bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimization of Multidimensional Aggregates in Data Warehouses
Authors: Pears Russel , Houliston Bryan
Published: May 2011

The computation of multidimensional aggregates is a common operation in OLAP applications. The major bottleneck is the large volume of data that needs to be processed which leads to prohibitively expensive query execution times. On the other hand, data analysts are primarily concerned with discerning trends in the data and thus a system that provides approximate answers in a timely fashion would suit their requirements better. In this article we present the prime factor scheme, a novel method for compressing data in a warehouse. Our data compression method is based on aggregating data on each dimension of the data warehouse. We used both real world and synthetic data to compare our scheme against the Haar wavelet and our experiments on range-sum queries show that it outperforms the latter scheme with respect to both decoding time and error rate, while maintaining comparable compression ratios. One encouraging feature is the stability of the error rate when compared to the Haar wavelet. Although wavelets have been shown to be effective at compressing data, the approximate answers they provide varies widely, even for identical types of queries on nearly identical values in distinct parts of the data. This problem has been attributed to the thresholding technique used to reduce the size of the encoded data and is an integral part of the wavelet compression scheme. In contrast the prime factor scheme does not rely on thresholding but keeps a smaller version of every data element from the original data and is thus able to achieve a much higher degree of error stability which is important from a Data Analysts point of view.
Vertical Fragmentation in Databases Using Data-Mining Technique
Authors: Gorla Narasimhaiah , Betty Pang Wing Yan
Published: May 2011

A new approach to vertical fragmentation in relational databases is proposed using association rules, a data-mining technique. Vertical fragmentation can enhance the performance of database systems by reducing the number of disk accesses needed by transactions. By adapting Apriori algorithm, a design methodology for vertical partitioning is proposed. The heuristic methodology is tested using two real-life databases for various minimum support levels and minimum confidence levels. In the smaller database, the partitioning solution obtained matched the optimal solution using exhaustive enumeration. The application of our method on the larger database resulted in the partitioning solution that has an improvement of 41.05% over unpartitioned solution and took less than a second to produce the solution. We provide future research directions on extending the procedure to distributed and object-oriented database designs.
A Historical Analysis of the Emergence of Free Cooperative Software Production
Authors: Jullien Nicolas
Published: May 2011

Whatever its name, Free/Libre or Open Source Software (FLOSS), diffusion represents one of the main evolutions of the Information Technology (IT) industry in recent years. Operating System Linux, or Web server Apache (more than 60% market share on its market), database MySQL or PHP languages are some examples of broadlyused FLOSS programs. One of the most original characteristics of this movement is its collective, cooperative software development organization in which a growing number of firms is involved (some figures in Lakhani & Wolf (2005)). Of course, programs, because they are codified information, are quite easy to exchange, and make the cooperation easier than in other industries. But, as pointed out by Stallman (1998), if sharing pieces of software within firms was a dominant practice in the 1950’s, it declined in the 1970’s, and almost disappeared in the 1980’s, before regaining and booming today.
Open Source Software Basics
Authors: Kalliamvakou Eirini
Published: May 2011

The open source software (OSS) development area of research presents a fresh and generous domain for analysis and study. In line with this, it is important to have a high-level understanding of the “open source phenomenon” before being able to delve deeper into specific niches of research. OSS presents a rich picture and because of that, both academics and practitioners have shown intense interest in producing high-quality literature. This chapter provides an initial understanding of what OSS is and how it has come to be the exciting research platform that it is today, attracting attention from various sources. In addition, we take an overview of the research streams that have formed in recent years, and the basic findings of attempts made to transfer lessons from OSS to other research areas.
Open Source Software Evaluation
Authors: van den Berg Karin
Published: May 2011

If a person or corporation decides to use open source software for a certain purpose, nowadays the choice in software is large and still growing. In order to choose the right software package for the intended purpose, one will need to have insight and evaluate the software package choices. This chapter provides an insight into open source software and its development to those who wish to evaluate it. Using existing literature on open source software evaluation, a list of nine evaluation criteria is derived including community, security, license, and documentation. In the second section, these criteria and their relevance for open source software evaluation are explained. Finally, the future of open source software evaluation is discussed.
Software Metrics and Measurements
Authors: Xenos Michalis
Published: May 2011

