Available approaches to heuristic evaluation of smart-phone applications

Abstract. Usability heuristics are a lightweight tool for finding usability problems in a piece of software. These heuristics can be used for any kind of software, from desktop applications to web sites to games and to smart-phone applications. With the rise of smart phones and applications developed for them there has been a need to update the approach of heuristic evaluation to consider the limitations and new possibilities brought by smart-phone applications, when compared to more traditional desk-top applications. In this bachelor’s thesis different these issues are discussed, and along this several lists of usability heuristics were identified and listed. In addition to listing out the current research on smart-phone application heuristics, these lists were compared against the issues that are specific to smart-phone applications. Research questions in this thesis are as follows: RQ1: What guidelines / usability heuristics can be found that specifically target mobile device user interfaces? RQ2: How do these heuristic lists consider the difficulties faced by smart-phone applications

Videopelien ja pelillistämisen vaikutukset opetukseen ja opiskelumotivaatioon

Tiivistelmä. Videopelien pelaaminen vapaa-ajalla on lisääntynyt vuosien aikana, erityisesti lasten ja nuorten keskuudessa. Monet kuitenkin paheksuvat sitä määrää mitä pelien pelaamiseen käytetään, vaikka pelit voivatkin sisältää monia tapoja, joilla lapset ja nuoret voivat oppia asioita viihdyttävällä tavalla. Mutta onko videopelejä mahdollista hyödyntää myös kouluopetuksessa? Tämän tutkielman tarkoitus oli kirjallisuuskatsauksen kautta tutkia, miten opetuspelien ja pelillistämisen käyttö opetustarkoituksessa vaikuttaa opetukseen sekä opiskelijoiden opiskelumotivaatioon. Tutkielmaa varten käytetty aineisto koostuu aiemmin tästä aiheesta tehdyistä alan tutkimuksista. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen tuloksena huomataan, että suuri osa aiempien tutkimusten tuloksista osoittaa myönteistä suhtautumista pelien ja pelillistämisen opetuskäyttöön. Tutkimusten tulokset viittaavat myös siihen, että pelien ja pelielementtien hyödyntäminen johtaa usein opiskelumotivaation ja keskittymiskyvyn paranemiseen opiskelijoiden keskuudessa. Muutamat tutkimukset kuitenkin osoittivat, että jotkut saattavat kokea pelillistämisen tuomat muutokset epämotivoiviksi. Tutkielman lopussa nostetaan esille vielä joitakin kirjallisuuskatsauksesta esiintyneitä huomioita sekä esitetään jatkotutkimusideoita aiheesta

Diffraction and Total Cross-Section at the Tevatron and the LHC

At the Tevatron, the total p_bar-p cross-section has been measured by CDF at 546 GeV and 1.8 TeV, and by E710/E811 at 1.8 TeV. The two results at 1.8 TeV disagree by 2.6 standard deviations, introducing big uncertainties into extrapolations to higher energies. At the LHC, the TOTEM collaboration is preparing to resolve the ambiguity by measuring the total p-p cross-section with a precision of about 1 %. Like at the Tevatron experiments, the luminosity-independent method based on the Optical Theorem will be used. The Tevatron experiments have also performed a vast range of studies about soft and hard diffractive events, partly with antiproton tagging by Roman Pots, partly with rapidity gap tagging. At the LHC, the combined CMS/TOTEM experiments will carry out their diffractive programme with an unprecedented rapidity coverage and Roman Pot spectrometers on both sides of the interaction point. The physics menu comprises detailed studies of soft diffractive differential cross-sections, diffractive structure functions, rapidity gap survival and exclusive central production by Double Pomeron Exchange.Peer reviewe

A model of management academics' intentions to influence values

Business schools face increased criticism for failing in the teaching of management studies to nurture their students’ values. Assuming that individual academics play an important role in shaping the value-related influence of business schools, I model management academics’ intentions to influence values. The suggested model encompasses academics’ economic and social values as internal variables, as well as perceived support for attempting to influence values and academic tenure as social and structural variables. A test with empirical data from 1,254 management academics worldwide reveals that perceived external support is most relevant for explaining intentions. Moreover, academics’ social values, but not their economic ones, contribute to an explanation of their intentions to influence values. The results reveal how important it is for academics to believe that their colleagues, higher education institutions, and other stakeholders support their value-related behavioral intentions

Exploring the relationship between media coverage and participation in entrepreneurship : initial global evidence and research implications

Using a set of variables measured in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, our empirical investigation explored the influence of mass media through national culture on national entrepreneurial participation rates in 37 countries over 4 years (2000 to 2003). We found that stories about successful entrepreneurs, conveyed in mass media, were not significantly associated with the rate of nascent (opportunity searching) or the rate of actual (business activities commenced up to 3 months old) start-up activity, but that there was a significant positive association between the volume of entrepreneurship media stories and a nation&rsquo;s volume of people running a young business (that is in GEM terminology, a business aged greater than 3 but less than 42 months old). More particularly, such stories had strong positive association with opportunity oriented operators of young businesses. Together, these findings are compatible with what in the mass communications theory literature may be called the &lsquo;reinforcement model&rsquo;. This argues that mass media are only capable of reinforcing their audience&rsquo;s existing values and choice propensities but are not capable of shaping or changing those values and choices. In the area covered by this paper, policy-makers are committing public resources to media campaigns of doubtful utility in the absence of an evidence base. A main implication drawn from this study is the need for further and more sophisticated investigation into the relationship between media coverage of entrepreneurship, national culture and the rates and nature of people&rsquo;s participation in the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.<br /

Soil Microbial Community Changes in Wooded Mountain Pastures due to Simulated Effects of Cattle Grazing

The effect of cattle activity on pastures can be subdivided into three categories of disturbances: herbage removal, dunging and trampling. The objective of this study was to assess separately or in combination the effect of these factors on the potential activities of soil microbial communities and to compare these effects with those of soil properties and plant composition or biomass. Controlled treatments simulating the three factors were applied in a fenced area including a light gradient (sunny and shady situation): (i) repeated mowing; (ii) trampling; (iii) fertilizing with a liquid mixture of dung and urine. In the third year of the experiment, community level physiological profiles (CLPP) (Biolog Ecoplates¿) were measured for each plots. Furthermore soil chemical properties (pH, total organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus), plant species composition and plant biomass were also assessed. Despite differences in plant communities and soil properties, the metabolic potential of the microbial community in the sunny and in the shady situations were similar. Effects of treatments on microbial communities were more pronounced in the sunny than in the shady situation. In both cases, repeated mowing was the first factor retained for explaining functional variations. In contrast, fertilizing was not a significant factor. The vegetation explained a high proportion of variation of the microbial community descriptors in the sunny situation, while no significant variation appeared under shady condition. The three components of cattle activities influenced differently the soil microbial communities and this depended on the light conditions within the wooded pasture. Cattle activities may also change spatially at a fine scale and short-term and induce changes in the microbial community structure. Thus, the shifting mosaic that has been described for the vegetation of pastures may also apply for below-ground microbial communities