Innovations in network and information technology have transformed traditional classroom lectures into new approaches that have given universities the opportunity to create a virtual laboratory. However, there is no systematic framework in existing approaches for the development of virtual laboratories. Further, developing a virtual laboratory from scratch is time consuming and costly. This art...

The adapter design pattern [1], commonly used for integration and evolution in component-based systems, is originally described by roles. In classbased systems, the conventional realization of the pattern maps these roles to classes. The recent appearance of mature languages supporting roles as first order programming constructs poses the question whether realizing this pattern directly in role...

Empowerment research has generally been limited to the individual level of analysis. Efforts to study empowerment beyond the individual require conceptual frameworks suggesting attributes that define the construct and guide its measurement. This paper presents an initial attempt to describe the nomological network of empowerment at the organizational level of analysis--organizational empowermen...

This paper presents a collection of patterns as a starting point for a pattern language for agent based systems. After motivation and background, Section 2 discusses the context shared by all of the patterns. Section 3 describes the major architectural pattern, the Layered Agent, while Sections 4 and 5 discuss the main patterns found within the layers, and relationships between the patterns, re...

BACKGROUND Providers and healthcare organizations have begun recognizing the importance of patient empowerment as a driver of patient-centered care. Unfortunately, most studies have investigated empowerment with single diseases. Identifying factors of empowerment across conditions and populations would enable a greater understanding of this construct. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was t...

Choosing the right abstractions is important for managing the complexity of your system. Three important abstractions used today are object, component and agent. Many similarities exist between these abstractions, but to make proper use of each, one should have a good understanding of their differences. Too often, we hear people discussing their agent-based systems when they have simply used th...

The psychological empowerment construct has been studied thoroughly in the workplace context, but little research has been conducted on volunteer empowerment. Eight interviews were conducted with Christian church volunteers identified as displaying empowered behaviors based upon Spreitzer‟s (1995) construct. Four primary themes, make a difference, rewarding, lifestyle of service, and passion, a...

The purpose of this study was to (a) identify potential benefits for students with disabilities taking part in a physical activity program with same-age typical peers on a Midwest university campus and (b) to determine if the program impacted the students with disabilities empowerment. Empowerment theory was used to determine how transition students' attitudes change over the course of the seme...

Field Workforce Scheduling (FWS) is a very important and practical problem in the service industries. It concerns the scheduling of multi-skilled employees to geographically dispersed tasks. In FWS, employee efficiency is highly important, and thus they have to be managed in an effective way. Employee empowerment is a relatively new and flexible management concept. It promises to benefit both o...