The relationship between academic library usage and educational performance in Kuwait

University libraries play an important role in contributing to student and faculty members’ academic achievement. This study examines perceptions of university library usage to consider factors that influence achievement of students, academics and administrators. A thorough review of relevant literature examined approaches to determining user satisfaction of students and faculty, and factors that influence library usage. It highlighted the value of usage on educational performance. It enabled development of a theoretical framework leading to the Factors of Academic Library Usage (FALU) model, which was developed to investigate the effect of usage factors. FALU was tested in Kuwait university libraries. The study used validated questionnaires from 792 students, 143 academics and 121 administrators to measure five library factors. Interviews were conducted across the three University libraries. The findings are useful in measuring the correlation between the current academic library usage and educational performance.

Digital complementary assets

Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are some of the prominent large-scale digital service providers that are having tremendous impact on societies, corporations and individuals. However, despite the rapid uptake and their obvious influence on the behavior of individuals and the business models and networks of organizations, we still lack a deeper, theory-guided understanding of the related phenomenon. We use Teece’s notion of complementary assets and extend it towards ‘digital complementary assets’ (DCA) in an attempt to provide such a theory-guided understanding of these digital services. Building on Teece’s theory, we make three contributions. First, we offer a new conceptualization of digital complementary assets in the form of digital public goods and digital public assets. Second, we differentiate three models for how organizations can engage with such digital complementary assets. Third, user-base is found to be a critical factor when considering appropriability.

Influences of green star rating tool on HVAC system design

Buildings are one of the most significant infrastructures in modern societies. The construction and operation of modern buildings consume a considerable amount of energy and materials, therefore contribute significantly to the climate change process. In order to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, various green building rating tools have been developed. In this paper, energy uses of the building sector in Australia and over the world are first reviewed. This is then followed by discussions on the development and scopes of various green building rating tools, with a particular focus on the Green Star rating scheme developed in Australia. It is shown that Green Star has significant implications on almost every aspect of the design of HVAC systems, including the selection of air handling and distribution systems, fluid handling systems, refrigeration systems, heat rejection systems and building control systems.

Effect of topic domain and task type on Web image searching

Many user studies in Web information searching have found the significant effect of task types on search strategies. However, little attention was given to Web image searching strategies, especially the query reformulation activity despite that this is a crucial part in Web image searching. In this study, we investigated the effects of topic domains and task types on user’s image searching behavior and query reformulation strategies. Some significant differences in user’s tasks specificity and initial concepts were identified among the task domains. Task types are also found to influence participant’s result reviewing behavior and query reformulation strategies.

Information Accountability Framework for a Trusted Health Care System

Trusted health care outcomes are patient centric. Requirements to ensure both the quality and sharing of patients’ health records are a key for better clinical decision making. In the context of maintaining quality health, the sharing of data and information between professionals and patients is paramount. This information sharing is a challenge and costly if patients’ trust and institutional accountability are not established. Establishment of an Information Accountability Framework (IAF) is one of the approaches in this paper. The concept behind the IAF requirements are: transparent responsibilities, relevance of the information being used, and the establishment and evidence of accountability that all lead to the desired outcome of a Trusted Health Care System. Upon completion of this IAF framework the trust component between the public and professionals will be constructed. Preservation of the confidentiality and integrity of patients’ information will lead to trusted health care outcomes.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and neurocognitive dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea before and after CPAP treatment

