bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Axonal Transport and Neurodegeneration: How Marine Drugs Can Be Used for the Development of Therapeutics
Authors: White Joseph , Banerjee Rupkatha , Gunawardena Shermali
Published: May 2016

Unlike virtually any other cells in the human body, neurons are tasked with the unique problem of transporting important factors from sites of synthesis at the cell bodies, across enormous distances, along narrow-caliber projections, to distally located nerve terminals in order to maintain cell viability. As a result, axonal transport is a highly regulated process whereby necessary cargoes of all types are packaged and shipped from one end of the neuron to the other. Interruptions in this finely tuned transport have been linked to many neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s (AD), Huntington’s disease (HD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suggesting that this pathway is likely perturbed early in disease progression. Therefore, developing therapeutics targeted at modifying transport defects could potentially avert disease progression. In this review, we examine a variety of potential compounds identified from marine aquatic species that affect the axonal transport pathway. These compounds have been shown to function in microtubule (MT) assembly and maintenance, motor protein control, and in the regulation of protein degradation pathways, such as the autophagy-lysosome processes, which are defective in many degenerative diseases. Therefore, marine compounds have great potential in developing effective treatment strategies aimed at early defects which, over time, will restore transport and prevent cell death.
Olive Crown Porosity Measurement Based on Radiation Transmittance: An Assessment of Pruning Effect
Authors: Castillo-Ruiz Francisco , Castro-Garcia Sergio , Blanco-Roldan Gregorio , Sola-Guirado Rafael , Gil-Ribes Jesus
Published: May 2016

Crown porosity influences radiation interception, air movement through the fruit orchard, spray penetration, and harvesting operation in fruit crops. The aim of the present study was to develop an accurate and reliable methodology based on transmitted radiation measurements to assess the porosity of traditional olive trees under different pruning treatments. Transmitted radiation was employed as an indirect method to measure crown porosity in two olive orchards of the Picual and Hojiblanca cultivars. Additionally, three different pruning treatments were considered to determine if the pruning system influences crown porosity. This study evaluated the accuracy and repeatability of four algorithms in measuring crown porosity under different solar zenith angles. From a 14° to 30° solar zenith angle, the selected algorithm produced an absolute error of less than 5% and a repeatability higher than 0.9. The described method and selected algorithm proved satisfactory in field results, making it possible to measure crown porosity at different solar zenith angles. However, pruning fresh weight did not show any relationship with crown porosity due to the great differences between removed branches. A robust and accurate algorithm was selected for crown porosity measurements in traditional olive trees, making it possible to discern between different pruning treatments.
1-RAAP: An Efficient 1-Round Anonymous Authentication Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks
Authors: Liu Jingwei , Zhang Lihuan , Sun Rong
Published: May 2016

Thanks to the rapid technological convergence of wireless communications, medical sensors and cloud computing, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a novel networking paradigm enabling ubiquitous Internet services, allowing people to receive medical care, monitor health status in real-time, analyze sports data and even enjoy online entertainment remotely. However, because of the mobility and openness of wireless communications, WBANs are inevitably exposed to a large set of potential attacks, significantly undermining their utility and impeding their widespread deployment. To prevent attackers from threatening legitimate WBAN users or abusing WBAN services, an efficient and secure authentication protocol termed 1-Round Anonymous Authentication Protocol (1-RAAP) is proposed in this paper. In particular, 1-RAAP preserves anonymity, mutual authentication, non-repudiation and some other desirable security properties, while only requiring users to perform several low cost computational operations. More importantly, 1-RAAP is provably secure thanks to its design basis, which is resistant to the anonymous in the random oracle model. To validate the computational efficiency of 1-RAAP, a set of comprehensive comparative studies between 1-RAAP and other authentication protocols is conducted, and the results clearly show that 1-RAAP achieves the best performance in terms of computational overhead.
Abandonment, Ecological Assembly and Public Health Risks in Counter-Urbanizing Cities
Authors: Gulachenski Alexandra , Ghersi Bruno , Lesen Amy , Blum Michael
Published: May 2016

