Policy impacts on pedagogical practice and ICT use: an exploration of the results from SITES 2006

The Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES) 2006 results reveal that principals' perceived presence of lifelong learning‐related pedagogical activities in their schools had changed markedly since the same data was collected in 1998 in SITES‐M1. More intriguing was the fact that the directions of the changes were quite different depending on the education systems concerned – many of the Asian countries reported very high increases while some of the European countries reported large drops over the same 8‐year period. This paper reports statistical evidence that the observed ‘pendulum swing’ reflects actual changes in teaching practices in these countries. Exploratory multilevel analyses results consistently show that national means of principals' vision can be used as a system‐level indicator predicting national means of pedagogical orientations in schools several years later. These findings also indicate the possibility of the ‘pendulum effect’ being a consequence of system‐level policy differences in the countries participating in the two SITES studies.     

Identifying multiple roles of ICT coordinators

This study reports on the development and validation of measurement scales to study the different roles fulfilled by ICT coordinators. Based on a review of the literature, a 24 item questionnaire was constructed and administered to a sample of 177 Flemish ICT coordinators working in primary education. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor solution: the ICT coordinator as a planner, a budgeter, a technician, and an educationalist. Qualitative data corroborated these roles. This study provides a quantitative measure of the different roles assumed by ICT coordinators in practice. The implications of our findings for schools, researchers and policy makers are discussed.     

Why people benefit from e-learning differently: The effects of psychological processes on e-learning outcomes

Using social cognitive theory, we opened up the black box of psychological processes in which e-learners engage. We believed that prior experience with ICT and virtual competence were two influential factors that affected e-learning and had a positive influence on its outcomes. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 383 Chinese students participating in online courses. Our findings confirmed the effect of virtual competence and revealed a nuanced mechanism by which experiences with ICT affected e-learning outcomes. We discussed the implications of this in e-learning practice.     

ITU通用充电器建议书介绍

介绍了ITU新报批的建议书“通用移动终端及其它ICT设备的电源适配器和充电器方案”。     

Evaluation of small-scale combustion of an insensitive high explosive formulation containing 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), and 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX)

ABSTRACT

Energetic materials are often disposed by open-burning or open-detonation as it is a cost-effective and efficient means of destroying explosive material, and often minimizes the need to transport hazardous explosives to treatment facilities. This practice is often scrutinized for the negative environmental impact of the odorous and unsightly toxic gaseous emissions as well as the resulting deposition residues, which often contain unburned energetic materials. With the increasing use of Insensitive High Explosive compositions in munitions, it is essential that the potential environmental impact of their disposal is assessed before their extensive use to prevent the kind of contamination incidents experienced with legacy explosives. Therefore, the aim of this work was to develop a controlled laboratory experiment to identify the gaseous emissions and the energetic material residues that are generated through the combustion of the IHE components 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), and 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX). A sealed vial containing small (mg) quantities of energetic material was heated until the energetic material combusted. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS) was used to calculate the oxygen consumption and to identify the gases that were generated. The solid residues were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to quantify unburned energetic material. Results showed that DNAN was the most resistant to burning, thus leaving significant quantities of unreacted starting material in the vial. An interesting observation for the IHE formulation was that DNAN also inhibited the combustion of NTO and RDX. The gases emitted during the open burning of IHE components and mixtures included CO, CO₂, and N₂O as expected, but the proportions differed when the components and mixture were compared, reflecting the influence of DNAN on the burning behavior. From our data, we concluded that open-burning DNAN-based formulations is an environmentally unfavorable waste-management practice for the disposal of IHEs mainly due to generation of solid residues as well as unburnt DNAN.     

基于亚像素的边界检测与提取算法及误差分析

利用数字图像处理技术已成为解决复杂产品样件反求设计与再设计问题的重要辅助手段,而针对复杂零件 ICT(IndustrialComputedTomography)切片图像的边界轮廓检测和提取精度对反求建模的精度影响至关重要。本文 的主要目的是针对有噪声信号影响的数字图像,在比较现有边界检测与提取算法的基础上,提出了基于亚像素精度 的边界监测与提取算法。为了对该方法的精度进行分析,设计了一个可进行微量驱动控制的工作平台,通过记录工 作平台的移动量和通过边界检测与提取算法得到的位移量之间进行比较的方法分析其精度。通过对误差量使用统 计的方法进行分析,证明了该算法不但能够达到1/4像素的亚像素精度,而且还有计算效率高和计算机开销量小的 特点。     

企业级CTI应用平台开发研究

文章分析了计算机电信集成(CTI)领域中开发增值业务(VAS)的两种主要模式,介绍了基于语音资源卡的企业级CTI应用平台的实现架构,并以事件驱动(Event-Driven)的有限状态机(FSM)方法来实现具体案例.对信息通信社会(ICT)中,如何在现有网络支撑平台上提供深度融合ICT业务,文中得出构建基于面向业务结构(SOA)的Web service模式的ICT平台是企业级CTI应用平台发展的必然趋势.     

