In traditional science education, lecture-style presentation dominates. There is a call, however, to integrate a greater amount of inquiry and discovery into the science classroom, specifically utilizing new media and technology. To answer that call, an undergraduate team created a tablet application for primary students, which was designed to supplement instruction in the physical sciences. The app was then taken into the classroom to test for efficacy. The primary students’ test scores showed a significant increase after use of the tablet application. Grade level and school location did affect change in test score; whereas, gender, type of school, student IEP, and iPad use did not. The undergraduate team who designed the app also showed significant increase in concept knowledge after the project in specific topic areas. / Literature review -- Methodology and results for undergraduate study -- iPad application : the product -- Methodology and results for primary student study -- Implications and recommendations. / Department of Chemistry

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master in Speech-Language Pathology / Background: Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) worldwide are using apps in their interventions. Despite this growing trend, there is limited literature on the use of apps for language intervention. Reports indicate that SLPs are selecting apps by word-of-mouth and popularity. One of the difficulties in evaluating apps is related to the lack of consensus about which features are important in an app when providing speech-language therapy to children. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the features of apps that SLPs regard as valuable for language intervention with children and how SLPs were using apps in their intervention. Method: The study employed an explanatory, sequential mixed-method approach using SLPs in 6 predominantly English-speaking countries. A self-developed online survey (N = 338) identifying the features of apps was distributed to SLPs who use apps. This was followed by a semi-structured interview with some participants (n = 16) in order to obtain further insights from the survey. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the survey results. Interview data were explored using thematic analysis. Findings: The findings show that SLPs view apps as an engaging and motivating tool for therapy to facilitate their intervention goals. The lack of guidelines to support SLPs in their selection of apps has contributed to the selection of apps based on popularity and word-of-mouth rather than feature matching. Findings showed that specific content and design features of apps may support effective intervention, however these features need to be carefully evaluated in terms of the underlying principles of language intervention, multimedia learning and learning. Features that may impede effective intervention must also be considered. In addition, the social and pragmatic aspects of communication must be contemplated when using apps. Conclusions: A feature-matching checklist was developed in order to assist SLPs select apps based on feature matching. The findings from the study highlight the need for SLPs to engage more deeply with the theory underlying multimedia learning so that this information can be used to contribute to evidence-based practice when using apps for intervention. This study, calls for SLPs to make a concerted effort to engage in research around apps and app use. / MT2018

Games have become important applications on mobile devices. A mobile gaming approach known as remote gaming is being developed to support games on low cost mobile devices. In the remote gaming approach, the responsibility of rendering a game and advancing the game play is put on remote servers instead of the resource constrained mobile devices. The games rendered on the servers are encoded as video and streamed to mobile devices. Mobile devices gather user input and stream the commands back to the servers to advance game play. With this solution, mobile devices with video playback and network connectivity can become game consoles. In this thesis, we present the design and development of such a system and evaluate the performance and design considerations to maximize the end user gaming experience. A gaming user experience model capable of predicting the user experience for a given gaming session is developed and verified. / by Waazim Reza. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Asset management is a time consuming and error prone process. Information Technology (IT) personnel typically perform this task manually by visually inspecting assets to identify misplaced assets. If this process is automated and provided to IT personnel it would prove very useful in keeping track of assets in a server rack. A mobile based solution is proposed to automate this process. The asset management application on the tablet captures images of assets and searches an annotated database to identify the asset. We evaluate the matching performance and speed of asset matching using three different image feature descriptors. Methods to reduce feature extraction and matching complexity were developed. Performance and accuracy tradeoffs were studied, domain specific problems were identified, and optimizations for mobile platforms were made. The results show that the proposed methods reduce complexity of asset matching by 67% when compared to the matching process using unmodified image feature descriptors. / by Reena Ursula Friedel. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

A Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) system is a cloud-based system that is accessed by the users through their own mobile devices. MCC systems are emerging as the product of two technology trends: 1) the migration of personal computing from desktop to mobile devices and 2) the growing integration of large-scale computing environments into cloud systems. Designers are developing a variety of new mobile cloud computing systems. Each of these systems is developed with different goals and under the influence of different design constraints, such as high network latency or limited energy supply. The current MCC systems rely heavily on Computation Offloading, which however incurs new problems such as scalability of the cloud, privacy concerns due to storing personal information on the cloud, and high energy consumption on the cloud data centers. In this dissertation, I address these problems by exploring different options in the distribution of computation across different computing nodes in MCC systems. My thesis is that "the use of design and simulation tools optimized for design space exploration of the MCC systems is the key to optimize the distribution of computation in MCC." For a quantitative analysis of mobile cloud computing systems through design space exploration, I have developed netShip, the first generation of an innovative design and simulation tool, that offers large scalability and heterogeneity support. With this tool system designers and software programmers can efficiently develop, optimize, and validate large-scale, heterogeneous MCC systems. I have enhanced netShip to support the development of ever-evolving MCC applications with a variety of emerging needs including the fast simulation of new devices, e.g., Internet-of-Things devices, and accelerators, e.g., mobile GPUs. Leveraging netShip, I developed three new MCC systems where I applied three variations of a new computation distributing technique, called Reverse Offloading. By more actively leveraging the computational power on mobile devices, the MCC systems can reduce the total execution times, the burden of concentrated computations on the cloud, and the privacy concerns about storing personal information available in the cloud. This approach also creates opportunities for new services by utilizing the information available on the mobile device instead of accessing the cloud. Throughout my research I have enabled the design optimization of mobile applications and cloud-computing platforms. In particular, my design tool for MCC systems becomes a vehicle to optimize not only the performance but also the energy dissipation, an aspect of critical importance for any computing system.

Advances in sensor technology and computer science in the last three decades have boosted the importance of system identification and vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) in civil infrastructure safety and integrity assessment. On the other hand, practical and financial issues in system instrumentation, maintenance, and operation have remained as fundamental problems obstructing the widespread use of SHM applications. For this reason, to reduce system costs and improve practicality as well as sustainability, researchers have been working on emerging methods such as wireless, distributed, mobile, remote, smart, multisensory, and heterogeneous sensing systems. Smartphones with built-in batteries, processor units, and a variety of sensors, have stood as a promising hardware and software environment that can be used as SHM components. Communication capabilities with the web, enable them to compose a smart and participatory sensor network of outnumbered individuals. Besides, crowdsourcing power offered by citizens, sets a decentralized and self-governing SHM framework which can even be pertained by very limited equipment and labor resources. Yet, citizen engagement in an SHM framework brings numerous challenges as well as opportunities. In a citizen-induced SHM scenario, the system administrators have limited or no control over the sensor instrumentation and the operation schedule, and the acquired data is subjected change depending on the measurement conditions. The citizen-induced errors can stem from spatial, temporal, and directional uncertainties since the sensor configuration relies on smartphone users’ decisions and actions. Moreover, the sensor-structure coupling may be unavailable where the smartphone is carried by the user, and as a consequence, the vibration features measured by smartphones can be modified due to the human biomechanical system. In addition, in contrast with the conventional high fidelity sensors, smartphone sensors are of limited quality and are subjected to high noise levels. This dissertation utilizes multisensory smartphone features to solve citizen-induced uncertainties and develops a smartphone-based SHM methodology which enables a cyber-physical system through mobile crowdsourcing. Using smartphone computational and communicational power, combined with a variety of embedded sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and camera, spatiotemporal and biomechanical citizen-induced uncertainties can be eliminated from the crowdsourced smartphone data, and eventually, structural vibrations collected from numerous buildings and bridges can be collected on a single cloud server. Therefore, unlike the conventional platforms designed and implemented for a particular structure, citizen-engaged and smartphone-based SHM can serve as intelligent, scalable, fully autonomous, cost-free, and durable cyber-physical systems drastically changing the forthcoming trends in civil infrastructure monitoring. In this dissertation, iOS is used as the application development platform to produce a smartphone-based SHM prototype, namely Citizen Sensors for SHM. In addition, a web-based software is developed and cloud services are implemented to connect individual smartphones to an administrator base and automate data submission and processing procedure accordingly. Finally, solutions to citizen-induced problems are provided through numerous laboratory and field test applications to prove the feasibility of smartphone-based SHM with real life examples. Through collaborative use of the software, principles and methodologies presented in this dissertation, smartphones can be the core component of futuristic smart, resilient, and sustainable city and infrastructure systems. And this study lays down an innovative and integrated foundation empowering citizens to achieve these goals.

