Web 2.0 in Higher Education in the Netherlands

This chapter outlines the current position and prospects of Web 2.0 in the Netherlands’ Higher Education. After a brief description of the national conditions for Web 2.0 services, the chapter zooms in to the Dutch Higher Education area and the agencies for driving its innovation. A topical evaluation of Web 2.0 in Higher Education is based on a quick scan amongst higher education representatives that was carried out on behalf of this survey. In conclusion, a brief description of topical Web 2.0 cases will be given

Phylogenomics and Population History of Cichlid and Live-bearing Fish Species in Lowland Neotropical Rivers

Within Middle America, cichlids and poeciliids account for more than half of the fish biodiversity. This richness in fish fauna highlights the complexity of Middle American biogeography: no other continental area on earth contains within its range the unparalleled abundance of secondary freshwater fish species (fish that can tolerate both saltwater and freshwater). Research into the biogeography of widely distributed Middle American freshwater fish is essential to understanding this unique region. Three species of freshwater fishes (Belonesox belizanus – Pike killifish, Vieja maculicauda – Black belt cichlid, and Gambusia nicaraguensis – Nicaraguan mosquitofish) are widely distributed across rivers on the Caribbean slope of Central America (Matamoros et al., 2014). Belonesox belizanus and G. nicaraguensis are poecilids (live-bearing fish), while V. maculicauda is a cichlid (a diverse family of fishes primarily found in Africa, South America, and Central America). The overlapping distributions of these species allow for a comparative population genomics approach to understand their biogeographic history and evolution. Past research used individual loci to assess general phylogeographic patterns with little structure detected within each species; however, these data lacked power to properly test hypotheses of population subdivision, gene flow, and recent expansion. Greater genomic coverage and an increase in sample sizes (geographic coverage and number of individuals) are essential for the objective of this proposed research: to test hypotheses of biogeographic and evolutionary patterns of these three species across their Middle American distribution. Our results using the mitochondrial COI gene suggest four clades of G. nicaraguensis, while more comprehensive sampling using genomic data supports only three populations. Two populations were recovered for both B. belizanus and V. maculicauda using genomic data. Divergence among populations was associated with geographic breaks for the two poeciliids although the location of the geographic breaks differed between species. The two populations detected for V. maculicauda were highly divergent genetically but sympatric. This study gives insight into the historical biogeography of the region, showing that population structure is complex and varies across widespread species

Witnessing the Web: The Rhetoric of American E-Vangelism and Persuasion Online

From the distribution of religious tracts at Ellis Island and Billy Sunday’s radio messages to televised recordings of the Billy Graham Crusade and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, American evangelicals have long made a practice of utilizing mass media to spread the Gospel. Most recently, these Christian evangelists have gone online. As a contribution to scholarship in religious rhetoric and media studies, this dissertation offers evangelistic websites as a case study into the ways persuasion is carried out on the Internet. Through an analysis of digital texts—including several evangelical home pages, a chat room, discussion forums, and a virtual church—I investigate how conversion is encouraged via web design and virtual community as well as how the Internet medium impacts the theology and rhetorical strategies of web evangelists. I argue for “persuasive architecture” and “persuasive communities”—web design on the fundamental level of interface layout and tightly-controlled restrictions on discourse and community membership—as key components of this strategy. In addition, I argue that evangelical ideology has been influenced by the web medium and that a “digital reformation” is taking place in the church, one centered on a move away from the Prosperity Gospel of televangelism to a Gospel focused on God as divine problem-solver and salvation as an uncomplicated, individualized, and instantaneously-rewarding experience, mimicking Web 2.0 users’ desire for quick, timely, and effective answers to all queries. This study simultaneously illuminates the structural and fundamental levels of design through which the web persuades as well as how—as rhetoricians from Plato’s King Thamus to Marshall McLuhan have recognized—media inevitably shapes the message and culture of its users

Web collaboration for software engineering

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Knowledge Solutions: Tools, Methods, and Approaches to Drive Development Forward and Enhance Its Effects

[Excerpt] Today, sustainable competitive advantage derives from strenuous efforts to identify, cultivate, and exploit an organization’s core competencies. This calls for relentless design of strategic architecture, deployment of competence carriers, and commitment to collaborate across silos. Put simply, core competencies are the product of collective learning: their tangible fruits are composite packages of products and services that anticipate and meet demand. Knowledge is what you learn from experience before, during, and after the event. Since it is both a thing and a flow, the best way to manage knowledge is to cater at all times to the environment in which it can be identified, created, stored, shared, and used. Tools, methods, and approaches are needed to enable that. And so, to drive development forward and enhance its effects, the Asian Development Bank has, since 2008, published the Knowledge Solutions series, available at www.adb.org/knowledgesolutions. It aims to build competencies in the areas of strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge sharing and learning, and knowledge capture and storage—all of which are essential to high-performance organizations

NASA Tech Briefs, July 2001

Topics include: special coverage sections on Data Acquisition, and sections on electronic components and systems, software, mechanics, machinery/automation, biomedical and a special section of Photonics Tech Briefs