bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Boundary Spanning Role of the IS Development Team in Consultant-Partnered Projects
Authors: Lee Sanghoon , Shin Bongsik , Lee Hogeun
Published: January 2013

This research examines the effect an Information Systems (IS) development team has on end-users’ perceptions of system quality and system benefits by transferring relevant knowledge through inter- and intra-firm boundaries. The research context is the prevalent partnership in which an external consultant with relevant expertise leads a client team to undertake an IS project. A high-level research model that depicts dynamics among team competence (for knowledge transfer), consultant partnership (with the project team), knowledge transfer (through inter- and intra-firm boundaries), and project success is proposed grounded on the theory of boundary spanning. Key indicators of team competence and consultant partnership are derived from existing studies. With expected multiplicity in the conceptual dimensions of team competence and consultant partnership, they are designated as second-order constructs with first-order manifest variables. User perceptions of the post-implementation quality and benefits of an information system serve as project success variables. Relevant hypotheses propose dynamics among the studied constructs. Survey data are gathered from both system developers and end-users, and the integrity of the research model and corresponding hypotheses are empirically tested with structural equation modeling. Data analysis confirmed the importance of knowledge transfer for the post-implementation success of an IS project.
KM Approach for Improving the Labor Productivity of Vietnamese Enterprise
Authors: Pham Quoc Trung , Hara Yoshinori
Published: January 2013

In knowledge society, knowledge management (KM) is considered the best strategy for improving the labor productivity of an enterprise. However, the effectiveness of KM on labor productivity is not known exactly, especially since it depends on the development level of a country. To find a solution based on KM approach for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprise, a new model is proposed, which includes knowledge capability, technology capability, KM, employee satisfaction, and labor productivity. By analyzing data from Vietnamese enterprises, the model is tested and suggestions for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprises are made. Some results of data analysis are: employee satisfaction positively affects the labor productivity and that KM has a strong effect on employee satisfaction. Further, some suggestions for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprises are: organizing frequent meetings for shortening cultural gap between managers and employees, replacing old machines combined with improving employees’ self learning skill, improving innovation capability by creating an open culture for encouraging employees to voice their opinions.
Merging Controlled Vocabularies for More Efficient Subject-Based IR Systems
Authors: Papadakis Ioannis , Kyprianos Konstantinos
Published: January 2013

One of the most important tasks of a librarian is the assignment of appropriate subject(s) to a resource within a library’s collection. The subjects usually belong to a controlled vocabulary that is specifically designed for such a task. The most widely adopted controlled vocabulary across libraries around the world is the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). However, there seems to be a shifting from traditional LCSH to modern thesauri. In this paper, a methodology is proposed, capable of incorporating thesauri into existing LCSH-based Information Retrieval–IR systems. In order to achieve this, a mapping methodology is proposed capable of providing a common structure consisting of terms belonging to LCSH and/or a thesaurus. The structure is modeled as a Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) ontology, which can be employed by appropriate subject-based IR systems. As a proof of concept, the proposed methodology is applied to the DSpace-based University of Piraeus digital library.
Community-Based Development of Knowledge Products
Authors: Mikolajuk Zbigniew
Published: January 2013

International organizations and government agencies have developed and collected a wealth of knowledge resources relevant to poor communities; however, the people who need these resources most often do not know these materials exist or are unable to access or understand them. Electronic sources of knowledge materials and means of communication are rarely integrated with traditional methods of knowledge delivery. This paper addresses the issue of knowledge sharing with poor communities and presents a software tool for developing multimedia knowledge materials suitable for people with little or no formal education. A multimedia editor uses a data structure composed of multimedia objects (texts, images, video, and audio clips) to generate the knowledge browser. Local specialists with a basic knowledge of computing can modify and customize how the knowledge is presented by adding new materials relevant to the local environment.
An Ontological Approach to Enterprise Knowledge Modeling in a Shipping Company
Authors: Kim Sung-kwan , Felan Joe , Kang Moo Hong
Published: January 2013

Modeling approaches are gaining popularity in knowledge management (KM), especially in specifying knowledge contents. This paper addresses the enterprise knowledge modeling. An enterprise knowledge model provides users with an integrated, holistic view of organizational knowledge resources. Employing a reliable methodology is critical to building successful enterprise knowledge models. A good methodology provides an effective and efficient mechanism for developing a model. This paper first reviews the enterprise knowledge modeling (EKM) and its methodologies. An ontology-based EKM (OBEKM) methodology is proposed. Its products, procedures, and modeling language are described. The methodology is then applied to the construction of a shipping company’s knowledge model for demonstration.
Ethical Behaviour in Technology-Mediated Communication
Authors: Chatterjee Sutirtha
Published: January 2013