In the past few years, a large number of e-government and e-commerce systems have been developed, thus resulting to a constantly increasing number of software developers involved in software development for such systems. To ensure the production of high quality e-government and ecommerce systems, it is important for developers to collect and analyze measurable data that guide estimation, decision making, and assessment. It is common sense that one can control and manage better what he is able to measure.
Governance of Software Development
Authors: Dubinsky Yael , Yaeli Avi , Feldman Yishai , Zarpas Emmanuel , Nechushtai Gil
Published: May 2011

Governance is the exercise of control and direction over a subject such as a society, an organization, processes, or artifacts, by using laws and policies that are defined, deployed, and executed. In this chapter we develop this definition into a formal conceptual model that can be applied to a variety of governance domains. At the heart of this model lies the concept of the governance solution and its lifecycle. The governance solution embodies the set of mechanisms—decision rights, policies, controls, and measurements—applied to a governance scope in order to achieve some governance goals. As part of the lifecycle, the effectiveness of the governance solution is measured, and corrections and alignments are made as necessary. We demonstrate how this model can be applied to multiple governance domains by providing examples from IT governance as well as software-development governance. We conclude by providing a detailed scenario in the software-development governance space, which looks at large software organizations undergoing transition to agile development methodology. We further demonstrate how the governance model is instantiated and evolved in the context of this scenario.
Current Challenges in Intrusion Detection Systems
Authors: Kayacik H. Gunes , Zincir-Heywood A. Nur
Published: May 2011

Along with its numerous benefits, the Internet also created numerous ways to compromise the security and stability of the systems connected to it. In 1995, 171 vulnerabilities were reported to CERT/CC © while in 2003, there were 3,784 reported vulnerabilities, increasing to 8,064 in 2006 (CERT/CC©, 2006). Operations, which are primarily designed to protect the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of critical network information systems are considered to be within the scope of security management. Security management operations protect computer networks against denial-of-service attacks, unauthorized disclosure of information, and the modification or destruction of data. Moreover, the automated detection and immediate reporting of these events are required in order to provide the basis for a timely response to attacks (Bass, 2000). Security management plays an important, albeit often neglected, role in network management tasks.
Intelligent User Preference Mining
Authors: Guan Sheng-Uei , Tan Ping Cheng
Published: May 2011

A business-to-consumer environment can be developed through software agents (Guan, Zhu, & Maung, 2004; Maes, 1994; Nwana & Ndumu, 1996; Wang, Guan, & Chan, 2002) to satisfy the needs of consumers patronizing online e-commerce or m-commerce stores. This includes intelligent filtering services (Chanan & Yadav, 2000) and product brokering services to understand user’s needs better before alerting users of suitable products according to their preference. We present an approach to capture individual user response towards product attributes including nonquantifiable responses. The proposed solution can capture the user’s specific preference and recommend a list of products from the product database. With the proposed approach, the system can handle any unaccounted attribute that is undefined in the system. The system is able to cater to any unaccounted attribute through a general descriptions field found in most product databases. In addition, the system can adapt to changes in user’s preference.
An Incremental Functionality-Oriented Free Software Development Methodology
Authors: Terán Oswaldo , Alvarez Johanna , Abraham Blanca , Aguilar Jose
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a methodology used as reference model for a free software factory that is part of the National Centre for Free Technologies in Venezuela. This centre is oriented at promoting free software development for serving mostly the public sector in order to promote endogenous development and technologic autonomy. Under this strategy, strengthening the software small and medium size enterprises and cooperatives, by allowing them to participate in different projects (improving their know-how) and providing them with a methodology for increasing their capabilities and software quality, is necessary and urgent. This methodology plans the development process incrementally, based on a prioritisation of the software functionalities development in accordance to the functionalities risks, development urgency, and dependencies. It combines aspects of the two styles of free software development,namely cathedral and bazaar. The development process is centralised, in essence collaborative, and continuously allows source code release.
BROOD
Authors: Loucopoulos Pericles , Kadir Wan M.N. Wan
Published: May 2011

A critical success factor for information systems is their ability to evolve as their environment changes. There is compelling evidence that the management of change in business policy can have a profound effect on an information system’s ability to evolve effectively and efficiently. For this to be successful, there is a need to represent business rules from the early requirements stage, expressed in user-understandable terms, to downstream system design components and maintain these throughout the lifecycle of the system. Any user-oriented changes could then be traced and if necessary propagated from requirements to design specifications and evaluated by both end-users and developers about their impact on the system. The BROOD approach, discussed in this article, aims to provide seamless traceability between requirements and system designs through the modelling of business rules and the successive transformations, using UML as the modelling framework.
Bug Fixing Practices within Free/Libre Open Source Software Development Teams
Authors: Crowston Kevin , Scozzi Barbara
Published: May 2011

