Federal financial support for high-technology industries.

Item 1005-C

Department of Energy : proposed budget in support of the President's Climate Change Technology Initiative : report to the Chairman, Committee on the Budget, House of Representatives /

"B-279612"--P. 1.

Building learning communities to support beginning teachers use of technology

This paper reports on the early stages of a three year study that is investigating the impact of a technology-enriched teacher education program on beginning teachers' integration of computers, graphics calculators, and the internet into secondary school mathematics classrooms. Whereas much of the existing research on the role of technology in mathematics learning has been concerned with effects on curriculum content or student learning, less attention has been given to the relationship between technology use and issues of pedagogy, in particular the impact on teachers' professional learning in the context of specific classroom and school environments. Our research applies sociocultural theories of learning to consider how beginning teachers are initiated into a collaborative professional community featuring both web-based and face to face interaction, and how participation in such a community shapes their pedagogical beliefs and practices. The aim of this paper is to analyse processes through which the emerging community was established and sustained during the first year of the study. We examine features of this community in terms of identity formation, shifts in values and beliefs, and interaction patterns revealed in bulletin board discussion between students and lecturers.

RFID technology to support environmentally sustainable supply chain management

RFID is one of the contemporary technologies that has the potential to enable improved data gathering and cross-companies integration, and thus achieve cost efficiency. However, RFID has not yet become primary approach to collect data from the supply chain activities. This is partly due to (relative) high cost of implementation, partly due to technical deficiencies, as well as cross-company systems integration issues. This paper discusses a potential application area for RFID technology, which is environmentally sustainable supply chain management. The paper discusses the current practices in green supply chain management, and proposes possible applications of RFID enabling green supply chain management. The paper also proposes an idea of ad hoc RFID systems which are rapidly deployable and require minimal, if at all, pre-existing infrastructure. © 2010 IEEE.

Technology for Ontological Engineering Lifecycle Support

The research is partially supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grants 06-01-81005 and 07-01- 00053)

A decision support system for waste collection management and its potential improvement with Radio-Frequency Identification Technology (RFID)

Due to vigorous globalisation and product proliferation in recent years, more waste has been produced by the soaring manufacturing activities. This has contributed to the significant need for an efficient waste management system to ensure, with all efforts, the waste is properly treated for recycling or disposed. This paper presents a Decision Support System (DSS) framework, based on Constraint Logic Programming (CLP), for the collection management of industrial waste (of all kinds) and discusses the potential employment of Radio-Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) to improve several critical procedures involved in managing waste collection. This paper also demonstrates a widely distributed and semi-structured network of waste producing enterprises (e.g. manufacturers) and waste processing enterprises (i.e. waste recycling/treatment stations) improving their operations planning by means of using the proposed DSS. The potential RFID applications to update and validate information in a continuous manner to bring value-added benefits to the waste collection business are also presented. © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Technology Vendors: Lodging Managers View Support They Receive

The authors report on a comparative study of regional differences in the perceptions of lodging managers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on the support they receive from their technology vendors, and the technology systems they are using. Besides a comparison based on regions, the study also looks at differences of opinions based on property size.

Investigating assistive technology to support memory for people with cognitive impairments

Technologies such as automobiles or mobile phones allow us to perform beyond our physical capabilities and travel faster or communicate over long distances. Technologies such as computers and calculators can also help us perform beyond our mental capabilities by storing and manipulating information that we would be unable to process or remember. In recent years there has been a growing interest in assistive technology for cognition (ATC) which can help people compensate for cognitive impairments. The aim of this thesis was to investigate ATC for memory to help people with memory difficulties which impacts independent functioning during everyday life. Chapter one argues that using both neuropsychological and human computing interaction theory and approaches is crucial when developing and researching ATC. Chapter two describes a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies which tested technology to aid memory for groups with ABI, stroke or degenerative disease. Good evidence was found supporting the efficacy of prompting devices which remind the user about a future intention at a set time. Chapter three looks at the prevalence of technologies and memory aids in current use by people with ABI and dementia and the factors that predicted this use. Pre-morbid use of technology, current use of non-tech aids and strategies and age (ABI group only) were the best predictors of this use. Based on the results, chapter four focuses on mobile phone based reminders for people with ABI. Focus groups were held with people with memory impairments after ABI and ABI caregivers (N=12) which discussed the barriers to uptake of mobile phone based reminding. Thematic analysis revealed six key themes that impact uptake of reminder apps; Perceived Need, Social Acceptability, Experience/Expectation, Desired Content and Functions, Cognitive Accessibility and Sensory/Motor Accessibility. The Perceived need theme described the difficulties with insight, motivation and memory which can prevent people from initially setting reminders on a smartphone. Chapter five investigates the efficacy and acceptability of unsolicited prompts (UPs) from a smartphone app (ForgetMeNot) to encourage people with ABI to set reminders. A single-case experimental design study evaluated use of the app over four weeks by three people with severe ABI living in a post-acute rehabilitation hospital. When six UPs were presented through the day from ForgetMeNot, daily reminder-setting and daily memory task completion increased compared to when using the app without the UPs. Chapter six investigates another barrier from chapter 4 – cognitive and sensory accessibility. A study is reported which shows that an app with ‘decision tree’ interface design (ApplTree) leads to more accurate reminder setting performance with no compromise of speed or independence (amount of guidance required) for people with ABI (n=14) compared to a calendar based interface. Chapter seven investigates the efficacy of a wearable reminding device (smartwatch) as a tool for delivering reminders set on a smartphone. Four community dwelling participants with memory difficulties following ABI were included in an ABA single case experimental design study. Three of the participants successfully used the smartwatch throughout the intervention weeks and these participants gave positive usability ratings. Two participants showed improved memory performance when using the smartwatch and all participants had marked decline in memory performance when the technology was removed. Chapter eight is a discussion which highlights the implications of these results for clinicians, researchers and designers.