One of the most important aspects of a comprehensive education involves teaching students to analyze arguments and form their own opinions based on available information. Visual and graphical mapping strategies are useful in helping students to consider problems from a variety of perspectives. Cases on Teaching Critical Thinking through Visual Representation Strategies brings together research from scholars and professionals in the field of education to provide new insights into the use of visual aids for student development in reasoning and critical thinking. This essential reference source will enable academics, researchers, and practitioners in fields such as education, business, and technology to more effectively foster students critical thinking skills."

When funding agencies and policy organizations consider the role of modeling and simulation in modern biology, the question is often posed, what has been accomplished ? This book will be organized around a symposium on the 20 year history of the CNS meetings, to be held as part of CNS 2010 in San Antonio Texas in July 2010. The book, like the symposium is intended to summarize progress made in Computational Neuroscience over the last 20 years while also considering current challenges in the field. As described in the table of contents, the chapter's authors have been selected to provide wide coverage of the applications of computational techniques to a broad range of questions and model systems in neuroscience. The proposed book will include several features that establish the history of the field. For each article, its author will select an article originally appearing in a CNS conference proceedings from 15 - 20 years ago. These short (less than 6 page) articles will provide illustrations of the state of the field 20 years ago. The new articles will describe what has been learned about the subject in the following 20 years, and pose specific challenges for the next 20 years. The second historical mechanism will be the reproduction of the first 12 years of posters from the CNS meeting. These posters in and of themselves have become famous in the field (they hang in the halls of the NIH in Bethesda Maryland) and were constructed as allegories for the state and development of computational neuroscience. The posters were designed by the book's editor, who will, for the first time, provide a written description of each poster.

This book presents details of a text-to-speech synthesis procedure using epoch synchronous overlap add (ESOLA), and provides a solution for development of a text-to-speech system using minimum data resources compared to existing solutions. It also examines most natural speech signals including random perturbation in synthesis. The book is intended for students, researchers and industrial practitioners in the field of text-to-speech synthesis.

The problem of robotic and virtual interaction with physical objects has been the subject of research for many years in both the robotic manipulation and haptics communities. Both communities have focused much attention on human touch-based perception and manipulation, modelling contact between real or virtual hands and objects, or mechanism design. However, as a whole, these problems have not yet been addressed from a unified perspective. This edited book is the outcome of a well-attended workshop which brought together leading scholars from various branches of the robotics, virtual-reality, and human studies communities during the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. It covers some of the most challenging problems on the forefront of today 's research on physical interaction with real and virtual objects, with special emphasis on modelling contacts between objects, grasp planning algorithms, haptic perception, and advanced design of hands, devices and interfaces.

This book examines how fuzzy methods can be employed to manage service levels in business and IT alignment. It starts by mapping the dependencies of service level agreements, coming up with gradual and bi-polar concepts to eventually classify the level of coupling by intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The second part presents an approach to analyze the impact of service failures using intuitionistic fuzzy methods (IFSFIA). Lastly, the third part of the book extends the concept towards business and IT-aligned service-level engineering and provides two use cases.

This book gathers the outcomes of the 18th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Computer and Information Science (ICIS 2019), which was held on June 12-14, 2019 in Beijing, China. The aim of the conference was to bring together researchers and scientists, businesspeople and entrepreneurs, teachers, engineers, computer users, and students to discuss the various fields of computer science and to share their experiences and exchange new ideas and information in a meaningful way. Further, they presented research results on all aspects (theory, applications and tools) of computer and information science, and discussed the practical challenges encountered in their work and the solutions they adopted to overcome them. The book highlights the best papers from those accepted for presentation at the conference. They were chosen based on review scores submitted by members of the program committee and underwent further rigorous rounds of review. From this second round, 15 of the conference's most promising papers were selected for this Springer (SCI) book and not the conference proceedings. We eagerly await the important contributions that we know these authors will make to the field of computer and information science.

