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In the future, learning will be essentially characterized by the ability to regulate the learning process and monitor success independently from a teacher. The technical possibilities offer better access to learning contents, precise and more individualized feedback, and learning phases adapted precisely to the needs of the learner in terms of scope and pace. In this study, we investigate an important aspect of the digitization of teaching/learning processes using the example of laboratory scripts for chemistry students at university. The focus is on looking up terms and concepts in preparation for the lab internships, firstly in a paper-based glossary and secondly in a digital glossary. During a two-day study, a total of 16 students prepared for experiments on two topics with completely identical materials. We then studied the influence of content knowledge, motivation, and cognitive load. While all students show significant learning achievements, there are no significant differences between the groups. Furthermore, results show that pure digitization of information has no effect, despite the theoretically assumed advantages.

"Decolonizing Geography: An Introduction" by Sarah A. Radcliffe explores the decolonization of Anglophone geographical curricula. The book emphasizes the importance of approaching fieldwork with humility, respecting local knowledge, and avoiding the imposition of Western paradigms. It calls for action to avoid blinders, respect counternarratives, question official histories, acknowledge privilege, employ collaborative research, and entertain alternative epistemologies. The book also highlights the significance of indigenous environmental knowledge in physical geography and addresses the lack of diversity in the discipline. Overall, "Decolonizing Geography" offers a comprehensive exploration of decolonial approaches in geography and provides practical examples and suggestions for further research. [Extracted from the article]

"Near Woods: A Year in an Allegheny Forest" by Kevin Patrick is a book that explores the natural and cultural phenomena of White's Woods, a 500-acre stand of mixed hardwood forest near Indiana, Pennsylvania. The author, who has lived in the area for three decades, highlights the beauty and richness of this local sylvan gem, emphasizing the importance of appreciating and exploring the forests in our own backyards. The book combines geomorphological, natural historical, and physical and cultural geographic background to provide a comprehensive understanding of the area. Through vivid prose and stunning photography, Patrick invites readers to stop, listen, and interpret the wonders of nature. [Extracted from the article]

The main purpose of this research is to examine the effect of the technology integration model-based application example on some reading variables of primary school freshmen. For this purpose, the research was designed in a single-group post-test weak experimental design and a single-group pre-test-post-test weak experimental design. The study group of the research consists of 30 freshmen studying in a branch of a primary school at the middle socioeconomic level determined by criterion sampling method. Dependent t-test and descriptive statistics analysis were used in the analysis of the research data. The application example based on the technology integration model has been effective in the development of phonological awareness skills of primary school freshmen, their transition time to reading, and their reading speed and levels on paper and screen. It was determined that primary school freshmen made fewer reading errors in reading on screen than reading on paper, and the students' reading levels from the screen were better. It was determined that students' attitudes towards reading were quite high.

I The Digital City i is not about the separation of digital and physical environments, nor is it about the digital permeation of physical environments, but rather about how digital media can be used to build and reinforce a physical sense of place. Halegoua puts digital media front and center as the latest communications technology to shape the urban landscape. I The Digital City i finds a home within research questions regarding smart city development, media and communications technology, and cultural geographies. [Extracted from the article]

Recently, electronic books (e-books) have become prevalent amongst the general population, as well as students, owing to their advantages over traditional books. In South Africa, a number of schools have integrated tablets into the classroom with the promise of replacing traditional books. In order to realise the potential of e-books and their associated devices within an academic context, where reading speed and comprehension are critical for academic performance and personal growth, the effectiveness of reading from a tablet screen should be evaluated. To achieve this objective, a quasi-experimental within-subjects design was employed in order to compare the reading speed and comprehension performance of 68 students. The results of this study indicate the majority of participants read faster on an iPad, which is in contrast to previous studies that have found reading from tablets to be slower. It was also found that comprehension scores did not differ significantly between the two media. For students, these results provide evidence that tablets and e-books are suitable tools for reading and learning, and therefore, can be used for academic work. For educators, e-books can be introduced without concern that reading performance and comprehension will be hindered.

