{"title":"Why RSA? A Pedagogical Comment","authors":"P. Olague, O. Kosheleva, V. Kreinovich","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.61248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.61248","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most widely used cryptographic algorithms is the RSA algorithm in which a message m encoded as the remainder c of m modulo n, where n and e are given numbers – forming a public code. A similar transformation c mod n, for an appropriate secret code d, enables us to reconstruct the original message. In this paper, we provide a pedagogical explanation for this algorithm. 1 RSA Algorithm: A Pedagogical Puzzle RSA algorithm: a brief reminder. In many computer transaction, the communicated message is encoded, to avoid eavesdropping. This happens, e.g., every time a credit card information is passed over to some website. In most of such cases, a special RSA algorithm is used to encode the message m; see, e.g., [1]. In this algorithm, two specially selected and publicly available numbers n and e are used to encode the message. The encoded message c has the form of the remainder c = m mod n. The number n is usually at least 100 decimal digits long, and the number e is similarly large. For such large numbers, it is not feasible to compute m simply as m · . . . ·m, by starting with m and e− 1 times multiplying the result by m. Instead, the following much faster algorithm is performed. First, the number e is represented in the binary form, as the sum of powers of two: e = 21 + 22 + . . . + 2p for some k1 > k2 > . . . > kp. For example, 1110 is represented as 10112 = 2 3 + 2 + 2 = 8 + 2 + 1.","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81874263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Numerical solution of non-linear boundary value problems of ordinary differential equations using the shooting technique","authors":"A. Manyonge, R. Opiyo, D. Kweyu, J. S. Maremwa","doi":"10.12988/jite.2017.61250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/jite.2017.61250","url":null,"abstract":"Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) of the Initial Value Problem (IVP) or Boundary Value Problem (BVP) type can model phenomena in wide range of fields including science, engineering, economics, social science, biology, business, health care among others. Often, systems described by differential equations are so complex that purely analytical solutions of the equations are not tractable. Therefore techniques for solving differential equations based on numerical approximations take centre stage. In this paper we review the shooting method technique as a method of solution to both linear and non-linear BVPs. Mathematics Subject Classification: 65L10","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76367244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"No Idea Is a Bad Idea: A Theoretical Explanation","authors":"C. Servin, V. Kreinovich","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.7411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.7411","url":null,"abstract":"Many business publications state that no idea is a bad idea, that even if the idea is, at first glance, not helpful, there are usually some aspects of this idea which are helpful Usually, this statement is based on the experience of the author, and it is given without any theoretical explanation. In this paper, we provide a theoretical explanation for this statement. 1 No Idea Is a Bad Idea Many business publications state that no idea is a bad idea, that even if the idea is, at first glance, not helpful, there are usually some aspects of this idea which are helpful; see, e.g., [2]. Usually, this statement is based on the experience of the author, and it is given without any theoretical explanation. In this paper, we provide a theoretical explanation for this statement.","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85373501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Some remarks on the differential transform method","authors":"W. Robin","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.7410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.7410","url":null,"abstract":"The differential transform method and Herrera’s complex integral method are shown to be related through the Taylor-Cauchy transform, which appears as a genuine fore-runner of both methods. A short discussion of this result is provided. Mathematics Subject Classification: 34A05, 34A25, 34A30, 34A34, 35C10","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75124937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Negotiations vs. Confrontation: A Possible Explanation of the Empirical Results","authors":"O. Kosheleva, V. Kreinovich","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.739","url":null,"abstract":"A recent book promoting negotiations as an alternative to confrontations cites the empirical evidence that in business situations, confrontational attitude leads, on average, to a 75% loss in comparison with negotiations. An additional empirical fact is that only in 10% of the cases, negotiations are not possible and confrontation is inevitable. Mathematics Subject Classification: 91A12, 91A90","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73194846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why Product \"And\"-Operation Is Often Efficient: One More Argument","authors":"O. Kosheleva, V. Kreinovich","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.61249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.61249","url":null,"abstract":"It is an empirical fact that the algebraic product is one the most efficient “and”-operations in fuzzy logic. In this paper, we provide one of the possible explanations of this empirical phenomenon. 