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The paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental study which was conducted with a view to determining the effect of an intervention in the form of the application of teacher-designed Internet-based resources (i.e., websites, podcasts, movie clips) that students could use autonomously on the development of pronunciation of the English regular past tense -ed ending. The sample consisted of 45 Polish secondary school learners. Participants were divided into three groups, two treatment and one control. The intervention spanned two weeks. The lessons in treatment group 1 were conducted by means of online resources and those in treatment group 2 were carried out in a traditional way (i.e., without autonomous recourse to computer-assisted pronunciation teaching). The students in the control group did not receive any instruction related to the pronunciation feature in question over that time. The data were gathered by means of perception and production tests administered before (pretest) and after (immediate and delayed posttests) the treatment, and subjected to quantitative analysis. The results, supported by the participants' evaluation of the two types of pedagogic intervention, indicate that although the effects of the experimental treatments proved to be comparable, the use of online resources produced more durable gains and was more favorably evaluated by learners. This provides a rationale for using computer technology as a tool for enhancing traditional teaching of English pronunciation in secondary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries, archives, and museums (LAM) have existed since Antiquity in many different sizes and forms, and these institutions are not always easy to define and to separate from each other. Since the turn of the millennium, LAM has frequently been used as an acronym for these institutions, indicating an increasing interest to consider them together, partly motivated by a perceived ongoing convergence between them. This article describes and discusses this issue from ancient times to the present with the focus on convergence and conceptual issues, with emphasis on the practices, debates, and research over the two last decades. Distribution of documents via the Internet has been a catalyst for renewed interest in the relations between the LAMs, where increased use of digital resources is claimed to blur the traditional borders between the institutions (labelled "digital convergence"). In the first decade after the millennium, the research agenda was marked by a limited focus on digital point of access portals for cultural heritage. Thereafter, the research agenda broadened. In addition to digital convergence, other kinds of convergence are a nascent topic for research, focusing on physical mergers, collaboration, shared professional practice, proximity in government agencies and an increasing dependency on common external trends, etc. LAM has also increasingly been the name for new educational programs and university departments, thus pointing towards LAM as a concept used about an emerging discipline or interdisciplinary field. There have formerly been attempts to construe a research field, which include these three kinds of institutions, and the notion LAM is more extended term than the study of these institutions, because each of them has developed research fields with a broader focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public and research libraries have long provided resources in electronic formats, and the tension between providing electronic resources and patron privacy is widely recognized. But assessing trade-offs between privacy and access to electronic resources remains difficult. One reason is a conceptual problem regarding intellectual freedom. Traditionally, the LIS literature has plausibly understood privacy as a facet of intellectual freedom. However, while certain types of electronic resource use may diminish patron privacy, thereby diminishing intellectual freedom, the opportunities created by such resources also appear liberty enhancing. Adjudicating between privacy loss and enhanced opportunities on intellectual freedom grounds must therefore provide an account of intellectual freedom capable of addressing both privacy and opportunity. I will argue that intellectual freedom is a form of positive freedom, where a person's freedom is a function of the quality of her agency. Using this view as the lodestar, I articulate several principles for assessing adoption of electronic resources and privacy protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic Web site design continues to evolve as colleges and universities are under increasing pressure to create a Web site that is both hip and professional looking. Many colleges and universities are using templates to unify the look and feel of their Web sites. Where does the library Web site fit into a comprehensive campus design scheme? The library Web site is unique due to the wide range of services and content available. Based on a poster session presented at the Twelfth Annual Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2005, this paper explores the prevalence of university-wide academic templates on library Web sites and discusses factors libraries should consider in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhetoric is one of the oldest disciplines in the world. Throughout its long history, rhetoric has been applied to speech, writing, and electronic media. Not only is the Internet transforming the theory and practice of rhetoric and composition; it is also providing new modes of expression. This article examines Web sites about rhetoric and composition covering a variety of topics from its origins to new applications using technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relatively recent explosion of information available in electronic forms makes attention, rather than information, the scarce resources in organizations. In this paper, we theorize about how suppliers of electronic information compete for this resources and use data on document database use in a management consulting company to show that document suppliers that occupied a crowded segment of the firm's internal knowledge market gained less attention form employees (measured as monthly use of their database) but were able to combat this negative competitive effect by being selective and concentrated in their document supply. This result reveals a paradox of information supply in competitive effect by being selective and concentrated in their document supply. This result reveals a paradox of information supply in competitive information markets: the less information a supplier offered, the more it was used, because the supplier developed a reputation for quality and focus. We suggest that this view of competition among Web sites in external information markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the University of Iowa Libraries' Bailiwick Project, a faculty research web server. Service in the library's Information Arcade, a place that provides access to electronic information resources; Space on the web where faculty can find a home for their scholarly research interests; Library sources to support the project.

