bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Seaboard Stock Exchange's Emerging E-Commerce Initiative
Authors: Knight Linda V. , Steinbach Theresa A. , Graf Diane M.
Published: May 2011

While Seaboard Stock Exchange remains one of the top stock exchanges in the United States, its relative position in the world is slipping. E-commerce is threatening the organization by accelerating the rate of disintermediation and the entrance of new competitors into Seaboard’s market. Against this backdrop, Seaboard’s e-commerce initiative has emerged. Tension between control and experimentation surfaces as the association attempts to incorporate emerging technology while maintaining its traditional way of doing business. The organization struggles to merge new technology with existing IT strategy while internal entrepreneurs strive to shape a Web development methodology and define an appropriate role for standards and controls in an emerging technology environment.
The Application of IT for Competitive Advantage at Keane, Inc.
Authors: Andrews M. R. , Papp R.
Published: May 2011

The Keane Company, founded in 1965 by John F. Keane, has grown from a local software service company into a national firm which has three operating divisions and over 45 branches throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Within these operating divisions are multitudes of consulting opportunities, ranging from supplemental staffing, project management and application outsourcing. This case will focus on Keane’s approach to project management and how they provide this service to their clients. This includes not only how Keane is hired for Project Management but how they train their clients on how they too can implement the Keane philosophy of productivity management. Instead of focusing on any one client of Keane, their overall technology strategy will be highlighted, from their early days through the present to illustrate how Keane has successfully incorporated information technology and project management to become a major player in the software service and consulting field. The goal of this case is to provide the student with an example of business-technology strategy in action and allow them to explore future paths that Keane may take based on how they use technology today and in the decade to come. Several discussion questions are included which focus on Keane’s IT strategies and their implementation. These questions can be used to stimulate class discussion or given as written assignments to be handed in.
Project MI-Net
Authors: Bagri Pankaj , Murty L. S. , Madanmohan T. R. , Bandi Rajendra K.
Published: May 2011

This case gives a detailed description of the adoption of an e-business initiative by Miracle Industries Limited (MIL), a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) organization in India. The initiative involved linking up with key distributors so as to get important sales-related data on a real-time basis. The case describes how the decision to adopt the project was taken after a comprehensive analysis involving a detailed cost-benefits study, and an examination of the roles of various stakeholders — the distributors and the Territory Sales Officers. It also illustrates how the organization proactively managed the changes introduced by the adoption by communicating extensively about the benefits of the project to the stakeholders, and by providing training and incentives to them. The role of the existing IT infrastructure and unambiguous support from the top management in enabling a smooth rollout is also discussed. Finally, the dissatisfaction of some distributors in the post-implementation stage has been captured.
The Rise and Fall of CyberGold.com
Authors: Peltier J. E.
Published: May 2011

This case study describes the lifecycle of CyberGold, a start-up “Dot Com” firm that rose to prominence in the world of online currency and micro-payments. The case describes the inception of the firm, the talent base of its senior executives, and its innovative and patented business model, known as “Attention Brokerage.” The case focuses on a specific decision problem faced by CyberGold’s team of senior managers early in its lifecycle: how to modify the company’s business model and communication with its members, in order to encourage repeat visits to its site and to provide a clearer understanding of where CyberGold credits may be spent by members.
The Relationship Between BPR and ERP-Systems
Authors: Paper D. , Mok W.
Published: May 2011

Vicro Communications (we use a pseudonym to mask the identity of the organization) sought to reengineer its basic business processes with the aid of data-centric enterprise software. Vicro management however made the mistake of relying completely on the software to improve the performance of its business processes. It was hoped that the software would increase information sharing, process efficiency, standardization of IT platforms, and data mining/warehousing capabilities. Management however made no attempt to rethink existing processes before embarking on a very expensive implementation of the software. Moreover, management made no attempt to obtain feedback or opinions from employees familiar with existing business or legacy systems prior to investing the software. Unfortunately for Vicro, the reengineering effort failed miserably even after investing hundreds of millions of dollars in software implementation. As a result, performance was not improved and the software is currently being phased out.
Montclair Mutual Insurance Company
Authors: Money William H.
Published: May 2011

This case presents data concerning the choices among information system development strategies, tools, systems which could be selected for upgrade or development, and implementation decisions for an insurance company facing a dynamic business environment.
Military Applications of Natural Language Processing and Software
Authors: Rodger J. A. , Pendharkar P. C.
Published: May 2011

