bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Materials Characterization Techniques for Solar Cell Devices
Authors: Hatzistergos Michael S.
Published: February 2013

Characterization of an issue provides the required information to determine the root cause of a problem and direct the researcher towards the appropriate solution. Through the explosion of nanotechnology in the past few years, the use of sophisticated analytical equipment has become mandatory. There is no one analytical technique that can provide all the answers a researcher is looking for. Therefore, a large number of very different instruments exist, and knowing which one is best to employ for a specific problem is key to success.
Computer Simulations of Solar Energy Systems
Authors: Gasmelseed Akram
Published: February 2013

In recent years, computer simulation has become a standard tool for analyzing solar energy systems. The interaction of light with nanoscale matter can provide greater functionality for photonic devices and render unique information about their structural and dynamical properties. As the field of nanophotonics continues to experience phenomenal growth at both the fundamental research and applications level, computational modeling is essential both for interpreting experiments and for suggesting new directions – for example, in designing of thin-film photovoltaic cells. The demand for computer simulation continues to increase as researchers and developers tackle the tough challenges of designing new generation devices and optimizing current generation devices. This chapter is devoted to the development and application of the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method to solar energy systems. In addition, new models covering the latest advances in nanophotonics technologies, as well as key improvements to the numeric solvers and new usability features, are introduced in this chapter.
Project-Based International Collaboration in Solar Energy Education
Authors: Anwar Sohail , Favier Patrick , Rasolomampionona Desire D.
Published: February 2013

This chapter describes a project-based international collaboration in renewable energy systems design and implementation. The collaboration involves several educational institutions in Europe and USA. Working in teams, the undergraduate students at the partner institutions gain valuable experience in renewable energy systems design and construction. The participating students also learn effective teamwork and project management skills.
Password Sharing and How to Reduce It
Authors: Ferreira Ana , Correia Ricardo , Chadwick David , Santos Henrique M.D. , Gomes Rui , Reis Diogo , Antunes Luis
Published: February 2013

Password sharing is a common security problem. Some application domains are more exposed than others and, by dealing with very sensitive information, the healthcare domain is definitely not exempt from this problem. This chapter presents a case study of a cross section of how healthcare professionals actually deal with password authentication in typical real world scenarios. It then compares the professionals’ actual practice with what they feel about password sharing and what are the most frequent problems associated with it. Further, this chapter discusses and suggests how to solve or minimize some of these problems using both technological and social cultural mechanisms.
Stepwise E-Participation
Authors: Molinari Francesco , Kunstelj Mateja , Todorovski Ljupco
Published: February 2013

In this chapter, the authors present and discuss the results of the IDEAL-EU project, in which three European Regions - i.e. Tuscany, Catalonia, and Poitou-Charentes - have involved citizens (and particularly young people) in discussing and deliberating on the priorities of the new climate change agenda of the European Parliament, supported by two distinct ICT instruments: a Social Networking Platform and a pan-European Virtual Town Meeting. The authors describe and assess the technical tasks and the concrete initiatives undertaken from project conception to the end of trials. They introduce a participatory workflow composed of four modules: 1) agenda setting and prior analysis, 2) getting support and topic refinement, 3) discussion and deliberation, and 4) orchestration and evaluation. Finally, the authors address the sustainability of the IDEAL-EU workflow and its corresponding ICT infrastructure in the perspective of future utilization in additional eParticipation experiments.
The Evolution of KM Practices
Authors: Daidj Nabyla
Published: February 2013

The objective of this chapter was to understand how a “hybrid organization” (two automobile manufacturers Renault and Nissan within a strategic alliance) uses social networking and Web 2.0 tools to collaborate not only inside traditional organizational boundaries and within the alliance structure but also across geographical frontiers. Nissan has gradually lost its historic status as keiretsu as a result of its strategic alliance with the Renault. This alliance has had numerous consequences for the organizational structure of Nissan, even though both companies have maintained their identity by maintaining the two brands internationally. KM practices have evolved since the beginning of the strategic alliance. Two phases can be considered. During the first three years of the alliance, the two car manufacturers relied mainly on their own specific KM practices and processes. The second phase started in 2004 with the development of KM 2.0 and Web 2.0 tools. The adoption of these tools by Renault has led to increased collaboration between the two manufacturers.
Semantic Policies for Modeling Regulatory Process Compliance
Authors: El Kharbili Marwane , Pulvermueller Elke
Published: February 2013

