This paper provides a methodology to assess the efficiency of mean residual life (MRL) in condition-based maintenance decision-making for a system subjected to the competing and dependent risks of degradation and shock. Based on this system, the cost models of two quite simple policies implementing MRL-based or degradation-based preventive replacement are developed and compared with each other....

A variety of social and digital media technologies are being used to influence a change in an individual’s or group’s behaviour. A major challenge is in understanding what leads to or prevents different forms of influence from having an effect, what those effects are, how long they take to come about and for how long they last. This research is concerned with the problem domain of climate chang...

BACKGROUND Maintaining social relationships has been defined as a core element of aging well. With a considerable amount of older adults living alone, social media provides the possibility to engage in meaningful social contact, e.g. by joining online social networks and online discussion forums. OBJECTIVE The review encompasses current knowledge of prerequisites in social media use of older ...

The paper presents a policy analysis framework developed through a process of interdisciplinary integration as well as through a process of end users needs elicitation. The proposed framework constitutes the theoretical foundation for the Decision Support Component of a technological platform bringing together Social Media and System Dynamics simulation developed within the PADGETS project. The...

This article examines the influence of the social environment on adolescents’ connectedness to the internet in East Asia, one of the most wired regions in the world. Connectedness is a qualitative conceptualization of an individual’s relationship with the internet, taking into consideration the breadth, depth, and the importance of individuals’ internet experience. This study seeks to situate a...

As higher education courses are increasingly expected to have an online presence, academic staff are faced not only with workload challenges but also with changes to the type of work in which they are involved and consequently the skills, dispositions and support that is required. Within the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology, several mini-cases relating to microinnovat...

We designed two decision support tools and employed them during a one-week, simulation-driven experiment that included emergency responders acting in their real-life roles. Each tool visualized a “decision space”: a diagrammatic depiction of the relative desirability of one option versus another, including the inherent uncertainty in the potential outcomes. One requirement was to develop a tool...

Governments of many countries attempt to increase public participation by exploiting the capabilities and high penetration of the Internet. In this direction they make considerable investments for constructing and operating e-participation websites; however, the use of them has been in general limited and below expectations. For this reason governments, in order to widen e-participation, should...

BACKGROUND Medical curricula are increasingly using small group learning and less didactic lecture-based teaching. This creates new challenges and opportunities in how students are best supported with information technology. We explored how university-supported and external social media could support collaborative small group working on our new undergraduate medical curriculum. METHODS We mad...

This paper describes an open hypermedia system which allows content based navigation and retrieval from both text and non-text media. The system provides a variety of link types including the generic link which, once authored from a particular selection, may be followed from any instance matching that selection. The paper also describes the concept of a multimedia thesaurus and illustrates how ...