We have always built tools to improve our productivity and help us lead better lives; however we find ourselves constantly battling against our new computerized tools, making us less productive and putting our health and our lives at risk. This book looks at Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from a truly human-centred perspective; focusing on human physiology and psychology rather than the motley series of brilliant innovations, glorified mistakes, and cross-generational habits that comprise the computer-centred HCI that we practice today. This three-part guide argues that human interest and calm technology need to be at the heart of HCI. It begins by exposing the inherent dangers in past and present HCI. Using his past experiences within Anthropology, Linguistics, Education, Ergonomics, Human Factors, and Computer Science the author introduces and explores the theory of 'Anthropology-Based Computing' (ABC) as well as a new ideas like Dynamic Environmental Focus (DEF), a new model of General Human Interaction (GHI), and a new triune model of the brain: Brown's Representation of Anthropogenic Interaction in Natural Settings (BRAINS). Detailed illustrations show how HCI can be improved by considering how human bodies and brains actually work. The final part is a series of simple illustrated experiments, each applying an aspect of ABC to improve the way our computers and computerized devices treat us. Anthropology-Based Computing is written for those who work with computers, not just those who work on them. Students and researchers in Design and Psychology, and Computer Scientists as well, will benefit from seeing what is missing from the devices that are already in place, why that is, and how to make the practical changes that will immediately improve the physiological and psychological experience of using phones, on-board navigation systems, and the countless other computers we use at work and at home today and will continue to use in the future.

Create useful and usable map apps that your users will love. Turn your next map app project into a success with Designing Map Interfaces: Patterns for Building Effective Map Apps. Whether you're configuring an out-of-the-box solution, building an app using one of the readily available app builder tools, or working on a custom app project, this book will guide you toward developing more useful and usable apps. Current courses for application development focus on technology and architecture rather than the tenets of interface design. This book teaches GIS professionals, developers, and designers the principles and best practices that will help them create stunning consumer-grade apps. Designing Map Interfaces provides a language for planning and building map apps. The elements of this language are made up of user interface (UI) patterns. Each pattern describes a solution to an observed and recurring problem in UI design. This book explains when to use the pattern, why it is important, and what to consider--and in turn will help readers make educated decisions on what, why, when, and how to solve problems to make their apps work. Throughout the book, patterns are illustrated through real-world examples. Key topics include: getting started with design, selecting the right layout, interacting with the map, dealing with complex data, designing for mobile devices, building single-purpose apps, and common mistakes and how to avoid them. This book is aimed at anyone that configures (solution engineers, GIS professionals) or builds (developer community, designers) map apps, especially the fast-growing group of users who employ application builders and tools that create apps to publish their own data and maps on the web. Designing Map Interfaces fills the gap that documentation lacks--practical tips on how to assemble a meaningful UI. This book is the essential guide to designing map interfaces that are usable and efficient, and look good in the process.

Reasoning for Information: Seeking and Planning Dialogues provides a logic-based reasoning component for spoken language dialogue systems. This component, called Problem Assistant is responsible for processing constraints on a possible solution obtained from various sources, namely user and the system's domain-specific information. The authors also present findings on the implementation of a dialogue management interface to the Problem Assistant. The dialogue system supports simple mixed-initiative planning interactions in the TRAINS domain, which is still a relatively complex domain involving a number of logical constraints and relations forming the basis for the collaborative problem-solving behavior that drives the dialogue.

In this book, a novel approach that combines speech-based emotion recognition with adaptive human-computer dialogue modeling is described. With the robust recognition of emotions from speech signals as their goal, the authors analyze the effectiveness of using a plain emotion recognizer, a speech-emotion recognizer combining speech and emotion recognition, and multiple speech-emotion recognizers at the same time. The semi-stochastic dialogue model employed relates user emotion management to the corresponding dialogue interaction history and allows the device to adapt itself to the context, including altering the stylistic realization of its speech. This comprehensive volume begins by introducing spoken language dialogue systems and providing an overview of human emotions, theories, categorization and emotional speech. It moves on to cover the adaptive semi-stochastic dialogue model and the basic concepts of speech-emotion recognition. Finally, the authors show how speech-emotion recognizers can be optimized, and how an adaptive dialogue manager can be implemented. The book, with its novel methods to perform robust speech-based emotion recognition at low complexity, will be of interest to a variety of readers involved in human-computer interaction.

Organizational change is becoming increasingly complex, challenging and difficult to handle as technology advances. And there is a need to discuss how it can be both more effectively managed by large and small organizations, while at the same time the strategies for changes are based on ethical notions of democracy and participation. Redesigning Human Systems assists those interested in and responsible for the management of major change within organizations, and provides the theories and values that should be adhered to in order to achieve that change successfully and effectively.

Virtual reality (VR) can provide our minds with direct access to digital media in a way that seemingly has no limits. However, creating compelling VR experiences is an incredibly complex challenge. When VR is done well, the results are brilliant and pleasurable experiences that go beyond what we can do in the real world. When VR is done badly, not only is the system frustrating to use, but it can result in sickness. There are many causes of bad VR; some failures come from the limitations of technology, but many come from a lack of understanding perception, interaction, design principles, and real users. This book discusses these issues by emphasizing the human element of VR. The fact is, if we do not get the human element correct, then no amount of technology will make VR anything more than an interesting tool confined to research laboratories. Even when VR principles are fully understood, the first implementation is rarely novel and almost never ideal due to the complex nature of VR and the countless possibilities that can be created. The VR principles discussed in this book will enable readers to intelligently experiment with the rules and iteratively design towards innovative experiences.