In this information age, serious concerns with unethical behaviour in information technology (e.g., software piracy, deception, plagiarism, etc.) have cast doubts on the claims of the unmitigated success of rapid adoption of information technology. Surprisingly, there have been very few studies in information systems (IS) that have tried to understand the general rise in such unethical behaviours with respect to information technology. Especially, the question that remains to be understood is: Are these problems of unethical behaviour representative of the human nature at large, or are they related to characteristics of technology in any way? This article tries to partly answer this question. It looks at dyadic communicative behaviour using technology-mediated communication and proposes a conceptual model of unethical communicative behaviour.
Codes of Ethics in Discussion Forums
Authors: Gurãu Cãlin
Published: January 2013

The development of the World Wide Web has created new opportunities for interpersonal interaction. The Internet allows one-to-one (e-mail), one-to-many (Websites, e-mail lists) or many-to-many (online discussion forums) interaction, which represent a unique feature in comparison with traditional communication channels (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996). On the other hand, the Internet has specific characteristics, such as interactivity, transparency, and memory. These characteristics permit the development of online or virtual communities?groups of people with similar interests who communicate on the Web in a regular manner (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996; Goldsborough, 1999a, 1999b; Gordon, 2000). This article attempts to investigate, analyze and present the main patterns of the codes/rules of ethics used in the public discussion forums, otherwise known as Newsgroups, and their influence on the profile and functioning of the community.
Increasing Capital Revenue in Social Networking Communities
Authors: Bishop Jonathan
Published: January 2013

The rise of online communities in Internet environments has set in motion an unprecedented shift in power from vendors of goods and services to the customers who buy them, with those vendors who understand this transfer of power and choose to capitalize on it by organizing online communities and being richly rewarded with both peerless customer loyalty and impressive economic returns. A type of online community, the virtual world, could radically alter the way people work, learn, grow consume, and entertain. Understanding the exchange of social and economic capital in online communities could involve looking at what causes actors to spend their resources on improving someone else’s reputation. Actors’ reputations may affect others’ willingness to trade with them or give them gifts. Investigating online communities reveals a large number of different characters and associated avatars. When an actor looks at another’s avatar they will evaluate them and make decisions that are crucial to creating interaction between customers and vendors in virtual worlds based on the exchange of goods and services. This chapter utilizes the ecological cognition framework to understand transactions, characters and avatars in virtual worlds and investigates the exchange of capital in a bulletin board and virtual. The chapter finds strong evidence for the existence of characters and stereotypes based on the ecological cognition framework and empirical evidence that actors using avatars with antisocial connotations are more likely to have a lower return on investment and be rated less positively than those with more sophisticated appearing avatars.
Politeness as a Social Computing Requirement
Authors: Whitworth Brian , Liu Tong
Published: January 2013

This chapter describes how social politeness is relevant to computer system design. As the Internet becomes more social, computers now mediate social interactions, act as social agents, and serve as information assistants. To succeed in these roles computers must learn a new skill—politeness. Yet selfish software is currently a widespread problem and politeness remains a software design “blind spot.” Using an informational definition of politeness, as the giving of social choice, suggests four aspects: 1. respect, 2. openness, 3. helpfulness, and 4. remembering. Examples are given to suggest how polite computing could make human-computer interactions more pleasant and increase software usage. In contrast, if software rudeness makes the Internet an unpleasant place to be, usage may minimize. For the Internet to recognize its social potential, software must be not only useful and usable, but also polite.
Negotiating Meaning in a Blog-Based Community
Authors: Dennen Vanessa Paz
Published: January 2013

This chapter addresses how members of a blog-based community share problems and support each other in the problem solving process, both sharing knowledge and offering support. Problems are divided into three categories, unique, shared, and community, each having its own particular norms for presentation, knowledge sharing, and resolution. Additionally, processes may differ based on discourse that centers on one individual blog versus discourse that spans multiple blogs. Findings show that intersubjectivity, norms, roles, and individual ownership of virtual space all are important elements contributing to the problem sharing and solving process.
A Proposed Framework for Designing Sustainable Communities for Knowledge Management Systems
Authors: Goel Lakshmi , Mousavidin Elham
Published: January 2013

Despite considerable academic and practitioner interest in knowledge management, success of knowledge management systems is elusive. This chapter provides a framework which suggests that KM success can be achieved by designing sustainable communities of practice. Communities of practice have proven to have significant economic and practical implications on organizational practices. A growing body of literature in KM recognizes the importance of communities that foster collaborative learning in organizations and almost all KMS have a ‘network’ component that facilitates connecting people in communities of practice. Evidence has shown that communities have been a key element in KMS of many companies including Xerox PARC, British Petroleum Co., Shell Oil Company, Halliburton, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, and Hewlett Packard.
Trust Modeling and Management
Authors: Yan Zheng , Holtmanns Silke
Published: January 2013