Urban landscapes can be transformed by widespread abandonment from population and economic decline. Ecological assembly, sometimes referred to as “greening”, following abandonment can yield valuable ecosystem services, but also can pose a risk to public health. Abandonment can elevate zoonotic vector-borne disease risk by favoring the hyperabundance of commensal pests and pathogen vectors. Though greater biodiversity in abandoned areas can potentially dilute vector-borne pathogen transmission, “greening” can elevate transmission risk by increasing movement of pathogen vectors between fragmented areas and by giving rise to novel human-wildlife interfaces. Idled and derelict infrastructure can further elevate disease risk from vector-borne and water-borne pathogens, which can build up in stagnant and unprotected water that maintenance and routine use of delivery or sanitation systems would otherwise eliminate. Thus, framing “greening” as inherently positive could result in policies and actions that unintentionally exacerbate inequalities by elevating risks rather than delivering benefits. As counter-urbanism is neither a minor pattern of urban development, nor a short-term departure from urban growth, homeowner and municipal management of abandoned areas should account for potential hazards to reduce health risks. Further socioecological assessments of public health risks following abandonment could better ensure the resilience and well-being of communities in shrinking cities.
Pediatric and Adult High-Grade Glioma Stem Cell Culture Models Are Permissive to Lytic Infection with Parvovirus H-1
Authors: Josupeit Rafael , Bender Sebastian , Kern Sonja , Leuchs Barbara , Hielscher Thomas , Herold-Mende Christel , Schlehofer Jörg , Dinsart Christiane , Witt Olaf , Rommelaere Jean , Lacroix Jeannine
Published: May 2016

Combining virus-induced cytotoxic and immunotherapeutic effects, oncolytic virotherapy represents a promising therapeutic approach for high-grade glioma (HGG). A clinical trial has recently provided evidence for the clinical safety of the oncolytic parvovirus H-1 (H-1PV) in adult glioblastoma relapse patients. The present study assesses the efficacy of H-1PV in eliminating HGG initiating cells. H-1PV was able to enter and to transduce all HGG neurosphere culture models (n = 6), including cultures derived from adult glioblastoma, pediatric glioblastoma, and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. Cytotoxic effects induced by the virus have been observed in all HGG neurospheres at half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) doses of input virus between 1 and 10 plaque forming units per cell. H-1PV infection at this dose range was able to prevent tumorigenicity of NCH421k glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) “stem-like” cells in NOD/SCID mice. Interestingly NCH421R, an isogenic subclone with equal capacity of xenograft formation, but resistant to H-1PV infection could be isolated from the parental NCH421k culture. To reveal changes in gene expression associated with H-1PV resistance we performed a comparative gene expression analysis in these subclones. Several dysregulated genes encoding receptor proteins, endocytosis factors or regulators innate antiviral responses were identified and represent intriguing candidates for to further study molecular mechanisms of H-1PV resistance.
Water Governance Decentralisation and River Basin Management Reforms in Hierarchical Systems: Do They Work for Water Treatment Policy in Mexico’s Tlaxcala Atoyac Sub-Basin?
Authors: Casiano Flores Cesar , Vikolainen Vera , Bressers Hans
Published: May 2016

In the last decades, policy reforms, new instruments development, and economic resources investment have taken place in water sanitation in Mexico; however, the intended goals have not been accomplished. The percentage of treated wastewater as intended in the last two federal water plans has not been achieved. The creation of River Basin Commissions and the decentralisation process have also faced challenges. In the case of Tlaxcala, the River Basin Commission exists only on paper and the municipalities do not have the resources to fulfil the water treatment responsibilities transferred to them. This lack of results poses the question whether the context was sufficiently considered when the reforms were enacted. In this research, we will study the Tlaxcala Atoyac sub-basin, where water treatment policy reforms have taken place recently with a more context sensitive approach. We will apply the Governance Assessment Tool in order to find out whether the last reforms are indeed apt for the context. The Governance Assessment Tool includes four qualities, namely extent, coherence, flexibility, and intensity. The assessment allows deeper understanding of the governance context. Data collection involved semi-structured in-depth interviews with stakeholders. The research concludes that the observed combination of qualities creates a governance context that partially supports the implementation of the policy. This has helped to increase the percentage of wastewater treated, but the water quality goals set by the River Classification have not been achieved. With the last reforms, in this hierarchical context, decreasing the participation of municipal government levels has been shown to be instrumental for improving water treatment plants implementation policy, although many challenges remain to be addressed.
PROPERTIES OF A COMPOSITE MATERIAL WITH MIXED IMPERFECT CONTACT CONDITIONS
Authors: Pinheiro de Castro Luıs Filipe , Pesetskaya Ekaterina
Published: May 2016

We present an analytical solution of a mixed boundary value problem for an unbounded 2D doubly periodic domain which is a model of a composite material with mixed imperfect interface conditions. We find the effective conductivity of the composite material with mixed imperfect interface conditions, and also give numerical analysis of several of their properties such as temperature and flux.
THE REPRODUCING KERNEL METHOD FOR SOME VARIATIONAL PROBLEMS DEPENDING ON INDEFINITE INTEGRALS
Authors: Fardi Mojtaba , Ghaziani Reza Khoshsiar , Ghasemi Mehdi
Published: May 2016