By combining agent capabilities with computational linguistics, conversational agents can exploit natural language technologies to improve communication between humans and computers. Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction: Techniques and Effective Practices is a reference guide for researchers entering the promising field of conversational agents. It provides an introduction to fundamental concepts in the field, collects experiences of researchers working on conversational agents, and reviews techniques for the design and application of conversational agents. The book discusses the successes of and challenges faced by researchers, designers, and programmers who want to use conversational agents for e-commerce, help desks, website navigation, personalized service, and training or education applications.

In this book, hierarchical structures based on neural networks are investigated for automatic speech recognition. These structures are mainly evaluated within the phoneme recognition task under the Hybrid Hidden Markov Model/Artificial Neural Network (HMM/ANN) paradigm. The baseline hierarchical scheme consists of two levels each which is based on a Multilayered Perceptron (MLP). Additionally, the output of the first level is used as an input for the second level. This system can be substantially speeded up by removing the redundant information contained at the output of the first level.

Databases have been designed to store large volumes of data and to provide efficient query interfaces. Semantic Web formats are geared towards capturing domain knowledge, interlinking annotations, and offering a high-level, machine-processable view of information. However, the gigantic amount of such useful information makes efficient management of it increasingly difficult, undermining the possibility of transforming it into useful knowledge.

The research presented by De Virgilio, Giunchiglia and Tanca tries to bridge the two worlds in order to leverage the efficiency and scalability of database-oriented technologies to support an ontological high-level view of data and metadata. The contributions present and analyze techniques for semantic information management, by taking advantage of the synergies between the logical basis of the Semantic Web and the logical foundations of data management. The book's leitmotif is to propose models and methods especially tailored to represent and manage data that is appropriately structured for easier machine processing on the Web.

After two introductory chapters on data management and the Semantic Web in general, the remaining contributions are grouped into five parts on Semantic Web Data Storage, Reasoning in the Semantic Web, Semantic Web Data Querying, Semantic Web Applications, and Engineering Semantic Web Systems. The handbook-like presentation makes this volume an important reference on current work and a source of inspiration for future development, targeting academic and industrial researchers as well as graduate students in Semantic Web technologies or database design.

Virtual worlds are an area of growing interest in many sectors, including higher education. While Web-based tools have existed for years to help deliver course content, these tools have not traditionally provided means for creation of community with the embedded communication and collaboration necessary for successful teaching and learning. Teaching and Learning in 3D Immersive Worlds: Pedagogical Models and Constructivist Approaches examines successful implementation of social constructivist instructional design tenets in 3D virtual immersive environments. Authors share best practices, challenges, and advice to those working to utilize virtual environments in higher education and other venues. Readers will gain both a research background in the use of virtual worlds for teaching and learning and practical advice as they begin to design and implement these environments.

The design of various virtual environments should be based on the needs of a diverse population of users around the globe. Interface design should be user centric and should strive for making the user's interaction as simple, meaningful, and efficient as possible. User Interface Design for Virtual Environments: Challenges and Advances focuses on challenges that designers face in creating interfaces for users of various virtual environments. Chapters included in this book address various critical issues that have implications for user interface design from a number of different viewpoints. This book is written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of challenges associated with user interface design issues for globally-dispersed users in various virtual environments.

This book stages a dialogue between international researchers from the broad fields of complexity science and narrative studies. It presents an edited collection of chapters on aspects of how narrative theory from the humanities may be exploited to understand, explain, describe, and communicate aspects of complex systems, such as their emergent properties, feedbacks, and downwards causation; and how ideas from complexity science can inform narrative theory, and help explain, understand, and construct new, more complex models of narrative as a cognitive faculty and as a pervasive cultural form in new and old media. The book is suitable for academics, practitioners, and professionals, and postgraduates in complex systems, narrative theory, literary and film studies, new media and game studies, and science communication.

Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers. It is now a growing field of both practice and academic research. Designing for Service brings together a wide range of international contributors to map the field of service design and identify key issues for practitioners and researchers such as identity, ethics and accountability. Designing for Service aims to problematize the field in order to inform a more critical debate within service design, thereby supporting its development beyond the pure methodological discussions that currently dominate the field. The contributors to this innovative volume consider the practice of service design, ethical challenges designers may encounter, and the new spaces opened up by the advent of modern digital technologies.