This chapter introduces trust modeling and trust management as a means of managing trust in digital systems. Transforming from a social concept of trust to a digital concept, trust modeling and management help in designing and implementing a trustworthy digital system, especially in emerging distributed systems. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the current challenges, solutions and their limitations of trust modeling and management will not only inform researchers of a better design for establishing a trustworthy system, but also assist in the understanding of the intricate concept of trust in a digital environment.
Self-Regulated Learning as a Method to Develop Scientific Thinking
Authors: Burton Erin E. Peters
Published: January 2013

The development of skills and the rationale behind scientific thinking has been a major goal of science education. Research has shown merit in teaching the nature of science explicitly and reflectively. In this chapter, the authors discuss how research in a self-regulated learning theory has furthered this finding. Self-regulation frames student learning as cycling through three phases: forethought (cognitive processes that prepare the learner for learning such as goal setting), performance (employment of strategies and self-monitoring of progress), and self-reflection (evaluation of performance with the goal). Because students have little interaction with the inherent guidelines that drive the scientific enterprise, setting goals toward more sophisticated scientific thinking is difficult for them. However, teachers can help students set goals for scientific thinking by being explicit about how scientists and science function. In this way, teachers also explicitly set a standard against which students can self-monitor their performance during the learning and self-evaluate their success after the learning. In addition to summarizing the research on learning and teaching of self-regulation and scientific thinking, this chapter offers recommendations to reform science teaching from the field of educational psychology.
Teaching a Socially Controversial Scientific Subject
Authors: Deniz Hasan
Published: January 2013

This chapter explores teachers’ and students’ acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory by using conceptual ecology (Toulmin, 1972) as a theoretical lens. Demastes, Good, and Peebles (1995) describe the conceptual ecology for evolutionary theory. Acceptance of evolutionary theory is part of this conceptual ecology, and this conceptual ecology also contains the following five components: (1) prior conceptions related to evolution (understanding of evolutionary theory); (2) scientific orientation (degree to which the learner organizes his/her life around scientific activities); (3) view of the nature of science; (4) view of the biological world in competitive and causal terms as opposed to aesthetic terms; and (5) religious orientation. A complex web of connections among components of conceptual ecology for evolutionary theory influences one’s acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory. Therefore, studying the relationship between acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory as a part of the conceptual ecology for evolutionary theory is more promising than studying acceptance of evolutionary theory in isolation. Moreover, studying acceptance of evolutionary theory as an integral part of the conceptual ecology may enable us to explain why some teachers and students show a high degree of acceptance and others show a low degree of acceptance.
A Tool for Analyzing Science Standards and Curricula for 21st Century Science Education
Authors: Dani Danielle E. , Salloum Sara , Khishfe Rola , BouJaoude Saouma
Published: January 2013

Twentieth century curricula are no longer sufficient to prepare students for life and work in today’s diverse, fast-paced, technologically driven, and media saturated world of the 21st century. This chapter presents a new framework for analyzing science standards and curricula to determine the extent of alignment with 21st Century essential understandings and skills. The Tool for Analyzing Science Standards and Curricula (TASSC) was developed using the conceptual frameworks proposed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, and the typology of knowledge proposed by Jurgen Habermas. Development of TASSC relied on an iterative process of refinement, testing, and discussions resulting in an instrument with three sections and related rating scales: content, skills, and additional curricular components. TASSC was piloted using middle school science standards and curricula in the context of two US states (Ohio and New York) and two Arab countries (Lebanon and Qatar). The analysis procedure and individual case study results are presented and discussed in the chapter.
Managing Client Contacts of Small KIBS Companies
Authors: Eriksson Päivi , Henttonen Elina , Meriläinen Susan
Published: January 2013

This article investigates how small companies providing new-technology-based services (T-KIBS) manage their client contacts. Many KIBS companies have extensive and close contacts with their clients, to the extent that their services can actually be co-produced together with the clients. This study analyzes data from four empirical cases and provides new knowledge on the relevance, forms and consequences of managing client contacts. The data was collected through ethnographic field work and qualitative interviews with the owner-managers of four Finnish software service companies, which can also be called T-KIBS. The results show that although every company had its unique way of managing its client contacts, they all used their client contacts as a vehicle in turning technology into business.
Technology-Push or Market-Pull?
Authors: Saidi Edwin
Published: January 2013

