Learning analytics is the analysis of student data with the purpose of improving learning. However, the process of data cleaning remains underexposed within learning analytics literature. In this paper, we elaborate on choices made in the cleaning process of student data and their consequences. We illustrate this with a case where data was gathered during six courses taught via Moodle. In this data set, only 21% of the logged activities were linked to a specific course. We illustrate possible choices in dealing with missing data by applying the cleaning process twelve times with different choices on copies of the raw data. Consequently, the analysis of the data shows varying outcomes. As the purpose of learning analytics is to intervene based on analysis and visualizations, it is of utmost importance to be aware of choices made during data cleaning. This paper's main goal is to make stakeholders of (learning) analytics activities aware of the fact that choices are made during data cleaning have consequences on the outcomes. We believe that there should be transparency to the users of these outcomes and give them a detailed report of the decisions made.
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This study evaluates the maximum theoretical exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromag- netic fields (EMFs) from a Fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) base station (BS) while using four commonly used mobile applications: YouTube for video streaming, WhatsApp for voice calls, Instagram for posting pictures and videos, and running a Video game. Three factors that might affect exposure, i.e., distance of the measurement positions from the BS, measurement time, and induced traffic, were examined. Exposure was assessed through both instantaneous and time-averaged extrapolated field strengths using the Maximum Power Extrapolation (MPE) method. The former was calculated for every measured SS-RSRP (Secondary Synchronization Reference Signal Received Power) power sample obtained with a sampling resolution of 1 second, whereas the latter was obtained using a 1-min moving average applied on the applications’ instantaneous extrapolated field strengths datasets. Regarding distance, two measurement positions (MPs) were selected: MP1 at 56 meters and MP2 at 170 meters. Next, considering the measurement time, all mobile application tests were initially set to run for 30 minutes at both MPs, whereas the video streaming test (YouTube) was run for an additional 150 minutes to investigate the temporal evolution of field strengths. Considering the traffic, throughput data vs. both instantaneous and time-averaged extrapolated field strengths were observed for all four mobile applications. In addition, at MP1, a 30-minute test without a User Equipment (UE) device was conducted to analyze exposure levels in the absence of induced traffic. The findings indicated that the estimated field strengths for mobile applications varied. It was observed that distance and time had a more significant impact than the volume of data traffic generated (throughput). Notably, the exposure levels in all tests were considerably lower than the public exposure thresholds set by the ICNIRP guidelines.INDEX TERMS 5G NR, C-band, human exposure assessment, mobile applications, traffic data, maximum extrapolation method, RF-EMF.
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Recent years have seen a massive growth in ethical and legal frameworks to govern data science practices. Yet one of the core questions associated with ethical and legal frameworks is the extent to which they are implemented in practice. A particularly interesting case in this context comes to public officials, for whom higher standards typically exist. We are thus trying to understand how ethical and legal frameworks influence the everyday practices on data and algorithms of public sector data professionals. The following paper looks at two cases: public sector data professionals (1) at municipalities in the Netherlands and (2) at the Netherlands Police. We compare these two cases based on an analytical research framework we develop in this article to help understanding of everyday professional practices. We conclude that there is a wide gap between legal and ethical governance rules and the everyday practices.
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Abstract Despite the numerous business benefits of data science, the number of data science models in production is limited. Data science model deployment presents many challenges and many organisations have little model deployment knowledge. This research studied five model deployments in a Dutch government organisation. The study revealed that as a result of model deployment a data science subprocess is added into the target business process, the model itself can be adapted, model maintenance is incorporated in the model development process and a feedback loop is established between the target business process and the model development process. These model deployment effects and the related deployment challenges are different in strategic and operational target business processes. Based on these findings, guidelines are formulated which can form a basis for future principles how to successfully deploy data science models. Organisations can use these guidelines as suggestions to solve their own model deployment challenges.
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During the past two decades the implementation and adoption of information technology has rapidly increased. As a consequence the way businesses operate has changed dramatically. For example, the amount of data has grown exponentially. Companies are looking for ways to use this data to add value to their business. This has implications for the manner in which (financial) governance needs to be organized. The main purpose of this study is to obtain insight in the changing role of controllers in order to add value to the business by means of data analytics. To answer the research question a literature study was performed to establish a theoretical foundation concerning data analytics and its potential use. Second, nineteen interviews were conducted with controllers, data scientists and academics in the financial domain. Thirdly, a focus group with experts was organized in which additional data were gathered. Based on the literature study and the participants responses it is clear that the challenge of the data explosion consist of converting data into information, knowledge and meaningful insights to support decision-making processes. Performing data analyses enables the controller to support rational decision making to complement the intuitive decision making by (senior) management. In this way, the controller has the opportunity to be in the lead of the information provision within an organization. However, controllers need to have more advanced data science and statistic competences to be able to provide management with effective analysis. Specifically, we found that an important skill regarding statistics is the visualization and communication of statistical analysis. This is needed for controllers in order to grow in their role as business partner..