In this paper we introduce the reproducing kernel method to solve a class of variational problems (VPs) depending on indefinite integrals. We discuss an analysis of convergence and error for the proposed method. Some test examples are presented to demonstrate the validity and applicability of method. The results of numerical examples indicate that the proposed method is computationally very simple and attractive.
Le rôle du rire dans les organisations
Authors: Bourguinat Élisabeth , Lorgnier Aurélien
Published: May 2016

On rit beaucoup dans les organisations, en particulier quand ça ne va pas bien. C’est que le rire remplit des fonctions variées : jeux de pouvoir et d’influence, rééquilibrage de transactions inégales entre les acteurs, compensation des dysfonctionnements...
Le jeu mobile : bienvenue dans un monde ultra-créatif !
Authors: Bensignor Nicolas
Published: May 2016

Dans le jeu vidéo mobile, mille cinq cents nouveaux jeux sont mis en ligne chaque semaine, et la France n’a pas su prendre ce virage. Il suffirait de peu pour la relancer, mais les dispositifs publics de soutien ne semblent pas en avoir saisi les enjeux.
Quelles stratégies pour les business schools face à la sélection darwinienne en marche ?
Authors: Bouchikhi Hamid , Kimberly John
Published: May 2016

Fermetures de MBAs, fusions entre écoles, concurrents inédits, dénigrements dans la presse... le piédestal des business schools se fissure. Si quelques-unes jouissant de marques puissantes pourront continuer à prospérer, les autres devront se réinventer.
Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship
Authors: Díez Jorge Colvin , Saiz-Alvarez José Manuel
Published: May 2016

The social entrepreneur has been analyzed from many perspectives, either from its social impact, its proposed social value, or its direct or indirect action. This chapter attempts to analyze the entrepreneur from a new approach: the perspective of the leader. Therefore, the question arises: is leadership in social entrepreneurs an evolutionary process or not? Is it a natural ability or a learned technique? Is the social entrepreneur a leader born or made? To answer this, [1] we will analyze the main contemporary theories of leadership from two different paradigms (Colvin, 2013), [2] we will define new concepts in the world of social entrepreneurship, [3] we will establish a life cycle of strategic leadership promoted by the social entrepreneur focused on his or her organization in order to serve as a seed for the intended social impact.
A Model for Social Entrepreneurship Education
Authors: Martín Carlos Torrejón , Cuervo-Arango Carlos
Published: May 2016

This chapter reviews the factors that are relevant to promote an entrepreneurial attitude, identifying education as an element of vital importance that influences the disposition to start a venture and its results. This is particularly important in the case of social entrepreneurship projects, in which good intentions frequently overcome sound business realities. To deepen the understanding of the relationship between education and social entrepreneurship, the authors develop the model “Pyramid of catalysts for entrepreneurship” which helps to understand the mechanism by which the educational process affects the quantity and quality of social entrepreneurship. This chapter also presents several elements of paramount importance in designing a program of social entrepreneurial education.
Joint Liability Lending, Entrepreneurial Development, and Poverty Reduction
Authors: Boachie Christopher
Published: May 2016

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the effect of joint liability lending on micro businesses in Madina municipality. Joint liability lending has become a popular and fashionable word in financial and development circles. It is a cross sectional survey study and used both primary and secondary data on joint liability lending. The study reveals that joint liability lending improves entrepreneurships and reduces poverty. There exist a significant relationship between joint liability lending and a high repayment rate. The implications are that individual within the group are encouraged to continue saving and microfinance institutions should continue investing in educating and training clients to improve upon their micro businesses.
Social Entrepreneurship in Sheltered Employment Centers
Authors: Gelashvili Vera , Aguilar Eva , Segovia-Vargas María-Jesús , Camacho-Miñano Maria-Del-Mar , Hernández María Teresa Blanco
Published: May 2016

Sheltered Employment Centers (CEE) are part of the social economy companies, based on the primacy of people over capital, social benefits and solidarity. Its aim is to carry out productive work and they are a means of integration of the greatest possible number of disabled people. There is a growing interest in this type of business, because its number has increased considerably. The objective of this chapter is to give academic visibility to CEE due to its great contribution to the social corporate responsibility, and to encourage the so-called social entrepreneurship. The reasons for creating social firms are analyzed and the characteristics that can contribute to the success of this type of companies are studied. Using the case study methodology, a CEE is analyzed in depth showing the main features of social economy business by means of a specific case and the key variables that has conducted to its success.
Political and Economic Determinants of Social Policy Evolution in Poland after 1989
Authors: Danel Lukasz
Published: May 2016

