bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Campus Cloud Storage and Preservation
Authors: Jiang Jinlei , Huang Xiaomeng , Wu Yongwei , Yang Guangwen
Published: January 2013

We are now living in the era of big data. The large volume of data raises a lot of issues related to data storage and management, stimulating the emergence of Cloud storage. Unlike traditional storage systems such as SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network Attached Storage), Cloud storage is delivered over a network and has such features as easy to scale and easy to manage. With Cloud storage shielding complex technical details such as storage capacity, data location, data availability, reliability and security, users can then concentrate on their business rather than IT (Information Technology) system maintenance. However, it is not an easy task to develop a Cloud storage system because multiple factors are involved. In this chapter, the authors show their experience in the design and implementation of a Cloud storage system. They detail its key components, namely the distributed file system Carrier and the data sharing service Corsair. A case study is also given on its application at Tsinghua University.
An Infrastructure-as-a-Service Cloud
Authors: Song Weijia , Xiao Zhen
Published: January 2013

Cloud computing allows business customers to elastically scale up and down their resource usage based on needs. This feature eliminates the dilemma of planning IT infrastructures for Cloud users, where under-provisioning compromises service quality while over-provisioning wastes investment as well as electricity. It offers virtually infinite resource. It also made the desirable “pay as you go” accounting model possible. The above touted gains in the Cloud model come from on-demand resource provisioning technology. In this chapter, the authors elaborate on such technologies incorporated in a real IaaS system to exemplify how Cloud elasticity is implemented. It involves the resource provisioning technologies in hypervisor, Virtual Machine (VM) migration scheduler and VM replication. The authors also investigate the load prediction algorithm for its significant impacts on resource allocation.
Survivable Mapping of Virtual Networks onto a Shared Substrate Network
Authors: Anand Vishal
Published: January 2013

The virtualization of both servers and substrate networks will enable the future Internet architecture to support a variety of Cloud computing services and architectures, and prevent its ossification. Since multiple virtual networks (VN) or virtual infrastructure (VI) and services now share the resources of the same underlying network in a network virtualization environment, it is important that efficient techniques are developed for the mapping of the VNs onto the substrate network. Furthermore, due to the sharing of resources, the survivable design of VNs is also very important, since now even small failures in the substrate network will cause the disruption of a large number of VNs that may be mapped on to the substrate network. In this work, the author studies the problem of survivable virtual network mapping (SVNM) and first formulates the problem using mixed integer linear programming (MILP). The author then devises two kinds of algorithms for solving the SVNM problem efficiently: (1) Lagrangian relaxation-based algorithms including LR-SVNM-M and LR-SVNM-D and (2) Heuristic algorithms including H-SVNM-D and H-SVNM-M. The author then compares the performance of the algorithms with other VI mapping algorithms under various performance metrics using simulation. The simulation results and analysis show that the algorithms can be used to balance the tradeoff between time efficiency and mapping cost.
Reliability Analysis of Service Composition with Service Pools and Optimal Configuration of Service Pool Size
Authors: He Pan , Xie Qi
Published: January 2013

The reliability of applications in Cloud will be highly affected by the reliability of underlying service component. Service pools with redundant services are mainly used to improve the reliability of service composition. This chapter proposes an optimal service pool size configuration method aiming at minimizing the overall cost or response time of service composition while meeting certain reliability constraints. The reliability, cost, and response time analysis of service composition with multiple service pools is first analyzed using probability analysis method and architecture-based approach. After that, the optimization problem is presented and classified into three categories. For single-objective problems, a dynamic programming algorithm is presented to get near-optimal solutions. For multi-objective problems, a hybrid genetic algorithm is proposed to search nondominated sets of solutions. This hybrid genetic algorithm employs a sensitivity-based local search operator. Empirical studies results showed that the algorithms could find optimal solutions for the three kinds of problems and they outperformed the exiting approaches including greedy selection method and traditional genetic algorithms.
Internet-Based Virtual Computing Infrastructure for Cloud Computing
Authors: Hardy James , Liu Lu , Lei Cui , Li Jianxin
Published: January 2013

