Designing an E-Mail Prototype to Enhance Effective Communication and Task Management: A Case Study

This paper deals with communicational breakdowns and misunderstandings in computer mediated communication (CMC) and ways to recover from them or to prevent them. The paper describes a case study of CMC conducted in a company named Artigiani. We observed communication and conducted content analysis of e-mail messages, focusing on message exchanges between customer service representatives (CSRs) and their contacts. In addition to task management difficulties, we identified communication breakdowns that result from differences between perspectives, and from the lack of contextual information, mainly technical background and professional jargon at the customers’ side. We examined possible ways to enhance CMC and accordingly designed a prototype for an e-mail user interface that emphasizes a communicational strategy called contextualization as a central component for obtaining effective communication and for supporting effective management and control of organizational activities, especially handling orders, price quoting, and monitoring the supply and installation of products.

Transforming the relationship between staff and students to effect change

This opinion piece argues for the necessity of student-staff partnerships that go beyond the common rhetoric of ‘student engagement’, achieving a richer student and staff dialogue which results in more meaningful change in policy and practice. In particular, attention is drawn to the need for such partnerships when determining technology applications that are often missed out from, or treated in isolation from, the curriculum design process. This piece cites, as an example, a student-led taught day on the Post Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching at Aston University in July 2015. There was clear evidence that the staff participants designed their assessments with student partners in mind. It is therefore proposed that a partnership relationship offers an effective means of moving forward from common practices where technology simply replicates, or supplements, traditional activities.

Hybrid multi-objective optimization and hybridized self-organizing response surface method

Numerical optimization is a technique where a computer is used to explore design parameter combinations to find extremes in performance factors. In multi-objective optimization several performance factors can be optimized simultaneously. The solution to multi-objective optimization problems is not a single design, but a family of optimized designs referred to as the Pareto frontier. The Pareto frontier is a trade-off curve in the objective function space composed of solutions where performance in one objective function is traded for performance in others. A Multi-Objective Hybridized Optimizer (MOHO) was created for the purpose of solving multi-objective optimization problems by utilizing a set of constituent optimization algorithms. MOHO tracks the progress of the Pareto frontier approximation development and automatically switches amongst those constituent evolutionary optimization algorithms to speed the formation of an accurate Pareto frontier approximation. Aerodynamic shape optimization is one of the oldest applications of numerical optimization. MOHO was used to perform shape optimization on a 0.5-inch ballistic penetrator traveling at Mach number 2.5. Two objectives were simultaneously optimized: minimize aerodynamic drag and maximize penetrator volume. This problem was solved twice. The first time the problem was solved by using Modified Newton Impact Theory (MNIT) to determine the pressure drag on the penetrator. In the second solution, a Parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) solver that includes viscosity was used to evaluate the drag on the penetrator. The studies show the difference in the optimized penetrator shapes when viscosity is absent and present in the optimization. In modern optimization problems, objective function evaluations may require many hours on a computer cluster to perform these types of analysis. One solution is to create a response surface that models the behavior of the objective function. Once enough data about the behavior of the objective function has been collected, a response surface can be used to represent the actual objective function in the optimization process. The Hybrid Self-Organizing Response Surface Method (HYBSORSM) algorithm was developed and used to make response surfaces of objective functions. HYBSORSM was evaluated using a suite of 295 non-linear functions. These functions involve from 2 to 100 variables demonstrating robustness and accuracy of HYBSORSM.

Business process quantitative analysis and optimization for service industries

The total time a customer spends in the business process system, called the customer cycle-time, is a major contributor to overall customer satisfaction. Business process analysts and designers are frequently asked to design process solutions with optimal performance. Simulation models have been very popular to quantitatively evaluate the business processes; however, simulation is time-consuming and it also requires extensive modeling experiences to develop simulation models. Moreover, simulation models neither provide recommendations nor yield optimal solutions for business process design. A queueing network model is a good analytical approach toward business process analysis and design, and can provide a useful abstraction of a business process. However, the existing queueing network models were developed based on telephone systems or applied to manufacturing processes in which machine servers dominate the system. In a business process, the servers are usually people. The characteristics of human servers should be taken into account by the queueing model, i.e. specialization and coordination. ^ The research described in this dissertation develops an open queueing network model to do a quick analysis of business processes. Additionally, optimization models are developed to provide optimal business process designs. The queueing network model extends and improves upon existing multi-class open-queueing network models (MOQN) so that the customer flow in the human-server oriented processes can be modeled. The optimization models help business process designers to find the optimal design of a business process with consideration of specialization and coordination. ^ The main findings of the research are, first, parallelization can reduce the cycle-time for those customer classes that require more than one parallel activity; however, the coordination time due to the parallelization overwhelms the savings from parallelization under the high utilization servers since the waiting time significantly increases, thus the cycle-time increases. Third, the level of industrial technology employed by a company and coordination time to mange the tasks have strongest impact on the business process design; as the level of industrial technology employed by the company is high; more division is required to improve the cycle-time; as the coordination time required is high; consolidation is required to improve the cycle-time. ^