Communication skills are soft skills critical for students' development in educational institutions in the digital age. This study aims to determine the feasibility and practicality of a learning model, which combines digital storytelling with a metacognitive strategy called the DSTMC model. This learning model utilized digital storytelling as a primary learning step and integrated metacognitive strategies to monitor the thinking process to improve students' communication, such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and presentation skills. The research was conducted through case studies at a regional, southern Thailand university. The data were collected from 30 undergraduate participants. The research instruments were expert validation, pre-/post-test data, and a self-assessment questionnaire. The study showed that the DSTMC learning model is an alternative teaching method to improve communication skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The results of students' test scores and self-assessments provide significant evidence indicating that it increases their learning and retention of information. The paper concludes with suggestions for using various strategies and motivating activities to encourage learners' communication proficiency. Future research should investigate the creation of a system to track how learners improve their communication skills.

In this paper, we discuss the design and development of an eBook titled "Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life," which serves as an open educational resource for the eighth-grade Massachusetts social studies curriculum standards. This design case offers an example of an interactive, student-centered, multimodal, multicultural open-access eBook.

This paper discusses how the William G. Squires Library conducted a usability study on their LibGuides to identify student design preferences. The results of the study support previous research concerning best practices for LibGuide creation. This paper offers insight into how librarian-centric design hinders student success and provides suggestions for how to best develop a student-centric template design that offers consistency and increased user proficiency across all guides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors influencing the backing process of the book block spine are determined and their priorities are established. The method of backing the spine of book blocks in the production of publications by the method of perfect binding is proposed. This method involves gluing the backing-captal braid to the spine of the block with a pre-applied adhesive layer. The positive influence of the presence of the adhesive layer of a certain thickness on the physical and mechanical characteristics of the backing material is determined. It is established that the thickness of the blocks, the type of paper, from which the publications are made, and the direction of the cutting of the backing material is influenced by the process of backing the spine. With the growth of the tension deformation of backing materials from 1.2% (for kraft paper) to 3.8% (for the backing braid), the stability of the spine zone of the block increases to damage in the process of multiple flippers. The investigated materials in the longitudinal direction are more durable than in the transverse in 2-2.5 times, so the backed blocks can withstand 4,800 to 15,000 flippers when using kraft paper and backing braid, respectively. With the help of optical microscopy, changes in the structure of the backing-captal braid after the multiple flippers of the book block have been investigated. It is shown that the strength of the binding of a book block depends on the choice of the method of backing. In the process of optimizing the parameters of backing the block root, various variants of linear models were tested, which are described by the functions of the dependences of the breaking forces in the longitudinal or transverse directions Z on the thickness of the block Tb. The allowable elongation of the edging material for its longitudinal and transverse cuttingV is also taken into account. The obtained models allow for the particular type of paper to pick up the necessary backing materials, which will provide a sufficient strength to the perfect binding book blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has been inspired by Jacques Derrida's statement revealing that his philosophical writings were mostly devoted to paper. "I have the impression," he said, "(the impression!-- what a word, already) that I have never had any other subject basically, paper, paper, paper" (Derrida, 2005, p. 41). My paper addresses this thrice repeated noun as a name not so much of a material object on which we scribble, but as a space between the spirit and the letter, a space which turns out to be ineradicable even at the time of paper's alleged eradication in the e-textual age, which may be called a fin de livre culture. This end of the book, I argue, is a highly provisional declaration of the beginning of a paperless era of digitized media, which are not quite capable of eradicating various traces and spectres of paper haunting their own theorizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Purpose: The exorbitant cost of traditional textbooks, which particularly impact low-income, underrepresented minority groups, can be a barrier to student success in higher education that contributes to educational inequities. The aim of this multi-methodology study, conducted at a mid-Atlantic minority-serving institution that serves primarily first-generation and lower-income learners, is to explore the impact of, and student satisfaction with, a one-price per-semester unlimited e-book subscription service and digital learning solution that includes a number of embedded interactive features, adaptive student learning activities, and learning outcome assessments. In addition, the paper is purposed to inform individuals in higher education so that they can make knowledgeable decisions when considering various book acquisition options. Background: A mid-Atlantic minority-serving institution becomes an early adopter of a one-price per semester unlimited e-book and interactive digital learning subscription service. Following adoption, a quantitative assessment regime was conducted to inform the institution. Methodology: Pass-fail rates for selected courses were compared before and following implementation and cost savings estimates in U.S. dollars were generated in collaboration with the bookstore and publisher. Additionally, student satisfaction and perceived learning efficacy survey were created and distributed. Contribution: This paper contributes significantly to the literature as it includes a population that is frequently neglected in studies that primarily are concentrated at traditionally white institutions (TWIs) with very low enrollments of Black students. Findings: A positive increase in course pass rates was found. Most students expressed having been concerned about paying for books in prior semesters, that college textbooks cost too much, have struggled to purchase textbooks in the past, believe that the subscription plan helps students save money, and would like to see widespread adoption. With respect to the digital learning solution, the students found it easy to use, appreciated the integrated interactive features, believed the system helped them to learn more and stay on schedule, and were largely in agreement that they would like it adopted in more of their classes. When correlations, crosstabulations, and Chi-Square tests were conducted, students who indicated having the greatest financial concerns were stronger in their satisfaction with the unlimited e-book subscription plan and most likely to want to see a similar plan adopted in all of their courses. Recommendations for Practitioners: To better meet the needs of students, remove barriers to student success, and improve student learning outcomes, universities must play a role in delivering affordable student-centered course content. Recommendation for Researchers: E-book subscription services are a relatively new model and one that requires extensive exploration in order to examine the impact on student learning outcomes as well as perceived learner satisfaction. Impact on Society: The implications of this study are that the adoption of an unlimited e-book subscription that includes access to high-quality digital learning resources positions institutions of higher education well in the instance of a global pandemic or other catastrophic events that causes the sudden pivot to remote instruction. Additionally, such a system has both a positive impact on student achievement as well as perceived favorably by students. Further, the adoption of a low-cost subscription option is particularly beneficial to students who struggle financially. Future Research: It is the goal of the authors to partner with scholars at a broad range of institutions to further extend this line of inquiry.