Technological advancements and market needs are some of the significant forces fuelling the introduction of products and services in a wide range of business sectors. Many product and service providers have utilized the so-called technology-push and market-pull, the simple linear views of innovation which prescribe the use of technological discoveries and the involvement of the market respectively to produce goods and services. Others have gone further to adopt models of innovation which recognize the interaction of the different functional units of a firm and the combination of the technology-push and market-pull views with feedback from the external environment. Malawi has witnessed the introduction of a complete array of technology-based products and services catering for different business sectors. This paper investigates how Malawian firms manage the process of innovation in the development or introduction of Information Technology (IT) products and services and proposes suitable models which firms can adopt in managing and strategizing around technological innovation in the Malawian environment. The results suggest that while firms must adhere to specific models of innovation, it is generally useful to take full advantage of the linear market-pull model and the conceptual framework of innovation.
Research and Output Management in Digital Era
Authors: Sekhwela M. B. M.
Published: January 2013

The institutional commitment to research that was hitherto left to individual researchers and few research centres came with the University Strategy, ‘Shape Our Future’. The Strategy, with clear mission and vision of research excellence, provided support for the development of a policy framework, subsequent research, output management infrastructure, and associated processes. This paper has reviewed these developments and emerging challenges posed by resource intensive paper based processes that need to be addressed inline with increasing aspirations for digital scholarship. Efforts to address these challenges are largely to reduce intensity of resource use inline with digital scholarship aspirations that embrace information and communication technology (ICT). However, the dynamism of developments and innovations in ICTs are characterized by high frequency of system obsolesce that could be costly to emerging resource poor Universities, particularly proprietary systems. This leads to the need of embracing the use of open source ware by investing in human resource development for capacity building and sustenance of digital scholarship.
A Sandbox Approach to Online Exam Administration
Authors: Westin Stu
Published: January 2013

This paper describes eTAP (electronic Test Administration Platform), an innovative software system that is designed to facilitate the administration of Web-based tests and exams. The purpose of the paper is to share the success of the approach, and to promote its further development and use in the e-learning milieu. The eTAP system has been developed by the author for use in their own multi-section, Web-based course in response to the author’s perceived needs in this setting. The software addresses issues of monitoring and attendance, academic honesty (e-cheating), and activity logging in the electronic testing environment. The testing platform provided by eTAP uses a software sandbox approach to exam integrity. That is, once the program is started, the user is limited to specific sanctioned computer functionality and is restricted to a well-defined, relevant region of the Web.
Observing the ‘Fluid’ Continuity of an IT Artefact
Authors: Naidoo Rennie , Leonard Awie
Published: January 2013

Novel contemporary healthcare information systems offer the prospect of exploring unique features of the IT artefact and probing the finer, integral relations between society, technology, and humans. Some of these IT artefacts are innately complex and current theoretical perspectives are too limited to enrich their understanding. Using material from a longitudinal case study of an Internet-based self-service technology implementation in the private healthcare insurance context, this paper explores various aspects of ‘fluid continuity’ enacted by a technological object. The authors observe the object’s varying identities, its vague boundaries, its unexpected usage patterns, and its resourceful designers. They also analyze both the success and failure of the technological object, its complex and elusive relations, and the way in which it shaped new configurations of practice in the RSA and UK. This paper challenges conventional perspectives of a stable and enduring IT artefact and offers an alternative; it claims that a contemporary IT artefact is not necessarily delineated by firm boundaries or stable relations; instead they can be unpredictable and transitory. This paper furthers the understanding of how researchers can apply post actor network theory (ANT) concepts to study contemporary IT-based artefacts and offers several insights to practitioners on the virtues of a flexible implementation approach.
Using ANT to Guide Technological Adoption
Authors: Davey Bill , Tatnall Arthur
Published: January 2013

In this article, the authors present the adoption and use of school management software in Victoria, Australia as an example of the use of actor-network theory to explain technological adoption. It examines three examples of school management software and identifies the actors and interactions relating to each of these. The use of three cases in the same environment provides an interesting insight possible by the comparison across the cases. The main goal of the article is to identify and analyse the factors that influence decisions to adopt this software and, once adopted, to determine how it might be used. Like other socio-technical research, in this case one has to consider the interactions between various human and non-human actors, and these are examined in the article. The article also looks at how an ANT analysis might be useful in guiding and facilitating such adoption in the future.
A Framework to Extract Arguments in Opinion Texts
Authors: García-Villalba María Paz , Saint-Dizier Patrick
Published: January 2013

In this article, the authors present foundational elements related to argument extraction in opinion texts with the objective to design a model of how consumers develop argumentation in such texts. A second goal is to analyze and synthesize user preferences and therefore user value systems from these arguments. They show that (1) within the context of opinionated expressions, a number of evaluative expressions with a ‘heavy’ semantic load receive an argumentative interpretation, and (2) that the association of an evaluative expression with a discourse structure such as an elaboration, an illustration, or a reformulation must also be interpreted as an argument. The authors develop a conceptual semantics of these discourse structures and show how they are analyzed using the Dislog programming language, running on the  platform, dedicated to discourse analysis.
Efficient Support of Streaming Videos through Patching Proxies in the Cloud
Authors: Chang Kuei-Chung , Wang Kuan-Hsiung
Published: January 2013