Energy efficiency of TCP: An analytical model and its application to reduce energy consumption of the most diffused transport protocol

Energy efficient communications become a challenge for both industries and researchers. Incorporating energy efficiency into the design of network protocols and architectures represents a relevant issue in networking research. Currently, very few works address energy efficiency as a fundamental feature of network protocols. This paper benchmarks energy efficiency of TCP to understand the parameters and operational mechanics that determine and contribute to energy consumption. We propose an analytical model with energy consumption to protocol operation cycles and novel optimization techniques for reducing energy consumption of TCP. The evaluation results, obtained from NS2 simulations, demonstrate that even minor modifications of the protocol behavior can bring significant savings of energy. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel intramolecular charge transfer blue fluorophor for high color stability hybrid di-chromatic white organic light-emitting diodes

A novel intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) based blue fluorophor, 5,11-di(40-dimesitylboronphenyl)indolo[3,2-b]carbazole(DDBICZ), possessing a high fluorescent quantum yield of 0.52, a high triplet energy level (2.59 eV), and an intriguing bipolar charge transporting ability, was used as a highly efficient blue fluorophor and a host for a yellow phosphor. Doping a yellow phosphor(bis(2-(3-trifluoromethyl-4-fluorophenyl)-4-methylquinolyl)(acetyl-acetonate)iridium(III) (Ir(ffpmq)₂(acac)) in the host DDBICZ, a simplified fluorescence/phosphorescence (F/P)-based hybrid white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED) with a symmetrical BYB-EML of DDBICZ (10 nm)/DDBICZ: 6 wt% Ir(ffpmq)₂(acac) (10 nm)/DDBICZ (10 nm) is demonstrated. The hybrid WOLED exhibits excellent high color stability and good color quality. Under wide operating voltage range from 5 V to 10 V, the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of the hybrid WOLED only change from (0.35, 0.36) to (0.34, 0.35), with a high color rending index (CRI) of 79–81. The high color stability is due to the fact that the BYB-EML effectively offsets the change of emission intensity from different emitters caused by the shift of carrier recombination zone with the increase of voltage. In addition, the hybrid WOLED also reveals a considerable current efficiency of 24.4 cd/A. These results demonstrate that efficient F/P hybrid WOLEDs with high color stability could be achieved by such simple BYB-EML structure using single-dopant strategy.     

The impact of the ICT4D project on sustainable rural development using a capability approach: Evidence from Bangladesh

Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) projects have shown a great promises in recent years. However, simply materializing of ICT4D projects is not enough for minimizing the prevalent digital divide in rural areas in developing countries. For the success of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) intervention, it is important to consider the capabilities of users, who are responsible for converting ICT resources into outcome. While most of the ICT-related studies are focused on the adoption of actual technologies and influences of different internal and external factors on intervention outcomes, very few studies are focused on evaluating intervention outcomes and redesigning intervention strategies. In this study, I opted for using a conceptual framework following the Capability Approach that simultaneously identifies the influence factors for intervention outcome as well as evaluates the outcome based on Noble Laureate Amartya Sen’s five freedoms concept. A qualitative technique has been chosen to conduct the study. As part of the impact evaluation of an ICT4D intervention, a project known as Union Digital Centres (UDCs) in Bangladesh was selected. A total of ten themes are identified indicating that the outcome of the intervention is contributing to socio-economic and human development. However, the study has revealed that lack of capabilities of users (e.g. prior knowledge and financial inability) bar the UDC programs to fulfill their goals at highest level. This study would practically help the UDC policy makers to adjust the UDC intervention design by addressing the shortcomings of the users to yield higher UDC program outcome. Additionally, this study theoretically contributes in ICT adoption literature by showing that there is a mutual influence between users’ capabilities and ICT-related project outcomes. Finally, using specific case study (ICT4D project in Bangladesh), this study contextualizes Amartya Sen’s five freedoms concept in the ICT-specific context.