Student Journalism 2.0 : Testing Models for Participatory Learning in the Digital Age

Many educators and educational institutions have yet to integrate web-based practices into their classrooms and curricula. As a result, it can be difficult to prototype and evaluate approaches to transforming classrooms from static endpoints to dynamic, content-creating nodes in the online information ecosystem. But many scholastic journalism programs have already embraced the capabilities of the Internet for virtual collaboration, dissemination, and reader participation. Because of this, scholastic journalism can act as a test-bed for integrating web-based sharing and collaboration practices into classrooms. Student Journalism 2.0 was a research project to integrate open copyright licenses into two scholastic journalism programs, to document outcomes, and to identify recommendations and remaining challenges for similar integrations. Video and audio recordings of two participating high school journalism programs informed the research. In describing the steps of our integration process, we note some important legal, technical, and social challenges. Legal worries such as uncertainty over copyright ownership could lead districts and administrators to disallow open licensing of student work. Publication platforms among journalism classrooms are far from standardized, making any integration of new technologies and practices difficult to achieve at scale. And teachers and students face challenges re-conceptualizing the role their class work can play online.

Towards automated specifications of scenarios in enhanced learning technology

Recent standardization efforts in e-learning technology have resulted in a number of specifications, however, the automation process that is considered essential in a learning management system (LMS) is a lessexplored one. As learning technology becomes more widespread and more heterogeneous, there is a growing need to specify processes that cross the boundaries of a single LMS or learning resource repository. This article proposes to obtain a specification orientated to automation that takes on board the heterogeneity of systems and formats and provides a language for specifying complex and generic interactions. Having this goal in mind, a technique based on three steps is suggested. The semantic conformance profiles, the business process management (BPM) diagram, and its translation into the business process execution language (BPEL) seem to be suitable for achieving it.

An ontology to automated learning scenarios? an approach to its knowledge domain

Automation or semi-automation of learning scenariospecifications is one of the least exploredsubjects in the e-learning research area. There isa need for a catalogue of learning scenarios and atechnique to facilitate automated retrieval of stored specifications. This requires constructing anontology with this goal and is justified inthis paper. This ontology must mainlysupport a specification technique for learning scenarios. This ontology should also be useful in the creation and validation of new scenarios as well as in the personalization of learning scenarios or their monitoring. Thus, after justifying the need for this ontology, a first approach of a possible knowledge domain is presented. An example of a concrete learning scenario illustrates some relevant concepts supported by this ontology in order to define the scenario in such a way that it could be easy to automate.

Testing the FTPL across government tiers

Control on regional government budgets is important in a monetary union as lower tiers of government have fewer incentives to consolidate debt. According to the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level; unsustainable non-Ricardian fiscal policies eventually force monetary policy to adjust. Hence, uncoordinated and non-regulated regional fiscal policies would therefore threaten price stability for the monetary union as a whole. However, the union central bank is not without defense. A federal government that internalises the spillover effect of non-Ricardian fiscal policies on the price level can offset non-Ricardian regional fiscal policies. A federal government, which taxes and transfers resources between regions, may compensate for unsustainable regional fiscal policies so as to keep fiscal policy Ricardian on aggregate. Following Canzoneri et al. (2001), we test the validity of the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level for both federal and regional governments in Germany. We find evidence of a spillover effect of unsustainable policies on the price level for other Länder. However, the German federal government offsets this effect on the price level by running Ricardian policies. These results have implications for the regulation of fiscal policies in the EMU.

Automated flow-injection method for cadmium determination with pre-concentration and reagent preparation on-line

The spectrophotometric determination of Cd(II) using a flow injection system provided with a solid-phase reactor for cadmium preconcentration and on-line reagent preparation, is described. It is based on the formation of a dithizone-Cd complex in basic medium. The calibration curve is linear between 6 and 300 µg L-1 Cd(II), with a detection limit of 5.4 µg L-1, an RSD of 3.7% (10 replicates in duplicate) and a sample frequency of 11.4 h-1. The proposed method was satisfactorily applied to the determination of Cd(II) in surface, well and drinking waters.

