bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Developing a Framework for the Visualisation of Learning Analytics in UK Higher Education
Authors: Halliday Jack , Anderson Mark
Published: January 2017

Learning analytics has vast potential as a tool to further unlock the effectiveness of education in a digital age. The amount of data that can be gathered from varying access points can provide new insight and knowledge into how learners are interacting with course materials, learning systems and even fellow classmates. Research and experimentation is uncovering forms of best practice and possible factors on which to centre the analysis of students in an effective way, however learning analytics has yet to be comprehensively implemented country-wide in the United Kingdom.
R&D Productivity in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Authors: van Vierssen Trip F.W. (Ward) , Nguyen Nam C. , Bosch Ockie J.H.
Published: January 2017

The pharmaceutical industry is in a R&D productivity crisis. Rapidly increasing development costs, decreasing profitability of new medical entities and missing breakthrough innovations are negatively affecting the future of the pharmaceutical industry. This complex problem requires a systems thinking approach to find effective solutions. In this study, a general pharmaceutical R&D productivity system has been modeled as a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN). This model is based on a literature review and the mental model of experts in the pharmaceutical field. The model does not only support users to understand the system but is also able to simulate different future scenarios. A blockbuster drug scenario, a generic drug scenario, and a personalized drug scenario has been modeled with three different corresponding outcomes. These simulations enables decision makers to identify the leverage points of the pharmaceutical R&D productivity system. These leverage points could be the foundation of any further strategy development. The R&D productivity system archetype is potentially applicable for other R&D intensive industries.
An Integrated Risk Management Framework
Authors: Thalmann Stefan , Manhart Markus , Ceravolo Paolo , Azzini Antonia
Published: January 2017

Organizational risk management should not only rely on protecting data and information but also on protecting knowledge which is underdeveloped in many cases or measures are applied in an uncoordinated, dispersed way. Therefore, we propose a consistent top-down translation from the organizational risk management goals to implemented controls to overcome these shortcomings. Our approach adopted from the domain of IT security management allows to measure how well knowledge protection is actually pursued in organizations. This affects organizations' abilities to prove compliance to risk management standards, laws, guidelines, or frameworks and creates transparency throughout the whole knowledge protection processes. After introducing our integrated risk management framework, we demonstrate how the technical part of the framework can be implemented by using process mining in a case study of an Italian aerospace company.
A Framework for Developing Management Intelligent Systems
Authors: Sun Zhaohao
Published: January 2017

This paper proposes a framework for developing management intelligent systems (MiS). The proposed framework identifies the main management functions, intelligent systems and decision support systems (DSS) for planning, organizing, leading and controlling, and their corresponding applications as the core components of MiS. It integrates the main management functions with intelligent systems and DSS in a context of decision making by managers in organizations. This paper also examines intelligent systems for management and management decision making. The approach proposed in this paper might facilitate research and development of MiS, management, intelligent systems, and information systems.
From “Don't Ask, Just Trust” to “Trust Those Who are Accountable”
Authors: Kazandjian Vahé A.
Published: January 2017

The past three decades have primarily focused on improving performance across health care providing organizations and even individual professionals. While their interest in performance improvement is global, the strategies across health care systems remain variable and the resulting methods of accountability to select audiences continue to be influenced by tradition and expectation. The purpose of this article is to review the key dimensions of the operationalization of performance measurement and the translation of its findings to statements about quality of care. While significant literature exists on the conceptual debates about the nature of quality, the deciding factor in demonstrating that better quality may have been achieved resides in the acceptability of the measurement tools to translate performance measures into profiles of quality. Fundamentally, the use of the tools is seen as only one component of a successful strategy – the education of various audiences as to what the measures mean not only is a necessary requisite for sound project design but also will determine how the accountability model is shaped in each environment based on the generic measurement tools results, local traditions of care and caring, and expectations about outcomes.
Infusing Yourself into the Backstory
Authors: Cambiano Renée L. , Speaks Pamela Carter , Cambiano Ronald M.
Published: January 2017