The increasing presence of e-books (electronic books) has become a major focus in countries around the world. In the United States, e-books represented 28% of the total book sales for 2012. In Japan, the conversion from paper books to e-books is expected to accelerate by the prevalent use of smartphones and tablet PCs. It is therefore important to quantitatively evaluate the environmental load of paper books and e-books for a sustainable society. In this study, paper books are compared to e-books read on different electronic devices (e-ink tablets, tablets, cell phones, smartphones, laptop computers, desktop computers and portable music players) through a case study on a 224-page book. The study is based on key primary data such as use time and reading speed for each device and aims to minimize assumptions made in other studies. GHG emissions for paper books are 1.24 kg-CO 2 e/book, and are reduced to 1.11 kg-CO 2 e/book when the effect of paper recycling is taken into consideration. The results for e-books under average use-time conditions range from 0.25 to 0.91 kg-CO 2 e/book with the e-ink tablet having the lowest emissions. When the average use time of each e-book device is applied, the paper book has a higher impact than all the e-books. However, sensitivity analysis shows that the impact of paper books can be lower than that of e-books for larger screen devices such as tablets, laptops and desktops when the reuse of books is considered or the e-book reading device is hardly used during its life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous sources of data that are traditionally used by small businesses and entrepreneurship researchers, primarily from government entities, have not caught-up with actual conditions on the ground. COVID-19's impact on the social and economic picture around the globe has been like watching a train wreck taking place on "Main Street" in slow motion. Doomsday "preppers" and at least some of their prognostications and suggestions moved towards the mainstream, having greater acceptance than before. One of the more popular books on Amazon, covering the topic of canning and preserving foods, was on backorder for at least several weeks, and as of the time of this writing, it has been months since one could easily acquire canning supplies such as jar lids on retailers' shelves. There were shortages on major websites of sewing machines, elastic, and other materials--even those that are substitute goods such as coffee filters, when individuals and groups engaged in making their own masks. Panic buying also wiped out inventories of hand sanitizers, disinfecting aerosol sprays, bleach, toilet paper, and numerous other products that consumers felt they might need, including guns and ammunition. A vast majority of businesses have not fared well. Hospitality, tourism, and the restaurant industries have been hit hard, and there are also disparate impacts among certain demographic groups relative to small-business owners. Bad actors are also hard at work, launching scams. Many have essential items for resale on websites such as Craigslist and eBay. This research presents a systematic review of the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses. It further examines the phenomenon in a broader socioeconomic and cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amazon's Kindle is one of many e-book readers currently available to the public. These e-book readers implement an electrophoretic display or e-paper technology which may have ramifications for libraries and publishing. Due to its low energy consumption, low heat production, and thin and portable form factor, e-paper stands to revolutionize how we access and consume information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Academic journals provide a key quality-control mechanism in science. Yet, information asymmetries and conflicts of interests incentivize scientists to deceive journals about the quality of their research. How can honesty be ensured, despite incentives for deception? Here, we address this question by applying the theory of honest signaling to the publication process. Our models demonstrate that several mechanisms can ensure honest journal submission, including differential benefits, differential costs, and costs to resubmitting rejected papers. Without submission costs, scientists benefit from submitting all papers to high-ranking journals, unless papers can only be submitted a limited number of times. Counterintuitively, our analysis implies that inefficiencies in academic publishing (e.g., arbitrary formatting requirements, long review times) can serve a function by disincentivizing scientists from submitting low-quality work to high-ranking journals. Our models provide simple, powerful tools for understanding how to promote honest paper submission in academic publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book is the outcome of one or several authors and reaches us, the readers, under various forms. The first forms of a book were the clay tablets and papyrus sheets. Later, people commenced to write calligraphic texts, excerpts from the Bible accompanied by images, and so the manuscript was born. The discovery of printing by Johann Gutenberg revolutionized the book format and the printed book helped reduce conception time, increase print-run and book dissemination over a wider territory. The digital book represented a step forward and a new book format which is familiar to us today. The book, either in print or digital form, fulfils its purpose to train and educate. My article focuses on the classical and electronic forms of books and highlights their contribution to communities' personality and culture. Books are made to circulate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a pilot project conducted Spring 2021 in which Milner Library licensed seventy-five assigned texts to fifty-two courses at Illinois State University. The authors used the pilot as a springboard to explore faculty perspectives on textbook selection, textbook affordability, and the role of the academic library in addressing the rising cost of textbooks. The results highlight the strong and often deeply personal beliefs faculty hold about textbook selection and textbook affordability, reveal several obstacles to achieving affordable access to course readings, and demonstrate the willingness of some faculty to partner with librarians and other institutional stakeholders to explore more affordable access to assigned resources.