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In this work, in situ measurements of the radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure have been conducted for an indoor massive MIMO 5G base station operating at 26–28 GHz. Measurements were performed at six different positions (at distances between 9.94 and 14.32 m from the base station), of which four were in line-of-sight and two were in non-line-of-sight. A comparison was performed between the measurements conducted with an omnidirectional probe and with a horn antenna, for scenarios with and without a user equipment used to actively create an antenna traffic beam from the base station towards the measurement location. A maximum exposure of 171.9 mW/m2 was measured at a distance of 9.94 m from the base station. This is below 2% of the ICNIRP reference level. Moreover, the feasibility to measure the power per resource element of the Synchronization Signal Block - which can be used to extrapolate the maximum exposure level - with a conventional spectrum analyzer was shown by comparison with a network decoder.
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Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of data science as a profession and an academic field. The increasing impact and societal relevance of data science is accompanied by important questions that reflect this development: how can data science become more responsible and accountable while also responding to key challenges such as bias, fairness, and transparency in a rigorous and systematic manner? This Patterns special collection has brought together research and perspective from academia, the public and the private sector, showcasing original research articles and perspectives pertaining to responsible and accountable data science.
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The hospitality industry, comprising diverse Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) such as restaurants, hotels, and catering facilities plays an important role in local and regional communities by providing employment opportunities, facilitating the organization of community events, and supporting local social activities and sports teams (Panteia, 2023). The hospitality industry thereby represents a major source of income in Europe, but also a commensurate burden on the environment because of its relatively high usage of water and energy consumption, and food waste, leading to the formulation of several initiatives to increase the sustainability of hotels, restaurants, and resorts, such as farm to fork and towel reuse (Bux & Amicarelli, 2023). Another avenue for hospitality organizations to make progress towards sustainability goals is through circular economy strategies (Bux & Amicarelli, 2023) based on the creation of small regenerative loops that require the involvement of multiple stakeholders (Tomassini & Cavagnaro, 2022). Nevertheless, hospitality operators need to track their progress towards sustainability goals while keep sight of their financial goals (Bux & Amicarelli, 2023), requiring a data-driven decision-making approach to sustainability and circularity. Big data analytics have therefore been identified as an enabler of the circular economy paradigm by reducing uncertainty and allowing organizations to predict results (Awan et al., 2021; Gupta et al., 2019). Hospitality organizations however remain behind in leveraging data analytics for decisionmaking (Mariani & Baggio, 2022). The purpose of the study is therefore to examine how hospitality organizations can leverage data analytics to make data-driven decisions regarding circularity. Using a multiple case study approach of three Dutch hospitality SMEs, enablers and inhibitors of data analytics for datadriven decisions regarding circularity are examined. This addresses the call by Tomassini and Cavagnaro (2022) for more exploration of the circularity paradigm in hospitality. Despite the ongoing interest in increasing the sustainability of the hospitality industry (European Commission, 2013), relatively little attention has been paid to the development of circularity strategies and what is needed to implement them.
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Analyzing historical decision-related data can help support actual operational decision-making processes. Decision mining can be employed for such analysis. This paper proposes the Decision Discovery Framework (DDF) designed to develop, adapt, or select a decision discovery algorithm by outlining specific guidelines for input data usage, classifier handling, and decision model representation. This framework incorporates the use of Decision Model and Notation (DMN) for enhanced comprehensibility and normalization to simplify decision tables. The framework’s efficacy was tested by adapting the C4.5 algorithm to the DM45 algorithm. The proposed adaptations include (1) the utilization of a decision log, (2) ensure an unpruned decision tree, (3) the generation DMN, and (4) normalize decision table. Future research can focus on supporting on practitioners in modeling decisions, ensuring their decision-making is compliant, and suggesting improvements to the modeled decisions. Another future research direction is to explore the ability to process unstructured data as input for the discovery of decisions.
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The Technical Manual for the digital evaluation tool QualiTePE supports users of the QualiTePE tool in creating, conducting and analysing evaluations to record the quality of teaching in physical education. The information on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) instructs users on how to anonymise the data collection of evaluations and which legal bases apply with regard to the collection of personal data. The technical manual for the digital evaluation tool QualiTePE and the information on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Slovenian, Czech and Greek.
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