Multimedia streaming applications such as mobile conferencing, e-learning and mobile cinema are becoming popular for the Internet and mobile devices. Patching can enable a client to receive multicast streaming by listening to ongoing transmission of the same video clip in order to reduce retransmission from the media server. However, multimedia streams multicasting to clients must be stored in the client buffer in advance; most fractions of ongoing streaming frames are lost due to limited space. The authors first propose a patching cache scheduling algorithm to patch and cache the shared frames of the ongoing streams on cloud-based patching proxy servers. The patching proxy cloud is responsible for patching and caching streaming data and mobile devices in the same cloud share bandwidth and cooperatively stream video frames to distribute the load. The simulation results show that the proposed patching proxy cloud can efficiently improve the cache utility, decrease the user-perceived latency, and reduce the transmission overhead between the proxy and the original media server when a video clip is very popular.
A Transformation Technique for Scheduling Broadcast Programs of Multiple-Item Queries
Authors: Wang Jen-Ya
Published: January 2013

In wireless environments, many mobile users may raise queries for accessing multiple data items, e.g., stock information or traffic condition, simultaneously. Most queries are identical. That is, many users may have an interest in some popular data items. Because data broadcast can offer unlimited users shareable information at the same time, a broadcast server is usually employed to disseminate all the data items periodically. Intuitively, popular data items should be scheduled and transmitted to users more efficiently than ordinary ones, so these users can thus save access time. To improve customer satisfaction, the author considers a broadcast program scheduling problem in such an environment and aims to minimize mobile users’ worst access time as well as their battery power consumption by generating near-optimal broadcast programs. The author provides theoretical analysis as a foundation of mapping the problem to another domain (i.e., from unit item to unit fragment) and this transformation makes the problem easy to solve. Moreover, an O(N logN) algorithm is proposed for this NP-hard problem. Finally, experimental results show that access time can be reduced by carefully scheduling broadcast programs. It suggests that other similar optimization problems can be solved similarly.
A Comparison of Distribution Channels for Large-Scale Deployments of iOS Applications
Authors: McMillan Donald , Morrison Alistair , Chalmers Matthew
Published: January 2013

When conducting mass participation trials on Apple iOS devices researchers are forced to make a choice between using the Apple App Store or third party software repositories. In order to inform this choice, this paper describes a sample application that was released via both methods along with comparison of user demographics and engagement. The contents of these repositories are examined and compared, and statistics are presented highlighting the number of times the application was downloaded and the user retention experienced with each. The results are presented and the relative merits of each distribution method discussed to allow researchers to make a more informed choice. Results include that the application distributed via third party repository received ten times more downloads than the App Store application and that users recruited via the repository consistently used the application more.
Experimenting Through Mobile ‘Apps’ and ‘App Stores’
Authors: Coulton Paul , Bamford Will
Published: January 2013

Utilizing App Stores as part of an ‘in-the-large’ methodology requires researchers to have a good understanding of the effects the platform has in the overall experimental process if they are to utilize it effectively. This paper presents an empirical study of effects of the operation an App Store has on an App lifecycle through the design, implementation and distribution of three games on the WidSets platform which arguably pioneered many of the features now seen as conventional for an App Store. Although these games achieved in excess of 1.5 million users it was evident through their App lifecycle that very large numbers of downloads are required to attract even a small number of active users and suggests such Apps need to be developed using more commercial practices than would be necessary for traditional lab testing. Further, the evidence shows that ‘value added’ features such as chat increase not only the popularity of an App but also increase the likelihood of continued use and provide a means of direct interaction with users.
How Do Users Search the Mobile Web with a Clustering Interface?
Authors: Heimonen Tomi
Published: January 2013

Category-based search result organization holds promise as a means of facilitating mobile information access. This paper presents the results of a longitudinal user study that investigated how a mobile clustering interface is used to search the Web. The author describes the participants’ search behavior and discusses the benefits and limitations of category-based result access. Study results show that category-based interaction was considered situationally useful, for example when the participants had problems describing their information need or needed to retrieve a subset of results. The paper proposes design guidelines for category-based mobile search interfaces. These include improved strategies for presenting the categories in the search interface, the need to improve the categorization methods to provide more representative category structures, and accounting for the contextual aspects of mobile information needs.
An Alternative Paradigm of Managing Sustainability in the Global Supply Chain
Authors: Lam Maria Lai-Ling
Published: January 2013