The Ubiquitous Infusion Thinking (UIT) strategy is an innovative action strategy evidenced by the weaving of cognitive and affective thinking into organizational theories that serve to shape the understanding of multidimensional threads and themes that emerge in the problem-solving analysis of complex problems, situations, and/or dilemmas used in a multidimensional case study perspective. The UIT strategy utilizes a focus-refocus-focus–visualize-interpret technique allowing the researcher to engage the power of emotions by stepping in and out of a situation, observing, and then stepping back to acquaint and reacquaint the actions taking place in the setting, permitting clear thinking to emerge. There are four phases: Ubiquitous Investigation, Shaping One's Understanding, Building the Backstory, and Action. This chapter walks the researcher through the historical case study research methodology and the Multidimensional Perspective to case study research using ubiquitous infusion thinking strategy.
An Information System Framework and Prototype for Collaboration and Standardization in Chinese Liquor Production
Authors: Guo Z.X. , Yang Jing , Chen Longchao , Guo Ruiqiang
Published: January 2017

This paper proposes an information system framework for production collaboration and standardization in Chinese liquor industry, and examines the key implementation issues of information systems in Chinese liquor production. A descriptive single case study is conducted to explore and identify the benefits, challenges, and success factors of information system implementation in Chinese liquor production by taking a famous Chinese liquor producer as the target case company. The case study shows that the proposed information system framework is helpful to improve collaboration and standardization in Chinese liquor production. Some benefits and challenges of implementing information systems are different from those described in previous studies because of various distinct, real-world features of Chinese liquor production. The proposed system framework offers the possibility to improve the Chinese liquor producer's production efficiency and market competition by better production collaboration and standardization.
Visualizing the Bug Distribution Information Available in Software Bug Repositories
Authors: Nagwani N. K. , Verma S.
Published: January 2017

Software repositories contain a wealth of information that can be analyzed for knowledge extraction. Software bug repositories are one such repository that stores the information about the defects identified during the development of software. Information available in software bug repositories like number of bugs priority-wise, component-wise, status-wise, developers-wise, module-wise, summary-terms-wise, can be visualized with the help of two- or three-dimensional graphs. These visualizations help in understanding the bug distribution patterns, software matrices related to the software bugs, and developer information in the bug-fixing process. Visualization techniques are exploited with the help of open source technologies in this chapter to visualize the bug distribution information available in the software bug repositories. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphs are generated using java-based open source APIs, namely Jzy3d (Java Easy 3d) and JFreeChart. Android software bug repository is selected for the experimental demonstrations of graphs. The textual bug attribute information is also visualized using frequencies of frequent terms present in it.
The Role of Social Capital in Higher Education Institutions
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: January 2017

This chapter introduces the role of social capital in higher education institutions, thus explaining the concept of social capital, the dimension of social capital in higher education institutions (i.e., structural social capital and communication, relational social capital and social integration, and cognitive social capital and coordination), and the application of social capital in higher education institutions in terms of social networks, social norms, social trust, and institutional trust. Social networks, high institutional trust, social trust, and a tendency to comply with regulations are the important social characteristics that facilitate the application of environmental initiatives in higher education institutions. The enforcement of social capital will be accompanied by successful higher education institution initiatives combined with significant change in the culture of higher education institutions, thus leading to the achievement of sustainability in higher education institutions. Understanding the role of social capital will significantly enhance the educational performance and achieve educational goals in higher education institutions.
Best Practices for Culturally Sensitive Data Visualizations
Authors: Gendron Michael , Hutwelker Christopher , Kisz Krzysztof
Published: January 2017

Organizations are undergoing significant changes in their business environment. Competing on a global scale means that organizations must better understand cultural issues of their customers, employees, and key stakeholders. As business analytics grows in importance, managers are sharing data visualizations to a variety of different cultures and beliefs. When creating culturally sensitive data visualizations, a set of best practices is required to assist managers to make timely and accurate decisions with the least possible cultural bias. This article aims to develop these best practices by analyzing cultural traits, communication habits, and other differences between the western and eastern global regions.
Suggestions for Achieving Balance between Corporate Dataveillance and Employee Privacy Concerns
Authors: Rosette Ordor Ngowari , Kazemeyni Fatemeh , Aghili Shaun , Butakov Sergey , Ruhl Ron
Published: January 2017

Big data, like most technological innovations, brings noticeable benefits as well potential risks. Dataveillance using big data is becoming another dimension in the increasing privacy concerns of the workforce. Such concerns emanate from the tension between the correct use of employee personal data and information privacy in big data within and outside the work environment. It has evolved as employees are becoming increasingly cognizant of the ways in which employers can use technologies to monitor social media activities, internet interactions, emails and other online activities outside the work environment. The objective of this research paper is to recommend a set of guidelines which will be mapped to COBIT 5 framework to help medium and large organizations balance the tension between the increasing potential of big data and employee dataveillance privacy concerns in workplaces.
Benchmarking Competitiveness of Top 100 U.S. Universities
Authors: Ertek Gürdal , Tokdil Bengi , Günaydın İbrahim , Göğüş Aytaç
Published: January 2017

