Journal of
Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics
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 ISSN: 1690-4524 (Online)    DOI: 10.54808/JSCI



TABLE OF CONTENTS





Are We Meeting Pedagogic Requirements? – The Quadratic Equation
Russell Jay Hendel
Pages: 1-7
ABSTRACT:
Hendel [8] recently proposed four pillars of good pedagogy: executive function, goal-setting, attribution theory and self-efficacy. These pillars are consistent with and supplement the pedagogical hierarchies [1,4,5,16,29,30,31]. These pillars also supplement the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM] Process Standards [13,23] as well as the Standards of Mathematical Practice (SMP) of the Common Core State Standards of Mathematics(CCSSM) [11]. A natural follow-up question is whether, and how, current and past textbooks are meeting these requirements. This paper addresses this follow-up question by studying five pre-2000 textbooks [2,6,10,26,27] and three post-2000 books [12,17,28]. For purposes of specificity, the paper exclusively focuses on the treatment of the quadratic function/equation. Using the four pillars, the following questions are asked: What would executive function require for teaching the quadratic function/equation? What does the theory of goal-setting tell us about teaching the quadratic function/equation? What does attribution theory require? The paper’s main conclusions are that: i) some pre-2000 textbooks are already meeting the new standards; ii) no single textbook meets all requirements; iii) the requirements of pedagogic excellence—of Hendel, the Process Standards or the SMP—should be met by placing a primary focus on verbal problems. The paper also addresses operational concerns and shows how both operational and pedagogic concerns can be met simultaneously.


Facilitating Effective Student Participation in an Online Environment
Nanda van der Stap, Risa Blair
Pages: 8-11
ABSTRACT:
This study aims to show how student participation in an online environment can be effected through voice feedback. For many Universities student evaluations are an important issue. Student evaluations and student results are largely dependent on student-teacher relations. Establishing such a relation is a challenge in an online environment because the teacher is not physically present. As such, it is essential that means are found to achieving a personal relation within the online environment. We have endeavoured to lower the threshold to such contact by exploiting tools that enable a more personal online relation. Vocal feedback to assignments or discussions allows for a more personal approach that could still be deemed professional in ways that solely written feedback cannot.. Two studies were conducted with two groups of students: one in the Netherlands and one in the United States. Both groups were students in a higher vocational institute who received part of their education in an online environment. Most students favoured vocal feedback and whilst some students are more visible learners and preferred to read feedback rather than listen to it, they still felt that contact between them and the teacher had become more personal as a result of vocal feedback.


Virtual Global Classrooms without Walls: Collaborative Opportunities for Higher Learning Engagement
Cathy MacDonald, Debra Sheppard-LeMoine
Pages: 12-16
ABSTRACT:
Educational research demonstrates that conventional pedagogies are no longer effective for actively engaging learners and produces learning isolation. Alternative interpretative approaches that foster learning and inquiry from multiple perspectives and contexts, while emanating from lived experiences engages and empowers students to explore and increase their understanding about sensitive topics (such as palliative care, leadership challenges, and practicing within vulnerable environments). Encouraging students to associate their personal experiences with evidenced-based knowledge and best practices in positive learning spaces supports innovative advancement of health care with a focus on culturally safe practices internationally. This can be accomplished via virtual global classrooms by using synchronous communication implementing video conferencing. The University of Calgary Qatar (UCQ), Doha has been active in this learning approach in both their undergraduate and graduate programs. A shared teaching/ learning experience was facilitated for the undergraduate Bachelor of Science Nursing (BScN) students in Doha, Qatar and the Rankin School of Nursing, Saint Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada. This experience focused on building understanding of community nursing practices in both countries. In the UCQ master of nursing program, a palliative care course was offered for three spring sessions and a leadership course was offered for one spring session with synchronous communication via video conferencing between Nova Scotia and the Middle East. These virtual learning opportunities fostered relational and professional learning engagements that would not have been otherwise been possible. The authors contend that this work provides not only an opportunity for future higher learning engagements, but also a foundation for future global collaborative research and practice partnerships.


Augmented Reality as Visual Communication for People with ASD
Esteban Menéndez, María Daniela López de Luise
Pages: 17-21
ABSTRACT:
The goal of this paper is to present a behavioral modeling method for patients with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and an implemented prototype of it. The model is automatically derived from the natural interaction between a patient and his environment. This proposal differs from current treatments and tools, in that the individual is not trained by imposing semantic patterns, but ideograms built from the patient’s preferences and environment. By using Augmented Reality, the autistic is being treated in an innovative way: the model gathers the environment variables and through communication by exchange of images (PECS) the treatment becomes a agile, continuous and flexible process. The procedure is expedited since the patient does not have to select PECS, but they appear to him. The activity recording is them processed in such a way to control and describe the cognitive and social profile of the patient. It also, performs a customize performance statistics. Likewise, the special administration of these statistics is intended to lay the groundwork for more representative future work that could allow the derivation of umbiased patient´s evolution.


