bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Analysis on the Utilisation of Health Information Technology to Support Clinical Operation of Chinese Medicine
Authors: Han-Lin Catherine , Yang Angela Wei Hong , Pittayachawan Siddhi , Wickramasinghe Nilmini
Published: May 2018

Chinese Medicine (CM) has become increasingly demanding globally. Recent World Health Organisation traditional and complementary medicine strategy of integrating CM to Western Medicine (WM) indicates that it is crucial that CM developments have strong literature, scientific, and evidence-based medical approval and support. To achieve this, there is a need to form a synthesis foundation or platform for future studies. This chapter serves to discover this synthesis that is suitable for CM by discussing the basics of inquiring and Knowledge Management (KM) systems. It suggests that CM should follow a combination of Hegelian and Kantian inquiring systems with the support of Singerian and Leibnizian inquiring systems and KM features. This proposed synthesis is one of the first, if not the first study to apply Churchman's inquiring systems into the context of CM and differentiate them from WM.
Global Knowledge Networking (GKN) With Utilizing of Digital Libraries
Authors: Heidari Azadeh , Nemati-Anaraki Leila
Published: May 2018

In Digital Libraries (DLs) as an innovative community environment, knowledge is nutrition, and the environment for knowledge sharing is the essential condition. As the knowledge is the heart of digital libraries, it is imperative for them to promote the innovation activities embodied by teaching and scientific research through an efficient knowledge-sharing environment. In digital environment, the role of knowledge has become even more significant. Moreover, DLs perform many knowledge-based activities, and by nature, the knowledge-sharing process is embedded in DL systems. These modern knowledge management environments need modern technologies in order to perform properly for end users and online researchers. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to provide a model for global knowledge networking with utilizing digital libraries and artificial intelligence. The specific objectives are to describe a framework of digital libraries and concepts of Knowledge Management (KM). The chapter finds some significant overlaps between DLs and KM and integrates the knowledge-sharing process with DLs and artificial intelligence. The integration of KM and knowledge sharing can add value to develop a global knowledge networking process model so users around the globe can make use of this knowledge transmission.
Quality-Driven Database System Development Within MDA Approach
Authors: Dubielewicz Iwona , Hnatkowska Bogumila , Huzar Zbigniew , Tuzinkiewicz Lech
Published: May 2018

The chapter presents an extended version of a quality-driven, MDA-based approach for database system development. The extension considers the relationship between successive models in the MDA approach. In particular, it gives rise to the introduction of domain ontology as a model preceding the CIM model as well as allows assessment of the extent to which the successive model is conformant with the preceding model. The chapter consists of four parts. The first part gives a short presentation of quality models and basic MDA concepts. The second one discusses the specific relationships between software development and quality assessment processes. The third part presents the Q-MDA framework and the proposal of a new quality characteristic (model conformance) with some measures for assessing the quality of a specific model in the context of other models. The last part contains an example of the framework application limited to the proposed quality model extension.
Design of the E-Systems for Training and Researching With Tools of Cloud Services-Based Stereo and 3D Content
Authors: Avetisyan Javad , Bozhday Alexander , Novikova Natalia , Kochetkova Jana
Published: May 2018

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the development of the tools for cloud services, which allow to organize mass production of multimedia interactive online services of the Real Estate for consumers from around the world, based on stereo and 3D-content and on the organizational model where content (text, pictures, video, animation, tests, etc.) are prepared by professionals from Penza State University, Russian State University for Tourism and Services and HHH University, and the automated assembly output, including its localization (translation) to other languages with the aim of exporting them via the Internet, provides the instrumental software package of Multimedia Technologies Ltd. The E-Systems is using in the academic master's program, developed by the Russian State University for Tourism and Service. This Master's Program is international and is based on E-Learning Systems, uses the techniques, software and technology of Estimation and Control in Sliding Mode by Prof. Vardan Mkrttchian.
B-School Selection by Fuzzy TOPSIS and AHP
Authors: Agrawal Vivek , Tripathi Vikas , Seth Nitin
Published: May 2018

Rapid liberalization of education sector in India has resulted in increased competition. As a result, we have witnessed rapid rise in number of management institutes. The student's evaluation about an institute/college is based on multiple criteria. Realizing the need a focused review on the literature was made to understand the subject. The review highlighted that conventional methods for B-school evaluation are inadequate for dealing with the imprecise, uncertain or vague nature of linguistic assessment. To overcome this difficulty, due to MCDM problem, Fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methods are proposed. The aim of this study is to use fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and Analytical Hierarchal process (AHP) methods for the selection of better B-school. The proposed methods have been applied to a B-School selection problem of the students of NCR and results are presented. This chapter contributes to previous researches by adding a new avenue, where the MCDM technique can be useful. The selection of an institution for getting a professional degree is a very tough task for the students and as well as for their guardians. This method can help them to find a better solution by providing a quantitative framework.
A Novel Hybrid Model Using RBF and PSO for Net Asset Value Prediction
Authors: Anish C. M. , Majhi Babita , Majhi Ritanjali
Published: May 2018