Collaborative mediation

A Mediation System utilizes a central security mediator that is primarily concerned with securing the internal structure of the Mediation System. The current problem is that clients are unable to have authority and administrative rights over the security of their data during a transaction. In addition, this Mediation System is unsuited in presenting a metric that measures the level of confidence of security access rights. This creates a black-box perspective from the client towards the Mediation System and also gives no assurance to these clients that they have assigned the proper security access rights that reflect the current environment of the mediation system. This dissertation presents a Collaborative Information System (CIS) that uses an agent based approach to encapsulate collaborative information and security policies within the Mediation System which are under the control of the clients of the Mediation System. In conjunction with the CIS's Stochastic Security Framework it is possible to take a probabilistic approach in modeling the security access rights of a collaboration transaction. The research results showed that it is feasible to construct a Mediation System utilizing agents and stochastic equations to establish an environment where the client has authority and administrative control in assigning security access rights to their collaborative data that can establish a metric that measures the level of confidence of these assigned rights.

Thermal imaging as a biometrics approach to facial signature authentication

This dissertation develops an image processing framework with unique feature extraction and similarity measurements for human face recognition in the thermal mid-wave infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The goals of this research is to design specialized algorithms that would extract facial vasculature information, create a thermal facial signature and identify the individual. The objective is to use such findings in support of a biometrics system for human identification with a high degree of accuracy and a high degree of reliability. This last assertion is due to the minimal to no risk for potential alteration of the intrinsic physiological characteristics seen through thermal infrared imaging. The proposed thermal facial signature recognition is fully integrated and consolidates the main and critical steps of feature extraction, registration, matching through similarity measures, and validation through testing our algorithm on a database, referred to as C-X1, provided by the Computer Vision Research Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. Feature extraction was accomplished by first registering the infrared images to a reference image using the functional MRI of the Brain’s (FMRIB’s) Linear Image Registration Tool (FLIRT) modified to suit thermal infrared images. This was followed by segmentation of the facial region using an advanced localized contouring algorithm applied on anisotropically diffused thermal images. Thermal feature extraction from facial images was attained by performing morphological operations such as opening and top-hat segmentation to yield thermal signatures for each subject. Four thermal images taken over a period of six months were used to generate thermal signatures and a thermal template for each subject, the thermal template contains only the most prevalent and consistent features. Finally a similarity measure technique was used to match signatures to templates and the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to validate the results of the matching process. Thirteen subjects were used for testing the developed technique on an in-house thermal imaging system. The matching using an Euclidean-based similarity measure showed 88% accuracy in the case of skeletonized signatures and templates, we obtained 90% accuracy for anisotropically diffused signatures and templates. We also employed the Manhattan-based similarity measure and obtained an accuracy of 90.39% for skeletonized and diffused templates and signatures. It was found that an average 18.9% improvement in the similarity measure was obtained when using diffused templates. The Euclidean- and Manhattan-based similarity measure was also applied to skeletonized signatures and templates of 25 subjects in the C-X1 database. The highly accurate results obtained in the matching process along with the generalized design process clearly demonstrate the ability of the thermal infrared system to be used on other thermal imaging based systems and related databases. A novel user-initialization registration of thermal facial images has been successfully implemented. Furthermore, the novel approach at developing a thermal signature template using four images taken at various times ensured that unforeseen changes in the vasculature did not affect the biometric matching process as it relied on consistent thermal features.

