239 research outputs found

    MENUING SOFTWARE: APPLICATION TO THE GENERAL MANAGER'S NEED

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    This paper demonstrates a robust approach to general manager computer use. The approach is shown to systematically integrate a diverse collection of user selected applications. It is implemented through the use of currently available shareware and public domain software at low cost. The developed prototype follows accepted psychological choice, Management Information System (MIS) and/or Decision Support System (DDS) principles. It is easily modified by a user, said to be any general management team member, as the environment changes. Team member roles, concerns, styles, and interests can be accommodated in the design or re-design. The prototype and approach is friendly to occasional users. One basic installation can serve several users. It will work on a network of computers. It offers a sense of staying in control to the individual. Complexities of application choice and access are hidden. Data transfer between applications is automated. Extension educators and business consultants can also use a similar approach for accessing a wide variety of applications. Further work will likely improve the basic approach. In the meantime, the gain from using this approach as it stands is quickly available.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

    Envisioning the future of public lighting through upcoming technologies by citizen-centered design

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    Outdoor lighting forms an essential component of public infrastructure in global urban context. The functions of street lighting have been the same for a long time. Currently, adaptive lighting is used within intelligent lighting systems that are tested for wide deployment. Adaptive lighting is a sensor-based system that uses LED technology to dim and brighten lighting on the streets depending on its context and movement on the streets. The benefits of the technology include, for example, the reduction of energy consumption, light pollution and disturbance of circadian rhythms of animals and plants. This new technology and its deployment have its concerns. Testing the impact of such a public lighting within the major cities in multiple contexts is complex. While urban technologies affect the everyday lives of people, involving them in shaping such a future public infrastructure and widening its application through participation is far from simple. Within the scope of my research, I wish to address enabling citizens’ participation in the visioning of future technologies that may have an impact on public lighting. Therefore, I chose to frame adaptive lighting of smart cities in the context of three future technologies, of autonomous cars, Li-Fi and battery storage. Autonomous cars could change the way we see the role of the public lighting of roads. With Li-Fi, cars could communicate with street lights accessing sensor data from the environment. Household batteries could be connected to street lighting grid and cities could rent storage or buy energy produced by private infrastructure. With these upcoming technologies, changes in the role of outdoor public lighting can be anticipated. I wish to highlight this reflexive relation between changing urban technologies and present a potential for citizen participation in shaping their urban environments. By using design procedures, I engaged with city officials and citizens in creating future urban visions for adaptive lighting and its interaction with three future technologies.Katuvalaistus muodostaa tärkeän osan julkista infrastruktuuria maailmanlaajuisesti. Katuvalot ovat pitkään pysyneet samankaltaisina toiminnoiltaan. Mukautuva valaistus on nykyään laajamittaisesti testattu ja käytetty teknologia älykkäissä valaistusjärjestelmissä, joka on sensoreja käyttävä teknologia, jossa LED valoja himmennetään ja kirkastetaan kadulla tapahtuvan liikenteen tai kontekstin mukaan. Teknologian hyötyjä ovat muun muassa energian kulutuksen ja valosaasteen vähentäminen ja pienemmät vaikutukset eläinten ja kasvien vuorokausirytmeihin. Tällä uudella teknologialla ja sen käyttöönotolla on myös haasteensa. Teknologian vaikutuksien testaaminen suurissa kaupungeissa eri konteksteissaan on monimutkaista, vaikka urbaanit teknologiat tulevat vaikuttamaan suoraan ihmisten päivittäiseen elämään. Pyrin mahdollistamaan asukkaiden osallistamisen tulevaisuuden katuvalaistuksen visioinnissa. Myös muilla tulevaisuuden teknologioilla on vaikutusta tulevaisuuden katuvalaistukseen. Tutkimuksen laajuuden rajoissa otettiin huomioon kolme muuta tulevaisuuden teknologiaa. Tutkin tulevaisuuden älykästä katuvalaistusta itseohjautuvien autojen, valoa käyttävän kommunikaatioteknologian Li-Fi:n ja energia varastojen kontekstissa. Itseohjautuvat autot voivat muuttaa käsitystä siitä, miten näemme valaistuksen roolin teillä. Autot voisivat kommunikoida toistensa kanssa Li-Fi:n avulla saaden sensoreiden tuottamaa dataa ympäristöstään. Kotitalouksien akut voisivat olla yhdistettynä katuvalaistusverkkoon ja kaupungit voisivat vuokrata varastoja tai ostaa energiaa, joka on tuotettu yksityisesti. Näiden tulevaisuuden teknologioiden avulla voidaan ennakoida katuvalaistuksen roolin muutosta. Pyrin korostamaan tätä heijastavaa suhdetta muuttuvien urbaanien teknologioiden välillä ja esittämään potentiaalin asukkaiden osallistamisessa kaupunkiympäristöä muodostaessa. Osallistin kaupungin toimihenkilöitä käyttäen muotoilumenetelmiä luoden tulevaisuuden visioita älykkäästä valaistuksesta ja tämän vuorovaikutuksesta kolmen tulevaisuuden teknologian välillä. Katuvalaistuksen toimintojen visiointiin käytettiin asukkaiden kanssa osallistavia muotoilumenetelmiä

    Design of formal languages and interfaces: "formal" does not mean "unreadable".