Business process management (BPM) as a paradigm for enterprise planning and governance is nowadays a core discipline of information systems management. Growing up from the first process re-engineering initiatives in the 1980’s, BPM technologies now seek to span all of the organizational silos of enterprises, and also expand vertically from the strategy layers where visions and goals are defined to the lower data transaction layers. Ensuring the compliance of processes to the guidance and control provided to the business by regulations is an obligation to every enterprise. In this work, we motivate the need for automation in compliance management and propose the use of policies as a modeling concept for regulations. We introduce the CASE model for structuring regulatory compliance requirements as policies. Policies shall allow to model regulations at abstraction levels adequate to implementing platform independent mechanisms for policy verification. We describe the CASE model and explain how it can be used to structure and model policies extracted from regulations. This chapter also defines a policy modeling ontology that we propose as a language for formally modeling CASE policies. The basic CASE model and the corresponding policy modeling ontology support compliance of enterprise processes to regulations by enabling automation to compliance checking (verification). The utilization of the CASE method as well as the policy ontology is showcased using an example of resource access control in business processes.
Continuous Authentication in Computers
Authors: Jagadeesan Harini , Hsiao Michael S.
Published: February 2013

In the Internet age, identity theft is a major security issue because contemporary authentication systems lack adequate mechanisms to detect and prevent masquerading. This chapter discusses the current authentication systems and identifies their limitations in combating masquerading attacks. Analysis of existing authentication systems reveals the factors to be considered and the steps necessary in building a good continuous authentication system. As an example, we present a continual, non-intrusive, fast and easily deployable user re-authentication system based on behavioral biometrics. It employs a novel heuristic based on keyboard and mouse attributes to decipher the behavioral pattern of each individual user on the system. In the re-authentication process, the current behavior of user is compared with stored “expected” behavior. If user behavior deviates from expected behavior beyond an allowed threshold, system logs the user out of the current session, thereby preventing imposters from misusing the system. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology improves the accuracy of application-based and application independent systems to 96.4% and 82.2% respectively. At the end of this chapter, the reader is expected to understand the dimensions involved in creating a computer based continuous authentication system and is able to frame a robust continual re-authentication system with a high degree of accuracy.
Continuous User Authentication Based on Keystroke Dynamics through Neural Network Committee Machines
Authors: Filho Sérgio Roberto de Lima e Silva , Roisenberg Mauro
Published: February 2013

This chapter proposes an authentication methodology that is both inexpensive and non-intrusive and authenticates users continuously while using a computer keyboard. This proposed methodology uses neural network committee machines. The committee consists of several independent neural networks trained to recognize a behavioral biometric characteristic: user’s typing pattern. Continuous authentication prevents potential attacks when users leave their desks without logging out or locking their computer session. Some experiments were conducted to evaluate and to calibrate the authentication committee. Best results show that a 0% FAR and a 0.15% FRR can be achieved when different thresholds are used in the system for each user. In this proposed methodology, capture system does not need to concern about typing errors in the text. Another feature of this methodology is that new users can be easily added to the system, with no need to re-train all neural networks involved.
A Hybrid Port-Knocking Technique for Host Authentication
Authors: Hadi Ali H. , Al-Bahadili Hussein
Published: February 2013

This chapter presents the detail description of a Port-Knocking (PK) technique, which should avert all types of port attacks and meets all other network security requirements. The new technique utilizes four well-known concepts, these are: PK, cryptography, steganography, and mutual authentication; therefore, it is referred to as the Hybrid Port-Knocking (HPK) technique. It is implemented as two separate modules. One is installed and run on the server computer, either behind the network firewall or on the firewall itself, and the other one is installed and run on the client computer. The first module is referred to as the HPK server, while the second is the HPK client. In terms of data processing, the technique consists of five main processes; these are: request packetization and transmission, traffic monitoring and capturing, mutual authentication, request extraction and execution, and port closing. The HPK technique demonstrates immunity against two vital attacks, namely, the TCP replay and Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks.
IEEE802.21 Assisted Fast Re-Authentication Scheme over GSABA
Authors: Mussabbir Qazi Bouland , Owens Thomas
Published: February 2013

