement
Authors: Heafner Tina L.
Published: October 2016

Teachers are a significant factor associated with student achievement. Research recognizes that the greatest determinate of student achievement is the teacher, yet questions remain as to what characteristics of teachers are the most influential and where these attributes can be influenced through professional development. This paper explores the teacher effect through the evaluation of the interaction among characteristics of four teacher profiles using Surveys of Enacted Curriculum®. This Teacher Effect Model was designed to evaluate the future impacts of sustained professional development.
Curriculum Development Models for Quality Educational System
Authors: Modebelu Melody Ndidi
Published: October 2016

This chapter examines curriculum development models as a veritable working tool for academics, teachers, administrators and planners at various education levels to be utilized to steer and attain quality educational system for national sustainable development. Effective knowledge, development skills, utilization skills and participation of all stakeholders in education are very crucial in achieving quality curriculum development models for quality educational system in Nigeria and other developing nations. This is one way of ensuring that education remains the only tool for revamping the pitiable present state of Nigeria where education seem to have failed to be an instrument of solving today's problems for quality social reconstruction and transformation. For effective discussion, the paper focuses on the following: nature of curriculum, curriculum development, curriculum development models, six major types of curriculum model i.e. the objective model, the cyclic model, the situational model, the system approach model, the process model, and the creative technology-learning model. Focus is also on the implications of the curriculum development models on the attainment of excellent educational system for sustainable development. Summary and conclusion are given.
Developing English Language Teachers' Professional Capacities through Digital and Media Literacies
Authors: Moreira dos Anjos-Santos Lucas , El Kadri Michele Salles , Gamero Raquel , Gimenez Telma
Published: October 2016

This chapter aims to demonstrate how a group of educators from a southern Brazilian state university designed and implemented formative workshops to sustain English language teachers' professional development through digital and media literacies. The chapter maps important changes that have happened in language teacher education in Brazil and the convergences these changes share with digital and media literacies coming from a sociocultural paradigm. It also presents and discusses the extent to which the instructional material the group of educators produced for the continuing education of English language teachers integrated 21st century skills and the standards from the TESOL technology framework. As a way to evaluate the instructional material, the chapter analyzes the representations and identities schoolteachers constructed when engaging with digital and media literacies through the instructional material. The chapter concludes by advocating more social, political and collaborative future research in language teacher education and digital and media literacies.
Quality Assurance for a Developmental “Global Studies” (GS) Curriculum
Authors: Ahamer Gilbert
Published: October 2016

This chapter focuses on quality assurance (QA) for cutting-edge transdisciplinary university curricula. As a case study, it analyzes the developmental, internationally- and peace-oriented “Global Studies” (GS) curriculum at Graz University, Austria. Based on an extensive literature review on concepts of quality for curricula, key concepts for transdisciplinarity and approaches for quality monitoring are provided. This analysis finds and emphasizes that QA criteria are highly dependent on the stakeholders' perspective; notably on the perspectives of lecturers, students, university administration, and external auditors. Based on several practical sets of such stakeholder-dependent QA criteria, quality in the Graz-based GS curriculum is assessed thoroughly. Detailed recommendations for quality enhancement are provided by students, lecturers and external auditors with a focus on: transdisciplinarity; relevance to practice; maintaining existing levels of academic requirements; and especially sound, sufficient and sustained funding by the university administration.
A Framework for Defining and Evaluating Technology Integration in the Instruction of Real-World Skills
Authors: Harmes J. Christine , Welsh James L. , Winkelman Roy J.
Published: October 2016

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) was created to provide a resource for evaluating technology integration in K-12 instructional settings, and as a tool for helping to target teacher-related professional development. The TIM is comprised of 5 characteristics of meaningful learning (Active, Constructive, Authentic, Collaborative, and Goal-Directed) and 5 levels (Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Infusion, and Transformation), resulting in 25 cells. Within each cell, descriptions are provided, along with video sample lessons from actual math, science, social studies, and language arts classrooms that illustrate a characteristic at the indicated level. Throughout development, focus groups and interviews were conducted with in-service teachers and technology specialists to validate the progression of characteristics and descriptive components.
Disruptive Technologies and Education
Authors: Siu Kin Wai Michael , García Giovanni Jesue Contreras
Published: October 2016

