Location Privacy Preferences : A Survey-Based Analysis of Consumer Awareness, Trade-off and Decision-Making

Peer reviewed

Location Privacy Preferences : A Survey-Based Analysis of Consumer Awareness, Trade-off and Decision-Making

Peer reviewed

Multi-Scale Visualization and Interpretation of Geological Relationships

Visualization and interpretation of geological observations into a cohesive geological model are essential to Earth sciences and related fields. Various emerging technologies offer approaches to multi-scale visualization of heterogeneous data, providing new opportunities that facilitate model development and interpretation processes. These include increased accessibility to 3D scanning technology, global connectivity, and Web-based interactive platforms. The geological sciences and geological engineering disciplines are adopting these technologies as volumes of data and physical samples greatly increase. However, a standardized and universally agreed upon workflow and approach have yet to properly be developed. In this thesis, the 3D scanning workflow is presented as a foundation for a virtual geological database. This database provides augmented levels of tangibility to students and researchers who have little to no access to locations that are remote or inaccessible. A Web-GIS platform was utilized jointly with customized widgets developed throughout the course of this research to aid in visualizing hand-sized/meso-scale geological samples within a geologic and geospatial context. This context is provided as a macro-scale GIS interface, where geophysical and geodetic images and data are visualized. Specifically, an interactive interface is developed that allows for simultaneous visualization to improve the understanding of geological trends and relationships. These developed tools will allow for rapid data access and global sharing, and will facilitate comprehension of geological models using multi-scale heterogeneous observations.

Operating cost based cruise speed reduction for ground delay programs: Effect of scope length

Ground delay programs typically involve the delaying of aircraft that are departing from origin airports within some set distance of a capacity constrained destination airport. Long haul flights are not delayed in this way. A trade-off exists when fixing the distance parameter: increasing the ‘scope’ distributes delay among more aircraft and may reduce airborne holding delay but could also result in unnecessary delay in the (frequently observed) case of early program cancellation. In order to overcome part of this drawback, a fuel based cruise speed reduction strategy aimed at realizing airborne delay, was suggested by the authors in previous publications. By flying slower, at a specific speed, aircraft that are airborne can recover part of their initially assigned delay without incurring extra fuel consumption if the ground delay program is canceled before planned. In this paper, the effect of the scope of the program is assessed when applying this strategy. A case study is presented by analyzing all the ground delay programs that took place at San Francisco, Newark Liberty and Chicago O’Hare International airports during one year. Results show that by the introduction of this technique it is possible to define larger scopes, partially reducing the amount of unrecovered delay.

Cruise Speed Reduction for Ground Delay Programs: A Case Study for San Francisco International Airport Arrivals

Ground Delay Programs (GDP) are sometimes cancelled before their initial planned duration and for this reason aircraft are delayed when it is no longer needed. Recovering this delay usually leads to extra fuel consumption, since the aircraft will typically depart after having absorbed on ground their assigned delay and, therefore, they will need to cruise at more fuel consuming speeds. Past research has proposed speed reduction strategy aiming at splitting the GDP-assigned delay between ground and airborne delay, while using the same fuel as in nominal conditions. Being airborne earlier, an aircraft can speed up to nominal cruise speed and recover part of the GDP delay without incurring extra fuel consumption if the GDP is cancelled earlier than planned. In this paper, all GDP initiatives that occurred in San Francisco International Airport during 2006 are studied and characterised by a K-means algorithm into three different clusters. The centroids for these three clusters have been used to simulate three different GDPs at the airport by using a realistic set of inbound traffic and the Future Air Traffic Management Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET). The amount of delay that can be recovered using this cruise speed reduction technique, as a function of the GDP cancellation time, has been computed and compared with the delay recovered with the current concept of operations. Simulations have been conducted in calm wind situation and without considering a radius of exemption. Results indicate that when aircraft depart early and fly at the slower speed they can recover additional delays, compared to current operations where all delays are absorbed prior to take-off, in the event the GDP cancels early. There is a variability of extra delay recovered, being more significant, in relative terms, for those GDPs with a relatively low amount of demand exceeding the airport capacity.