This chapter presents a comprehensive benchmarking study of the top 100 U.S. universities. The methodologies used to come up with insights into the domain are Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and information visualization. Various approaches to evaluating academic institutions have appeared in the literature, including a DEA literature dealing with the ranking of universities. This study contributes to this literature by the extensive incorporation of information visualization and subsequently the discovery of new insights. The main purpose of the study is to create an objective basis of assessment for the candidate students to use for university preferences. Meanwhile, the actionable insights obtained for the domain can guide university managers, as well as candidate students.
Enterprise Architecture's Identity Crisis
Authors: Taylor Paul R.
Published: January 2017

This chapter outlines the rational foundations of the enterprise architecture discipline to date and describes ways and situations in which the traditional approaches of enterprise architecture fail to account for a number of contemporary market and economic situations and organizational behaviors. It characterizes new methods and approaches loosely based on systems thinking, with examples from the Australian e-government experience, and argues that the discipline must re-invent itself to incorporate a post-rational perspective to stay relevant. The chapter concludes with narratives of how the new enterprise architecture must engage with business to stay relevant over the next decade and beyond.
Photographers without Photographs
Authors: Gómez Hernando Gómez , Crespo Enrique Corrales
Published: January 2017

The modern society establishes a complex relationship that combines the visual overload derived from technology insertion which is adapted to the today´s needs and executed through devices swiftly embraced. In this certain sense, one of the most overloaded environments currently is, in fact, the photography. The internet and digital mass media development have promoted to get a surprising image surplus, impossible to distinguish between the real occurrence and the photographic observed event. Therefore, is necessary to contemplate a sustainable scenario in photography. It must determinate a balance between images which are produced, consumed and those which can be assumed by society. The photography evolution and the new denomination PostPhotography installs a brand new discourse initially literal, linked to words and needing a unit of speech to make exist the images.
Shared and Distributed Team Cognition and Information Overload
Authors: Ellwart Thomas , Antoni Conny Herbert
Published: January 2017

This chapter discusses information overload (IO) from a team level perspective. Organizational team research underlines the importance of emergent knowledge structures in work groups, so-called team cognition. Two types of team cognition are introduced that are closely related to IO, namely shared team mental models and transactive memory systems. After a brief introduction of the concepts, empirical evidence about the impact of team cognition on dysfunctional IO as well as functional information exchange are presented. In the second part of the chapter, strategies and tools for adapting team cognition in high IO situations are introduced. The focus on team level constructs in IO research complements individual, technical, and organizational approaches to IO by underlining the importance of team knowledge structures in social systems.
Information Management in Fab Labs
Authors: Maravilhas Sérgio , Martins Joberto S. B.
Published: January 2017

Information is managed avoiding overload in Fab Labs, digital manufacturing environments. Collaborative spaces like Maker Spaces, Hacker Spaces, Tech Shops and Fab Labs are intended to stimulate innovation, through the exchange and sharing of information, knowledge, and experience among its members. They leverage innovation stimulating the creativity of its participants and enabling the creation of products and solutions based on personal projects, developed communally. With the motto “Learn, Make, Share,” these spaces aim to empower its members for the realization of local and community-based sustainable solutions, using open source tools and equipment's, to allow every member the possibility of creating low cost products, with the ability to very quickly show the viability of these ideas through the acceptance by the community, that will make these solutions evolve collaboratively. It will be analyzed and described how Fab Labs manage their information to avoid information overload, maximizing the networking amongst its members.
Are You Pondering What I Am Pondering?
Authors: Aparo von Flüe Andrea
Published: January 2017

This chapter deals with something which is widely spoken about, and very little know: Strategic Management. Following an evidence based approach, the author objective is to explain why Strategic Management is a scale invariant process that allows who uses it to identify possible and plausible solutions to complex issues. Some of the basics and analyticals of strategic management, such as strategic planning, SWOT analysis, Scenarios, are going to be described in detail. Detailed considerations will be presented on the issue of time and timing, a fundamental parameter that is too often neglected or taken as granted. The importance of strategic management to allow organisations to learn, change and evolve will be described. Some considerations on the importance of using the proper representation of the organisation's structure will be presented.
Adaptive Portfolio Management
Authors: Romano Luca
Published: January 2017

