Input quality matters: some comments on input type and age-effects in adult SLA.

In accord with the general program of researching factors relating to ultimate attainment and maturational constraints in adult language acquisition, this commentary highlights the importance of input differences in amount, type, and setting between naturalistic and classroom learners of an L2. It is suggested that these variables are often confounded with age factors. Herein, we wish to call attention to the possible deterministic role that the differences in the grammatical quality of classroom input have on development and on competence outcomes. Framing what we see as greater formal complexity of the learning task for classroom learners, we suggest that one might benefit from focusing less on difference and more on how classroom L2 learners, at least some of them, come to acquire all that they do despite crucial qualitative differences in their input.

Investigating the success of operational business process management systems

Business process management systems (BPMS) belong to a class of enterprise information systems that are characterized by the dependence on explicitly modeled process logic. Through the process logic, it is relatively easy to manage explicitly the routing and allocation of work items along a business process through the system. Inspired by the DeLone and McLean framework, we theorize that these process-aware system features are important attributes of system quality, which in turn will elevate key user evaluations such as perceived usefulness, and usage satisfaction. We examine this theoretical model using data collected from four different, mostly mature BPM system projects. Our findings validate the importance of input quality as well as allocation and routing attributes as antecedents of system quality, which, in turn, determines both usefulness and satisfaction with the system. We further demonstrate how service quality and workflow dependency are significant precursors to perceived usefulness. Our results suggest the appropriateness of a multi-dimensional conception of system quality for future research, and provide important design-oriented advice for the design and configuration of BPMSs.

eLearning im Sportstudium

In der gesamten Hochschullandschaft begleiten eLearning-Szenarien organisatorische Erneuerungsprozesse und stellen damit ein vielversprechendes Instrument zur Unterstützung und Verbesserung der klassischen Präsenzlehre dar. Davon ausgehend wurde von 2010 bis 2011 das Kasseler Sportspiel-Modell um die integrative Vermittlung der Einkontakt-Rückschlagspiele erweitert (Heyer, Albert, Scheid & Blömeke-Rumpf, 2011) und in einen modularisierten eLearning-Content, bestehend aus insgesamt 4 Modulen (17 Lernkurse, 171 Kursseiten, 73 Grafiken, 73 Videos, 38 Lernkontrollfragen), eingebunden. Dieser Content wurde im Rahmen einer Evaluationsstudie in Blended Learning Seminaren, welche die didaktischen Vorteile von Online- und Präsenzphasen zu einer Seminarform vereinen (Treumann, Ganguin & Arens, 2012), vergleichend zur klassischen Präsenzlehre im Sportstudium betrachtet. Die Studie gliedert sich in insgesamt drei Phasen: 1.) Pilotstudie am IfSS in Kassel (WS 2011/12; N=17, Lehramt), 2.) Hauptuntersuchung I am IfSS in Kassel (SS 2012; N=67, Lehramt) und 3.) Hauptuntersuchung II am IfS in Frankfurt a. M. (WS 2012/13; N=112, BA). Mittels varianzanalytischer Untersuchungsverfahren erfasst die Studie auf drei unterschiedlichen Qualitätsebenen folgende Aspekte der Lehr-Lernforschung: 1.) Ebene der Inputqualität: Bewertung der Seminarform (BS), 2.) Ebene der Prozessqualität: Motivation (SELLMO-ST), Lernstrategien (LIST) und computerbezogene Einstellung (FIDEC), 3.) Ebene der Outcomequalität: Lernleistung (Abschlusstest und Transferaufgabe). In der vergleichenden Betrachtung der beiden Hauptuntersuchungen erfolgt eine Gegenüberstellung von je einem Präsenzseminar zu zwei unterschiedlichen Varianten von Blended Learning Seminaren (BL-1, BL-2). Während der Online-Phasen bearbeiten die Sportstudierenden in BL-1 die Module in Lerngruppen. Die Teilnehmer in BL-2 führen in diesen Phasen zusätzlich persönliche Lerntagebücher. Dies soll zu einer vergleichsweise intensiveren Auseinandersetzung mit den Inhalten der Lernkurse sowie dem eigenen Lernprozess auf kognitiver und metakognitiver Ebene anregen (Hübner, Nückles & Renkl, 2007) und folglich zu besseren Ergebnissen auf den drei Qualitätsebenen führen. Die Ergebnisse der beiden Hauptuntersuchungen zeigen in der direkten, standortbezogenen Gegenüberstellung aller drei Seminarformen überwiegend keine statistisch signifikanten Unterschiede. Der erwartete positive Effekt durch die Einführung des Lerntagebuchs bleibt ebenfalls aus. Im standortübergreifenden Vergleich der Blended-Learning-Seminare ist bemerkenswert, dass die Probanden aus Frankfurt gegenüber ihrer Seminarform eine tendenziell kritischere Haltung einnehmen, was möglicherweise mit den vorherrschenden, unterschiedlichen Studiengängen – Lehramt und BA – korrespondiert. Zusammenfassend lässt sich somit für den untersuchten Bereich der Rückschlagspielvermittlung festhalten, dass Blended-Learning-Seminare eine qualitativ gleichwertige Alternative zur klassischen Präsenzlehre im Sportstudium darstellen.