Net asset value (NAV) prediction is an important area of research as small investors are doing investment in there, Literature survey reveals that very little work has been done in this field. The reported literature mainly used various neural network models for NAV prediction. But the derivative based learning algorithms of these reported models have the problem of trapping into the local solution. Hence in chapter derivative free algorithm, particle swarm optimization is used to update the parameters of radial basis function neural network for prediction of NAV. The positions of particles represent the centers, spreads and weights of the RBF model and the minimum MSE is used as the cost function. The convergence characteristics are obtained to show the performance of the model during training phase. The MAPE and RMSE value are calculated during testing phase to show the performance of the proposed RBF-PSO model. These performance measure exhibits that the proposed model is better model in comparison to MLANN, FLANN and RBFNN models.
Mastering Intelligent Decision Support Systems in Enterprise Information Management
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: May 2018

This chapter explains the overview of Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSSs); the overview of Enterprise Information Management (EIM); the IDSS techniques for EIM in terms of Expert System (ES), Multi-Agent System (MAS), Fuzzy Logic (FL), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Evolutionary Computation (EC), and Hybrid System (HS); and the multifaceted applications of IDSSs in EIM. IDSS techniques are rapidly emerging as the modern tools in information management systems and include various techniques, such as ES, MAS, FL, ANN, EC, and HS. IDSS techniques can increase the sensitiveness, flexibility, and accuracy of information management systems. IDSS techniques should be implemented in modern enterprise in order to gain the benefits of using the decision-making process concerning EIM. The chapter argues that utilizing IDSS techniques for EIM has the potential to increase organizational performance and reach strategic goals in global operations.
Artificial Neural Networks and Other AI Applications for Business Management Decision Support
Authors: Walczak Steven
Published: May 2018

Artificial intelligence (AI) in general and artificial neural networks (ANN) in particular provide a tremendous amount of knowledge to improve managerial decision making. Additionally, these same ANN and AI techniques also serve as knowledge repositories and distribution schema for organizations that facilitate managerial leadership responsibilities. This article examines how various ANN and other AI applications may be adapted to facilitate managerial leadership, improve manager performance and in some cases perform management activities. Further research that classifies leadership styles and the desired qualities of leaders is reviewed.
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Applications in the Healthcare Industry
Authors: Barazandeh Iman , Gholamian Mohammad Reza
Published: May 2018

The healthcare industry is one of the most attractive domains to realize the actionable knowledge discovery objectives. This chapter studies recent researches on knowledge discovery and data mining applications in the healthcare industry and proposes a new classification of these applications. Studies show that knowledge discovery and data mining applications in the healthcare industry can be classified to three major classes, namely patient view, market view, and system view. Patient view includes papers that performed pure data mining on healthcare industry data. Market view includes papers that saw the patients as customers. System view includes papers that developed a decision support system. The goal of this classification is identifying research opportunities and gaps for researchers interested in this context.
Systematic Literature Review on Empirical Results and Practical Implementations of Healthcare Recommender Systems
Authors: Afolabi Adekunle Oluseyi , Toivanen Pekka , Haataja Keijo , Mykkänen Juha
Published: May 2018

This systematic literature review is aimed at examining empirical results and practical implementations of healthcare recommender systems. While fundamentally many of the development of recommender systems in medical and healthcare are based on theory and logic, the performance is always measured in terms of empirical results and practical implementations from evaluation of such systems. Besides, the ultimate judgment of the effectiveness of the methods and algorithms used is often based on the empirical results of recommender systems. Robustness, efficiency, speed, and accuracy are also best determined by empirical results. Extensive search was carried out in some major databases. Literature were grouped into three categories namely core, related, and relevant. The core papers were subjected to further analysis. The result shows that most work reviewed were partially evaluated and have a promising future. Moreover, a yet-to-be explored novel proposal for integration of a recommender system into smart home care is presented.
Software Engineering and New Emerging Technologies
Authors: Mazini Sergio Ricardo
Published: May 2018