The chapter provides an overview that describes social policy in Poland after the constitutional transformation that started in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. The author also provides a brief characteristic of those changes as well as the theoretical context of social policy models that were adopted in other European countries. What follows is an attempt to describe the economic and political determinants of the evolution of social policy in Poland with regard to the policy of subsequent Polish governments. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the desirable changes in Polish social policy and the potential redefinition of its priorities.
Acoustic Modeling of Speech Signal using Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Sarma Mousmita , Sarma Kandarpa Kumar
Published: May 2016

Acoustic modeling of the sound unit is a crucial component of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system. This is the process of establishing statistical representations for the feature vector sequences for a particular sound unit so that a classifier for the entire sound unit used in the ASR system can be designed. Current ASR systems use Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to deal with temporal variability and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) for acoustic modeling. Recently machine learning paradigms have been explored for application in speech recognition domain. In this regard, Multi Layer Perception (MLP), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) etc. are extensively used. Artificial Neural Network (ANN)s are trained by back propagating the error derivatives and therefore have the potential to learn much better models of nonlinear data. Recently, Deep Neural Network (DNN)s with many hidden layer have been up voted by the researchers and have been accepted to be suitable for speech signal modeling. In this chapter various techniques and works on the ANN based acoustic modeling are described.
Smartphones and Self-Broadcasting among College Students in an Age of Social Media
Authors: Yartey Franklin Nii Amankwah , Ha Louisa
Published: May 2016

This chapter examines the use of smartphones for self-broadcasting via social media among college students. Based on motivation and network externalities theories, our survey of a public university's college students confirmed our hypotheses that network size, years of experience using social media and the time spent on social media positively predict their frequency of self-broadcasting on their smartphones. The results suggest that 85.2% of college students self-broadcast at least once a month by updating their status on SNS and students are likely to self-broadcast within their network. Most students set their profile privacy setting as private or semi-private. But privacy setting does not affect self-broadcast frequency.
Technology Impact on New Adult Behavior about Health Information
Authors: Farmer Lesley S. J.
Published: May 2016

New adults, between 18 and 25 years old, need and want information about health issues. Even though new adults tend to prefer asking people for help, increasingly they access digital resources because of the Internet's availability, affordability, and anonymity. Health information interests vary by age, gender, social situation, and motivation. Several concerns also impact how new adults access and seek that information. This chapter discusses several issues related to new adult technology use for seeking health information and offers recommendations to insure optimal community education and services to address health information needs of all new adults.
This Drives Me Nuts!
Authors: Triberti Stefano
Published: May 2016

Video games are an interesting example of technologies/media able to generate complex emotions. Indeed, part of the emotions commonly arising in the experience of video gamers are quite negative. On the one hand, video gamers may feel frustration and anger due to the difficulty of the gameplay. On the other hand, they may experience sadness, anxiety and fear due to the immersion into emotionally rich narratives. Yet, video gamers seem to appreciate gaming technologies generating negative emotions, and the research on media frequently highlights a counterintuitive positive relation between negative affect and enjoinment/well-being outcomes. Starting from these premises, the present chapter is aimed to review the negative emotions typical of video games, in order to understand in what ways they can concur in generating an overall positive experience. Then, the chapter discusses implications for research on video games as positive technologies, namely technologies able to promote well-being in their users.
An Extensible Identity Management Framework for Cloud-Based E-Government Systems
Authors: Anwar Hirra , Shibli Muhammad Awais , Habiba Umme
Published: May 2016

Numerous Cloud Identity Management (IdM) systems have been designed and implemented to meet the diverse functional and security requirements of various organizations. These requirements are subjective in nature; for instance, some government organizations require security more than efficiency while others prioritize performance and immediate response over security. However, most of the existing IdM systems are incapable of handling the user-centricity, security & technology requirements and are also domain specific. In this regard, this chapter elaborates the need to use Cloud Computing technology for enhancing the effectiveness and transparency of IdM functions and presents a comprehensive and well-structured Extensible IdM Framework for Cloud based e-government institutions. We present the design and implementation details of the proposed framework, followed by a case study which shows how government organizations of Pakistan would use the proposed framework to improve their IdM processes and achieve diverse IdM services.
Understanding, Modeling and Exploiting User Emotions for Brain-Driven Interface Design
Authors: Carofiglio Valeria , Abbattista Fabio
Published: May 2016