Based five year field work (2006-2011) in China, the author interviewed 30 Chinese executives from 20 different foreign multinational enterprises. Only two companies chose to practice more communication with their suppliers despite interests in operational efficiency. Exemplifying an alternative paradigm of managing sustainability based on thorough understandings through change of their organizational culture and relationships with their selected Chinese suppliers. Their commitment to sustainability in the global supply chain is due to the moral consciousness of their leaders and the persistence, compassion, and humbleness of their dedicated corporate social responsibility officers. There are five major barriers for managing sustainability in the global supply chain in China: seeking low cost and production efficiency; lacking internal alignments between commercial and responsible supply chain objectives; lacking incentives to practice procedural justice or develop trusting relationships with their suppliers in China in which there is weak legal enforcement system and civil society; easily bypassing many social and environmental responsibilities in China; and evasive compliance-oriented mechanism (i.e., monitoring, evaluating, reporting and sanctioning) over Chinese suppliers. Pursuing sustainability under the existing low-cost operational efficiency paradigm cannot overcome these five barriers. Managing sustainability in the global supply chain must be driven by the spirit of caring people and environment.
Performance Evaluation of Hospitals’ Emergency Departments using a Modified American Productivity and Quality Center Approach
Authors: Zhao Ronald , Paul III David
Published: January 2013

Presented is a modification of the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) approach to the performance evaluation of hospital emergency departments. This modified approach allows individual hospitals to make better estimates of cost containment and productivity relative to an industry-wide benchmark, by using patient acuity to convert conventional performance data into two measurements: an efficiency indicator and a price recovery ratio to better facilitate the establishment of a cost-quality connection.
Mobility-Based Routing in Opportunistic Networks
Authors: Kurdi Shivan Fazil
Published: January 2013

In Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) nodes are only intermittently connected. A complete path from the sender node to the receiver does not exist. Mobile objects exploit direct contact for message transmission without relying on an existing end to end infrastructure. In such networks, routing is a challenging issue. Nevertheless, routing protocols in the mobility-based class of OppNets exploit some context information such as node mobility information and patterns to make forwarding decision, since the effectiveness of routing depends on node mobility. The aim of this research is to identify, evaluate, and compare the mobility-based routing algorithms of OppNets based on the simulation results obtained from published literature. The research findings indicate that mobility-based algorithms are suitable for conditions where network bandwidth and devices are considered significant constraints. They provide average delivery ratio with less resource consumption. In brief, they are ideal when network traffic and resource consumption are taken into consideration.
Adoption of Mobile Commerce Technology
Authors: Abu-Shanab Emad , Ghaleb Osamah
Published: January 2013

This research extended the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with perceived trust and perceived risks (security and privacy concerns) constructs to identify the impact of these factors on Jordanian users’ intentions to adopt mobile commerce (m-commerce). An empirical test was used utilizing 132 responses from students in two public universities in Jordan. Results indicated that perceived trust, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use are major influencers of mobile commerce adoption. On the other hand, perceived risk factors (security and privacy concerns) were not significant in this relation. Discussion, conclusion and future work are stated at the end of this paper.
Sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone for chronic pain in at-risk patients: Development and pilot test of a clinical protocol
Authors: Rosenblum, PhD Andrew , Cruciani, MD, PhD Ricardo A. , Strain, MD Eric C. , Cleland, PhD Charles M. , Joseph, PhD Herman , Magura, PhD, CSW Stephen , Marsch, PhD Lisa A. , McNicholas, MD, PhD Laura F. , Savage, MD, MS Seddon R. , Sundaram, BA Arun , Portenoy, MD Russell K.
Published: January 2013

Objective: Sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone (Bup/Nx) is approved for addiction treatment and may be useful for pain management, particularly in opioid-treated patients with pain with nonadherence behaviors. The transition of opioid-treated patients with pain to buprenorphine carries the risk of precipitated withdrawal and increased pain. This study convened pain and addiction specialists to develop and pilot a clinical protocol for safe transitioning to Bup/Nx.Design: The protocol was revised three times based on outside expert review and pilot study observations. The pilot was conducted with a prospective cohort of 12 patients with moderate to severe chronic pain, who were receiving long-term opioid therapy with any full µ-agonist drug, and had exhibited one or more aberrant drugrelated behaviors. Patients were followed up for 3-6 months with the expectation that they would experience few adverse events (AEs) and report lower pain severity.Results: The three patients on the highest baseline opioid dose (equivalent to 303-450 mg of oral morphine) and the three on the lowest doses (≤20 mg) had early AEs when switched to Bup/Nx and did not complete the trial. Of the remaining six, one withdrew due to AEs; one responded well, then withdrew; and four completed a 3-month trial. A mixed-effects model controlling for dropouts found that average and worst pain significantly decreased after the switch to Bup/Nx (both p < 0.01).Conclusion: Based on this experience, the protocol recommends Bup/Nx for pain only when baseline opioid doses are within bounds that reduce AEs at transition and incorporates dose flexibility to further reduce risks. This protocol warrants further testing.
Characteristics of concentrations and chemical compositions for PM2.5 in the region of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, China
Authors: Zhao P. S. , Dong F. , He D. , Zhao X. J. , Zhang W. Z. , Yao Q. , Liu H. Y.
Published: January 2013