With the rapid development of information and communication technologies at the beginning of the 21st century terms like ‘Cloud Learning,' ‘Mobile Learning,' ‘e-Learning,' and ‘MOOCS' have been added to the long list of ‘disruptive' technologies expected to revolutionize education forever. But while it is easy to see how ICT's have put unimaginable amounts of information at the fingertips of students, can we say that this is truly revolutionizing education? Are higher education institutions adjusting their pedagogic practices to make full use of these technologies? In fact, are they using them at all? In this chapter we take a closer look at the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in higher education and report findings from a study asking how these technologies are being used in academic activities. We set up the framework for the discussion by reviewing some of the most important historical developments in educational technology to then move on to present the study's results. The chapter closes by contrasting these results with past predictions about the disruptive potential of ICTs and finally reflecting on the steps that will have to be taken in order to make the most out of these technologies.
Digital Pedagogy from the Perspective of Early Childhood Education
Authors: Vitoulis Michael , Laloumi-Vidali Evangelia
Published: October 2016

The context of this proposed chapter attempts to approach the concept of “digital pedagogy” focused on particular educational conditions of preschool education. It attempts to support the compelling reasons that require broadening the scope of the theory of “digital pedagogy” in early childhood education. It looks forward to the articulation of traditional pedagogical theories in conjunction with the fundamental principles of “digital pedagogy”, elaborates further risks and suggests possible limitations, and highlights a deliberation associated with digital pedagogy from the perspective of early childhood education. It describes a framework for implementing digital pedagogies in order to exploit the professional development of early childhood educator.
Exploring the Impact of School Leadership on Student Learning Outcomes
Authors: Kythreotis Andreas , Antoniou Panayiotis
Published: October 2016

The chapter aims to explore the various models proposed in the literature related with the impact of school leadership on student academic achievement. In doing so, and drawing mainly from the mediate and indirect models, the chapter also discusses the role of various intermediate/moderate variables that facilitate the impact of principal leadership on student-learning outcomes. Results from a qualitative exploratory study that took place in Cyprus are also presented. This study developed a framework of school principals' actions and strategies that teachers considered as effective in relation to improving their quality of teaching and student outcomes. Some of the problems related with measuring the impact of school leadership on student achievement, such as issues of conceptual and operational definitions of school leadership and methodological issues in research design are also elaborated. Finally, implications for policy and practice on school leadership are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.
Exploring Distributive Leadership in South African Public Primary Schools in the Soweto Region
Authors: Mestry Raj , Naicker Suraiya R
Published: October 2016

The increasing expectations of the principalship and the intensification of the challenges facing schools today have resulted in the emergence of distributive forms of leadership in schools worldwide. These developments prompted research in schools in South Africa, more specifically in the Soweto region, to inquire if distributed leadership had manifested. Soweto is a township in the Gauteng province of South Africa that is associated with the historic struggle against the apartheid government (pre-1994). A qualitative approach executed by means of focus group interviews was employed at three schools to explore the views of teachers who did not hold formal leadership positions. It was found that distributive leadership had not transpired in the schools that are largely rooted in classical leadership practices. This chapter provides an account of the study while elucidating the concept of distributive leadership and examines the role of formal leaders within a distributive leadership framework.
Assessing Experience
Authors: Byker Erik Jon
Published: October 2016

Performance-based assessments are more than just skill development. They are part of evaluating relevant experiences that lead to the maturation of professional dispositions. A goal of performance-based assessment is that as learners—such as teacher candidates—meet the challenges of a performance-based assessment they become deeply cognizant and metacognitive of the level of commitment it takes to be an effective teacher. This chapter argues that at its core performance-based assessment is experiential learning. The chapter reports and compares the findings from two case studies in order to develop a theoretical model for a performance-based assessment of experiential learning. The model, called the Performance-Based Assessment Cycle, weds David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory with features of performance-based assessment. The Performance-Based Assessment Cycle is centered on the development of evaluating relevant experiences through a process of doing, concluding, connecting, and renewing.
Cross-Border Collaborative Learning in the Professional Development of Teachers
Authors: Davidson Rafi , Glassner Amnon
Published: October 2016

