Dynamics of private social networks

Social networks, have been a significant turning point in ways individuals and companies interact. Various research has also revolved around public social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. In most cases trying to understand what's happening in the network such predicting trends, and identifying natural phenomenon. Seeing the growth of public social networks several corporations have sought to build their own private networks to enable their staff to share knowledge, and expertise. Little research has been done in regards to the value private networks give to their stake holders. This is primarily due to the fact as their name implies, these networks are private, thus access to internal data is limited to a trusted few. This paper looks at a particular online private social network, and seeks to investigate the research possibilities made available, and how this can bring value to the organisation which runs the network. Notwithstanding the limitations of the network, this paper seeks to explore the connections graph between members of the network, as well as understanding the topics discussed within the network. The findings show that by visualising a social network one can assess the success or failure of their online networks. The Analysis conducted can also identify skill shortages within areas of the network, thus allowing corporations to take action and rectify any potential problems.peer-reviewe

Extracting Maximum Benefits from Web-Based Searching

With huge amounts of information connected to the Internet, efficient and effective discovery of resource and knowledge using the Internet has become an imminent research issue. A vast array of networks services is growing up around the Internet and massive amounts of information is added everyday. Users can now access massive amounts of information in various forms, thereby creating an equally massive problem. This rapid growth in data volume, user base, and data diversity render Internet-accessible information increasingly difficult to be used effectively. Therefore, search for a specific information on this massive and exploding Internet information resource base becomes highly critical. In this paper we discuss the issues involved in the application of machine learning techniques to the problem of Internet-based information overload. We present a general architecture and describe how it has been instantiated in a functional system we developed. The system attempts to concurrently maximize and optimize the resource/knowledge discovery, and custimize the information to individual users. We discuss the design issues involved in the attempt to develop an evolvable architecture which can easily and inexpensively accommodate future generations of web-based systems and technologies

Individualism versus collectivism in industrial relations

Over recent decades, the world economy has gone through radical changes in response to competitive pressures in globalising product and service markets. The removal of trade barriers has paved the way to a significant increase in international competitiveness, leading in turn to new employment relationships. There has been a proliferation of part-time work, temporary work, contract work and home working. Long, 'just-in-case' runs and inventories in the manufacturing sector are something of the past. And, as if this is not enough, breakthroughs in information technology have opened new horizons and ushered in new forms of employment relationships that are complex and diverse.peer-reviewe

Automatic parametrisation of beached microplastics

Four sandy beaches on the island of Malta were regularly sampled for Large MicroPlastic (LMP) particles having a diameter between 1mm and 5mm, at stations located at the waterline, and 10m inshore. The extracted LMPs were characterised (dimensions, surface roughness, colour) by microscopic analyses, as well as by a developed algorithm. Two-thirds of the isolated particles were smooth and the majority of these belonged to the grey -white colour category suggesting that these were preproduction pellets. Roughly six times as many particles were recorded within the inshore sampling stations as the particles recorded at the waterline stations. The automated image processing algorithm performed well when the dimension and colour parameter values it delivered were compared with those obtained by microscopic analyses.peer-reviewe

The Prediction of Consumer Installment Credit Risk: A Criterion Refinement

Data were obtained from 186 applicants at a large Midwestern bank to test the hypothesized advantage of employing a continuous as opposed to a dichotomous criterion when predicting consumer installment credit risk. A continuous criterion of cost was derived and regressed on 21 background items obtained from the application blank (e.g., number of dependents, total monthly income, present indebtedness, etc.). The maximum step of the regression analysis yielded a multiple squared correlation coefficient of .24. This data was then subjected to multiple discriminant analysis employing a median split criterion which yielded an eta squared correlation coefficient of .13. As can be inferred from these results, a greater degree of predictive accuracy may be attained when predicting the continuous variable of risk. Further indicative of the hypothesized advantage of employing a continuous opposed to a dichotomized criterion were the results of the bivariate correlational analyses. Nine background items correlated significantly with the continuous criterion while only five correlated significantly with the dichotomized criterion

Mechanistic and Substrate Specificity Studies on \u3cem\u3eBurkholderia mallei\u3c/em\u3e Quorum Sensing Signal Synthesis Enzyme

