The use of information technology by the quantity surveying professionals in Hong Kong

This paper introduces the findings of a recent study on the use of information technology (IT) among the quantity surveying (QS) organisations in Hong Kong. The study was conducted through a structured questionnaire survey among 18 QS organisations registered in Hong Kong, representing around 53% of the total number of organisations in the profession. The data set generated from this study provided rich information about what information technology the QS profession used, what the perceived benefits and barriers experienced by the users in the industry were. The survey concluded that although IT had been widely used in QS organisations in Hong Kong, it is mainly used to support various individual tasks of the QS services at a basic level, rather than to streamline the production of QS services as a whole through automation. Most of the respondents agreed that IT plays an important role in the QS profession but they had not fully taken advantage of IT to improve their competitive edge in the market. They usually adopted a more passive “wait and see” approach. In addition, very few QS organisations in Hong Kong have a comprehensive policy in promoting the use of IT within the organisations. It is recommended that the QS profession must recognise the importance of IT and take appropriate actions to meet the challenges of ever-changing and competitive market place.

iTrench: a study of user reactions to the use of information technology in field archaeology

This article describes work undertaken by the VERA project to investigate how archaeologists work with information technology (IT) on excavation sites. We used a diary study to research the usual patterns of behaviour of archaeologists digging the Silchester Roman town site during the summer of 2007. Although recording had previously been undertaken using pen and paper, during the 2007 season a part of the dig was dedicated to trials of IT and archaeologists used digital pens and paper and Nokia N800 handheld PDAs to record their work. The goal of the trial was to see whether it was possible to record data from the dig whilst still on site, rather than waiting until after the excavation to enter it into the Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB) and to determine whether the archaeologists found the new technology helpful. The digital pens were a success, however, the N800s were not successful given the extreme conditions on site. Our findings confirmed that it was important that technology should fit in well with the work being undertaken rather than being used for its own sake, and should respect established work flows. We also found that the quality of data being entered was a recurrent concern as was the reliability of the infrastructure and equipment.

Contractual restrictions on lawful use of information: sole-source databases protected by the back door?

This article is concerned with the risks associated with the monopolisation of information that is available from a single source only. Although there is a longstanding consensus that sole-source databases should not receive protection under the EU Database Directive, and there are legislative provisions to ensure that lawful users have access to a database’s contents, Ryanair v PR Aviation challenges this assumption by affirming that the use of non-protected databases can be restricted by contract. Owners of non-protected databases can contractually exclude lawful users from taking the benefit of statutorily permitted uses, because such databases are not covered from the legislation that declares this kind of contract null and void. We argue that this judgment is not consistent with the legislative history and can have a profound impact on the functioning of the digital single market, where new information services, such as meta-search engines or price-comparison websites, base their operation on the systematic extraction and re-utilisation of materials available from online sources. This is an issue that the Commission should address in a forthcoming evaluation of the Database Directive.

Resources, staff beliefs and organizational culture: factors in the use of information and communication technology for adults with intellectual disabilities

Background  Access to, and the use of, information and communication technology (ICT) is increasingly becoming a vital component of mainstream life. First-order (e.g. time and money) and second-order factors (e.g. beliefs of staff members) affect the use of ICT in different contexts. It is timely to investigate what these factors may be in the context of service provision for adults with intellectual disabilities given the role ICT could play in facilitating communication and access to information and opportunities as suggested in Valuing People. Method  Taking a qualitative approach, nine day service sites within one organization were visited over a period of 6 months to observe ICT-related practice and seek the views of staff members working with adults with intellectual disabilities. All day services were equipped with modern ICT equipment including computers, digital cameras, Internet connections and related peripherals. Results  Staff members reported time, training and budget as significant first-order factors. Organizational culture and beliefs about the suitability of technology for older or less able service users were the striking second-order factors mentioned. Despite similar levels of equipment, support and training, ICT use had developed in very different ways across sites. Conclusion  The provision of ICT equipment and training is not sufficient to ensure their use; the beliefs of staff members and organizational culture of sites play a substantial role in how ICT is used with and by service users. Activity theory provides a useful framework for considering how first- and second-order factors are related. Staff members need to be given clear information about the broader purpose of activities in day services, especially in relation to the lifelong learning agenda, in order to see the relevance and usefulness of ICT resources for all service users.