The goal of this chapter is to present a theoretical and practical frame for PD of teachers at the digital age. The main question we ask is how to develop life competencies and skills of teachers in order to change their learning and teaching in a way that enables school graduates to acquire relevant skills for life. The chapter inquires this issue by a qualitative methodology case study. The case is an online course for teachers' professional development. The chapter presents evidence from reflective diaries, interviews and scripts of students' and teachers' discussions, focusing on identification of the effects of the course's learning environments on the development of the teachers' self determination learning and skills. The findings indicate the useful effects of the combination between LMS environments and social media, such as Web 2.0 tools. The conclusions suggest new directions for teachers' professional development that encourage the design of a flexible fractal net which enable fostering teachers' leadership and innovation.
The Roles of Organizational Justice, Social Justice, and Organizational Culture in Global Higher Education
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: October 2016

This chapter reveals the roles of organizational justice, social justice, and organizational culture in global higher education, thus describing the practical and theoretical concepts of organizational justice, social justice, and organizational culture; the significance of organizational justice in global higher education; the significance of social justice in global higher education; and the significance of organizational culture in global higher education. The appropriateness of organizational justice, social justice, and organizational culture is influential for global higher education that seeks to serve practitioners and researchers, increase educational performance, sustain competitiveness, and fulfill expected accomplishment in global higher education. The chapter argues that applying organizational justice, social justice, and organizational culture has the potential to improve educational performance and reach strategic goals in global higher education.
The Pivotal Role of Faculty in Online Student Engagement and Retention
Authors: Estes Judi Simmons
Published: October 2016

The premise of this chapter is that higher education online faculty have a pivotal role in student retention; faculty participation is key to student engagement and engaged students tend to complete courses in which they are enrolled. However, frequently faculty members are unaware of the impact their active participation and visibility has on student engagement and retention. In addition, online courses are an important source of revenue for many institutions of higher education and attrition results in loss of revenue. Given that faculty have a pivotal role in retention, institutions of higher education can benefit fiscally from guiding and supporting online faculty in strategies of student engagement and retention. Faculty support is needed during the process of change inherent in faculty adapting to teaching online, through providing on-going faculty professional development and by creating a teaching culture inclusive of informal scholarly investigations related to instructional effectiveness in online course delivery.
Critical Bilingual Leadership for Emergent Bilingual Students
Authors: Wiemelt Joseph
Published: October 2016

The overarching goal of this chapter is to examine and understand the role that school leadership plays in fostering the educational space where language and literacy development are central to the vision of a school community for emergent bilingual students. With this in mind, traditional school leadership theory and practice are insufficient to truly foster the culturally and linguistically responsive schools that are needed for emergent bilingual students. Therefore, this chapter presents critical bilingual leadership theory as an innovative conceptual framework aimed at answering this challenge. Drawing from transformative leadership and Latin@ critical race theory, this framework situates the role of equity-oriented leadership in the context of fostering language and literacy development for emergent bilingual students.
Educational Leadership for Enhancing Quality in Teacher Education
Authors: Baporikar Neeta
Published: October 2016

Educational leadership refers to the process of soliciting and managing the capacities and vitalities of teachers, pupils and parents toward achieving common educational aims. Educational leadership also refers to an individual or group of people who are in charge and lead schools, institutions, programmes and students. The development of leadership as a separate entity goes some way in arguing that an effective educational leader will share much of the same characteristics as a successful business leader. If one sees leadership as a distinct vocation, then one can see that many of the skills and traits are transferable. However, education is a special case, because teaching students has to be the central purpose that educational leadership must reflect. Hence, even if it is drawn from various existent theories of leadership, yet the success is dependent on how much it would enhance the quality of teacher education. The overall mission of this valuable study is to aid researchers in recognizing and understanding the need of educational leadership for enhancing the quality of teacher education.
Pedagogical Challenges in Cross-Cultural Chinese Language Teaching
Authors: Zhou Wenying , Li Guofang
Published: October 2016

