bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Awareness of Sustainability, Green IT, and Cloud Computing in Indian Organisations
Authors: Issa Tomayess , Tolani Girish , Chang Vanessa , Issa Theodora
Published: July 2015

This chapter examines the level of awareness that organizations in India have of the concepts, strengths and benefits of sustainability, green IT and cloud computing. Very few research papers have examined the sustainability, green IT awareness and cloud computing issues in India, and it has become necessary to ascertain just where Indian organizations stand when it comes to these concerns. Before determining whether these organisations are progressing towards sustainability, green IT and cloud computing, it is first necessary to determine whether, and to what extent, they are aware of these concepts. This research is to obtain answers, which hopefully will be a first step in a shift towards sustainability and green IT, via an online survey. Seventy-five respondents from public and private Indian organizations participated in this survey and confirmed that cloud computing is efficient, flexible and easy to maintain, although security and privacy are major concerns for Indian organizations.
Publication Analysis of (E-)Tourism
Authors: Cahlik Tomas , Kuchina Elena
Published: July 2015

This chapter presents how e-tourism mirrors in three scientific databases: the Web of Knowledge, Scopus and Google Scholar. Based on the data from these databases, two research questions are answered: How is the number of scientific papers on e-tourism going to develop in the future? What is the probable scenario for future tourism development? We estimate a logistic model for the number of scientific papers in all three databases. Our main finding concerning the first question is that e-tourism as a scientific field is behind its zenith already. Our main finding concerning the second question is that e-tourism supports transition from organized to individual tourism. For answering the third research question “Is there a link between the number of publications on tourism and economic indicators on tourism?” we use numbers of publications from the Factiva database and economic indicators on tourism from the World Bank web page. Using the CCEMG estimator for panel data we find that statistically important links surely exist, even if the interpretation is sometimes not clear. This finding opens opportunities for subsequent research.
Promoting Place Appeal
Authors: Lambert Bruce Henry
Published: July 2015

Widespread internet usage and continuing advances in information systems have greatly changed the dynamics of tourism. Industry providers now have many comparatively low-cost methods available to follow-up exploratory queries in assorted languages, and to maintain post-visit contact with customers. But the push-pull of information has radically changed (and is still evolving). Service providers might welcome the opportunity to better target many more prospective visitors at minimal cost, but soon recognize both negative & positive aspects to widely-referenced user reviews (which are sometimes snidely contributed by competitors). Regional policymakers struggle to develop common platforms to assist with new competitive realities. Destination marketing has expanded to include needs to cultivate investment, generate tourism, and attract mobile experts, while developing & retaining creative local talent. The more competitive local economies have found measures to enjoy prosperity, while other locales suffer collapsing property values & simply watch residents migrate away. This chapter highlights examples of creative uses of e-tourism for improving place appeal.
Interactive Approaches for Sightseeing Route Planning under Uncertain Traffic and Ambiguous Tourist's Satisfaction
Authors: Hasuike Takashi , Katagiri Hideki , Tsubaki Hiroe , Tsuda Hiroshi
Published: July 2015

This paper proposes an interactive approach to obtain an appropriate sightseeing route for the tourist under various uncertain traffic and climate conditions including time-dependent parameters and ambiguous satisfaction values at sightseeing sites. Since the uncertain traffic and climate conditions include time-dependent conditions, Time Expanded Network (TEN) are proposed for each condition. Furthermore, interval numbers for ambiguous satisfaction values are proposed, and hence, the proposed model is formulated as a multiobjective interval programming problem with many constraints derived from network optimization. In order to transform the multiobjective into the single-objective, Minkowski's Lp-metric is introduced as a compromise approach. From the final formulation of our proposed model using the optimistic satisfactory for interval numbers, an interactive algorithm to obtain the appropriate sightseeing route communicating with the tourist is developed.
Empirical Analysis on the Medical Tourism Policy in Taiwan
Authors: Liu I-Chun , Chen Chii-Ching
Published: July 2015

“Medical Tourism” is a growing industry, attracting more and more attention. Taiwan's government, hopeful that this new industry could generate considerable revenue, has declared its ambition to become the premier choice for cross-country medical care for international visitors. The policy network approach emphasizes the interaction between policy actors. This chapter examines Taiwan's medical tourism development from the model of public policy implementation. We present findings from twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders across medical service providers, as well as government officers, and civil society sectors. We found that medical tourism in Taiwan is a growing service, with both public and private sector involvement. However, it is still lagging behind regional competitors such as Singapore, Thailand, and India. Thus, active efforts should be made to encourage the coordination between the medical care sector, tourism industry, and relevant authorities.
A Comparative Study of Japanese and Taiwanese Perceptions of Hot Springs
Authors: Liu I-Chun , Chen Chii-Ching
Published: July 2015

