Scientific and technical information's restoration in the open access environment through smart search engines

Open access is one of the topics that attracted the researchers interest as it is a turning point for the recovery of technical and scientific information’s recovery which requires a set of tools and technical skills. This study aims to discover the main problems of information’s recovery within open access in addition to the inventory of the most important smart search engines and to know the strategies of information’s recovery. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach, and came out with a number of important conclusions, the most important are : Searching for scientific and technical information in the open access environment has become a very difficult and the researcher does not know which of them is more useful. Relying on the common ranking of sites, smart search engines in its work, depends on semantic web applications, most notably XML, RDF and ontology, users can quickly find specific search results through smart search engines without having to become experts in search engines or have a well-defined strategies for searching within the open access environment. The study also showed that the semantic scholar search engine deals with open sources more efficiently than traditional search engines through its ability to discover these sources and display them to the beneficiary in a distinctive way.

iPad’s contributed to enhance inclusion of students with visual impairment in public schools

This study aimed to identify the extent iPad’s contributed to enhance inclusion of students with visual impairment (partially) in public schools. The study used the descriptive and analytical approach. The population consisted of (160) students who received iPad device within the “vision project” implemented at UNRWA schools in Gaza strip. The study used a questionnaire prepared and adapted by the researcher, to measure degree of iPad’s contribution to inclusion in general and at three dimensions: academic, psychological, and behavioral. Results showed the level of iPad’s contribution to enhance inclusion among students with visual impairment was high, with an average of 2.70 and a relative weight 90%. Concerning the three dimensions, results showed the academic attained as average of 2.77 with relative weight 88.6%, however in the second dimension (psychological) the mean was 2.98 with relative weight 99.3%, lastly for the third dimension (behavioral), the mean was 2.67 with relative weight 89.0%. This indicated high level of iPad’s contribution to enhance inclusion of students with visual impairment at public schools specifically at UNRWA schools. The study recommended use iPads for best inclusive practices.

'Boundary Objects' in Archaeological Finds and Environmental Research: Using Bowker and Star's Concept of the 'Boundary Object' to Analyse and Interpret Disparate Archaeological Legacy Data

Is a big data analytical approach viable using archaeological artefact and ecofact data? In particular is it possible to use Bowker and Star's (1999) concept of the 'boundary object' to manage the issues caused by data scale, complexity, diversity and variable information standards when attempting to carry out this kind of research? This paper reviews the theoretical and methodological debates around archaeological big data as they impact upon research into assemblages of artefacts and ecofacts and presents a methodology for the construction and use of a large archaeological database of legacy artefact and ecofact data created as part of the English Landscapes and Identities Project at the University of Oxford.

The FCFA Currency: An Eminently Linguistic Issue

In a situation of illiteracy at a rate of 54%, with over 80% of the population not speaking French (ANSD, 2013), it is very difficult to carry out effective development policies in Senegal without taking into account the language issue. From this point of view, the FCFA currency, which is expressed in French, poses a lot of problems for the African populations of the franc zone. The debate around this currency has so far been more focused on financial or fiduciary aspects than on the fundamental mechanisms that help to better understand the environment in which economic agents operate. Beyond its linguistic symbolism steeped in history, the FCFA creates cognitive problems that make it difficult for African populations to use it. We will try in this article to show, by an analytical approach, that the denomination of a currency involves the interaction of several fields of investigation. These are economic, historical, sociological, political, and above all, linguistic. From this angle, there is reason to be interested in the Academy of African Languages (ACALAN) in the resolution of this unit of measurement.