A methodology for the design and evaluation of user interfaces for interactive information systems

The definition of proposed research addressing the development and validation of a methodology for the design and evaluation of user interfaces for interactive information systems is given. The major objectives of this research are: the development of a comprehensive, objective, and generalizable methodology for the design and evaluation of user interfaces for information systems; the development of equations and/or analytical models to characterize user behavior and the performance of a designed interface; the design of a prototype system for the development and administration of user interfaces; and the design and use of controlled experiments to support the research and test/validate the proposed methodology. The proposed design methodology views the user interface as a virtual machine composed of three layers: an interactive layer, a dialogue manager layer, and an application interface layer. A command language model of user system interactions is presented because of its inherent simplicity and structured approach based on interaction events. All interaction events have a common structure based on common generic elements necessary for a successful dialogue. It is shown that, using this model, various types of interfaces could be designed and implemented to accommodate various categories of users. The implementation methodology is discussed in terms of how to store and organize the information

Developing Teachers’ Expertise to Teach English Language: An Evaluative Study of Professional Development Programme at Taif University English Language Centre

Language teachers need opportunities to enhance and update their language teaching skills. Current researches in English language teaching methodologies have proved that teachers who stay up to date with latest teaching techniques are always efficient. They always need to be trained and aware of how they can continue being effective teachers and cope with relative challenges such as students’ low level of language proficiency, large number of students in class at a time and longer teaching hours. Hence the sole objective of the present research is to evaluate the effectiveness of Professional Development Program (PDP) of Taif University. Seeking for this objective, the researcher collected the data through a questionnaire from the participating teachers both males (50) and females (50). The survey was based on five principles drawn by Loucks-Horsley, et al. (2010).  The respondents acknowledged the utility and importance of continuous up gradation of their professional development and leadership skills. They also acknowledged that PDP provides learning opportunity for them. Furthermore they regarded PDP in line with the TU-ELC mission, goal, and objectives. However, they expressed constraints regarding experimentation of new instructional practices, continuous support and follow-up activities, and a research base similar to the ELC situation, community and context

Empirical Comparisons of Virtual Environment Displays

There are many different visual display devices used in virtual environment (VE) systems. These displays vary along many dimensions, such as resolution, field of view, level of immersion, quality of stereo, and so on. In general, no guidelines exist to choose an appropriate display for a particular VE application. Our goal in this work is to develop such guidelines on the basis of empirical results. We present two initial experiments comparing head-mounted displays with a workbench display and a foursided spatially immersive display. The results indicate that the physical characteristics of the displays, users' prior experiences, and even the order in which the displays are presented can have significant effects on performance

Adoption and impacts of zero tillage as a resource conserving technology in the irrigated plains of South Asia

Zero tillage / Rice / Wheat / Water conservation / India / Pakistan / Haryana / Punjab

Fungi - an Amalgam of Toxins and Antibiotics: a Mini- Review

Fungi are eukaryotes with many functions. Earlier, fungi were classified in the plant kingdom but were later classified as a separate kingdom due to their unique cell walls. Fungi are heterotrophs like animals and are more closely related to animals. The perception of fungi is inconspicuous due to their small sizes and their ability to grow symbiotically in plants, animals, other fungi, and parasites. Fungi are used for their nutrition, fermentation potential, and bactericidal potential. However, fungi are also toxic due to certain bioactive compounds known as mycotoxins. Candida and Aspergillus are invasive species that contribute to a high percentage of mycoses in oncological and haematological patients. The mortality rate due to invasive aspergillosis and candidiasis is high, at 4% and 2%, respectively. In the agriculture sector, a significant contributor to damage to crops globally is the invasion of filamentous fungi. Fungi invasion destroys over 125 million tons of wheat, rice, soybeans, potatoes, and maize annually. If prevented, 600 million people may be fed. Therefore, it is vital to consider the dual role of fungi, therapeutic, and pathogenic

Firm Size as Moderator to Non-Linear Leverage-Performance Relation: an Emerging Market Review

The purpose of this research was to investigate leverage-performance relation with moderating firm size in developing countries like Pakistan. Data were collected from 304 Pakistani non-financial firms for the period of 2005-2013. It is found that overall leverage-performance relation is negative for all types of firms. However,such losses are more prominent for small size firms. Results also show that the leverage-performance relation is nonlinear for medium and large size firms. However, these firms are not targeting optimal level and overleveraging that ultimately decrease their profits. So, financial managers of small size firms should avoid debt financing while for large and medium size firms, managers need to adjust their debt ratio to its optimal level

Adaptive Gaussian process emulators for efficient reliability analysis

This paper presents an approximation method for performing efficient reliability analysis with complex computer models. The computational cost of industrial-scale models can cause problems when performing sampling-based reliability analysis. This is due to the fact that the failure modes of the system typically occupy a small region of the performance space and thus require relatively large sample sizes to accurately estimate their characteristics. The sequential sampling method proposed in this article, combines Gaussian process-based optimisation and subset simulation. Gaussian process emulators construct a statistical approximation to the output of the original code, which is both affordable to use and has its own measure of predictive uncertainty. Subset simulation is used as an integral part of the algorithm to efficiently populate those regions of the surrogate which are likely to lead to the performance function exceeding a predefined critical threshold. The emulator itself is used to inform decisions about efficiently using the original code to augment its predictions. The iterative nature of the method ensures that an arbitrarily accurate approximation of the failure region is developed at a reasonable computational cost. The presented method is applied to an industrial model of a biodiesel filter