Many benchmarking initiatives are driven by an academic or government desire to understand the position of industry sectors relative to each other or to those of other nations. In contrast, for managers striving to compete and drive their businesses forward, this generalised approach is secondary to their need for tools which are applicable in their own company and which give them direct benefits. Observing that benchmarking has proved very powerful in manufacturing, the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) invested in research to establish a similar approach in marketing. Benchmarking was defined as a system which incorporates three essential elements: measurement, processes, and a defined, measured, aspirational 'benchmark.' This paper describes a unique benchmarking tool designed specifically for marketing processes (CIMBA), developed by the CIM. It enables both marketers and senior executives in non-marketing functions to identify the role of marketing in their organisation and to measure the processes which convert marketing strategy into reality. The system is driven by a model of best practice, tailored to each organisation's situation through their particular critical success factors. Analysis is software-based to provide easy manipulations of the data. CIMBA provides the measurements and the means to broker partnerships between carefully matched companies, even across sectors, if they have gone through a CIMBA assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of marketing decisions are based on "expert" judgments. In the emerging field of expert systems, techniques are being developed for systematically representing and using expert knowledge in computer systems. The computerization of marketing expertise will enhance decision support to marketing managers. The authors evaluate the opportunities and difficulties associated with building marketing expert systems by discussing the development of NEGOTEX (negotiations expert), a system that provides guidelines to individuals or teams preparing for international marketing negotiations. Possible benefits of this methodology in other areas of marketing are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models are a key component in the decision-making process. Model managers have been proposed to select and direct the use of models in a decision setting. A limitation of model managers is their inability to optimally integrate several models to arrive at a decision. A scheme to overcome this limitation is presented. By specifying input requirements to each model and outputs available from each model, a string of models may be developed. An implicit enumeration algorithm ensures a feasible string of models for a required output and composes the string in optimal form according to a user-defined objective. The algorithm may be used in conjunction with existing model management techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-Resources or “electronic resources" can be defined as the resources available on the internet which are a godown of data and information on different subjects and topics. The e-Resources are available in universities/colleges. The study aimed at finding the use of e-Resources among the faculties of K. Ramakrishnan College of Engineering at Trichy with distribution to their gender. Majority of the respondents use e-Resources for teaching purpose and for research work. But they do not get any training from College library; they learn to use e- Resources either by self instructions or with guidance from colleagues and friends. The e-Resources can be accessed by the respondents at different places such as College and at home. The study therefore, recommends that efforts to improve the use of eresources in the Library should include ways of creating user awareness, training/workshops for users and staff, and responding to the challenges confronting utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past couple of years, deep learning in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) has proven to be extremely powerful in image processing tasks including image denoising. We deal with digital image denoising based on deep learning. In this regard, dilated CNNs have been successful in achieving impressive denoising quality by obtaining a considerably effective trade-off between receptive field size and network depth, and thus reducing the computational intensity of the CNN architecture. Such networks in general use rectifier linear units as the activation function for introducing nonlinearity into the network. We propose a dilated CNN with exponential linear units for image denoising. Our aim is to enhance the performance of dilated networks in image denoising and develop an effective denoising CNN architecture by optimizing computational intensity. We experiment with a (conventional) 10-layer network, as well as a 5-layer version of the proposed model. It is observed that the proposed 5-layer network succeeds to achieve state-of-the-art denoised image quality as well as high computational efficiency. Our experimental results prove the efficiency of the proposed models in image denoising as well as complexity reduction. © 2018 SPIE and IS&T [DOI: 10.1117/1.JEI.27.5.053024] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affect the optimum use and utilization of various e-resources by faculty and research scholars at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow, UP. The study mainly focused on the preferred information sources and methods to access electronic information. The study describes in brief, the e-resources, and their types, etc. The objectives, scope and research methodology of the study are clearly expanded. For this purpose, the researchers prepared a well-structured questionnaire as a tool for data collection and the same responses were subjected to mathematical and statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People regularly rely on user-generated contributions to websites to inform their opinions about people, companies, organizations, and products. This study examines how two website affordances uniquely affect the evaluation of user-generated content. Specifically, an experiment was conducted that varied whether a website (a) affords profile