In this chapter, a qualitative approach was used to enlist Chinese immersion practitioners in the identification and elaboration of issues and challenges in Chinese immersion language teaching. Through extensive individual interviews and reflection writings, six pre--1 Chinese immersion teachers recruited from China in five school settings served as informants. Data analyses revealed that the Chinese immersion teachers encountered significant challenges in six major areas of their immersion teaching: curriculum development, use of the target language, classroom management, subject area teaching, teaching style, and working with American partners and parents. These varied challenges suggest that professional development for Chinese immersion teachers needs to include training in cross-cultural classroom management skills, curriculum development, content-based Chinese language teaching, and host country school culture education.
Taking Making into the Schools
Authors: Crichton Susan E. , Carter Deb
Published: October 2016

This chapter introduces professional learning (PL) challenges in a Digital Age and makes a case for an immersive, sustained, experiential approach including diverse groups of professionals. It explores how this approach informed novice and experienced educators to incorporate design thinking and making into their current practice. After providing background on the Maker Movement, an immersive PL model is explored. This model comprises an integrated series of PL experiences designed to encourage participants to actively engage in four distinct yet related elements. Drawing on a qualitative, iterative process, initial research findings and experiences suggest that such a model may support good PL and professional development for educators designing and developing 21st century learning environments. These findings suggest this model may allow for collaborative re-thinking of established course and curricular designs, while addressing significant social issues, encouraging participants to become thoughtful contributors in an increasingly complex, globalized economy.
Adapting and Advocating for an Online EdD Program in Changing Times and “Sacred” Cultures
Authors: Paulson Elan Nicole
Published: October 2016

The purpose of this chapter is to underscore the importance of recognizing how complex cultural and structural forces shape the design and delivery of a fully online professional doctorate (EdD) program. This chapter considers various challenges and opportunities of a new distance-delivery EdD program in Educational Leadership offered by a leading Canadian university in order to examine how the pressures of educational reform and academic cultural norms shape professional doctorate programs and their components. Ultimately, this chapter calls for promoting greater adaptability within EdD program designs and stronger championing of the program's value and distinctiveness, especially its capacity to be adaptable to the expectations of student stakeholders.
Becoming Practitioner-Scholars
Authors: Ravitch Sharon M. , Lytle Susan L.
Published: October 2016

This chapter explores how educational leaders learn to engage in site-based inquiry within a leadership-focused doctoral program through coursework and dissertation research. There is a dearth of research on educational leaders engaging in research, and specifically in local inquiries, that speaks to how leaders enact practitioner research in their institutional settings and how this kind of engagement in inquiry influences their leadership practices. This chapter is the outgrowth of considerable program and dissertation structure development over 14 years and argues that there is considerable value, for mid-career leaders and for the field, in doing rigorous research as part of their doctoral studies. The chapter describes how dissertations are conceptualized, cultivated, and framed within the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational and Organizational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania; it explores the relationships among coursework, dissertation research, inquiry-based leadership practices, and the cultivation of scholar-practitioners in leadership.
Designing a cMOOC for Lecturer Professional Development in the 21st Century
Authors: Cochrane Thomas , Narayan Vickel , Burcio-Martin Victorio
Published: October 2016

This chapter explores the design of a framework for up-scaling a lecturer professional development strategy based upon communities of practice from pockets of excellence to span across a university utilizing a cMOOC framework. The framework links global experts into an authentic professional development experience via the integration of a range of mobile social media learning technologies. The framework includes a series of triggering events designed to support the development of participants' personal eportfolios and pedagogical practice that can then be optionally validated by external CMALT accreditation. We believe the framework provides a transferable professional development model for other institutions to explore.
Evolving Pedagogy and Practice
Authors: Hennessey Susan , Olofson Mark W. , Swallow Meredith J. C. , Downes John M.
Published: October 2016

This chapter presents qualitative research describing the pedagogy of middle grades mathematics teachers who participated in professional development in conjunction with classroom integration of 1:1 technology. Through a multiple-case study design, the expression and development of teacher pedagogy that occurred as teachers created self-designed action research projects grounded in pedagogical goals is illustrated. The use of action research in these four case studies as a vehicle for professional growth and as a reflective evaluation tool is discussed. When viewed through the lens of the TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), data suggest a technology-mediated shift in pedagogy in the area of differentiation in instruction and assessment in mathematics classrooms. Future implications regarding technology integration, professional development programs, and the use of the TPACK as a descriptive tool are considered.
All Roads Lead to Curriculum Inclusive of Social Justice and Democracy
Authors: Wang Victor X. , Russo Marianne Robin , Bryan Valerie C.
Published: October 2016