This chapter presents an approach to the role of software engineering in developing solutions for new mobile technologies, like tablets. It discusses the importance of the new standards brought by emerging technologies such as engineering and how software must adapt to this new reality in order to identify the needs of data, information, integration, shares, and other issues that will contribute to the life cycle of these solutions. The chapter also discusses the contribution of users in the development process and improve these solutions. The research method is the case study conducted in industrial companies that use a digital catalog solution and sales force automation for tablets. This chapter presents a new approach based on commercial tablets which is supported by a platform of software and services called commercially Nimiam (www.nimiam.com.br).
ICT-Based Solutions Supporting Energy Systems for Smart Cities
Authors: Loibl Wolfgang , Bach Brigitte , Zucker Gerhard , Agugiaro Giorgio , Palensky Peter , Schmidt Ralf-Roman , Basciotti Daniele , Brunner Helfried
Published: May 2018

This chapter describes ICT solutions for planning, maintaining and assessing urban energy systems. There is no single urban energy system, but – like the city itself – a system of sub-systems with different scales, spatially ranging from buildings to blocks, districts and to the city, temporally ranging from real time data to hourly, daily, monthly and finally annual totals. ICT support must consider these different sub-systems which makes necessary dividing the chapter into different sections. The chapter starts with framework conditions and general requirements for ICT solutions, and continues discussing urban development simulating models. Then decision support tools are described for energy supply and demand as well as for energy efficiency improvement assessment. Later further instruments for Smart Grid-, district heating- and cooling-planning, as well as demand side management are addressed. In the final section tools are discussed for building automation systems as smallest physical entity within the urban energy system.
A Unified Smart City Model (USCM) for Smart City Conceptualization and Benchmarking
Authors: Anthopoulos Leonidas , Janssen Marijn , Weerakkody Vishanth
Published: May 2018

Smart cities have attracted an extensive and emerging interest from both science and industry with an increasing number of international examples emerging from all over the world. However, despite the significant role that smart cities can play to deal with recent urban challenges, the concept has been being criticized for not being able to realize its potential and for being a vendor hype. This paper reviews different conceptualization, benchmarks and evaluations of the smart city concept. Eight different classes of smart city conceptualization models have been discovered, which structure the unified conceptualization model and concern smart city facilities (i.e., energy, water, IoT etc.), services (i.e., health, education etc.), governance, planning and management, architecture, data and people. Benchmarking though is still ambiguous and different perspectives are followed by the researchers that measure -and recently monitor- various factors, which somehow exceed typical technological or urban characteristics. This can be attributed to the broadness of the smart city concept. This paper sheds light to parameters that can be measured and controlled in an attempt to improve smart city potential and leaves space for corresponding future research. More specifically, smart city progress, local capacity, vulnerabilities for resilience and policy impact are only some of the variants that scholars pay attention to measure and control.
Desired and Achieved Urbanisation in Africa
Authors: Chirisa Innocent , Matamanda Abraham Rajab , Mukarwi Liaison
Published: May 2018

The chapter aims to make a nuanced contribution in plugging out the mentioned gaps using human (skilled, managerial, etc.) and material (digital technology, financial, etc.) resources available or developable locally with or without global aid support system. The study is a case study based and uses examples of Cape Town, Abuja, Harare, Nairobi, Cairo and Kinshasa, these being examples of cities where plans and visions have been or are being put in place to ensure that urbanisation is a process that emerges on strategically laid out platform. Nevertheless, achieving that is a continuous struggle because diverging forces are also at play in these cities. The chapter recommends capacity building and professionalization of the conduct of business by these authorities to ensure sustainable urbanisation. It also argues for a planning thought that makes the optimal mix of both local and international resources towards achieving sustainable urbanisation in the various cities of Africa.
Monitoring Urban Sprawl and Sustainable Urban Development Using the Moran Index
Authors: Musakwa Walter , van Niekerk Adriaan
Published: May 2018

The management of urban sprawl is fundamental to achieving sustainable urban development. Monitoring urban sprawl is, however, challenging. This study proposes the use of two spatial statistics, namely global Moran and local Moran to indentify statistically significant urban sprawl hot and cold spots. The findings reveal that the Moran indexes are sensitive to the distance band spatial weight matrices employed and that multiple bands should be used when these indexes are used. The authors demonstrate how the indexes can be used in combination with various visualisation methods to support planning decisions.
Energy Investment in Smart Cities Unlocking Financial Instruments in Europe
Authors: Medda Francesca Romana , Partridge Candace , Carbonaro Gianni
Published: May 2018