Abstract. In order to study the temporal and spatial variations of PM2.5 and its chemical compositions in the region of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei (BTH), PM2.5 samples were collected at four urban sites in Beijing (BJ), Tianjin (TJ), Shijiazhuang (SJZ), and Chengde (CD) and one site at Shangdianzi (SDZ) regional background station over four seasons from 2009 to 2010. The samples were weighted for mass concentrations and analyzed in laboratory for chemical profiles of 19 elements (Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, Sr, Ti, V, and Zn), eight water-soluble ions (Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl−, NO3−, and SO42−), and carbon fractions (OC and EC). The concentrations of PM2.5 and its major chemical species were season-dependent and showed spatially similar characteristics in the plain area of BTH. The average annual concentrations of PM2.5 were 71.8–191.2 μg m−3 at five sites, with more than 90 % sampling days exceeded 50 μg m−3 at BJ, TJ, and SJZ. PM2.5 pollution was most serious at SJZ, and the annual concentrations of PM2.5, secondary ions, OC, EC, and most of crustal elements were all highest. Due to stronger photochemical oxidation, the sum of concentrations of secondary ions (NH4+, NO3−, and SO42−) was highest in the summer at SDZ, BJ, TJ, and CD. Analysis of electric charges of water-soluble ions indicated the existence of nitric acid or hydrochloric acid in PM2.5. For all five sites, the concentrations of OC, EC and also secondary organic carbon (SOC) in the spring and summer were lower than those in the autumn and winter. Stable atmosphere and low temperatures appearing more frequently during autumn and winter facilitated the formation of SOC. The sums of crustal elements (Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Ti, Ba, and Sr) were higher in the spring and autumn owing to more days with blowing or floating dust. The concentrations of heavy metals were at higher levels in the BTH area by comparison with other studies. In Shijiazhuang and Chengde, the PM2.5 pollution was dominated by coal combustion. Motor vehicle exhausts and coal combustion emissions both played important role in Tianjin PM2.5$ pollution. However, motor vehicle exhausts had played more important role in Beijing owing to the reduction of coal consumption and sharply increase of cars in recent years. At SDZ, regional transportation of air pollutants from southern urban areas was significant.
CLARA-A1: the CM SAF cloud, albedo and radiation dataset from 28 yr of global AVHRR data
Authors: Karlsson K.-G. , Riihelä A. , Müller R. , Meirink J. F. , Sedlar J. , Stengel M. , Lockhoff M. , Trentmann J. , Kaspar F. , Hollmann R. , Wolters E.
Published: January 2013

Abstract. A new satellite-derived climate dataset – denoted CLARA-A1 ("The CM SAF cLoud, Albedo and RAdiation dataset from AVHRR data") – is described. The dataset covers the 28-yr period from 1982 until 2009 and consists of cloud, surface albedo and radiation budget products derived from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) sensor carried by polar orbiting operational meteorological satellites. Its content, anticipated accuracies, limitations and potential applications are described. The dataset is produced by the EUMETSAT Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facility (CM SAF) project. The dataset has its strengths in the long duration, its foundation upon a homogenized AVHRR radiance data record, and in some unique features, e.g. the availability of 28 yr of summer surface albedo and cloudiness parameters over the polar regions. Quality characteristics are also well investigated and particularly useful results can be found over the tropics, mid- to high-latitudes and over nearly all oceanic areas. Being the first CM SAF dataset of its kind, an intensive evaluation of the quality of the datasets was performed and major findings wrt. to merits and shortcomings of the datasets are reported. However, the CM SAF's long-term commitment to perform two additional reprocessing events within the time frame 2013–2017 will allow a proper handling of limitations as well as upgrading the dataset with new features (e.g. uncertainty estimates) and extension of the temporal coverage.
Kinetic regimes and limiting cases of gas uptake and heterogeneous reactions in atmospheric aerosols and clouds: a general classification scheme
Authors: Berkemeier T. , Huisman A. J. , Ammann M. , Shiraiwa M. , Koop T. , Pöschl U.
Published: January 2013

