Dynamic mapping strategies for interactive art installations: an embodied combined HCI HRI HHI approach

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for dealing with the paradigm of interactivity in new media art, and how the broad use of the term in different research fields can lead to some misunderstandings. The paper addresses a conceptual view on how we can implement interaction in new media art from an embodied approach that unites views from HCI, HRI and HHI. The focus is on an intuitive mapping of a multitude of sensor data and to extend upon this using the paradigm of (1) finite state machines (FSM) to address dynamic mapping strategies, (2) mediality to address aisthesis and (3) embodiment to address valid mapping strategies originated from natural body movements. The theory put forward is illustrated by a case study

Increasing Food Safety Compliance With Online Resources

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCEFood-borne illness is a top concern for public policy and public health in the U.S., causing nearly 48 million incidents yearly. The number of confirmed food-borne illness outbreaks has declined over recent years as regulation and control measures of the Food and Drug Administration have increased. However, despite increased regulations and decreased outbreaks, there are still a large number of food safety violations, and it is imperative that food service employers continue to encourage good food safety practices. Mandated training has produced varying results on the improved inspection scores of restaurant establishments, but understanding the barriers to food safety and employing food safety intervention measures has had positive results on improving the employees’ food safety compliance behaviors. There is an opportunity to explore new interventions and mediums to increase safe food handling behaviors. This project describes the development of a food safety resource, FoodSafetyKmowledge.org. The site exists as a singular location for managers to find all of the necessary safety and sanitation resources in one accessible and convenient place. The discussion and analysis includes feedback from other food service professionals, and I offer recommendations to improve the site for future use.Signature Page / Title Page / Abstract / List of Figures / Acknowledgements / Introduction / Literature Review / Method / Discussion / Conclusion / Reference

The intellectual capital - environmental practices, performance and their relationships in the Romanian banking sector

Purpose – This paper reviews the knowledge assets that can be capitalized for successful Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) implementation in the Romanian banking industry. GSCM is defined as the company’s ability to understand and manage the environmental risks along the Supply Chain (SC) (Carter and Rogers,2008). Banks are very much members of the SCs (McKenzie and Wolfe, 2004), called to integrate the environmental management into both operational and core commercial activities and to manage the environmental risk in their supply chain (FORGE Group,2000; International Finance Corporation, 2006; UNEP Finance Initiative, 2009a). Intellectual capital, or the ‘stock’ of knowledge-based equity firms hold, is recognized as a key contributor to their competitiveness (Bontis et al., 1999), which may act as a driver of environmental pro-activeness (Bernauer et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2007), as well as an obstacle in the process to design and implement GSCM (Post and Altman, 1994; Baresel-Bofinger et al., 2007), while organizational learning is seen as the key component in overcoming the organizational obstacles to environmental changes (Post and Altman, 1992; Post and Altman, 1994; Anderson and Wolff, 1996). Design/methodology/approach – This research paper describes the empirical results of a cross-sectional design employed in a sample of 41 banks operating in Romania with the purpose a. to explore the stage of designing and implementing GSCM practices in the Romanian banking sector; b. to determine which GSCM practices tend to be followed the most, c. which are the bank managers’ perceived benefits from implementing GSCM practices, as well as perceived obstacles in GSCM implementation in the banking sector; and d. what is the relationship between the aforementioned variables. For these purposes several statistical analyses were used, including both descriptive and inferential statistics. Originality/value – This is the first study looking for GSCM issues in the Romanian banking industry. The results of this research provide insights into what extent knowledge assets could be capitalized for successful Green Supply Chain Management implementation in the Romanian banking industry. Furthermore, it is increasing the ecological awareness, the theoretical and managerial insights for an effective implementation of GSCM practices in the banking sector. The analysis reveals that GSCM practices (especially practices in the immaterial flow) are strongly and significantly correlated with perceived benefits and pressures. However,this should be addressed in future research because the present study offers only correlational data and cannot establish causation. The study also concludes that bank’s size and foreign/Romanian ownership do not influence at all the level of GSCM practices implementation and related perceptions (pressures, obstacles,benefits) in the Romanian banking sector. Practical implications – The findings of this paper point to the conclusion that the banking sector in Romania is at a somehow advanced stage of ecological adaptation in the physical flow and at an early stage in the immaterial and commercial flows. Based on the literature and study’s findings, regarding the role that the management of intellectual capital and knowledge flow plays, several recommendations are proposed for enhancing the implementation process of GSCM practices in the banking industry in Romania

Characterization and Modeling of Spectrum Trading Markets

Telecommunication regulators are facing increasing pressure to make spectrum resources more widely available to new wireless services and providers. In spectrum trading markets, buyers and sellers determine the assignments of spectrum and, possibly, its uses. These markets are being considered or implemented by the regulatory bodies of many countries as a way to provide increasing efficiency in the use of spectrum and attend the demand for this resource. This work describes a classification for the implementation of spectrum trading markets and a way to model them and identify the conditions for their viability. Specifically, we make use of Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) to model the participants in these markets, analyze the behaviors that emerge from the interactions of its participants and determine the conditions for viable markets. Our results, provide guidelines that can be used by regulators and wireless service providers for the design and implementation of these markets