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To determine whether cerebral metabolite changes may underlie abnormalities of neurocognitive function and respiratory control in OSA. DESIGN: Observational, before and after CPAP treatment. SETTING: Two tertiary hospital research institutes. PARTICIPANTS: 30 untreated severe OSA patients, and 25 age-matched healthy controls, all males free of comorbidities, and all having had detailed structural brain analysis using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Single voxel bilateral hippocampal and brainstem, and multivoxel frontal metabolite concentrations were measured using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in a high resolution (3T) scanner. Subjects also completed a battery of neurocognitive tests. Patients had repeat testing after 6 months of CPAP. There were significant differences at baseline in frontal N-acetylaspartate/choline (NAA/Cho) ratios (patients [mean (SD)] 4.56 [0.41], controls 4.92 [0.44], P = 0.001), and in hippocampal choline/creatine (Cho/Cr) ratios (0.38 [0.04] vs 0.41 [0.04], P = 0.006), (both ANCOVA, with age and premorbid IQ as covariates). No longitudinal changes were seen with treatment (n = 27, paired t tests), however the hippocampal differences were no longer significant at 6 months, and frontal NAA/Cr ratios were now also significantly different (patients 1.55 [0.13] vs control 1.65 [0.18] P = 0.01). No significant correlations were found between spectroscopy results and neurocognitive test results, but significant negative correlations were seen between arousal index and frontal NAA/Cho (r = -0.39, corrected P = 0.033) and between % total sleep time at SpO(2) < 90% and hippocampal Cho/Cr (r = -0.40, corrected P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: OSA patients have brain metabolite changes detected by MRS, suggestive of decreased frontal lobe neuronal viability and integrity, and decreased hippocampal membrane turnover. These regions have previously been shown to have no gross structural lesions using VBM. Little change was seen with treatment with CPAP for 6 months. No correlation of metabolite concentrations was seen with results on neurocognitive tests, but there were significant negative correlations with OSA severity as measured by severity of nocturnal hypoxemia. CITATION: O'Donoghue FJ; Wellard RM; Rochford PD; Dawson A; Barnes M; Ruehland WR; Jackson ML; Howard ME; Pierce RJ; Jackson GD. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and neurocognitive dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea before and after CPAP treatment.

Voices of experience : opportunities to influence creatively the designing of school libraries

Using a critical ethnographic approach this study investigates the potential for multiple voices of experience, of educators, designers/architects, education facility planners and students/learners, to influence creatively the designing of school libraries. School libraries are considered as social and cultural entities within the contexts of school life and of wider society. It is proposed that school library designing is a social interaction of concern to those influenced by its practices and outcomes. School library designing is therefore of significance to educators and students as well as to those with professionally accredited involvement in school library designing, such as designers/architects and education facility planners. The study contends that current approaches to educational space designing, including school libraries, amplify the voices of accredited designers and diminish or silence the voices of the user participants. The study is conceptualised as creative processes of discovery, through which attention is paid to the voices of experience of user and designer participants, and is concerned with their understandings and experiences of school libraries and their understandings and experiences of designing. Grounded theory coding (Charmaz) is used for initial categorising of interview data. Critical discourse analysis (CDA, Fairclough) is used as analytical tool for reflection on the literature and for analysis of the small stories gathered through semi-structured interviews, field observations and documents. The critical interpretive stance taken through CDA, enables discussions of aspects of power associated with the understandings and experiences of participants, and for recognition of creative possibilities and creative influence within and beyond current conditions. Through an emphasis on prospects for educators and students as makers of the spaces and places of learning, in particular in school libraries, the study has the potential to inform education facility designing practices and design participant relationships, and to contribute more broadly to knowledge in the fields of education, design, architecture, and education facility planning.

Sociocultural theories and their application in information literacy research and education

Drawing on the example of a recent study (Wang, 2010), this paper discusses the application of a sociocultural approach to information literacy research and curriculat design. First, it describes the foundation of this research approach in sociocultural theories, in particular Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. Then it presents key theoretical principles arising from the research and describes how the sociocultural approach enabled the establishment of collaborative partnerships between information professionals and academic and teaching support staff in a community of practice for information literacy integration.

Teen content creators : experiences of using information to learn

As access to networked digital communities increases, a growing number of teens participate in digital communities by creating and sharing a variety of content. The affordances of social media - ease of use, ubiquitous access, and communal nature - have made creating and sharing content an appealing process for teens. Teens primarily learn the practices of encountering and using information through social interaction and participation within digital communities. This article adopts the position that information literacy is the experience of using information to learn. It reports on an investigation into teens experiences in the United States, as they use information to learn how to create content and participate within the context of social media. Teens that participate in sharing art on sites such as DeiviantArt, website creation, blogging, and/or posting edited videos via YouTube and Vimeo, were interviewed. The interviews explored teens' information experiences within particular social and digital contexts. Teens discussed the information they used, how information was gathered and accessed, and explored the process of using that information to participate in the communities.

Collaboration features in current BPM tools

In cross-organizational, distributed environments, Business Process Management requires collaborative technologies to facilitate the process of discovering, modeling, and improving business processes across geographical and organizational boundaries. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of collaborative business process modeling that is based on a review of literature and a case study of three selected modelling tools. The application of the framework reveals that current process modeling tools consider different perspectives on collaboration, and that the included features are orthogonal. This paper informs practitioners about the state of the art in tool support for collaborative process modelling. It also informs vendors about opportunities to enhance the technology support. For research, our paper paper informs social aspects of BPM technology through its explicit focus on the collaboration of BPM stakeholders in the process of distributed modeling.