The case study describes the process of planning, analysis, design and implementation of an integrated voice interactive device (VID) for the Navy. The goal of this research is to enhance Force Health Protection and to improve medical readiness by applying voice interactive technology to environmental and clinical surveillance activities aboard U.S. Navy ships.
The Elusive Last Mile to the Internet
Authors: Sridhar V. , Jain Piyush
Published: May 2011

As organizations continue to Web-enable mission-critical network-centric information systems, reliable and high bandwidth connectivity to the Internet is essential. While glut of Internet bandwidth is being witnessed in the developed countries, Internet services are still in their infancy in developing countries. Getting high-speed access to the Internet, especially in the remote areas of developing countries, poses challenges due to poor telecommunications infrastructure. With limited bandwidth available from service providers, network managers have to find ways other than simple raw bandwidth increments to meet the increasing demand from the users, especially for improved Web performance. While metrics for measuring Internet performance are being refined by researchers, defining service level agreements with the Internet service providers based on these metrics is challenging, especially in an evolving market. This case highlights the experiences and lessons learned from such an exercise at the Indian Institute of Management located in Lucknow, India.
Application of an Object-Oriented Metasystem in University Information System Development
Authors: Smolik Petr C. , Hruška Thomas
Published: May 2011

This case presents experience from design and implementation of a university information system at the Brno University of Technology. The newly built system is expected to provide the students and staff with better tools for communication within the university’s independent faculties, departments, and central administration. Anobject-oriented metasystem approach was used by the IT Department to describe the services offered by the university information system and to generate needed program code for run-time operation of the system. This approach so far produced good results over the period of two years when the pilot project started, nevertheless there are some shortcomings that still have to be resolved.
Shared Workspace for Collaborative Engineering
Authors: Trossen Dirk , Schüppen André , Wallbaum Michael
Published: May 2011

In the broad context of the collaborative research center project IMPROVE (Information Technology Support for Collaborative and Distributed Design Processes in Chemical Engineering), the presented case study has been concentrating on the provision of appropriate communication technology, specifically shared workspace means, to enable collaborative working between distributed engineering teams. Issues like distributed developer meetings, sharing common data, or even sharing entire work spaces including off-the-shelf tools being used for the development process are the driving forces for the studies on how to provide appropriate technology means in collaborative engineering. The considered case in the field of chemical engineering and development represents a difficult candidate for collaborative engineering due to the variety of proprietary data and tools to be integrated in a shared workspace. Furthermore, common aspects of cooperative working among development teams have to be considered as well. The resulting architecture-based on the findings of the current stage of the case is presented, trying to use as many existing software as possible. Drawbacks and challenges being encountered during the case study due to the a-posteriori approach are outlined, leading to a revised architecture proposal to be used in the future as a common platform for the information technology support within the context of there search project. Expected benefits and problems of the introduction of the new architecture are drawn.
DQ Options
Authors: Bobrowski Monica , Soler Sabrina
Published: May 2011

Data plays a critical role in organizations up to the point of being considered a competitive advantage. However, the quality of the organizations’ data is often inadequate, affecting strategic and tactical decision making, and even weakening the organization’s image. Nevertheless it is still challenging to encourage management to invest in data quality improvement projects. Performing a traditional feasibility analysis based on Return on Investment, Net Present Value, etc., may not capture the advantages of data quality projects: their benefits are often difficult to quantify and uncertain; also, they are mostly valuable because of the new opportunities they bring about. Dealing with this problem through a real options approach, in order to model its intrinsic uncertainty, seems to be an interesting starting point. This paper presents a methodological framework to assess the benefits of a Data Quality project using a real options approach. Its adequacy is validated with a case study.
The Chief Information Officer
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

The chief information officer (CIO) can be defined as the highest ranking IT execu-tive who typically exhibits managerial roles requiring effective communication with top management, a broad corporate perspective in managing information resources, influence on organizational strategy, and responsibility for the planning of IT. This definition is in line with research which applied the following criteria when select-ing CIOs for empirical observation: (1) highest ranking information technology executive; (2) reports no more than two levels from the CEO (i.e., either reports to the CEO or reports to one of the CEOs direct reports); (3) areas of responsibility include information systems, computer operations, telecommunications and net-works, office automation, end-user computing, help desks, computer software and applications; and (4) responsibility for strategic IS/IT planning.
The CIO's Strategic IT Resources
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