Teoria da agência e franchising: evidência empírica para o caso brasileiro

O presente estudo tem um duplo objetivo: (i) analisar os determinantes da escolha das firmas por um modelo de franchising na estratégia de expansão de seus negócios, e (ii) analisar como os termos de um contrato de franchising podem potencialmente ser influenciados por questões relativas a compartilhamento de risco, problemas de incentivo relacionados ao risco moral (moral hazard) e restrições de recursos financeiros. Essa discussão se dará seguindo a abordagem empírica proposta por Lafontaine (1992). Os modelos são estimados a partir de dados para uma amostra de 350 redes de franquias brasileiras relativas ao ano de 2011. Os resultados sugerem que a definição do valor da taxa de royalties leva em conta os problemas decorrentes do risco moral por parte dos franqueados e do compartilhamento de risco. Em particular, nos negócios onde o esforço dos franqueados afeta significativamente a provisão dos serviços prestados, observa-se uma tendência de cobrança de menores taxas de royalties e uma relação positiva entre risco e incentivos, com a cobrança de menores taxas de royalties em setores de atividade com maior risco. Em relação ao percentual de unidades franqueadas, obteve-se resultados coerentes com a expectativa teórica para o problema de risco moral do franqueado, de modo que quanto mais importante o trabalho do agente, maior o índice. Entretanto, para a restrição de capital, contrário a expectativa teórica, quanto maior a disponibilidade de recursos maior o número de franquias.

Skill distribution and comparative advantage: a comparison of China and India

This paper empirically examines the different comparative advantages of two emerging economic giants, China and India, in relation to the different skill distribution patterns in each country. By utilizing industry export data on China and India from 1983 to 2000, we find that a country with a greater dispersion of skills (i.e., India, especially in the earlier years) has higher exports in industries with shorter production chains, whereas a country with a more equal dispersion of skills (i.e., China, especially in the later years) is found to have higher exports in industries with longer production chains. The causal relationship is fairly robust across different specifications. This empirical evidence supports our assumption that the likely mechanism for these results is the negative impact of low-skilled workers on input quality, which accumulates and becomes larger as the length of production chains and the proportion of low-skilled workers in the economy increase.

Skill sorting and production chains : evidence from India

This study proposes a new mechanism that explains skill-sorting patterns and skill wage differentials across industries based on the length of the industry's production chain. A simple simultaneous production model shows that when the quality of intermediate inputs deteriorates rapidly along the production chains, high-skilled individuals choose to work in industries with shorter production chains because of higher returns to skill. I empirically confirm this skill-sorting pattern and these inter-industry skill wage differentials in India, where the quality of intermediate inputs is likely to degrade rapidly because of the high number of unskilled laborers, poor infrastructure, and less-advantaged technology. The results remain robust even when considering selection bias, alternative reasons for inter-industry skill wage differentials, and a different period. The results of this study have important implications when considering countries' industrial development patterns.