A Markov chain analysis of emotional exchange in voice-to-voice communication: Testing for the mimicry hypothesis of emotional contagion

Mimicry is a central plank of the emotional contagion theory; however, it was only tested with facial and postural emotional stimuli. This study explores the existence of mimicry in voice-to-voice communication by analyzing 8,747 sequences of emotional displays between customers and employees in a call-center context. We listened live to 967 telephone inter-actions, registered the sequences of emotional displays, and analyzed them with a Markov chain. We also explored other propositions of emotional contagion theory that were yet to be tested in vocal contexts. Results supported that mimicry is significantly present at all levels. Our findings fill an important gap in the emotional contagion theory; have practical implications regarding voice-to-voice interactions; and open doors for future vocal mimicry research.

Quality standards in e-business software development

Large enterprises have for many years employed eBusiness solutions in order to improve their efficiency. Smaller companies, however, have not been able to leverage these technologies due to the high level of know-how and resources required in implementing them. To solve this, novel software services are being developed to facilitate eBusiness adoption for the small enterprise with the aim of making B2Bi feasible not only between large organisations but also between trading partners of all sizes. The objective of this study was to find what standards and techniques on eBusiness and software testing and quality assurance fit best for building these new kinds of software considering the requirements their unique eBusiness approach poses. The research was conducted as a literature study with focus on standards on software testing and quality assurance together with standards on eBusiness. The study showed that the current software testing and quality assurance standards do not possess such characteristics as would make select standards evidently better fitted for building this type of software, which were established to be best developed as web services in order for them to meet their requirements. A selection of eBusiness standards and technologies was proposed to support this approach. The main finding in the study was, however, that these kinds of web services that have high interoperability requirements will have to be able to carry out automated interoperability and conformance testing as part of their operation; this objective dictates how the software are built and how testing during software development is to be done. The study showed that research on automated interoperability and conformance testing for web services is still limited and more research is needed to make the building of highly-interoperable web services more feasible.

Determination of etoricoxib in human plasma using automated on-line solid-phase extraction coupled with LC-APCI/MS/MS

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (LC-APCI/MS/MS) was validated for the determination of etoricoxib in human plasma using antipyrin as internal standard, followed by on-line solid-phase extraction. The method was performed on a Luna C18 column and the mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile:water (95:5, v/v)/ammonium acetate (pH 4.0; 10 mM), run at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The method was linear in the range of 1-5000 ng/mL (r²>0.99). The lower limit of quantitation was 1 ng/mL. The recoveries were within 93.72-96.18%. Moreover, method validation demonstrated acceptable results for the precision, accuracy and stability studies.

Testing the Random Walk Hypothesis on the Baltic Stock Markets

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze whether the returns of general stock market indices of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania follow the random walk hypothesis (RWH), and in addition, whether they are consistent with the weak-form efficiency criterion. Also the existence of the day-of-the-week anomaly is examined in the same regional markets. The data consists of daily closing quotes of the OMX Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius total return indices for the sample period from January 3, 2000 to August 28, 2009. Moreover, the full sample period is also divided into two sub-periods. The RWH is tested by applying three quantitative methods (i.e. the Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, serial correlation test and non-parametric runs test). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with dummy variables is employed to detect the day-of-the-week anomalies. The random walk hypothesis (RWH) is rejected in the Estonian and Lithuanian stock markets. The Latvian stock market exhibits more efficient behaviour, although some evidence of inefficiency is also found, mostly during the first sub-period from 2000 to 2004. Day-of-the-week anomalies are detected on every stock market examined, though no longer during the later sub-period.

Web Application Performance Testing

Web application performance testing is an emerging and important field of software engineering. As web applications become more commonplace and complex, the need for performance testing will only increase. This paper discusses common concepts, practices and tools that lie at the heart of web application performance testing. A pragmatic, hands-on approach is assumed where applicable; real-life examples of test tooling, execution and analysis are presented right next to the underpinning theory. At the client-side, web application performance is primarily driven by the amount of data transmitted over the wire. At the server-side, selection of programming language and platform, implementation complexity and configuration are the primary contributors to web application performance. Web application performance testing is an activity that requires delicate coordination between project stakeholders, developers, system administrators and testers in order to produce reliable and useful results. Proper test definition, execution, reporting and repeatable test results are of utmost importance. Open-source performance analysis tools such as Apache JMeter, Firebug and YSlow can be used to realise effective web application performance tests. A sample case study using these tools is presented in this paper. The sample application was found to perform poorly even under the moderate load incurred by the sample tests.