The CIO can be found at different hierarchical levels in the organization. The CEO is assigned as the only member at level 1. Level 2 includes the most senior executives, and a number of them may sit on a firm’s board of directors. Their job titles include chief operating officer, chief financial officer, president, and division president. Level 3 includes the next tier of executives, such as senior and executive vice presidents. Level 4 includes higher-level vice presidents.
Archetype-Based Semantic Interoperability of Web Service Messages in the Health Care Domain
Authors: Bicer Veli , Kilic Ozgur , Dogac Asuman , Laleci Gokce B.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we describe an infrastructure enabling archetype-based semantic interoperability of Web service messages exchanged in the health care domain. We annotate the Web service messages with the OWL representation of the archetypes. Then, by providing the ontology mapping between the archetypes, we show that the interoperability of the Web service message instances can be achieved automatically. An OWL mapping tool, called OWLmt, has been developed for this purpose. OWLmt uses OWL-QL engine, which enables the mapping tool to reason over the source archetype instances while generating the target archetype instances according to the mapping patterns defined through a GUI.
The Effects of Uncertainty on ERP-Controlled Manufacturing Supply Chains
Authors: Koh S. C. Lenny , Gunasekaran Angappa
Published: May 2011

The use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) is becoming increasingly prevalent in many modern manufacturing supply chains. However, knowledge of their performance when perturbed by several significant uncertainties simultaneously is not as widespread as it should have been. This chapter presents the developmental and experimental work on modelling uncertainty within an ERP multi-product, multi-level dependent demand manufacturing supply chain in a simulation model developed using ARENA/SIMAN. To enumerate how uncertainty affects the performance of an ERP-controlled manufacturing supply chain, the percentages of finished products delivered late (FPDL) and parts delivered late (PDL) are measured. Sensitivity analysis shows that PDL gives a more accurate effect. Simulations results are analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), which identifies four uncertainties namely late delivery from suppliers, machine breakdowns, unexpected/urgent changes to machine assignments, and customer design changes significantly affect PDL. Some uncertainties are found significantly interactive in two and three-way. They produce either knock-on and/or compound effects, a factor not generally recognised as a criterion for decision-making.
Software Architectures and Requirements for a Web-Based Survey System
Authors: Baldwin Dirk , Chalasani Suresh
Published: May 2011

Many businesses obtain feedback by surveying customers and business partners. Increasingly, these surveys are conducted via the Web. This chapter reviews briefly literature regarding Web-based surveys and describes a software architecture for a Web-based survey system. The architecture for the survey system is based on three-tiers comprised of a Web server, Web application server, and database server. The Web application server hosts the application modules that display and process the surveys. The application software consists of packages for establishing connections to the database and for reading static and dynamic data from the database. The processed surveys are written to the database with the survey responses. This system allows for anonymous survey responses and maintains user confidentiality. At the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, we have implemented this Web-based survey system, and used it to conduct three different surveys. This survey system is easily extensible to new surveys, and is used for instructional purposes to teach server-side programming. In this chapter, we discuss the key ideas behind the design and implementation of the extensible survey system, and provide results on its application.
The Financial Appraisal Profile (FAP) Model for Evaluation of Enterprise-Wide Information Technology
Authors: Lefley Frank , Sarkis Joseph
Published: May 2011

Enterprise-wide information systems adoption by organizations has become common place. Even with the benefits offered by such systems, there have also been many failures. One of the important reasons for these failures is inappropriate project evaluation and selection. In order to reduce the level of project failures, we introduce an innovative methodology, the financial appraisal profile (FAP) model, which seeks to address some of the issues and limitations posed by standard appraisal and evaluation approaches for strategic technologies and programs. By making the right decision in the first place and involving senior managers in the appraisal process, the organization will be better placed to achieve project success. The adoption of a management team approach to investment appraisals will not only enhance the information base but will also result in greater managerial commitment to a project. We believe by adopting the FAP model greater awareness to strategic issues and goals will also be achieved, which should lead to a more focused top management team—with all members pulling in the same direction.
A Web-Based Tutor for Java? Evidence of Meaningful Learning
Authors: Emurian Henry H.
Published: May 2011

Students in a graduate class and an undergraduate class in Information Systems completed a Web-based programmed instruction tutor that taught a simple Java applet as the first technical training exercise in a computer programming course. The tutor is a competency-based instructional system for individualized distance learning. When a student completes the tutor, the student has achieved a targeted level of understanding the code and has written the code correctly from memory. Before and after using the tutor in the present study, students completed a software self-efficacy questionnaire and a test of the application of general Java principles (far transfer of learning). After completing the tutor, students in both classes showed increases in software self-efficacy and in correct answers on the test of general principles. These findings contribute to the stream of formative evaluations of the tutoring system. They show the capacity of the Web-based tutor to generate meaningful learning (i.e., understanding of concepts) at the level of the individual student.
Web-Based Seamless Migration for Task-Oriented Mobile Distance Learning
Authors: Zhang Degan , Li Yuan-chao , Zhang Huaiyu , Zhang Xinshang , Zeng Guangping
Published: May 2011