Taiwan and Japan has an abundance of hot springs; therefore, many people living there believe that hot springs are effective for healing numerous diseases although contemporary medicine failed to prove their medical efficacy. Researchers have expended considerable effort examining the medical aspect of these tourist destinations, but few have investigated the tourists' perceptions of hot spring destinations. Researchers are increasingly recognizing culture as a source of variation in numerous phenomena of central importance to consumer research. Culture has a strong impact on customers' perceptions of hot springs. This paper provides a review of several studies that have compared Japanese and Taiwanese perceptions of hot springs with a focus on balneology and consumer research, the characteristics of hot springs in Japan and Taiwan, and relevant empirical findings. Finally, this paper addresses several theoretical issues, suggests directions for future research, and discusses managerial implications.
Smart Destination as Key Element
Authors: González Elisa Alén , Vila Trinidad Domínguez , Villamarín Pablo de Carlos
Published: July 2015

The study intends to show the business opportunities generated through the use of technology in the tourism sector by identifying its key elements, with the aim of improving the user's experience. In order to achieve this, the Way of St James has been taken as the object of analysis, given its relevance at a national level as a tourist attraction, and its impact at international level. The methodology applied uses a content analysis of the key technologies that are being used in its promotion, dissemination, information and management. The main results obtained showed that companies are not taking sufficient advantage of social media, which are a key element in user communication and feedback. It was also noted that their webpages had only basic information that was not dynamic enough, and showed an almost general lack of tools such as augmented or virtual reality, and more intuitive interfaces and applications.
From the Museums of Objects to the Virtual Museums
Authors: Ferrari Sonia , Gilli Monica
Published: July 2015

This paper analyses the role played by the new multimedia technologies for the development of the offer of museums. The role of museums is changing: while in the past the goal of mere cataloguing and preservation prevailed, today these institutions are making efforts to increase the number of visitors and attract new segments of demand, as well as qualify their offer. It emerges, for all these reasons, the need to modify the positioning and the offering of cultural attractions, strengthening them in experiential terms. Therefore, in terms of management of cultural heritage it is necessary to focus on the ability to get closer to the public and to create richer and striking experiences for visitors through new technologies. The paper presents some of the most interesting cases of Italian audience-driven museums (Hopper-Greenhill, 1994) focused on innovative ITC support.
Recreating the Place
Authors: Lin Tzung-De
Published: July 2015

The development and uptake of information and communication technologies have provided tourism industries innovative opportunities to interact with potential tourists. Instead of focusing on the development and implementation of new technological tools with which much E-tourism research is concerned, this paper examines a case of tourism promotion in Japan made possible by the spread of video-sharing websites. The case shows a nontraditional, non-intuitive strategy. It reaches potential tourists and gains nationwide visibility at a relatively low cost by producing videos featuring an unappealing character who symbolizes the destination: Hakodate City. This strategy of promoting domestic tourism was preceded by other two popular strategies of tourism promotion in Japan, and the case is compared with them: popular media-induced tourism, particularly anime tourism, and local mascots.
Leveraging the Design and Development of Multimedia Presentations for Learners
Authors: Lin Lijia , Leh Amy , Kim Jackie Hee Young , Baylen Danilo M.
Published: July 2015

The chapter addresses how multimedia presentations can be designed effectively for learners. Based on the literature, it defines the related terms and discusses the role of human factors during the design and development process of multimedia. Then, it discusses strategies, such as providing learner control and using visual cueing, to design effective multimedia presentations. In addition, various technologies in creating multimedia-based instruction are described. Finally, the chapter discusses evaluation frameworks, as well as the implications for integrating multimedia into educational practices.
Static Text-Based Data Visualizations
Authors: Hai-Jew Shalin
Published: July 2015

Data visualizations have enhanced human understandings of various types of quantitative data for many years. Of late, text-based data visualizations have been used informally and formally on the WWW and Internet as well as for research. This chapter describes this phenomenon of text-based data visualizations by describing how many of the most common ones are created, where the underlying textual datasets are extracted from, how text-based data visualizations are analyzed, and the limits of such graphical depictions. While this work does not provide a comprehensive view of static (non-dynamic) text-based data visualizations, many of the most common ones are introduced. These visualizations are created using a variety of common commercial and open-source tools including Microsoft Excel, Google Books Ngram Viewer, Microsoft Visio, NVivo 10, Maltego Tungsten, CASOS AutoMap and ORA NetScenes, FreeMind, Wordle, UCINET and NetDraw, and Tableau Public. It is assumed that readers have a basic knowledge of machine-based text analysis.
Grounding Cyber
Authors: Hai-Jew Shalin
Published: July 2015