Study of Race Condition: A Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Tanjila Farah, Rashed Shelim, Moniruz Zaman, Delwar Alam
Pages: 22-26
ABSTRACT:
The Race condition is a privilege escalation vulnerability that manipulates the time between imposing a security control and using services in a UNIX like system. This vulnerability is a result of interferences caused by multiple sequential threads running in the system and sharing the same resources. Race condition could occur due to sequence condition imposed by un-trusted processes or locking failure condition imposed by secure programs such as operating systems. The race condition is a common vulnerability in UNIX-like systems, where directories such as /tmp and /var/tmp are shared between threads. A study of Race condition vulnerability and its impact in UNIX like systems are presented in this paper. Also various types of Race condition attack and there detection, avoidance and prevention techniques are also discussed in this paper.


From the Lab to the Field: 3D Technology Supporting Study and Conservation Processes on Ancient Egyptian Artefacts
Paola Buscaglia, Elena Biondi, Alessandro Bovero, Tomasso Quirino
Pages: 27-32
ABSTRACT:
In this paper we will report on the importance of 3D documentation as a tool for study and communication in Cultural Heritage, with particular reference to the experience grown up at Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale (in the text: CCR La Venaria Reale) and to its application on Egyptian artefacts.

We will focus on the purpose-built virtual viewer, set up in order to solve specific operational needs of the working group. We will consider for that significant case studies for innovation that 3D technology has brought in terms of streamlining processes and sharing results.

We will also focus on technical advantages obtained by the realization of a 3D model of the remains of a 22nd dynasty cartonnage, found by the Italian Archaeological Mission at the area of the Temple of Millions of Years of Amenhotep II (Luxor, West bank, Egypt), and on the benefit in using 3D documentation on archaeological excavations.


Digital Forensics Compute Cluster (DFORC2) – A New High Speed Distributed Computing Capability for Digital Forensics
Daniel Gonzales, Zev Winkelman, Trung Tran, Ricardo Sanchez, Dulani Woods, John Hollywood
Pages: 33-38
ABSTRACT:
We have developed a new distributed computing capability, Digital Forensics Compute Cluster (DFORC2) to speed up the ingestion and processing of digital evidence. DFORC2 parallelizes evidence ingestion and file processing steps. It can be run on a standalone server or in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. When running in a cloud computing environment, its cluster resources can be dynamically scaled up or down using Kubernetes. DFORC2 is an open source project that uses Autopsy, Apache Spark and Kafka, and other open source software packages. It extends Autopsy’s forensics capabilities to compute clusters and cloud architectures, so key digital forensics tasks can be accomplished simultaneously by a scalable array of cluster compute nodes. In this paper we compare the performance of a DFORC2 with a standalone version of Autopsy for evidentiary hard drives of different sizes.


Proposal of a Bus Location System Based on Participatory Sensing with BLE Devices and Smartphones
Katsuhiro Naito, Katsuyuki Tanaka
Pages: 39-44
ABSTRACT:
Bus location systems are focused to enhance service quality of public transportation. The traditional issues in the bus location system are difficulties to install expensive special devices and expensive operational expenses for network sys- tems. Recently, some researchers utilize smartphones to mea- sure the environment and to collect information. Additionally, participatory sensing methods, where many common people collaborate to collect data with their own smartphone, have been focused for bus location systems. On the contrary, the developed application for the participatory sensing method has an issue of energy management because the application works continuously in a background process, and consumes much energy. This paper proposes a collaborative mechanism with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon devices and smartphones to realize a bus location system. The proposed mechanism em- ploys BLE devices as a beacon device that triggers our special application for smartphones. Therefore, the special application can be automatically launched when a beacon message arrives on the smartphone, and it does not work continuously in a background process. As a result, the proposed system can collect bus location by smartphones in participatory sensing manner without excess energy consumption. In the experiment, we have set up for the bus route of our university transportation service into the smartphone application. Experimental results demonstrated that the developed application can measure its position by a location service and upload the measurement location automatically.