Portfolio management methodology is usually linked with the concept of “portfolio cycle” (often 1 year of activities). This means that organizations experience, once a year, a time in which ongoing activities are analyzed and their status reported; new initiatives are collected, assessed, prioritized and selected in competition with ongoing components. Being the aim of portfolio management to select the best set of components supporting the organization in achieving the strategic objectives, strategy should drive the preparation of the “next portfolio cycle”. It may be the case that the strategy is not clear, not ready to be used, not stable. Adaptive Portfolio Management requires to move away from the collect-assess-prioritize-select-implement-control-review approach (all these actions are performed during each and every “portfolio cycle”) towards a more flexible model where organizations manage these important activities “continuously”.
Project Portfolio Selection Using a D.E.A. Approach
Authors: Amaral António M. , Araújo Madalena
Published: January 2017

The project management area uses several techniques and tools to identify, select, monitor and manage the projects portfolio of the organizations. However, these techniques still present problems and difficulties which, sometimes, inhibit their use. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is considered a problem of considerable difficulty and complexity, which requires its constant monitoring by the organization, according to the strategic guidelines chosen. Thus, this paper presents an innovative approach for selecting the portfolio of projects by using DEA, and the development of a set of generic indicators, to support the decision makers in considering multiple projects. Each decision maker can use all or some of the indicators proposed, thus each one's knowledge, sensitivity and intuition are taken into account, namely for indicators such as risk perception, level of innovation, market clock speed, project's complexity.
The Perspectives of Medical Errors in the Health Care Industry
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: January 2017

This chapter presents the overview of medical errors; drug prescription errors and prescribing; the overview of medical error disclosure; medical errors and telemedicine; medical errors and medical education; the overview of nursing medication errors; and the aspects of medical errors in the health care industry. Reducing medical errors, increasing patient safety, and improving the quality of health care are the major goals in the health care industry. Medical errors are caused by mistakes in drug prescription, dosing, and medical administration in inpatient and outpatient settings. Heath care-related guidelines, institutional safety practices, and modern health care technologies must be applied in hospitals, clinics, and medical offices to reduce the occurrence of medical errors. The chapter argues that understanding the perspectives of medical errors has the potential to enhance health care performance and reach strategic goals in the health care industry.
The Psychological Impact of Medical Error on Patients, Family Members, and Health Professionals
Authors: Gouva Mary I.
Published: January 2017

The current chapter examines the psychological implications emerging from medical errors. Whilst the psychological effects have studied, nonetheless the consequent impacts and the underlying psychological causes have not been sufficiently analysed and/ or interpreted. The chapter will add to the literate by using a psychodynamic approach in analysing the psychological impact of medical errors and provide interpretations of the underlying causes. The chapter concludes that medical errors lead to a series of implications. For the patient the quality of interactions with health professionals are directly affected and usually have immediate consequences. The impact of these consequences in the patient is mediated by the patient's personality, history of the individual and the psychoanalytic destiny of the patient. For the patient's relatives medical errors create emotional cracks leading to regression and eventual transference of the medical errors as a “bad” object. For health professionals medical errors impact upon the psychological defence mechanisms of the psychic Ego.
Design and Implementation of a Robust Acoustic Recognition System for Waterbird Species using TMS320C6713 DSK
Authors: Boulmaiz Amira , Messadeg Djemil , Doghmane Noureddine , Taleb-Ahmed Abdelmalik
Published: January 2017

In this paper, a new real-time approach for audio recognition of waterbird species in noisy environments, based on a Texas Instruments DSP, i.e. TMS320C6713 is proposed. For noise estimation in noisy water bird's sound, a tonal region detector (TRD) using a sigmoid function is introduced. This method offers flexibility since the slope and the mean of the sigmoid function can be adapted autonomously for a better trade-off between noise overvaluation and undervaluation. Then, the features Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients post processed by Spectral Subtraction (MFCC-SS) were extracted for classification using Support Vector Machine classifier. A development of the Simulink analysis models of classic MFCC and MFCC-SS is described. The audio recognition system is implemented in real time by loading the created models in DSP board, after being converted to target C code using Code Composer Studio. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed TRD-MFCC-SS feature is highly effective and performs satisfactorily compared to conventional MFCC feature, especially in complex environment.
Social Impacts of Using Internet of Things and Data Analytics to Prevent and Reduce the Rate of Accidents
Authors: Srinivasa K.G. , Shikhar Abhinav , Naveen J.S. , Sowmya B.J.
Published: January 2017