Innovative applications are often complex systems. In designing this kind of application, usability, perceived usefulness and appropriateness of adaptation are the three most commonly assessed variables. However, in order to obtain a more engaging overall user experience, a good designer should perform proper formative and summative usability tests, based on the user's emotional level, which becomes a user-centered evaluation activity. Moreover, traditional methods are not ideal, as information about the user's emotional state should be captured in an implicit and transparent manner, in order to be non-invasive and more effective. Brain Computer Interface has recently witnessed an explosion of systems for studying human emotion by the acquisition and processing of physiological signals. The authors view Adaptive Virtual Environments, as one of the most representative examples of innovative applications, and also as elicitors of a complex user emotion synthesis. Therefore, in this paper the authors propose a user-centered approach to the design and support of the user experience through an adaptive virtual environment, via brain-computer interface. Firstly, the authors focus on the design of an engaging overall experience for potential users, by exploiting their emotional level as a powerful engine in the interaction experience. Secondly, the author work to enhance the user experience by dynamically adapting the interaction to the user's emotional state, so that there will be a more immersive and satisfying interaction.
Biometric Identification System Using Neuro and Fuzzy Computational Approaches
Authors: Borah Tripti Rani , Sarma Kandarpa Kumar , Talukdar Pranhari
Published: May 2016

In all authentication systems, biometric samples are regarded to be the most reliable one. Biometric samples like fingerprint, retina etc. is unique. Most commonly available biometric system prefers these samples as reliable inputs. In a biometric authentication system, the design of decision support system is critical and it determines success or failure. Here, we propose such a system based on neuro and fuzzy system. Neuro systems formulated using Artificial Neural Network learn from numeric data while fuzzy based approaches can track finite variations in the environment. Thus NFS systems formed using ANN and fuzzy system demonstrate adaptive, numeric and qualitative processing based learning. These attributes have motivated the formulation of an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system which is used as a DSS of a biometric authenticable system. The experimental results show that the system is reliable and can be considered to be a part of an actual design.
A Method for Classification Using Data Mining Technique for Diabetes
Authors: Al-Khasawneh Ahmad
Published: May 2016

Many researchers in the health information system field have been attracted to develop computer applications that help in the diagnosis process. Imperatively, data mining algorithms address the vital role in all of these applications. Many contributions were made in this area. There has always been a debate on the algorithm that gives the best classifier, the parameters to be used, the dataset pre-processing steps, etc. In this paper, the author largely emphasizes that the best way to build a predictive model with relatively high classification accuracy is to build several predictive models and to choose the model that gives the best results through parameters optimization. Diagnosing diabetes mellitus has gained considerable attention in the last few decades due to the increased severity of the disease. In this research, the author reviews four predictive data mining approaches that are being used in diagnosing diabetes. Four models were implemented to diagnose diabetes from PIMA dataset; k-nearest neighbour, support vector machine, multilayer perceptron neural network, and naive bayesian network. Giving the highest classification accuracy, support vector machine technique outperformed the others with a value of 78.83%.
Social Network Behavior as Indicator of Personality, Motivation and Cultural Values
Authors: Bhattacharya Sonali , Sinha Vinita , Sheorey Pratima
Published: May 2016

Managerial cultural values are of pertinent importance for businesses in multinational companies as it determines a nation's managerial philosophy and helps in establishing cross cultural working relationship. Rokeach (1973) has linked individuals' cultural values, and personality with social behavior and attitudes. Rokeach values consist of two sets of values: terminal values which are end-state values and instrumental values which deal with modes of conduct. In recent years, there have been several studies linking Big Five Personality Types: Agreeableness, Consciousness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness-to-Experience with social network behavior (see, Hughes et al., 2012, Ryan and Xenos, 2011; Amichai-Hamburger and7 Vinitzky, 2009; Jensen et al., 2009). This study has attempted to establish interrelationships between Rockeach Cultural values, personality and social network behavior through an exploratory study. Since the two largest stake holders of companies, the employees and the customers (or potential customers) are both expected to be using some of the popular social network sites in their personal and work life as well as for selling-purchasing, this study would be an attempt to suggest a model to map the personalities and cultural values of the employees (customers) from their SNS behavior, which will be a useful for establishing better customer and employee relationship. The questionnaire comprised of items related to online SN behavior, Big-Five inventory and Rockeach value survey. The sample consisted of 158 employees at managerial positions in three multinational companies at the age group of 20-50. Findings have been thoroughly discussed in terms of evolving role of social media in the current global organizations.
Developing Emotion-Libras 2.0
Authors: Prietch Soraia Silva , Filgueiras Lucia Vilela Leite
Published: May 2016