The intense pressures being brought to bear by the increasing diversity in European urban development patterns call for innovative funding mechanisms to promote smart sustainable urban development, most notably in the energy sector. Currently in Europe, various policy initiatives support sustainable urban development through financial engineering mechanisms operating at municipal and regional scales. The objective of this chapter is to review the main financial mechanisms focusing on energy, and in particular on urban investments committed to a highly energy-efficient, and low carbon, economy. Within this framework we assert that, in order to achieve the EU sustainable urban development outcomes, specific European financial instruments will need to be considered as viable key investment options. The structure and operational features of European Financial Instruments are explored here in the case of the Urban Development Fund implemented in London. We also discuss the importance of ESCOs and crowdfunding as essential funding sources for community energy projects, and suggest that European policy should recognise their importance.
Global Economy Urbanization and Urban Economy Globalization
Authors: Ushakov Denis , Chich-Jen Shieh
Published: May 2018

World economy globalization fundamentally changes the role of urban business systems. Now, they are the main actors of global production and trade. A dominant share of international business activity is now concentrated within a frame of global urban net. This trend transforms mechanisms and patterns of market economy institutes' functioning and stimulates the appearance of new economical, social, and political problems. This chapter includes statistical and comparative analysis of modern cities, their economical performance, and position in global economic affairs, and also an original methodology for urban business structure evaluation. It allows setting some theoretical findings about internal and external sources of urban business system competitiveness and effectiveness in a globalizing economy and the formation of an original approach to modern cities' global hierarchy evaluation.
Cities in the Gulf
Authors: Boussaa Djamel
Published: May 2018

In fast growing cities, such as Dubai, Jeddah and Doha the issue of identity and its implications are increasingly complex and multi-dimensional. Traditionally, people were able to maintain a strong identity in their urban environment because everything was locally influenced, created and managed. In dealing with the question of identity in the present Gulf city, several important concepts are raised; impact of rapid growth and urbanization on the resilient historic centers is one such important issue. This chapter raises and discusses the following question “Will the historic city, the heart of urban life, survive and maintain its place in the emerging global Gulf cities of today and tomorrow?” This study will focus on the three old centers of Dubai, Jeddah and Doha with the aim to explore ways of being undertaken to rediscover their vanishing cultural identities in the mainstream of rapid growth and urbanization that happened since the discovery of oil in the 1950s.
The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Rise of Urban Social Movements in Poland
Authors: Grabkowska Maja , Pancewicz Łukasz , Sagan Iwona
Published: May 2018

The chapter examines the relationship between the use of Information and Communications Technology (ITC) and the emergence of social movements focused on urban agenda in Poland. The aim is to investigate how and to what extent a growing body of smaller activist groups use opportunities provided by the ITC to achieve their political objectives. The research results indicate that Web-based media have helped to raise the profile of local initiatives and increased awareness of systemic urban issues between different groups of grass-root actors. The findings of the chapter are based on the analysis of the Congress of Urban Movements (Kongres Ruchów Miejskich: KRM), a broad coalition of smaller non-governmental organizations and bottom-up activist groups, which use Internet-based tools to network. The results indicate that the Web-based tools increase the members' ability to connect and interact, consequently improving the ability to coordinate joint initiatives, expand real-life social networks, and in the result stimulate the rise of urban social movements.
Total Quality Management in Smart City Development
Authors: Babatunde Oluwayomi Kayode
Published: May 2018

Wastes and pollution are associated with an uncoordinated urbanization trend. This exploratory study investigates total quality management's (TQM) role in smart city development. It delineates smart cities and its conjoined relationship with digital cities. It submits to the complementary relationship between TQM and quality function deployment (QFD) and highlights stakeholder engagement as central to smart city development strategy, underpinned by social theory. It distils that stakeholders and built environment professionals need to work collaboratively to maximize the benefit of smart cities as being an innovation value chain, leading to the use of IT-enabled platform such as building information modelling (BIM). This culminates in the design of an integrative framework with ICT (focusing on BIM) and TQM serving as the information architecture and the ideological premise respectively. It then presents the close-loop (front-end) and open-loop (back-end) approaches to smart city development, discusses future research directions and concludes with implications.
Cultural Tourism and Museum Marketing
Authors: Adriana Cotîrlea Denisa
Published: May 2018

The present article was written in order to provide an overview of the importance that cultural tourism and museum marketing has in developing a city's image. This topic was chosen because, in the present context, museums play a key-role in generating urban competition and attracting resources for contributing to the economic development of a community or a specific region. The present paper aims at providing to readers the opportunity of facilitating their understanding regarding the role that a museum plays in the development of a city's image due to the dimensions of its cultural value.
Post Disaster Housing Management for Sustainable Urban Development
Authors: Das Kanu Kumar , Sharma Nagendra Kumar
Published: May 2018