Developing curricula requires instructors to take into account several factors. These factors can be viewed as critical components of curriculum development for education instructors. Without adequately addressing critical components such as curriculum history, curriculum theory, curriculum philosophies, curriculum processes, curriculum implementation, and evaluation, education instructors will fail to develop sound/meaningful curriculum(s). This chapter sheds light on relevant information from curriculum on its history, theory, philosophies of development, processes, implementation, and evaluation. The value of such as review is to assist those individuals seeking a teaching credential in education to have confidence to blend curriculum development with their prior occupational knowledge and skills. The chapter also examines caveats and dangers when social and political constructs are overlaid in comportments.
New Methods Exploring Facial Expressions in the Context of Leadership Perception
Authors: Trichas Savvas
Published: October 2016

The aim of this chapter is to add to our knowledge of the contribution of facial expression to educational leadership perception. Although there is a considerable amount of studies investigating leaders' emotional displays, the majority of this research does not use the sophisticated facial expression coding methods available in other psychological settings. However, research using such sophisticated methods shows that even subtle facial actions can result in significantly different impressions, indicating that credibility of facial expression interpretation might depend on the accuracy of facial expression description (see Rosenberg, 2005). In this chapter, the few leadership studies that have used sophisticated facial expression coding methods are reviewed. On the basis of these studies, it is recommended that educational organizations should be aware of the added value of these methods in order increase research credibility and provide educational leaders with specialized knowledge and skills that could eventually increase their effectiveness.
Public Art, Digital Technology, and Building Teacher Capacity
Authors: Lemon Narelle
Published: October 2016

Visual Art teachers of K-6 students are required to look at innovative ways to deliver and explore the elements of arts through creating and responding learning activities. They are also required to consider how digital technology can support these areas. This chapter presents an Australian project that invited 10 primary school visual art teachers to consider how they could integrate digital technology such as an interactive whiteboard and mobile devices while exploring an inquiry topic of public art. Narrative case studies are presented that highlight the teacher voice. Each narrative focuses on the building of capacity to meaningfully engage with digital technology while exploring visual art. The narratives provide insight into gaps in how some primary teachers engage with digital technology in the classroom, that is focusing more on the tuning in and evaluation stages of an inquiry unit.
Exploring Insurance and Natural Disaster Tweets Using Text Analytics
Authors: Huizinga Tylor , Ayanso Anteneh , Smoor Miranda , Wronski Ted
Published: October 2016

This study explores twitter data about insurance and natural disasters to gain business insights using text analytics. The program R was used to obtain tweets that included the word ‘insurance' in combination with other natural disaster words (e.g., snow, ice, flood, etc.). Tweets related to six top Canadian insurance companies as well as the top five insurance companies from the rest of the world, including the new entrant Google Insurance, was collected for this study. A total of 11,495 natural disaster tweets and 19,318 insurance company tweets were analyzed using association rule mining. The authors' analysis identified several strong rules that have implications for insurance products and services. These findings show the potential text mining applications offer for insurance companies in designing their products and services.
Online Learning Tools for Middle School Science
Authors: Terrazas-Arellanes Fatima E. , Knox Carolyn , Strycker Lisa A. , Walden Emily D.
Published: October 2016

This article reports on how design-based research methodology was used to guide a line of intervention research that developed, implemented, revised, and evaluated online learning science curricula for middle school students, including general education students and English language learners (primarily of Hispanic origin). The iterative, design-based research approach was carried out in two stages with multiple steps per stage: (a) stage 1, or informed exploration, identified and described the problem under investigation; and (b) stage 2, or enactment, redesigned previously developed online science units, implemented each unit in case studies, and completed a feasibility evaluation. The present paper focuses primarily on the second stage, demonstrating the process by which online science units were repeatedly refined with input from stakeholders, and then examined for their feasibility to implement, usefulness for helping teachers engage with students, and potential to effectively deepen science knowledge. Data were drawn from multiple sources, including teacher logs, student and teacher surveys, student notebooks, content assessments, and focus groups. Results indicate that the online science units were feasible to implement, usable, and helpful. The data-driven, design-based research methodology proved to be both practical and efficacious, and underscored the critical importance of involving all stakeholders in the process of curriculum creation and refinement. This work offers a model for the development of constructivist science instructional materials for English learners using online, multimedia technology.
Digital Storytelling
Authors: Hartsell Taralynn
Published: October 2016