Free/Libre open source software (FLOSS, e.g., Linux or Apache) is primarily developed by distributed teams. Developers contribute from around the world and coordinate their activity almost exclusively by means of email and bulletin boards, yet some how profit from the advantages and evade the challenges of distributed software development. In this article we investigate the structure and the coordination practices adopted by development teams during the bug-fixing process, which is considered one of main areas of FLOSS project success. In particular, based on a codification of the messages recorded in the bug tracking system of four projects, we identify the accomplished tasks, the adopted coordination mechanisms, and the role undertaken by both the FLOSS development team and the FLOSS community. We conclude with suggestions for further research.
Information Communication Technology Tools for Software Review and Verification
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

While information communication technology (ICT) can be considered a well-established discipline, software development projects are still prone to failure. Even if a software project is not classified as a failure, the general level of software quality leaves room for much improvement. It has been suggested that one of the most prevalent and costly mistakes made in software projects today is deferring the activity of detecting and correcting software problems until the end of the project. Hence, the cost of rework in the later stages of a project can be greater than 100 times the project costs. About 80% of avoidable rework comes from 20% of defects. As a result, techniques such as software review for improving software quality are important.
Software Platforms for Mobile Programming
Authors: Ju Khoo Wei , Wong K. Daniel
Published: May 2011

Framework (.NET CF), and Active Server Pages.NET (ASP.NET) Mobile Controls are commonly used alternatives in mobile programming. They provide an environment for applications to run on mobile devices. However, they are different in many ways, such as supported mobile devices, architecture, and development. Hence, it is important for mobile application developers to understand the differences between them in order to choose the one that meets their requirement. Therefore, in this article we will discuss the general architecture of J2ME, .NET CF and ASP.NET Mobile Controls and compare the three alternatives.
Developing Enjoyable Second Language Learning Software Tools
Authors: Ang Chee Siang , Zaphiris Panayiotis
Published: May 2011

This chapter attempts to examine computer game theories—ludology and narratology—that explain computer games as play activities and storytelling media. Founded on this theoretical explanation, a game model that incorporates gameplay and narratives is presented. From the model, two aspects of learning in the game environment are identified: gameplay-oriented and narrative-oriented. It is believed that playing computer games involves at least one of these types of learning; thus, this game’s nature can be used in designing engaging educational software. In addition, based on Malone’s theoretical framework on motivational heuristics, there are two methods of applying computer games in language learning: extrinsic and intrinsic, depending on the integration of game designs and learning materials. Then, two cases of language-learning games are scrutinized, using the game model, in order to demonstrate the use of computer games in language learning.
Intelligent Software Agents Analysis in E-Commerce II
Authors: Luo Xin , Akkaladevi Somasheker
Published: May 2011

Cowan et al. (2002) argued that the human cognitive ability to search for information and to evaluate their usefulness is extremely limited in comparison to those of computers. In detail, it’s cumbersome and time-consuming for a person to search for information from limited resources and to evaluate the information’s usefulness. They further indicated that while people are able to perform several queries in parallel and are good at drawing parallels and analogies between pieces of information, advanced systems that embody ISA architecture are far more effective in terms of calculation power and parallel processing abilities, particularly in the quantities of material they can process (Cowan et al. 2002). According to Bradshaw (1997), information complexity will continue to increase dramatically in the coming decades. He further contended that the dynamic and distributed nature of both data and applications require that software not merely respond to requests for information but intelligently anticipate, adapt, and actively seek ways to support users.
Rapid Insertion of Leading Edge Industrial Strength Software into University Classrooms
Authors: Simmons Dick B. , Lively William , Nelson Chris , Urban Joseph E.
Published: May 2011

Within the United States, the greatest job growth is in software engineering and information management. Open source software (OSS) is a major technology base for enterprise application development. The complexity of technologies used by industry is often an obstacle to their use in the classroom. In this chapter, a major software development paradigm change that occurred in about the year 2000 is explained. CS education programs have been slow to adapt to the paradigm change due to problems such as the tenure system, inexperienced student laboratory assistants, lack of leading-edge software tool support, lack of software team project servers, unavailability of help and mentoring services, and software unavailability. This chapter explains how these problems can be solved by creating an open source-based shared software infrastructure program (SSIP) sponsored by industry, but planned and implemented by SSIP member universities at no cost to member universities.
Digital Library Structure and Software
Authors: McCarthy Cavan
Published: May 2011