Developing countries have still shortage of housing due to natural disasters. Houses get destroyed wholly or partly and it causes the increase of lack of housing stock of a country. In disaster management cycle, rehabilitation or reconstruction is an important issue to protect, reduce or mitigate the effect of disasters. For sustainable urban development, disaster consideration is as important as it helps to maintain the development growth rate and tries to make sure that the settlements are in a stable way. The paper describes the natural disasters and issues related to proper disaster housing for sustainable urban development on the basis of literature.
A Scalable Big Stream Cloud Architecture for the Internet of Things
Authors: Belli Laura , Cirani Simone , Davoli Luca , Ferrari Gianluigi , Melegari Lorenzo , Montón Màrius , Picone Marco
Published: May 2018

The Internet of Things (IoT) will consist of billions (50 billions by 2020) of interconnected heterogeneous devices denoted as “Smart Objects:” tiny, constrained devices which are going to be pervasively deployed in several contexts. To meet low-latency requirements, IoT applications must rely on specific architectures designed to handle the gigantic stream of data coming from Smart Objects. This paper propose a novel Cloud architecture for Big Stream applications that can efficiently handle data coming from Smart Objects through a Graph-based processing platform and deliver processed data to consumer applications with low latency. The authors reverse the traditional “Big Data” paradigm, where real-time constraints are not considered, and introduce the new “Big Stream” paradigm, which better fits IoT scenarios. The paper provides a performance evaluation of a practical open-source implementation of the proposed architecture. Other practical aspects, such as security considerations, and possible business oriented exploitation plans are presented.
Extending IoTs Into the Cloud-Based Platform for Examining Amazon Web Services
Authors: Kaur Jagdeep , Sharma Meghna
Published: May 2018

The public cloud Amazon Web Service (AWS) provides a wide range of services like computation, networking, analytics, development and management tools, application services, mobile services, and management of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT is an excellent IoT cloud platform and is exclusively responsible for connecting devices into various fields like healthcare, biology, municipal setup, smart homes, marketing, industrial, agriculture, education, automotive, etc. This chapter highlights many other initiatives promoted by AWS IoT. The main motive of this chapter is to present how AWS IoT works. The chapter starts with the design principles of AWS IoT services. Further, the authors present a detailed description of the AWS IoT components (e.g., Device SDK, Message Broker, Rule Engine, Security and Identity Service, Thing Registry, Thing Shadow, and Thing Shadow Service). The chapter concludes with a description of various challenges faced by AWS IoT and future research directions.
Fog Computing and Virtualization
Authors: Duggirala Siddhartha
Published: May 2018

The essence of Cloud computing is moving out the processing from the local systems to remote systems. Cloud is an umbrella of physical/virtual services/resources easily accessible over the internet. With more companies adopting cloud either fully through public cloud or Hybrid model, the challenges in maintaining a cloud capable infrastructure is also increasing. About 42% of CTOs say that security is their main concern for moving into cloud. Another problem which is mainly problem with infrastructure is the connectivity issue. The datacenter could be considered as the backbone of cloud computing architecture. As the processing power and storage capabilities of the end devices like mobile phones, routers, sensor hubs improve we can increasing leverage these resources to improve your quality and reliability of services.
An Extension of the MiSCi Middleware for Smart Cities Based on Fog Computing
Authors: Aguilar Jose , Sanchez Manuel B. , Jerez Marxjhony , Mendonca Maribel
Published: May 2018

In a Smart City is required computational platforms, which allow environments with multiple interconnected and embedded systems, where the technology is integrated with the people, and can respond to unpredictable situations. One of the biggest challenges in developing Smart City is how to describe and dispose of enormous and multiple sources of information, and how to share and merge it into a single infrastructure. In previous works, we have proposed an Autonomic Reflective Middleware with emerging and ubiquitous capabilities, which is based on intelligent agents that can be adapted to the existing dynamism in a city for, ubiquitously, respond to the requirements of citizens, using emerging ontologies that allow the adaptation to the context. In this work, we extend this middleware using the fog computing paradigm, to solve this problem. The fog extends the cloud to be closer to the things that produce and act on the smart city. In this paper, we present the extension to the middleware, and examples of utilization in different situations in a smart city.
Smart XSS Attack Surveillance System for OSN in Virtualized Intelligence Network of Nodes of Fog Computing
Authors: Gupta Shashank , Gupta B. B.
Published: May 2018