owners the ability to delete user-generated contributions or (b) verifies the identity of users who post evaluations of profile owners. The results suggest that although deleting user-generated content is viewed as more problematic, both forms of information control independently affect how viewers evaluate a website and the content it hosts. The findings help establish the conditions under which certain forms of information control differentially produce uncertainty and mistrust and thus have direct implications for warranting theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer Measurement & Control is the property of Magazine Agency of Computer Measurement & Control and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Online reviews are the most valuable sources of information about customer opinions and are considered the pillars on which the reputation of an organisation is built. From a customer's perspective, review information is key to making a proper decision regarding an online purchase. Reviews are generally considered an unbiased opinion of an individual's personal experience with a product, but the underlying truth about these reviews tells a different story. Spammers exploit these review platforms illegally because of incentives involved in writing fake reviews, thereby trying to gain an advantage over competitors resulting in an explosive growth of opinion spamming. The present study analyses and categorises the available literature on opinion spamming according to three detection targets: (1) opinion spam, (2) opinion spammers, and (3) collusive opinion spammer groups. The study further highlights and divides opinion spamming into three types based on textual and linguistic, behavioural, and relational features. Moreover, several state-of-the-art machine-learning techniques for opinion spam detection have also been discussed in the study. It concludes with a summary of the research articles on opinion spam detection and some interesting results to assist researchers for further exploration of the domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research reports the results of the analysis of public benefit organization (PBO) websites as places for encouraging dialogic relationships with key members of the public. Using a modified Kent and Taylor's (1998) dialogic principle, we conducted a content analysis of 367 PBOs in Poland. The results suggest that analyzed organizations only marginally use the five principles of dialogic communication on their websites. The studies have identified only a few organizations, which have websites characterized as having a high level of dialogic potential. Websites usually contained only some elements, which gave them the appearance of a digital information brochure. In addition, the results indicate that website dialogic potential is significantly influenced by the amount of revenue and the extent of the organization. The higher the revenue and geographic service area, the greater the dialogic potential of websites is as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, the Western Cape government (WCG)'s current broadband strategy aims to ensure that all schools will be connected to broadband service within a reasonable time-frame. According to the WCG integration of ICTs and the broadband will remove the digital divide and enhance curriculum delivery in schools. To achieve this, sensible long-term planning must be in place to ensure that subject advisors are adequately trained and equipped to participate in the connected schools environment and effectively assist teachers integrate digital resources into classrooms. The aim of this paper is to explore how subject advisors perceive of their preparedness to embrace new technologies for their advisory job; to ensure effective teaching and learning. A qualitative research approach was used; randomly selected education districts in the Western Cape Province provided subject advisors to be participants in the study. Results show that most subject advisors perceive their complex knowledge of how to effectively integrate ICTs into curriculum delivery as inadequate hence are hesitant to advise teachers on effective technology integration into classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary discusses the consequences the shift from a paper-based world to a screen-centric world has for writers, teachers, and therapists. Whereas the case study was once composed for and stored on paper and its circulation thus restricted, now digital composing transforms the potential for the case study to circulate widely and freely via the World Wide Web. Moving the case study from paper to screen is not a question of reformatting; rather, it requires becoming literate in a new medium, one that offers the potential for ongoing collaborative revision and the development of participatory forms of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the capacity redundancy of WDM networks under multiple-link-failure environments and propose a protection scheme based on preconfigured k -edge-connected structures (p- k ecs) against multiple link failures in WDM networks. The lower bound on redundancy and the upper bound on efficiency of WDM networks under multiple-link-failure environments are provided, the reciprocal of lower bound of redundancy is the upper bound on efficiency in full connected network. We theoretically prove that the capacity redundancy of the p- k ecs has the same lower bound as that of WDM networks under multiple-link failures, the efficiency of the p- k ecs has the same upper bound as that of WDM networks under multiple-link failures, and the reciprocal of lower bound of redundancy of the p- k ecs is the upper bound on efficiency of the p- k ecs. Numerical results show that p- k ecs can achieve the lower bound on redundancy and support protection against simultaneous ( k -1)-link failures in static networks. Compared with k -regular and k -edge-connected structures ( k&k ), p- k ecs can reduce or meet the capacity redundancy and provide protection for handling simultaneous ( k -1)-link failures in static and dynamic networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) has been reported to predict oncologic outcomes in various type of cancer. However, their prognostic