bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transformative Learning in an Online Environment
Authors: Cranton Patricia
Published: February 2012

The purpose of this article is to explore the potential for fostering transformative learning in an online environment. It provides an overview of transformative learning theory, including the variety of perspectives on the theory that have evolved as the theory matured. Strategies and practices for fostering transformative learning are presented, followed by a description of the online environment and how strategies for encouraging transformative learning might be carried into that environment. Students’ voices are brought in to corroborate and to question the importance of these strategies. The article concludes with a discussion of how an educator’s style and strengths can be brought into online teaching, especially with a view to helping learners examine their meaning perspectives.
Diversity in Career and Technical Education On-Line Classrooms
Authors: Ware Mary C. , Stuck Mary F.
Published: February 2012

Designers and instructors of courses in career and technical education have realized the value of on-line delivery of instruction during the past several decades. Many students enrolled in career and technical education courses are what have been labeled “non-traditional” students. On-line learning is helpful to these students because it provides the flexibility to do coursework from home, or to do schoolwork at hours when brick-and-mortar colleges are not traditionally offering classes. However, it is increasingly being realized that all students may not equally embrace, or equally succeed in the on-line environment. In this paper, the authors examine recent research studies in an effort to see if there have been documented differences in preference for, or success in, on-line learning based on gender, race and/or age.
Emerging Framework for Planning and Implementation of Online Programs
Authors: Hernández-Gantes Victor M.
Published: February 2012

The dramatic growth of online education over the past two decades is requiring colleges to make a shift from fragmented approaches to program planning and implementation towards a framework integrating both into a coherent support system. This article provides an overview of an emerging holistic framework for planning and implementation of online programs calling for shared strategic planning needs assessment strategies, and establishing program consensus. Guided by a program vision, curriculum and instructional strategies are identified along with internal and external supports needed for successful implementation. The framework suggests demand-driven strategic planning, benchmarking approaches to implementation practices, and interactive feedback to ensure effective program planning and implementation.
From the Teachings of Confucius to Western Influences
Authors: Wang Victor X. , Farmer Lesley
Published: February 2012

This article reports the results of a study designed to determine whether the teachings of Confucius (liberal and behavioral teaching approaches) or Western teaching approaches (humanistic, progressive, radical and analytic teaching approaches) shaped adult education in Taiwan. Thirty-nine randomly selected adult educators from three premium universities in Taipei responded to a survey about their teaching practices. The same adult educators were also interviewed to cross-validate the quantitative findings. Study results indicated that, while the Taiwanese adult educators employed Western teaching approaches to some extent, they clung dearly to Confucian methods of instruction, a finding that was consistent with reports in the literature of adult education in Taiwan.
Dynamic Reconfiguration of Middleware for Ubiquitous Computing
Authors: Corradi Antonio , Lodolo Enrico , Monti Stefano
Published: February 2012

Ubiquitous computing scenarios call for middleware support solutions able to cope with changes in environment conditions and user requirements. Changes greatly impact on the application logic the middleware is able to carry out (content/service adaptation, multichannel content delivery, mobility management, and so on), but also on the non-functional support logic middleware exploits to enforce the application logic itself (e.g., naming, persistence, communication infrastructures). In this work, the authors propose a novel middleware for ubiquitous computing scenarios that is able to reconfigure both application and non-functional features, in order to cope with increasingly complex and heterogeneous ubiquitous and pervasive landscapes.
iCAAS
Authors: Di Martino Catello , D’Avino Gabriele , Testa Alessandro
Published: February 2012

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are spreading as a common mean for mitigating installation and management cost in environment monitoring applications. The increasing complexity ad heterogeneity of such WSN and the differentiated users needs calls for innovative solutions for managing and accessing produced data. This paper presents an architecture, named iCAAS, designed to collect, store, manage and make available to users data received from heterogeneous WSNs. The objective of the architecture is to adaptively deliver data to users depending on their specific interests and transparently to adopted terminals and of networks details. The contribution of the paper is twofold. First the authors detail the requirements that these types of architectures should meet to fill the gap between sensors, details, and users needs. Second, the authors describe the structural organization of the proposed architecture, designed by taking into account the defined requirements. Implementation details and case studies are also provided, showing the effectiveness of the architecture when used in real world application scenarios. Finally, iCAAS architecture’s scalability is tested against the number of concurrent client querying the same time.
Self-Adapting Event Configuration in Ubiquitous Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Ortmann Steffen , Maaser Michael , Langendoerfer Peter
Published: February 2012