Tying “cyber” entities, spaces, and events to real-world physical spaces is a critical step in de-mythifying cyberspace. This chapter introduces Maltego Tungsten™, a penetration testing tool, as one method to extract geolocational information from social media platforms, the Web, and the Internet—in order to relate online accounts, emails, aliases, and online-discussed events to specific physical spaces. This tool may be used for general research or applied “oppo” (opposition) or “doxing” (documenting) research of targets. This also discusses how the geolocational information may be further used to extract deeper understandings. Also, Network Overview, Discovery, and Exploration for Excel (NodeXL) is applied for some geolocational information extractions.
An Innovative Approach for Assisting Teachers in Improving Instructional Strategies via Analyzing Historical Assessment Data of Students
Authors: Cheng Li-Chen , Chu Hui-Chun , Shiue Bang-Min
Published: July 2015

Identifying learning problems of students has been recognized as an important issue for assisting teachers in improving their instructional skills or learning design strategies. The accumulated assessment data provide an excellent resource for achieving this objective. However, most of conventional testing systems only record students' test results, which are not helpful to teachers in realizing students' learning problems without further assistance. To cope with this problem, in this study, an innovative approach that combines a student concept model and the change mining mechanism is proposed to analyze the learning problems of students from their historical assessment data. The teachers received the analysis results and then used those suggestions to improve their instructional strategies. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a web-based learning assessment system has been developed and an experiment has been conducted on an “Introduction to Computers” course in a university. The experimental results showed that, those analysis results provided by the innovative approach were helpful to the teachers in providing appropriate instructional assistance and remedial learning materials for improving the learning achievements of the students.
An Investigation of a Computer Training Company's Migration to a New Distance Learning Platform and the Implementation of an Online Professional Development Program
Authors: Rudd Denis , Bernadowski Carianne
Published: July 2015

The purpose of the study was to determine if the Training Partner Program was successful in preparing trainers to use a new distance learning platform. Results indicate the program was a success in improving self-efficacy, engagement, and collaboration among trainers. Additionally, characteristics of online trainers are identified. Online learning in higher education, business training, and elementary/secondary schools is increasing exponentially and developing effective professional development programs to prepare instructors is of paramount importance. The current study provides valuable insight for any training managers or educators developing activities and exercises to train their faculty on distance learning software and systems.
Multi-Agents Approach for Data Mining Based k-Means for Improving the Decision Process in the ERP Systems
Authors: Mesbahi Nadjib , Kazar Okba , Benharzallah Saber , Zoubeidi Merouane , Bourekkache Samir
Published: July 2015

Today the enterprise resource planning (ERP) became a tool that enables uniform and consistent management of information system (IS) of the company with a large single database. In addition, Data Mining is a technology whose purpose is to promote information and knowledge extraction from a large database. In this paper, an agent-based multi-layered approach for data mining based k-Means through the ERP to extract hidden knowledge in the ERP database is proposed. To achieve this, the authors call the paradigm of multi-agent system to distribute the complexity of several autonomous entities called agents, whose goal is to group records or observations on similar objects classes using the k-means technique that is dedicated the task of clustering. This will help business decision-makers to take good decisions and provide a very good response time by the use of multi-agent system. To implement the proposed architecture, it is more convenient to use the JADE platform while providing a complete set of services and agents comply with the specifications FIPA.
Concepts Seeds Gathering and Dataset Updating Algorithm for Handling Concept Drift
Authors: Hewahi Nabil M. , Elbouhissi Ibrahim M.
Published: July 2015

In data mining, the phenomenon of change in data distribution over time is known as concept drift. In this research, the authors introduce a new approach called Concepts Seeds Gathering and Dataset Updating algorithm (CSG-DU) that gives the traditional classification models the ability to adapt and cope with concept drift as time passes. CSG-DU is concerned with discovering new concepts in data stream and aims to increase the classification accuracy using any classification model when changes occur in the underlying concepts. The proposed approach has been tested using synthetic and real datasets. The experiments conducted show that after applying the authors' approach, the classification accuracy increased from low values to high and acceptable ones. Finally, a comparison study between CSG-DU and Set Formation for Delayed Labeling algorithm (SFDL) has been conducted; SFDL is an approach that handles sudden and gradual concept drift. CSG-DU results outperforms SFDL in terms of classification accuracy.
Integration of Problem Structuring Methods
Authors: Norese Maria Franca , Rolando Diana , Fregonara Elena
Published: July 2015

