To Plan or to Simply React? An Experimental Study of Action Planning in a Game Environment

Many contemporary computer games, notably action and role‐playing games, represent an interesting class of navigation‐intensive dynamic real‐time simulations inhabited by autonomous intelligent virtual agents (IVAs). Although higher level reasoning of IVAs in these domains seems suited for action planning, planning is not widely adopted in existing games and similar applications. Moreover, statistically rigorous study measuring performance of planners in decision making in a game‐like domain is missing. Here, five classical planners were connected to the virtual environment of Unreal Development Kit along with a planner for delete‐free domains (only positive preconditions and positive effects). Performance of IVAs employing those planners and IVAs with reactive architecture was measured on a class of game‐inspired test environments of various sizes and under different levels of external interference. The analysis has shown that planning agents outperform reactive agents if (i) the size of the problem is small or if (b) the environment changes are either hostile to the agent or infrequent. In delete‐free domains, specialized approaches are inferior to classical planners because the lower expressivity of delete‐free domains results in lower plan quality. These results can help to determine when planning is advantageous in games and for IVAs control in other dynamic real‐time environments.     

The Computer Virus — From There to Here.: An Historical Perspective.

I was sitting at my desk in the Computer Centre of University College, Dublin, checking my E-mail. Suddenly, from the corner of my right eye, I detected an arm swooping down towards my keyboard, like an axe about to fell a tree. This was an arm with a mission. It removed my hand, which was just about to press ‘receive’ on an interesting looking E-mail involving a Christmas tree greeting. Of course, my better-informed colleague knew that this was the Christma Exec virus, and that I would not be doing myself, or anyone else, any favours by accepting and executing it. It was December 1987, and my very first introduction to the computer virus. My love affair with the subject has continued over the past thirteen years (although I do not claim to have a copy of The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses sitting on my bookshelf!), and like myself, the computer virus has evolved into a more complex and sophisticated entity.     

Bounded Retransmission in Event-B∥CSP: a Case Study

Event-B∥CSP is a combination of Event-B and CSP in which CSP controllers are used in conjunction with Event-B machines to allow a more explicit approach to control flow. Recent results have provided an approach to stepwise refinement of such combinations. This paper presents a simplified Bounded Retransmission Protocol case study, inspired by Abrial?s treatment of this example, to illustrate several aspects new in the approach. The case study includes refinement steps to illustrate four different aspects of this approach to refinement: (1) splitting events; (2) introducing convergent looping behaviour; (3) the relationship between anticipated, convergent, and devolved events; and (4) converging anticipated events.     

Nurses’ Perceptions of a Novel Health Information Technology: A Qualitative Study in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a novel health information technology (HIT), a large customizable interactive monitor (LCIM), implemented in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Specifically, we explored nurses’ perceptions of this novel HIT application and its perceived effect on family engagement. We used a qualitative research design to collect and analyze data from 55 PICU nurses in seven focus groups. A trained moderator followed a semi-structured discussion guide with questions related to perceptions, attitudes, and care team interactions with the LCIM. Groups were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded using content analysis procedure. Six major themes emerged from the nurse focus groups, which include familiarity and use routines, positive perceptions with the LCIM, negative perceptions with the LCIM, privacy, training, and suggestions for improvement. Insights into nurses’ perceptions of the LCIM have the potential to improve family-centered care.     

Chasing the White “WHALE”: A Case Study in Using iPads to Promote Active Learning

In order to encourage more active learning in the library classroom, the college librarians at the Tidewater Community College/City of Virginia Beach Joint-Use Library turned one of their library instruction classrooms into a dynamic and flexible space using movable seating and iPads. This article explores the reasons for making such a change, the benefits of doing so, how the new classroom has affected librarians' teaching methods, and gives specific information about apps used for class activities.     

From “website” to “on-line presence”: From “internet” to “information society”

This paper discusses some of the key drivers that will enable businesses to operate effectively on-line, and looks at how the notion of website will become one of an on-line presence which will support the main activities of an organisation. This is placed in the context of the development of the information society which will allow individuals-as consumers or employees-quick, inexpensive and on-demand access to vast quantities of entertainment, services and information. The paper draws on an example of these developments in Australasia.     

“Studierstube”: An environment for collaboration in augmented reality

We propose an architecture for multi-user augmented reality with applications in visualisation, presentation and education, which we call Studierstube. Our system presents three-dimensional stereoscopic graphics simultaneously to a group of users wearing light weight see-through head mounted displays. The displays do not affect natural communication and interaction, making working together very effective. Users see the same spatially aligned model, but can independently control their viewpoint and different layers of the data to be displayed. The setup serves computer supported cooperative work and enhances cooperation of visualisation experts. This paper presents the client-server software architecture underlying this system and details that must be addressed to create a high-quality augmented reality setup.     

Why Do Some People Become Addicted to Digital Games More Easily? A Study of Digital Game Addiction from a Psychosocial Health Perspective

Exploring digital game addiction from a psychosocial perspective has gained much attention because digital game addiction is a serious social computing issue related to public health. A number of studies have empirically tested the effects of depression and loneliness on aggression, but few studies have explored the relationships among the psychosocial constructs (i.e., depression, loneliness, and aggression) and their effects on game addiction. In addition, the mediating role of aggression in digital game addiction has neither been proposed nor empirically tested. Moreover, although the psychological constructs related to game addiction have been proposed as multidimensional concepts and digital game addiction itself has been suggested as a multidimensional construct, few studies have been proposed and conducted using multidimensional constructs. This study sought to fill these gaps by proposing an integrated model of digital game addiction from a psychosocial health perspective. In particular, this study had three objectives: (1) to propose a second-order game addiction model addressing the relationships among loneliness, depression, aggression, and game addiction as multidimensional constructs and presenting aggression as a mediator between other psychosocial constructs and game addiction; (2) to empirically validate the proposed model using survey data obtained from actual online game users; and (3) to provide new insights for game policymakers in dealing with the digital game addiction issues. Based on the empirical findings, the theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed herein.     