The use of ICT by adults with learning disabilities in day and residential services

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by adults with learning disabilities has been positively promoted over the past decade. More recently, policy statements and guidance from the UK government have underlined the importance of ICT for adults with learning disabilities specifically, as well as for the population in general, through the potential it offers for social inclusion. The aim of the present study was to provide a picture of how ICT is currently being used within one organisation providing specialist services for adults with learning disabilities and more specifically to provide a picture of its use in promoting community participation. Nine day and 14 residential services were visited as part of a qualitative study to answer three main questions: What kinds of computer programs are being used? What are they being used for? Does this differ between day and residential services? Computers and digital cameras were used for a wide range of activities and ‘mainstream’ programs were used more widely than those developed for specific user groups. In day services, ICT was often embedded in wider projects and activities, whilst use in houses was based around leisure interests. In both contexts, ICT was being used to facilitate communication, although this was more linked to within-service activities, rather than those external to service provision.

Can 4D-Var use dynamical information from targeted observations of a baroclinic structure?

Targeted observations are generally taken in regions of high baroclinicity, but often show little impact. One plausible explanation is that important dynamical information, such as upshear tilt, is not extracted from the targeted observations by the data assimilation scheme and used to correct initial condition error. This is investigated by generating pseudo targeted observations which contain a singular vector (SV) structure that is not present in the background field or routine observations, i.e. assuming that the background has an initial condition error with tilted growing structure. Experiments were performed for a single case-study with varying numbers of pseudo targeted observations. These were assimilated by the Met Office four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation scheme, which uses a 6 h window for observations and background-error covariances calculated using the National Meteorological Centre (NMC) method. The forecasts were run using the operational Met Office Unified Model on a 24 km grid. The results presented clearly demonstrate that a 6 h window 4D-Var system is capable of extracting baroclinic information from a limited set of observations and using it to correct initial condition error. To capture the SV structure well (projection of 0.72 in total energy), 50 sondes over an area of 1×106 km2 were required. When the SV was represented by only eight sondes along an example targeting flight track covering a smaller area, the projection onto the SV structure was lower; the resulting forecast perturbations showed an SV structure with increased tilt and reduced initial energy. The total energy contained in the perturbations decreased as the SV structure was less well described by the set of observations (i.e. as fewer pseudo observations were assimilated). The assimilated perturbation had lower energy than the SV unless the pseudo observations were assimilated with the dropsonde observation errors halved from operational values. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society

A practical approach for training dynamic recurrent neural networks: use of Apriori information

Presents a technique for incorporating a priori knowledge from a state space system into a neural network training algorithm. The training algorithm considered is that of chemotaxis and the networks being trained are recurrent neural networks. Incorporation of the a priori knowledge ensures that the resultant network has behaviour similar to the system which it is modelling.

The role of information on farmers' willingness to use recycled water for irrigation

In this paper are identified several factors which affect a potential user's willingness to use recycled water for agricultural irrigation. This study is based on the results of a survey carried out among farmers in the island of Crete, Greece. It was found that a higher level of income and education are positively correlated with a respondent's willingness to use recycled water. Income and education are also positively correlated with a potential user's sensitivity to information on the advantages of using non-conventional water resources. Overall, extra information on the advantages of recycled water has a statistically significant impact on reported degrees of willingness to use recycled water.

The use of computer-based learning tools for teaching and clinical purposes: Interactive computing strategy for Iraq

Medical universities and teaching hospitals in Iraq are facing a lack of professional staff due to the ongoing violence that forces them to flee the country. The professionals are now distributed outside the country which reduces the chances for the staff and students to be physically in one place to continue the teaching and limits the efficiency of the consultations in hospitals. A survey was done among students and professional staff in Iraq to find the problems in the learning and clinical systems and how Information and Communication Technology could improve it. The survey has shown that 86% of the participants use the Internet as a learning resource and 25% for clinical purposes while less than 11% of them uses it for collaboration between different institutions. A web-based collaborative tool is proposed to improve the teaching and clinical system. The tool helps the users to collaborate remotely to increase the quality of the learning system as well as it can be used for remote medical consultation in hospitals.