A high level of complexity usually characterises public projects that involve extended area and several actors with conflicting objectives, and are related to decision processes that continuously change the action space. This complexity should induce local authorities to use Problem Structuring Methods (PSM) in the project definition, to have a clear, complete and unambiguous overview of the context, with the main decision problems and the associated uncertainties, and the actual roles and potential interests of the actors potentially affected by the project. The paper proposes an approach based on the integration of two PSM and finalized to create a knowledge framework of the project context and to control uncertainties and complexities. The methodology is illustrated in relation to a public project in north-west Italy, in which this integrated approach is required because it is difficult or premature to involve the actors in the concept phase, but knowledge of the potential negative/positive impacts on them is essential to structure the decision process and to activate the project.
Movie Recommendation System Based on Fuzzy Inference System and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System
Authors: Siddiquee Mahfuzur Rahman , Haider Naimul , Rahman Rashedur M.
Published: July 2015

One of most prominent features that social networks or e-commerce sites now provide is recommendation of items. However, the recommendation task is challenging as high degree of accuracy is required. This paper analyzes the improvement in recommendation of movies using Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). Two similarity measures have been used: one by taking account similar users' choice and the other by matching genres of similar movies rated by the user. For similarity calculation, four different techniques, namely Euclidean Distance, Manhattan Distance, Pearson Coefficient and Cosine Similarity are used. FIS and ANFIS system are used in decision making. The experiments have been carried out on Movie Lens dataset and a comparative performance analysis has been reported. Experimental results demonstrate that ANFIS outperforms FIS in most of the cases when Pearson Correlation metric is used for similarity calculation.
Optimal Tuning Strategy for MIMO Fuzzy Predictive Controllers
Authors: Taeib Adel , Chaari Abdelkader
Published: July 2015

This paper describes the development of a method to optimally tune constrained MPC algorithms for a nonlinear process. The T-S model is firstly established for nonlinear systems and its sequence parameters of fuzzy rules are identified by local recursive least square method. The proposed method is obtained by minimizing performance criteria in the worst-case conditions to control the process system, thus assuring robustness to the set of optimum tuning parameters. The resulting constrained mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem is solved on the basis of a version of the particle swarm optimization technique. The practicality and effectiveness of the identification and control scheme is demonstrated by simulation results.
The Business Transformation Framework for Managers in Business Innovation Transformation Projects
Authors: Trad Antoine , Kalpić Damir
Published: July 2015

A decisive economical factor in the business transformation project (BTP) of a traditional business environment (BE) into an automated business environment, is the profile of the business transformation manager (BTM), who should be supported by a framework (Trad, & Kalpic, 2001; ). The BTM's profile and its relation to enterprise business architecture skills, have an ultimate impact on the concrete implementation phase of business transformation and related enterprise architecture projects. The basic profile and managerial aspects of BTM profiles and its support, have not been sufficiently researched, to hammer an optimal profile and a corresponding supporting framework that is why this research article proposes the related BTP's managerial recommendations and conclusions. This research paper and the related research publications series deals with the BTP's support for the BTM's selection, architecture support, decision making and training requirements; where the BTM, has to manage the complex technical implementation phase of the BTPs; knowing that this phase of a BTP is the major cause of very high failure rates.
Project Scheduling and Cost Minimization with Multiple Availability Constrained Resources under Stochastic Conditions
Authors: Moutinho Rui , Tereso Anabela
Published: July 2015

The authors propose a mathematical model to minimize the project total cost where there are multiple resources constrained by maximum availability. They assume the resources as renewable and the activities can use any subset of resources requiring any quantity from a limited real interval. The stochastic nature is inferred by means of a stochastic work content defined per resource within an activity and following a known distribution and the total cost is the sum of the resource allocation cost with the tardiness cost or earliness bonus in case the project finishes after or before the due date, respectively. The model was computationally implemented relying upon an interchange of two global optimization metaheuristics – the electromagnetism-like mechanism and the evolutionary strategies. Two experiments were conducted testing the implementation to projects with single and multiple resources, and with or without maximum availability constraints. The set of collected results shows good behavior in general and provide a tool to further assist project manager decision making in the planning phase.
Nobody Knows You're a Dog but Everybody Knows You're a Republican
Authors: Balint Bryon , Gustafson Jennifer
Published: July 2015