To satisfy customer demand for a high performance “global” mobility service, network operators are facing the need to evolve to a converged “all-IP” centric heterogeneous access infrastructure. However, the integration of such heterogeneous access networks brings major mobility issues. Dynamic service bootstrapping and authorization mechanisms must be in place to efficiently deploy a mobility service, which will allow only legitimate users to access the service. Authentication, access, and accounting based authentication mechanisms like Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) incur signalling overheads due to large Round Trip Times (RTTs). As a result, overall handover latency also increases. A fast re-authentication scheme is presented in this chapter, which utilizes IEEE802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) services to minimize the EAP authentication process delays and reduce the overall handover latency. In this way, it is shown that the demands mobility places on availability can broadly be met, leaving only the generic issues of Internet availability.
An Electronic Contract Signing Protocol Using Fingerprint Biometrics
Authors: Bedi Harkeerat , Yang Li , Kizza Joseph M.
Published: February 2013

Fair exchange between a pair of parties can be defined as the fundamental concept of trade where none of the parties involved in the exchange have an unfair advantage over the other once the transaction completes. Fair exchange protocols are a group of protocols that provide means for accomplishing such fair exchanges. In this chapter we analyze one such protocol which offers means for fair contract signing, where two parties exchange their commitments over a pre-negotiated contract. We show that this protocol is not entirely fair and illustrate the possibilities of one party cheating by obtaining the other’s commitment and not providing theirs. We also analyze a revised version of this protocol which offers better fairness by handling many of the weaknesses. Both these protocols however fail to handle the possibilities of replay attacks where an intruder replays messages sent earlier from one party to the other. Our proposed protocol improves upon these protocols by addressing to the weaknesses which leads to such replay attacks. We implement a complete working system which provides fair contract signing along with properties like user authentication and efficient password management achieved by using a fingerprint based authentication system and features like confidentiality, data-integrity and non-repudiation accomplished through implementation of cryptographic algorithms based on elliptic curves.
Security Management in Heterogeneous Distributed Sensor Networks
Authors: Pathan Al-Sakib Khan
Published: February 2013

A Heterogeneous Distributed Sensor Network (HDSN) is a type of distributed sensor network where sensors with different functional types participate at the same time. In this sensor network model, the sensors are associated with different deployment groups but they cooperate with each other within and out of their respective groups. The heterogeneity of HDSN refers to the functional heterogeneity of the sensors participating in the network unlike the heterogeneity considered (e.g., considering transmission range, energy level, computation ability, sensing range) for traditional heterogeneous sensor networks. Taking this model into consideration, in this chapter the authors present a secure group association authentication mechanism using one-way accumulator which ensures that; before collaborating for a particular task, any pair of nodes in the same deployment group can verify the legitimacy of group association of each other. Secure addition and deletion of sensors are supported in this approach. In addition, a policy-based sensor addition procedure is also suggested. For secure handling of disconnected nodes of a group, the authors use an efficient pairwise key derivation scheme. Side by side proposing their mechanisms, they also discuss the characteristics of HDSN, its scopes, applicability, efficiency, challenges, and future. Before concluding the chapter, the authors also talk about the applicability of our security management framework for secure mobile multimedia delivery over sensor networks.
A Method of Analysing the Use of Social Networking Sites in Business
Authors: Askool Sanaa , Jacobs Aimee , Nakata Keiichi
Published: February 2013

Organisations have used information and communications technologies (ICT) to gain a competitive advantage. Presently, social media, in particular, social networking sites play a crucial role in business and enable a collaborative environment for business activities through networked relationships. Despite the benefits offered, many businesses are reluctant to use these tools because of privacy, security, and cultural issues. Through a literature review of the environment this chapter provides an overview of the ways businesses can use social media, and background information for understanding the growth and importance of social networks and social networking sites. One of the ways to prepare for future growth is to analyse social media in a business environment by using Earl’s model of evolution as a framework. Investigating and understanding the influence of Web 2.0 on business should provide professionals and enterprises with a better understanding of how this tool can be integrated with work activities.
Policy Management in Cloud
Authors: Takabi Hassan , Joshi James B.D.
Published: February 2013

Cloud computing paradigm is still an evolving paradigm but has recently gained tremendous momentum due to its potential for significant cost reduction and increased operating efficiencies in computing. However, its unique aspects exacerbate security and privacy challenges that pose as the key roadblock to its fast adoption. Cloud computing has already become very popular, and practitioners need to provide security mechanisms to ensure its secure adoption. In this chapter, the authors discuss access control systems and policy management in cloud computing environments. The cloud computing environments may not allow use of a single access control system, single policy language, or single management tool for the various cloud services that it offers. Currently, users must use diverse access control solutions available for each cloud service provider to secure data. Access control policies may be composed in incompatible ways because of diverse policy languages that are maintained separately at every cloud provider. Heterogeneity and distribution of these policies pose problems in managing access policy rules for a cloud environment. In this chapter, the authors discuss challenges of policy management and introduce a cloud based policy management framework that is designed to give users a unified control point for managing access policies to control access to their resources no matter where they are stored.
An Access Control Model for Dynamic VR Applications
Authors: Wójtowicz Adam , Cellary Wojciech
Published: February 2013