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    This chapter provides an introduction to a work that aims to apply the achievements of engineering psychology to the area of formal methods, focusing on the specification phase of a system development process. Formal methods often assume that only two factors should be satisfied: the method must be sound and give such a representation, which is concise and beautiful from the mathematical point of view, without taking into account any question of readability, usability, or tool support. This leads to the fact that formal methods are treated by most engineers as something that is theoretically important but practically too hard to understand and to use, where even some small changes of a formal method can make it more understandable and usable for an average engineer

    Emergency Physicians\u27 Perspectives on the Usability of Health Information Exchange

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    Emergency physicians are key users of health information exchanges (HIE). Understanding their perspectives on the usability of HIE is important if the full potential of the HIE is to be achieved. The literature identified that emergency physician experiences with HIEs are unexplored areas requiring further studies. The purpose of this study using grounded theory methods was to understand the perspectives of emergency physicians concerning the usability of HIEs. The fundamental question was how do emergency physicians use the HIE in making clinical decisions? Rich and thick data were collected from 15 emergency physicians in four urban hospitals in the mid-south using theoretical sampling and unstructured face-to face interviews. Concepts from the coded segments were developed into categories and an overarching theoretical scheme visualized in a conceptual framework. A substantive theory emerged that using the HIE among emergency physicians is the process of rationalizing non-use and reconciling challenges and benefits. The antecedent of usability was a typical day in the emergency department and why participants accessed the HIE and under what conditions. Six major themes emerged: using the HIE, influencing clinical decisions, struggling with challenges and barriers, recognizing benefits, current views, and rationalizing not using or reduced use of the HIE. Emergency physicians gave good reasons why the HIE is not being used for the majority of patients while reconciling the challenges and benefits of using the HIE to explain the role of HIEs in making clinical decisions. There was a disconnect in the necessity of using the HIE to make clinical decisions and any negative outcomes that may occur in patients from not using the HIE. Generally, emergency physicians viewed the HIE as not being user-friendly and that they probably do not use the HIE as much as they could for making clinical decisions. The perspective of the emergency physicians was the emergency environment is too busy and because the HIE is less than user-friendly as needed by physicians to practice emergency medicine, the HIE disrupts workflow and is a deterrent to consistent usage in making clinical decisions. A better understanding of how emergency physicians decided to use the HIE in making clinical decisions gives insights about how to achieve HIE usability. Satisfied end-users who view the HIE as effective and efficient should use the HIE more. However, this requires removing challenges and barriers while recognizing more benefits to using the HIE, and addressing the underlying reasons for not using the HIE. Understanding the complexities of using the HIE and providing solutions to increase usability of the HIE is necessary to influence greater use of the HIE in clinical decisions with demonstrated positive outcomes for patients

    Addressing the \u27Failure\u27 of Informed Consent in Online Data Protection: Learning the Lessons from Behaviour-Aware Regulation

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    Information notice and data subject\u27s consent are the current main legal safeguards of data protection and privacy rights: they reflect individuals\u27 instances, such as self-determination and control over one\u27s own private sphere, that have been acknowledged in many jurisdictions. However, the theoretic strength of these safeguards appears frustrated by current online practices that seem suggesting to give-up with their most common form of implementation: privacy notices and request for consent. These measures are proving to be unsuccessful in increasing users\u27 awareness and in fostering a privacy protective-behaviour. As recent studies have shown, although people declare privacy concerns, their actual behaviour diverges from their statements (the privacy paradox ), as they seem to increasingly disclose personal data and to not even read privacy notices available online; eventually, the current privacy notices are not effective in regulating user\u27s data disclosure. Behaviourally informed approaches to regulatory problems, already applied to different areas of information provision and public policy, helped to clarify the reasons of similar peoples\u27 behaviour that cannot be reduced to a simplistic users do not care about privacy. Highlighting the regulatory weakness of traditional information notices, applied behavioural science has also demonstrated to be particularly effective in improving users\u27 decision-making and attaining concrete policy objectives if accompanied by ad hoc design interventions to display the relevant, salient information. As users do not read privacy policies or act in contradiction with them, other strategies might be more successful in promoting, nudging, privacy-protective behaviour. The use of innovative information notices, like salient alerts and nudges, seems to be a promising means of behavioural change also in the area of digital privacy, a possible new area of application of behavioural insights. Building on recent studies in the field ( conducted mainly in the U.S.), this paper considers new forms of privacy notices (like visceral notices), as alternative or complement to current legal (technical) measures for data protection. For the informed consent approach (or notice and choice approach) to work, it needs to be improved with welldesigned, transparent and regulated nudging system, capable to help citizens in their decision-making as regards their privacy. Without disregarding the challenges and limitations of nudging strategies in public policy in general and in the privacy area in particular, and examining their legal grounds, the paper aims also to integrate that branch of legal-policy research that see nudging methods as an effective way to gently encourage safer behaviours in the citizens.

    Spartan Daily, April 18, 1986

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    Volume 86, Issue 52https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7441/thumbnail.jp
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