Negative skill sorting across production chains

Previous literature generally predicts that individuals with higher skills work in industries with longer production chains. However, the opposite skill-sorting pattern, a "negative skill-sorting" phenomenon, is also observed in reality. This paper proposes a possible mechanism by which both cases can happen and shows that negative skill sorting is more likely to occur when the quality of intermediate inputs degrade rapidly (or improves slowly) along the production chain. We empirically confirm our theoretical prediction by using country-industry panel data. The results are robust regardless of estimation method, control variables, and industry coverage. This study has important implications for understanding countries' comparative advantages and development patterns.

Variability of input parameters related to pollutants build-up in stormwater quality modelling

The variability of input parameters is the most important source of overall model uncertainty. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the variability is essential for uncertainty analysis of stormwater quality model outputs. This paper presents the outcomes of a research study which investigated the variability of pollutants build-up characteristics on road surfaces in residential, commercial and industrial land uses. It was found that build-up characteristics vary highly even within the same land use. Additionally, industrial land use showed relatively higher variability of maximum build-up, build-up rate and particle size distribution, whilst the commercial land use displayed a relatively higher variability of pollutant-solid ratio. Among the various build-up parameters analysed, D50 (volume-median-diameter) displayed the relatively highest variability for all three land uses.

Impact of US Brown Swiss genetics on milk quality from low-input herds in Switzerland: interactions with grazing intake and pasture type

This study investigated the effect of, and interactions between, contrasting crossbreed genetics (US Brown Swiss [BS] × Improved Braunvieh [BV] × Original Braunvieh [OB]) and feeding regimes (especially grazing intake and pasture type) on milk fatty acid (FA) profiles. Concentrations of total polyunsaturated FAs, total omega-3 FAs and trans palmitoleic, vaccenic, α-linolenic, eicosapentaenoic and docosapentaenoic acids were higher in cows with a low proportion of BS genetics. Highest concentrations of the nutritionally desirable FAs, trans palmitoleic, vaccenic and eicosapentaenoic acids were found for cows with a low proportion of BS genetics (0-24% and/or 25-49%) on high grazing intake (75-100% of dry matter intake) diets. Multivariate analysis indicated that the proportion of OB genetics is a positive driver for nutritionally desirable monounsaturated and polyunsaturated FAs while BS genetics proportion was positive driver for total and undesirable individual saturated FAs. Significant genetics × feeding regime interactions were also detected for a range of FAs.

Memoirs of a trainer : The search for a balance between quality and best practice

The field of research training (for students and supervisors) is becoming more heavily regulated by the Federal Government. At the same time, quality improvement imperatives are requiring staff across the University to have better access to information and knowledge about a wider range of activities each year. Within the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the training provided to academic and research staff is organised differently and individually. This session will involve discussion of the dichotomies found in this differentiated approach to staff training, and begin a search for best practice through interaction and input from the audience.

Port of Brisbane stormwater quality : stage 2 development of a port specific water quality model