In this work the peculiarities of reading comprehension from electronic, audio devices and hard copies were studied through comparative analysis of the learning accuracy and electrical activity of the brain when reading or listening to the text. Eighty students took part in the research. They were offered 2 passages of text from fiction and popular-scientific literature for reading, presented in a form of an e-book, MP3-format and in a printed copy. The level of comprehension and assimilation of the read material was checked by testing based on the content of the text immediately after reading and in 2 weeks. The comparative EEG analysis did not reveal significant differences in the spectral power of the studied ranges when reading a paper book and e-book. Differences were found when listening to audiobooks comparatively to reading. In general, the effectiveness of text learning does not depend on the way of its presentation, however, sex and individual traits of a person, such as preferred learning style and extraversion level, are more important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There were few papers for interdisciplinary integration of Scratch programming, English learning, and local cultures as far as the digital animated E-book creation of elementary schools was concerned. This article proposes an interdisciplinary innovative teaching mode, with college students as teachers, Scratch programming and English learning as tools, and a local legend The Wind Chasers of Siraya as material for schoolchildren in a remote area of Taiwan. Schoolchildren were divided into four groups, and each group was responsible for a part, and finally these four parts were integrated into a complete animated English picture book with images, sound, music, and games. The purpose is to enhance the acquisition and learning of information technology and English application among schoolchildren in the remote area. Participants were evaluated in accordance with their learning motivation, self-efficacy, and learning effect. The self-efficacy scale was designed from three dimensions of the self-efficacy theory presented by Bandura and the syllabus of five functions in Scratch. The teaching effects were investigated with paired sample t test. The results of these assessments revealed that schoolchildren's learning motivation has been elevated, with a significant improvement of self-efficacy and overall learning achievement. In addition, the post-test revealed that Scratch programming and English learning from the culture-based illustration book had significant correlation, which suggested that the overall program successfully integrated these two subjects.