What the book is about This book is about the theory and practice of the use of multimedia, multimodal interfaces for leaming. Yet it is not about technology as such, at least in the sense that the authors do not subscribe to the idea that one should do something just because it is technologically possible. 'Multimedia' has been adopted in some commercial quarters to mean little more than a computer with some form of audio ar (more usually) video attachment. This is a trend which ought to be resisted, as exemplified by the material in this book. Rather than merely using a new technology 'because it is there', there is a need to examine how people leam and eommunicate, and to study diverse ways in which computers ean harness text, sounds, speech, images, moving pietures, gestures, touch, etc. , to promote effective human leaming. We need to identify which media, in whieh combinations, using what mappings of domain to representation, are appropriate far which educational purposes . . The word 'multimodal ' in the title underlies this perspective. The intention is to focus attention less on the technology and more on how to strueture different kinds of information via different sensory channels in order to yield the best possible quality of communication and educational interaction. (Though the reader should refer to Chapter 1 for a discussion of the use of the word 'multimodal' . ) Historically there was little problem.

This book is the result of a group of researchers from different disciplines asking themselves one question: what does it take to develop a computer interface that listens, talks, and can answer questions in a domain? First, obviously, it takes specialized modules for speech recognition and synthesis, human interaction management (dialogue, input fusion, and multimodal output fusion), basic question understanding, and answer finding. While all modules are researched as independent subfields, this book describes the development of state-of-the-art modules and their integration into a single, working application capable of answering medical (encyclopedic) questions such as "How long is a person with measles contagious?" or "How can I prevent RSI?."

The contributions in this book, which grew out of the IMIX project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, document the development of this system, but also address more general issues in natural language processing, such as the development of multidimensional dialogue systems, the acquisition of taxonomic knowledge from text, answer fusion, sequence processing for domain-specific entity recognition, and syntactic parsing for question answering. Together, they offer an overview of the most important findings and lessons learned in the scope of the IMIX project, making the book of interest to both academic and commercial developers of human-machine interaction systems in Dutch or any other language.

Highlights include: integrating multi-modal input fusion in dialogue management (Van Schooten and Op den Akker), state-of-the-art approaches to the extraction of term variants (Van der Plas, Tiedemann, and Fahmi; Tjong Kim Sang, Hofmann, and De Rijke), and multi-modal answer fusion (two chapters by Van Hooijdonk, Bosma, Krahmer, Maes, Theune, and Marsi).

Watch the IMIX movie at www.nwo.nl/imix-film.

Like IBM's Watson, the IMIX system described in the book gives naturally phrased responses to naturally posed questions. Where Watson can only generate synthetic speech, the IMIX system also recognizes speech. On the other hand, Watson is able to win a television quiz, while the IMIX system is domain-specific, answering only to medical questions.

"The Netherlands has always been one of the leaders in the general field of Human Language Technology, and IMIX is no exception. It was a very ambitious program, with a remarkably successful performance leading to interesting results. The teams covered a remarkable amount of territory in the general sphere of multimodal question answering and information delivery, question answering, information extraction and component technologies."

Eduard Hovy, USC, USA, Jon Oberlander, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Norbert Reithinger, DFKI, Germany"

ED-L2L, Learning to Live in the Knowledge Society, is one of the co-located conferences of the 20th World Computer Congress (WCC2008). The event is organized under the auspices of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) and is to be held in Milan from 7th to 10th September 2008. ED-L2L is devoted to themes related to ICT for education in the knowledge society. It provides an international forum for professionals from all continents to discuss research and practice in ICT and education. The event brings together educators, researchers, policy makers, curriculum designers, teacher educators, members of academia, teachers and content producers. ED-L2L is organised by the IFIP Technical Committee 3, Education, with the support of the Institute for Educational Technology, part of the National Research Council of Italy. The Institute is devoted to the study of educational innovation brought about through the use of ICT. Submissions to ED-L2L are published in this conference book. The published papers are devoted to the published conference themes: Developing digital literacy for the knowledge society: information problem solving, creating, capturing and transferring knowledge, commitment to lifelong learning Teaching and learning in the knowledge society, playful and fun learning at home and in the school New models, processes and systems for formal and informal learning environments and organisations Developing a collective intelligence, learning together and sharing knowledge ICT issues in education - ethics, equality, inclusion and parental role Educating ICT professionals for the global knowledge society Managing the transition to the knowledge society