As a new kind of computing paradigm, pervasive computing will meet the requirements of human being that anybody maybe obtain services in anywhere and at anytime, task-oriented seamless migration is one of its applications. Apparently, the function of seamless mobility is suitable for mobile services, such as mobile Web-based learning. In this chapter, under the banner of seamless mobility, we propose a kind of approach supporting task-oriented mobile distance learning paradigm. Web-based seamless migration, which has the capability that task for mobile distance learning (MDL) dynamically follows the learner from place to place and machine to machine without learner’s awareness or intervention by active service. Our key idea is this capability can be achieved by architecture of component smart platform and agent-based migrating mechanism. In order to clarify the approach, firstly, a description of the task for mobile distance learning and migrating granularity of task has been suggested. Then, the mechanism of seamless migration has been described, including solving several important sub-problems, such as transferring delay, transferring failure, residual computation dependency. Finally, our implemented platform for Web-based seamless migration has been explained, the validity comparison and evaluation of this kind of mobile distance learning paradigm is shown by an experimental demo. Suggested Web-based learning paradigm by seamless migration is convenient to distance learn during mobility and is useful for the busy or mobile distance learner.
Ubiquitous Computing Applications in Education
Authors: Kolomvatsos Kostas
Published: May 2011

With the development of technology, new roads have been opened in education. An interesting idea is to use computers in teaching and learning procedure. Students will have the opportunity to gain access to information resources in a timeless and limitless way. Teachers will be able to transform their classes in a student-centered environment, avoiding the drawbacks of the traditional teacher-centered model. In this direction, ubiquitous computing has significant advantages. Ubiquitous means that computational devices are distributed into the physical world, giving us boundless access to communication and information channels. Now, knowledge can be built based on collaboration, communication, experimentation, and on students’ experiences. Research has shown positive impacts on learning. This chapter deals with issues directly connected to ubiquitous computing, such as its features, types of devices used, and pedagogical goals. The advantages and disadvantages of ubiquitous environments are fully examined and some initiatives are referred.
Does Knowledge Management Improve Firm Performance? The Effect of Knowledge Distinctive Competences
Authors: Zornoza Cesar Camison , Marques Daniel Palacios , Garrigos Simon Fernando Jose
Published: May 2011

In the resource-based view (RBV) approach, the knowledge border rests on the understanding of the distinctive competences creation and recreation process. Moreover, in spite of the importance of knowledge assets, how knowledge is generated in organizations is still an unknown factor. This research studies the effect of introducing knowledge management programs in the development of knowledge distinctive competences, as well as their capability to create economic rents. In addition, we established a conceptual delimitation of knowledge management as a directive system through a set of principles and practices, which is a theoretical innovation in this research line. The theoretical relationships we propose are tested in an empirical study carried out in 222 firms from the Spanish biotechnology and telecommunication sectors.
Knowledge Transfer Strategy
Authors: Parent Robert , St-Jacques Denis , Bélievau Julie
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews recent literature on knowledge and knowledge transfer (KT) and proposes the emergence of a classification system of the core KT concepts, models, and contexts that helps address issues of a strategic nature. The two paradigms that inform most of the KT literature, the positivist and social construction paradigms, and their implications on strategy formulation, are discussed. The positivist paradigm views knowledge as an object that can be passed on mechanistically from the creator to a translator who then adapts and transmits it to the user. The social construction paradigm views knowledge as the dynamic by-product of interactions between human actors who are trying to understand, name, and act on reality. In keeping with this dual paradigm logic, the literature on KT can be categorized as originating either from an information technology paradigm or an organic paradigm. The chapter discusses how most of the past strategy-related KT issues focused on the transfer of explicit knowledge and indicates that the future direction implies a shift in attention towards more tacit knowledge transfer considerations.
The Activity Domain Theory
Authors: Taxén Lars
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, the activity domain theory is introduced as a theoretical lens for guiding the alignment of business and knowledge strategies. Alignment is focused around the activity domain, which can be comprehended as a human workpractice where socially organized actors process a work object into a required outcome. An organization is seen as a constellation of activity domains, each providing a specific outcome. The products or services provided by the organization are realized by coordinating the domains. The main target for the business strategy is the constellation of activity domains. The target of the knowledge strategy is the knowledge needed to produce the outcome of each domain and the knowledge needed to coordinate the domains. In this way, the activity domain provides a common target for business and knowledge strategies. We argue that this approach makes it possible to operationalize an integrated alignment of business and knowledge strategies.
"Automated" Archaeology
Authors: Barceló Juan A.
Published: May 2011