Leung Siu Kuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-68). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- A Story --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Overview --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Introduction of SQL Injection --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- The importance of SQL Injection --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4 --- Thesis organization --- p.8 / Chapter 2 --- Background --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- Flow of web applications using DBMS --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Structure of DBMS --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Tables --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Columns --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Rows --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- SQL Syntax --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- SELECT --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- AND/OR --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- INSERT --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- UPDATE --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3.5 --- DELETE --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3.6 --- UNION --- p.18 / Chapter 3 --- Details of SQL Injection --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1 --- Basic SELECT Injection --- p.20 / Chapter 3.2 --- Advanced SELECT Injection --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Single Line Comment (--) --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Guessing the number of columns in a table --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Guessing the column name of a table (Easy one) --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Guessing the column name of a table (Difficult one) . --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- UPDATE Injection --- p.29 / Chapter 3.4 --- Other Attacks --- p.30 / Chapter 4 --- Current Defenses --- p.32 / Chapter 4.1 --- Causes of SQL Injection attacks --- p.32 / Chapter 4.2 --- Defense Methods --- p.33 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Defensive Programming --- p.34 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- hiding the error messages --- p.35 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Filtering out the dangerous characters --- p.35 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Using pre-complied SQL statements --- p.36 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Checking for tautologies in SQL statements --- p.37 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- Instruction set randomization --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2.7 --- Building the query model --- p.40 / Chapter 5 --- Proposed Solution --- p.43 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.43 / Chapter 5.2 --- Natures of SQL Injection --- p.43 / Chapter 5.3 --- Our proposed system --- p.44 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Features of the system --- p.44 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Stage 1 - Checking with current signatures --- p.45 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Stage 2 - SQL Server Query --- p.45 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- Stage 3 - Error Triggering --- p.46 / Chapter 5.3.5 --- Stage 4 - Alarm --- p.50 / Chapter 5.3.6 --- Stage 5 - Learning --- p.50 / Chapter 5.4 --- Examples --- p.51 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Defensing BASIC SELECT Injection --- p.52 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Defensing Advanced SELECT Injection --- p.52 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Defensing UPDATE Injection --- p.57 / Chapter 5.5 --- Comparison --- p.59 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.62 / Chapter A --- Commonly used table and column names --- p.64 / Chapter A.1 --- Commonly used table names for system management --- p.64 / Chapter A.2 --- Commonly used column names for password storage --- p.65 / Chapter A.3 --- Commonly used column names for username storage --- p.66 / Bibliography --- p.67