Digital reading is now an important way for children to read. This article defines the concept of children's digital reading based on the current situation, reading needs, and research progress of reading promotion methods. Aiming at the problem that only simple matching method is used for entity extraction in BAG model, this paper proposes an entity extraction method based on reference words and an entity graph construction method based on problem-related entities. Experiments on data sets verify the effectiveness of the model. The results show that the BAG model is improved by 2.4% on the verification set and 4.1% on the test set, which proves the effectiveness of the improved method. Based on the graph convolution algorithm of the central node, the local subgraph convolution and the global graph convolution are connected in the entity graph behind the central node, so that the model can obtain local and global information at the same time and enhance the reasoning ability of the model.

Printed books would be about to die in front of the advantages offered by the digital world. But for 750 million illiterates over 15 worldwide, for two-thirds women (UNESCO, 2017), literature does not go through digital or printing on paper. There is also a disturbing degree of returning or functional illiteracy, significantly affecting a part of European population. Starting from an idea of literature that is above all the art of the word, the article analyzes the (in)utility of digital media compared to the emotional impact and prestige possessed by printed books; the relationship between e-books and printed books in the self-publishing sector; the importance of the human voice as an ancient and very modern means of telling stories and conveying emotions. Recent statistical data (e.g. Pepe Research, 2020) show the success of audiobooks and podcasts in Covid times, in Italy and in the "Westernworld", and for some types of disabilities. The article underlines the need to recompose the competition between digital and printed books into a fruitful collaboration. Finally, it is highlighted that the voice is, still today and everywhere - from the hi-tech world to African storytellers -an extraordinary tool to produce and promote knowledge about literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research field on textbooks for Music Education is relatively recent, a fact that brings yet a timid corpus or researches. Concerning digital textbooks, those researches are even scarcer. This paper discusses the digital solutions for Music Education in basic schooling in Brazil, and elect as study objects the «Teacher's digital textbooks» for Art/Music Education, distributed by the Brazilian federal textbook program known as PNLD, in its 2020 edition. The theoretical framework is related to "manualistics" and studies connected to the concepts of schooling culture. The main method of this research is the document analysis taking as object the twenty eight digital art/music textbooks approved by the 2020 PNLD program. The results show that: digital textbooks became a reality in the Brazilian public textbook programs; the nature of those textbooks are still being shaped what is revealed by a variety of contours and structures, different of what happens in the printed version of textbooks, usually seen as more uniformed; the didactic models of those digital textbooks are, in general, still conservative, revealing a tendency of maintaining methodological models of the printed books. Finely, this research allows highlighting the efforts in offering better Art/Music digital textbooks to Brazilian students, enabling a dialogue with aspects of the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, electronic books (e-books) have become prevalent amongst the general population, as well as students, owing to their advantages over traditional books. In South Africa, a number of schools have integrated tablets into the classroom with the promise of replacing traditional books. In order to realise the potential of e-books and their associated devices within an academic context, where reading speed and comprehension are critical for academic performance and personal growth, the effectiveness of reading from a tablet screen should be evaluated. To achieve this objective, a quasi-experimental withinsubjects design was employed in order to compare the reading speed and comprehension performance of 68 students. The results of this study indicate the majority of participants read faster on an iPad, which is in contrast