Towards a flexible open-source software library for multi-layered scholarly textual studies: An Arabic case study dealing with semi-automatic language processing

This paper presents both the general model and a case study of the Computational and Collaborative Philology Library (CoPhiLib), an ongoing initiative underway at the Institute for Computational Linguistics (ILC) of the National Research Council (CNR), Pisa, Italy. The library, designed and organized as a reusable, abstract and open-source software component, aims at solving the needs of multi-lingual and cross-lingual analysis by exposing common Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The core modules, coded by the Java programming language, constitute the groundwork of a Web platform designed to deal with textual scholarly needs. The Web application, implemented according to the Java Enterprise specifications, focuses on multi-layered analysis for the study of literary documents and related multimedia sources. This ambitious challenge seeks to obtain the management of textual resources, on the one hand by abstracting from current language, on the other hand by decoupling from the specific requirements of single projects. This goal is achieved thanks to methodologies declared by the 'agile process', and by putting into effect suitable use case modeling, design patterns, and component-based architectures. The reusability and flexibility of the system have been tested on an Arabic case study: the system allows users to choose the morphological engine (such as AraMorph or Al-Khalil), along with linguistic granularity (i.e. with or without declension). Finally, the application enables the construction of annotated resources for further statistical engines (training set). © 2014 IEEE

Lifetime Improvement in Wireless Sensor Networks via Collaborative Beamforming and Cooperative Transmission

Collaborative beamforming (CB) and cooperative transmission (CT) have recently emerged as communication techniques that can make effective use of collaborative/cooperative nodes to create a virtual multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) system. Extending the lifetime of networks composed of battery-operated nodes is a key issue in the design and operation of wireless sensor networks. This paper considers the effects on network lifetime of allowing closely located nodes to use CB/CT to reduce the load or even to avoid packet-forwarding requests to nodes that have critical battery life. First, the effectiveness of CB/CT in improving the signal strength at a faraway destination using energy in nearby nodes is studied. Then, the performance improvement obtained by this technique is analyzed for a special 2D disk case. Further, for general networks in which information-generation rates are fixed, a new routing problem is formulated as a linear programming problem, while for other general networks, the cost for routing is dynamically adjusted according to the amount of energy remaining and the effectiveness of CB/CT. From the analysis and the simulation results, it is seen that the proposed method can reduce the payloads of energy-depleting nodes by about 90% in the special case network considered and improve the lifetimes of general networks by about 10%, compared with existing techniques.Comment: Invited paper to appear in the IEE Proceedings: Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, Special Issue on Antenna Systems and Propagation for Future Wireless Communication

Leveraging the Mob Mentality: An Experience Report on Mob Programming

Mob Programming, or "mobbing", is a relatively new collaborative programming practice being experimented with in different organizational contexts. There are a number of claimed benefits to this way of working, but it is not clear if these are realized in practice and under what circumstances. This paper describes the experience of one team's experiences experimenting with Mob Programming over an 18-month period. The context is programming in a software product organization in the Financial Services sector. The paper details the benefits and challenges observed as well as lessons learned from these experiences. It also reports some early work on understanding others' experiences and perceptions of mobbing through a preliminary international survey of 82 practitioners of Mob Programming. The findings from the case and the survey generally align well, as well as suggesting several fruitful areas for further research into Mob Programming. Practitioners should find this useful to extract learnings to inform their own mobbing experiments and its potential impact on collaborative software development.Comment: 6 pages. Best Paper in Industry Collaboration Track at EASE'1