The task of this automated archaeologist will be to assign to any artifact, represented by some features, visual or not, some meaning or explanatory concept. In other words, the performance of such an automated archaeologist is a three-stage process: Feature extraction, recognition, and explanation by which an input (description of the archaeological record) is transformed into an explanatory concept, in this case, the function of an archaeologically perceived entity (Figure 1). In order for the system to make a decision as to whether the object is a knife or a scraper, input information should be recognized, that is “categorized,” in such a way that once “activated” the selected categories will guide the selection of a response.
Problem Solving in the Brain and by the Machine
Authors: Barceló Juan A.
Published: May 2011

When a specific goal is blocked, we have a problem. When we know ways round the block or how to remove it, we have less a problem. In our case, the automated archaeologist wants to know the cause of the observed material outcomes of social action. What blocks this goal is a lack of knowledge: it does not know the particular mechanism that caused in the past what it sees in the present. To remove this obstacle it must learn some specific knowledge: how a causal process or processes generated the specific measurable properties determining the observed evidence. To the automated archaeologist, problem solving has the task of devising some causal mechanism that may mediate between the observation and its cause or causes. Consequently, explanatory mechanisms taken in pursuit of that goal can be regarded as problem solving. In other words, explanation is a kind of problem solving where the facts to be explained are treated as goals to be reached, and hypotheses can be generated to provide the desired explanations (Thagard, 1988).
Computer Systems that Learn
Authors: Barceló Juan A.
Published: May 2011

Inverse problems are among the most challenging in computational and applied science and have been studied extensively (Bunge, 2006; Hensel, 1991; Kaipio & Somersalo, 2004; Kirsch, 1996; Pizlo, 2001; Sabatier, 2000; Tarantola, 2005; Woodbury, 2002). Although there is no precise definition, the term refers to a wide range of problems that are generally described by saying that their answer is known, but not the question. An obvious example would be “Guessing the intentions of a person from her/his behavior.” In our case: “Guessing a past event from its vestiges.” In archaeology, the main source for inverse problems lies in the fact that archaeologists generally do not know why archaeological observables have the shape, size, texture, composition, and spatiotemporal location they have. Instead, we have sparse and noisy observations or measurements of perceptual properties, and an incomplete knowledge of relational contexts and possible causal processes. From this information, an inverse engineering approach should be used to interpret adequately archaeological observables as the material consequence of some social actions.
Component-Based Deployment for Web Applications
Authors: Gary Kevin , Koehnemann Harry
Published: May 2011

The software engineering community touts component-based software engineering as a solution for many of its woes including reducing cycle time, reducing costs, increasing productivity, allowing easier integration to name just a few. Indeed, many Web-based systems are now built with open-source and vendor provided component technologies. While these advances have led to improvements in the development process, they have also led to a great deal of pressure on downstream processes as these systems must be deployed, tuned, and supported. The complexities in deploying and supporting component- based software for distributed and Web-based applications are not understood in the academic or professional communities. This chapter stresses the need for addressing this problem by presenting component-based software for Web applications from a deployment perspective, characterizing the issues through real-world experiences with highly component-based applications, and presents strategies and directions for the community to pursue.
Automatic Creation of GUI's for Web-Based ERP Systems
Authors: Gómez Jorge Marx , Lübke Daniel
Published: May 2011