Digital storytelling has many implications in teaching and learning. As a way to communicate ideas, experiences, beliefs, and topics to an audience through the use of technology and multimedia, digital stories help storytellers acquire many different skills and literacies. The most important aspect is that the storyteller learns to create stories using their personal voice and interpretation to be shared with a larger community. Self-expression is encouraged and confidence can be developed through the creation of digital stories. This paper examines digital storytelling from an instructional and learning perspective. Areas such as the implications of digital storytelling in education, the process of planning and developing stories, and a discussion of various tools to create digital stories are included. Digital storytelling can provide storytellers with an avenue for conveying ideas and information that are personal in nature or more informational.
Role of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in Demand Chain Management
Authors: Vasista T. G. K. , AlAbdullatif A. M.
Published: October 2016

In 21st century, collaborative business supply chain environments are required to be proactive rather than reactive so that they can better deal with the uncertainty, growing competition, shorter cycle times, more demanding customers and pressure to cut costs. Demand chain management as a new business model requires investing in consumer insights and closer relationships in the supply chain to conduct predictive analysis of retail intelligent solutions. In this regard new kinds of methodologies are required to be discussed. However, at the execution level the limitations in terms of scalability, data integration and knowledge based decision support to providers or suppliers in terms of strategy building and in providing deductive inference capabilities are to be addressed. Therefore, it is required to describe how predictive analytics helps in constructing the knowledge base to conduct verification and validation in terms of semantic predictive analytic for the domain of demand chain management.
Perceived Mobile Information Security and Adoption of Mobile Payment Services in China
Authors: Gao Fei , Rau Pei-Luen Patrick , Zhang Yubo
Published: October 2016

The rapid deployment of mobile devices and the development of mobile services and applications require to address the mobile information security from the human side. This study was aimed at identifying factors influencing people's perception of mobile information security, to investigate the impact of these factors and to facilitate related service design. A survey was conducted and analyzed with exploratory factor analysis. Five factors were identified, including perceived familiarity, perceived impact, perceived controllability, perceived awareness and perceived possibility. Thereinto, the impact of controllability, impact and familiarity on the adoption of mobile payment was investigated. Impact significantly affected the intention to use, but not the perceived security of payment systems. Control level significantly affected the intention to use and the perceived security. Familiarity was found to have an effect on neither the intention to use nor the perceived security. Related design implications for mobile payment systems were discussed.
Mechanical Performance and Fracture Behavior of Recycled AA6061-T6 Alloy Melted from Aluminium Chips
Authors: Akhtar Naveed , Ahmed Razzaq , Arfan Muhammad , Ali Muhammad Noshad
Published: October 2016

Aluminium chips were re-melted under the molten bath in a gas fired reverberatory furnace and superior quality recycled AA6061-T6 alloy was synthesized. The chips were added 5 to 20% by weight in the recycled alloy. The furnace charge included clean scrap of the same alloy (AA6061) along with the machining chips or tunings of mixed nature. The chips used in this study were mostly generated from lath/bore operations carried on homogenized billets. The fabricated alloy of each heat was characterized for microstructures, mechanical properties and fracture behavior. The results showed that the metallurgical and mechanical performance of the recycled alloy was comparable to the primary alloy. However, SEM analysis of the recycled alloy revealed a sizeable amount of Fe and Si containing intermetallic compounds such as AlFeSi, AlFeMg, and AlSiMg phases.
Improvement of Tensile Behaviour of Tin Babbitt by Reinforcing with Nano Ilmenite and its Optimisation by using Response Surface Methodology
Authors: M. Vijaya Sekhar Babu  , Krishna A. Rama , Suman K.N.S.
Published: October 2016