A mixed-methods exploration of an environment for learning computer programming

A mixed-methods approach is evaluated for exploring collaborative behaviour, acceptance and progress surrounding an interactive technology for learning computer programming. A review of literature reveals a compelling case for using mixed-methods approaches when evaluating technology-enhanced-learning environments. Here, ethnographic approaches used for the requirements engineering of computing systems are combined with questionnaire-based feedback and skill tests. These are applied to the ‘Ceebot’ animated 3D learning environment. Video analysis with workplace observation allowed detailed inspection of problem solving and tacit behaviours. Questionnaires and knowledge tests provided broad sample coverage with insights into subject understanding and overall response to the learning environment. Although relatively low scores in programming tests seemingly contradicted the perception that Ceebot had enhanced understanding A mixed-methods approach is evaluated for exploring collaborative behaviour, acceptance and progress surrounding an interactive technology for learning computer programming. A review of literature reveals a compelling case for using mixed-methods approaches when evaluating technology-enhanced-learning environments. Here, ethnographic approaches used for the requirements engineering of computing systems are combined with questionnaire-based feedback and skill tests. These are applied to the ‘Ceebot’ animated 3D learning environment. Video analysis with workplace observation allowed detailed inspection of problem solving and tacit behaviours. Questionnaires and knowledge tests provided broad sample coverage with insights into subject understanding and overall response to the learning environment. Although relatively low scores in programming tests seemingly contradicted the perception that Ceebot had enhanced understanding of programming, this perception was nevertheless found to be correlated with greater test performance. Video analysis corroborated findings that the learning environment and Ceebot animations were engaging and encouraged constructive collaborative behaviours. Ethnographic observations clearly captured Ceebot’s value in providing visual cues for problem-solving discussions and for progress through sharing discoveries. Notably, performance in tests was most highly correlated with greater programming practice (p50.01). It was apparent that although students had appropriated technology for collaborative working and benefitted from visual and tacit cues provided by Ceebot, they had not necessarily deeply learned the lessons intended. The key value of the ‘mixed-methods’ approach was that ethnographic observations captured the authenticity of learning behaviours, and thereby strengthened confidence in the interpretation of questionnaire and test findings. of programming, this perception was nevertheless found to be correlated with greater test performance. Video analysis corroborated findings that the learning environment and Ceebot animations were engaging and encouraged constructive collaborative behaviours. Ethnographic observations clearly captured Ceebot’s value in providing visual cues for problem-solving discussions and for progress through sharing discoveries. Notably, performance in tests was most highly correlated with greater programming practice (p50.01). It was apparent that although students had appropriated technology for collaborative working and benefitted from visual and tacit cues provided by Ceebot, they had not necessarily deeply learned the lessons intended. The key value of the ‘mixed-methods’ approach was that ethnographic observations captured the authenticity of learning behaviours, and thereby strengthened confidence in the interpretation of questionnaire and test findings

Enabling Outcomes for Students with Developmental Disabilities through Collaborative Consultation

Collaborative consultation has been widely adopted in school-based occupational therapy practice; however, limited research has examined how collaboration between educators and occupational therapists contributes to students’ outcomes. The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of collaborative working in two cases of school-based occupational therapy service delivery. This paper reports a cross-case analysis, comparing findings about the nature of a joint effort in each case study to identify workplace practices that facilitated educator-occupational therapist collaboration. Ethnographic case study methods (Stake, 1995; Wolcott, 2008) and socio-cultural activity theory (SCAT; Engeström, 2001) were used to examine multiple perspectives concerning school-based occupational therapy collaborative consultation for two students with developmental disability in one region of Ontario, Canada. Cross-case analysis (Stake, 2006) facilitated examination of the similarities and differences in teamwork. Specific ways that educator-occupational therapist collaboration can be facilitated were identified in three areas: (a) focus for educational programming; (b) communication practices; and (c) leadership practices of educators. SCAT provided a robust framework for describing the depth, quality, and context of interactions from multiple stakeholder perspectives. As such, this research contributes to the development of theoretical and empirical perspectives on the processes of collaborative working and the relationship of these processes to outcomes

RadioSource.NET: Case-study of a Collaborative Land-Grant Internet Audio Project

RadioSource.NET (http://radiosource.net) is a Web-portal news site for land-grant university radio programming. The project is a collaborative venture among university communication departments with the following goals: to share resources; increase online distribution; and promote access to agricultural and natural and life science research. This article is a case study of RadioSource.NET. The evolution of the RadioSource.NET project is examined with emphasis on the process of establishing and maintaining online collaborative partnerships within academia. The project’s development is described and discussed, and Wheeler, Valacich, Alavi, and Vogel’s (1995) framework for technology-mediated interinstitutional relationships for collaborative learning is used to help organize information and evaluate the project’s effectiveness. RadioSource.NET project is an example of successful university collaboration in new media. By utilizing a flexible system design, RadioSource.NET capitalizes on collaborative strengths such as increased innovation and efficiency, and it is anticipated that the project model can serve as a useful resource for other online collaborative endeavors utilizing emerging technologies

Technology Adoption of Collaborative Robots for Welding in Small And Medium-sized Enterprises: A Case Study Analysis

Welding tasks in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are exemplary for high mix and low volume manufacturing. Today, 96 % of newly installed workplaces in SMEs are set up without a robot, although collaborative robot solutions for small lot sizes are emerging. In a study across the institutional ecosystem, technology providers, and technology adopters of the regional state Baden-Württemberg in Germany, SME technology adoption with respect to the use of collaborative robots was surveyed in form of expert interviews with feedback by direct users. The study helps SMEs to understand the necessary requirements and prerequisites for the design of collaborative work systems. As a result, the main barriers and potentials of the use of collaborative robots in welding in SMEs are presented, including ergonomic benefits to workers, the importance of skilled tradesmen in robot programming, and the lack of general robot knowledge across SMEs. Furthermore, the detailed analysis of two case studies gives insights into individual implementation processes at pioneering SMEs in this technological application field