Blackboard Blogging & beyond

This Share contains videos and links to help you get up to speed with blogging using Blackboard, Blackboard blogs are nice safe places to start blogging and although they don't look cool, there alright ! Then check out tumblr, wordpress or blogger to start blogging on your own in public

Transforming Technical Services: Evolving Functions in Large Research University Libraries

Technical services functions in academic libraries have evolved in response to fiscal pressures and advances in technology. In this study the author investigates how technical services in large research university libraries are adapting to support the changing roles of academic libraries. The author conducted hour-long phone interviews in early 2014 with the representatives from nineteen out of the twenty-five university libraries in the Technical Services Directors Large Research Libraries Interest Group. This paper presents the results and discussion based on the interview data: use of the name, Technical Services; new and emerging functions of technical services; organizational structure of technical services units; change drivers that are affecting technical services now, and those that will soon; and challenges in managing technical services. Five models of a technical services organizational structure were developed from participants’ organizational charts and interview data. This research also highlights the skills needed among technical services personnel.UT Librarie

Impact of anaerobic digestion and centrifugation/decanting processes in bacterial communities fractions

The work upon which this paper is based on was co-financed by COGERSA, S.A.U. (Projects FUO-EM-138-15, FUO-139-16), IDEPA (Project IDE/2015/000245), Spanish MINECO (Project CTM2015-63864-R) and FEDER funds from European Union. Technical assistance from the Scientific-Technical Services of the University of Oviedo is gratefully acknowledged

Work Organisation and Innovation - Case Study: LHT, Germany

[Excerpt] Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT) provides aircraft-related technical services to a worldwide customer base comprising airlines, aircraft leasing companies, maintenance organisations, and operators of business and VIP aircrafts. Besides the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services that form the organisation’s core business, activities also include development and production activities, as well as logistics

A framework for deriving semantic web services

Web service-based development represents an emerging approach for the development of distributed information systems. Web services have been mainly applied by software practitioners as a means to modularize system functionality that can be offered across a network (e.g., intranet and/or the Internet). Although web services have been predominantly developed as a technical solution for integrating software systems, there is a more business-oriented aspect that developers and enterprises need to deal with in order to benefit from the full potential of web services in an electronic market. This ‘ignored’ aspect is the representation of the semantics underlying the services themselves as well as the ‘things’ that the services manage. Currently languages like the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) provide the syntactic means to describe web services, but lack in providing a semantic underpinning. In order to harvest all the benefits of web services technology, a framework has been developed for deriving business semantics from syntactic descriptions of web services. The benefits of such a framework are two-fold. Firstly, the framework provides a way to gradually construct domain ontologies from previously defined technical services. Secondly, the framework enables the migration of syntactically defined web services toward semantic web services. The study follows a design research approach which (1) identifies the problem area and its relevance from an industrial case study and previous research, (2) develops the framework as a design artifact and (3) evaluates the application of the framework through a relevant scenario

Technical guidance and analytic services in support of SEASAT-A

The design of a high resolution radar for altimetry and ocean wave height estimation was studied. From basic principles, it is shown that a short pulse wide beam radar is the most appropriate and recommended technique for measuring both altitude and ocean wave height. To achieve a topographic resolution of + or - 10 cm RMS at 5.0 meter RMS wave heights, as required for SEASAT-A, it is recommended that the altimeter design include an onboard adaptive processor. The resulting design, which assumes a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) processor, is shown to satisfy all performance requirements. A design summary is given for the recommended radar altimeter, which includes a full deramp STRETCH pulse compression technique followed by an analog filter bank to separate range returns as well as the assumed MLE processor. The feedback loop implementation of the MLE on a digital computer was examined in detail, and computer size, estimation accuracies, and bias due to range sidelobes are given for the MLE with typical SEASAT-A parameters. The standard deviation of the altitude estimate was developed and evaluated for several adaptive and nonadaptive split-gate trackers. Split-gate tracker biases due to range sidelobes and transmitter noise are examined. An approximate closed form solution for the altimeter power return is derived and evaluated. The feasibility of utilizing the basic radar altimeter design for the measurement of ocean wave spectra was examined

We'll stay in touch: Intuitive communication means for social connectedness

One of the dominant aspects in people’s well-being is social connectedness. Social connectedness refers to the subjective awareness of being in close interpersonal, meaningful, and positive social relationships and social contexts (Tilburg et al., 1998; Perlman & Paplau 1981). In our research project we studied whether new services and high-tech products can help to increase connectedness between families (i.e. small community). A multidisciplinary approach is adopted in which technical and Human Factors knowledge are combined. The technology approach is strongly based on rapid prototyping, extending, reusing, and integrating existing devices and services in a novel, innovative way. Human Factors knowledge aims at user-centred design and evaluation of a.o. user experiences.\ud When people are forced to leave their home environment for a period of time, the lack of social connectedness might become predominant. This might lead to feelings of loneliness and have a negative effect on wellbeing. The focus in this project is on spinal cord lesion patients in a rehabilitation clinic, and their family members at home. Spinal cord lesion patients have to stay in the rehabilitation clinic up to one year after their accident or illness.\ud The project consists of three phases:\ud 1. Inventory of technology possibilities and restrictions, and user requirements;\ud 2. Technical probe study; one technical device is tested\ud 3. Pilot study; an integrated combination of technological devices and services is teste

U.S. Trade in Information-Intensive Services

Trade in services has increased significantly and the United States has been a leader in services trade. The U.S. not only accounts for the largest share of world trade in private services but also runs a substantial amount of surplus in services trade. One important trend has been the rapid growth of U.S. trade in information-intensive services. This paper examines the growth and patterns in U.S. exports and imports of various information-intensive services. The analysis indicates that trade in business, professional, and technical services; financial services; and insurance has experienced the most rapid growth in recent times. This paper further discusses some of the intuitively plausible explanations for the growth of trade in information-intensive services.

THE TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The technical management of ICT/Telemedicine Services is one Hospital Manager's crucial problem. The Biomedical Technologies Market has clearly shown that technical support to the user is one of the most critical issues that contribute to guarantee the quality of service in High-Tech applications. Therefore the ICT/Telemedicine Services, which belong to the high innovation area as well, require adequate competencies and human resources in order to provide users with a proper technical support. All these technologies require on the one hand a specialist who normally works remotely (II level support) and on the other hand an ordinary management activity (I level technical support) in order to avoid that medical staff stop their work in the operative env

Comparing technical efficiency of organic and conventional coffee farms in Nepal using data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach used to estimate technical efficiency and followed by regressing the technical efficiency scores to farm specific characters under tobit regression model. Primary data was collected from random samples of 240 (120 from each) coffee famers. Mean technical efficiency score was 0.89 and 0.83 in organic and conventional coffee farming respectively. Farms operating under CRS, DRS and IRS were 31.67, 3.83 and 37.5% respectively in organic coffee and 29.17, 25 and 45.83% respectively in conventional farming areas. Tobit regression showed the variation in technical efficiency was related education, farm experience and training/extension services and excess to credit.Production frontier, Resource use, Technical efficiency, Organic, Altitude, Productivity Analysis,