Geography often serves as at least a partial determinant of economic and cultural characteristics. For example, individuals who live in affluent neighborhoods are likely to come into contact with other individuals who have similar income and education levels, which often tend to be associated with political views and personal interests. However, within electronic social networks (ESNs), geographical barriers weaken or disappear; interacting with someone from another country is as easy as interacting with someone next door. This survey study asks respondents to compare their close friends, people with whom the respondents interact both within an ESN and face-to-face, with their distal friends, people with whom the respondents interact only inside an ESN. Specifically, respondents are asked about the political, religious, and social views of their groups of friends. The results suggest that respondents do perceive significant differences in the views of their close friends versus their distal friends. In addition, respondents who have a higher percentage of close friends and respondents that are more comfortable sharing their own political, religious, and social views are more likely to spend time reading ESN content that conflicts with their views, but are also more likely to block content that conflicts with their views.
Opportunities, Emerging Features, and Trends in Electronic Distribution in Tourism
Authors: Ramos Célia M. Q. , Rodrigues Paulo M. M. , Rodrigues João M. F.
Published: July 2015

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Tourism development are interlinked. ICT provide the tools and promote tourism demand and supply, by facilitating the existence and development of tourism and in resolving the needs inherent to the tourism activity. Consequently, tourism increases ICT requirements, since technological developments facilitate the tasks of economic agents in this sector. ICT enables the tourism industry to become more flexible, because it allows for faster and more efficient responses to requests from customers, while reducing operating costs and enabling more competitive prices. In this article it is presented an overview over the opportunities, emerging features and trends that ICT brings from electronic distribution in tourism, this can help and support the decisions of the various actors in the value chain of this business as well as researchers in the tourism field. Namely, it focus on the opportunities granted to tourism distribution by electronic means, the particularities of electronic tourism and the description of the technologies and trends that the tourism organizations have to consider in order to ensure competitiveness. Finally, it is presented a study using 18 Western European countries showing empirically the importance of the ICT to the tourism activity, by focusing how the number of internet users positively affects tourism demand in those countries.
Artificial Neural Network What-If Theory
Authors: Buscema Paolo Massimo , Tastle William J
Published: July 2015

Data sets collected independently using the same variables can be compared using a new artificial neural network called Artificial neural network What If Theory, AWIT. Given a data set that is deemed the standard reference for some object, i.e. a flower, industry, disease, or galaxy, other data sets can be compared against it to identify its proximity to the standard. Thus, data that might not lend itself well to traditional methods of analysis could identify new perspectives or views of the data and thus, potentially new perceptions of novel and innovative solutions. This method comes out of the field of artificial intelligence, particularly artificial neural networks, and utilizes both machine learning and pattern recognition to display an innovative analysis.
Information Technology Governance Barriers, Drivers, IT/Business Alignment, and Maturity in Ghanaian Universities
Authors: Yaokumah Winfred , Brown Steven , Adjei Philip Okang-Mensah
Published: July 2015

The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine the status of IT governance in universities in a developing country, Ghana, by assessing the drivers and barriers to pursuing formal ITG, measuring the extent to which universities align IT goals with academic and business objectives and determining ITG maturity level. Using a survey questionnaire and applying frequency analysis and T-test of independent samples, the results showed that 60.6% of the institutions surveyed were at the non-existent and initial stages of IT governance while only 6% were at the managed and optimized stages. The study also found that the factors contributing towards the drivers for formal IT governance include cost reduction and increased efficiencies, and promoting an institution-wide view of IT. However, the barriers were also identified which included lack of participation, inadequate funding, and top-down leadership-driven institutional culture. Universities can use these findings to improve formal IT governance practices and to benchmark future performance.
Alignment of Project Management with Business Strategy
Authors: Chaudhry Bilal Ahmed
Published: July 2015

Project management is the use of different techniques to deliver project with meeting required objectives within defined constraints. Corporate strategy is plan by which organizations aspire to achieve organizational business goals. In recent times, project management is also used to achieve organizational goals by aligning project management with business strategy of an organization. This research is carried to explore the effects of aligning project management with business strategy on projects and organizations. Case studies were carried out in three organizations; one from public sector; one from private and one from semi-government organization. Results of this research revealed that alignment of business strategy with project management is beneficial for both organization and projects especially in terms of organizational growth and project success.
Quantifying Education Quality in Secondary Schools
Authors: Spruit Marco R. , Adriana Tiffany
Published: July 2015

This research assesses the important factors in assuring education quality in secondary schools by using a business intelligence approach. A Business intelligence framework is created by employing a business intelligence process to identify the stakeholders and components relevant to education quality. The resulting Education Quality Indicator (EQI) framework consists of seven Critical Success Factors and is measured through twenty-eight Key Performance Indicators. The EQI framework is evaluated through expert interviews and a survey, and demonstrates that the most important factor in assuring education quality is a teacher's ability to communicate with students. Finally, a feasibility analysis is conducted in the environment of an information system that is implemented for secondary schools in the Netherlands.
Sustainable Environmental Service - Knowledge Management
Authors: Sukholthaman Pitchayanin , Shirahada Kunio
Published: July 2015