value in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is unclear. In this meta-analysis, we evaluated the prognostic significance of GPS in RCC patients. Methods: We performed comprehensive searches of electronic databases to identify studies that evaluated the prognostic impact of pretreatment GPS in RCC patients. The end points were cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free/disease-free survival (RFS/DFS). Meta-analysis using random-effects models was performed to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Nine retrospective, observational, cohort studies involving 2096 patients were included. Seven studies evaluated CSS, and three evaluated RFS. Our results showed that higher GPS (0 vs. 1 vs. 2) was significantly predictive of poorer CSS (HR 3.68, 95 % CI 2.52-5.40, p < 0.001) and RFS/DFS (HR 2.83, 95 % CI 1.86-4.30, p < 0.001) in patients with RCC. These findings were robust when stratified by sample size, presence of metastasis, and study region. We also conducted subgroup analysis by assessment of Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale (NOS) score, and the HRs were 2.708 (95 % CI 1.969, 3.725) in under 7 points group, 3.685 (95 % CI 2.516, 5.396) in over than 7 points group in CSS. Meta-regression analysis indicated that NOS score group had a significant difference in HRs ( p = 0.032). Conclusions: Higher GPS is associated with tumor progression and is predictive of poorer survival in patients with RCC. Therefore, GPS may help to inform treatment decisions and predict treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay selectively surveys recent findings on digital preservation in special collections settings and examines the challenges that prevent widespread implementation. Using the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's library to illustrate the situation facing many institutions, I discuss three types of barriers to digital preservation: workflow and procedural obstacles, resource limitations, and lack of buy-in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the websites Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology (CDH) located at www.hymnology.co.uk/, Hymn Tune Index (HTI) located at http://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/, and Hymnary.org located at www.hymnary.org/.

The relevance and recall of information sources, particularly those used in the prepurchase hotel search process, have not been fully explored. As they are critical to inform the final hotel booking, it is essential to examine the relevance and recall of information sources used by customers. Thus, the main aim of this article is to investigate both relevance, in this case measured by the pages viewed, and recall, gauged by both aided and unaided recall of keywords used and websites visited during an online session. An exploratory, observation method that is “goal-directed” is the main research instrument with both qualitative and quantitative data collected. This method is supplemented with questionnaires to measure both implicit and explicit recall. Results show that online travel agencies are more relevant than both search engines and travel-related social media, based on the number of pages viewed. The recall of both keywords and websites was low, both for aided recall and unaided recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on the Social Edition of the Devonshire Manuscript represented in the form of a Neo4j graph and the practices of digital prosopography to better understand the circulation of poetry in the sixteenth-century English court. A Neo4j can represent attributes of real-world entities in the form of a graph, which can illuminate patterns in large amounts of information that are difficult to retain otherwise. The paper is motivated by the INKE Modelling and Prototyping team's objective of improving the analysis of extant and developing digital resources in ways that meaningfully extend the codex form. The authors argue that the manuscript has the same value for scholars interested in its unnamed contributors as for those interested in its named contributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the digital resources Met Opera on Demand and the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall.

The study explores the use of e-resources of information by researchers at Bahauddin Zakariah University Multan. Descriptive research method was applied. Questionnaire was used for collecting data collection. Participants of the study were M. Phil and PhD researchers studying at Bahauddin Zakariah University Multan. Data were collected from 109 respondents studying in various departments of BZU. Findings showed that a large number of population 87(79.8%) was utilizing e-resources for acquiring needed information. They were using e-resources for educational purposes. Respondents were dissatisfied with their current use of e-resources of information due to inadequate digital literacy skills, and power failure problem. Respondents demanded need of trainings for utilizing electronic resources of information. Study recommended that LIS professionals at Bahauddin Zakariah University should take the opportunity and start user education programs on regular and improve digital literacy of users. Librarians should conduct workshops, training programs and seminars for M. Phil and PhD researchers studying at BZU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the attitudes that can cause users to resist information system implementations using an established theory from social and cognitive psychology: the Elaboration Likelihood Model. It is argued that users who do not think deeply about systems represent a key blockage and that their attitudes are based largely on heuristics and peripheral influences. The results of a wide-ranging study are presented in which 28 heuristics and peripheral influences that commonly affect user attitudes are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on several articles related to diplomacy that are published online as of March 29, 2016. These articles include one on President Barack Obama's views on the hardest decisions he made about the U.S.' role in the world, another on the elections in Iran, and one on terrorist group Islamic State.