Wireless Sensor Networks are the key-enabler for low cost ubiquitous applications in the area of homeland security, health-care, and environmental monitoring. A necessary prerequisite is reliable and efficient event detection in spite of sudden failures and environmental changes. Due to the fact that the sensors need to be low cost, they have only scarce resources leading to a certain level of failures of sensor nodes or sensing devices attached to the nodes. Available fault tolerant solutions are mainly customized approaches that revealed several shortcomings, particularly in adaptability and energy efficiency. The authors present a complete event detection concept including all necessary steps from formal event definition to autonomous device configuration. It features an event definition language that allows defining complex events as well as enhance the reliability by tailor-made voting schemes and application constraints. Based on that, this paper introduces a novel approach for self-adapting on-node and in-network processing, called Event Decision Tree (EDT). EDT autonomously adapts to available resources and environmental conditions, even though it requires to (re-)organize collaboration between neighboring nodes for evaluation. The authors’ approach achieves fine-grained event-related fault tolerance with configurable adaptation rate while enhancing maintainability and energy efficiency.
Optimizing User Quality of Experience through Overlay Routing, Bandwidth Management and Dynamic Trans-Coding
Authors: Wijnants Maarten , Lamotte Wim , De Vleeschauwer Bart , De Turck Filip , Dhoedt Bart , Demeester Piet , Lambert Peter , Van de Walle Dieter , De Cock Jan , Notebaert Stijn , Van de Walle Rik
Published: February 2012

Accessing multimedia services via fixed and wireless networks has become common practice. These services are typically much more sensitive to packet loss, delay and/or congestion than traditional services. In particular, multimedia data is often time critical and, as a result, network issues are not well tolerated and significantly deteriorate the user’s Quality of Experience (QoE). Therefore, the authors propose a QoE optimization platform that is able to mitigate problems that might occur at any location in the delivery path from service provider to customer. More specifically, the distributed architecture supports overlay routing to circumvent erratic parts of the network core. In addition, it comprises proxy components that realize last mile optimization through automatic bandwidth management and the application of processing on multimedia flows. This paper introduces a trans-coding service for this proxy component which enables the transformation of H.264/AVC video flows to an arbitrary bitrate. Through representative experimental results, the authors illustrate how this addition enhances the QoE optimization capabilities of the proposed platform by allowing the proxy component to compute more flexible and effective bandwidth distributions.
Efficient Adaptation Decision Making Algorithms for Context-Aware Applications
Authors: Vanrompay Yves , Smits Tim , Berbers Yolande
Published: February 2012

The current trend toward ubiquitous and autonomic computing leads to the necessity to realize adaptive applications. The environment of applications becomes more heterogeneous and user QoS needs and resource availability vary heavily. To maintain the usability, availability and reliability of these applications, adaptive behavior is needed. In this paper, the authors examine the decision-making phase in realizing adaptive behavior of an application. Algorithms reason about the adaptive application and the current context with the goal of selecting a new application variant that better fits the environment. This reasoning happens in a search space that is very complex and consequently poses a problem toward scalability; even when applications are relatively small. Therefore, the authors present two novel algorithms that handle the complex search space in an intelligent way. In this paper, both algorithms are introduced along with a thorough evaluation of their behavior and scalability.
Reliability-Aware Proactive Energy Management in Hard Real-Time Systems
Authors: Munaga Satyakiran , Catthoor Francky
Published: February 2012

Advanced technologies such as sub-45nm CMOS and 3D integration are known to have more accelerated and increased number of reliability failure mechanisms. Classical reliability assessment methodology, which assumes ad-hoc failure criteria and worst-case for all influencing dynamic aspects, is no longer viable in these technologies. In this paper, the authors advocate that managing temperature and reliability at run-time is necessary to overcome this reliability-wall without incurring significant cost penalty. Nonlinear nature of modern systems, however, makes the run-time control very challenging. The authors suggest that full cost-consciousness requires a truly proactive controller that can efficiently manage system slack with future in perspective. This paper introduces the concept of “gas-pedal,” which enhances the effectiveness of the proactive controller in minimizing the cost without sacrificing the hard guarantees required by the constraints. Reliability-aware dynamic energy management of a processor running AVC motion compensation task is used as a motivational case study to illustrate the proposed concepts.
Autonomic QoS Optimization of Real-Time Internet Audio Using Loss Prediction and Stochastic Control
Authors: Roychoudhuri Lopamudra , Al-Shaer Ehab S.
Published: February 2012