to previous studies that have found reading from tablets to be slower. It was also found that comprehension scores did not differ significantly between the two media. For students, these results provide evidence that tablets and e-books are suitable tools for reading and learning, and therefore, can be used for academic work. For educators, e-books can be introduced without concern that reading performance and comprehension will be hindered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study investigated how 23 students adapted to using a completely online textbook in lieu of a traditional paper text. All were enrolled in a single advanced MSW practice course. A variety of adaptation styles evolved. The students' primary strategy was to revert to making paper copies when permitted to do so instead of reading the assigned materials online. While a few students adapted to the electronic textbook, most generally did not because of interface design, time constraints, and study strategies. Implications for further research on relying completely on electronically-distributed reading materials are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology is changing the way we read, with printed material being replaced by electronically published text such as e-books and e-newspapers. Although digitally published texts offer some advantages over printed material in terms of cost and ease of access, it is not immediately clear whether e-reading is environmentally a more sustainable alternative to conventional reading. Therefore, this paper reviews the literature and compares the environmental impacts of the two reading alternatives, taking a life cycle approach. The review of various studies indicates that there are large variations in the impacts for e-readers as well as the printed material, mainly owing to different assumptions. Nevertheless, the results of this work indicate clearly that e-reading can only be environmentally sustainable at very high usage rates, as manufacturing of e-readers has relatively high environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to assess the extent to which die digital book market is structuring independently from the print edition market by comparing the pricing of 559 digital and print French and American bestsellers during 2011. Two pricing methods are distinguished: "homothetic pricing," where the digital pricing is a reflection of the print pricing, and "heterothetic pricing," where the digital price is set according to new rules. The French and American markets do not have the same propensity to overcome the pricing practices in the print book market: While the French market's e-book structure is mirroring that of the print book industry, die American market tends to be more independent. This can be explained by die significant structural, legal, and institutional differences between the publishing industries of both countries. In addition, some factors favor die "heterothetic" pricing method: the number of pages and the type of book influence the degree of differentiation between print and digital prices of the same title [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging debate over whether print or online publishing is better for the environment is complicated by the fact that there is not yet a measurement system that publishers, readers, librarians and other interested parties can go by. Both mediums have their pros and cons. Paper is made from a renewable resource, but the supply chain involved in getting a book from printer to reader is extremely inefficient, both economically and in terms of climate impact. E-books and databases have a considerable environmental impact due to the way they are stored as well as the necessary electronics needed to access them, but professionals as well as the public often assume e-publications are better for the environment. The industry needs ways to quantify its ecological footprint before it can make informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the development of a color version of electronic paper (e-paper) by E Ink. According Sriram K. Peruvemba, E Ink's vice president of marketing, e-paper could be used in a number of applications such as electronic books, electronic magazines, tablet personal computers (PC), cellular telephones and other handheld devices. The technology makes use of millions of tiny microcapsules and in the monochromatic version, each microcapsule contains positively charged white and negatively charged black particles suspended in clear fluid.

