Capturing high-level requirements of information dashboards' components through meta-modeling

[EN]Information dashboards are increasing their sophistication to match new necessities and adapt to the high quantities of generated data nowadays.These tools support visual analysis, knowledge generation, and thus, are crucial systems to assist decision-making processes.However, the design and development processes are complex, because several perspectives and components can be involved.Tailoringcapabilities are focused on providing individualized dashboards without affecting the time-to-market through the decrease of the development processes' time. Among the methods used to configure these tools, the software product lines paradigm and model-driven development can be found. These paradigms benefit from the study of the target domain and the abstraction of features, obtaining high-level models that can be instantiated into concrete models. This paper presents a dashboard meta-model that aims to be applicable to any dashboard. Through domain engineering, different features of these tools are identified and arranged into abstract structuresand relationships to gain a better understanding of the domain. The goal of the meta-model is to obtain a framework for instantiating any dashboard to adapt them to different contexts and user profiles.One of the contexts in which dashboards are gaining relevance is Learning Analytics, as learning dashboards are powerful tools for assisting teachers and students in their learning activities.To illustrate the instantiation process of the presented meta-model, a small example within this relevant context (Learning Analytics) is also provided

Formal Concept Analysis for Modelling Students in a Technology-enhanced Learning Setting

Abstract. We suggest the Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) as theoretical backbone in technology-enhanced learning settings to support a students´ learning process in two ways: i) by engaging with concept lattices, the structure of the knowledge domain and the interrelations of its concepts become explicit, and ii) by providing visual feedback in form of open learner modelling, the student´s reflection on the own strengths and weaknesses is facilitated. For teachers, the FCA provides intuitive visualizations for a set of pedagogically relevant questions, concerning the performance of students on the individual-as well as on the class-level

The Dynamic Assessment and Referral System for Substance Abuse (DARSSA): development, functionality, and end-user satisfaction

The Dynamic Assessment and Referral System for Substance Abuse (DARSSA) conducts a computerized substance abuse assessment; prints personalized summary reports that include tailored substance abuse treatment referral lists; and, for individuals who provide authorization, automatically faxes their contact information to a best match substance abuse treatment provider (dynamic referral). After piloting the program and resolving problems that were noted, we enrolled a sample of 85 medical patients. The DARSSA identified 48 (56%) participants who were risky substance users, many of whom had not been identified during their routine medical assessment. Mean satisfaction scores for all domains ranged between Good to Excellent across patients, nurses, doctors, and substance abuse treatment providers. The median completion time was 13min. Of the 48 risky substance using participants, 20 (42%) chose to receive a dynamic referral. The DARSSA provides a user-friendly, desirable service for patients and providers. It has the potential to improve identification of substance abuse in medical settings and to provide referrals that would not routinely be provided. Future studies are planned to establish its efficacy at promoting treatment initiation and abstinence

Effects of the R-parity violation in the minimal supersymmetric standard model on dilepton pair production at the CERN LHC

We investigate in detail the effects of the R-parity lepton number violation in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) on the parent process $pp \to e^+ e^- + X$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The numerical comparisons between the contributions of the R-parity violating effects to the parent process via the Drell-Yan subprocess and the gluon-gluon fusion are made. We find that the R-violating effects on $e^+ e^-$ pair production at the LHC could be significant. The results show that the cross section of the $e^+ e^-$ pair productions via gluon-gluon collision at the LHC can be of the order of $10^2$ fb, and this subprocess maybe competitive with the production mechanism via the Drell-Yan subprocess. We give also quantitatively the analysis of the effects from both the mass of sneutrino and coupling strength of the R-parity violating interactions.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

User-driven Development of an Inquiry-Based Learning Platform: Qualitative Formative Evaluations in weSPOT