Quality of Internet audio is highly sensitive to packet loss caused by congestion in links. Packet loss for audio is normally rectified by adding redundancy using Forward Error Correction (FEC). Alternatively, path diversity mechanisms are used to improve reliability and thus session quality. To achieve optimized receiver audio quality for transmissions using single or multiple paths, the authors propose a self-adaptive joint Error and Rate Control framework based on packet loss prediction and on-line quality assessment. The Error Control chooses appropriate FEC proactively to preserve quality with optimal bandwidth, using a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and a stochastic inventory control, a novel approach for multimedia error recovery. The Rate Control uses a quality optimization model to determine the optimal dispersion over single or multiple paths. This paper will present results using simulation and Internet experiments to show the superiority of this mechanism over other similar techniques.
Impact of Cross-Layer Adaptations of Mobile IP on IEEE 802.11 Networks on Video Streaming
Authors: De Cleyn P. , Blondia C.
Published: February 2012

The OSI network layer model provides a strictly separated stacked architecture to abstract the behavior of one layer from the other. Although this model has a lot of advantages, it also makes it easy to lose the bigger picture. In this paper, the authors describe the advantages that can be made by cross-layering the link layer and networking layer to optimize handovers. The performance gain of these cross-layer adaptations will be analyzed using a simulation scenario and compared to the results from a real-life video streaming test. The authors will show that the performance gain in network parameters cannot be directly mapped on the gain of the video quality.
Beernet
Authors: Mejías B. , Van Roy P.
Published: February 2012

Distributed systems with a centralized architecture present the well known problems of single point of failure and single point of congestion; therefore, they do not scale. Decentralized systems, especially as peer-to-peer networks, are gaining popularity because they scale well, and do not need a server to work. However, their complexity is higher due to the lack of a single point of control and synchronization, and because consistent decentralized storage is difficult to maintain when data constantly evolves. Self-management is a way of handling this higher complexity. In this paper, the authors present a decentralized system built with a structured overlay network that is self-organized and self-healing, providing a transactional replicated storage for small or large scale systems.
Optimization of WS-BPEL Workflows through Business Process Re-Engineering Patterns
Authors: Buys Jonas , De Florio Vincenzo , Blondia Chris
Published: February 2012

With the advent of XML-based SOA, WS-BPEL swiftly became a widely accepted standard for modeling business processes. Although SOA is said to embrace the principle of business agility, BPEL process definitions are still manually crafted into their final executable version. While SOA has proven to be a giant leap forward in building flexible IT systems, this static BPEL workflow model should be enhanced to better sustain continual process evolution. In this paper, the authors discuss the potential for adding business intelligence with respect to business process re-engineering patterns to the system to allow for automatic business process optimization. Furthermore, the paper examines how these re-engineering patterns may be implemented, leveraging techniques that were applied successfully in computer science. Several practical examples illustrate the benefit of such adaptive process models. These preliminary findings indicate that techniques like the re-sequencing and parallelization of instructions, further optimized by introspection, as well as techniques for achieving software fault tolerance, are particularly valuable for optimizing business processes. Finally, the authors elaborate on the design of people-oriented business processes using common human-centric re-engineering patterns.
The Use of Geospatial Technology in Disaster Management
Authors: Westlund Scott
Published: February 2012

The daily use of geospatial technology, such as the global positioning system (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing (RS), is increasing. The use of geospatial technology in disaster management is a natural fit because almost every aspect of a disaster is referenced by location. This paper presents the results of a recent web-based survey of disaster management practitioners. Findings reveal that more than 60% of disaster management practitioners are currently using geospatial technology and 70% plan to use it in a future disaster management activity. However, the results indicate that most disaster management practitioners have a low level of knowledge of geospatial technology. The survey findings also show that geospatial technologies enhance situational awareness, cost is a major challenge for practitioners who would like to use them, and an opportunity exists for the academic community to engage with practitioners to help them raise their level of geospatial knowledge.
Beyond Class Hours
Authors: Hickey Robert
Published: February 2012

Much has been written regarding the effectiveness of different teaching styles; however, considerably less has been written about the physical design of computer classrooms and their implications on education. To date, nothing has been written regarding building an informal learning community within a computer classroom, particularly outside of formal class hours. In this paper, the author examines designing an environment in which geography students feel at home, that is, a center of geographic education. Such a center could be defined as a place where students and faculty congregate to create and transmit geographic knowledge. A GIS lab can be such a place if deliberate care and effort are taken to ensure that the lab is multidisciplinary, dynamic, encourages creativity and discourse, and is a think tank for solving geospatial problems. This paper illustrates some proven methods for building such an environment.
Varying the Variable
Authors: Klaas Zachary
Published: February 2012