Digital libraries (DL) can be characterized as the “high end” of the Internet, digital systems which offer significant quantities of organized, selected materials of the type traditionally found in libraries, such as books, journal articles, photographs and similar documents (Schwartz, 2000). They normally offer quality resources based on the collections of well-known institutions, such as major libraries, archives, historical and cultural associations (Love & Feather, 1998). The field of digital libraries is now firmly established as an area of study, with textbooks (Arms, 2000; Chowdhury & Chowdhury, 2003; Lesk, 1997); electronic journals from the US (D-Lib Magazine: http://www.dlib.org/) and the UK (Ariadne: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/); even encyclopedia articles (McCarthy, 2004).
European National Educational School Authorities' Actions Regarding Open Content and Open Source Software in Education
Authors: Vuorikari Riina , Sarnow Karl
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview into policies in the area of e-learning that ten European countries, all members of European Schoolnet, have taken regarding open content and free and open source software (FOSS) to be used to support and enhance learning. Additionally, it elaborates on European Schoolnet’s initiatives to support open learning resources exchange in Europe. European Schoolnet (EUN) promotes the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in European schools, acting as a gateway to national and regional educational authorities and school networks towards Europe. A variety of actions have been initiated by a number of European educational authorities from analysis and feasibility studies to the development of educational software based on open source as well as open educational content.
Globalising Software Development in the Local Classroom
Authors: Richardson Ita , Moore Sarah , Malone Alan , Casey Valentine , Zage Dolores
Published: May 2011

In the dynamic global economy that exists today the operation and structure of organisations have had to adapt to the reality of the information revolution which has taken place. This has been the case within the software industry where global software development (GSD) has become a popular strategy and software development has become a globally sourced commodity. Given the requirement for graduates to operate in this type of environment, we as educators considered how our teaching methods could be developed and enhanced to instil GSD competencies within our graduates. We provided students with the opportunity to take part in a learning experience that transcended geographical and institutional boundaries, giving them first-hand experience of working within globally distributed software teams. Two separate projects were undertaken. One was with Siemens Corporate Research which was part of a larger project. The focus of this project was the shadowing of the development of an actual geographically distributed software product. The second project was carried out in collaboration with Ball State University, and the focus of this endeavour was virtual team software testing. Extensive qualitative research was undertaken on the data provided by the students. We identified three specific forms of learning which had taken place: (1) pedagogical, (2) pragmatic, and (3) the achievement of specific globally distributed competencies. Our findings would confirm that mimicking real-work settings creates the possibility of giving rise to the range of learning benefits that are associated with truly problem-based learning environments.
Lack of Skill Risks to Organizational Technology Learning and Software Project Performance
Authors: Jiang James , Klein Gary , Beck Phil , Wang Eric T.G.
Published: May 2011

To improve the performance of software projects, a number of practices are encouraged that serve to control certain risks in the development process, including a lack of essential skills and knowledge related to the application domain and system development process. A potential mediating variable between the lack of skill risk and project performance is the ability of an organization to acquire the essential domain knowledge and technology skills through learning, specifically organizational technology learning. However, the same lack of knowledge that hinders good project performance may also inhibit learning. This study examines the relationship between information system personnel skills and domain knowledge, organizational technology learning, and software project performance with a sample of professional software developers. Indications are that the relationship between information systems (IS) personnel skills and project performance is partially mediated by organizational technology learning.
Cultural Diversity Challenges
Authors: Huang Haiyan , Trauth Eileen M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses cultural diversity challenges in globally distributed software development and the implications for educating and managing the future global information technology workforce. It argues that the work practices of global software development are facing a variety of challenges associated with cultural diversity, which are manifested in and can be analyzed from three dimensions: the work environment of global software development, the globally distributed knowledge workers, and the global software development work. It further articulates how cultural diversity is manifested in these three dimensions. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of developing cultural awareness and cultural diversity understanding as important skills for the future information technology workforce.
Access Control Specification in UML
Authors: Koch Manuel , Parisi-Presicce Francesco , Pauls Karl
Published: May 2011

Security requirements have become an integral part of most modern soft¬ware systems. In order to produce secure systems, it is necessary to provide soft¬ware engineers with the appropriate systematic support. This chapter discusses a methodology to integrate the specification of access control policies into UML. The methodology, along with the graph-based formal semantics for the UML access control specification, allows to reason about the coherence of the access control spec¬ification. The chapter also presents a procedure to modify policy rules to guarantee the satisfaction of constraints, and shows how to generate access control requirements from UML diagrams. The main concepts in the UML access control specification are illustrated with an example access control model for distributed object systems.
Fuzzy Logic Classifiers and Models in Quantitative Software Engineering
Authors: Pedrycz Witold , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2011