Hospital Information System (HIS) is an integrated Information System (IS) designed to enhance clinical, financial and administrative functions of a hospital. HIS is important in the healthcare industry as it supports a wide range of highly specialized health-care tasks and services. Previous research shows that the trend of HIS adoption is slow with respect to Malaysian public hospitals. In addition, there is small number of studies that have looked into the HIS adoption inside the context of Malaysian public hospitals. Hence, by relying on secondary data, the aim of this study is to provide a literature review of HIS adoption as well as to recommend the potential factors that affect the adoption of HIS. To this end, a conceptual multi-level model is proposed by integrating Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework, institutional theory, and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Our conceptual multi-level model is proposed based on reviewing the existing literature of Information Technology (IT) adoption theories connected to studies of HIS innovation that consists of four dimensions and corresponding variables. Thus, this study provides a direction for future research to study the relationships of identified contextual factors in our proposed multi-level model that can have a major effect on the adoption of HIS innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to provide more insight within the context of Malaysia to understand the potential factors that importantly driving or inhibiting the HIS adoption. In this study, an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model is developed to determine the most important factors among the four categories, which are based on the integrated Information System (IS) theories for HIS adoption in the context of Malaysian public hospitals. These factors are identified and compared by hospital experts and decision makers, who are fully familiar with HIS technology in the healthcare industry. Then AHP is applied to compute the weights of incorporated factors in the HIS adoption model. This can result at fostering the uptake of HIS and facilitating its reluctant trend by improving the decision of hospitals towards HIS adoption in Malaysia, however not limited to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing the digital learning environment for ubiquitous learning and asynchronous distributed learning has opened up immense amounts of concrete research. However, current digital learning environments do not fully fulfill the expectations on supporting interactive group learning, shared understanding and social construction of knowledge. This paper introduces cloud computing to the construction of the digital learning environment for its on-demand services with high reliability, scalability and availability in the distributed environment. Then a digital learning environment based on cloud computing ( DLECC) is proposed, including the architecture, co-construction and sharing model, and incentive mechanism of DLECC. Finally, an Educational Technology Space ( ETS) platform under the concept of DLECC is constructed and applied to the educational technology training for 110 teachers from primary and secondary schools. The experimental results demonstrate that the co-construction and sharing model and incentive mechanism of DLECC may provide meaningful learning support and interactive communities and promote the co-construction of befitting educational resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author insights on four-step process that will help teachers locate, manage, and organise digital resources for teaching history including process, value, and audience. The author mentions several high-quality websites that could be freely utilised and accessed by senior history and history teachers in Years F-10 such as ABCSplash, Asia Education Foundation, and Alpha History. She discusses guides for history teachers to manage digital resource collection.

Copyright of Pixel-Bit, Revista de Medios y Educacion is the property of Pixel-Bit, Revista de Medios y Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Most media histories of style blogging commence their narrative in 2009, at the moment when a select few fashion and personal style bloggers were invited to sit front row at a number of shows on the Spring/Summer Ready-to-Wear "Fashion Month" schedule. Yet that moment, symbolic of the "arrival" of fashion bloggers in the industry (albeit a partial and contested one), was precipitated by years of fashion blogging. This developmental period has not yet been mapped. This article, then, presents a historical narrative tracing the development of personal style blogging through the archive. It engages with the earliest independent fashion blogs (which predated distinct subgenres of fashion blogging) to map how they, along with early digital and print media, influenced and led to the emergence of personal style blogging as a distinct subgenre of the wider fashion blogosphere. I draw on oral history from bloggers as well as the archives of their (and other) blogs, as well as the digital archive of early fashion websites, online articles, and blogposts from current style blogs. 1 also draw on prior studies of personal style blogging by Rocamora and Luvaas, among others, as well as work by Lévi-Strauss and Butler, to contextualize this discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]