It is common practice in business geography to use gravity models such as the Reilly’s Retail Law of Gravitation model to gauge the extent of presumed trade areas for retail sites based on a variable that models the general demographic attractiveness of the site in question. In the Huff retail model, an exponent represents additional attractiveness factors that differentially affect certain sites; however, it is less common practice to vary the attractiveness of one site alone and to visually inspect in a series of maps the differences in other trade areas given the variation of assumptions about the attractiveness of that site. The idea behind this form of analysis is that business managers benefit from being able to visualize a range of possible contingencies to which they may have to respond. The city of New Britain, Connecticut, is used as a demonstration model in this article to provide these kinds of visualization maps.
Similarities between Competitors and the Implications for Location Strategies
Authors: Joseph Lawrence
Published: February 2012

Although Burger King and McDonald’s are widely recognized as direct competitors, there may be enough differences in customer profiles between the two chains to recommend or justify divergent location strategies. In this regard, the authors use ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression to test whether site and trade-area criteria can explain individual store sales and if such criteria are consistent for both chains. This research shows that there are situations where locational factors may have directionally different effects on store sales of the two chains. While Burger King generally experienced higher sales in denser urban areas with higher proportions of minorities, McDonald’s experienced higher sales in suburban areas adjacent to freeways.
Changing Retail Banking Supply-Demand Mismatch
Authors: Zhou Bin
Published: February 2012

In this study, the author compares the supply-demand mismatch of retail banking services and the changing patterns in Illinois and New York from 1982 to 2007 amid fundamental banking transformation and geographical deregulation. The study uses measures of concentration like the Herfindahl-Herschman Index (HHI) and the E-Index. The study finds that the traditionally unit banking Illinois has narrowed the mismatch over the study period from 1982 to 2007, whereas the traditionally branch banking New York has expanded such mismatch. The study also finds that while the New York banking industry can be characterized by a more concentrated geographical distribution of bank deposits, the Illinois banking industry still has a dispersed geographical concentration of bank offices, though the Chicago MSA has reversed such a pattern.
Practical Approaches to Spatial Estimation of Disaster-Affected Populations
Authors: Jordan Lisa , Watkins Benjamin , Biegon Patrick , Mwangi Margaret , Rose Rob
Published: February 2012

When a disaster occurs, the response depends critically on an estimate of the affected population. However, retrieval of crucial statistics can be time consuming, often at the expense of the neediest populations. This article reviews spatial population estimation techniques and datasets that facilitate disaster response and management. The authors conclude that the LandScan population distribution estimates best suit the needs of Population Explorer, an Internet GIS that presents a way to quickly deliver answers to queries about local population and demographic composition to users who may not be formally trained in GIS or demography. By referencing LandScan population distributions, Population Explorer retrieves adjusted, official census population counts, for user-defined point buffers, line buffers, or polygons on a global map. Participants from a variety of agencies, i.e., government and non-government, local and international, can collaborate in updating baseline population estimates with local information that can then be queried with the baseline counts.
A Geographic Analysis of Public-Private School Choice in South Carolina, USA
Authors: Zhang Haifeng (Charlie) , Anderson Lorin W. , Cowen David J. , Mitchell Lisle S.
Published: February 2012

Despite years of research and debate, household choice between public and private schools is not well understood. This article investigates factors associated with parental choice between public and private schools using unique census-based school enrollment data for school districts in South Carolina and for neighborhoods in the Columbia Metropolitan Area. This study extends the existing literature by examining patterns of public-private school choice for whites and blacks separately in order to control racial disparities in school choice. Results of multiple regression analyses for the whole population and subdivided racial groups generally support the assumption that public-private school enrollment rate is subject to socioeconomic status, racial proportion, and public school quality. Findings of this study not only suggests the reconciliation of the market-based theory and the racial preference theory, but also provides insights into education policies in terms of stemming white enrollment losses and fostering public school education in the United States.
Impact of Spatial Filtering on the Least Cost Path Method
Authors: Rock Amy E. , Mullett Amanda , Algharib Saad , Schaffer Jared , Lee Jay
Published: February 2012

In the face of renewed interest in High-Speed Rail (HSR) projects, Ohio is one of several states seeking federal funding to relieve pressure on aging, overburdened highway infrastructure by constructing passenger rail routes between major cities. This paper evaluates the creation of a new rail route in Ohio’s 3-C Corridor utilizing GIS. The authors consider two primary cost factors in construction, slope and land cover, to generate alternative least-cost paths. To assess the importance of the cost factors, two separate paths are created using two different weighting methods for the land cover layer. The land cover is weighted first by difficulty of construction, and second by relative acquisition costs. These two paths are then compared against a path selected by the Ohio Hub Project which uses existing track lines, advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed.
Disease, Death, and the Body Politic
Authors: Wilson James L. , Mansfield Christopher J.
Published: February 2012

