Current affairs in British public service broadcasting : challenges and opportunities

This chapter looks at the challenges and opportunities of current affairs in British public service broadcasting

Epidemiologic modeling with FluSurge for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 outbreak, Queensland, Australia

At the beginning of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 outbreak, we estimated the potential surge in demand for hospital-based services in 4 Health Service Districts of Queensland, Australia, using the FluSurge model. Modifications to the model were made on the basis of emergent evidence and results provided to local hospitals to inform resource planning for the forthcoming pandemic. To evaluate the fit of the model, a comparison between the model's predictions and actual hospitalizations was made. In early 2010, a Web-based survey was undertaken to evaluate the model's usefulness. Predictions based on modified assumptions arising from the new pandemic gained better fit than results from the default model. The survey identified that the modeling support was helpful and useful to service planning for local hospitals. Our research illustrates an integrated framework involving post hoc comparison and evaluation for implementing epidemiologic modeling in response to a public health emergency.

Personalised search – a hybrid approach for web information retrieval and its evaluation

Nowadays, everyone can effortlessly access a range of information on the World Wide Web (WWW). As information resources on the web continue to grow tremendously, it becomes progressively more difficult to meet high expectations of users and find relevant information. Although existing search engine technologies can find valuable information, however, they suffer from the problems of information overload and information mismatch. This paper presents a hybrid Web Information Retrieval approach allowing personalised search using ontology, user profile and collaborative filtering. This approach finds the context of user query with least user’s involvement, using ontology. Simultaneously, this approach uses time-based automatic user profile updating with user’s changing behaviour. Subsequently, this approach uses recommendations from similar users using collaborative filtering technique. The proposed method is evaluated with the FIRE 2010 dataset and manually generated dataset. Empirical analysis reveals that Precision, Recall and F-Score of most of the queries for many users are improved with proposed method.

Integrating collaborative filtering and search-based techniques for personalized online product recommendation

The existing Collaborative Filtering (CF) technique that has been widely applied by e-commerce sites requires a large amount of ratings data to make meaningful recommendations. It is not directly applicable for recommending products that are not frequently purchased by users, such as cars and houses, as it is difficult to collect rating data for such products from the users. Many of the e-commerce sites for infrequently purchased products are still using basic search-based techniques whereby the products that match with the attributes given in the target user's query are retrieved and recommended to the user. However, search-based recommenders cannot provide personalized recommendations. For different users, the recommendations will be the same if they provide the same query regardless of any difference in their online navigation behaviour. This paper proposes to integrate collaborative filtering and search-based techniques to provide personalized recommendations for infrequently purchased products. Two different techniques are proposed, namely CFRRobin and CFAg Query. Instead of using the target user's query to search for products as normal search based systems do, the CFRRobin technique uses the products in which the target user's neighbours have shown interest as queries to retrieve relevant products, and then recommends to the target user a list of products by merging and ranking the returned products using the Round Robin method. The CFAg Query technique uses the products that the user's neighbours have shown interest in to derive an aggregated query, which is then used to retrieve products to recommend to the target user. Experiments conducted on a real e-commerce dataset show that both the proposed techniques CFRRobin and CFAg Query perform better than the standard Collaborative Filtering (CF) and the Basic Search (BS) approaches, which are widely applied by the current e-commerce applications. The CFRRobin and CFAg Query approaches also outperform the e- isting query expansion (QE) technique that was proposed for recommending infrequently purchased products.

Patterns and transitions of query reformulation during web searching

Purpose – To investigate and identify the patterns of interaction between searchers and search engine during web searching. Design/methodology/approach – The authors examined 2,465,145 interactions from 534,507 users of Dogpile.com submitted on May 6, 2005, and compared query reformulation patterns. They investigated the type of query modifications and query modification transitions within sessions. Findings – The paper identifies three strong query reformulation transition patterns: between specialization and generalization; between video and audio, and between content change and system assistance. In addition, the findings show that web and images content were the most popular media collections. Originality/value – This research sheds light on the more complex aspects of web searching involving query modifications.

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.

Re-thinking physics teaching with web-based learning

There is extensive uptake of ICT in the teaching of science but more evidence is needed on how ICT impacts on the learning practice and the learning outcomes at the classroom level. In this study, a physics website (Getsmart) was developed using the cognitive apprenticeship framework for students at a high school in Australia. This website was designed to enhance students’ knowledge of concepts in physics. Reflexive pedagogies were used in the delivery learning materials in a blended learning environment. The students in the treatment group accessed the website over a 10 week period. Pre and post-test results of the treatment (N= 48) and comparison group (N=32) were compared. The MANCOVA analysis showed that the web-based learning experience benefited the students in the treatment group. It not only impacted on the learning outcomes, but qualitative data from the students suggested that it had a positive impact on their attitudes towards studying physics in a blended environment.

New design rules for the shear strength of LiteSteel Beams with web openings

Abstract: LiteSteel beam (LSB) is a new cold-formed steel hollow flange channel section produced using a patented manufacturing process involving simultaneous cold-forming and dual electric resistance welding. The LSBs are commonly used as floor joists and bearers with web openings in residential, industrial and commercial buildings. Their shear strengths are considerably reduced when web openings are included for the purpose of locating building services. However, no research has been undertaken on the shear behaviour and strength of LSBs with web openings. Therefore experimental and numerical studies were undertaken to investigate the shear behaviour and strength of LSBs with web openings. In this research, finite element models of LSBs with web openings in shear were developed to simulate the shear behaviour and strength of LSBs including their buckling characteristics. They were then validated by comparing their results with available experimental test results and used in a detailed parametric study. The results showed that the current design rules in cold-formed steel structures design codes are very conservative for the shear design of LSBs with web openings. Improved design equations have been proposed for the shear capacity of LSBs with web openings based on both experimental and parametric study results. An alternative shear design method based on an equivalent reduced web thickness was also proposed. It was found that the same shear strength design rules developed for LSBs without web openings can be used for LSBs with web openings provided the equivalent reduced web thickness equation developed in this paper is used. This is a significant advancement as it simplifies the shear design methods of LSBs with web openings considerably.