Knowledge management (KM) is a key factor to increase effectiveness of management system. There have been researches of KM on many environmental services. Unfortunately, only a few researches have focused on sustainable service for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). There are evidences of ineffective waste management causing socio-economic and environmental problems, especially in urban areas of developing countries. Humans live in service economy and knowledge society. Waste management is one of the most important public services that all residents should receive while knowledge is needed to make service run smoothly and sustainably. This paper combines concepts of sustainable service and KM to clarify the importance and how these concepts have impacts on societal well-being. Literature reviews and questionnaire surveys are main analysis methods of this paper. Sustainable service with KM roles will be described and co-created values are identified.
Evolving a Social Networking Platform into a Smart Personalised Learning Environment (PLE) or the Other Way Around
Authors: Goschnick Steve
Published: July 2015

The future of learning environments lies with the merging of the better aspects of Learning Management Systems (LMS), with those popularised in Social Networking platforms, to personalise the individual learning experience in a PLE (Personal Learning Environment). After examining the details of a particularly flexible LMS, followed by the investigation of several key data structures behind the Facebook social networking platform, this paper then demonstrates how such a merging can be done at the conceptual schema level, and presents a list of novel features that it then enables.
Traceable Pedagogical Design Rationales for Personalized Learning Technologies
Authors: Weichhart Georg , Stary Chris
Published: July 2015

Although a large number of e-learning systems for individual learning support exist today, many of them still deal with pedagogical issues in an isolated way. In contrast, intertwining interactive system features with educational concepts allows pedagogical designs that may be considered according to their educational rationale. However, pedagogical approaches also do not provide requirements for technologies; they rather consider tools and features as predefined design parameters. Taking an interoperability point of view allows focus on the interaction between the pedagogical and the technological systems. By interpreting technology and didactic approaches as systems and ensuring their interoperability, educators are able to adapt learning experiences and technological features in a way that the overall learning system becomes personalized. A key element of the described work is an architecture that captures the design elements from both progressive education focusing on individual learning support, and the enabling web-based e-learning technologies.
Modeling the Interplay Between Knowledge and Affective Engagement in Students
Authors: Schultz Sarah E. , Arroyo Ivon
Published: July 2015

Two major goals in Educational Data Mining are determining students' state of knowledge and determining their affective state as students progress through the learning session. While many models and solutions have been explored for each of these problems, relatively little work has been done on examining these states in parallel, even though the psychology literature suggests that it is an interplay of both of these states that influences how a student performs and behaves. This work proposes a model that takes into account the performance and behavior of students when working with an Intelligent Tutoring System in order to track both knowledge and engagement and tests it on data from two different systems and explores the usefulness of such models.
Design and Evaluation of Automated Scoring
Authors: Akahane Yuki , Kitaya Hiroki , Inoue Ushio
Published: July 2015

This paper presents a web-based automatic scoring system for Java programming assignments, and reports evaluation results in an actual programming course. The system receives Java application programs submitted by students and returns the test results immediately. The test consists of compiler check, JUnit test, and result test. The result test is very useful for assignments in elementary programming courses, because a typical program is composed of only a main method that reads/writes data from/to the standard input/output devices. The system was used and evaluated in an actual course of our university. The authors confirmed that the system is very helpful for students to improve their programming skills. Especially, many students noticed and corrected their mistakes by repeating submission of their programs again several times.
HMM-Based Vietnamese Speech Synthesis
Authors: Trinh Son , Hoang Kiem
Published: July 2015

In this paper, improving naturalness HMM-based speech synthesis for Vietnamese language is described. By this synthesis method, trajectories of speech parameters are generated from the trained Hidden Markov models. A final speech waveform is synthesized from those speech parameters. The main objective for the development is to achieve maximum naturalness in output speech through key points. Firstly, system uses a high quality recorded Vietnamese speech database appropriate for training, especially in statistical parametric model approach. Secondly, prosodic informations such as tone, POS (part of speech) and features based on characteristics of Vietnamese language are added to ensure the quality of synthetic speech. Third, system uses STRAIGHT which showed its ability to produce high-quality voice manipulation and was successfully incorporated into HMM-based speech synthesis. The results collected show that the speech produced by our system has the best result when being compared with the other Vietnamese TTS systems trained from the same speech data.
An Improved Motion-Sensing Based Monitoring System for Smart Health Care
Authors: Gao Ruiling , Zhao Minghuan , Qiu Zhihui , Yu Yingzhou , Chang C. Hwa
Published: July 2015