More than a trillion dollars of public money is spent annually on health care in the United States. In order to inform policymakers, health advocacy groups, tax-paying constituents, and beneficiaries, it would be useful to present and analyze health outcome and health-related data at the U.S. congressional district level. Presently, health event data are not reported at this political unit; however, recent interest and advances in areal interpolation techniques are beginning to transcend the inherent limitations imposed by legacy data collection and analyses systems. In this paper, the authors use the dasymetric approach to illustrate how this areal interpolation technique can be used to transfer county-level mortality rate data from several causes of death to the U.S. congressional district level. The study’s primary goal is to promote areal interpolation techniques in the absence of a systematic and comprehensive national program for geocoding health events.
Defining, Teaching, and Assessing Engineering Design Skills
Authors: Mourtos Nikos J.
Published: February 2012

The paper discusses a systematic approach for defining, teaching, and assessing engineering design skills. Although the examples presented in the paper are from the field of aerospace engineering, the principles apply to engineering design in general. What makes the teaching of engineering design particularly challenging is that the necessary skills and attributes are both technical and non-technical and come from the cognitive as well as the affective domains. Each set of skills requires a different approach to teach and assess. Implementing a variety of approaches for a number of years at SJSU has shown that it is just as necessary to teach affective skills, as it is to teach cognitive skills. As one might expect, each set of skills presents its own challenges.
Moving Beyond Traditions
Authors: Berglund Anders
Published: February 2012

Student learning is built on native ability, prior preparation and experiences but also by the compatibility of his or her learning style and the instructor’s teaching style. Past research (Kolb, 1984; Felder & Silverman, 1988; Baillie & Moore, 2004; Biggs & Tang, 2007; Crawley, Malmqvist, Ostlund, & Brodeur, 2007) indicate mismatches between engineering students’ common learning styles and traditional teaching styles. This paper addresses a transition from a teacher centered approach to a collaborative student centered approach. A longitudinal study of bachelor thesis redesign is described by following the progression in three parallel courses over four consecutive years. Moving beyond the traditional practices of individual thesis writing, a strict individual assignment has been transformed where roughly 50% now originates from collective work efforts. Findings show support to a collective approach when working with bachelor thesis writing as work groups become self-governed, attached with a creative disposition, pursuing functioning knowledge, key generic skills of industrial relevance, and collectively supporting deep level learning.
Engineering Education and Attitudes Toward Mathematics
Authors: Ker H. W.
Published: February 2012

Research addressed the importance of high abilities in mathematics at secondary school for the well preparation of engineering profession. However, factors influencing mathematics performance like Self-Confidence in Mathematics learning, values on mathematics, and Positive Attitudes toward Mathematics received less attention in research of engineering education. This paper utilized TIMSS 2007 data to conduct a global comparative analysis on these three factors at varied International Benchmark levels. The countries for this comparative study are the United States and the top three Asian countries, Chinese Taipei, Korea and Singapore. Results showed that compared with Chinese Taipei and Korea, Singapore students tend to have high level of Self-Confidence in Mathematics learning, values on mathematics, and Positive Attitudes toward Mathematics. The students of United States, though not ranked high in average mathematics achievement, tend to place good values on mathematics, have self-confidence in learning, and have positive attitudes toward mathematics.
Leveraging Community-Based Service Learning Experiences into Academic Credit in Engineering Curricula
Authors: Tharakan John
Published: February 2012

Service learning (SL) has been formally defined as engagement of students in course-based, credit bearing educational experiences where students participate in a service activity and are provided a framework within which to engage in guided reflection. In this paper, a pedagogical model is suggested to leverage volunteer service activities and projects into service learning requiring rigorous academic engagement with defined deliverables worthy of engineering academic credit. This requires students on the service project teams to register for an independent study course in the semester following the service activity. Students work with the faculty adviser and develop and execute independent projects configured to enhance the experiential learning acquired during the service. Two independent study projects are reported on, developed following an Engineers Without Borders-USA (Howard University Chapter – EWB-HU) site and project assessment visit to rural Kenya. All independent study projects were executed under close guidance and supervision of the faculty adviser who was the mentor on the assessment site visit to Kenya. These provide the necessary context for students to seriously reflect on and study their service activity and its impacts, leveraging the service activity into a true service learning experience.
Songs to Syntax
Authors: Berwick Robert C.
Published: February 2012