This article introduces a distributed intelligence network of Fog computing nodes and Cloud data centres for smart devices against XSS vulnerabilities in Online Social Network (OSN). The cloud data centres compute the features of JavaScript, injects them in the form of comments and saved them in the script nodes of Document Object Model (DOM) tree. The network of Fog devices re-executes the feature computation and comment injection process in the HTTP response message and compares such comments with those calculated in the cloud data centres. Any divergence observed will simply alarm the signal of injection of XSS worms on the nodes of fog located at the edge of the network. The mitigation of such worms is done by executing the nested context-sensitive sanitization on the malicious variables of JavaScript code embedded in such worms. The prototype of the authors' work was developed in Java development framework and installed on the virtual machines of Cloud data centres (typically located at the core of network) and the nodes of Fog devices (exclusively positioned at the edge of network). Vulnerable OSN-based web applications were utilized for evaluating the XSS worm detection capability of the authors' framework and evaluation results revealed that their work detects the injection of XSS worms with high precision rate and less rate of false positives and false negatives.
Centralized Fog Computing Security Platform for IoT and Cloud in Healthcare System
Authors: Thota Chandu , Sundarasekar Revathi , Manogaran Gunasekaran , R Varatharajan , M. K. Priyan
Published: May 2018

This chapter proposes an efficient centralized secure architecture for end to end integration of IoT based healthcare system deployed in Cloud environment. The proposed platform uses Fog Computing environment to run the framework. In this chapter, health data is collected from sensors and collected sensor data are securely sent to the near edge devices. Finally, devices transfer the data to the cloud for seamless access by healthcare professionals. Security and privacy for patients' medical data are crucial for the acceptance and ubiquitous use of IoT in healthcare. The main focus of this work is to secure Authentication and Authorization of all the devices, Identifying and Tracking the devices deployed in the system, Locating and tracking of mobile devices, new things deployment and connection to existing system, Communication among the devices and data transfer between remote healthcare systems. The proposed system uses asynchronous communication between the applications and data servers deployed in the cloud environment.
Examining the Benefits of Integrating Social Media Into the Classroom
Authors: Wohleb Elisha , Skinner Leane B. , Witte Maria Martinez
Published: May 2018

Technology is ever-changing in the society we live in. Social media is one of the most popular technologies used fervently among our youth. Educators must recognize the opportunity to utilize familiar resources to engage our students in the learning process. In addition, social media can enhance collaboration, communication, research, discussion, and critical thinking skills. Furthermore, social media can provide educators the opportunity to model and teach the importance of digital citizenship. This chapter supports the benefits of integrating social media into the classroom as well as provides information on how to overcome concerns associated with implementing social media.
Utilizing Social Media to Engage Students in Online Learning
Authors: Bender Sara , Dickenson Patricia
Published: May 2018

There is a large body of research suggesting that online students feel disconnected from their academic institutions. This sense of detachment may elicit feelings of frustration and isolation, as well as contribute to academic failure. Students' success and satisfaction in the online learning environment may be contingent upon the type of interaction between the student, faculty member, and their classroom peers. Online instructors are challenged with finding the means to bridge the gap of physical space to create authentic relationships. Social media, especially social networking, holds much promise for creating a space where emotional engagement between the instructor and students can be facilitated beyond the virtual classroom. The aim of this chapter is to share best practices in social media to engage the online student in a manner that is both productive and efficient.
Analysis and Segmentation of Visitors in a Natural Protected Area
Authors: Ferrari Sonia , Gilli Monica , Bollani Luigi
Published: May 2018

Nature-based tourism is one of the segments of the tourism market that is growing more and faster in last years. For this reason, natural parks have become major tourism destinations and their management should be more focused in terms of marketing, through the adoption of effective strategies targeted to specific market segments. Only by knowing their visitors, through a market segmentation process, will park managers be able to identify different profiles of users and to understand their motivations, expectations, and needs. Sila National Park (Italy) is carrying on every year, since 2009, an inquiry among visitors with the purpose of knowing better their characteristics and identifying different segments of tourists. Last year's survey results show, through a cluster analysis, the existence of five visitor segments with very different characteristics and expectations among them. The chapter proposes a description of these clusters, trying to identify the marketing strategies suitable for each target.
The Transformative Within
Authors: Torrisi-Steele Geraldine , Cohen Laurence Robert
Published: May 2018