Background: The quality of stormwater runoff from ports is significant as it can be an important source of pollution to the marine environment. This is also a significant issue for the Port of Brisbane as it is located in an area of high environmental values. Therefore, it is imperative to develop an in-depth understanding of stormwater runoff quality to ensure that appropriate strategies are in place for quality improvement, where necessary. To this end, the Port of Brisbane Corporation aimed to develop a port specific stormwater model for the Fisherman Islands facility. The need has to be considered in the context of the proposed future developments of the Port area. ----------------- The Project: The research project is an outcome of the collaborative Partnership between the Port of Brisbane Corporation (POBC) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT). A key feature of this Partnership is that it seeks to undertake research to assist the Port in strengthening the environmental custodianship of the Port area through ‘cutting edge’ research and its translation into practical application. ------------------ The project was separated into two stages. The first stage developed a quantitative understanding of the generation potential of pollutant loads in the existing land uses. This knowledge was then used as input for the stormwater quality model developed in the subsequent stage. The aim is to expand this model across the yet to be developed port expansion area. This is in order to predict pollutant loads associated with stormwater flows from this area with the longer term objective of contributing to the development of ecological risk mitigation strategies for future expansion scenarios. ----------------- Study approach: Stage 1 of the overall study confirmed that Port land uses are unique in terms of the anthropogenic activities occurring on them. This uniqueness in land use results in distinctive stormwater quality characteristics different to other conventional urban land uses. Therefore, it was not scientifically valid to consider the Port as belonging to a single land use category or to consider as being similar to any typical urban land use. The approach adopted in this study was very different to conventional modelling studies where modelling parameters are developed using calibration. The field investigations undertaken in Stage 1 of the overall study helped to create fundamental knowledge on pollutant build-up and wash-off in different Port land uses. This knowledge was then used in computer modelling so that the specific characteristics of pollutant build-up and wash-off can be replicated. This meant that no calibration processes were involved due to the use of measured parameters for build-up and wash-off. ---------------- Conclusions: Stage 2 of the study was primarily undertaken using the SWMM stormwater quality model. It is a physically based model which replicates natural processes as closely as possible. The time step used and catchment variability considered was adequate to accommodate the temporal and spatial variability of input parameters and the parameters used in the modelling reflect the true nature of rainfall-runoff and pollutant processes to the best of currently available knowledge. In this study, the initial loss values adopted for the impervious surfaces are relatively high compared to values noted in research literature. However, given the scientifically valid approach used for the field investigations, it is appropriate to adopt the initial losses derived from this study for future modelling of Port land uses. The relatively high initial losses will reduce the runoff volume generated as well as the frequency of runoff events significantly. Apart from initial losses, most of the other parameters used in SWMM modelling are generic to most modelling studies. Development of parameters for MUSIC model source nodes was one of the primary objectives of this study. MUSIC, uses the mean and standard deviation of pollutant parameters based on a normal distribution. However, based on the values generated in this study, the variation of Event Mean Concentrations (EMCs) for Port land uses within the given investigation period does not fit a normal distribution. This is possibly due to the fact that only one specific location was considered, namely the Port of Brisbane unlike in the case of the MUSIC model where a range of areas with different geographic and climatic conditions were investigated. Consequently, the assumptions used in MUSIC are not totally applicable for the analysis of water quality in Port land uses. Therefore, in using the parameters included in this report for MUSIC modelling, it is important to note that it may result in under or over estimations of annual pollutant loads. It is recommended that the annual pollutant load values given in the report should be used as a guide to assess the accuracy of the modelling outcomes. A step by step guide for using the knowledge generated from this study for MUSIC modelling is given in Table 4.6. ------------------ Recommendations: The following recommendations are provided to further strengthen the cutting edge nature of the work undertaken: * It is important to further validate the approach recommended for stormwater quality modelling at the Port. Validation will require data collection in relation to rainfall, runoff and water quality from the selected Port land uses. Additionally, the recommended modelling approach could be applied to a soon-to-be-developed area to assess ‘before’ and ‘after’ scenarios. * In the modelling study, TSS was adopted as the surrogate parameter for other pollutants. This approach was based on other urban water quality research undertaken at QUT. The validity of this approach should be further assessed for Port land uses. * The adoption of TSS as a surrogate parameter for other pollutants and the confirmation that the <150 m particle size range was predominant in suspended solids for pollutant wash-off gives rise to a number of important considerations. The ability of the existing structural stormwater mitigation measures to remove the <150 m particle size range need to be assessed. The feasibility of introducing source control measures as opposed to end-of-pipe measures for stormwater quality improvement may also need to be considered.