The learning abilities and high transparency are the two important and highly desirable features of any model of software quality. The transparency and user-centricity of quantitative models of software engineering are of paramount relevancy as they help us gain a better and more comprehensive insight into the revealed relationships characteristic to software quality and software processes. In this study, we are concerned with logic-driven architectures of logic models based on fuzzy multiplexers (fMUXs). Those constructs exhibit a clear and modular topology whose interpretation gives rise to a collection of straightforward logic expressions. The design of the logic models is based on the genetic optimization and genetic algorithms, in particular. Through the prudent usage of this optimization framework, we address the issues of structural and parametric optimization of the logic models. Experimental studies exploit software data that relates software metrics (measures) to the number of modifications made to software modules.
A Formal Verification and Validation Approach for Real-Time Databases
Authors: Ribeiro Neto Pedro Fernandes , Barbosa Perkusich Maria Li´gia , de Almeida Hyggo Oliveira , Perkusich Angelo
Published: May 2011

Real-time database-management systems provide efficient support for applications with data and transactions that have temporal constraints, such as industrial automation, aviation, and sensor networks, among others. Many issues in real-time databases have brought interest to research in this area, such as: concurrence control mechanisms, scheduling policy, and quality of services management. However, considering the complexity of these applications, it is of fundamental importance to conceive formal verification and validation techniques for real-time database systems. This chapter presents a formal verification and validation method for real-time databases. Such a method can be applied to database systems developed for computer integrated manufacturing, stock exchange, network-management, and command- and-control applications and multimedia systems. In this chapter, we describe a case study that considers sensor networks.
A Novel Application of the P2P Technology for Intrusion Detection
Authors: Czirkos Zoltán , Hosszú Gábor
Published: May 2011

The importance of the network security problems come into prominence by the growth of the Internet. This article presents a new kind of software that uses the network itself to protect the hosts and increase their security. The hosts running this software create an application level network (ALN) over the Internet (Hosszú, 2005). Nodes connected to this ALN check their operating systems’ log files to detect intrusion attempts. Information collected this way is then shared over the ALN to increase the security of all peers, which can then make the necessary protection steps, for example, blocking network traffic by their own firewall. Different kinds of security software utilizing the network were also written previously (Snort, 2006). The novelty of Komondor is that its client software entities running in each host create a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network (Czirkos, 2006). Organization is automatic; it requires no user interaction. This network model ensures stability, which is important for quick and reliable communication between nodes. By this buildup, the system remains useful over the unstable network.
All-Optical Internet
Authors: Abdelouahab Abid , Abbou Fouad Mohammed , Tat Ewe Hong , Taibi Toufik
Published: May 2011

To exploit the unprecedented opportunities offered by the E-Service Applications, businesses and users alike would need a highly-available, reliable, and efficient telecommunication infrastructure. This chapter provides an insight into building the next-generation network infrastructure, that is, the All-Optical Internet. It also reveals the factors driving the convergence of the Internet Protocol (IP) and the Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology. The chapter discusses the dominant optical networks architectures in an attempt to show the evolution towards the ultimate all-optical packet-switching network. A special focus is given to the Optical Burst Switching (OBS) as a new emerging switching paradigm and a highly promising technology. OBS network architecture, burst assembly, signaling and reservation protocols, QoS support, and contention resolution techniques are presented. Furthermore, realistic suggestions and strategies to efficiently deploy OBS are given.
Learning by Pervasive Gaming
Authors: Kittl Christian , Edegger Francika , Petrovic Otto
Published: May 2011