There is a need for refining data security and privacy protection in virtual reality systems which are interactive, creative and dynamic, i.e. where at run-time mutually interactive objects can be added or removed in different contexts while their behavior can be modified. In virtual worlds of this kind, operations on particular objects either should or shouldn’t be allowed to users playing different roles with respect to inter-object interactions. In the VR-PR method presented in this chapter, where VR-PR stands for “Virtual Reality–Privilege Representation”, privileges are represented by pairs, each comprising an object and a meta-operation. Meta-operations are induced automatically from possible object interactions, i.e. generated using automatic analysis of the object method call graphs. Meta-operations reflect the method call scope admitted and are used in the process of creating and modifying privileges, which in turn is controlled by a validation mechanism. Expressive and flexible, privileges based on meta-operations are consistent with a set of objects composing a virtual world, as well as with the interactions between those objects, both interactions and objects permanently evolving. In this chapter it is shown in a series of use cases how the VR-PR approach can be applied to various types of object-oriented virtual worlds. The examples are followed by a broader discussion of the privilege lifecycle in the same virtual environment.
Developing Proactive Security Dimensions for SOA
Authors: Yamany Hany F. EL , Allison David S. , Capretz Miriam A.M.
Published: February 2013

Security is one of the largest challenges facing the development of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). This is due to the fact that SOA security is the responsibility of both the service consumer and service provider. In recent years, many solutions have been implemented, such as the Web Services Security Standards, including WS-Security and WS-SecurityPolicy. However, those standards are insufficient for the promising new generations of Web 2.0 applications. In this research, we describe an Intelligent SOA Security (ISOAS) framework and introduce four of its services: Authentication and Security Service (NSS), the Authorization Service (AS), the Privacy Service (PS) and the Service of Quality of Security Service (SQoSS). Furthermore, a case study is presented to examine the behavior of the described security services inside a market SOA environment.
Audio Visual System for Large Scale People Authentication and Recognition over Internet Protocol (IP)
Authors: Ch'ng Sue Inn , Seng Kah Phooi , Ang Li-Minn , Ong Fong Tien
Published: February 2013

Biometrics is a promising and viable solution to enhance information security systems compared to passwords. However, there are still several issues regarding large-scale deployment of biometrics in real-world situations that need to be resolved before biometrics can be incorporated together. One of these issues is the occurrence of high training time while enrolling a large amount of people into the system. Hence, in this chapter, the authors present the training architecture for an audio visual system for large scale people recognition over internet protocol. In the proposed architecture, a selection criteria divider unit is used to decompose the large scale people or population into smaller groups whereby each group is trained subsequently. As the input dimensions of each group is reduced compared to the original data size, the proposed structure greatly reduces the overall training time required. To combine the scores from all groups, a two-level fusion based on weighted sum rule and max rule is also proposed in this chapter. The implementation results of the proposed system show a great reduction in training time compared to a similar system trained by conventional means without any compromise on the performance of the system. In addition to the proposal of a scalable training architecture for large-scale people recognition based on audio visual data, a literature review of available audio visual speaker recognition systems and large-scale population training architectures are also presented in this chapter.
Music is the Key
Authors: Gibson Marcia , Renaud Karen , Conrad Marc , Maple Carsten
Published: February 2013

Devising access control systems to support needs and capabilities of users, as well as the security requirements of organisations, is a key challenge faced in many of today’s business environments. If users are to behave securely, they must not be overburdened with unworkable authentication policies and methods. Yet the prevailing alphanumeric password can be a double-edged sword: secure passwords are inherently difficult to recall and vice-versa. Consequentially, a growing number of alternatives are emerging. In this chapter, the authors describe one novel scheme - a musical password. Musipass was designed with the user in mind and is tailored toward the task of authentication on the Web, where biometric and token-based systems have proved unsuccessful in replacing the flawed, yet prevalent traditional password. This chapter, which includes discussion on current thinking in the field of authentication, will be of interest to information managers, security practitioners, and HCI professionals.
Investigating the Performance of the TSS Scheme in Noisy MANETs
Authors: Al-Bahadili Hussein , Hussain Shakir M. , Issa Ghassan F. , El-Zayyat Khaled
Published: February 2013