This paper describes the formative evaluation activities that were designed and implemented during the development of the weSPOT1 inquiry based learning platform. With the ambition to provide a platform that supports a broad range of inquiry activities in accordance with end-users needs, an agile software development approach was followed as a process of co-design between practitioners, researchers and developers. The paper focuses on the design of end-user centric evaluation activities for fully exploiting the potential of agile development. A detailed overview of several case studies is presented to demonstrate how implementing a continuous evaluation cycle allowed to pinpoint and help resolve arising issues in a process of collaboration between technology development and pedagogy

A framework for cognitive bias detection and feedback in a visual analytics environment

This paper presents a framework that supports the detection and mitigation of cognitive biases in visual analytics environments for criminal analysis. Criminal analysts often use visual analytics environments for their analysis of large data sets, for gaining insights on criminal events and patterns of criminal events, and for drawing conclusions and making decisions. However, due to the nature of human cognition, these cognitive processes may lead to systematic errors, so-called cognitive biases. The most prominent and relevant cognitive bias in the intelligence field is the confirmation bias, in which an analyst disproportionally considers and selects information that supports the initial expectation and hypothesis. The framework presented in this paper describes a model, how the possible occurence of the confirmation bias can be detected automatically, while the analyst makes use of the visual environment. Moreover, based on this information, different feedback methods are employed that support and encourage the mitigation of the confirmation bias. This framework is in a work-in-progress state and contains research objectives and directions, the framework design, initial implementations, plans for further development and integration, as well as user-centric evaluation.status: publishe

The Computer-Assisted Brief Intervention for Tobacco (CABIT) program: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: Health care providers do not routinely carry out brief counseling for tobacco cessation despite the evidence for its effectiveness. For this intervention to be routinely used, it must be brief, be convenient, require little investment of resources, require little specialized training, and be perceived as efficacious by providers. Technological advances hold much potential for addressing the barriers preventing the integration of brief interventions for tobacco cessation into the health care setting. OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the development and initial evaluation of the Computer-Assisted Brief Intervention for Tobacco (CABIT) program, a web-based, multimedia tobacco intervention for use in opportunistic settings. METHODS: The CABIT uses a self-administered, computerized assessment to produce personalized health care provider and patient reports, and cue a stage-matched video intervention. Respondents interested in changing their tobacco use are offered a faxed referral to a best matched tobacco treatment provider (ie, dynamic referral). During 2008, the CABIT program was evaluated in an emergency department, an employee assistance program, and a tobacco dependence program in New Jersey. Participants and health care providers completed semistructured interviews and satisfaction ratings of the assessment, reports, video intervention, and referrals using a 5-point scale. RESULTS: Mean patient satisfaction scores (n = 67) for all domains ranged from 4.00 (Good) to 5.00 (Excellent; Mean = 4.48). Health care providers completed satisfaction forms for 39 patients. Of these 39 patients, 34 (87%) received tobacco resources and referrals they would not have received under standard care. Of the 45 participants offered a dynamic referral, 28 (62%) accepted. CONCLUSIONS: The CABIT program provided a user-friendly, desirable service for tobacco users and their health care providers. Further development and clinical trial testing is warranted to establish its effectiveness in promoting treatment engagement and tobacco cessation

Modulation of the refractive properties of 1D and 2D photonic crystal polycrystalline silicon-based membranes in the MIR frequency range

International audienc

The effect of different knitted fabrics’ structures on the moisture transport properties

In this study, fabrics with different plain, tuck and float stitch combinations in three different tightness levels as tight, medium and loose are produced from combed ring spun cotton yarn. It is aimed at determining the effect of fabric structure on liquid absorption, transport and permeability properties, which are important factors in the people's perception of wear comfort. The air permeability, wicking ability and moisture management measurements of the produced fabrics are made. It is determined that the increase in the fabric tightness decreases the air permeability and increases the wicking ability especially in 60min measurements. The fabric tightness has also different effects on different knitting types in terms of moisture management properties. It is observed that structures with float stitches show high wicking ability and moisture management properties in terms of plain, tuck and float stitches combinations