The individual's sense of “work self” is a complex phenomenon. The cumulative effect of work experiences and academic experiences along with one's personal interpretation of them is felt strongly in the sense of work self. There is recognition of the importance of people's sense of work self in career choices and in career success. The important role students' academic identity plays in post-secondary study success is well recognized, but the importance of the development of work identity in post-secondary education has received little attention. In this chapter, the crucial role work identity plays in career path and success is acknowledged. The author suggests that resume writing, typically viewed merely as a work history, can be used as a powerful tool for creative, critical reflection through which students critically re-examine their previous experiences and ultimately challenge the habits of mind and work self, which has previously defined, and often constrained, them.
Analysis of Dynamics Competitiveness by Using Strategic Groups Maps
Authors: Aboutorab Hamed , Aslani Alireza , Nazari Mohsen
Published: May 2018

This chapter describes how in today's competitive world, the survival of businesses is highly dependent on satisfying the customers and responding to their demands. The furniture industry is one of the markets that consists high level of competition and customers in different groups. The industry has a rapid growth by improving the economic conditions and quality of life in the world. However, the capability and competitiveness of suppliers and retailers for domestic and imported products are a big challenge. This brings the importance of the strategic analysis approach to the industry. The aim of this article is to implement strategic group maps to understand the dynamics of the furniture market in a selected case study. The used method is the first in the furniture industry and the market analysis is based on the both suppliers/retailers and customers' viewpoints. The outputs show the furniture industry can be categorized in the five groups with specific required demand and strategy in each group.
A Decision-Making Tool for the Optimization of Empty Containers' Return in the Liner Shipping: Optimization by Using the Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Belayachi Naima , Amrani Fouzia , Bouamrane Karim
Published: May 2018

This article describes how in the maritime transportation sector, containerization represents one of the most remarkable improvements. In fact, the different shipping companies provide great efforts, whose purpose is to reduce the cost of this transport. However, these companies are facing a problem of empty containers, which are not available at some ports of Maritime Transport Network (MTN) to meet the clients' demands. This problem is simply a consequence of the imbalance in the distribution of containers through the MTN due to the set of containers that do not return to the origin port. This work offers a decision-making tool to this problem by proposing an optimal return of empty containers. The proposed application is based on evolutionary heuristics. Its principle is to find an optimal solution from a set of several feasible solutions generated during an initial population in order to enable the search of empty containers at lower cost.
Application of Real-World Problems in Computer Science Education
Authors: Ferreira Deller James , Ambrósio Ana Paula Laboissière , Melo Tatiane F. N.
Published: May 2018

This article describes how it is due to the fact that computer science is present in many activities of daily life, students need to develop skills to solve problems to improve the lives of people in general. This article investigates correlations between teachers' motivational orientations, beliefs and practices with respect to the application of real-world problems in undergraduate courses. A questionnaire was applied to twenty-eight teachers of an undergraduate computer science course. Data from the questionnaire was analyzed using statistical methods. The results show that the majority of the teachers, especially those who interact with companies, believe that the insertion of real-world problems in the classroom is important. However, some teachers are not willing to adopt this practice. This is linked to reasons such as the need for more flexible curricula and a better teaching qualification with respect to collaborative problem solving.
Third-Level Digital Divide in English Teaching and Learning
Authors: Yu Zhonggen
Published: May 2018

This article describes how information and communication technologies (ICT) are growing important in English teaching and learning. Based on the model of digital divide, this article focuses on the third-level digital divide. Through interview and large-scale survey by using a questionnaire designed based on a digital divide model, this article attempts to determine the gender differences in the third-level digital divide in English teaching and learning, together with correlations between attitude toward ICT, educational level and economic status. It is concluded that (1) there are significant gender differences in the third-level digital divide in English language learning and teaching; (2) there is a significant positive correlation between attitudes toward ICT and the third-level digital divide in English learning and teaching; (3) there is significant positive correlation between educational level and third-level digital divide in English learning and teaching; (4) there is significant positive correlation between economic status and the third-level digital divide in English learning and teaching. Advantages and disadvantages of this article and future research directions were also discussed.
Effects of Learning Analytics on Students' Self-Regulated Learning in Flipped Classroom
Authors: Silva João Carlos Sedraz , Zambom Erik , Rodrigues Rodrigo Lins , Ramos Jorge Luis Cavalcanti , de Souza Fernando da Fonseca
Published: May 2018