An important issue in the capture of the real user experience while interacting with technology is the ability to assess emotional quality. There are several methods for emotional quality evaluation in the literature. However, when the target users are deaf participants, communication problems arise. A substantial part of the deaf community communicates in sign language. Because user experience researchers are seldom fluent in sign language, they require the assistance of an interpreter whenever users are deaf signers. Evaluation of emotional quality may lose accuracy because of the mediation of an interpreter; consequently, emotional quality evaluation requires a special instrument that can be used in an intuitive and independent way by researchers and their deaf subjects. The authors present the process of creation and improvement of Emotion-Libras, an instrument for assessing the emotional quality of people with hearing disabilities when interacting with technology.
Comparing Data Mining Models in Academic Analytics
Authors: Raju Dheeraj , Schumacker Randall
Published: May 2016

The goal of this research study was to compare data mining techniques in predicting student graduation. The data included demographics, high school, ACT profile, and college indicators from 1995-2005 for first-time, full-time freshman students with a six year graduation timeline for a flagship university in the south east United States. The results indicated no difference in misclassification rates between logistic regression, decision tree, neural network, and random forest models. The results from the study suggest that institutional researchers should build and compare different data mining models and choose the best one based on its advantages. The results can be used to predict students at risk and help these students graduate.
Tutoring Process in Emotionally Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Authors: Petrovica Sintija
Published: May 2016

Research has shown that emotions can influence learning in situations when students have to analyze, reason, make conclusions, apply acquired knowledge, answer questions, solve tasks, and provide explanations. A number of research groups inspired by the close relationship between emotions and learning have been working to develop emotionally intelligent tutoring systems. Despite the research carried out so far, a problem how to adapt tutoring not only to a student's knowledge state but also to his/her emotional state has been disregarded. The paper aims to examine to what extent the tutoring process and tutoring strategies are adapted to students' emotional and knowledge states in these systems. It also presents a study on how to influence student's emotions looking from the pedagogical point of view and provides general guidelines for selection of tutoring strategies to influence and regulate student's emotions.
Reply Timing as Emotional Strategy in Mobile Text Communications of Japanese Young People
Authors: Kato Yuuki , Kato Shogo , Chida Kunihiro
Published: May 2016

This study investigates the timing of replies to mobile phone text messages focusing especially on the timing of replies from the perspective of the “recipient” of the message. In a previous study, the authors evaluated the timing of replies and the emotional strategies associated with such timing from the perspective of the “sender” and found they employed an emotional strategy whereby they “waited” before responding to mobile text messages in order to continue positive communication. In the present study, they examine if the same strategy is as effective from the perspective of recipients of the messages. Specifically, study participants were asked by questionnaire to rate what emotions they would feel and to what degree when the other party waited before replying to the mobile text messages the participants had sent, where the message sent had conveyed one of four emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, or guilt. These four emotional scenarios are the same as used in the previous study to allow for comparative analysis of the two studies. Additionally, participants in the present study were asked to provide freeform responses for scenarios where they felt it was desirable to wait before replying themselves. The results show differences between the emotional strategic intent of senders for waiting before replying, as determined in the previous study, and how this is perceived by the recipients. The results suggest that there are gaps in perception between senders and recipients regarding the intentional manipulation of reply timing (especially waiting before replying). One suggested gap is that senders that intentionally manipulate the timing of replies for negative or hostile emotions, such as sadness, anger, or guilt, run the risk of making the recipient feel the opposite of the sender's intended outcome.
The Homeostatic Classroom
Authors: Montgomery John M.
Published: May 2016

This chapter will propose a new theoretical and practical framework that can be utilized in any type of classroom, including multicultural classrooms, and that creates an optimal learning environment while also being highly protective against potentially traumatic experiences for both students and teachers. The chapter will also introduce the “choose love” tool, which can be used in any classroom to connect the students and the teacher to the “homeostatic drive” – a global force or drive within each of us that is biologically and evolutionarily designed to keep us in states of homeostasis, or equilibrium, at all levels, and that is, the chapter will argue, the force of all love and self-love, including all “love” of learning.
The Role of Computerized Personality Assessments in Students with Disabilities' School-to-Work Transition
Authors: Heikkila Mia R. , Reio Jr. Thomas G.
Published: May 2016

The use of personality measures for pre-employment selection continues to be decidedly strong. Nationwide retailers have opted to administer these assessments increasingly via computer for prospective employees ranging from entry-level worker to upper-level manager positions. School-to-Work transition students with mental and physical disabilities are among the individuals completing these assessments. Nonetheless, the validity evidence supporting their use with this population remains unclear. Because school-to-work transition programs are designed to enhance students' work competence and ultimately employability, schools need to not only develop students' technical knowledge, but also prepare students to handle taking the personality assessments. This is explored in this chapter.
Educational Software Based on Matlab GUIs for Neural Networks Courses
Authors: Díaz-Moreno Pablo , Carrasco Juan José , Soria-Olivas Emilio , Martínez-Martínez José M. , Escandell-Montero Pablo , Gómez-Sanchis Juan
Published: May 2016