Hundreds of lives in the country are lost each day due to the delayed medical response to the accident spots. In the present scenario, the victims completely rely on the passersby for almost every kind of medical help such as informing the hospital or ambulance. This project aims to automate the process of detecting and reporting accidents using accident detection kit in vehicles. The kit has a System on Chip and various sensors which sense various parameters that change drastically during the occurrence of accidents such as the vibration levels, orientation of vehicles with respect to the ground. The accident is said to occur when these values cross the permissible threshold limit. As soon as this happens, the latitude and longitude of the accident spot is tracked using the GPS module present in the kit. The nearest hospital and police station is computed by the GPS Module, which uses the latitude and longitude values as the input. The accident notifications are sent to the concerned hospital and police station over the web interface accordingly. The assignment of particular ambulance and the required traffic policemen to the accident cases is done using the web interface. The android application guides the ambulance driver as well as the policemen to the accident spot and also helps in the detailed registration of the accidents. An intelligent analysis of the last five years' rich dataset uncovers the patterns followed by the accidents and gives valuable insights on how to deploy the existing resources such as ambulances and traffic-police efficiently. Various types of analysis are done to identify the cause-effect relationships and deal with this in a better way. Such technical solutions to the frequently occurring problems would result in saving many lives as well as making the cities safer and smarter.
A User-Centric Evaluation of e-Government Services in the GCC Region
Authors: Al-Yafi Karim , Hindi Nitham Mohammed , Osman Ibrahim Hassan
Published: January 2017

Evaluating users' satisfaction of e-Government services has been addressed by numerous studies. These mainly looked at e-Government users as citizens who are nationals and comply with the local culture of the governments providing these services. However, the GCC region has a particular culture stemming from the social structure and working environment. The expatriate population from different backgrounds form a significant portion of e-Government users. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore users' satisfaction towards the electronic services provided by governments in the GCC region represented by the State of Qatar. In order to examine the suitability of the e-Government service portal, a cross-sectional survey targeting the users of three common e-Government services in Qatar evaluated users' satisfaction based on the four dimensions of the COBRA framework (Osman et al. 2014): Cost, opportunity, benefit and risk. SEM analysis demonstrated a good model fit and supported the hypotheses related to the effect of risk and benefit on users' satisfaction.
A Theoretical Perspective of an e-Diplomacy Maturity Framework
Authors: Al-Muftah Hamad , Sivarajah Uthayasankar
Published: January 2017

Diplomacy forms the basis of interaction for countries throughout the globe, while propelling cordial international relations in a wide array of socio-cultural and political. This research outlines an innovative conceptual structure for examining the maturity and feasibility of e-diplomacy. The proposed e-diplomacy maturity framework is a derivative of literary analysis on e-government maturity model, ICT growth of stage theories, coupled with theoretical information and practical features of diplomacy. The e-diplomacy maturity model constitutes variables like the degree of complexity and level of interactivity. Integration of the two variables results in varying phases of the framework. Challenges implicated in the e-diplomacy maturity framework include: sensitivity hence discretionary nature of diplomatic elements, setbacks in organizational structure, and communication impediments on the part of diplomats, as well as, politico-economic concerns and socio-cultural tendencies of various parties.
Citizen Attitudes about Open Government and Government 2.0
Authors: Nam Taewoo
Published: January 2017

The analysis on the secondary data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project's national survey (Government Online) found what influences American citizens' attitude about Open Government and Government 2.0, which can be identified as a new goal and tool, respectively, of e-government. This study employs a path analysis based on standardized structural equation estimation, which decomposes the causal relationships among multiple variables into standardized direct and indirect effects. The analysis suggests some noteworthy findings. Heavy users of e-government services and those with trust in government are likely to have positive attitudes toward the new phase of e-government, Open Government and Government 2.0. Socio-demographic conditions have indirect effects on citizen attitudes through the mediating effect of e-government use.
Sustainable Industrial Site Redevelopment Planning Support
Authors: Wang Tong , Han Qi , de Vries Bauke
Published: January 2017

Abandoned industrial sites could be redeveloped in a sustainable way with the help of previous experience. This paper presents a case-based reasoning (CBR) approach to support sustainable industrial site redevelopment. For a target site that needs to be redeveloped, qualitative important key concerns are identified and quantitative attributes, which are important for sustainability, are calculated. The key concerns are generated from zoning documents and the attributes are calculated from spatial data sets. Machine learning techniques are used to find the most influential attributes to determine transition forms. Similar cases from the constructed case base are retrieved based on the algorithm the authors have proposed. The North Brabant region in the Netherlands is used as a case study. A web application is presented to illustrate the approach. The e-planning method provides a straightforward way to retrieve transition forms from similarly redeveloped cases for new regional planning tasks with a focus on sustainability.
Taming of ‘Openness' in Software Innovation Systems
Authors: Gencer Mehmet , Oba Beyza
Published: January 2017