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) suffers from high packet-loss due to various transmission impairments, such as: wireless signal attenuation, free space loss, thermal noise, atmospheric absorption, multipath effect, and refraction. All of these impairments are represented by a generic name, noise, and therefore such a network is referred to as a noisy network. For modeling and simulation purposes, the noisy environment is described by introducing a probability function, namely, the probability of reception (pc), which is defined as the probability that transmitted data is successfully delivered to its destination despite the presence of noise. This chapter describes the implementation and investigates the performance of the Threshold Secret Sharing (TSS) node authentication scheme in noisy MANETs. A number of simulations are performed using the MANET Simulator (MANSim) to estimate the authentication success ratio for various threshold secret shares, number of nodes, node speeds, and noise-levels. Simulation results demonstrate that, for a certain threshold secret share, the presence of noise inflicts a significant reduction in the authentication success ratio, while node mobility inflicts no or an insignificant effect. The outcomes of these simulations are important to facilitate efficient network management.
Improving the Effectiveness of Advertising in Internet Social Networking
Authors: Rejón-Guardia Francisco , Sánchez-Fernández Juan , Muñoz-Leiva Francisco
Published: February 2013

In this paper we review the most recent developments and contributions in the field of social media to business and professional networking, marketing, and critical success factors including case studies in communications actions. More specifically, we focus on the role of advertising in Internet social networks (ISN) and their function as a channel of communication from the consumer’s perspective. To do so, we describe the important role ISNs play today in business strategies aimed at relationship marketing as well as the most widely-used advertising formats. We apply the Elaboration Likelihood Model of behavior to ISNs to gain a better understanding of advertising effectiveness from the standpoint of degree of involvement; distinguishing between vehicle exposure and ad involvement. Finally, factors that reduce the effectiveness of advertising in ISNs are revised using a model that focuses on cognitive avoidance. In the research, cognitive avoidance and advertising effectiveness are considered to be consequences of undesirable perceptions that emerge during exposure to advertisements.
A Game Theoretical Approach to Design
Authors: Mehta S. , Kim B. H. , Kwak K.S.
Published: February 2013

Game Theory provides a mathematical tool for the analysis of interactions between the agents with conflicting interests, hence it is a suitable tool to model some problems in communication systems, especially, to wireless sensor networks (WSNs) where the prime goal is to minimize energy consumption than high throughput and low delay. Another important aspect of WSNs are their ad-hoc topology. In such ad-hoc and distributed environment, selfish nodes can easily obtain the unfair share of the bandwidth by not following the medium access control (MAC) protocol. This selfish behavior, at the expense of well behaved nodes, can degrade the performance of overall network. In this chapter, the authors use the concepts of game theory to design an energy efficient MAC protocol for WSNs. This allows them to introduce persistent/non-persistent sift protocol for energy efficient MAC protocol and to counteract the selfish behavior of nodes in WSNs. Finally, the research results show that game theoretical approach with the persistent/non-persistent sift algorithm can improve the overall performance as well as achieve all the goals simultaneously for MAC protocol in WSNs.
Stepping over the Edge
Authors: Conole Gráinne
Published: February 2013

This chapter considers the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on education and, in particular, how these new technologies are changing learning and teaching practices. It considers their fundamental characteristics and looks at the implications for learners, teachers, and institutions. It argues that the impact on practice can be both positive and negative, and that as a consequence, educational institutions need to develop new policies and strategies. The chapter concludes with two approaches to making sense of and harnessing these new technologies. The first is an example of applying Web 2.0 approaches to facilitating greater dialogue and sharing of learning and teaching ideas, through a social networking site for design. The second argues for greater use of metaphors and other forms of meaning making as a mechanism for understanding Web 2.0 technologies in an educational context.
Multimodal Information Integration and Fusion for Histology Image Classification
Authors: Meng Tao , Shyu Mei-Ling , Lin Lin
Published: February 2013