Technical Change and Employment in an Emerging Economy
Humberto Merritt
Pages: 45-53
ABSTRACT:
Technical change has traditionally had a strong influence on the economy. In particular, the quick advance of information technologies (IT) has sparked drastic changes in almost every productive activity, with skilled jobs being dramatically affected by these changes. Although most white collar jobs were apparently immune to change up until very recently, now routine-based jobs are vanishing and the remaining clerical jobs being forced to adapt. In this paper, we examine the impact of IT on skilled jobs in Mexico. In so doing, we ask to what extent is technological change affecting skilled jobs? Drawing on a historical research on the weekly evolution of hiring offers for six posts in a Mexico City’s newspaper, we were able to identify how traditional jobs have been petering out as more sophisticated work positions have been coming along. Yet, traditional manufacturing jobs seem to endure as demand from productive firms remains strong in spite of the continuing diffusion of IT. We conclude that modern jobs are no longer defined by traditional skills but by multitask abilities, especially in the service sector.



Interpretation of the Results of a Case Study about Impacts and Influences of Exogenous Variables in the Planning of Chronogram and Budget in Software Projects
Altino José Mentzingen de Moraes
Pages: 54-59
ABSTRACT:
This paper is focused in the interpretation of a Case Study results. This Case Study was based in an article, of the same author of this paper, presented in an international congress (IMCIC 2015) held in Orlando - Florida / USA in March of 2015. This article obtained the Best Paper Award (http://www.iiis.org/bestpapers.asp?year=2015) of the Technical Session which it was presented in IMCIC 2015. Besides to have been included in IMCIC 2015 proceedings, as a complementary award, this same article was published in an Academic Journal.

The 2 (two) main points of this Case Study were:

1. Evaluate if the capture of the data to register in the Formulary proposed, by the IMCIC 2015 article, was easy or had some difficulties;

2. Evaluate the accuracy between the data captured, under the rules of the IMCIC 2015 article proposal, and the reality found in 9 (nine) Organizations that were involved in this Case Study survey.


Flipped Classroom – A Flexible Way of Teaching Technology Usage for Diagnostics in the Medical Subdomain ENT
Walter Koch, Jochen Schachenreiter, Klaus Vogt, Gerda Koch
Pages: 60-64
ABSTRACT:
A special problem area which ENT-Head/Neck (ENT: Ear-Nose-Throat) surgery specialists have to deal with is the air flow in the nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses. It is a burning problem to extend the morphological diagnostic by detailed functional analysis, i.e. the visualization of the nasal air stream and the physical analysis of its energetic. The simulation of the airflow via CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is nowadays gaining importance for diagnostics, and the visualization and simulation of airflows from the nostrils to the nasal pharynx afford in first place a precise and high quality 3D reconstruction of the nasal cavities. But the successive validation and interpretation of CFD simulation results is a challenge for non CFD specialists. The introduction of these new technologies requires special education and training for students as well as for medical experts in order to learn how to use and handle different tools and methods when preparing a surgery. “Flipped classroom”, a type of blended learning, is a preferred method for supporting knowledge transfer not only to students and employees but also among all kind of different members within organizations.


ERP Selection: The Lifeblood of an Organization
Desmond (Tres) Bishop
Pages: 65-69
ABSTRACT:
What ERP solution best meets the needs of our current business practices and can serve as the catalyst to propel our organization forward? Dave Johnson pondered this question as he watched the setting sun slowly disappear over the horizon from his nearly barren but spacious office. He had just received the final quote from the last of the finalist vendors. All of the data had been uploaded and input into the spreadsheet before him and seemed to stare back as if beckoning for an answer. Johnson was the recently hired Vice President of Operations at International Communication Services (ICS). He was specifically recruited to ICS with the mandate to implement change on a large scale. The selection of a new ERP system was critical; it would be the lifeblood of the “new and improved” ICS.

The options came down to ERP vendors that each excelled in pivotal but fundamentally different ways from one another. Epicor was created specifically for manufacturing and was in use at a sister company. Infor’s advantage was in project management and had a friendly, easy to use interface. Deltek had the edge in financial reporting and was currently in use at the corporate office. What solution was best for ICS? The recommendations of the super users from across the corporation, which included representatives from manufacturing, finance, program management, and quality assurance among others had been carefully tabulated, measured and scored. All that remained was Johnson’s final recommendation meeting with Richard Green, President of ICS, scheduled for 8am the next morning. As he turned off the lights in his office, he couldn’t help but to take one last forlorn look at his now black computer screen and softly whisper to himself, “Did we get it right”.