Gram-negative bacteria use acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) based quorum sensing (QS) to regulate the expression of genes that give the bacteria a selective advantage over host defenses and antibiotic treatment. Burkholderia mallei is an antibiotic resistant pathogen that causes Glanders disease. B. mallei BmaI1 AHL-synthase uses octanoyl-Acyl Carrier Protein (C8ACP) and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) to synthesize the AHL, octanoyl-homoserine lactone (C8HSL). Inhibiting AHL-synthases has been difficult because mechanistic and substrate specificity details for these enzymes are not well understood. Our goal was to determine how BmaI1 activity and enzymatic mechanism changes with nonspecific, variable acyl chain acyl-ACP substrates. We found that catalytic efficiency of nonspecific acyl-ACP substrates are drastically low compared to the native C8ACP substrate, in-line with tight signal specificity observed in vivo. In addition, substrates with lower catalytic efficiency also showed kinetic cooperativity while reacting with BmaI1. Our results suggest that substrates add by a preferred order, random sequential mechanism to BmaI1. Alternatively, BmaI1 could exist in two forms, where nonspecific substrates bind to less active enzyme form that leads to formation of an unproductive E.acyl-ACP complex. Apparently, only the native acyl-ACP substrate forms both a stable and productive E.acyl-ACP complex thus providing a molecular basis for substrate discrimination in QS signal synthesis in B. mallei

La co-costruzione di dispositivi valutativi attraverso la piattaforma PRO.VA. Analisi dei quesiti e dei criteri valutativi per la predisposizione di help-formativi

Il presente contributo ha lo scopo di esaminare e perfezionare i modelli che sono offerti dal portale per guidare i docenti nella realizzazione delle prove di valutazione. Per costruire e sviluppare le prove è possibile infatti scegliere tra diversi formati di natura “oggettiva” e 2 modelli di scale “criteriali”: di questi formati e modelli è stato predisposto un help on-line che presenta le caratteristiche principali, le linee guida per una corretta scrittura e degli esempi di ogni specifica tipologia di quesito. La piattaforma è stata utilizzata in due cicli di TFA (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo) della Sapienza, nell’a.a. 2013-2014 e 2014-2015, e quelle esperienze sono state l’occasione per ragionare sull’help on-line e pensare ad un arricchimento, considerata la rilevanza di questo strumento per promuovere un uso funzionale, didattico e misurativo dei formati stessi. Il campione di ricerca è composto da circa 300 corsisti TFA della Sapienza dell’a.a. 2014-2015, suddivisi in tre grandi gruppi (Scienze e Matematica, Lingue e Storia dell’arte, Lettere). Sono stati esaminati circa 70 dispositivi valutativi messi a punto dai diversi gruppi attraverso la piattaforma PRO.V.A. I quesiti sono stati esaminati considerando la correttezza nella scrittura e valutando i criteri elaborati per l’attribuzione di punteggio e la ponderazione dei risultati. L’analisi dei quesiti (“oggettivi” e “criteriali”) ha portato a identificare tipologie e item di originalità da utilizzare per l’arricchimento dell’help onlin

Impacting Networked Technologies on Teaching Practices

[EN] Networked technologies are found permeating all work and life activities even in the education realm. Today’s networked technologies are changing the way we interact within the online environment and amongst themselves. Networked technologies have unleashed a plethora of possibilities for educators to take advantage of by employing them as part of their teaching practices. In this paper are presented findings related to how academics are experiencing networked technologies for teaching and their relation to learning. A phenomenographic approach and subsequently a quantitative stance was employed to shed light on the nature and the current dynamic of such practices. This paper recounts the phenomenographic outcome, but it particularly attends to subsequent quantitative findings obtained from consideration of learning experiences against the phenomenographic map of variation in teaching experiences whereby an unexpected clustering trend was exposed. The outcomes of this exploratory research provide crucial and essential insights for higher education administrators and policy makers on how to regulate themselves with regards to the adoption of networked technologies within their institution.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Cutajar, M.; Montebello, M. (2018). Impacting Networked Technologies on Teaching Practices. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 697-705. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8066OCS69770

Let me learn in-service training : a teacher’s experience

This paper zooms in on the story of a classroom teacher who participated in the Let Me Learn professional staff development programme. It aims to illustrate how the LML process served as a “liberating experience” for the young teacher and, in particular, for one of her pupils. Through the voice of the teacher, as expressed in her professional journal, this paper portrays the growth experienced by this teacher in terms of her intentionality in the choice of appropriate strategies of success. The paper will show how through the adoption of LML, this teacher has sharpened her skill in analyzing tasks and students’ needs and demands through a metacognitive reflective process and through applying personalized responsive strategies. The student improved conception of the learning environment, and motivation to behave better and perform in academic tasks was also noted.peer-reviewe

Searching the WWW with XML

Searching and retrieving the right information from the World-Wide Web (WWW) has always been considered of foremost importance and of considerable A.I. intensivity. Internet search technologies have been evolving over the years and will continue to do so as the WWW will continue to expand in size and increase in popularity. In a desperate attempt to restore order to the WWW after the chaos that has developed due to its heterogeneous, unstructured and uncensored nature, the eXtended Markup Language (XML) is being heralded as the successor to HTML. In this paper we investigate the evolution of Internet search technologies and present a possible and viable solution in a functional system we developed and which makes use of XML at its very core. We discuss the design issues involved as well as practical issues such as tendencies and tactics employed by some of the major players in this well-sought area