The use of earth observation techniques to improve catchment-scale pollution predictions

Remote sensing can potentially provide information useful in improving pollution transport modelling in agricultural catchments. Realisation of this potential will depend on the availability of the raw data, development of information extraction techniques, and the impact of the assimilation of the derived information into models. High spatial resolution hyperspectral imagery of a farm near Hereford, UK is analysed. A technique is described to automatically identify the soil and vegetation endmembers within a field, enabling vegetation fractional cover estimation. The aerially-acquired laser altimetry is used to produce digital elevation models of the site. At the subfield scale the hypothesis that higher resolution topography will make a substantial difference to contaminant transport is tested using the AGricultural Non-Point Source (AGNPS) model. Slope aspect and direction information are extracted from the topography at different resolutions to study the effects on soil erosion, deposition, runoff and nutrient losses. Field-scale models are often used to model drainage water, nitrate and runoff/sediment loss, but the demanding input data requirements make scaling up to catchment level difficult. By determining the input range of spatial variables gathered from EO data, and comparing the response of models to the range of variation measured, the critical model inputs can be identified. Response surfaces to variation in these inputs constrain uncertainty in model predictions and are presented. Although optical earth observation analysis can provide fractional vegetation cover, cloud cover and semi-random weather patterns can hinder data acquisition in Northern Europe. A Spring and Autumn cloud cover analysis is carried out over seven UK sites close to agricultural districts, using historic satellite image metadata, climate modelling and historic ground weather observations. Results are assessed in terms of probability of acquisition probability and implications for future earth observation missions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Provision of information about drug side-effects to patients

To make informed decisions about taking medicinal drugs, people need accurate information about side-effects. A European Union guideline now recommends use of qualitative descriptions for five bands of risk, ranging from very rare (affecting < 0·01% of the population), to very common (>10%). We did four studies of more than 750 people, whom we asked to estimate the probability of having a side-effect on the basis of qualitative and quantitative descriptions. Our results showed that qualitative descriptions led to gross overestimation of risk. Until further work is done on how patients taking the drugs interpret these terms, the terms should not be used in drug information leaflets.

Innovative use of e-portfolio for personal development

iLearn is a quasi-Web 2.0 tool developed in Blackboard to help users with Personal Development Planning (PDP). This paper describes a case study on how the innovative use of mobile digital technology in iLearn e-Portfolio for developing reflective portfolios for PDP benefits the users, who are training to be professionals in construction management and surveying, The e-Portfolio tool benefits users as it enables them to create and share portfolios, record achievements and reflections that support future job applications and promotion. Users find it beneficial because they can make use of iLearn e-Portfolio to keep academic records and achievements, activities and interests, work experience, reflective practice, employer information and some other useful resources, and also to tailor their CV and covering letters including evidence to support their CV, transferable skills and selling points. Useful information for preparing for an interview, reflecting after an event and any thoughts and evaluation can be kept in iLearn e-Portfolio. Keeping assessment and feedback records in iLearn e-Portfolio enables learners to know their progress, to identify any gaps they need to fill to develop their study practices and areas for development. The key points from the feedback on the assignments and assessments are beneficial for future improvement. The reflections on the tasks and how they make use of the advice are particularly useful to improve their overall performance. In terms of pedagogical benefits, the “Individual Learner Profile” records and reviews evidence in verbal communication, basic and higher academic skills, time management, numeracy skill and IT skills, learners become increasingly aware of their own strengths and any weaker areas that may require development. The e-Portfolio also provides opportunity for them to reflect on the experience and skills they have gained whilst participating in activities outside their studies. As the iLearn e-Portfolio is a reflective practice tool, it is consistent with the principle of Schon's reflective practitioner to reframe problems and to explore the consequences of actions. From the users’ feedback, for those who engage regularly in iLearn, they are better able to set agendas for their supervision meetings and provide their supervisor with a unique record of their achievements, skills and attributes which help them writing effective references for them. They make the most of their learning experience in general. They also enhance their transferable skills and employability overall. The iLearn e-Portfolio prepares them for the workplace including continuing professional development. Users are aware of their transferable skills, evidence of the skills and skill level, including award or accreditation, and their personal reflection on their transferable skills. It is beneficial for them to be aware of their transferable skills, to produce evidence of the skills and skills level such as award and accreditation, and to record their personal reflection on their transferable skills. Finally, the innovative use of mobile digital technology in iLearn e-Portfolio for developing reflective portfolios for PDP will improve their employability.