Virtualisation is massively important in computing and continues to develop. This chapter discusses and evaluates the virtualisation technologies and in particular, a state-of-art system called iVIC (the Internet-based Virtual Computing) developed by Beihang University, China as it provides an all-in-one example of many of the major headline Cloud Computing titles of SaaS, IaaS, and HaaS. The chapter considers several virtualization packages which are either commercial, community, or experimental, before focusing on iVIC, a virtual machine cloning system that may be beneficial in a learning or office environment. The chapter introduces a test environment which is used to assess the performance of the iVIC process and the virtual machines created. Power requirements of virtual, as opposed to physical machines, are compared and evaluated. The chapter closes with conclusions regarding virtualisation and iVIC.
Formalized Informal Learning
Authors: Levinsen Karin Tweddell , Sørensen Birgitte Holm
Published: January 2013

Longitudinal research projects into social practices are both subject to and capture changes in society, meaning that research is conducted in a fluid context and that new research questions appear during the project’s life cycle. In the present study emerging new performances and uses of ICT are examined and the relation between network society competences, learners’ informal learning strategies and ICT in formalized school settings over time is studied. The authors find that aspects of ICT like multimodality, intuitive interaction design and instant feedback invites an informal bricoleur approach. When integrated into certain designs for teaching and learning, this allows for Formalized Informal Learning and support is found for network society competences building.
Reconciling Culture and Digital Literacy in the United Arab Emirates
Authors: Jewels Tony , Albon Rozz
Published: January 2013

For a number of years, there has been a concerted effort by the United Arab Emirates to take a prominent role in introducing e-business initiatives throughout the Gulf region, and this effort has translated into widespread access of internet technology for its own citizens. The country, in setting out to become a hub for foreign and domestic companies, realized that to achieve these goals it must provide appropriate e-business frameworks and infrastructures, which it has successfully done. Although, while not the only means of acquiring digital literacy, regular exposure to the internet does contribute to gaining these necessary 21st century skills. It might be expected that with such widespread access to the internet the population would contribute to becoming digitally competent. Using an ethnographic case study methodology, this paper investigates issues contributing to what might be a new form of digital divide; cultural issues which limit the acquisition of such digital skills.
Transformation of Individual Learning through Informatics and Information Technology Activities in Primary School
Authors: Dagiene Valentina , Grabauskiene Vaiva
Published: January 2013

The topic of the individual learning conditions creation can be analysed from the technological as well as pedagogical side. In both cases there is the same fundamental point: how to create valuable and as much as possible natural learning environment? The experience in the application of technologies for personalisation, analysed in scientific literature, reveals newer possibilities for the individual activities support. This encourages taking a different route in analysing individual learning – to interdisciplinary combine the content of close concepts. The paper deals with basic concepts of interdisciplinary content analysis – informatics and information technology impact to an individual learning in primary school.
Development of ICT Competency in Pre-Service Teacher Education
Authors: Dagiene Valentina
Published: January 2013

Starting from the key competencies for a knowledge society, this paper examines the information and communication technology (ICT) competency needed by teachers for effective teaching in the 21st-century. The paper analyzes the existing pre-service education programmes for teachers’ ICT competency in Lithuanian universities and colleges, self-evaluation of future teachers of their technological and pedagogical ICT competency, and comparison of these results with the course requirements for the teachers’ educational ICT literacy, based on the existing Lithuanian requirements for teachers’ pedagogical ICT literacy programmes. The paper is based on the data of the research study “Teachers’ Training on ICT Application in Education” developed by the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics in 2009. Conclusions and recommendations of the study have been proposed to implement deeper content-based modules for pedagogical ICT competency and skills in all-level pre-service teacher education as well as in-service training courses.
Technological Literacy in the Profile of Skills of University Professor in the New European Higher Education System
Authors: Nuzzaci Antonella
Published: January 2013

