People centred eco-design: consumer adoption of low and zero carbon products and systems

Literature review, research model and findings of exploratory empirical research on consumer adoption and effective use of low and zero carbon technologies ranging from a hybrid car to solar water heating systems

Knowledge visualizations: a tool to achieve optimized operational decision making and data integration

The overabundance of data created by modern information systems (IS) has led to a breakdown in cognitive decision-making. Without authoritative source data, commanders’ decision-making processes are hindered as they attempt to paint an accurate shared operational picture (SOP). Further impeding the decision-making process is the lack of proper interface interaction to provide a visualization that aids in the extraction of the most relevant and accurate data. Utilizing the DSS to present visualizations based on OLAP cube integrated data allow decision-makers to rapidly glean information and build their situation awareness (SA). This yields a competitive advantage to the organization while in garrison or in combat. Additionally, OLAP cube data integration enables analysis to be performed on an organization’s data-flows. This analysis is used to identify the critical path of data throughout the organization. Linking a decision-maker to the authoritative data along this critical path eliminates the many decision layers in a hierarchal command structure that can introduce latency or error into the decision-making process. Furthermore, the organization has an integrated SOP from which to rapidly build SA, and make effective and efficient decisions.http://archive.org/details/knowledgevisuali1094545877Outstanding ThesisOutstanding ThesisMajor, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Global Technical Communication and Content Management: A Study of Multilingual Quality

The field of technical communication (TC) is facing a dilemma. Content management (CM) strategies and technologies that completely reshape writing and translation practices are adopted in an increasing number of TC work groups. One driving factor in CM adoption is the promise of improving quality of multilingual technical texts, all the while reducing time/cost of technical translation and localization. Yet, CM relies on automation and privileges consistency¯an approach that is problematic in global TC with its focus on adapting texts based on the characteristics of end-users. To better understand the interdisciplinary dilemma of multilingual quality in CM, during my dissertation project I conducted a twelve-month long qualitative case study of multilingual quality at a leading manufacturer of medical equipment who had adopted CM strategies and technologies to create technical texts in several languages three years before my study began. In my study, I drew upon an interdisciplinary theoretical base (genre ecology framework, activity theory, actor-network theory, and Skopos theory) to examine the construction of multilingual quality understandings and approaches by global TC stakeholders who are employees and contractors of the company and the role of CM in their practices. Examination of the extensive data I collected through observations, interviews, questionnaires, document collection/content analysis, and software exploration uncovered the staggering disconnects in understandings of and approaches to multilingual quality. These disconnects resulted from the lack communication between stakeholders and were promoted by the different relations to CM technology and the mediating work of the new genre, chunks of content. Inhibited knowledge sharing, risk of expertise invisibility and loss, and constrained new ideas about improving multilingual quality were some of the rhetorical, social, and political implications of these disconnects. As a result of my analysis, I sketched strategies for achieving contextualized multiple-stakeholder approaches to multilingual quality and outlined leadership possibilities for technical communicators in global information development. This analysis provides TC practitioners with strategies for improving multilingual quality in CM contexts; TC educators with ideas for expanding teaching approaches by combining digital and cross-cultural literacies; and TC researchers with opportunities for rhetorical action through critiquing, theorizing, and innovating CM

"The dearest of our possessions": applying Floridi's information privacy concept in models of information behavior and information literacy

This conceptual paper argues for the value of an approach to privacy in the digital information environment informed by Luciano Floridi's philosophy of information and information ethics. This approach involves achieving informational privacy, through the features of anonymity and obscurity, through an optimal balance of ontological frictions. This approach may be used to modify models for information behavior and for information literacy, giving them a fuller and more effective coverage of privacy issues in the infosphere. For information behavior, the Information Seeking and Communication Model, and the Information Grounds conception, are most appropriate for this purpose. For information literacy, the metaliteracy model, using a modification a privacy literacy framework, is most suitable

CCAFS Program of Work and Budget 2015

The 2015 program of work and budget of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) lays out the key activities and budget in 2015

CONTEXTUALIZED INTERACTIVE LEARNING MATERIALS (CILMs) FOR MATHEMATICS 1

The study was conducted to develop Contextualized Interactive Learning Materials (CILMs) for Mathematics 1 based on the results of the survey on the need to prepare CILMs and the problems encountered in the preparation and use of instructional materials in teaching Mathematics administered to 148 Grade 1 public elementary school teachers in the Schools Division of Ilocos Norte. Results were analyzed using the mean, frequency count, percentage, and rank.             The findings showed that there is a need to prepare CILMs for all the learning competencies in Mathematics 1. Also, there were problems encountered by them in the preparation and use of instructional materials which could be addressed by the production of a curriculum support material. Hence, the CILMs were developed. Based on the results of the evaluation made by the content specialists, ICT experts, and Grade 1 teachers, the CILMs were found to be very highly valid and very highly acceptable as a curriculum support material for mathematics instruction.             In the light of findings and conclusions, the researcher recommends that teachers be provided with means for internet connectivity and be given adequate professional development experiences in preparing contextualized interactive learning materials; copies of the CILMs may be provided to the school administrators, program heads, and teachers for the adoption of the materials to classroom instruction; monitoring and evaluation on the use of the CILMs be done; documentation on the initial adoption and implementation of the CILMs be done; and similar or related studies to be conducted in other grade levels for  Mathematics

Meaningful Human Control over Smart Home Systems: A Value Sensitive Design Approach

The last decade has witnessed the mass distribution and adoption of smart home systems and devices powered by artificial intelligence systems ranging from household appliances like fridges and toasters to more background systems such as air and water quality controllers. The pervasiveness of these sociotechnical systems makes analyzing their ethical implications necessary during the design phases of these devices to ensure not only sociotechnical resilience, but to design them for human values in mind and thus preserve meaningful human control over them. This paper engages in a conceptual investigations of how meaningful human control over smart home devices can be attained through design. The value sensitive design (VSD) approach is proposed as a way of attaining this level of control. In the proposed framework, values are identified and defined, stakeholder groups are investigated and brought into the design process and the technical constraints of the technologies in question are considered. The paper concludes with some initial examples that illustrate a more adoptable way forward for both ethicists and engineers of smart home devices

MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses available to anyone who can sign up. MOOCs provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, advance in careers, and provide quality educational experiences to a certain extent. Millions of people around the world use MOOCs for learning and their reasons are various, including career development, career change, college preparation, supplementary learning, lifelong learning, corporate e-Learning and training, and so on

On the Complexity of Health Data Protection-in-Practice: Insights from a Longitudinal Qualitative Study

Digitalization of healthcare presents opportunities for improving the quality of healthcare services and promises economic benefits. However, the success of digital health and the benefits cannot be actualized without considering health data protection practices in the process of healthcare service delivery. Despite the criticality of protecting health data in the system use lifecycle (from recording to consuming and taking informed actions), there is a paucity of research to investigate this complex phenomenon. Using longitudinal qualitative data on a state-wide digital health transformation project, we contextually theorize the practices for protecting health data. Our study reveals five types of health data protectionin-practice, namely data minimization, informal encoding, accuracy, improving cyber-awareness, and appropriate access management. Our results provide new insights into information system use (especially, effective use), and highlight practices that can improve health data protection