Effects of Cooperative and Individual Integrated Learning System on Attitudes and Achievement in Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a computer-based Integrated Learning Systems (ILS) model used with adult high school students engaging mathematics activities. This study examined achievement, attitudinal and behavior differences between students completing ILS activities in a traditional, individualized format compared to cooperative learning groups.

Design optimization of modern machine drive systems for maximum fault tolerant and optimal operation

Modern electric machine drives, particularly three phase permanent magnet machine drive systems represent an indispensable part of high power density products. Such products include; hybrid electric vehicles, large propulsion systems, and automation products. Reliability and cost of these products are directly related to the reliability and cost of these systems. The compatibility of the electric machine and its drive system for optimal cost and operation has been a large challenge in industrial applications. The main objective of this dissertation is to find a design and control scheme for the best compromise between the reliability and optimality of the electric machine-drive system. The effort presented here is motivated by the need to find new techniques to connect the design and control of electric machines and drive systems. ^ A highly accurate and computationally efficient modeling process was developed to monitor the magnetic, thermal, and electrical aspects of the electric machine in its operational environments. The modeling process was also utilized in the design process in form finite element based optimization process. It was also used in hardware in the loop finite element based optimization process. The modeling process was later employed in the design of a very accurate and highly efficient physics-based customized observers that are required for the fault diagnosis as well the sensorless rotor position estimation. Two test setups with different ratings and topologies were numerically and experimentally tested to verify the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. ^ The modeling process was also employed in the real-time demagnetization control of the machine. Various real-time scenarios were successfully verified. It was shown that this process gives the potential to optimally redefine the assumptions in sizing the permanent magnets of the machine and DC bus voltage of the drive for the worst operating conditions. ^ The mathematical development and stability criteria of the physics-based modeling of the machine, design optimization, and the physics-based fault diagnosis and the physics-based sensorless technique are described in detail. ^ To investigate the performance of the developed design test-bed, software and hardware setups were constructed first. Several topologies of the permanent magnet machine were optimized inside the optimization test-bed. To investigate the performance of the developed sensorless control, a test-bed including a 0.25 (kW) surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine example was created. The verification of the proposed technique in a range from medium to very low speed, effectively show the intelligent design capability of the proposed system. Additionally, to investigate the performance of the developed fault diagnosis system, a test-bed including a 0.8 (kW) surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine example with trapezoidal back electromotive force was created. The results verify the use of the proposed technique under dynamic eccentricity, DC bus voltage variations, and harmonic loading condition make the system an ideal case for propulsion systems.^

File Control: The Heart Of Business Computer Management

In his study - File Control: The Heart Of Business Computer Management - William G. O'Brien, Assistant Professor, The School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, initially informs you: “Even though computers are an everyday part of the hospitality industry, many managers lack the knowledge and experience to control and protect the files in these systems. The author offers guidelines which can minimize or prevent damage to the business as a whole.” Our author initially opens this study with some anecdotal instances illustrating the failure of hospitality managers to exercise due caution with regard to computer supported information systems inside their restaurants and hotels. “Of the three components that make up any business computer system (data files, programs, and hard-ware), it is files that are most important, perhaps irreplaceable, to the business,” O’Brien informs you. O’Brien breaks down the noun, files, into two distinct categories. They are, the files of extrinsic value, and its counterpart the files of intrinsic value. An example of extrinsic value files would be a restaurant’s wine inventory. “As sales are made and new shipments are received, the computer updates the file,” says O’Brien. “This information might come directly from a point-of-sale terminal or might be entered manually by an employee,” he further explains. On the intrinsic side of the equation, O’Brien wants you to know that the information itself is the valuable part of this type of file. Its value is over and above the file’s informational purpose as a pragmatic business tool, as it is in inventory control. “The information is money in the legal sense For instance, figures moved about in banking system computers do not represent dollars; they are dollars,” O’Brien explains. “If the record of a dollar amount is erased from all computer files, then that money ceases to exist,” he warns. This type of information can also be bought and sold, such as it is in customer lists to advertisers. Files must be protected O’Brien stresses. “File security requires a systematic approach,” he discloses. O’Brien goes on to explain important elements to consider when evaluating file information. File back-up is also an important factor to think about, along with file storage/safety concerns. “Sooner or later, every property will have its fire, flood, careless mistake, or disgruntled employee,” O’Brien closes. “…good file control can minimize or prevent damage to the business as a whole.”