Smart health care system has been widely studied by researchers in recent years. Various system design schemes have been proposed for the purpose of enhancing the performance of traditional hospital-centered health care system. Equipped with wireless devices, the innovative system is capable to offer intelligent monitoring and control. In this paper, the authors present an improved web-based motion detection system for health care. The algorithm running on it can detect different motion patterns for individuals and perform well across different hardware platforms, such as Android phones and sensors. The authors use Contiki and its supported low-power wireless standards for 6LoWPAN-based Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to address security issues and realize real-time bidirectional communication. The Web of Things (WoT) integrates data from resource-constrained sensors into web applications and allows the realization of this smart system. Further, a technical evaluation is given to evaluate this system.
Graph-Based Spam Image Detection for Mobile Phone Spam Image Filtering
Authors: Kim So Yeon , Sohn Kyung-Ah
Published: July 2015

Spam images in mobile phones have increasingly appeared these days. As the spam filtering systems become more sophisticated, spams are being more intelligent. Although detection of email-spams has been quite successful, there have not been effective solutions for detecting mobile phone spams yet, especially, spam images. In addition to the expensive image processing time, insufficient spam image data in mobile phones makes it challenging to train a general model. To address this issue, the authors propose a graph-based approach that utilizes graph structure in abundant e-mail spam dataset. The authors employ different clustering algorithms to find a subset of e-mail spam images similar to phone spam images. Furthermore, the performance behavior with respect to different image descriptors of Pyramid Histogram of Visual Words (PHOW) and RGB histogram is extensively investigated. The authors' results highlight that the proposed idea is fairly meaningful in increasing training data size, thus effectively improving image spam detection performance.
Chinese Text Sentiment Analysis Utilizing Emotion Degree Lexicon and Fuzzy Semantic Model
Authors: Wu Xing , Zhuo Shaojian
Published: July 2015

Text on the web has become a valuable source for mining and analyzing user opinions on any topic. Non-native English speakers heavily support the growing use of Network media especially in Chinese. Many sentiment analysis studies have shown that a polarity lexicon can effectively improve the classification consequences. Social media, where users spontaneously generated content have become important materials for tracking people's opinions and sentiments. Meanwhile, the mathematical models of fuzzy semantics have provided a formal explanation for the fuzzy nature of human language processing. This paper investigated the limitations of traditional sentiment analysis approaches and proposed an effective Chinese sentiment analysis approach based on emotion degree lexicon. Inspired by various social cognitive theories, basic emotion value lexicon and social evidence lexicon were combined to improve sentiment analysis consequences. By using the composite lexicon and fuzzy semantic model, this new sentiment analysis approach obtains significant improvement in Chinese text.
A New Approach for Body Balance of a Humanoid Robot
Authors: Medina Ory , Madrigal Daniel , Ramos Félix , Torres Gustavo , Ramos Marco
Published: July 2015

In humans, the vestibular system along with other sensory and motor systems is responsible for three cognitive functions that support mobility. First, is responsible for the balance of the body. Second, it allows humans to maintain the head stabilized. Finally, whenever the body or head are in motion, it maintains the visual gaze on a desired target. These tasks are performed using an array of sensors that are located within the inner ear. This paper describes the design and implementation of a synthetic model of the human vestibular system. The model is based on neurophysiological evidence, which makes it necessary to model all of the neural and physical components involved in the balance of the body. The model includes a component for each of the sensors, cortical and subcortical neural structures. It also defines and generates the necessary motor output signals. The proposed model was connected to a Bioloid® Premium humanoid robot to simulate the motor output and the proprioceptive inputs. The physical tests resulted inconclusive due to the fact that the controller on the robot was incapable of handling the necessary information for the tests. However, even though the results were not the desired, the communication between the sensors and the architecture, as well as the processing inside the architecture satisfied all of the authors' expectations.
An Alternative Backward Fuzzy Rule Interpolation Method
Authors: Jin Shangzhu
Published: July 2015

