We present an evolutionary approach to divide a complex control system into smaller sub-systems with the help of neural networks. Thereto, measured channels are partitioned into several disjunct sets, representing possible sub-problems, while the networks are used to assess the quality of the resulting decomposition. We show that this approach is well suited to calculate correct decompositions ...

This paper presents a comparative study on digital divide between a region and its main metropolitan area. The exercise shows how barriers to technology access and usage may vary in terms of both nature and intensity. The paper also proposes a taxonomy of the different types of digital divides that may be present inside a region.

This study examined the relationship between home Internet access/parental support and student outcomes. Survey data were collected from 1,576 middle school students in China. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, independent-samples T-test, and regression analysis. Results indicate that students who had home Internet access reported higher scores than those without home Internet on al...

The purpose of this article is to explore issues of the digital divide and its impact on academic performance. Research shows that proper use of technology by students increases their academic performance outcomes. In the literature review section, the authors review articles and theories based on Bennett’s (2001) societal equity framework. The findings show that students’ academic performance ...

policy leaders and social scientists have grown increasingly concerned about a societal split between those with and those without access to computers and the Internet. The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration popularized a term for this situation in the mid-1990s: the “digital divide.” The phrase soon became used in an international context as well, to describe the s...

The near-pervasive introduction of ehealth systems, and the more recent implementation of systems intended for patient use offer patients the opportunity to participate in their own care. Unfortunately the design of these systems means that they may work better for "People Like Us" rather than for those on the wrong side of the 'digital divide'. This paper looks at the professional, practical a...

Clustering is a useful technique that organizes a large quantity of unordered text documents into a small number of meaningful and coherent clusters, thereby providing a basis for intuitive and informative navigation and browsing mechanisms. Text-clustering is to divide a collection of textdocuments into different categories so that documents in the same category describe the same topic such as...

Divide and Conquer (DC) is conceptually well suited to high-dimensional optimization by decomposing a problem into multiple small-scale subproblems. However, appealing performance can be seldom observed when the sub-problems are interdependent. This paper suggests that the major difficulty of tackling interdependent sub-problems lies in the precise evaluation of a partial solution (to a sub-pro...