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an emerging architectural style for developing and structuring business applications, especially enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. SOA applications are composed of small, independent, and network-accessible software components, named services. The service composition is normally based on the enterprise’s business processes. However, current composition standards like BPEL have no ability to interact with users. Therefore, we propose a mechanism for including user interaction descriptions into the composition and extending the composition platform for generating user interfaces. In our case study, a federated ERP (FERP) system, this mechanism has been implemented in a prototype based on yet another workflow language (YAWL) dynamically generating Web pages for accessing the ERP system. Because every aspect including the user interfaces can be manipulated through the service composition, such systems are highly flexible yet maintainable.
Designing and Assessing Virtual Assurance
Authors: Adler Terry R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter suggests that computer-mediated technologies (CMTs) facilitate organizational trust and distrust by leading to what we introduce as Virtual Assurance. Through partnering and outsourcing, organizations are exposed to managing simultaneous organizational trust and distrust. For instance, CMTs allow more precise and timely monitoring of organizations in a high trust and high distrust context, a process that leads to Virtual Assurance. We further describe Virtual Assurance as a means to manage the fragility of modern interorganizational relationships, especially when high trust and high distrust is present. We also suggest that the presence of Virtual Assurance will ultimately provide a competitive advantage to firms in making contractual agreements, tracking progress, imposing penalties, and shielding organizations from potential harm.
Overcoming Hurdles to Trust
Authors: Easter Robert M. , Brennan Linda L.
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses paradoxes, which have arisen in response to society’s dependence on the Internet and the new business models that attempt to resolve the contradictions. The authors present a Trust Model illustrating a series of hurdles that must be overcome in order for an individual or an organization to exhibit trust, i.e., risk-taking behavior. The Chapter addresses the formation of new information providers, “infomediaries,” which can inform risk-taking behavior in computer-mediated relationships.
Generalized Differential Evolution for Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization
Authors: Kukkonen Saku , Lampinen Jouni
Published: May 2011

Multi-objective optimization with Evolutionary Algorithms has been gaining popularity recently because its applicability in practical problems. Many practical problems contain also constraints, which must be taken care of during optimization process. This chapter is about Generalized Differential Evolution, which is a general-purpose optimizer. It is based on a relatively recent Evolutionary Algorithm, Differential Evolution, which has been gaining popularity because of its simplicity and good observed performance. Generalized Differential Evolution extends Differential Evolution for problems with several objectives and constraints. The chapter concentrates on describing different development phases and performance of Generalized Differential Evolution but it also contains a brief review of other multi-objective DE approaches. Ability to solve multi-objective problems is mainly discussed, but constraint handling and the effect of control parameters are also covered. It is found that GDE versions, in particular the latest version, are effective and efficient for solving constrained multi-objective problems.
Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms for Sensor Network Design
Authors: Rajagopalan Ramesh , Mohan Chilukuri K. , Mehrotra Kishan G. , Varshney Pramod K.
Published: May 2011

Many sensor network design problems are characterized by the need to optimize multiple conflicting objectives. However, existing approaches generally focus on a single objective (ignoring the others), or combine multiple objectives into a single function to be optimized, to facilitate the application of classical optimization algorithms. This restricts their ability and constrains their usefulness to the network designer. A much more appropriate and natural approach is to address multiple objectives simultaneously, applying recently developed multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) in solving sensor network design problems. This chapter describes and illustrates this approach by modeling two sensor network design problems (mobile agent routing and sensor placement), as multi-objective optimization problems, developing the appropriate objective functions and discussing the tradeoffs between them. Simulation results using two recently developed MOEAs, viz., EMOCA (Rajagopalan, Mohan, Mehrotra, & Varshney, 2006) and NSGA-II (Deb, Pratap, Agarwal, & Meyarivan, 2000), show that these MOEAs successfully discover multiple solutions characterizing the tradeoffs between the objectives.
Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization for DNA Sequence Design
Authors: Shin Soo-Yong , Lee In-Hee , Zhang Byoung-Tak
Published: May 2011

Finding reliable and efficient DNA sequences is one of the most important tasks for successful DNArelated experiments such as DNA computing, DNA nano-assembly, DNA microarrays and polymerase chain reaction. Sequence design involves a number of heterogeneous and conflicting design criteria. Also, it is proven as a class of NP problems. These suggest that multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are actually good candidates for DNA sequence optimization. In addition, the characteristics of MOEAs including simple addition/deletion of objectives and easy incorporation of various existing tools and human knowledge into the final decision process could increase the reliability of final DNA sequence set. In this chapter, we review multi-objective evolutionary approaches to DNA sequence design. In particular, we analyze the performance of e-multi-objective evolutionary algorithms on three DNA sequence design problems and validate the results by showing superior performance to previous techniques.
Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization in Energy Conversion Systems
Authors: Toffolo Andrea
Published: May 2011

The research field on energy conversion systems presents a large variety of multi-objective optimization problems that can be solved taking full advantage of the features of evolutionary algorithms. In fact, design and operation of energy systems can be considered in several different perspectives (e.g., performance, efficiency, costs, environmental aspects). This results in a number of objective functions that should be simultaneously optimized, and the knowledge of the Pareto optimal set of solutions is of fundamental importance to the decision maker. This chapter proposes a brief survey of typical applications at different levels, ranging from the design of component detail to the challenge about the synthesis of the configuration of complex energy conversion systems. For sake of simplicity, the proposed examples are grouped into three main categories: design of components/component details, design of overall energy system, operation of energy systems. Each multi-objective optimization problem is presented with a short background and some details about the formulation. Future research directions in the field of energy systems are also discussed at the end of the chapter.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

