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Reading fluency, which is critical for developing reading comprehension, is a fundamental skill in both school and life. However, many students with learning and behavioral disabilities are disfluent readers. To improve reading performance for these learners, educators should implement practices shown by reliable research to cause improved reading fluency. In this chapter, following a discussion of reading fluency and its importance, we describe two instructional practices that educators might use to improve students’ reading fluency: colored filters and repeated reading. The research on the colored filters is, at best, inconclusive, whereas the research literature suggests that repeated reading is an effective practice. To bridge the gap between research and practice and improve the reading fluency of students with learning and behavioral disabilities, educators and other stakeholders should prioritize the use of research-based practices (e.g., repeated reading) but avoid practices without clear research support (e.g., colored filters).

The aim of the research project which resulted in this work is to achieve a cost‐effective approach for instantaneous hyperspectral imaging.

This paper presents a simulation study and an experimental evaluation of a novel imaging spectroscopy technique, where multi‐channel image data are acquired instantaneously and transformed into spectra by using a statistical modelling approach. A digital colour camera equipped with an additional colour filter array was used to acquire an instantaneous single image that was demosaicked to generate a multi‐channel image. A statistical transformation approach was employed to convert this image into a hyperspectral one.

The feasibility of this method was investigated through extensive simulation and experimental tasks where promising results were obtained.

The small size of the initially acquired single instantaneous image makes this approach useful for applications where video‐rate hyperspectral imaging is required.

For the first time, a simplified prototype of this novel imaging spectroscopy technique was built and evaluated experimentally. And the results were compared with those of a more ideal simulation study. Recommendations for how to improve the prototype were also suggested as a result of the comparison between the simulation and the prototype evaluation results.

This paper aims to investigate how young adult women smokers, a group the tobacco industry has specifically targeted, interpreted dissuasive sticks. Australia’s decision to introduce plain packaging has aroused international attention and stimulated interest in complementary initiatives. To date, research attention has focused on external packaging and few studies have examined the physical objects of consumption – cigarette sticks.

We conducted two focus groups and 13 in-depth interviews using purposive recruitment. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

We identified three overarching themes: smoking as an act of overt and conspicuous consumption; cigarette sticks as accoutrements of social acceptability and dissuasive colours as deconstructors of the social façade smokers construct. Dissuasive sticks challenged connotations of cleanliness participants sought, exposed smoking as “dirty” and connoted stereotypes participants wanted to avoid.

Although small-scale qualitative studies provide rich insights into participant’s responses, experimental work is required to estimate how a wider population comprising more varied smoker sub-groups responds to dissuasive sticks.

As policymakers internationally consider introducing plain packaging, they should examine whether dissuasive sticks could enhance measures regulating the external appearance of tobacco packages.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability. Plain packaging and dissuasive sticks show considerable potential to reduce smoking prevalence and the burden of ill-health that results.

This is the first study to explore how dissuasive sticks would distance smoking from the social identity smokers seek. The findings provide a platform for experimental work that estimates the potential behavioural outcomes dissuasive sticks could stimulate.

This paper seeks to construct a model for inventory management for multiple periods. The model considers not only the usual parameters, but also price quantity discount, storage and batch size constraints.

Mixed 0‐1 integer programming is applied to solve the multi‐period inventory problem and to determine an appropriate inventory level for each period. The total cost of materials in the system is minimized and the optimal purchase amount in each period is determined.

The proposed model is applied in colour filter inventory management in thin film transistor‐liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) manufacturing because colour filter replenishment has the characteristics of price quantity discount, large product size, batch‐sized purchase and forbidden shortage in the plant. Sensitivity analysis of major parameters of the model is also performed to depict the effects of these parameters on the solutions.

The proposed model can be tailored and applied to other inventory management problems.

Although many mathematical models are available for inventory management, this study considers some special characteristics that might be present in real practice. TFT‐LCD manufacturing is one of the most prosperous industries in Taiwan, and colour‐filter inventory management is essential for TFT‐LCD manufacturers for achieving competitive edge. The proposed model in this study can be applied to fulfil the goal.