Language comprises a central component of a complex that is sometimes called “the human capacity.” This complex seems to have crystallized fairly recently among a small group in East Africa of whom people are all descendants. Common descent has been important in the evolution of the brain, such that avian and mammalian brains may be largely homologous, particularly in the case of brain regions involved in auditory perception, vocalization and auditory memory. There has been convergent evolution of the capacity for auditory-vocal learning, and possibly for structuring of external vocalizations, such that apes lack the abilities that are shared between songbirds and humans. Language’s recent evolutionary origin suggests that the computational machinery underlying syntax arose via the introduction of a single, simple, combinatorial operation. Further, the relation of a simple combinatorial syntax to the sensory-motor and thought systems reveals language to be asymmetric in design: while it precisely matches the representations required for inner mental thought, acting as the “glue” that binds together other internal cognitive and sensory modalities, at the same time it poses computational difficulties for externalization, that is, parsing and speech or signed production. Despite this mismatch, language syntax leads directly to the rich cognitive array that marks us as a symbolic species.
Cognitive Dynamic Systems
Authors: Haykin Simon
Published: February 2012

The main topics covered in this paper address the following four issues: 1) Distinction between how adaptation and cognition are viewed with respect to each other, 2) With human cognition viewed as the framework for cognition, the following cognitive processes are identified: the perception-action cycle, memory, attention, intelligence, and language. With language being outside the scope of the paper, detailed accounts of the other four cognitive processes are discussed, 3) Cognitive radar is singled out as an example application of cognitive dynamic systems that “mimics” the visual brain; experimental results on tracking are presented using simulations, which clearly demonstrate the information-processing power of cognition, and 4) Two other example applications of cognitive dynamic systems, namely, cognitive radio and cognitive control, are briefly described.
Inference Algebra (IA)
Authors: Wang Yingxu
Published: February 2012

Inference as the basic mechanism of thought is one of the gifted abilities of human beings. It is recognized that a coherent theory and mathematical means are needed for dealing with formal causal inferences. This paper presents a novel denotational mathematical means for formal inferences known as Inference Algebra (IA). IA is structured as a set of algebraic operators on a set of formal causations. The taxonomy and framework of formal causal inferences of IA are explored in three categories: a) Logical inferences on Boolean, fuzzy, and general logic causations; b) Analytic inferences on general functional, correlative, linear regression, and nonlinear regression causations; and c) Hybrid inferences on qualification and quantification causations. IA introduces a calculus of discrete causal differential and formal models of causations; based on them nine algebraic inference operators of IA are created for manipulating the formal causations. IA is one of the basic studies towards the next generation of intelligent computers known as cognitive computers. A wide range of applications of IA are identified and demonstrated in cognitive informatics and computational intelligence towards novel theories and technologies for machine-enabled inferences and reasoning.
Designing Security Properties-Centric Communication Protocols using a Component-Based Approach
Authors: Nobelis N. , Boudaoud K. , Delettre C. , Riveill M.
Published: February 2012

Numerous communication protocols have been designed offering a set of security properties through the use of cryptographic tools to secure electronic document transfer. However, there is no clear match between the tools used and security properties they offer. To solve this problem, the authors propose to use a component-based approach; more specifically the authors introduce the notion of high-level security component where each component provides an atomic security property. This approach will facilitate the design of new protocols that fulfill any specific set of security properties by assembling the appropriate components. At the same time, users using a protocol designed with these security components will have the assurance that the protocol satisfies the security properties required for the electronic document transfer. The authors validate the approach by showing how the integrity property can be added to the HTTP protocol to design a security property-centric HTTPS and in this case an integrity-only HTTPS.
Towards a Generic Security Framework for Cloud Data Management Environments
Authors: Carpen-Amarie Alexandra , Costan Alexandru , Leordeanu Catalin , Basescu Cristina , Antoniu Gabriel
Published: February 2012

Providing an adequate security level in Cloud Environments is currently an extremely active research area. More specifically, malicious behaviors targeting large-scale Cloud data repositories (e.g., Denial of Service attacks) may drastically degrade the overall performance of such systems and cannot be detected by typical authentication mechanisms. This article proposes a generic security management framework allowing providers of Cloud data management systems to define and enforce complex security policies. This security framework is designed to detect and stop a large array of attacks defined through an expressive policy description language and to be easily interfaced with various data management systems. The authors show that they can efficiently protect a data storage system by evaluating the security framework on top of the BlobSeer data management platform. The authors evaluate the benefits of preventing a DoS attack targeted towards BlobSeer through experiments performed on the Grid’5000 testbed.
Trust Issues on Crowd-Sourcing Methods for Urban Environmental Monitoring
Authors: French Tim , Bessis Nik , Maple Carsten , Asimakopoulou Eleana
Published: February 2012