From examining the discipline of KM and tacit knowledge more specifically through to elaborating research questions that have allowed us to test for soft knowledge diffusion in three ICT organisations and then presenting the results through a number of different instruments, we are at the stage where there is little more that can be achieved other than making recommendations for firms to consider should they wish to explore their ICT soft knowledge assets in closer detail. It is of course up to reader to decide the value of this book; nevertheless the author suggests at least a few options management may consider to be of some value.
Online Computer Lab Planning
Authors: Chao Lee
Published: May 2011

In Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, we have done overviews about the issues related to online computer labs such as Web-based teaching and various Web-based teaching systems. We have also briefly discussed technology-based courses and the technologies that can be used in the development of WBT and online computer labs. Starting from this chapter, we will discuss issues in designing and developing online computer labs for technology-based courses. The first task in designing online computer labs is to determine what type of online computer lab should be developed. It all depends on the teaching requirements. The developed computer lab should meet the needs of hands-on practice and balance the support, cost, and the complexity of technologies. This chapter provides you with a systematic way of identifying the needs of an online computer lab. In this chapter, we will discuss various approaches to decide what the teaching requirements are. We will start off with the topics related to online computer lab development process which will show you the big picture about developing online computer labs. Then, we will walk through the topics such as identifying hands-on requirements, identifying resources, and assessing costs. Investigating these topics will help you decide how big your project is, what the growth rate is, what the costs are, if there is funding for the project, and what kind of support you need to get from the computer service team. The next topic is about project planning which deals with issues such as budgeting, scheduling a time line, forming a project development team, and implementing the project. This topic helps designers to deliver an efficient plan in developing a successful online computer lab.
Personalized Content-Based Image Retrieval
Authors: Gondra Iker
Published: May 2011

In content-based image retrieval (CBIR), a set of low-level features are extracted from an image to represent its visual content. Retrieval is performed by image example where a query image is given as input by the user and an appropriate similarity measure is used to find the best matches in the corresponding feature space. This approach suffers from the fact that there is a large discrepancy between the low-level visual features that one can extract from an image and the semantic interpretation of the image’s content that a particular user may have in a given situation. That is, users seek semantic similarity, but we can only provide similarity based on low-level visual features extracted from the raw pixel data, a situation known as the semantic gap. The selection of an appropriate similarity measure is thus an important problem. Since visual content can be represented by different attributes, the combination and importance of each set of features varies according to the user’s semantic intent. Thus, the retrieval strategy should be adaptive so that it can accommodate the preferences of different users. Relevance feedback (RF) learning has been proposed as a technique aimed at reducing the semantic gap. It works by gathering semantic information from user interaction. Based on the user’s feedback on the retrieval results, the retrieval scheme is adjusted. By providing an image similarity measure under human perception, RF learning can be seen as a form of supervised learning that finds relations between high-level semantic interpretations and low-level visual properties. That is, the feedback obtained within a single query session is used to personalize the retrieval strategy and thus enhance retrieval performance. In this chapter we present an overview of CBIR and related work on RF learning. We also present our own previous work on a RF learning-based probabilistic region relevance learning algorithm for automatically estimating the importance of each region in an image based on the user’s semantic intent.
Service-Oriented Architectures for Context-Aware Information Retrieval and Access
Authors: Yan Lu
Published: May 2011