Shear behaviour and strength of LiteSteel Beams with web openings

Abstract: The LiteSteel Beam (LSB) is a new cold-formed steel hollow flange channel beam recently developed in Australia. It is commonly used as a floor joist or bearer in buildings. Current practice in flooring systems is to include openings in the web element of floor joists or bearers so that building services can be located within them. Shear behaviour of LSBs with web openings is more complicated while their shear strengths are considerably reduced by the presence of web openings. However, no research has been undertaken on the shear behaviour and strength of LSBs with web openings. Therefore a detailed experimental study involving 26 shear tests was undertaken on simply supported LSB test specimens with web openings and an aspect ratio of 1.5. This paper presents the details of this experimental study and the results of their shear capacities and behavioural characteristics. Experimental results showed that the current design rules in cold-formed steel structures design codes are very conservative for the shear design of LSBs with web openings. Improved design equations have been proposed for the shear strength of LSBs with web openings based on the experimental results from this study.

Investigating pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness to teach

The experiences of transition to the teaching profession have a significant impact on a teachers’ potential length of career, feelings of professional efficacy and the quality of performance in the classroom (Gore & Thomas, 2003). While the transition to practice is characterized by much expectation and excitement, it also a time of stress and uncertainty for many beginning teachers. As such, it is important to investigate this period of transition for beginning teachers. This paper explores graduate teachers perceptions of their personal ‘preparedness to teach’. The group is graduating from one Australian university, and the data is captured at the end of their teacher preparation programs,before they take up positions in schools. These graduating pre-service teachers are from one year graduate entry programs that include individual programs of early years, middle years and senior years. The key findings indicate that this group of graduating pre-service teachers are already engaged in some level of reflective practice and are actively seeking further professional learning to improve the practical aspects of their classroom teaching.

Investigating higher education and secondary school web-based learning environments using the WEBLEI

Classroom learning environments are rapidly changing as new digital technologies become more education-friendly. What are students’ perceptions of their technology-rich learning environments? This question is critical as it may have an impact on the effectiveness of the new technologies in classrooms. There are numerous reliable and valid learning environment instruments which have been used to ascertain students’ perceptions of their learning environments. This chapter focuses on one of these instruments, the Web-based Learning Environment Instrument (WEBLEI) (Chang & Fisher, 2003). Since its initial development, this instrument has been used to study a range of learning environments and this chapter presents the findings of two example case-studies that involve such environments.

Diversified service provisioning in global business networks

Companies and their services are being increasingly exposed to global business networks and Internet-based ondemand services. Much of the focus is on flexible orchestration and consumption of services, beyond ownership and operational boundaries of services. However, ways in which third-parties in the “global village” can seamlessly self-create new offers out of existing services remains open. This paper proposes a framework for service provisioning in global business networks that allows an open-ended set of techniques for extending services through a rich, multi-tooling environment. The Service Provisioning Management Framework, as such, supports different modeling techniques, through supportive tools, allowing different parts of services to be integrated into new contexts. Integration of service user interfaces, business processes, operational interfaces and business object are supported. The integration specifications that arise from service extensions are uniformly reflected through a kernel technique, the Service Integration Technique. Thus, the framework preserves coherence of service provisioning tasks without constraining the modeling techniques needed for extending different aspects of services.

Non-desynchronizable service choreographies

A precise definition of interaction behavior between services is a prerequisite for successful business-to-business integration. Service choreographies provide a view on message exchanges and their ordering constraints from a global perspective. Assuming message sending and receiving as one atomic step allows to reduce the modelers’ effort. As downside, problematic race conditions resulting in deadlocks might appear when realizing the choreography using services that exchange messages asynchronously. This paper presents typical issues when desynchronizing service choreographies. Solutions from practice are discussed and a formal approach based on Petri nets is introduced for identifying desynchronizable choreographies.

Integration of opinion into customer analysis model

Nowadays, Opinion Mining is getting more important than before especially in doing analysis and forecasting about customers’ behavior for businesses purpose. The right decision in producing new products or services based on data about customers’ characteristics means profit for organization/company. This paper proposes a new architecture for Opinion Mining, which uses a multidimensional model to integrate customers’ characteristics and their comments about products (or services). The key step to achieve this objective is to transfer comments (opinions) to a fact table that includes several dimensions, such as, customers, products, time and locations. This research presents a comprehensive way to calculate customers’ orientation for all possible products’ attributes. A use case study is also presented in this paper to show the advantages of using OLAP and data cubes to analyze costumers’ opinions.

The internal validity of web-based studies

Honing and Ladinig (2008) make the assertion that while the internal validity of web-based studies may be reduced, this is offset by an increase in external validity possible when experimenters can sample a wider range of participants and experimental settings. In this paper, the issue of internal validity is more closely examined, and it is agued that there is no necessary reason why internal validity of a web-based study should be worse than that of a lab-based one. Errors of measurement or inconsistencies of manipulation will typically balance across conditions of the experiment, and thus need not necessarily threaten the validity of a study’s findings.