Abstract
In an increasingly competitive and globalized world, companies need effective training methodologies and tools for their employees. However, selecting the most suitable ones is not an easy task. It depends on the requirements of the target group (namely time restrictions), on the specificities of the contents, etc. This is typically the case for training in Lean, the waste elimination manufacturing philosophy. This paper presents and compares two different approaches to lean training methodologies and tools: a simulation game based on a single realistic manufacturing platform, involving production and assembly operations that allows learning by playing; and a digital game that helps understand lean tools. This paper shows that both tools have advantages in terms of trainee motivation and knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, they can be used in a complementary way, reinforcing the acquired knowledge. © 2013 IEEE.

Abstract

Abstract
In recent years, the technological developments in mobile and communication networks have paved the way for smart environments, whose final goal is to provide users with enhanced experiences. The measure of user experience satisfaction, or quality of experience, may be defined as an affective state in response to a service. Thus, an experiment was devised to explore the relationship between users' affective state and their context, for assessing quality of experience in urban public transport services. A pilot study, conducted to evaluate the feasibility and requirements of such an experiment is presented, leading to a large scale field study. © 2013 Authors.

Abstract
Environmental performance assessments are often conducted using environmental indicators. Although these indicators provide a starting point for performance assessments, they do not provide guidelines that countries should follow to improve performance. This paper develops an enhanced Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model that provides a single summary measure of countries' environmental performance, based on the aggregation of the indicators that underlie the estimation of the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The DEA model used is based on a novel specification of weight restrictions. The main contribution of the methodology used in this paper is to enable benchmarking in such a way that it becomes possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each country, as well as the peers with similar features to the country under assessment. These peers provide examples of good environmental practices that countries with worse performance should follow to improve performance. Journal of the Operational Research Society (2013) 64, 426-438. doi:10.1057/jors.2012.62 Published online 16 May 2012

Abstract
Available visual temporal querying tools do not provide the means for formulating complex temporal queries. For these queries users have to adopt text-based querying languages, such as SQL. The problem, however, is that using text-based languages is less comfortable than using visual tools and, most important, in some cases temporal queries can be extremely difficult to formulate for users that do not possess programming competences. In this paper we propose the Time Automaton, a highly flexible visual mechanism that enables the formulation of a large set of different types of temporal queries, ranging from the simple to the most complex ones. To prove its practical application we created a tool that implements the mechanism and used it to analyze a real dataset. Time Automaton was validated against a representative sample of temporal queries extracted from the matured OWL-Time Ontology. In order to understand if users, with or without programming competences, could understand and use the Time Automaton we conducted a usability experiment.

Abstract
The convergence of personal devices, pervasive communication networks and remote computing has caused a fundamental shift in the user interaction paradigm. Multiple methods have enabled an implicit loop of interaction that goes beyond the traditional graphical interfaces. Human emotion is one of such dimensions, supporting the development of empathic systems. Thus, quality of user experience, a subjective measure, may be defined as the resulting affective state from an interaction, which can be dynamically assessed. In mobile ubiquitous settings, leveraging this affective interaction for providing personalisation and immersive digital services has the potential to significantly impact user experience. This paper investigates the relationship between user affect and experience in the context of urban public transport. © 2013 ACM.