This article describes the new requirements of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) - international and cross-cultural, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that are important in all fields of university studies and take on a central role for learning and teaching. The literature review showed that, despite the considerable attention focused on the technological know-how of university teaching, few studies have examined the characteristics of these actors. The purpose is to focus more on teachers, clearly defining the technological skills necessary to develop the new European System of Higher Education in order to facilitate the development of skills, general learning, disciplinary, and professional digital education. This paper analyzes why this adaptation is necessary, the difficulties encountered, the objectives, and the response of teachers to these changes. On the other hand, university education acts on three fronts: the integration and use of new educational technologies in universities, the European convergence and application of ICT, the innovation and education needed to bridge the gap between universities, and teachers facing reality, both socially and professionally. This study contributes to the debate on the interactions between academic literacy, technological skills, and employment prospects for university teachers.
Developing and Managing Digital/Technology Literacy and Effective Learning Skills in Adult Learners
Authors: Hsu Jeffrey , Wang Zhongxian , Hamilton Karin
Published: January 2013

The needs of adult learners are different from those of traditional undergraduate students, and programs must be designed to meet this need. In particular, digital and technology literacy needs, including general computing skills, computerized communications, online and distance learning, and Web 2.0 tools make navigating coursework an additional challenge. In this paper, the authors examine the technology and digital literacy needs and backgrounds of adult learner students and discuss research on the interaction between technology and adult learner education. Using the features of intensive weekend classroom sessions, on-line distance learning, and specialized teaching methods, an improved learning environment tailored to unique needs and career goals can be offered to business undergraduate adults. An important component is the development of technology and digital literacy skills to “fill the gaps” of students who may have extensive business or working experience, but are less than proficient in the use of technology. More depth and analysis is given to the following areas: digital and technology skills and knowledge improvement, pedagogical features, the use of intensive weekend and evening sessions, and the role of distance learning to supplement the classroom sessions.
Blended Collaborative Learning through a Wiki-Based Project
Authors: Roussinos Dimitrios , Jimoyiannis Athanassios
Published: January 2013

Wikis are currently gaining in popularity in schools and higher education institutions and they are widely promoted as collaborative tools supporting students’ active learning. This paper reports on the investigation of university students’ beliefs and perceptions of a wiki authoring activity, designed to support blended and collaborative learning. The study was administered in the context of an authentic coursework project activity in a first semester university course on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), attended by 47 first year students. Research findings indicated that the students in the sample were generally positive about the collaborative experience offered through the wiki and the consequent learning outcomes. Students’ perceptions of the functionality and usability of the wiki environment were also positive. They considered the wiki as an effective and easy to use technology. In overall, they evaluated positively the wiki assignment, as well as the technical and learning support they received on-line, through the wiki pages, and by their instructors during the class sessions.
Hybrid Wireless Networks for E-Learning and Digital Literacy
Authors: Abbasi Munir , Stergioulas Lampros K.
Published: January 2013

Today, satellite communication networks are being integrated into the infrastructure of modern Terrestrial communication networks and becoming popular for the delivery of educational content and data, as well as education-centric services, including information, tele-conferencing, entertainment, or “edutainment” services. With fresh demand for new services and applications, it is becoming essential that wireless network architecture seamlessly interoperate with new and existing technologies, protocols and standards. This paper presents recent work on the use of hybrid wireless network infrastructures for delivering tele-education and e-learning applications to remote communities by combining a variety of satellite, terrestrial and wireless technologies, and provides the results from live scenarios carried out employing various methods of interoperability testing. The analysis of the results examines a number of different issues such as delay, jitter, packet loss, latency, throughput measurement, and bandwidth. By combining satellite and terrestrial (wireless) technologies, full coverage and high capacity can be achieved for true broadband services for delivering educational content. The interoperability among such diverse networks imposes a number of challenges regarding service provision and management.
Use of Information Technology in Organizational Learning
Authors: Holt Lila , Beard Jeffrey , Lee Debra S.
Published: January 2013