Metal Matrix Nanocomposites are made from conventional materials and alloys as matrix materials and had become prominent in improving the mechanical behaviour. In this paper, the authors have fabricated a Tin Babbitt particulate metal matrix nanocomposite reinforced with Ilmenite (FeTiO3). For systematic understanding or effect of processing parameters on the tensile behaviour, the central composite design of response surface methodology was used. Metal matrix nanocomposite was fabricated by using ultrasonic assisted stir casting technique. Stirring time, ultrasonic processing time, Wt.% of nanoparticles were taken as processing parameters. The objective of the work is to improve the tensile behaviour of Tin Babbitt and understand the effect of processing parameters on the tensile strength of the Tin Babbitt metal matrix nanocomposite and then optimise it for maximum tensile strength. It was found that tensile strength was improved due to the nano reinforcement.
A New Approach to Community Graph Partition Using Graph Mining Techniques
Authors: Rao Bapuji , Mishra Sarojananda
Published: October 2016

Knowledge extraction is very much possible from the community graph using graph mining techniques. The authors have studied the related definitions of graph partition in terms of both mathematical as well as computational aspects. To derive knowledge from a particular sub-community graph of a large community graph, the authors start partitioning the large community graph into smaller sub-community graphs. Thus, the knowledge extraction from the sub-community graph becomes easier and faster. The proposed approach of partition is done by detection of edges among the community members of dissimilar community. By studying existing techniques followed by different researchers, the authors propose a new and simple algorithm for partitioning the community graph into sub-community graphs using graph mining techniques. Finally, the authors have considered a benchmark dataset as example which verifies the strength and easiness of the proposed algorithm.
Exploring the Choice for Default Systems
Authors: Goethals Frank G.
Published: October 2016

This paper investigates the role the default effect plays in choosing IT systems. This paper presents two studies concerning the acceptance of Gmail (vs. a self-hosted mailing system) and of legal (vs. illegal) movie downloading. Classic factors such as the perceived usefulness and ease of use of a system hardly explain the intent to use default systems. Including the perception of an alternative system in the model significantly increases the R2 of the intent to use the default system. Social influence plays a much bigger role in explaining the intent to use default systems than in the intent to use alternative systems.
Testing measurement invariance of the Learning Programme Management and Evaluation scale across academic achievement
Authors: Mulaudzi Maelekanyo C.
Published: October 2016

Orientation: Measurement invariance is one of the most precarious aspects of the scale development process without which the interpretation of research findings on population subgroups may be ambiguous and even invalid. Besides tests for validity and reliability, measurement invariance represents the hallmark for psychometric compliance of a new measuring instrument and provides the basis for inference of research findings across a range of relevant population sub-groups.Research purpose: This study tested the measurement invariance of a Learning Programme Management and Evaluation (LPME) scale across levels of academic achievement.Motivation for the study: It is important for any researcher involved in new scale development to ensure that the measurement instrument and its underlying constructs have proper structural alignment and that they both have the same level of meaning and significance across comparable heterogeneous groups.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was used, and data were obtained from 369 participants who were selected from three public sector organisations using a probabilistic simple random sampling technique. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences and Analysis of Moment Structures software (versions 21.0.0) were used to analyse the data.Main findings: The findings show that all the four invariance models tested have achieved acceptable goodness-of-fit indices. Furthermore, the findings show that the factorial structure of the LPME scale and the meaning of its underlying constructs are invariant across different levels of academic achievement for human resource development (HRD) practitioners and learners or apprentices involved in occupational learning programmes.Practical implications: The findings of this study suggest practical implications for HRD scholars as they are enabled to make informed decisional balance comparisons involving educational attainment sub-groups.Contributions and value addition: This study contributes methodologically to the sub-field of HRD by enabling scholars to make comparisons of mean differences or other structural parameters across sub-groups.
A Review of the External Validity of Clinical Trials with Beta-Blockers in Heart Failure
Authors: Iyngkaran Pupalan , Toukhsati Samia R. , Thomas Merlin C. , Jelinek Michael V. , Hare David L. , Horowitz John D.
Published: October 2016