Neural Networks (NN) are one of the most used machine learning techniques in different areas of knowledge. This has led to the emergence of a large number of courses of Neural Networks around the world and in areas where the users of this technique do not have a lot of programming skills. Current software that implements these elements, such as Matlab®, has a number of important limitations in teaching field. In some cases, the implementation of a MLP requires a thorough knowledge of the software and of the instructions that train and validate these systems. In other cases, the architecture of the model is fixed and they do not allow an automatic sweep of the parameters that determine the architecture of the network. This chapter presents a teaching tool for the its use in courses about neural models that solves some of the above-mentioned limitations. This tool is based on Matlab® software.
Active Learning, Deliberate Practice, and Educational Technology in Professional Education
Authors: Han Heeyoung , Han Seung Hyun , Lim Doo Hun , Yoon Seung Won
Published: May 2016

This chapter is an interdisciplinary literature review on pedagogical approaches and technological integration processes to facilitating active learning and deliberate practice toward expertise in professional education. The review covers selective domains that emphasize life-long learning, including teacher education, professional music education, athletic education, and medical education. The authors' review finds that concepts and principles of active learning are recognized in all of them and technology is frequently implemented to facilitate the process of active learning, but systematic and system-wide processes for incorporating active learning with deliberate practice are lacking, especially at the institution or curriculum level. To fill the gap, the authors discuss how the selected instructional design or established performance improvement processes in the educational technology literature can be applied.
Preparing Culturally Competent Teachers through Faculty-Led Study Abroad
Authors: Brown R. McKenna , Tignor Stephanie Erin
Published: May 2016

A review of national trends and best practices informs this analysis of key factors for high-impact teacher education programs abroad, particularly short-term faculty-led programs. Challenges faced by such programs, as well as criticisms of short-term study abroad are addressed and strategies proposed for fostering successful faculty-led programs including discussion of concerns regarding sustainability, curriculum integration, partnerships, student engagement, career integration, and safety and security.
Multicultural Curricular Frameworks for Preservice Teachers
Authors: Mysore Anita Rao
Published: May 2016

One in four children in the US has a parent who is an immigrant. Studies indicate that by and large such students are at-risk for learning and their increasing numbers continue to significantly impact the labor force and the future of the country in multiple facets. Additionally, teachers shoulder a huge responsibility in educating immigrant learners, and their performance is a function of how well teacher education programs prepare them for their work. In contemporary scenario, the performance of teachers depends on how their teacher education programs prepare them for multicultural Pre K-12 classes. To this end, a social justice orientation is useful for teachers working in multicultural classrooms because it allows teachers to strive for equity by employing culturally responsive curriculum. The chapter author presents multicultural frameworks and models with a social justice orientation that could assist preservice teachers to become more effective in their instructional practices.
Preparing Teacher Candidates for Diverse School Environments
Authors: Delano-Oriaran Omobolade
Published: May 2016

This chapter shares an Authentic and Culturally Engaging (ACE) Service-Learning framework as a pedagogical approach in equipping teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful in-service teachers in diverse PK-12 school environments. As PK-12 schools become more racially and culturally diverse, there is a need to better prepare teacher candidates for diverse school environments, especially given that many teachers have asserted that they do not know how to teach diverse students. The chapter highlights components of the ACE framework and suggests practical strategies that teacher educators can use in integrating this framework into their courses. The end of the chapter focuses on teacher educators and how they can engage in a relearning process to unpack their previous knowledge regarding social justice and multicultural education in an effort to prepare their teacher candidates for diverse schools followed by a suggested checklist applicable to any teacher preparation course.
Can Technologies Advance the Integration of Restorative Pedagogy into Teacher Education Curricula?
Authors: Brown Martha A.
Published: May 2016

Educators across the globe familiar with the principles and practices of restorative justice have been changing the relational ecology in their schools by embracing restorative pedagogy and praxis that address power and status imbalances caused by authoritarianism and punitive discipline policies. This chapter introduces teacher educators and teachers to the philosophy and practices of restorative justice as implemented in school settings and projects an image of how teaching and learning technologies might facilitate the incorporation of restorative justice modules into a variety of teacher education course curricula. The chapter conceptualizes how technologies can provide a continuous source for professional growth and community-building in teacher education for teachers willing to explore and adopt restorative approaches and relational pedagogy.
Leadership and Management in Instructional Technology in Teacher Education
Authors: Erdem Ali Rıza
Published: May 2016