Education and development in the workplace that promotes continual improvement is vital for sustainability and performance excellence for 21st century organizations. Likewise, organizational learning has become a focal point for organizations to quickly adapt to global markets and dynamic economies. Using two theoretical frameworks, the 2010 and 2011 National Baldrige Award Winners’ applications and websites are examined to better understand how technology can support organizational learning. Information technologies are classified through the use of Huber’s (1991) constructs, while Argyris and Schön’s (1978) double-loop learning theory becomes a foundation for examining continuous improvement within organizations. Results indicate technology is an integral part of the Baldrige Award Winners’ day-to-day processes and the improvement thereof is a focal point for these organizations. While technology itself does not create a winning organization, appropriate use of technology enables an organization to track the processes that lead to customer satisfaction, thus enabling the organization to be both innovative and agile in the global workplace.
The Impact of New Technologies on Professional Development
Authors: Meltzer Sarah T.
Published: January 2013

Professional development in schools is not a new concept; however, the impact of new technologies in the past two decades has shown it is important to incorporate research-based strategies in order to be effective. While strategies for curriculum-focused trainings may have been effective in the past, technology-focused training must take a different approach in the 21st century. Effective professional development will positively impact student achievement and is critical for sustainable school reform. This chapter addresses the importance of developing a new learning environment conducive to supporting professional development in technology. Key strategies necessary to support students’ needs in the 21st century are explained. Without an emphasis on specific activities and opportunities throughout the phases of planning and implementation, professional development will not be sustainable and student achievement will not be impacted.
Examining Adult Learning Assumptions and Theories in Technology-Infused Communities and Professions
Authors: Parker Judith
Published: January 2013

Adult learning in today’s society is primarily focused on the needs of adults as they function in their communities and professions. Adult learning principles and theories have been the foundation of adult education practice for over a century. However, a review of the historical context reveals that this new technology-infused learning landscape is dramatically different from its predecessor. This makes a reexamination of these ideas important for their future application. This chapter will reexamine the adult-learning principles of transformative learning, andragogy, and critical reflection in this technology-infused world and propose a new paradigm and corresponding practices for the new learning landscape in communities and professions.
Informatization and Digital Citizenship
Authors: Farmer Lesley S. J.
Published: January 2013

This chapter examines the bases for informatization and describes the conditions for meaningful and responsible participation in the informatized society, both in the workplace and in the civic world in general. Where eighty percent of U.S. labor is concentrated in the service sector, and technology permeates workplace functions, society is becoming informatized: driven by information. Information and digital literacy are required worker skills. Additionally, workers need to use information and technology ethically. Governments and workplaces need to set the conditions for knowledgeable, responsible, and participatory citizens and workers so that institutions and society as a whole can improve. Because informatization intersects with globalization, responsible cross-cultural interaction also needs to be addressed.
Technology Use and Its Changing Role in Community Education
Authors: Farmer Lesley S. J.
Published: January 2013

Technology, particularly as it supports interactive learning communities, now plays a central role in community education. While technology affords access to information more efficiently than ever before, it also requires additional skills. For technology to play out its role effectively, community educators need to design instruction, curriculum, and programs that offer customizable learning and socially rich learning environments. Every effort needs to be made to make sure that learners have opportunities to access and learn with technology. Successful community efforts to incorporate technology tend to include these factors: local needs, local resources, local broad-based planning, partnerships among organizations, accessible and appropriate technologies, opportunities for community building and socializing, and locally meaningful content and outcomes.
Technological Advancements Usage
Authors: Adapa Sujana
Published: January 2013

Technological advancements have provided many advantages to individuals, businesses, and communities throughout the world. However, technological advancements have also caused challenges. This chapter focuses on one particular banking service innovation that is being used by many individuals and businesses throughout the world on a day-to-day basis. This study relates to the Australian context and explores the variations in the demographic variables in determining the key factors responsible for the adoption or non-adoption of Internet banking. The data presented in this chapter relates to a part of a large survey carried out in a busy shopping mall. Results obtained are discussed and possible solutions and recommendations that are critical from the retail banking management’s perspective have been provided.
Media and Technology Integration through Media Literacy Education
Authors: Redmond Theresa A.
Published: January 2013