This chapter investigates how mobile games can be used for an efficient transfer of knowledge in learning processes that connect between the real world and the virtual world. In this chapter, the pervasive game concept is implemented on mobile phones as a means of enabling interaction and communication to support learning activities. The chapter presents the design of a new pervasive learning game, which was compared with a conventional pedagogical approach in terms of long-term learning results and learning efficiency. The empirical results revealed that the pervasive game led to higher energetic activation, more positive emotions and attitudes towards learning activities, and more efficient knowledge transfer than the conventional case-study approach.
Collaboration in Context as a Framework for Designing Innovative Mobile Learning Activities
Authors: Spikol Daniel
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we describe our continuing efforts related to the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative educational activities supported by ubiquitous computing in the AMULETS (advanced mobile and ubiquitous learning environments for teachers and students) project. We argue that the design of innovative mobile learning activities should be guided by collaborative learning scenarios in context supported by mobile and ubiquitous technologies. To support this claim, we propose a conceptual framework of collaboration in context that can be used when designing novel mobile learning scenarios. This framework provides the designer with opportunities to tackle the challenges of designing for innovative mobile learning activities. To illustrate our ideas, we present the results of three trials we have conducted with children and adult students since the spring of 2006. These mobile learning activities have been designed and implemented using our proposed framework. Working with the teachers and students gave us the opportunity to design learning activities at authentic settings using meaningful content that has relevance for the school curriculum. The outcome of our efforts suggests that outdoor learning experiences supported by ubiquitous technologies should be combined with learning activities in the classroom to provide learners with meaningful activities.
Handheld Educational Applications
Authors: Song Yanjie
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews and discusses research on applications of handheld devices in education. The author classifies these applications into six categories based on their functions: educational communication, managing, multimedia access, games and simulations, data collection, and context-aware applications. Each category is examined individually and the consequences arising from these applications are analyzed. The author posits that handheld educational applications, in many cases, have duplicated traditional practice, and that these uses do not seem to have much impact on educational practices. Continued research is needed to focus on longitudinal studies of how students’ perceive and use handheld devices for their own needs in contexts that change their educational practices.
Towards Semantic Business Processes
Authors: Ahtisham Aslam Muhammad , Auer Sören , Fähnrich Klaus-Peter
Published: May 2011

The business process execution language for Web services (BPEL4WS, shortly BPEL) is one of the most popular languages and de facto standard for modelling business processes as Web services compositions. However, it only allows using hard-coded syntactical interfaces for partners and the process itself, i.e. semantic descriptions of services cannot be used within a process model. The lacks of an ontological description of the process elements cause limitations in the ways services are used within a process. A service providing the same functionality as the one referenced in the process model, but via a different syntactical interface, cannot be used instead. As a result, a process model cannot find an alternate service that performs the same functionality but exposes a different interface and can crash. Also, another drawback of such business processes is that they expose syntactical interfaces and cannot be discovered and composed dynamically by other semantic enabled systems slowing down the process of interaction between business partners. OWL-S on the other hand is suite of OWL ontologies and can be used to describe the compositions of Web services on the basis of matching semantics as well as to expose semantically enriched interfaces of business processes. Consequently, translating BPEL process descriptions to OWL-S suite of ontologies can overcome syntactical limitations of BPEL processes enabling them to 1) edit and model the composition of Web services on the basis of matching semantics 2) provide semantically enriched information of business processes. This semantically enriched information helps for dynamic and automated discovery, invocation and composition of business processes as Semantic Web services. Describing an approach and its implementation that can be used to enable business processes for semantic based dynamic discovery, invocation and composition by translating BPEL process descriptions to OWL-S suite of ontologies is the aim of this chapter.
Model on Knowledge-Governance
Authors: Bueno Campos Eduardo
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to deepen the concept of ‘Communities of Practice’ (CoPs) from the understanding of a reference framework for knowledge governance, stressing the grey area which distinguishes such governance from the traditional term ‘Knowledge Management,’ since knowledge governance means not just the management of such assets but also their creation and development, which generates a richer and more appropriate meaning or sense. Without entering into exhaustive referential analyses, we attempt to offer the reader a practical approach which allows structuring an action plan that, in this case, will be explicated for the field of CoPs. Identification and measurement of assets based on information and knowledge and the processes carried out towards its improvement create the convergence of the dynamic of intellectual capital and the afore-mentioned knowledge governance as complementary subjects for an appropriate exploitation and monitoring of the impact which the organizational fostering of this strategic-reality has on business.
Mathematical Modeling of the Aging Process
Authors: Kowald Axel
Published: May 2011