THE APPLICATION OF AUTOMATED CORRELATION OPTIMIZED WARPING TO THE QUALITY EVALUATION OF Radix Puerariae thomsonii: CORRECTING RETENTION TIME SHIFT IN THE CHROMATOGRAPHIC FINGERPRINTS

The application of automated correlation optimized warping (ACOW) to the correction of retention time shift in the chromatographic fingerprints of Radix Puerariae thomsonii (RPT) was investigated. Twenty-seven samples were extracted from 9 batches of RPT products. The fingerprints of the 27 samples were established by the HPLC method. Because there is a retention time shift in the established fingerprints, the quality of these samples cannot be correctly evaluated by using similarity estimation and principal component analysis (PCA). Thus, the ACOW method was used to align these fingerprints. In the ACOW procedure, the warping parameters, which have a significant influence on the alignment result, were optimized by an automated algorithm. After correcting the retention time shift, the quality of these RPT samples was correctly evaluated by similarity estimation and PCA. It is demonstrated that ACOW is a practical method for aligning the chromatographic fingerprints of RPT. The combination of ACOW, similarity estimation, and PCA is shown to be a promising method for evaluating the quality of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Planning and ramping up a new SW Testing site

During recent years, mobile phone markets have changed significantly. Asian markets have become vital for the manufacturers with their millions of end users and multiple major mobile network operators. This has resulted in software development as global companies have research and development sites running in multiple locations, including Asia. The reasons behind this are not only in reducing labor costs but also in capitalizing on the local knowledge and knowhow. A ramp-up site has multiple effects in the software development and software release activities. This thesis focuses on representing the importance of software testing as part of software development process and highlighting issues that need to be considered during ramp-up activities. In addition this work tries to emphasize the importance of communication between parties and information gathering prior to setting up the ramp-up site. The output of this thesis was successful software testing site ramp-up within the set time limits. The quality of software testing work was assured and the ramp-up -project requirements were achieved.

Test automation scheme for LTE core network element

Modern sophisticated telecommunication devices require even more and more comprehensive testing to ensure quality. The test case amount to ensure well enough coverage of testing has increased rapidly and this increased demand cannot be fulfilled anymore only by using manual testing. Also new agile development models require execution of all test cases with every iteration. This has lead manufactures to use test automation more than ever to achieve adequate testing coverage and quality. This thesis is separated into three parts. Evolution of cellular networks is presented at the beginning of the first part. Also software testing, test automation and the influence of development model for testing are examined in the first part. The second part describes a process which was used to implement test automation scheme for functional testing of LTE core network MME element. In implementation of the test automation scheme agile development models and Robot Framework test automation tool were used. In the third part two alternative models are presented for integrating this test automation scheme as part of a continuous integration process. As a result, the test automation scheme for functional testing was implemented. Almost all new functional level testing test cases can now be automated with this scheme. In addition, two models for integrating this scheme to be part of a wider continuous integration pipe were introduced. Also shift from usage of a traditional waterfall model to a new agile development based model in testing stated to be successful.

A Survey and Classification of Software Testing Tools

Software testing is one of the essential parts in software engineering process. The objective of the study was to describe software testing tools and the corresponding use. The thesis contains examples of software testing tools usage. The study was conducted as a literature study, with focus on current software testing practices and quality assurance standards. In the paper a tool classifier was employed, and testing tools presented in study were classified according to it. We found that it is difficult to distinguish current available tools by certain testing activities as many of them contain functionality that exceeds scopes of a single testing type.

Stress testing practices in risk management - Empirical evidence from the Finnish banking and insurance sectors

The main purpose of this study was to analyze how stress tests are used in risk management in the Finnish banking and insurance sectors. In order to enhance understanding of the topic, stress testing was explored in the context of corporate governance and regulato-ry implications of Basel II and Solvency II on stress testing were examined. In addition, the effects of the global financial crisis on stress testing were mapped and the differences in stress testing practices between the banking and insurance sector were discussed. The research method was qualitative case study and it was conducted by interviewing risk managers from ten institutions and a representative from FIN-FSA. Findings pointed out that stress testing practices vary significantly between different institutions. Interesting observations were made in terms of stress testing practices in the banking and insurance sectors. The increasing importance and use of stress tests were recognized as a result of the financial crisis. Stress testing was even considered more like art than science given the amount of challenges it involves. In general, improvements in stress tests were suggested, with an emphasis on stress concentration between different types of risks.