AR-based Technoself Enhanced Learning Approach to Improving Student Engagement

The emerging technologies have expanded a new dimension of self – ‘technoself’ driven by socio-technical innovations and taken an important step forward in pervasive learning. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) research has increasingly focused on emergent technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) for augmented learning, mobile learning, and game-based learning in order to improve self-motivation and self-engagement of the learners in enriched multimodal learning environments. These researches take advantage of technological innovations in hardware and software across different platforms and devices including tablets, phoneblets and even game consoles and their increasing popularity for pervasive learning with the significant development of personalization processes which place the student at the center of the learning process. In particular, augmented reality (AR) research has matured to a level to facilitate augmented learning, which is defined as an on-demand learning technique where the learning environment adapts to the needs and inputs from learners. In this paper we firstly study the role of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which is one of the most influential theories applied in TEL on how learners come to accept and use a new technology. Then we present the design methodology of the technoself approach for pervasive learning and introduce technoself enhanced learning as a novel pedagogical model to improve student engagement by shaping personal learning focus and setting. Furthermore we describe the design and development of an AR-based interactive digital interpretation system for augmented learning and discuss key features. By incorporating mobiles, game simulation, voice recognition, and multimodal interaction through Augmented Reality, the learning contents can be geared toward learner's needs and learners can stimulate discovery and gain greater understanding. The system demonstrates that Augmented Reality can provide rich contextual learning environment and contents tailored for individuals. Augment learning via AR can bridge this gap between the theoretical learning and practical learning, and focus on how the real and virtual can be combined together to fulfill different learning objectives, requirements, and even environments. Finally, we validate and evaluate the AR-based technoself enhanced learning approach to enhancing the student motivation and engagement in the learning process through experimental learning practices. It shows that Augmented Reality is well aligned with constructive learning strategies, as learners can control their own learning and manipulate objects that are not real in augmented environment to derive and acquire understanding and knowledge in a broad diversity of learning practices including constructive activities and analytical activities.

Using blogs to enhance the capacity of mathematical communication in High School

The aim of this investigation is to analyze the use of the blog as an educational resource for the development of the mathematical communication in secondary education. With this aim, four aspects are analyzed: organization of mathematical thinking through communication; communication of mathematical thinking; analysis and evaluation of the strategies and mathematical thought of others; and expression of mathematical ideas using mathematical language. The research was conducted from a qualitative approach on an exploratory level, with the case study method of 4 classrooms of second grade of secondary education in a private school in Lima. The observational technique of 20 publications in the blog of the math class was applied; a study of a focal group with a sample of 9 students with different levels of academic performance; and an interview with the academic coordinator of the school was conducted. The results show that the organization of mathematical thinking through communication is carried out in the blog in a written, graphical and oral way through explanations, schemes and videos. Regarding communication of mathematical thinking, the blog is used to describe concepts, arguments and mathematical procedures with words and examples of the students. The analysis and evaluation of the strategies and mathematical thinking is performed through comments and debates about the publications. It was also noted that the blog does not facilitate the use of mathematical language to express mathematical ideas, since it does not allow direct writing of symbols nor graphic representation.

Scaling up strategies of the chronic respiratory disease programme of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (Action Plan B3: Area 5)

Action Plan B3 of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) focuses on the integrated care of chronic diseases. Area 5 (Care Pathways) was initiated using chronic respiratory diseases as a model. The chronic respiratory disease action plan includes (1) AIRWAYS integrated care pathways (ICPs), (2) the joint initiative between the Reference site MACVIA-LR (Contre les MAladies Chroniques pour un VIeillissement Actif) and ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma), (3) Commitments for Action to the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing and the AIRWAYS ICPs network. It is deployed in collaboration with the World Health Organization Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD). The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing has proposed a 5-step framework for developing an individual scaling up strategy: (1) what to scale up: (1-a) databases of good practices, (1-b) assessment of viability of the scaling up of good practices, (1-c) classification of good practices for local replication and (2) how to scale up: (2-a) facilitating partnerships for scaling up, (2-b) implementation of key success factors and lessons learnt, including emerging technologies for individualised and predictive medicine. This strategy has already been applied to the chronic respiratory disease action plan of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