Biomedical imaging technology has become an important tool for medical research and clinical practice. A large amount of imaging data is generated and collected every day. Managing and analyzing these data sets require the corresponding development of the computer based algorithms for automatic processing. Histology image classification is one of the important tasks in the bio-image informatics field and has broad applications in phenotype description and disease diagnosis. This study proposes a novel framework of histology image classification. The original images are first divided into several blocks and a set of visual features is extracted for each block. An array of C-RSPM (Collateral Representative Subspace Projection Modeling) models is then built that each model is based on one block from the same location in original images. Finally, the C-Value Enhanced Majority Voting (CEWMV) algorithm is developed to derive the final classification label for each testing image. To evaluate this framework, the authors compare its performance with several well-known classifiers using the benchmark data available from IICBU data repository. The results demonstrate that this framework achieves promising performance and performs significantly better than other classifiers in the comparison.
Utilizing Context Information to Enhance Content-Based Image Classification
Authors: Zhu Qiusha , Lin Lin , Shyu Mei-Ling , Liu Dianting
Published: February 2013

Traditional image classification relies on text information such as tags, which requires a lot of human effort to annotate them. Therefore, recent work focuses more on training the classifiers directly on visual features extracted from image content. The performance of content-based classification is improving steadily, but it is still far below users’ expectation. Moreover, in a web environment, HTML surrounding texts associated with images naturally serve as context information and are complementary to content information. This paper proposes a novel two-stage image classification framework that aims to improve the performance of content-based image classification by utilizing context information of web-based images. A new TF*IDF weighting scheme is proposed to extract discriminant textual features from HTML surrounding texts. Both content-based and context-based classifiers are built by applying multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). Experiments on web-based images from Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA-MM) dataset show that the proposed framework achieves promising results.
Building Multi-Modal Relational Graphs for Multimedia Retrieval
Authors: Shieh Jyh-Ren , Lin Ching-Yung , Wang Shun-Xuan , Wu Ja-Ling
Published: February 2013

The abundance of Web 2.0 social media in various media formats calls for integration that takes into account tags associated with these resources. The authors present a new approach to multi-modal media search, based on novel related-tag graphs, in which a query is a resource in one modality, such as an image, and the results are semantically similar resources in various modalities, for instance text and video. Thus the use of resource tagging enables the use of multi-modal results and multi-modal queries, a marked departure from the traditional text-based search paradigm. Tag relation graphs are built based on multi-partite networks of existing Web 2.0 social media such as Flickr and Wikipedia. These multi-partite linkage networks (contributor-tag, tag-category, and tag-tag) are extracted from Wikipedia to construct relational tag graphs. In fusing these networks, the authors propose incorporating contributor-category networks to model contributor’s specialization; it is shown that this step significantly enhances the accuracy of the inferred relatedness of the term-semantic graphs. Experiments based on 200 TREC-5 ad-hoc topics show that the algorithms outperform existing approaches. In addition, user studies demonstrate the superiority of this visualization system and its usefulness in the real world.
Video Segmentation and Structuring for Indexing Applications
Authors: Tapu Ruxandra , Zaharia Titus
Published: February 2013

This paper introduces a complete framework for temporal video segmentation. First, a computationally efficient shot extraction method is introduced, which adopts the normalized graph partition approach, enriched with a non-linear, multiresolution filtering of the similarity vectors involved. The shot boundary detection technique proposed yields high precision (90%) and recall (95%) rates, for all types of transitions, both abrupt and gradual. Next, for each detected shot, the authors construct a static storyboard by introducing a leap keyframe extraction method. The video abstraction algorithm is 23% faster than existing techniques for similar performances. Finally, the authors propose a shot grouping strategy that iteratively clusters visually similar shots under a set of temporal constraints. Two different types of visual features are exploited: HSV color histograms and interest points. In both cases, the precision and recall rates present average performances of 86%.
A Real-Time 3D Visualization Framework for Multimedia Data Management, Simulation, and Prediction
Authors: Rossol Nathaniel , Cheng Irene , Jamal Iqbal , Berezowski John , Basu Anup
Published: February 2013

Geographic Information Systems (GISs), which map spatiotemporal event data on geographical maps, have proven to be useful in many applications. Time-based Geographic Information Systems (GISs) allow practitioners to visualize collected data in an intuitive way. However, while current GIS systems have proven to be useful in post hoc analysis and provide simple two-dimensional geographic visualizations, their design typically lacks the features necessary for highly targeted real-time surveillance with the goal of spread prevention. This paper outlines the design, implementation, and usage of a 3D framework for real-time geospatial temporal visualization. In this case study, using livestock movements, the authors show that the framework is capable of tracking and simulating the spread of epidemic diseases. Although the application discussed in this paper relates to livestock disease, the proposed framework can be used to manage and visualize other types of high-dimensional multimedia data as well.
Municipal Social Media Policy
Authors: Foster Melissa , Chen Yu-Che
Published: February 2013