Perception Quality Evaluation with Visual and Infrared Cameras in Challenging Environmental Conditions

This work aims to contribute to the reliability and integrity of perceptual systems of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). A method is proposed to evaluate the quality of sensor data prior to its use in a perception system by utilising a quality metric applied to heterogeneous sensor data such as visual and infrared camera images. The concept is illustrated specifically with sensor data that is evaluated prior to the use of the data in a standard SIFT feature extraction and matching technique. The method is then evaluated using various experimental data sets that were collected from a UGV in challenging environmental conditions, represented by the presence of airborne dust and smoke. In the first series of experiments, a motionless vehicle is observing a ’reference’ scene, then the method is extended to the case of a moving vehicle by compensating for its motion. This paper shows that it is possible to anticipate degradation of a perception algorithm by evaluating the input data prior to any actual execution of the algorithm.

Visual metrics for the evaluation of sensor data quality in outdoor perception

This paper proposes an experimental study of quality metrics that can be applied to visual and infrared images acquired from cameras onboard an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The relevance of existing metrics in this context is discussed and a novel metric is introduced. Selected metrics are evaluated on data collected by a UGV in clear and challenging environmental conditions, represented in this paper by the presence of airborne dust or smoke. An example of application is given with monocular SLAM estimating the pose of the UGV while smoke is present in the environment. It is shown that the proposed novel quality metric can be used to anticipate situations where the quality of the pose estimate will be significantly degraded due to the input image data. This leads to decisions of advantageously switching between data sources (e.g. using infrared images instead of visual images).

Emergency department models of care in the context of care quality and cost: A systematic review

To identify current ED models of care and their impact on care quality, care effectiveness, and cost. A systematic search of key health databases (Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane, EMbase) was conducted to identify literature on ED models of care. Additionally, a focused review of the contents of 11 international and national emergency medicine, nursing and health economic journals (published between 2010 and 2013) was undertaken with snowball identification of references of the most recent and relevant papers. Articles published between 1998 and 2013 in the English language were included for initial review by three of the authors. Studies in underdeveloped countries and not addressing the objectives of the present study were excluded. Relevant details were extracted from the retrieved literature, and analysed for relevance and impact. The literature was synthesised around the study's main themes. Models described within the literature mainly focused on addressing issues at the input, throughput or output stages of ED care delivery. Models often varied to account for site specific characteristics (e.g. onsite inpatient units) or to suit staffing profiles (e.g. extended scope physiotherapist), ED geographical location (e.g. metropolitan or rural site), and patient demographic profile (e.g. paediatrics, older persons, ethnicity). Only a few studies conducted cost-effectiveness analysis of service models. Although various models of delivering emergency healthcare exist, further research is required in order to make accurate and reliable assessments of their safety, clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

No-reference image quality assessment using modified extreme learning machine classifier

In this paper, we present a machine learning approach to measure the visual quality of JPEG-coded images. The features for predicting the perceived image quality are extracted by considering key human visual sensitivity (HVS) factors such as edge amplitude, edge length, background activity and background luminance. Image quality assessment involves estimating the functional relationship between HVS features and subjective test scores. The quality of the compressed images are obtained without referring to their original images ('No Reference' metric). Here, the problem of quality estimation is transformed to a classification problem and solved using extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm. In ELM, the input weights and the bias values are randomly chosen and the output weights are analytically calculated. The generalization performance of the ELM algorithm for classification problems with imbalance in the number of samples per quality class depends critically on the input weights and the bias values. Hence, we propose two schemes, namely the k-fold selection scheme (KS-ELM) and the real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA-ELM) to select the input weights and the bias values such that the generalization performance of the classifier is a maximum. Results indicate that the proposed schemes significantly improve the performance of ELM classifier under imbalance condition for image quality assessment. The experimental results prove that the estimated visual quality of the proposed RCGA-ELM emulates the mean opinion score very well. The experimental results are compared with the existing JPEG no-reference image quality metric and full-reference structural similarity image quality metric.