Implementation of Content Centric Networks Through Domain Name System

Content Centric Network (CCN) is a proposed future internet architecture that is based on the concept of contents name instead of the hosts name followed in the traditional internet architecture. CCN architecture might do changes in the existing internet architecture or might replace it completely. In this paper, we present modifications to the existing Domain Name System (DNS) based on the CCN architecture requirements without changing the existing routing architecture. Hence the proposed solution achieves the benefits of both CCN and existing network infrastructure (i.e. content based routing, independent of host location, caching and content delivery protocols).

Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning: Foundations and Applications

Educational systems worldwide are facing an enormous shift as a result of sociocultural, political, economic, and technological changes. The technologies and practices that have developed over the last decade have been heralded as opportunities to transform both online and traditional education systems. While proponents of these new ideas often postulate that they have the potential to address the educational problems facing both students and institutions and that they could provide an opportunity to rethink the ways that education is organized and enacted, there is little evidence of emerging technologies and practices in use in online education. Because researchers and practitioners interested in these possibilities often reside in various disciplines and academic departments the sharing and dissemination of their work across often rigid boundaries is a formidable task. Contributors to Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning include individuals who are shaping the future of online learning with their innovative applications and investigations on the impact of issues such as openness, analytics, MOOCs, and social media. Building on work first published in Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, the contributors to this collection harness the dispersed knowledge in online education to provide a one-stop locale for work on emergent approaches in the field. Their conclusions will influence the adoption and success of these approaches to education and will enable researchers and practitioners to conceptualize, critique, and enhance their understanding of the foundations and applications of new technologies.

Social machines dictating social behaviors – When context is missing what is the fallout of uberveillance?

Abstract: In the mid-1990s when I worked for a telecommunications giant I struggled to gain access to basic geodemographic data. It cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at the time to simply purchase a tile of satellite imagery from Marconi, and it was often cheaper to create my own maps using a digitizer and A0 paper maps. Everything from granular administrative boundaries to right-of-ways to points of interest and geocoding capabilities were either unavailable for the places I was working in throughout Asia or very limited. The control of this data was either in a government’s census and statistical bureau or was created by a handful of forward thinking corporations. Twenty years on we find ourselves inundated with data (location and other) that we are challenged to amalgamate, and much of it still “dirty” in nature. Open data initiatives such as ODI give us great hope for how we might be able to share information together and capitalize not only in the crowdsourcing behavior but in the implications for positive usage for the environment and for the advancement of humanity. We are already gathering and amassing a great deal of data and insight through excellent citizen science participatory projects across the globe. In early 2015, I delivered a keynote at the Data Made Me Do It conference at UC Berkeley, and in the preceding year an invited talk at the inaugural QSymposium. In gathering research for these presentations, I began to ponder on the effect that social machines (in effect, autonomous data collection subjects and objects) might have on social behaviors. I focused on studying the problem of data from various veillance perspectives, with an emphasis on the shortcomings of uberveillance which included the potential for misinformation, misinterpretation, and information manipulation when context was entirely missing. As we build advanced systems that rely almost entirely on social machines, we need to ponder on the risks associated with following a purely technocratic approach where machines devoid of intelligence may one day dictate what humans do at the fundamental praxis level. What might be the fallout of uberveillance? Bio: Dr Katina Michael is a professor in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Wollongong. She presently holds the position of Associate Dean – International in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences. Katina is the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine editor-in-chief, and IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine senior editor. Since 2008 she has been a board member of the Australian Privacy Foundation, and until recently was the Vice-Chair. Michael researches on the socio-ethical implications of emerging technologies with an emphasis on an all-hazards approach to national security. She has written and edited six books, guest edited numerous special issue journals on themes related to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, supply chain management, location-based services, innovation and surveillance/ uberveillance for Proceedings of the IEEE, Computer and IEEE Potentials. Prior to academia, Katina worked for Nortel Networks as a senior network engineer in Asia, and also in information systems for OTIS and Andersen Consulting. She holds cross-disciplinary qualifications in technology and law.