The present article is aimed at analyzing the effects of learning analytics on students' self-regulated learning in a flipped classroom. An experiment was conducted with 96 engineering students, enrolled in a subject offered in the Flipped Classroom model. The students were divided into two groups: an experimental group (N = 51) and a control group (N = 45). After each learning unit, while the control group did not have access to any learning analytics resources, students from the experimental group received a bulletin with feedback to support Self-Regulated Learning. The levels of student self-regulation were measured through questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the course. The analysis of the collected data revealed that the bulletin promoted significant effects in self-regulated learning in the experimental group, stimulating the self-reflection and colleague's support search for clarifying doubts. These results demonstrate that learning analytics can be used to promote self-regulated learning in flipped classrooms, helping students identify strategies that can increase their academic performance.
Addressing Risks in Global Software Development and Outsourcing
Authors: Galli Brian J.
Published: May 2018

This article describes how outsourcing and offshoring for software development is a widely used business strategy implemented by many organizations worldwide. Due to its significant benefits, project managers can accrue greater flexibility, lower labor costs, and have access to skilled workers, which are the advantages of outsourcing and offshoring in global software development (GSD). Though there are advantages and benefits to incorporating this business practice, there are risks associated with it as well. Therefore, it is necessary and vital to discuss the challenges and risks that may arise which the project managers should consider before establishing and implementing such a project, to ensure a successful project result. The objective of this research is to identify the challenges and risks involved in GSD and discuss a risk management plan based on these factors. This article has found that communication issues and cultural differences are primary causes of most risks identified. To minimize the risks associated with GSD, these factors must be minimized.
Cross-Urban Point-of-Interest Recommendation for Non-Natives
Authors: Xu Tao , Ma Yutao , Wang Qian
Published: May 2018

This article describes how understanding human mobility behavior is of great significance for predicting a broad range of socioeconomic phenomena in contemporary society. Although many studies have been conducted to uncover behavioral patterns of intra-urban and inter-urban human mobility, a fundamental question remains unanswered: To what degree is human mobility behavior predictable in new cities—a person has never visited before? Location-based social networks with a large volume of check-in records provide an unprecedented opportunity to investigate cross-urban human mobility. The authors' empirical study on millions of records from Foursquare reveals the motives and behavioral patterns of non-natives in 59 cities across the United States. Inspired by the ideology of transfer learning, the authors also propose a machine learning model, which is designed based on the regularities that they found in this study, to predict cross-urban human whereabouts after non-natives move to new cities. The experimental results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model, thus allowing us to predict and control activities driven by cross-urban human mobility, such as mobile recommendation, visual (personal) assistant, and epidemic prevention.
Full Height Rectangular Opening Castellated Steel Beam with Diagonal Stiffener
Authors: Rusli Muhamad A. , Murtopo Ali , Satyarno Iman , Siswanto M. Fauzie
Published: May 2018

The full height rectangular opening castellated steel beam failed in Vierendeel mechanism. This makes the flexural capacity of castellated steel beam is lower than the original IWF section. This paper discusses analysis and test result of a full height rectangular opening castellated steel beam with diagonal stiffener. The diagonal stiffener used in this research has a purpose of preventing Vierendeel mechanism. This research used two specimens, a short span specimen to study shear behavior, and a long span specimen to study flexural behavior. Test results show that the long span specimen can avoid Vierendeel mechanism and increase the yield moment capacity by 1.6 times of the original IWF section. The failure of the short span specimen is a combination of shear failure and Vierendeel mechanism as in elastic condition, the diagonal stiffener, flange, and web post were worked and failed together. Based on the test result, truss analysis method can be used to calculate the flexural capacity of full height rectangular opening castellated steel beam with diagonal stiffener. Theoretical calculation of yield moment capacity of the long span specimen has 8.25% difference from the real yield moment capacity.
The Investigation on Setting Time and Strength of High Calcium Fly Ash Based Geopolymer
Authors: Cornelis Remigildus , Priyosulistyo Henricus , Satyarno Iman , Rochmadi
Published: May 2018

Fly ash based geopolymer normally gets the optimum strength by heat curing. This is considered as a hindrance to in-situ applications. Therefore, development of fly ash based geopolymer that suitable for ambient curing will widen the application to the concrete structure. This paper reports the results of an experimental study on setting time and development of compressive strength of class C fly ash based geopolymer paste produced in ambient curing condition. The main synthesis parameters such as water to the geopolymer solid ratio, alkali to cementitious ratio and molarity of NaOH were varied to understand their individual effect on setting time and the mechanical properties of the resulting geopolymer. The results suggested that generally the setting time increased with the NaOH molarity and the compressive strength of 59 MPa was obtained for geopolymer mixture cured at ambient temperature for 28 days with alkali to a cementitious ratio of 0.35 and 10 M NaOH. The results will be useful for developing the knowledge of the use of high calcium fly ash in producing geopolymer. This would be beneficial to the understanding the future applications of this material as new binding material.