Century-of-Information Research (CIR): a strategy for research and innovation in the century of information

More data will be produced in the next five years than in the entire history of human kind, a digital deluge that marks the beginning of the Century of Information. Through a year-long consultation with UK researchers, a coherent strategy has been developed, which will nurture Century-of-Information Research (CIR); it crystallises the ideas developed by the e-Science Directors' Forum Strategy Working Group. This paper is an abridged version of their latest report which can be found at: http://wikis.nesc.ac.uk/escienvoy/Century_of_Information_Research_Strategy which also records the consultation process and the affiliations of the authors. This document is derived from a paper presented at the Oxford e-Research Conference 2008 and takes into account suggestions made in the ensuing panel discussion. The goals of the CIR Strategy are to facilitate the growth of UK research and innovation that is data and computationally intensive and to develop a new culture of 'digital-systems judgement' that will equip research communities, businesses, government and society as a whole, with the skills essential to compete and prosper in the Century of Information. The CIR Strategy identifies a national requirement for a balanced programme of coordination, research, infrastructure, translational investment and education to empower UK researchers, industry, government and society. The Strategy is designed to deliver an environment which meets the needs of UK researchers so that they can respond agilely to challenges, can create knowledge and skills, and can lead new kinds of research. It is a call to action for those engaged in research, those providing data and computational facilities, those governing research and those shaping education policies. The ultimate aim is to help researchers strengthen the international competitiveness of the UK research base and increase its contribution to the economy. The objectives of the Strategy are to better enable UK researchers across all disciplines to contribute world-leading fundamental research; to accelerate the translation of research into practice; and to develop improved capabilities, facilities and context for research and innovation. It envisages a culture that is better able to grasp the opportunities provided by the growing wealth of digital information. Computing has, of course, already become a fundamental tool in all research disciplines. The UK e-Science programme (2001-06)—since emulated internationally—pioneered the invention and use of new research methods, and a new wave of innovations in digital-information technologies which have enabled them. The Strategy argues that the UK must now harness and leverage its own, plus the now global, investment in digital-information technology in order to spread the benefits as widely as possible in research, education, industry and government. Implementing the Strategy would deliver the computational infrastructure and its benefits as envisaged in the Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 (July 2004), and in the reports developing those proposals. To achieve this, the Strategy proposes the following actions: support the continuous innovation of digital-information research methods; provide easily used, pervasive and sustained e-Infrastructure for all research; enlarge the productive research community which exploits the new methods efficiently; generate capacity, propagate knowledge and develop skills via new curricula; and develop coordination mechanisms to improve the opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to make digital-infrastructure provision more cost effective. To gain the best value for money strategic coordination is required across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. A coherent strategy is essential in order to establish and sustain the UK as an international leader of well-curated national data assets and computational infrastructure, which is expertly used to shape policy, support decisions, empower researchers and to roll out the results to the wider benefit of society. The value of data as a foundation for wellbeing and a sustainable society must be appreciated; national resources must be more wisely directed to the collection, curation, discovery, widening access, analysis and exploitation of these data. Every researcher must be able to draw on skills, tools and computational resources to develop insights, test hypotheses and translate inventions into productive use, or to extract knowledge in support of governmental decision making. This foundation plus the skills developed will launch significant advances in research, in business, in professional practice and in government with many consequent benefits for UK citizens. The Strategy presented here addresses these complex and interlocking requirements.

The use of bootstrapped Malmquist indices to reassess productivity change findings: an application to a sample of Polish farms

This article assesses the extent to which sampling variation affects findings about Malmquist productivity change derived using data envelopment analysis (DEA), in the first stage by calculating productivity indices and in the second stage by investigating the farm-specific change in productivity. Confidence intervals for Malmquist indices are constructed using Simar and Wilson's (1999) bootstrapping procedure. The main contribution of this article is to account in the second stage for the information in the second stage provided by the first-stage bootstrap. The DEA SEs of the Malmquist indices given by bootstrapping are employed in an innovative heteroscedastic panel regression, using a maximum likelihood procedure. The application is to a sample of 250 Polish farms over the period 1996 to 2000. The confidence intervals' results suggest that the second half of 1990s for Polish farms was characterized not so much by productivity regress but rather by stagnation. As for the determinants of farm productivity change, we find that the integration of the DEA SEs in the second-stage regression is significant in explaining a proportion of the variance in the error term. Although our heteroscedastic regression results differ with those from the standard OLS, in terms of significance and sign, they are consistent with theory and previous research.