In large-scale open source software (OSS) innovation ecosystems that incorporate firms, a variety of measures are taken to tame the potentially chaotic activities and align the contributions of various participants with the strategic priorities of major stakeholders. Such taming rests on the dual desires of this emergent community of firms to unleash the innovation potential of OSS and to drive it to a certain direction, and it emerges in the form of various organizational activities. By drawing on a sample of large-scale OSS ecosystems, the authors discuss that methods employed for taming are isomorphic, and overview the emerging strategic pattern for establishing systems of innovation. This pattern involves a related set of practices to balance virtues of OSS community while introducing corporate discipline. In contrast to approaches such as open innovation, which favor isolated reasoning, they present a systemic and historical perspective to explain the continuum in emergence and establishment of strategic patterns.
The Effects of Augmented Reality Head-Up Displays on Drivers' Eye Scan Patterns, Performance, and Perceptions
Authors: Smith Missie , Gabbard Joseph L. , Burnett Gary , Doutcheva Nadejda
Published: January 2017

This paper reports on an experiment comparing Head-Up Display (HUD) and Head-Down Display (HDD) use while driving in a simulator to explore differences in glance patterns, driving performance, and user preferences. Sixteen participants completed both structured (text) and semi-structured (grid) visual search tasks on each display while following a lead vehicle in a motorway (highway) environment. Participants experienced three levels of complexity (low, medium, high) for each visual search task, with five repetitions of each level of complexity. Results suggest that the grid task was not sensitive enough to the varying visual demands, while the text task showed significant differences between displays in user preference, perceived workload, and distraction. As complexity increased, HUD use during the text task corresponded with faster performance as compared to the HDD, indicating the potential benefits when using HUDs in the driving context. Furthermore, HUD use was associated with longer sustained glances (at the respective display) as compared to the HDD, with no differences in driving performance observed. This finding suggests that AR HUDs afford longer glances without negatively affecting the longitudinal and lateral control of the vehicle – a result that has implications for how future researchers should evaluate the visual demands for AR HUDs.
Autonomous Driving
Authors: Walch Marcel , Mühl Kristin , Baumann Martin , Weber Michael
Published: January 2017

Autonomous vehicles will need de-escalation strategies to compensate when reaching system limitations. Car-driver handovers can be considered one possible method to deal with system boundaries. The authors suggest a bimodal (auditory and visual) handover assistant based on user preferences and design principles for automated systems. They conducted a driving simulator study with 30 participants to investigate the take-over performance of drivers. In particular, the authors examined the effect of different warning conditions (take-over request only with 4 and 6 seconds time budget vs. an additional pre-cue, which states why the take-over request will follow) in different hazardous situations. Their results indicated that all warning conditions were feasible in all situations, although the short time budget (4 seconds) was rather challenging and led to a less safe performance. An alert ahead of a take-over request had the positive effect that the participants took over and intervened earlier in relation to the appearance of the take-over request. Overall, the authors' evaluation showed that bimodal warnings composed of textual and iconographic visual displays accompanied by alerting jingles and spoken messages are a promising approach to alert drivers and to ask them to take over.
Improving Course Assessment via Web-based Homework
Authors: Wimmer Hayden , Powell Loreen , Kilgus Lawrence , Force Christina
Published: January 2017

Higher education increasingly relies on course assessment; however, it is challenging to cover all course and assessed content. Homework has been linked to increased student performance and may be a solution to covering or reinforcing key course and assessed concepts. Instructor time and resources are limited, making additional grading challenging. Moreover, using feedback on homework to improve student performance is time sensitive with many faculty, challenged to timely return homework feedback. Web-based tools may assist with the aforementioned issues; however, research on the effects of homework, paper-based versus web-based homework, and online learning tools is inconsistent. The goal of this research is to improve assessment via web-based homework while requiring minimal instructor effort and time. The hypothesis is stated as employing web-based homework will improve scores on student performance as measured by a university course assessment. The web-based homework occurs via the implementation of discussion boards in multiple undergraduate courses in the college of business of a mid-size regional university. Results indicate discussion boards can be used to effectively improve student performance as measured by assessment.
Is Active Learning via Internet Technologies Possible?
Authors: Wang Viktor , Hitch Leslie
Published: January 2017

