Web-based Geographical Visualization of Container Itineraries

Around 90% of the world cargo is transported in maritime containers, but only around 2% are physically inspected. This opens the possibility for illicit activities. A viable solution is to control containerized cargo through information-based risk analysis. Container route-based analysis has been considered a key factor in identifying potentially suspicious consignments. Essential part of itinerary analysis is the geographical visualization of the itinerary. In the present paper, we present initial work of a web-based system’s realization for interactive geographical visualization of container itinerary.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

A Framework for culturally responsive teaching: Effectively implementing culturally responsive instruction in the science classroom

Culturally responsive instruction (CRT) is a term that has been bandied about the world of education for the past several decades. Despite substantial discussion into the theoretical constructs behind CRT, concrete applications of CRT to the science classroom have yet to be articulated or proposed. In this project, six elements of CRT classroom practices are described and applied to the secondary science classroom. Exemplar lessons modeling these six elements are provided to illustrate how authentic science instruction can occur in a culturally responsive classroom

EXCLAIM framework: a monitoring and analysis framework to support self-governance in Cloud Application Platforms

The Platform-as-a-Service segment of Cloud Computing has been steadily growing over the past several years, with more and more software developers opting for cloud platforms as convenient ecosystems for developing, deploying, testing and maintaining their software. Such cloud platforms also play an important role in delivering an easily-accessible Internet of Services. They provide rich support for software development, and, following the principles of Service-Oriented Computing, offer their subscribers a wide selection of pre-existing, reliable and reusable basic services, available through a common platform marketplace and ready to be seamlessly integrated into users' applications. Such cloud ecosystems are becoming increasingly dynamic and complex, and one of the major challenges faced by cloud providers is to develop appropriate scalable and extensible mechanisms for governance and control based on run-time monitoring and analysis of (extreme amounts of) raw heterogeneous data. In this thesis we address this important research question -- \textbf{how can we support self-governance in cloud platforms delivering the Internet of Services in the presence of large amounts of heterogeneous and rapidly changing data?} To address this research question and demonstrate our approach, we have created the Extensible Cloud Monitoring and Analysis (EXCLAIM) framework for service-based cloud platforms. The main idea underpinning our approach is to encode monitored heterogeneous data using Semantic Web languages, which then enables us to integrate these semantically enriched observation streams with static ontological knowledge and to apply intelligent reasoning. This has allowed us to create an extensible, modular, and declaratively defined architecture for performing run-time data monitoring and analysis with a view to detecting critical situations within cloud platforms. By addressing the main research question, our approach contributes to the domain of Cloud Computing, and in particular to the area of autonomic and self-managing capabilities of service-based cloud platforms. Our main contributions include the approach itself, which allows monitoring and analysing heterogeneous data in an extensible and scalable manner, the prototype of the EXCLAIM framework, and the Cloud Sensor Ontology. Our research also contributes to the state of the art in Software Engineering by demonstrating how existing techniques from several fields (i.e., Autonomic Computing, Service-Oriented Computing, Stream Processing, Semantic Sensor Web, and Big Data) can be combined in a novel way to create an extensible, scalable, modular, and declaratively defined monitoring and analysis solution

Celebration of Learning 2014: Full Program

Full program of the 2014 Celebration of Learning at Augustana College

Ideafest Presentation Schedule 2015

Program schedule with abstracts for the annual Ideafest student scholarship conference held on the campus of Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, April 23, 2015

Creating Memories: Writing and Designing More Memorable Documents

If communication’s purpose is to enable action or belief (Johnson-Sheehan, 2012), then communication will be more effective—and thus more ethical—if the audience can easily remember it. However, the study of memory has long been neglected in English Studies. Therefore, communicators lack strategies for enhancing documents’ memorableness and an ethical framework for assessing (un)memorable documents and composing processes. To develop an “ethic of memory” and identify strategies that enhance a document’s memorableness, I asked twenty subjects—ten teachers and ten college freshman—to walk down a high school hallway in which various posters and flyers had been posted by the administration, teachers, or students. Then I interviewed the subjects about their recollections, reasons for remembering this information, and the likelihood that they might apply it. One week later, I conducted a follow-up interview to determine which information “stuck,” the subjects’ self-reported reasons why, and their likelihood of applying it. I counted the number of information units and specific details that the subjects remembered at each interview, and I also categorized the types of details they recalled. I coded the subjects’ reasons for remembering and (not) applying information according to commonly-accepted design and psychological terms drawn from Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell et al. The subjects’ memories were very consistent in both quantity and quality from the first to the second interview, indicating that documents influence long-term memory. Certain posters and flyers were remembered much more often than others, demonstrating that rhetorical and design strategies affect a documents’ memorableness. The codes “schema” and “relevance” were very consistent themes in the subjects’ interview responses; so-called “self-schema” shape judgments of relevance, which then affect efforts to encode information into memory. This study describes six strategies for engaging an audience’s collective self-schema, prompting the audience to ascribe relevance to documents and thus endeavor to encode them: convey practical value; use the familiar; use contrast, color, and imagery; use unexpected elements; arouse emotion and build social currency; and “break-and-remake” existing schema

Keeping our habitat healthy: A thematic unit for teaching environmental awareness for grades 3-5

There are many curriculum guides that address environmental education. Classroom teachers do not have the time to obtain and search all of these guides. This curriculum was developed by searching numerous manuals for appropriate lessons, developing a cohesive unit, and field testing the lessons on students in two classrooms. The project, as a whole, offers teachers a thematic, multi-disciplinary, hands-on, literature based method of developing students\u27 appreciation and understanding of the world in which they live