The afterlife of 'living deliverables': angels or zombies?

Within the STELLAR project, we provide the possibility to use living documents for the collaborative writing work on deliverables. Compared to 'normal' deliverables, 'living' deliverables come into existence much earlier than their delivery deadline and are expected to 'live on' after their official delivery to the European Commission. They are expected to foster collaboration. Within this contribution we investigate, how these deliverables have been used over the first 16 months of the project. We therefore propose a set of new analysis methods facilitating social network analysis on publicly available revision history data. With this instrumentarium, we critically look at whether the living deliverables have been successfully used for collaboration and whether their 'afterlife' beyond the contractual deadline had turned them into 'zombies' (still visible, but no or little live editing activities). The results show that the observed deliverables show signs of life, but often in connection with a topical change and in conjunction with changes in the pattern of collaboration

Comparing automatically detected reflective texts with human judgements

This paper reports on the descriptive results of an experiment comparing automatically detected reflective and not-reflective texts against human judgements. Based on the theory of reflective writing assessment and their operationalisation five elements of reflection were defined. For each element of reflection a set of indicators was developed, which automatically annotate texts regarding reflection based on the parameterisation with authoritative texts. Using a large blog corpus 149 texts were retrieved, which were either annotated as reflective or notreflective. An online survey was then used to gather human judgements for these texts. These two data sets were used to compare the quality of the reflection detection algorithm with human judgments. The analysis indicates the expected difference between reflective and not reflective texts

Applicability of the technology acceptance model for widget-based personal learning environments

This contribution presents results from two exploratory studies on technology acceptance and use of widget-based personal learning environments. Methodologically, the investigation carried out applies the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). With the help of this instrument, the study assesses expert judgments about intentions to use and actual use of the emerging technology of flexibly arranged combinations of use-case-sized mini learning tools. This study aims to explore the applicability of the UTAUT model and questionnaire for widget-based personal learning environments and reports back on the experiences gained with the two studies

Reflection - quantifying a rare good

Based on a literature review, reflections in written text are rare. The reported proportions of reflection are based on different baselines, making comparisons difficult. In contrast, this research reports on the proportion of occurrences of elements of reflection based on sentence level. This metric allows to compare proportions of elements of reflection. Previous studies are based on courses tailored to foster reflection. The reported proportions represent more the success of a specific instruction than informing about proportions of reflections occurring in student writings in general. This study is based on a large sample of course forum posts of a virtual learning environment. In total 1000 sentences were randomly selected and manually classified according to six elements of reflection. Five raters rated each sentence. Agreement was calculated based on a majority vote. The proportions of elements of reflection are reported and its potential application for course analytics demonstrated. The results indicate that reflections in text are indeed rare, and that there are differences within elements of reflection

Managing Flow, Sediment And Hydropower In The Mekong River Basin

The Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia is one of the world's most productive and diverse ecosystems. Originating from the Tibetan Plateau, for much of its history the river flowed freely, draining parts of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam on its way to the South China Sea. Currently, dams are being constructed at a rapid pace in China on the upper portion of the river, and on the river's tributaries throughout the basin, with plans to build dams on the lower mainstream Mekong River as well. These dams could trap a significant fraction of the 160 million metric tons of sediment annually transported by the river, thereby preventing the sediment from maintaining the basin's geomorphologic features, and from transporting the nutrients that support ecosystem productivity. This dissertation describes the development of a methodology to (1) identify reservoirs that could significantly alter the natural sediment regime, (2) assess alternative dam siting, design and operating policies that could improve sediment passage compared to current plans, and (3) quantify the losses in hydropower production that may be necessary to achieve improved sediment passage. To permit such evaluations, a sediment simulation model, SedSim, was developed in partnership with various water resources and energy ministries in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The model implements a daily time-step mass-balance simulation of flow and sediment to predict the spatial and temporal accumulation, depletion, and distribution of sediment in river reaches and in reservoirs under different flow and sediment management policies. This methodology is applied to dams on the transboundary Sre Pok, Se San and Se Kong tributaries of the Mekong, as well as on the mainstream Mekong River. Results from applying this methodology suggest that various changes to the siting, design and operating policies of reservoirs can significantly improve sediment passage through and around reservoirs, but that in many cases, significant sacrifices in energy production will be required to achieve the improved sediment passage

Um novo método para simular o estado hidrológico do solo em condições naturais

Micro, macro and mesofauna in the soil often respond to fluctuating environmental conditions, resulting in changes of abundance and community structure. Effects of changing soil parameters are normally determined with samples taken in the field and brought to the laboratory, i.e. where natural environmental conditions may not apply. We devised a method (STAFD – soil tubes for artificial flood and drought), which simulates the hydrological state of soil in situ using implanted cores. Control tubes were compared with treatment tubes in which floods of 15, 30, 60 and 90 days, and droughts of 60, 90 and 120 days were simulated in the field. Flooding and drought were found to reduce number of individuals in all soil faunal groups, but the response to drought was slower and not in proportion to the expected decrease of the water content. The results of the simulated floods in particular show the value of the STAFD method for the investigation of such extreme events in natural habitats.As micro, macro e mesofaunas no solo respondem frequentemente à variação das condições ambientais, o que resulta em alterações na abundância e na estrutura da comunidade. Os efeitos das alterações nos parâmetros do solo são normalmente determinados com amostras recolhidas no campo e trazidas ao laboratório, ou seja, onde as condições ambientais naturais podem não ser aplicáveis. Criamos um método (STAFD – tubos de amostra de solo para inundações e secas artificiais), que simula o estado hidrológico do solo in situ com núcleos implantados. As amostras de controle foram comparadas com amostras de tratamentos em que foram simuladas inundações de 15, 30, 60 e 90 dias e secas de 60, 90 e 120 dias no campo. Verificou-se que as inundações e a seca reduziram a quantidade de individuos em todos os grupos de fauna de solo, mas a resposta à seca foi mais lenta e não proporcional à redução prevista no teor de água. Os resultados das inundações simuladas demonstram, em especial, o valor do método STAFD para a investigação desse tipo de eventos extremos nos habitats naturais