As social media has become integrated into the public's everyday lives, local governments have started to take advantage of the power of social media as another governance tool to both inform and involve the public in local government. This new tool also introduces a new responsibility for government to monitor and analyze the actions taken on municipal social media sites. For this to be achieved, municipalities must implement a social media policy that addresses the abundant concerns inherent when engaging in social media use. This research indicates the areas that local governments must address in social media policy and offers a best practice approach to completing the task of policy development.
Designing and Implementing E-Government Projects
Authors: Virkar Shefali
Published: February 2013

In modern times, people and their governments have struggled to find easy, cheap, and effective ways to run countries. The use of Information and Communication Technologies is gaining ground as a means of streamlining public service provision by shifting tasks from the government to its citizens, resulting in reduced government costs, increased public revenues, and greater government transparency and accountability. The new buzzword is e-Government: the use of ICTs by government, civil society, and political institutions to engage citizens through dialogue to promote greater participation of citizens in the process of institutional governance. However, the implementation of such projects is complicated by the reality that while developmental problems in these countries are many, the resources available to tackle them are scarce. In attempting to investigate the interaction between new technologies, information flows, and the complexities of public administration reform in the developing world, this chapter examines not only the interplay of local contingencies and external influences acting upon the project's implementation but also aims to offer an insight into disjunctions in these relationships that inhibit the effective exploitation of ICTs in the given context.
E-Voting System Usability
Authors: Olembo M. Maina , Volkamer Melanie
Published: February 2013

The authors present a literature review, carried out by searching through conference proceedings, journal articles, and other secondary sources for papers focusing on the usability of electronic voting (e-voting) systems and related aspects such as ballot design and verifiability. They include both user studies and usability reviews carried out by HCI experts and/or researchers, and analyze the literature specifically for lessons on designing e-voting system interfaces, carrying out user studies in e-voting and applying usability criteria. From these lessons learned, the authors deduce recommendations addressing the same three aspects. In addition, they identify for future research open questions that are not answered in the literature. The recommendations hold for e-voting systems in general, but this chapter especially focuses on remote e-voting systems providing cryptographic verifiability, as the authors consider these forms as most promising for the future.
Kenya e-Participation Ecologies and the Theory of Games
Authors: Cavallo Vincenzo
Published: February 2013

An e-Participation ecology is composed of five elements—actors, contents, traditional culture of participation, existing media skills and practices, and discourses in conflicts (establishment vs. antagonists)—and three macro-dimensions—cultural/traditional, political, and socio-technological–with which the five elements are interacting (Cavallo, 2010). Game theory can be used to understand how a certain actor or a group of actors can develop a successful strategy in/for each one of the three dimensions. Therefore, the concept of Nash equilibrium (Nash Jr., 1950), developed in physics and successfully applied in economy and other fields of study, can be borrowed also by e-Participation analysts/project managers to develop “Win-Win” scenarios in order to increase e-Participation projects' chances of success and consequently reduce e-Participation's “risk of failures,” especially in developing countries where they usually occur more frequently (Heeks, 2002). The Kenyan e-Participation platform, Ushahidi, generated a techno-discourse about the rise of African Cyberdemocracy and the power of crowd-sourcing that is probably more relevant than the real impact that these e-Participation platforms had or will have on the lives of normal citizens and media activists.
The Role of Social Media as a Tool for Learning
Authors: Bagley Carole A. , Creswell William H.
Published: February 2013

The use of Web 2.0 social media such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and virtual worlds is rapidly increasing and transformational modes of communication are emerging (Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes, 2009; Godwin, 2008; O’Reilly, 2005). Public and private sector organizations are faced with the challenges of adapting their communication practices to the rapidly changing demands of the social media environment that present risks to both information security and privacy, changes to long-established policies and organizational culture, and the rewards of deeper involvement and collaboration with users. As social media transforms communication within all organizations, its potential to transform learning is also becoming apparent. This chapter promotes a better understanding of the effects social media has on learning and the importance to learners and the learning process, with special emphasis on its effect when combining face-to-face and distance learning. The subtopic for this chapter, HCI for the Web 2.0 environment seen through a corporate training lens, is emphasized with education and training examples from corporate, K-12, university and government sectors.
Networked Learning and Teaching for International Work Integrated Learning
Authors: Martin Jennifer
Published: February 2013