The author ponders on issues related to the potential demise of libraries and books due to technological innovations. He describes how technology trends have influenced changes in library systems such as the use of online catalogs and provisions of public access terminals for Internet use. Aside from books, he stresses that libraries also offer study spaces and computing areas to its users. He also comments on the increasing popularity of electronic books (e-books) over printed ones.

This Open Praxis issue includes five research papers, one innovative practice paper and one book review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capitalisation on and transfer of technological, engineering and scientific knowledge associated with empirical know-how is an important issue for the sustainability and development of manufacturing. Indeed, certain sectors of industry are facing the increasing ageing of the labour force, recruitment difficulties and high staff turnover, leading to a loss of knowledge and know-how. In a context of numerical and digital transition and the migration of processes to industry 4.0, one of major challenges manufacturers face today is their capacity to build intelligent platforms for acquiring, storing and transferring their know-how and knowledge. It is crucial to create new media and tools for staff training and development capable of capturing knowledge and reusing it to create a project history through expertise and data collection. This paper presents the methodology and guidelines for implementing electronic knowledge books (eK-Books), along with their uses. The eK-Book is a semantic web-based hypertext medium (channel) allowing stakeholders to capitalise on, structure and transfer knowledge by using concept maps, process maps, influence graphs, downloadable documents, web pages and hypermedia knowledge sheets. They are intended for engineers, expert or novice technicians, manufacturers, sector coordinators and plant managers, as well as trainers and learners. They are usable and manageable in all types of environments and with different levels of accessibility. This paper highlights (1) the transfer knowledge capacity of eK-Books and (2) their usability in two agri-food sectors namely (1) the cheese sector with protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI), and (2) the butchery and cold meat sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel loss function, the boundary Gaussian distance loss, designed to enhance character segmentation in high-resolution scans of old metal-type printed documents. Despite various printing defects caused by low-quality printing technology in the 14th and 15th centuries, the proposed loss function allows the segmentation network to accurately extract character strokes that can be attributed to the typeface of the movable metal type used for printing. Our method calculates deviation between the boundary of predicted character strokes and the counterpart of the ground-truth strokes. Diverging from traditional Euclidean distance metrics, our approach determines the deviation indirectly utilizing boundary pixel-value difference over a Gaussian-smoothed version of the stroke boundary. This approach helps extract characters with smooth boundaries efficiently. Through experiments, it is confirmed that the proposed method not only smoothens stroke boundaries in character extraction, but also effectively eliminates noise and outliers, significantly improving the clarity and accuracy of the segmentation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regular Expressions (RegEx) can be employed as a technique for supervised learning to define and search for specific patterns inside text. This work devised a method that utilizes regular expressions to convert the reference style of academic papers into several styles, dependent on the specific needs of the target publication or conference. Our research aimed to detect distinctive patterns of reference styles using RegEx and compare them with a dataset including various reference styles. We gathered a diverse range of reference format categories, encompassing seven distinct classes, from various sources such as academic papers, journals, conference proceedings, and books. Our approach involves employing RegEx to convert one referencing format to another based on the user's specific preferences. The proposed model demonstrated an accuracy of 57.26% for book references and 57.56% for journal references. We used the similarity ratio and Levenshtein distance to evaluate the dataset's performance. The model achieved a 97.8% similarity ratio with a Levenshtein distance of 2. Notably, the APA style for journal references yielded the best results. However, the effectiveness of the extraction function varies depending on the reference style. For APA style, the model showed a 99.97% similarity ratio with a Levenshtein distance of 1. Overall, our proposed model outperforms baseline machine learning models in this task. This study introduces an automated program that utilizes regular expressions to modify academic reference formats. This will enhance the efficiency, precision, and adaptability of academic publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Food for Thought , I use my experience of writing scientific publications to stress some aspects of the process that were especially significant for me, and from which I try to derive some general suggestions. These aspects include strong interactions (co-evolution) between paper writing and some of my research directions; the pleasure of writing with co-authors; writing as a tool of scientific creativity; long scientific quests through several publications; the importance of writing books, if possible starting early in the career; being published, reaching readers, and contributing to the advancement of knowledge; and giving in to the pleasure of writing. I explain that I often seized unexpected opportunities that led me to develop ideas and write publications that influenced the course of my career, but I do not necessarily suggest that anyone proceed as I did. My motivation was the enjoyment of exploring new topics, and I wholeheartedly recommend that everyone give in to the pleasure of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This massive book started life about two years after Cortada retired from IBM. Cortada has put forward the argument that computers fundamentally changed the nature of work and supported this idea through a number of key contributions to the business history of computing. The rise and fall and reinvention of a global icon: James W Cortada. [Extracted from the article]