Design and modeling of optical fibers for spatial division multiplexing using the orbital angular momentum of light

Les besoins toujours croissants en terme de transfert de données numériques poussent au développement de nouvelles technologies pour accroître la capacité des réseaux, notamment en ce qui concerne les réseaux de fibre optique. Parmi ces nouvelles technologies, le multiplexage spatial permet de multiplier la capacité des liens optiques actuels. Nous nous intéressons particulièrement à une forme de multiplexage spatial utilisant le moment cinétique orbital de la lumière comme base orthogonale pour séparer un certain nombre de canaux. Nous présentons d’abord les notions d’électromagnétisme et de physique nécessaires à la compréhension des développements ultérieurs. Les équations de Maxwell sont dérivées afin d’expliquer les modes scalaires et vectoriels de la fibre optique. Nous présentons également d’autres propriétés modales, soit la coupure des modes, et les indices de groupe et de dispersion. La notion de moment cinétique orbital est ensuite introduite, avec plus particulièrement ses applications dans le domaine des télécommunications. Dans une seconde partie, nous proposons la carte modale comme un outil pour aider au design des fibres optiques à quelques modes. Nous développons la solution vectorielle des équations de coupure des modes pour les fibres en anneau, puis nous généralisons ces équations pour tous les profils de fibres à trois couches. Enfin, nous donnons quelques exemples d’application de la carte modale. Dans la troisième partie, nous présentons des designs de fibres pour la transmission des modes avec un moment cinétique orbital. Les outils développés dans la seconde partie sont utilisés pour effectuer ces designs. Un premier design de fibre, caractérisé par un centre creux, est étudié et démontré. Puis un second design, une famille de fibres avec un profil en anneau, est étudié. Des mesures d’indice effectif et d’indice de groupe sont effectuées sur ces fibres. Les outils et les fibres développés auront permis une meilleure compréhension de la transmission dans la fibre optique des modes ayant un moment cinétique orbital. Nous espérons que ces avancements aideront à développer prochainement des systèmes de communications performants utilisant le multiplexage spatial.

Relocating the Frame: Object-Oriented (1.) and Locative Art (2.) Environments

The locative project is in a condition of emergence, an embryonic state in which everything is still up for grabs, a zone of consistency yet to emerge. As an emergent practice locative art, like locative media generally, it is simultaneously opening up new ways of engaging in the world and mapping its own domain. (Drew Hemment, 2004) Artists and scientists have always used whatever emerging technologies existed at their particular time throughout history to push the boundaries of their fields of practice. The use of new technologies or the notion of ‘new’ media is neither particularly new nor novel. Humans are adaptive, evolving and will continue to invent and explore technological innovation. This paper asks the following questions: what role does adaptive and/or intelligent art play in the future of public spaces, and how does this intervention alter the relationship between theory and practice? Does locative or installation-based art reach more people, and does ‘intelligent’ or ‘smart’ art have a larger role to play in the beginning of this century? The speakers will discuss their current collaborative prototype and within the presentation demonstrate how software art has the potential to activate public spaces, and therefore contribute to a change in spatial or locative awareness. It is argued that the role and perhaps even the representation of the audience/viewer is left altered through this intervention. 1. A form of electronic imagery created by a collection of mathematically defined lines and/or curves. 2. An experiential form of art which engages the viewer both from within a specific location and in response to their intentional or unintentional input.

X-Secure: protecting users from big bad wolves

In 2014 over 70% of people in Great Britain accessed the Internet every day. This resource is an optimal vector for malicious attackers to penetrate home computers and as such compromised pages have been increasing in both number and complexity. This paper presents X-Secure, a novel browser plug-in designed to present and raise the awareness of inexperienced users by analysing web-pages before malicious scripts are executed by the host computer. X-Secure was able to detect over 90% of the tested attacks and provides a danger level based on cumulative analysis of the source code, the URL, and the remote server, by using a set of heuristics, hence increasing the situational awareness of users browsing the internet.