Fuzzy set theory allows for the inclusion of vague human assessments in computing problems. Also, it provides an effective means for conflict resolution of multiple criteria and better assessment of options. Fuzzy rule interpolation offers a useful means for enhancing the robustness of fuzzy models by making inference possible in sparse rule-based systems. However, in real-world applications of inter-connected rule bases, situations may arise when certain crucial antecedents are absent from given observations. If such missing antecedents were involved in the subsequent interpolation process, the final conclusion would not be deducible using conventional means. To address this issue, an approach named backward fuzzy rule interpolation and extrapolation has been proposed recently, allowing the observations which directly relate to the conclusion to be inferred or interpolated from the known antecedents and conclusion. As such, it significantly extends the existing fuzzy rule interpolation techniques. However, the current idea has only been implemented via the use of the scale and move transformation-based fuzzy interpolation method, which utilise analogical reasoning mechanisms. In order to strengthen the versatility and feasibility of backward fuzzy interpolative reasoning, in this paper, an alternative a-cut-based interpolation method is proposed. Two numerical examples and comparative studies are provided in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed work.
Magnetic Remanence Prediction of NdFeB Magnets Based on a Novel Machine Learning Intelligence Approach Using a Particle Swarm Optimization Support Vector Regression
Authors: Cheng WenDe
Published: July 2015

Studies have shown that the chemical compositions affecting the magnetic properties of NdFeB magnets. In order to get the right NdFeB magnets, it is advantageous to have an accurate model with which one can predict the magnetic properties with different components. In this paper, according to an experimental dataset on the magnetic remanence of NdFeB, a predicting and optimizing model using support vector regression (SVR) combined with particle swarm optimization (PSO) was developed. The estimated result of SVR agreed with the experimental data well. Test results of leave-one-out cross validation show that the mean absolute error does not exceed 0.0036, the mean absolute percentage error is solely 0.53%, and the correlation coefficient () is as high as 0.839. This implies that one can estimate an available combination of different proportion components by using support vector regression model to get suitable magnetic remanence of NdFeB.
Influence of Phase Shift and Amplitude Ratio on the Principal Stresses and Directions in Multiaxial Fatigue Testing
Authors: Kun Lorand , Dumitru Ion , Achiriloaiei Daniel , Kun Karla Noemy
Published: July 2015

The maximum values of normal and shear stresses are the basic parameters which influence directly the initiation and propagation of multiaxial fatigue cracks.Based on the above, the first part of the paper presents an analysis of principal stresses (normal and shear) in case of symmetrical tension-compression loadings with superimposed phase-shifted symmetrical torsion cycles. The influence of stress amplitude ratio and phase shift on the maximum (normal and shear) stresses and on the directions of the planes along which these act is analyzed and graphically represented using stress hodographs.The second part of the paper highlights the possibility of using the maximum value of the normal or shear stress as base parameter for durability studies under multiaxial fatigue, based on existing experimental data. The mentioned data is correlated with the results of an original experimental program carried out by the authors on 41Cr4 steel and conclusions are formulated with regard to the role of maximum shear stress in life-time calculation.
Effect of Solution Treatment Temperature upon the Cavitation Erosion Resistance of X5CrNi18-10 Stainless Steel
Authors: Salcianu Cornelia Laura , Bordeasu Ilare , Mitelea Ion , Crăciunescu Corneliu Marius
Published: July 2015

The specimens subjected to cavitation erosion were quenched from different temperatures (1000°C, 1050°C and 1100°C) but maintained the same time (25 min.) at the high temperature. The cavitation tests were made in the T2 device of the Timisoara Polytechnic University Cavitation Laboratory. This device respects integrally the recommendation of the ASTM G32-2010 Standard. The specimens microstructure and the area subjected to cavitation were examined with optic and SEM microcopies and hardness measurements. The differences arising on cavitation erosion resistance are explained through modifications of the crystalline grains dimensions, the chromium carbides proportion and some intermetallic phases not dissolved in austenite and of resistance to plastic deformation.Keywords: stainless steel, heat treatment, cavitation erosion
On the Influence of Damage-Caused Global Stiffness Decrease upon Structural Modal Parameters
Authors: Gillich Gilbert Rainer , Frunzaverde Doina , Gillich Nicoleta , Ntakpe Jean Louis , Muntean Florian
Published: July 2015

Damage detection using vibration-based methods make use of empirically derived relations to characterize the crack severity. The applicability of these relations is limited to structures with similar cross-section shape and having the same crack type. The use of these relations for composite materials is even more difficult, due to the directional dependency of the materials mechanical properties. We propose in this paper a new method to evaluate the damage severity, which is based on the global stiffness reduction. It is known that the amount of energy stored in a structure depends on its global stiffness, i.e. the value of the structure deflection under a given load. Consequently, the stiffness decrease due to a damage is signalized by an increased deflection. We defined a damage severity indicator based on the evaluation of deflection changes, which is simple to be found by a simple finite element analysis. This indicator is valid for all structures having similar cross-section shape; we used it successfully in vibration-based damage assessment.