The incorporation of web 2.0 into learning design : an implementation model from the perspectives of teachers and students

This paper summarises some of the recent studies on various types of learning approaches that have utilised some form of Web 2.0 services in curriculum design to enhance learning. A generic implementation model of this integration will then be presented to illustrate the overall learning implementation process. Recently, the integration of Web 2.0 technologies into learning curriculum has begun to get a wide acceptance among teaching instructors across various higher learning institutions. This is evidenced by numerous studies which indicate the implementation of a range of Web 2.0 technologies into their learning design to improve learning delivery. Moreover, recent studies also have shown that the ability of current students to embrace Web 2.0 technologies is better than students using existing learning technology. Despite various attempts made by teachers in relation to the integration, researchers have noted a lack of integration standard to help in curriculum design. The absence of this standard will restrict the capacity of Web 2.0 adaptation into learning and adding more the complexity to provide meaningful learning. Therefore, this paper will attempt to draw a conceptual integration model which is being generated to reflect how learning activities with some facilitation of Web 2.0 is currently being implemented. The design of this model is based on shared experiences by many scholars as well as feedback gathered from two separate surveys conducted on teachers and a group of 180 students. Furthermore, this paper also recognizes some key components that generally engage in the design of a Web 2.0 teaching and learning which need to be addressed accordingly. Overall, the content of this paper will be organised as follows. The first part of the paper will introduce the importance of Web 2.0 implementation in teaching and learning from the perspective of higher education institutions and those challenges surrounding this area. The second part summarizes related works done in this field and brings forward the concept of designing learning with the incorporation of Web 2.0 technology. The next part presents the results of analysis derived from the two student and teachers surveys on using Web 2.0 during learning activities. This paper concludes by presenting a model that reflects several key entities that may be involved during the learning design.

Risk, uncertainty and complexity in science education

Increasingly societies and their governments are facing important social issues that have science and technology as key features. A number of these socio-scientific issues have two features that distinguish them from the restricted contexts in which school science has traditionally been presented. Some of their science is uncertain and scientific knowledge is not the only knowledge involved. As a result, the concepts of uncertainty, risk and complexity become essential aspects of the science underlying these issues. In this chapter we discuss the nature and role of these concepts in the public understanding of science and consider their links with school science. We argue that these same concepts and their role in contemporary scientific knowledge need to be addressed in school science curricula. The new features for content, pedagogy and assessment of this urgent challenge for science educators are outlined. These will be essential if the goal of science education for citizenship is to be achieved with our students, who will increasingly be required to make personal and collective decisions on issues involving science and technology.

Exploring health information use by older Australians within everyday life

Exploring information use within everyday or community contexts is a recent area of interest for information literacy research endeavors. Within this domain, health information literacy (HIL) has emerged as a focus of interest due to identified synergies between information use and health status. However, while HIL has been acknowledged as a core ingredient that can assist people to take responsibility for managing and improving their own health, limited research has explored how HIL is experienced in everyday community life. This article will present the findings of ongoing research undertaken using phenomenography to explore how HIL is experienced among older Australians within everyday contexts. It will also discuss how these findings may be used to inform policy formulation in health communication and as an evidence base for the design and delivery of consumer health information resources and services.

Extreme science and engineering : a higher education widening participation initiative at QUT

The QUT Extreme Science and Engineering program provides free hands-on workshops to schools, presented by scientists and engineers to students from prep to year 12 in their own classrooms. The workshops are tied to the school curriculum and give students access to professional quality instruments, helping to stimulate their interest in science and engineering, with the aim of generating a greater take up of STEM related subjects in the senior high school years. In addition to engaging students in activities, workshop presenters provide role models of both genders, helping to breakdown preconceived ideas of the type of person who becomes a scientist or engineer and demystifying the university experience. The Extreme Science and Engineering vans have been running for 10 years and as such demonstrate a sustainable and reproducible model for schools engagement. With funding provided through QUT’s Widening Participation Equity initiative (HEPPP funded) the vans which averaged 120 school visits each year has increased to 150+ visits in 2010. Additionally 100+ workshops (hands-on and career focused) have been presented to students from low socio-economic status schools, on the three QUT campuses in 2011. While this is designed as a long-term initiative the short term results have been very promising, with 3000 students attending the workshops in the first six months and teacher and students feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.