1 Formulation of the Problem Fuzzy logic and “and”-operations (t-norms): a brief reminder. To describe the experts’ uncertainty in their statements, Lotfi Zadeh proposed a special formalism of fuzzy logic, in which for each statement, the expert’s degree of certainty in this statement is described by a number from the interval [0, 1]. In this description, 1 means that the expert is absolutely sure that the corresponding statement is true, 0 means that the expert is absolutely sure that the statement is false, and values between 0 and 1 correspond to intermediate degree of confidence; see, e.g., [1, 2, 3]. To make a decision, an expert often uses several statements. For example, he or she may use a rule according to which a certain action need to be taken if two conditions are satisfied, i.e., if the first condition A is satisfied and the second condition B is satisfied. It is therefore desirable to find out how confident is the expert that the corresponding “and”-statement A&B holds, or, more generally, that the “and”-combination A1 & . . . &An holds. Ideally, we should extract these degrees from the experts. However, for n statements, we have 2 − 1 possible “and”-combinations. Already for n = 100, we thus get an astronomical number of combinations, there is no way to ask the expert about each of these combinations. In situations when we cannot explicitly ask an expert about his/her degree of certainty in an “and”-combination A&B, we need to estimate this degree based on the known degrees of certainty a and b in statements A and B. Let us denote this estimate by f&(a, b). This function is known as an “and”-operation, or, alternatively, a t-norm.","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72386544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multistability analysis of a mathematical model of the interaction of Opuntia stricta and Dactylopius opuntiae","authors":"Juliana Chitai, Adu A. M. Wasike","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.6938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.6938","url":null,"abstract":"We develop a Mathematical model showing the main dynamical regimes of the weed Opuntia stricta and the insect, Dactylopius opuntiae interaction. We prove that under appropriate conditions a positive solution of the system is asymptotically stable, unstable or it is a periodic solution. Stable equilibria points are characterised by endemic and epidemic populations. Endemic populations are regulated by the number of cacti trees available. Epidemic populations are limited by the total number of trees because mass attack of the insects may overcome resistance of any tree. Mathematics Subject Classification: 93A30, 92B05, 34C23","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75785918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Physical Induction Explains Why Over-Realistic Animation Sometimes Feels Creepy","authors":"O. Kosheleva, V. Kreinovich","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.736","url":null,"abstract":"In the past, every progress of movie animation towards realism was viewed positively. However, recently, as computer animation is becoming more and more realistic, some people perceive the resulting realism negatively, as creepy. Similarly, everyone used to welcome robots that looked and behaved somewhat like humans; however, lately, too-humanlike robots have started causing a similar negative feeling of creepiness. There exist complex psychology-based explanations for this phenomenon. In this paper, we show that this empirical phenomenon can be naturally explained simply by physical induction – the main way we cognize the world. 1 Realistic Animation Is Creepy: An Empirical Phenomenon With technical and artistic progress, it is possible to make movie animation more and more realistic. In the beginning, a description of human beings in movie animation was not very realistic. As the new techniques develop – especially techniques of computer animation – it has become possible to have more and more realistic movie-animation description of humans. In the beginning, this progress towards realism was viewed positively. At first, the resulting progress towards more realistic animation was viewed mostly very positively, both by the critics and by the regular movie goers. Lately, an increase in realism is often viewed negatively. However, as it became possible to make animation of human beings very realistic – almost real – suddenly, movie goers started viewing this almost-perfect realism as creepy and negative; see, e.g., [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73123571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It Is Advantageous to Make a Syllabus As Precise As Possible: Decision-Theoretic Analysis","authors":"Francisco Zapata, O. Kosheleva, V. Kreinovich","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.61146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.61146","url":null,"abstract":"Should a syllabus be precise? Shall we indicate exactly how many points we should assign for each test and for each assignment? On the one hand, many students like such certainty. On the other hand, instructors would like to have some (cid:13)exibility: if an assignment turns out to be more complex than expected, we should be able to increase the number of points for this assignment, and, vice versa, it it turns out to be simpler than expected, we should be able to decrease the number of points. In this talk, we analyze this problem from a decision-theoretic viewpoint. Our conclusion is that while a little (cid:13)exibility is OK, in general, it is bene(cid:12)cial to make a syllabus as precise as possible.","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80379797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlyssa Reilly, Christine W. Chan, Craig M. Gelowitz
{"title":"Creating a solid foundation for secondary education and ICT through technology equitable education","authors":"Carlyssa Reilly, Christine W. Chan, Craig M. Gelowitz","doi":"10.12988/JITE.2017.712","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12988/JITE.2017.712","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of the research is to investigate the use of software systems as a tool in the Canadian Public School classroom as a means to provide the diverse skills required for today’s digital world. This study investigated ICT diversity within a pedagogical context to implement digital computer competence, specifically Software Systems Engineering, to transform students into effective practitioners of technology literacy. The constructed approach represented in this study to education provides a practical process into critical thinking, digital equity, technology literacy, life-long learning, and prepares elementary and high school students for the diverse and intricate expectations of industry. This research provides a step forward to the goals of preparing a generation of skilled technology literate and diverse critical thinkers for a demanding and ever changing digital world. The focus of this article represents the introduction to Computer Science at a grade 11 level and the results of the implemented research.","PeriodicalId":43632,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Information Technology Education-Innovations in Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86792198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}