In recent years there has been great interest in implementing object recognition frame work on mobile phones. This has stemmed from the fact the advances in object recognition algorithm and mobile phone capabilities have built a congenial ecosystem. Application developers on mobile platforms are trying to utilize the object recognition technology to build better human computer interfaces. This approach is in the nascent phase and proper application framework is required. In this thesis, we propose a framework to overcome design challenges and provide an evaluation methodology to assess the system performance. We use the emerging Android mobile platform to implement and test the framework. We performed a case study using the proposal and reported the test result. This assessment will help developers make wise decisions about their application design. Furthermore, the Android API developers could use this information to provide better interfaces to the third party developers. The design and evaluation methodology could be extended to other mobile platforms for a wider consumer base. / by Vivek Kumar Tyagi. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (DTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / The central thesis of this study is that a multi-factorial strategy model can be evolved to enable development agency to be an augmenter in the commercialisation of the mobile applications development SME sector through business model innovation in response to disruptive innovation. The concept of augmentation in the context of this study acknowledges that disruptive innovation is ubiquitous and that development agencies can help these SMEs to succeed through business model innovation. This can be achieved through the implementation of a multi-factorial strategy model. A multi-factorial strategy model in this context is regarded as a method or plan having stemmed or stemming from a number of different causes or influences detailing the logic and the key considerations on the path to defining an organisation’s strategy. The development agency can utilise it to determine the state of the business and what the appropriate response should be, by way of business model innovation in response to disruptive innovation. This study rests on three tenets, namely, the uncovering of the dimensions of business model innovation; the nature of disruption; and finally, the potential role of the development agency in supporting SMEs in the technology sector. The mobile application (app) economy has presented business potential for SMEs and this sector of the economy can be facilitated by development agencies. Governments make use of development agencies to assist, develop and support growth within a region through the provision of resources and assistance, usually from state organisations. The enterprise development strategy should ensure the viability of the business idea, which should lead to the creation of new business value. The fieldwork for this critical realist study consisted of five phases. Phase 1 involved interviews with academics from the four higher education institutions in the Western Cape; Phase 2 involved an interview with mobile application development SMEs; Phase 3 comprised a focused interview consisting of members from industry and the development agency; Phase 4 involved interviews with entrepreneurs within the innovation and technology sector; and Phase 5 involved interviews with development agencies supporting the development of SMEs. Despite their potential, mobile app development businesses in the Western Cape face difficulties in commercialising their applications. The study suggested that research is warranted around the establishment of a multi-factorial strategy model which could provide a strategy for enhanced commercialisation of mobile app development. This model would have to address a number of concerns, depending on the propensity of the business towards mobile app development. Research into what adjustments to the current business models of these businesses are required to enter into mobile app development was also recommended. The findings and interpretations of this critical realist study revealed a structured real world of the landscape of mobile application development in the Western Cape, South Africa, by identifying its key constructs. It then revealed that knowledge is socially produced by identifying the salient imperatives that inform the role of the development agent with respect to business model innovation and disruptive innovation. By means of critical discourse analysis of the views expressed by the respondents, it revealed the emancipation agenda of mobile application development in the Western Cape, South Africa. In doing so it also ultimately uncovered the generative mechanisms in understanding, amongst others, what the critical performance underpinnings are. It is recommended that the SME sector implement business model innovation to respond to disruptive innovation, defined as “emerging technology whose arrival in the marketplace signifies the eventual displacement of the dominant technology in that sector” (Ganguly, Nilchiani & Farr, 2010, p. 35). The proliferation of disruptive innovation has led to technological innovation and such innovation will impact on SMEs in South Africa. The concept of business model innovation suggests that SMEs should move to a progressive interdependent modality where they participate through their shared strengths. The collaboration with other mobile app development SMEs would allow for their independent weaknesses to be moderated. Through business model innovation, mobile app development SMEs should be able to respond to the disruptive innovation and ensure success and sustainability. The antidote to disruption should be progressive management by way of business model innovation. In this sense then, the antidote to disruptive innovation is a management response that should be understood across the sector in which the study is undertaken.

The purpose of Moops is to bridge the gap between PSP Scriber, geared very specifically to the CSCI655 class, and other available PSP implications which are so general they are difficult to use immediately without valuable time spent learning the software. Moops is a PHP/MySQL based web application designed to provide the students taking the CSCI655 graduate software engineering course at CSUSB with an intuitive, easy to use tool to implement the Personal Software Process (PSP). Moops eliminates the possibility of errors in calculations by completing all calculations for the user.