This study addresses the question of whether or not active learning can be taught online. There are many definitions of learning: It is the process and the sum total of acquiring knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, beliefs, and emotions. There is, however, a nuanced definition of active online learning, defined as methods by which learners actively participate in the learning process (e.g., online discussion groups, problem-solving, experimentation, and the like). Theoretical presuppositions such as informal learning, contiguity, reinforcement, repetition, social-cultural principles and andragogy not only guide the assumption that active learning can take place online but also reinforce that active learning may lead to the creation of new knowledge and the skills needed by learners in this current century. This research reveals that technology, used effectively, enhances active learning benefitting the instructor as well as the learner.
Sustainability Reporting
Authors: Anunciação Pedro Fernandes , Brasil Duarte Xara , Marques Jane A. , Matias Agatha Peres Nunes , Garcia Camila Pires
Published: January 2017

Environmental, social and economic disasters became sustainability a central topic in global agenda during the twentieth century. It generates more society's awareness regarding environmental problems and companies concerns on the topic, causing the inclusion of sustainability issues as one of the priorities in their strategic plans. Organizations' components of sustainability have been created with different focus and priorities, it originated significant differences in how organizations approach sustainability in terms of objectives, policies and initiatives chosen (EIRIS, 2012). Sustainable reports publications have been the main communication vehicle of organization approaches. This study aims, through an exploratory approach, to understand sustainability metrics adopted in organizational environment and to analyze how the top ten Brazilian and Portuguese companies – listed on the BOVESPA and EURONEXT Lisbon – internalize sustainability practices and utilize their sustainability reports as a marketing tool.
Strategic Behaviors in Sustainable Development
Authors: Heraghi Ines Shili , Zouari Ezzeddine
Published: January 2017

As part of the extension of the recent theoretical work from several sociopolitical approaches such as stakeholder and neo institutional, theory. This paper studies the strategic behavior of banks in sustainable development in the context of the Tunisian banking sector. The main mode of data collection is the questionnaire survey. Using a sample of 20 banks from Tunisia. Employing two different test method; crisscross sorting and scoring. According to the results of neoclassic theory, the authors' research showed that socially responsible behavior present a response to legal constraints (laws, regulations), normative constraints (professional and industry standards) or cognitive cultural constraints (mimetic behavior). Consequently, banks in the context of reputational risk adhere to these practices, recognized as relevant and appropriate to the expectations of stakeholders. Results released showed that Tunisian banks have an adaptive behavior in SD and on CSR, which affirms the works of Jeucken (2001) (Kolk et al. 2001) and (Peeters 2003) and Serre, Gendron and Ramboarisata (2008).
Proposing Co-Design of Personas as a Method to Heighten Validity and Engage Users
Authors: Albrechtsen Charlotte , Pedersen Majbrit , Pedersen Nicholai Friis , Jensen Tine Wirenfeldt
Published: January 2017

This paper proposes co-designing personas with users as a strategy to overcome a challenge inherent in the design of personas or fictitious users: On one hand, personas should appear realistic and believable as individuals, and on the other hand, personas should represent a broader range of users. By involving empirical users in all parts of the process of persona design, the risk of creating personas that are too stereotypical is minimized, as the participating users enrich the data on which the personas are based with up-to-date and firsthand contextual knowledge. Advantages of co-designing personas with users is illustrated by a case from higher education in which personas were co-designed with students as part of a project aiming at designing a smartphone application for Master's thesis students.
Subjective Text Mining for Arabic Social Media
Authors: Hathlian Nourah F. Bin , Hafez Alaaeldin M.
Published: January 2017

The need for designing Arabic text mining systems for the use on social media posts is increasingly becoming a significant and attractive research area. It serves and enhances the knowledge needed in various domains. The main focus of this paper is to propose a novel framework combining sentiment analysis with subjective analysis on Arabic social media posts to determine whether people are interested or not interested in a defined subject. For those purposes, text classification methods—including preprocessing and machine learning mechanisms—are applied. Essentially, the performance of the framework is tested using Twitter as a data source, where possible volunteers on a certain subject are identified based on their posted tweets along with their subject-related information. Twitter is considered because of its popularity and its rich content from online microblogging services. The results obtained are very promising with an accuracy of 89%, thereby encouraging further research.
Effects of cadmium on the glial architecture in lizard brain
Authors: Favorito Rossana , Monaco Antonio , Grimaldi Maria C. , Ferrandino Ida
Published: January 2017