This paper aims to present a new vision-based approach for both the identification and the estimation of the relative distance between the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and power pylon. Autonomous power line inspection using small UAVs, has been the focus of many research works over the past couple of decades. Automatic detection of power pylons is a primary requirement to achieve such autonomous systems. It is still a challenging task due to the complex geometry and cluttered background of these structures.

The identification solution proposed, avoids the complexity of classic object recognition techniques. Instead of searching the whole image for the pylon template, low-level geometric priors with robust colour attributes are combined to remove the pylon background. The depth estimation, on the other hand, is based on a new concept which exploits the ego-motion of the inspection UAV to estimate its distance from the pylon using just a monocular camera.

An algorithm is tested on a quadrotor UAV, using different kinds of metallic power pylons. Both simulation and real-world experiments, conducted in different backgrounds and illumination conditions, show very promising results.

In the real tests carried out, the Inertial Navigation System (INS) of the vehicle was used to estimate its ego-motion. A more reliable solution should be considered for longer distances, by either fusing INS and global positioning system data or using visual navigation techniques such as visual odometry.

A simple yet efficient solution is proposed that allows the UAV to reliably identify the pylon, with still a low processing cost. Considering a monocular solution is a major advantage, given the limited payload and processing power of such small vehicles.

Educators’ decisions regarding what instructional practices they use have significant consequences for the learning and life outcomes of their students. This is especially true for students with learning and behavioral disabilities, who require highly effective instruction to succeed in school and achieve their goals. In this volume of Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities chapter authors provide readers with accessible information on theory, critical elements, and research for instructional practices that are and are not supported by bodies of scientific research as effective in critical outcome areas. Educators can use this content to inform and enhance their instructional decision making. To contextualize subsequent chapters, in this introductory chapter we discuss the research-to-practice gap in special education, the importance of considering scientific research when making instructional decisions and considerations for interpreting and applying research findings on instructional practices. We conclude with a preview of the chapters in the volume.

‘FOG in Channel: Continent isolated!’ Those were once the headlines in a national newspaper which thus succinctly, although with unintentional irony, expressed the British sense of complacency. Making allowance for an element of exaggeration, the incident contained enough truth to make its point. The new alignments of industry and commerce which are now taking place mean that this country cannot afford to retain even a vestige of such an attitude.

Most existing recommendation systems or technologies are functional-oriented. Recommending services, nevertheless, requires the consideration of service experiences perceived by customers being individually unique and emphasizing the emotional experiences and the co-created value-in-use. This paper aims to present a new recommender system to capture customer emotional needs and address social interactions among service stakeholders.

This paper presents a color imagery-based recommender system (CIRS) capable of capturing customer emotional needs and addressing social interactions among service stakeholders that can collectively co-create the individual value-in-use and beneficial outcomes for customers. Based on the Color Image Scale, the recommender system uses the color imagery format as the uniform representation of customers’ psychological expectations, service providers and the service system, to facilitate the scoring and ranking of recommendations.

This study uses an application context of destination tourism to demonstrate and justify the recommender system’s attempted contributions preliminarily. That is, CIRS can recommend destinations and tour services that meet tourists’ emotional needs with a satisfactory precision of 70 per cent. CIRS can also make stakeholders’ image models evolve over time considering the dynamic interactions among stakeholders. CIRS can also help lesser-known tourism destinations be discovered by tourists who can be emotionally satisfied.

CIRS uses the color imagery as the uniform representation for customers’ expectations, service providers (e.g. small and medium enterprises) and service system (e.g. tourism destinations), considering the continued interactions among the service stakeholders that collectively co-create the individual value-in-use and beneficial outcomes for each customer.

IT is sometimes suggested with regard to aerial light beacons that when the weather is clear they are unnecessary in populous country, and when the weather is foggy the lights cannot be seen, and therefore are of little use under any conditions. This statement does not, of course, represent the true facts of the case, but it does indicate the vital importance of a study of the various questions relating to the transmission of light to great distances.

A simple ultrasonic sensor coupled with a colour sensing system has been designed and built in the laboratory of the French National Institute of Applied Science at Rennes, and mounted on the laboratory's VESA mobile robot. It can distinguish simple configurations of obstacles and measure their distance from the robot, and within certain limits of illumination can classify obstacles to eight reference colours.