Background

Beta-blockers (BBs) are the mainstay prognostic medication for all stages of chronic heart failure (CHF). There are many classes of BBs, each of which has varying levels of evidence to support its efficacy in CHF. However, most CHF patients have one or more comorbid conditions such as diabetes, renal impairment, and/or atrial fibrillation. Patient enrollment to randomized controlled trials (RCTs) often excludes those with certain comorbidities, particularly if the symptoms are severe. Consequently, the extent to which evidence drawn from RCTs is generalizable to CHF patients has not been well described. Clinical guidelines also underrepresent this point by providing generic advice for all patients. The aim of this review is to examine the evidence to support the use of BBs in CHF patients with common comorbid conditions.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, PubMed, and the reference lists of reviews for RCTs, post hoc analyses, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses that report on use of BBs in CHF along with patient demographics and comorbidities.

Results

In total, 38 studies from 28 RCTs were identified, which provided data on six BBs against placebo or head to head with another BB agent in ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathies. Several studies explored BBs in older patients. Female patients and non-Caucasian race were underrepresented in trials. End points were cardiovascular hospitalization and mortality. Comorbid diabetes, renal impairment, or atrial fibrillation was detailed; however, no reference to disease spectrum or management goals as a focus could be seen in any of the studies. In this sense, enrollment may have limited more severe grades of these comorbidities.

Conclusions

RCTs provide authoritative information for a spectrum of CHF presentations that support guidelines. RCTs may provide inadequate information for more heterogeneous CHF patient cohorts. Greater Phase IV research may be needed to fill this gap and inform guidelines for a more global patient population.
On subvarieties with ample normal bundle
Authors: Ottem John Christian
Published: October 2016

We show that a pseudoeffective

\mathbb R

-divisor has numerical dimension 0 if it is numerically trivial on a subvariety with ample normal bundle. This implies that the cycle class of a curve with ample normal bundle is big, which gives an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Peternell. We also give other positivity properties of such subvarieties.
Curves in $\mathbb R^d$ intersecting every hyperplane at most $d+1$ times
Authors: Bárány Imre , Matoušek Jiří , Pór Attila
Published: October 2016

By a curve in

\mathbb R^d

we mean a continuous map

\gamma:I\to\mathbb R^d

, where

I\subset\mathbb R

is a closed interval. We call a curve

\gamma

in

\mathbb R^d\: (≤ k)

-crossing if it intersects every hyperplane at most

k

times (counted with multiplicity). The

(≤ d)

-crossing curves in

\mathbb R^d

are often called
convex curves
and they form an important class; a primary example is the
moment curve

\{(t,t^2,\ldots,t^d):t\in[0,1]\}

. They are also closely related to
Chebyshev systems
, which is a notion of considerable importance, e.g., in approximation theory. Our main result is that for every

d

there is

M=M(d)

such that every

(≤ d+1)

-crossing curve in

\mathbb R^d

can be subdivided into at most

M\: (≤ d)

-crossing curve segments. As a consequence, based on the work of Eliáš, Roldán, Safernová, and the second author, we obtain an essentially tight lower bound for a geometric Ramsey-type problem in

\mathbb R^d

concerning order-type homogeneous sequences of points, investigated in several previous papers.
A Gromov–Winkelmann type theorem for flexible varieties
Authors: Flenner Hubert , Kaliman Shulim , Zaidenberg Mikhail
Published: October 2016

An affine variety

X

of dimension ≥ 2 is called
flexible
if its
special automorphism group
SAut(

X

) acts transitively on the smooth locus

X_{\mathrm {reg}}

[1]. Recall that SAut(

X

) is the subgroup of the automorphism group Aut(

X

) generated by all one-parameter unipotent subgroups [1]. Given a normal, flexible, affine variety

X

and a closed subvariety

Y

in

X

of codimension at least 2, we show that the pointwise stabilizer subgroup of

Y

in the group SAut(

X

) acts infinitely transitively on the complement

X \setminus Y

, that is,

m

-transitively for any

m ≥ 1

. More generally we show such a result for any quasi-affine variety

X

and codimension ≥ 2 subset

Y

of

X

.

In the particular case of

X = \mathbb A^n

,

n ≥2

, this yields a Theorem of Gromov and Winkelmann [8], [18].