Planning for Differentiated Instruction: Comparing Instructional Leadership Practices as Perceived by Administrators and Teachers in Middle School

Scholars have purported that teachers infrequently implement differentiated instruction due to self-imposed obstacles or misconceived notions that promote barriers. This study was designed to generate an awareness of the differences between school administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership practices towards implementation of differentiated instruction. From the existing research, six functions of instructional leadership and 27 practices were identified as being effective in supporting the implementation of differentiated instruction. These functions of instructional leadership along with related practices served as the basis for a two-part, six subset, and 27 item researcher-designed survey. Data were collected from 34 middle school administrators and 171 teachers from a major metropolitan school district in the southeast United States. When viewed separately, the middle school administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions derived from this study reflected a high degree of agreement with the positive statements of the survey. Similar findings were discovered when examining administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership in support of differentiation among middle schools of different school achievement status. However, when comparing administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions, teachers were not in complete agreement with administrators in 4 of 6 subsets including the total average of all subsets. Teachers consequently perceived survey statements about supervision and evaluation of instruction, protection of instructional time, providing incentives for teachers, and providing professional development as not being experienced to the same extent as believed by administrators to be in practice. These results are in alignment with the literature indicative of teacher perceived barriers towards the differentiation of instruction often hampered by a lack of administrative support. Additional evidence for this viewpoint may be seen in the results of the total average of all subset functions of instructional leadership practices. A high degree of disagreement between administrators and teachers for the statements of the survey raises the concern that misconceptions exist. Given this outcome, school administrators may not be as attuned to the teachers’ perceptions of their support for the practice of differentiated instruction. Future research into the impact of competing priorities upon administrators’ focus of instructional leadership may offer insights into the attentiveness of administrators toward teachers’ instructional needs. Furthermore, policy makers should take into account the perceptions of principals for an innovation before requiring its institutionalization. The researcher concluded by asserting that administrators have the responsibility to attend to teachers’ perceptions. A misalignment of beliefs and attitudes held for innovations by school administrators and teachers can unfortunately contribute to creating additional barriers for implementation. Planning for differentiated instruction, or any instructional change, should be informed by the perceptions of all stakeholders for the innovation

Innovative IT Use and Innovating with IT: A Study of the Motivational Antecedents of Two Different Types of Innovative Behaviors

The paper distinguishes two different types of innovative behaviors with information technology (IT): innovative IS use (IU) and innovating with IT (IwIT). While the former focuses on changing the technology and the work process to better support one’s existing work goals, the latter focuses on using IT to develop new work-related goals and outcomes. Drawing on Parker’s theory of proactive behavior, the paper compares the motivational antecedents and consequences of these two innovative behaviors with IT. Our model hypothesizes that three generic types of motivation differentially affect IwIT vs. IU. The paper also explores the moderating role of slack resources on the effect of motivation on the two innovative behaviors with IT. Data from a survey of 427 IT users from North American companies show that social motivation affects IwIT (but not IU); intrinsic motivation is positively related to IU (but not IwIT), and internalized extrinsic motivation affects both IU and IwIT. Further, the results indicate that the moderating role of slack resources on different motivational paths is not a one-size-fits-all effect, that is, IS slack resources only moderates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and IwIT. We also differentiated the consequences of IwIT from IU. The post hoc analysis shows that IwIT is significantly related to individual mindfulness at work, but IU is not. The paper contributes to IS research by offering a rich conceptualization of IwIT and examining its motivational antecedents and consequences, compared to IU

Development of Economic Water Usage Sensor and Cyber-Physical Systems Co-Simulation Platform for Home Energy Saving

In this thesis, two Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) approaches were considered to reduce residential building energy consumption. First, a flow sensor was developed for residential gas and electric storage water heaters. The sensor utilizes unique temperature changes of tank inlet and outlet pipes upon water draw to provide occupant hot water usage. Post processing of measured pipe temperature data was able to detect water draw events. Conservation of energy was applied to heater pipes to determine relative internal water flow rate based on transient temperature measurements. Correlations between calculated flow and actual flow were significant at a 95% confidence level. Using this methodology, a CPS water heater controller can activate existing residential storage water heaters according to occupant hot water demand. The second CPS approach integrated an open-source building simulation tool, EnergyPlus, into a CPS simulation platform developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST platform utilizes the High Level Architecture (HLA) co-simulation protocol for logical timing control and data communication. By modifying existing EnergyPlus co-simulation capabilities, NIST’s open-source platform was able to execute an uninterrupted simulation between a residential house in EnergyPlus and an externally connected thermostat controller. The developed EnergyPlus wrapper for HLA co-simulation can allow active replacement of traditional real-time data collection for building CPS development. As such, occupant sensors and simple home CPS product can allow greater residential participation in energy saving practices, saving up to 33% on home energy consumption nationally