This paper explores trust related issues arising from the use of a crowd-sourcing method. Crowd-sourcing is a relatively new method that utilises modern technologies to gather, analyse and visualise specific “on-the-fly” data. The data is typically acquired through the employment of mobile technology, with each device running a bespoke application that captures the desired information. The resulting “crowd sourced” data is readily available and the corresponding maps produced can in turn, be used to support strategic planning and to facilitate overall, more informed decision-making. The purpose is to provide insights into this novel approach to data collection, aggregation and subsequent visualisation. Specifically, the focus centres upon issues of trust and security that are inherent not merely to the use of crowd sourced data capture itself, but also crucially, to the stewardship and usage of the resultant data sets within e-government settings. A novel community centric usage scenario is presented that seeks to show how issues of trust pervade the technology. Hence, both rewards and risks are revealed and we go on to outline a preliminary approach intended to support a trusted and reputable “crowdy” data architecture.
Trust Management for VANETs
Authors: Zhang Jie
Published: February 2012

An increasingly large number of cars are being equipped with GPS and Wi-Fi devices, forming vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) and enabling vehicle to vehicle communication with the goal of providing increased passenger and road safety. However, dishonest peers (vehicles) in a VANET may send out false information to maximize their own utility. Given the dire consequences of acting on false information in this context, there is a serious need to establish trust among peers. This article first discusses the challenges for trust management caused by the important characteristics of VANET environments, and identifies desired properties that effective trust management should incorporate in order to address the challenges. The author then surveys and evaluates existing trust models in VANETs, and points out that none of the trust models has achieved all the properties. Finally, the author proposes some important future directions for research towards effective trust management for VANETs.
A Fuzzy Graph-Based Model for Selecting Knowledge Management Tools in Innovation Processes
Authors: Jenab Kouroush , Sarfaraz Ahmad R.
Published: February 2012

The evolution of organization, management, and production processes is moving towards more complexity every day. An improvement of the performance by the recovery and reuse of resources can be reached by going beyond traditional boundaries and by enforcing an external relationship system. Using fuzzy conflict resolution technique and management objectives, this paper develops a graph-based model to select the most appropriate set of Knowledge Management (KM) tools to support the innovation processes in organizations. The model not only resolves the conflict of experts’ opinion but also aggregates the multi-layer graph corresponding to decision criteria into a single graph. This graph is used to evaluate the KM tools. It also suggests conditions for the improvement of knowledge management in different types of knowledge-based inter-organizational collaborations. An illustrative example is demonstrated to present the application of the model.
Enhancing Data Security in ERP Projects Using XML
Authors: Chandrakumar T. , Parthasarathy S.
Published: February 2012

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is integrated packaged software, which addresses most fundamental business processing functionality across different functional areas and business units, in a single software system, with single database and accessible through a unified interface and channel of communication. Meeting security requirements for privacy, confidentiality and integrity is essential in order to move business online ERP System requires an accurate, precise and Data security in business concepts of the enterprise. The authors introduce basic features and security of ERP System using Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) technology. Traditionally, XML security has developed along two distinct though related lines of research, corresponding to two facts of the XML security notion. The first fact defines XML security as a set of security techniques (encryption, digital signature) tightly coupled with XML to maintain the main features of the XML semi-structured data model while adding to it all necessary security capabilities. In this paper we will explore XML Signature specification from W3C and its implementation in .NET.
An Analysis of Factors Affecting User Acceptance of ERP Systems in the United States
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Kakoli , Barnes Cynthia
Published: February 2012

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are widely used in most industries today because of the benefits they offer: improved integration of business processes, improved cost control, improved decision making, improved customer service, and improved profitability. Although much IS research has been published concerning acceptance of enterprise systems, adoption issues, or critical success factors in implementing an ERP system, little research has been presented that focuses on the ERP usage behavior. The purpose of this research is to to extend the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model in order to predict the acceptance of ERP systems among its users in the United States. This study will potentially benefit Information Technology (IT) professionals in a global environment. IT professionals can design acceptance strategies that promote ERP usage ultimately.
Scenario-Based Career Path Decision Support Services in Human Capital Development
Authors: Matsuo Tokuro , Saito Yoshihito , Terashima Takanori , Fujimoto Takayuki
Published: February 2012