The glial cells are positioned to be the first cells of the brain parenchyma to face molecules crossing the blood-brain barrier with a relevant neuroprotective role from cytotoxic action of heavy metals on the nervous system. Cadmium is a highly toxic metal and its levels in the environment are increasing due to industrial activities. This element can pass the blood-brain barrier and have neurotoxic activity. For this reason we have studied the effects of cadmium on the glial architecture in the lizard Podarcis siculus, a significant bioindicator of chemical exposure due to its persistence in a variety of habitats. The study was performed on two groups of lizards. The first group of P. siculus was exposed to an acute treatment by a single i.p. injection (2 mg/kg-BW) of CdCl2 and sacrificed after 2, 7 and 16 days. The second one was used as control. The histology of the brain was studied by Hematoxylin/Eosin and Cresyl/Violet stains while the glial structures were analyzed by immunodetection of the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), the most widely accepted marker for astroglial cells. Evident morphological alterations of the brain were observed at 7 and 16 days from the injection, when we revealed also a decrease of the GFAP-immunopositive structures in particular in the rhombencephalic ventricle, telencephalon and optic tectum. These results show that in the lizards an acute exposure to cadmium provokes morphological cellular alterations in the brain but also a decrement of the expression of GFAP marker with possible consequent damage of glial cells functions.
Cannabinoid CB2 receptors are involved in the protection of RAW264.7 macrophages against the oxidative stress: an in vitro study
Authors: Giacoppo Sabrina , Gugliandolo Agnese , Trubiani Oriana , Pollastro Federica , Grassi Gianpaolo , Bramanti Placido , Mazzon Emanuela
Published: January 2017

Research in the last decades has widely investigated the anti-oxidant properties of natural products as a therapeutic approach for the prevention and the treatment of oxidative-stress related disorders. In this context, several studies were aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of phytocannabinoids, the bioactive compounds of Cannabis sativa. Here, we examined the anti-oxidant ability of Cannabigerol (CBG), a non-psychotropic cannabinoid, still little known, into counteracting the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced oxidative stress in murine RAW264.7 macrophages. In addition, we tested selective receptor antagonists for cannabinoid receptors and specifically CB1R (SR141716A) and CB2R (AM630) in order to investigate through which CBG may exert its action. Taken together, our in vitro results showed that CBG is able to counteract oxidative stress by activation of CB2 receptors. CB2 antagonist pre-treatment indeed blocked the protective effects of CBG in H2O2 stimulated macrophages, while CB1R was not involved. Specifically, CBG exhibited a potent action in inhibiting oxidative stress, by down-regulation of the main oxidative markers (iNOS, nitrotyrosine and PARP-1), by preventing IÎºB-Î± phosphorylation and translocation of the nuclear factor-ÎºB (NF-ÎºB) and also via the modulation of MAP kinases pathway. On the other hand, CBG was found to increase anti-oxidant defense of cells by modulating superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD-1) expression and thus inhibiting cell death (results focused on balance between Bax and Bcl-2). Based on its antioxidant activities, CBG may hold great promise as an anti-oxidant agent and therefore used in clinical practice as a new approach in oxidative-stress related disorders.
Cascading effect of exotic fish fry on plankton community in a tropical Andean high mountain lake: a mesocosm experiment
Authors: Herrera-Martínez Yimy , Paggi Juan César , García Camilo Bernardo
Published: January 2017

Fishless Andean high mountain lakes may be vulnerable to fish invasion because they tend to be small, oligotrophic and contain low zooplankton diversity. During the first decades of the twentieth century, rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mikiss, was introduced in South America, and stocking of juvenile stages (fry) in lakes continues today. However, their effect on plankton in these lakes has been little studied. We performed a mesocosms experiment to assess effects of trout of different ontogenetic stages on zooplankton and phytoplankton in a tropical-Andean high mountain lake. The presence of trout fry resulted in declines in several large zooplankton taxa, increases in chlorophyll a and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). Our results showed that small fry consume large copepods (Colombodiaptomus brandorffi) at a faster rate than larger fry, and also consumed medium sized copepods (Tropocyclops prasinus) that are not affected by the larger trout fry. Fish of both sizes consumed Ceriodaphnia quadrangula, a midsize cladoceran. Fish predation had weak effect on the phytoplankton biomass, but we found a correlation between zooplankton biomass and phytoplankton richness, and significantly larger cell of the alga Peridinium in the presence of fish. Our results indicate that trout introduction produces cascading ecological and phenotypic effects on the plankton communities of tropical mountain lakes, similar to those observed in temperate latitudes.