This chapter explores the use of information communications technology (ICT) to support international work integrated learning to provide more understanding of Web-mediated communities. The findings of a study of ICT use by students enrolled in a student mobility course on campuses in Australia and Vietnam reveal that students used a range of university provided commercial software as well as freely available ICT services and tools, particularly social networking sites, during their studies. A major challenge for universities is to provide access to the latest technologies at a cost that is affordable to the institution and its students, which provides the necessary level of reliability, availability, accessibility, functionality, and security. An online central management system or base camp can assist students to navigate the complex technical, social, cultural, and knowledge building opportunities that work integrated learning abroad offers.
Wiki-Mediated Peer Review Process
Authors: Nguyen Long V.
Published: February 2013

The focus of this chapter is to explore if the collaborative potential offered by wikis translates into actual practice. The study examines the peer review process of 20 groups of English as a foreign language (EFL) students from two classes, i.e. a paper-based class and a wiki class, of a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) programme in a large university in Central Vietnam. Data analysis shows that the user-friendly wikis afford learning opportunities in two levels of analysis, namely participation and interaction, which lead to a high degree of information synthesis in the collaborative learning process. In terms of quantity, the multi-way nature of wiki-based exchanges confirms its characteristic of an architecture of participation. Likewise, the quality of the online peer review process is confidently affirmed in all three themes of collaborative interaction, i.e., socioaffective, organizational, and sociocognitive. It is concluded that the online platform of wikis turns the peer review process into a networking of both the academic and the social, and that wikis support a non-linear nature of collaborative learning.
Web-Mediated Education and Training Environments
Authors: O’Donnell Eileen , Mulwa Catherine , Sharp Mary , Wade Vincent P.
Published: February 2013

This chapter reviews the concept of personalised eLearning resources in relation to integrating interactivity into asynchronous learning. Personalised eLearning resources are learning resources which are selected to suit a specific student or trainee’s individual learning requirements. The affordance of personalised eLearning would provide educators with the opportunity to shift away from eLearning content that is retrieved and move towards the provision of personalised interactive content to provide a form of asynchronous learning to suit students at different degree levels. A basic introduction to the concept of ePedagogy in online learning environments is explored and the impacts these systems have on students learning experiences are considered. Issues, controversies, and problems associated with the creation of personalised interactive eLearning resources are examined, and suggested solutions and recommendations to the identified issues, controversies, and problems are reviewed. Personalised interactive asynchronous learning resources could potentially improve students’ learning experiences but more research on the human computer interface of these authoring tools is required before personalised eLearning resources are available for use by non-technical authors.
Situated Service-Oriented Modeling
Authors: Saadé Raafat George , Vahidov Rustam
Published: February 2013

The emergence of e-services benefited the stakeholders due to ease of access to data, information and knowledge sources. Service-based applications have evolved into flexible and adaptable systems capable of coping with changes in user requirements and business processes. The shift from monolithic application silos towards service-oriented approaches is evident in the literature today. The benefits of service-oriented approaches include cost effectiveness, improved inter-operability, reusability, and flexibility. The benefits are not enjoyed without the threat of cognitively overloading managers in their decision making activities. Tools for effective management of information are necessary. Effective and efficient service-oriented applications need to operate within their situational boundaries. As such, decision support type tools require tight integration with the service-based approach. This study proposes an integrated Situated Service-Oriented Model and demonstrates its value via a case study of an e-learning service-based application used over a period of 15 months. Two designs were used; component-based and service-oriented. The significance of this study is in the tangible value of the model proposed and demonstrated by the e-learning case study.
An Ontology-Based and Model-Driven Approach for Designing IT Service Management Systems
Authors: Valiente María-Cruz , Vicente-Chicote Cristina , Rodríguez Daniel
Published: February 2013

Currently, few projects applying a Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach start from high-level requirements models defined exclusively in terms of domain knowledge and business logic. Ontology Engineering (OE) aims to formalize and make explicit the knowledge related to a particular domain. In this vein, this paper presents a modeling approach, formalized in ontological terms, for defining high-level requirements models of software systems that provide support for the implementation of Information Technology Service Management Systems (ITSMSs). This approach allows for: (1) formalizing the knowledge associated to the ITSM processes contained in an ITSMS; (2) modeling the semantics of the activities associated to these processes in terms of workflows; (3) automatically generating the high-level requirements models of the workflow-based software systems needed to support (part of) the ITSM processes; and (4) from the latter, obtaining lower-level models (and eventually code) by means of automated model transformations. A real case study describing the use of this proposal to model an Incident Management System is also included to demonstrate the feasibility and the benefits of the proposed approach.