This chapter evaluated leadership and management of instructional technology in teacher education. It recalls that training and educating teachers is of great importance to society. Teachers can have either positive or negative effects on students which can impact on society. A lot of models have been produced for training and educating teachers. According to Wallace (1991), the most common models are skill, applied science and reflective models. The management of the equipment dimension of educational technologies in teacher training is the effective use of the available equipment. Information technology used in the inservice training provided for teachers who are officially teachers, and in the preservice training provided for preservice teachers, should be applied at the top level. The leadership in the dimension of the equipment of educational technologies in teacher training is that it is regularly renewed by the state of the art technology. First of all, it is needed to use updated information technology in order to achieve the equipment target used in preservice training for preservice teachers and inservice training for teachers at the top level.
Technology and Learning
Authors: Lemoine Pamela A. , Yates Marguerite , Richardson Michael D.
Published: May 2016

This chapter presents innovation and change in university preparation of teachers requires acquisition of technological pedagogy in response to the demands of a knowledge economy where students are engaged in technology implementation in a constantly changing world. Teacher preparation programs historically have been contained on campus using face-to-face instruction. As the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds, universities have adopted online learning in teacher preparation to accommodate the needs of a more diverse clientele. Educator preparation now faces two major challenges: a critical mass generated by Net Generation students who have increased demands for online access to learning and a teaching force without prerequisite skills and dispositions to dramatically alter modes of instruction.
Technology's Role in Supporting Elementary Preservice Teachers as They Teach
Authors: Gatling Anne Pfitzner
Published: May 2016

This chapter describes a teacher preparation model incorporating a STEM focused, technology enhanced course and field experiences for preservice teachers. This field-based science method course supports and engages preservice teachers in creating and implementing lessons for early childhood and elementary students enrolled in an afterschool STEM Enrichment Program offered in a diverse urban elementary school. Technology is woven throughout the model, supporting preservice teachers as they build their content knowledge, and research effective practices to teach and assess their students. This model also helps to address the need to enhance STEM instruction in schools and inspire preservice teachers to engage their students in the STEM learning process. Findings from the model's implementation indicates a positive impact on the preservice teachers' understanding of science content and standards, on their pedagogical practices to design STEM lessons based on the revealed understandings of students' knowledge, and on the development of their professional identities.
Learning to Teach the Media
Authors: Redmond Theresa A.
Published: May 2016

Media literacy education (MLE) has been recognized as an important 21st century skill that promotes critical inquiry. Many educative organizations have disseminated papers calling for MLE in PK-12 schooling. Yet, it is unclear how MLE is being incorporated in teacher education programs. This chapter reports research from a qualitative study that aims to examine how pre-service teachers (PSTs) articulate the value of MLE for 21st century teaching and learning while enrolled in a core education course that encompasses media literacy. The author employed a constant-comparative analysis of student data collected from different course sections over three semesters. The results indicate that PSTs value MLE as a pedagogy that promotes effective media integration, fosters critical thinking, and develops curriculum connections. Further, the results suggest that MLE may be useful in cultivating PSTs' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), in turn developing their skills in technology and media integration.
Joint Professional Development of Teacher Candidates and Mentoring Teachers in Using Project-Based Learning for 21st Century Learning Outcomes
Authors: Shambaugh Neal
Published: May 2016

One teaching strategy that engages students and teachers in 21st century learning outcomes is project-based learning (PBL). This chapter documents two years of professional development with PBL involving 72 teacher candidates, 19 public schools, and 41 mentoring teachers who jointly created, taught, and evaluated 43 PBL units. An online teacher education course structured the professional development over the last semester for teacher candidates. The semester-long course used the state's professional development materials to structure the design, teaching, and evaluation of the PBL units. The chapter is organized around four main ideas. (1) PBL is an appropriate over-arching teaching approach for classroom teachers to address 21st century learning outcomes. (2) PBL teaching provides teachers a relevant setting for media and technology use. (3) PBL implementation requires ongoing professional development and mentoring. (4) Professional development and PBL teaching can involve both teacher candidates and their mentoring teachers learning from each other.
Engaging Heads, Hands, and Hearts to Optimize Study Abroad Outcomes
Authors: Talbot Patricia A. , Jones Jennifer
Published: May 2016

This chapter poses an innovative framework that can be utilized as a model for study abroad experiences, particularly those situated in developing countries. The model enhances a service learning structure by grounding both classroom study and related field work in the theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy, transformational learning theory, ecological systems theory and critical theory in a manner that sets the stage for success for study abroad students and in-country community members alike. The chapter concludes with a recommended plan for implementation of the framework as well as suggestions for optimizing sustainable outcomes for teachers as they begin work in classrooms of their own.