Humans are quite successful at conveying ideas to each other and retrieving information from interactions appropriately. This is due to many factors: the richness of the language they share, the common understanding of how the world works, and an implicit understanding of everyday situations (Dey & Abowd, 1999). When humans talk with humans, they are able to use implicit situational information (i.e., context) to enhance the information exchange process. Context (Cool & Spink, 2002) plays a vital part in adaptive and personalized information retrieval and access. Unfortunately, computer communications lacks this ability to provide auxiliary context in addition to the substantial content of information. As computers are becoming more and more ubiquitous and mobile, there is a need and possibility to provide information “personalized, any time, and anywhere” (ITU, 2006). In these scenarios, large amounts of information circulate in order to create smart and proactive environments that will significantly enhance both the work and leisure experiences of people. Context-awareness plays an important role to enable personalized information retrieval and access according to the current situation with minimal human intervention. Although context-aware information retrieval systems have been researched for a decade (Korkea-aho, 2000), the rise of mobile and ubiquitous computing put new challenges to issue, and therefore we are motivated to come up with new solutions to achieve non-intrusive, personalized information access on the mobile service platforms and heterogeneous wireless environments.
On Personalizing Web Services Using Context
Authors: Maamar Zakaria , Mostéfaoui Soraya Kouadri , Mahmoud Qusay H.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a context-based approach for Web services personalization so that user preferences are accommodated. Preferences are of different types, varying from when the execution of a Web service should start to where the outcome of this execution should be delivered according to user location. Besides user preferences, it will be discussed in this chapter that the computing resources on which the Web services operate have an impact on their personalization. Indeed, resources schedule the execution requests that originate from multiple Web services. To track the personalization of a Web service from a temporal perspective (i.e., what did happen, what is happening, and what will happen), three types of contexts are devised and referred to as user context, Web service context, and resource context.
Audio Watermarking Through Parametric Synthesis Models
Authors: Liu Yi-Wen
Published: May 2011

This chapter promotes the use of parametric synthesis models in digital audio watermarking. It argues that, because human auditory perception is not a linear process, the optimal hiding of binary data in digital audio signals should consider parametric transforms that are generally nonlinear. To support this argument, an audio watermarking algorithm based on aligning frequencies of spectral peaks to grid points is presented as a case study; its robustness is evaluated and benefits are discussed. Toward the end, research directions are suggested, including watermark-aided sound source segregation, cocktail watermarking, and counter-measure against arithmetic collusive attacks.
Emissions Permits Auctions
Authors: Posada Marta
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the authors demonstrate with three relevant issues that Agent Based Modeling (ABM) is very useful to design emissions permits auctions and to forecast emission permits prices. They argue that ABM offers a more efficient approach to auction design than the usual mechanistic models. The authors set up the essential components of any market institution far beyond supply and demand. They build an ABM for the emissions permits auction of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and demonstrate why the EPA failed. In the second experiment they show that in a competitive and efficient auction, the Continuous Double Auction, there is room for traders learning and strategic behavior, thus clearing the perfect market paradox. In the third experiment they build an ABM of the Spanish electricity market to get CO2 emissions prices forecasts that are more accurate than those obtained with econometric or mechanistic models.
Reshaping the Structure of Learning Objects in the Light of Metacognition
Authors: Valenti Salvatore , Falsetti Carla , Ramazzotti Sulmana , Leo Tommaso
Published: May 2011

This paper is aimed to re-discuss the organization of Learning Objects in the realm of current research on metacognition. After a discussion on the structure of Learning Objects in the light of current standardization initiatives, a new model is proposed that explicitly introduces the representation of the Learning Design, expressed in terms of Metacognitive Framework and of Navigational Aids. Then, an example of the proposed structure put in practice is discussed, by showing the metacognitive framework for a Learning Object devoted to the fan-plate system (a basic experiment in a course on Automatic Controls). In the last section, a Learning Content Management System currently under development, which natively implements our model of Learning Object, is presented.
In the Future
Authors: Straub Richard
Published: May 2011

Earning and learning go hand-in-hand. In a business environment that is constantly growing and changing due to new innovations, advanced technology and market conditions, organizations must find new ways to enable rapid responses to the needs of their customers and the marketplace. This means having an adequately educated workforce that will not only respond to evolving issues, but even foresee upcoming trends and proactively pursue these arising challenges.
Improving Web Clickstream Analysis
Authors: Baldini Paolo , Giudici Paolo
Published: May 2011

Every time a user links up to a web site, the server keeps track of all the transactions accomplished in a log file. What is captured is the "click flow" (clickstream) of the mouse and the keys used by the user during the navigation inside the site. Usually every click of the mouse corresponds to the viewing of a web page. The objective of this chapter is to show how web clickstream data can be used to understand the most likely paths of navigation in a web site, with the aim of predicting, possibly on-line, which pages will be seen, having seen a specific path of other pages before. Such analysis can be very useful to understand, for instance, what is the probability of seeing a page of interest (such as the buying page in an e-commerce site) coming from another page. Or what is the probability of entering (or exiting) the web site from any particular page. From a methodological viewpoint, we present two main research contributions. On one hand we show how to improve the efficiency of the Apriori algorithm; on the other hand we show how Markov chain models can be usefully developed and implemented for web usage mining. In both cases we compare the results obtained with classical association rules algorithms and models.