Aging is a complex biological phenomenon that practically affects all multicellular eukaryotes. It is manifested by an ever increasing mortality risk, which finally leads to the death of the organism. Modern hygiene and medicine has led to an amazing increase in average life expectancy over the last 150 years, but the underlying biochemical mechanisms of the aging process are still poorly understood. However, a better understanding of these mechanisms is increasingly important since the growing fraction of elderly people in the human population confronts our society with completely new and challenging problems. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the aging process, discuss how it relates to system biological concepts, and explain how mathematical modeling can improve our understanding of biochemical processes involved in the aging process. We concentrate on the modeling of stochastic effects that become important when the number of involved entities (i.e., molecules, organelles, cells) is very small and the reaction rates are low. This is the case for the accumulation of defective mitochondria, which we describe mathematically in detail. In recent years several tools became available for stochastic modeling and we also provide a brief description of the most important of those tools. Of course, mitochondria are not the only target of modeling efforts in aging research. Therefore, the chapter concludes with a brief survey of other interesting computational models in this field of research.
Protein Interactions and Diseases
Authors: Theodosiou Athina , Moschopoulos Charalampos , Baumann Marc , Kossida Sophia
Published: May 2011

In previous years, scientists have begun understanding the significance of proteins and protein interactions. The direct connection of those with human diseases is now unquestionable and proteomics have become a scientific section of great research interest. In this chapter, we present a detailed description of the nature of protein interactions and describe the more important methodologies that are being used for their detection. Moreover, we review the mechanisms leading to diseases and involving protein interactions and refer to specific diseases such as Huntington’s disease and cancer. Lastly, we give an overview of the most popular computational methods that are used for the prediction or the healing of the diseases.
Entropy and Thermodynamics in Biomolecular Simulation
Authors: Numata Jorge
Published: May 2011

Thermodynamics is one of the best established notions in science. Some recent work in biomolecular modeling has sacrificed its rigor in favor of trendy empirical methods. Even in cases where physicsbased energy functions are used, entropy is forgotten or left “for later versions”. This text gives an overview of the utility of a more rigorous treatment of thermodynamics at the molecular level in order to understand protein folding and receptor-ligand binding. An intuitive understanding of thermodynamics is conveyed: enthalpy is the quantity of energy, while entropy stands for its quality. Recent advances in entropy estimation from information theory and physical chemistry are outlined as they apply to biological thermodynamics. The different enthalpic, entropic, and kinetic driving forces behind protein folding and binding are detailed. Finally, some medical applications enabled by an understanding of the free energy folding funnel concept are outlined, such as HIV-1 protease folding inhibitors.
Introduction
Authors: Augustyniak Piotr , Tadeusiewicz Ryszard
Published: May 2011

This chapter summarizes new needs, new opportunities, new challenges, and new fields for development of innovative IT methods for permanent and ubiquitous cardiological monitoring. The main idea for new generation of telecardiological devices goes as follows: Bad heart always under permanent qualified observation, and every ill patient never without help—irrespective of moment of time and place on Earth.
Investigations about the Distributions of Important Information in ECG Signals
Authors: Augustyniak Piotr , Tadeusiewicz Ryszard
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents an investigation of the distribution of medically relevant information in ECG signal timelines. ECG records clearly represent a cycle of heart evolution; its components, although partly superimposed, follow the time-related dependencies of heart function. During the initial inspection of the ECG, the cardiologist focuses his or her attention on several points of the trace, seeking signs of disease. It seems obvious, but is not often considered, that some segments of the signal are more important for a doctor than the remaining parts. Depending on a doctor’s habits and experience, the interpretation starts from the most severe or most suspected abnormality or from the most unusual signal component. The order of the ECG inspection is based on the investigation strategy and is determined by irregular distribution of medical information in the ECG. These assumptions have already been explored with regard to speech or audio signals, resulting in numerous successful applications, such as the MP3 compression algorithm.
Future Perspective
Authors: Augustyniak Piotr , Tadeusiewicz Ryszard
Published: May 2011

This chapter first presents the description of a common approach to ECG interpretation triggering, assuming that the parameters are updated each time the input data is available. The heartbeat detector runs for each acquired sample, and all heartbeat-based diagnostic parameters (e.g., arrhythmias) are calculated immediately after a positive detection of a heartbeat. This approach keeps the diagnostic parameters up to date with the frequency of the physical variability limit of their source at the cost of unnecessary computation. Slowly changing parameters are significantly over-sampled and consecutive values show high redundancy. At the end of the chapter, we present a concept of a packet-content manager. This procedure collects all requests concerning diagnostic parameter update and computation, supervises the propagation of the validity attribute backwards through the processing chain, and provides an exceptional pathway for all abnormality alerts emerging in the processing chain. As a result, all parameters are reported as rarely as possible without breaking the Shannon rule.
Introduction
Authors: Lee Laurence Lock
Published: May 2011