Proposing an Education System to Judge the Necessity of Nuclear Power in Japan
Ariyoshi Kusumi
Pages: 70-74
ABSTRACT:
In environmental education, the importance of education to promote thinking has been repeatedly emphasized. Further, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incident on March 11, 2011, judging the necessity of nuclear power is a controversial and important issue in Japan. Therefore, it is clear that education to promote thinking and judgment is important, especially as far as the necessity of nuclear power is concerned. In this research, I focus on the development of education to promote making judgments. I developed an easy-to-use education system, designed to enable individual citizens to judge the necessity of nuclear power in Japan. The system is designed to allow people to judge whether “YES” or “NO” regarding the using of nuclear power. First of all, a preliminary judgment is called for from each of a range of nine perspectives. Then, a comprehensive judgment is expected to be made from each of the nine perspectives. For those who cannot make judgments easily, I developed a quantitative system and made it available so that anyone can judge. Through the use of a questionnaire, I was able to make evaluations of the usefulness, appropriateness and neutrality of the education system that I had developed.


Biometric Encryption System for Increased Security
Ranjith Jayapal, Pramod Govindan
Pages: 75-80
ABSTRACT:
In this highly-interconnected world, most of our daily activities are computer based, and the data transactions are protected by passwords. These passwords identify various entities such as bank accounts, mobile phones, etc. People might reuse the same password, or passwords related to an individual that can lead to attacks. Indeed, remembering several passwords can become a tedious task. Biometrics is a science that measures an individual’s physical characteristics in a unique way. Biometrics serve as a method to replace the cumbersome use of complex passwords. By using a Biometric Encryption method, one can personalize the biometric to encode a PIN, a password, or an alphanumeric string, for a multitude of applications such as, bank ATMs, building access, and computer terminal access. Moreover, the database only needs to store the biometrically encrypted PIN or password, not the large biometric sample.


BIM as a Structural Safety Study Tool in Case of Fire - BIMSCIP
Marcelo Franco Porto, José Ricardo Queiroz Franco, Luiza Giori Barcellos Correa, Lucas Vinicius Ribeiro Alves, Renata Maria Abrantes Baracho
Pages: 81-86
ABSTRACT:
In this article, we will discuss how BIM modeling technology can be used to improve the safety of people and buildings in fire-fighting and panic. The objective of this research is to construct an automation methodology of the process of verification of fire compliance, which allows the development of a computation tool more agile and less prone to errors than the manual method currently in use in the Fire Department of the State of Minas Gerais (FDS-MG) in Brazil. The process of creating a plug-in for a BIM environment, a prototype of a computer system called BIMSCIP, will be described and aims to verify the conformity of projects with Fire Department standards. In this work, emphasis will be placed on a particular technical instruction: technical instruction number 06, which deals with the structural safety of buildings in cases of fire. At the current stage the prototype already reads the project and returns consistent results.


Evaluating the Construct Validity of Basic Science Curriculum Assessment Instrument for Critical Thinking: A Case-Study
Chau-Kuang Chen, Adriana Marie Horner, Michelle Scott, Stephanie C. McClure
Pages: 87-92
ABSTRACT:
The Rasch model is a practical framework for evaluating a construct validity of assessment instruments. It is capable of determining how the measurement of person’s ability (endorsement) and item difficulty matches with each other. This study aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties (reliability, validity, and utility) of a basic science curriculum assessment instrument. Special emphasis was placed on finding the strengths and challenges in the curriculum, and detecting the existence of multidimensional structure. A total of 130 medical students in academic year 2016/17 completed a 22-item assessment instrument. Three major steps were involved in this study. First, the parameters of person’s ability and item difficulty were separately estimated. Second, infit/outfit mean square residuals and standardized residual variance from principal component analysis (PCA) were used to validate the unidimentionality assumption. Lastly, differential item functioning (DIF) was assessed to determine the fairness of the assessment instrument. As a result, the baseline measures of the strengths and challenges in medical curriculum were established for continuous quality improvement. However, the unexplained variance for the first contrast value of 3.08 in PCA was greater than the criterion of 2.0, which shows some degree of violation of the unidimensionality assumption. Therefore, this instrument must be further revised for future application.


The Outer Banks Study – Physio-Chemical Parameters for Water Quality Testing/Professional Development Program for Teachers
Joseph Stringer, Timothy Bowman, Keith Vinson, Catherine Warnecke, Nora Lewis, William Slattery, Suzanne K. Lunsford
Pages: 93-97
ABSTRACT:
This manuscript describes the study of the water quality testing being carried out /analyzed during a professional development program held along the Outer Banks of North Carolina for in-service teachers. The professional development participants were engaged to learn different types of water quality equipment. These participants found the advantages of utilizing electrodes and a photometer for reproducible results in examining the environmental impacts of possible industry located around the area sites studied. The water analysis project has allowed the in-service teachers to learn the use of various technology and software needed for real-world problem solving related to industry and how it can impact the waterways.