ASDN : Automated Software Design Notebook tool

Software Engineering is one of the most widely researched areas of Computer Science. The ability to reuse software, much like reuse of hardware components is one of the key issues in software development. The object-oriented programming methodology is revolutionary in that it promotes software reusability. This thesis describes the development of a tool that helps programmers to design and implement software from within the Smalltalk Environment (an Object- Oriented programming environment). The ASDN tool is part of the PEREAM (Programming Environment for the Reuse and Evolution of Abstract Models) system, which advocates incremental development of software. The Asdn tool along with the PEREAM system seeks to enhance the Smalltalk programming environment by providing facilities for structured development of abstractions (concepts). It produces a document that describes the abstractions that are developed using this tool. The features of the ASDN tool are illustrated by an example.

Internet Protocol (IP) design and implementation for efficient mobility to devices in wireless networks

The purpose of this thesis was to develop an efficient routing protocol which would provide mobility support to the mobile devices roaming within a network. The routing protocol need to be compatible with the existing internet architecture. The routing protocol proposed here is based on the Mobile IP routing protocol and could solve some of the problems existing in current Mobile IP implementation e.g. ingress filtering problem. By implementing an efficient timeout mechanism and introducing Paging mechanism to the wireless network, the protocol minimizes the number of control messages sent over the network. The implementation of the system is primarily done on three components: 1) Mobile devices that need to gain access to the network, 2) Router which would be providing roaming support to the mobile devices and 3) Database server providing basic authentication services on the system. As a result, an efficient IP routing protocol is developed which would provide seamless mobility to the mobile devices on the network.

Analysis of the lateral diffuse metal-oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) power amplifier for cellular base stations

The primary purpose of this thesis was to present a theoretical large-signal analysis to study the power gain and efficiency of a microwave power amplifier for LS-band communications using software simulation. Power gain, efficiency, reliability, and stability are important characteristics in the power amplifier design process. These characteristics affect advance wireless systems, which require low-cost device amplification without sacrificing system performance. Large-signal modeling and input and output matching components are used for this thesis. Motorola's Electro Thermal LDMOS model is a new transistor model that includes self-heating affects and is capable of small-large signal simulations. It allows for most of the design considerations to be on stability, power gain, bandwidth, and DC requirements. The matching technique allows for the gain to be maximized at a specific target frequency. Calculations and simulations for the microwave power amplifier design were performed using Matlab and Microwave Office respectively. Microwave Office is the simulation software used in this thesis. The study demonstrated that Motorola's Electro Thermal LDMOS transistor in microwave power amplifier design process is a viable solution for common-source amplifier applications in high power base stations. The MET-LDMOS met the stability requirements for the specified frequency range without a stability-improvement model. The power gain of the amplifier circuit was improved through proper microwave matching design using input/output-matching techniques. The gain and efficiency of the amplifier improve approximately 4dB and 7.27% respectively. The gain value is roughly .89 dB higher than the maximum gain specified by the MRF21010 data sheet specifications. This work can lead to efficient modeling and development of high power LDMOS transistor implementations in commercial and industry applications.

Design and evaluation of a consulting system for database design

Database design is a difficult problem for non-expert designers. It is desirable to assist such designers during the problem solving process by means of a knowledge based (KB) system. Although a number of prototype KB systems have been proposed, there are many shortcomings. Firstly, few have incorporated sufficient expertise in modeling relationships, particularly higher order relationships. Secondly, there does not seem to be any published empirical study that experimentally tested the effectiveness of any of these KB tools. Thirdly, problem solving behavior of non-experts, whom the systems were intended to assist, has not been one of the bases for system design. In this project, a consulting system, called CODA, for conceptual database design that addresses the above short comings was developed and empirically validated. More specifically, the CODA system incorporates (a) findings on why non-experts commit errors and (b) heuristics for modeling relationships. Two approaches to knowledge base implementation were used and compared in this project, namely system restrictiveness and decisional guidance (Silver 1990). The Restrictive system uses a proscriptive approach and limits the designer's choices at various design phases by forcing him/her to follow a specific design path. The Guidance system approach, which is less restrictive, involves providing context specific, informative and suggestive guidance throughout the design process. Both the approaches would prevent erroneous design decisions. The main objectives of the study are to evaluate (1) whether the knowledge-based system is more effective than the system without a knowledge-base and (2) which approach to knowledge implementation - whether Restrictive or Guidance - is more effective. To evaluate the effectiveness of the knowledge base itself, the systems were compared with a system that does not incorporate the expertise (Control). An experimental procedure using student subjects was used to test the effectiveness of the systems. The subjects solved a task without using the system (pre-treatment task) and another task using one of the three systems, viz. Control, Guidance or Restrictive (experimental task). Analysis of experimental task scores of those subjects who performed satisfactorily in the pre-treatment task revealed that the knowledge based approach to database design support lead to more accurate solutions than the control system. Among the two KB approaches, Guidance approach was found to lead to better performance when compared to the Control system. It was found that the subjects perceived the Restrictive system easier to use than the Guidance system.