This paper proposes a new career support system for students’ decision-making using past student information in a university. Past students information contains a lot of useful information such as trend of taken classes, getting jobs, and their correlations. The authors explain a method to clarify the correlation of lectures and jobs. The system provides career services to students. The system shows pattern and scenario to take lecture based on student’s goal and job family in which they want to get. And also, the system realizes to support the student by providing appropriate candidates of job families from students’ career, pattern, and order of taking classes.
Vitamin D Inhibits Monocyte/Macrophage Proinflammatory Cytokine Production by Targeting MAPK Phosphatase-1
Authors: Zhang Yong , Leung Donald Y. M. , Richers Brittany N. , Liu Yusen , Remigio Linda K. , Riches David W. , Goleva Elena
Published: February 2012

It is estimated that 1 billion people around the world are vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to various inflammatory diseases. However, the mechanism by which vitamin D reduces inflammation remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of physiologic levels of vitamin D on LPS-stimulated inflammatory response in human blood monocytes and explored potential mechanisms of vitamin D action. We observed that two forms of the vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D3, and 25(OH)D3, dose dependently inhibited LPS-induced p38 phosphorylation at physiologic concentrations, IL-6 and TNF-α production by human monocytes. Upon vitamin D treatment, the expression of MAPK phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) was significantly upregulated in human monocytes and murine bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM). Increased binding of the vitamin D receptor and increased histone H4 acetylation at the identified vitamin D response element of the murine and human MKP-1 promoters were demonstrated. Moreover, in BMM from MKP1−/− mice, the inhibition of LPS-induced p38 phosphorylation by vitamin D was completely abolished. Vitamin D inhibition of LPS-induced IL-6 and TNF-α production by BMM from MKP-1−/− mice was significantly reduced as compared with wild-type mice. In conclusion, this study identified the upregulation of MKP-1 by vitamin D as a novel pathway by which vitamin D inhibits LPS-induced p38 activation and cytokine production in monocytes/macrophages.
Undiagnosed Xiphopagus Twins: A Perinatal Malady
Authors: Dorairajan Gowri
Published: February 2012

Conjoined twins are a very rare entity. It is associated with poor survival rate in the presence of vital organ sharing. The entity can be diagnosed as early as the first trimester. A conjoined twin diagnosed late in labor is a malady with high perinatal mortality and maternal morbidity. We present one such case of xiphopagus twins. The management of a case diagnosed late in labor can be very challenging. Such obstetric challenges can be avoided by a meticulous early scan with a high index of suspicion, especially in the absence of separating membrane while scanning multiple pregnancies.
Green synthesis of Silver nanoparticles through Calotropis gigantea leaf extracts and evaluation of antibacterial activity against Vibrio alginolyticus
Authors: Baskaralingam Vaseeharan , Sargunar Clara Gunapoorani , Lin Yong Chin , Chen Jiann Chu
Published: February 2012

Green synthesized silver nanoparticles by Calotropis gigantea leaf extract were used to study the inhibitory activity against pathogenic Vibrio alginolyticus, isolated from wild Artemia franciscana cysts. Silver nanoparticle synthesis was observed using UV-visible spectroscopy and the morphological characteristics were analyzed by atomic force microscope (AFM). In the present study, increasing concentrations of silver nanoparticles synthesized on LB agar plates effectively reduced the number of colonies of V. alginolyticus. A decrease in colonies (CFUs) was observed at 5 mg/mL of silver nanoparticle concentration and the complete inhibition of V. alginolyticus was observed at 20 mg/mL of silver nanoparticle concentration on LB agar plates. In vivo controlling efficiency of silver nanoparticles was tested in an A. franciscana hatching system. Effective control of V. alginolyticus in brine shrimp A. franciscana hatching units was achieved by experimental infection and treatment with silver nanoparticles. Experimental infection studies showed that V. alginolyticus infected Artemia nauplii treated with silver nanoparticles (10 mg/mL) had greater survival (>40%) than silver nanoparticles not treated with nauplii. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that low concentrations of green synthesized silver nanoparticles should be further investigated for other potential experimental models to control potential medical pathogens.
Conservative Management of Skin Fistula Occurring after Internal Cardioverter Defibrillator Replacement
Authors: Kossaify Antoine
Published: February 2012

Skin fistula occurring after cardiac electronic device implantation is frequently related to pocket infection and this condition typically requires removal of device and lead(s). We report on a case of skin fistula occurring 3 weeks after internal cardioverter defibrillator replacement. Conservative management consisted of local care along with oral antibiotics without removal of device; this strategy resulted in complete healing and closure of the fistula.