Considerations for Information Systems “Backsourcing”: A Framework for Knowledge Re-integration

Backsourcing is motivated by opportunities arising from changes in the business situation, redefinition of the character of outsourced service declining in quality or due to the discovery of flaws in the contract. The situation of backsourcing clearly has major implications for an organization in terms of monetary investments, IS infrastructure and changes in employee requirements during and after the process. The paper considers a detailed analysis of two case studies of backsourcing reported from JP Morgan Chase (USA) and Sainsbury (UK). A major contribution of the paper is to identify important strategies to be followed in backsourcing projects to ensure efficient knowledge re-integration.     

“From microtiter plates to droplets” tools for micro-fluidic droplet processing

Droplet-based microfluidic allows high throughput experimentation in with low volume droplets. Essential fluidic process steps are on the one hand the proper control of the droplet composition and on the other hand the droplet processing, manipulation and storage. Beside integrated fluidic chips, standard PTFE-tubings and fluid connectors can be used in combination with appropriate pumps to realize almost all necessary fluidic processes. The segmented flow technique usually operates with droplets of about 100–500 nL volume. These droplets are embedded in an immiscible fluid and confined by channel walls. For the integration of segmented flow applications in established research workflows—which are usually base on microtiter plates—robotic interface tools for parallel/serial and serial/parallel transfer operations are necessary. Especially dose–response experiments are well suited for the segmented flow technique. We developed different transfer tools including an automated “gradient take-up tool” for the generation of segment sequences with gradually changing composition of the individual droplets. The general working principles are introduced and the fluidic characterizations are given. As exemplary application for a dose–response experiment the inhibitory effect of antibiotic tetracycline on Escherichia coli bacteria cultivated inside nanoliter droplets was investigated.     

An extension to ‘an algorithm for rinding a circuit of even length in a directed graph’

Most of the empirical studies modelling the association between slock returns and accounting earnings assume a homogeneous return-earnings relation across firms and over time. However, in recent years some studies have reported that this association significantly varies across firms and also over time. Whether macro-economic factors explain the intertemporal variation of earnings response coefficients (ERCs), i.e. the slope coefficients between stock returns and corporate earnings in the Finnish stock market is studied. In the theoretical part of the study it is shown that there exists a relationship between macroeconomic variables affecting future cash flows/dividends or pricing operator and the intertemporal variation of earnings response coefficients. The empirical analysis reveals some time-series variation of ERCs in the Finnish stock market. A significant proportion of this variation is observed to be due to the changes in the underlying macroeconomic characteristics.     

From “Onto-GeoNoesis” to “Onto-Genesis”: The Design of Geographic Ontologies

An important issue in geographic ontological research is the ability to design new ontologies. In this context, we first explore the desiderata of domain ontologies in terms of their constituting elements: i.e., the lexicon, concepts, relations, and axioms. Furthermore, we touch upon several characteristics of geographic concepts, which have puzzled geographic information scientists, and present critical topics of geographic ontological research. Based on the previous aspects of the problem, and guided by prior work of analyzing existent geographic ontologies, we have identified their qualities and deficiencies with regard to completeness and adequacy. This meta-ontological approach has guided us in presenting herein, a framework for generating robust geographic ontologies, which will comply with the semantics of the concepts of the specific domain.     

From physical to digital: a case study of computer scientists’ behaviour in physical libraries

There has been substantial research on various aspects of peoples usage of physical libraries but relatively little on their interaction with individual library artefacts; that is: books, journals, and papers. We have studied peoples behaviour when working in physical libraries, focusing particularly on how they interact with these artefacts, how they evaluate them, and how they interact with librarians. This study provides a better understanding of how people interact with paper information, from which we can draw implications for some requirements of the design of digital libraries, while recognising that the term library is a metaphor when applied to electronic document collections. In particular, improved communication with other library users and with librarians could facilitate more rapid access to relevant information and support services, and structuring information presentation so that users can make rapid assessments of its relevance would improve the efficiency of many information searches.     

Small business in a small country: Attitudes to “Green” IT

New Zealand is a small country and most of its businesses are small with 96 % of all enterprises employing fewer than 20 people. New Zealand takes pride in its “clean green” image, however small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have limited resources, low awareness of the environmental impacts of the technologies they use, and perceive relatively few imperatives for changing their practices. In this paper we use institutional theory to frame a study of the factors which influence SMEs to adopt Green IS/IT practices. We found a diversity of viewpoints that suggest that adopting a one size fits all approach around encouraging organizations to adopt Green IS/IT is unlikely to be successful. However, it is doubtful that leadership in this area will arise in the small business sector, and coercive pressure from Government or other regulatory bodies is likely to be required. Market-place imperatives from customers and large players in supply chains can also be significant. Institutional theory was further used to understand the relative importance of these different pressures. These findings have relevance in other contexts as SMEs are the dominant form of business in many countries around the world and SMEs are estimated to have a combined contribution of around 70 % in terms of global pollution.     

Computer consultation for emotional crises: An expert system for “non-experts”

This article describes an expert computerized consultation system for assisting a non-mental-health-expert assess and treat emotional and behavioral emergencies in a remote area. It discusses some of the issues and limitations of this system, and suggests that the intended educational/instructional aspects of expert systems may make them more appropriate for, and potentially better accepted by “non-experts.”