The modern university library plays a pivotal role in supporting academic research and fostering a culture of learning. However, the landscape of book acquisition within these institutions has undergone significant transformation in recent years. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities faced by university libraries in acquiring books in the digital age. The challenges encompass issues such as budget constraints, evolving user preferences, and the rapid growth of digital resources. University libraries must navigate these challenges while maintaining a diverse and relevant collection to meet the needs of their academic community. On the other hand, the digital age offers new opportunities, including access to a vast array of electronic resources, improved collection management tools, and the potential for collaborative acquisition models. These opportunities have the potential to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of book acquisition processes. Through a comprehensive review of literature, case studies, and interviews with library professionals, this paper sheds light on the strategies employed by modern university libraries to address book acquisition challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities. It also discusses the implications of these changes for the future of academic libraries and their vital role in supporting research and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyspnea is a common emergency requiring urgent care, and a variety of factors may mislead emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Typically, EMT education uses traditional lectures with paper books. The effect of interactive eBooks on EMT learning has not been explored. This study aims to develop an interactive eBook in dyspnea assessment and management and to evaluate its learning effect. A quasi-experimental design with three repeated measures was used. A total of 117 EMTs were recruited and assigned to the experimental group (eBook, n = 56) and the comparison group (paper book, n = 61). Questionnaires were administered to both groups at three time points. The results show that both materials can improve cognition and that the interactive eBook has better effects than the paper book. The interactive eBook motivated EMT to learn more than the paper book, but motivation did not last for five weeks. The long-term effect of the interactive eBook on confidence compared to the paper book is significant. The eBook can include real cases, concept maps, videos, quizzes, and instant feedback to meet learner needs. Health educators could integrate technology and cognitive strategies into EMTs' training curricula to improve their ability to provide better emergency medical services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of information technology and the Internet, it is difficult for university readers to find books of real interest or value from a large number of books by relying only on traditional retrieval-based services. This paper applies data mining technology and personalized recommendation algorithm based on semantic classification for new book recommendation service in university libraries. The personalized recommendation algorithm based on semantic classification establishes a book feature model and a reader preference model based on title keywords. The different recommendation strategies in the system framework are detailed. For the borrowing data of different colleges and departments, the improved association rule algorithm is used to mine the book association rules, and the reader's borrowing history is matched with the association rules to generate a book recommendation list; according to the reader's borrowing preference characteristics, the reader preference model is used as the basis. Class subdivision and then combined with the book feature model and reader preference model, the collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm and the content-based recommendation algorithm are applied to generate a book recommendation list. The active service method not only improves the service level of the university library, makes the development of the university library more comprehensive and humanized but also explores the potential information needs of readers, improves the borrowing rate of books in the collection, and maximizes the utilization rate of book resources. In the experiment of this paper, the personalized recommendation algorithm division of semantic classification is adopted. According to the division of its algorithm, the corpus is divided into 9603 training documents and 3299 test documents, with certain accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, electronic book vendors are increasingly proactive in trying to strategically capitalize on online big data generated by consumers. It will bring great profit for vendors if they can make the most of online reviews to figure out the impact of online data on the selling prices of e-books. In this paper, we complement an emerging body of research to explore how e-book prices could be affected by online information via analyzing the sheer volume of online data from e-book websites, namely, we first employ a domain ontology-based method to select the most discriminative features that may affect e-book prices. Then, the topic modeling method latent Dirichlet allocation and aspect-oriented sentiment analysis methods are applied as a supplement. Using the multiple regression method, we identify the key features that may have effects on the prices of e-books and give the related regression equation. In our results, some factors including paper book prices, paper book pages corresponding to the e-book, and e-book content have significant effects on the price of e-books. The managerial implication is that e-book firms can obtain a reference price for an e-book and may dynamically adjust the price to increase e-book sales according to our data analysis results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a project design that has been used at a Midwest College with upper-level undergraduate and graduate students for eight semesters. This project incorporates a collaborative learning model that addresses limitations often found in teaching technical courses. The collaborative learning model engages the student more actively in the learning process by enabling them as the topic researcher and paper editor, which is not the case in traditional classes. The students produce relevant course-related content that is evaluated and improved using an easily accessible online medium available to class members and faculty. The papers or chapters are then presented using an online book format which includes two navigation techniques. The benefits of this project design are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development and change exhibited by large language model (LLM) technology, represented by generative pretrained transformers (GPTs), many classic scenarios in various fields have re-emerged with new opportunities. This paper takes ChatGPT as the modeling object, incorporates LLM technology into the typical book resource understanding and recommendation scenario for the first time, and puts it into practice. By building a ChatGPT-like book recommendation system (BookGPT) framework based on ChatGPT, this paper attempts to apply ChatGPT to recommendation modeling for three typical tasks: book rating recommendation, user rating recommendation, and the book summary recommendation; it also explores the feasibility of LLM technology in book recommendation scenarios. At the same time, based on different evaluation schemes for book recommendation tasks and the existing classic recommendation models, this paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the BookGPT in book recommendation scenarios and analyzes the opportunities and improvement directions for subsequent LLMs in these scenarios. The experimental research shows the following: (1) The BookGPT can achieve good recommendation results in existing classic book recommendation tasks. Especially in cases containing less information about the target object to be recommended, such as zero-shot or one-shot learning tasks, the performance of the BookGPT is close to or even better than that of the current classic book recommendation algorithms, and this method has great potential for improvement. (2) In text generation tasks such as book summary recommendation, the recommendation effect of the BookGPT model is better than that of the manual editing process of Douban Reading, and it can even perform personalized interpretable content recommendations based on readers' attribute and identity information, making it more persuasive than interpretable one-size-fits-all recommendation models. Finally, we have open-sourced the relevant datasets and experimental codes, hoping that the exploratory program proposed in this paper can inspire the development of more LLMs to expand their applications and theoretical research prospects in the field of book recommendation and general recommendation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]