Metrópole digital: o jovem aprendiz na educação tecnológica

This thesis was elaborated in the scenario of Digital Metropolis Institute (IMD) – a supplementary unit at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in the training of personnel with technical and higher level courses whose technical level training is associated with a process of digital inclusion, with the purpose of attracting young people to this area, with emphasis on Software and Hardware Development. It aims to investigate the cognitive change of young apprentice on technological education and his/her entrance into the labor market, through the formation and the social inclusion proposed by the Instituto Metrópole Digital; understanding the juvenile subjectivity production through the Instituto Metrópole Digital’s education by performance in the labor market; recognizing the Brazilian professional qualification public policies for youth and identifying the role of Tutoring in the learning process during the course of formation of the young apprentice of the technological education proposed by the Instituto Metrópole Digital.The clipping of the object of investigation was the process of cognitive change and constitution of subjectivity of the young apprentice in information technology (IT) in the IMD. It was searched support in theory Freireana as proposal that problematizes the policies and the process of formation and professional qualification, in the perspective of a citizen and liberating consciousness. By qualitative and ethnographic nature, descriptive-explanatory, it counts with the participation of young people, high school students from public and private schools, aged between 15 and 18 years. There are strong aspects: a cognitive change on the young apprentice of technological education onto overdrive high school as the student of the Instituto Metrópole Digital; it happened the social integration for those who remain in the course, both in the neighborhood where they reside and at school where he attended high school, the young man is recognized and becomes reference to other young, favoring him a life projection which when the activities of mentoring is learning motivator, it exerts a positive influence to the young on the continuity of studies, it provides intellectual and institutional affiliation and continuity in the investments to the academic life for a better insertion in the labor market, which refers to the modification of the life project-invest in academic training, in exchange for a technical job in the labor market. There are weak aspects: the absence of professor in the course, in his most important role, which involves awareness of his/her condition in action, in explicit position that the professional practice constitutes as this constitution requires reciprocity of its students and the context in which it operates; fragile formation of mentoring, absence of dialogues in the classroom that favors the formation of subject learning, mainly in guiding action, mediator of the young; There is a lack of methodological proposal to develop real projects on the labor market with problem solving and collaborative learning. It considers that without converting information into knowledge cannot discern clearly enough that there is no direct causal relationship between Professional and technological Education and the level of employability of the young worker certificate. It suggests to the evasion: a greater knowledge of the reality of the student of the Institute Metropolis Digital; better knowledge of youth and their expectations of life project; the Tutoring will be Teacher-tutor; investing in employability conditions effective the young into the labor market.

Análise de usabilidade de livro digital na EaD: aplicação da avaliação heurística proposta por Pechansky

Nowadays the Distance Learning (DL) is in its fifth generation and New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) mediate it. In this technological context it is then called Distance e-Learning (DeL). DeL has also in the e-books a potential interactive tool to the collaborative learning. So, this study was accomplished with the purpose of analyzing the e-books developed by SEDIS – Secretaria de Educação a Distância (Department of Distance Learning). This study was performed in two phases: Firstly it was done an exploratory study to check out the reading and the handling of digital e-learning material available to the student-users. These e-books are obtainable on SEDIS Moodle platform. Secondly, it was performed some analysis of an e-book sample by means of the heuristic evaluation. This research aims both to identify potential problems and give some suggestions to solve them. At last it is presented a final report with diagnosis and suggestions for a more applicable design in order to optimize the e-book by means of the distance e-learning usability guidelines