Abstract. Heterogeneous reactions are important to atmospheric chemistry and are therefore an area of intense research. In multiphase systems such as aerosols and clouds, chemical reactions are usually strongly coupled to a complex sequence of mass transport processes and results are often not easy to interpret. Here we present a systematic classification scheme for gas uptake by aerosol or cloud particles which distinguishes two major regimes: a reaction-diffusion regime and a mass-transfer regime. Each of these regimes includes four distinct limiting cases, characterized by a dominant reaction location (surface or bulk) and a single rate-limiting process: chemical reaction, bulk diffusion, gas-phase diffusion or mass accommodation. The conceptual framework enables efficient comparison of different studies and reaction systems, going beyond the scope of previous classification schemes by explicitly resolving interfacial transport processes and surface reactions limited by mass transfer from the gas phase. The use of kinetic multi-layer models instead of resistor model approaches increases the flexibility and enables a broader treatment of the subject, including cases which do not fit into the strict limiting cases typical of most resistor model formulations. The relative importance of different kinetic parameters such as diffusion, reaction rate and accommodation coefficients in this system is evaluated by a quantitative global sensitivity analysis. We outline the characteristic features of each limiting case and discuss the potential relevance of different regimes and limiting cases for various reaction systems. In particular, the classification scheme is applied to three different data sets for the benchmark system of oleic acid reacting with ozone. In light of these results, future directions of research needed to elucidate the multiphase chemical kinetics in this and other reaction systems are discussed.
Development of the mesospheric Na layer at 69° N during the Geminids meteor shower 2010
Authors: Dunker T. , Hoppe U.-P. , Stober G. , Rapp M.
Published: January 2013

Abstract. The ECOMA sounding rocket campaign in 2010 was performed to investigate the charge state and number density of meteoric smoke particles during the Geminids meteor shower in December 2010. The ALOMAR Na lidar contributed to the campaign with measurements of sodium number density, temperature and line-of-sight wind between 80 and 110 km altitude over Andøya in northern Norway. This paper investigates a possible connection between the Geminids meteor shower and the mesospheric sodium layer. We compare with data from a meteor radar and from a rocket-borne in situ particle instrument on three days. Our main result is that the sodium column density is smaller during the Geminids meteor shower than the winter average at the same latitude. Moreover, during two of the three years considered, the sodium column density decreased steadily during these three weeks of the year. Both the observed decrease of Na column density by 30% and of meteoric smoke particle column density correlate well with a corresponding decrease of sporadic meteor echoes. We found no correlation between Geminids meteor flux rates and sodium column density, nor between sporadic meteors and Na column density (R = 0.25). In general, we found the Na column density to be at very low values for winter, between 1.8 and 2.6 × 1013 m−2. We detected two meteor trails containing sodium, on 13 December 2010 at 87.1 km and on 19 December 2010 at 84 km. From these meteor trails, we estimate a global meteoric Na flux of 121 kg d−1 and a global total meteoric influx of 20.2 t d−1.
Nitrogen isotopes in bulk marine sediment: linking seafloor observations with subseafloor records
Authors: Tesdal J.-E. , Galbraith E. D. , Kienast M.
Published: January 2013

Abstract. The stable isotopes of nitrogen offer a unique perspective on changes in the nitrogen cycle, past and present. However, the presence of multiple forms of nitrogen in marine sediments can complicate the interpretation of bulk nitrogen isotope measurements. Although the large-scale global patterns of seafloor δ15N have been shown to match process-based expectations, small-scale heterogeneity on the seafloor, or alterations of isotopic signals during translation into the subseafloor record, could obscure the primary signals. Here, a public database of nitrogen isotope measurements is described, including both seafloor and subseafloor sediment samples ranging in age from modern to the Pliocene, and used to assess these uncertainties. In general, good agreement is observed between neighbouring seafloor sites within a 100 km radius, with 85% showing differences of < 1‰. There is also a good correlation between the δ15N of the shallowest (< 5 ka) subseafloor sediments and neighbouring seafloor sites within a 100 km radius (R2 = 0.83), which suggests a reliable translation of sediments into the buried sediment record. Meanwhile, gradual δ15N decreases over multiple glacial–interglacial cycles appear to reflect post-depositional alteration in records from the deep sea (below 2000 m). We suggest a simple conceptual model to explain these 100-kyr-timescale changes in well-oxygenated, slowly accumulating sediments, which calls on differential loss rates for pools of organic N with different δ15N. We conclude that bulk sedimentary nitrogen isotope records are reliable monitors of past changes in the marine nitrogen cycle at most locations, and could be further improved with a better understanding of systematic post-depositional alteration. Furthermore, geochemical or environmental criteria should be developed in order to effectively identify problematic locations and to account for confounding influences where possible.