The information technology (IT) industry has a relatively short history in global markets but can put claim to a disproportionate number of “business innovations” that it either participated in or has been the catalyst for. Concepts such as business process re-engineering (BPR), supply chain management (SCM), IT outsourcing (ITO), business process outsourcing (BPO), off-shoring and now multisourcing are tightly associated with the IT industry. The growth in the services economy and rapid escalation in the use of alliances and joint ventures for business growth is also clearly evident in the IT sector. A characteristic of an industry being a leader in the introduction of new business concepts is that it gets to experience both the excitement of forging new paths but unfortunately also the pain of unfulfilled aspirations.
IT Governance
Authors: Lee Laurence Lock
Published: May 2011

In this chapter a selective review of current IT Governance practice is provided. The intent is to provide a context for future chapters rather than to act as a comprehensive review. Hence the review only covers the major developments. It starts by looking at the empirical research on IT Governance with the focus being on Weill and Ross (2004), who in research terms have written “the book” on IT Governance. This is followed be a review of the two most dominant public IT Governance guidelines and frameworks in COBIT and ITIL.
Intra-Organizational Networks
Authors: Lee Laurence Lock
Published: May 2011

The growing interest in internal networks within organisations has been spawned by the apparent ineffectiveness of the traditional hierarchical organisational structures to deal with the complexity of today’s business environment. Even with matrix structures, which can generate their own operational complexities, there is always an extra dimensional lever that executives would like to have access to. In designing organisational structures executives can choose to design around product or service lines, geographies, business processes, supply chain flows, customers, core competencies and the like. With the desire to facilitate faster decision making, executives are looking to flatten organisational structures, pushing accountability further down the line. The consequences are that hierarchical power and the power of position is now being eroded. The proportion of work activities needing to be achieved through influence and negotiation, rather than direction, is continually growing. As identified in the previous chapter, this is having a major impact on the competency requirements of managers operating in a more networked environment.
Technology, Web 2.0 and Beyond
Authors: Lee Laurence Lock
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the impact of the technology trends implied by web 2.0 and beyond, on IT Governance and sourcing will be addressed. The remainder of this chapter will provide a description of the evolution of IT developments through to the introduction of Web 2.0 technology, as it relates to IT Governance and sourcing strategies.
Performance Evaluation of Consumer Decision Support Systems
Authors: Zhang Jiyong
Published: May 2011

Consumer decision support systems (CDSSs) help online users make purchasing decisions in e-commerce Web sites. To more effectively compare the usefulness of the various functionalities and interface features of such systems, we have developed a simulation environment for decision tasks of any scale and structure. Furthermore, we have identified three criteria in an evaluation framework for assessing the quality of such CDSSs: users’ cognitive effort, preference expression effort, and decision accuracy. A set of experiments carried out in such simulation environments showed that most CDSSs employed in current e-commerce Web sites are suboptimal. On the other hand, a hybrid decision strategy based on four existing ones was found to be more effective. The interface improvements based on the new strategy correspond to some of the advanced tools already developed in the research field. This result is therefore consistent with our earlier work on evaluating CDSSs with real users. That is, some advanced tools do produce more accurate decisions while requiring a comparable amount of user effort. However, the simulation environment will enable us to efficiently compare more advanced tools among themselves, and indicate further opportunities for functionality and interface improvements.
E-Business Technologies in E-Market Literature
Authors: Manouselis Nikos
Published: May 2011

E-business processes are implemented through existing, as well as novel technologies. This book chapter focuses on the field of electronic markets (e-markets), and studies the technologies and solutions that are applied and proposed in this field. In particular, the chapter reviews e-market literature in order to identify which are the technological trends that have appeared in the e-markets field during the last decade. A conceptual model that allows for the classification of e-market research literature according to a number of technical topics is first introduced. Then, e-market literature is reviewed, and the technologies that seem to be attracting more research attention are identified. Representative contributions are discussed, and directions for future research are indicated. The overall aim of this chapter is to provide a blueprint of the literature related to e-business technologies for e-markets
Process-Oriented Assessment of Web Services
Authors: Sewing Jan-Hendrik , Rosemann Michael
Published: May 2011

Though Web services offer unique opportunities for the design of new business processes, the assessment of the potential impact of Web services is often reduced to technical aspects. This paper proposes a four-phase methodology which facilitates the evaluation of the potential use of Web services in e-business systems both from a technical and from a strategic viewpoint. It is based on business process models, which are used to frame the adoption of Web services and to assess their impact on existing business processes. The application of this methodology is described using a procurement scenario.