This chapter reports case study research that investigated teachers’ use of media and technology in a seventh grade media literacy class. The purpose of this study was to learn what media and technology were used in teaching practice and how they were used. Findings identify media literacy education as a subject of study and way of teaching that provides an entryway for information and communication technologies (ICTs) to be actively incorporated into school curricula and multimodal learning. Media and technology in this case were integrated through constructivist teaching of media literacy education that supported twenty-first century skills, including critical analysis and evaluation of texts in all forms and communication through project-based media production. However, the results also revealed challenges at both local and national levels that influenced the integration of media and technology into teaching and learning.
Infrastructure-Based Research Digital Libraries
Authors: Candela Leonardo , Castelli Donatella , Manghi Paolo , Pagano Pasquale
Published: January 2013

Digital Libraries have evolved from a digital counterpart of traditional libraries to highly dynamic environments conceived to provide a community with the data and services needed to accomplish its tasks. This trend is particularly frequent in the context of scientific research communities, whose members are scattered among multiple organizations across the world, with requirements that are very large, multi-disciplinary, and evolving with innovation. The realization of such Research Digital Libraries calls for innovative approaches, capable of handling the inherent complexity of such systems while keeping their realization and maintenance costs under sustainable thresholds. Digital Library Infrastructures have been recently proposed as suitable candidates for the realization of Research Digital Libraries. They build on service-oriented infrastructure technologies to offer an environment where organizations can share and exchange their data and service resources to grow in synergy, exploiting an economy of scale approach. This chapter describes the peculiar challenges that designers, developers, and administrators have to face when realizing Research Digital Libraries, and presents the concepts and technologies of Digital Library Infrastructure as possible solutions to these issues.
Issues and Challenges of Integrating Digital Library Services in Blended Learning Environments
Authors: Amin Norasieh Md , Ramly Ruzita , Gerbic Philippa
Published: January 2013

Research into digital libraries has been carried out from two perspectives being libraries as contents and as services/organizations. The authors approach this topic from the service perspective. They argue that existing academic libraries in most parts of the world have augmented their services to include digital library services. This chapter discusses the development and components of a digital library and types of digital library services. It also discusses partial research findings on the integration of digital library services in blended learning environments at Open University Malaysia (OUM), focusing on issues and challenges encountered by librarians, which are: the need to provide both digital and physical resources, synchronous and asynchronous interaction with users, and engagement in continuous improvement. Information professionals at tertiary institutions are recommended to: keep abreast with the changing learning environments, maintain cooperation with users, and equip themselves with the new user-centric roles, knowledge, and skills that are required in this era of technological advancement.
Wrestling with Mosasaurs
Authors: Weiss Andrew
Published: January 2013

The purpose of the Sternberg Museum-Forsyth Library Fossil Digitization Pilot Project was to determine the feasibility of conducting a large-scale fossil digitization program at Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. Conducted in early 2011, the pilot examined such aspects as fossil digitization techniques, metadata development and best practices, scope and timelines, and overall digitization goals. This chapter focuses on the digitization landscape of the natural sciences, including an overview of major fossil digitization projects and analyses of issues related to these projects. Conclusions from the Sternberg-Forsyth pilot are also recounted and discussed. Also included is an appendix outlining costs and time needed for the recommended small-scale digitization project that will begin in late 2011 or early 2012.
Evaluation Constructs and Criteria for Digital Libraries
Authors: Joo Soohyung , Xie Iris
Published: January 2013

The intent of this chapter is to identify constructs and criteria for Digital Library (DL) evaluation based on document analysis. Eighty-five relevant articles and five websites were reviewed to generate the evaluation constructs and criteria. The findings consist of ten constructs, including collection, information organization, interface design, system performance, effects on users, user engagement, services, preservation, sustainability/administration, and context of use with associated criteria for each dimension. In addition, this chapter discusses challenges in DL evaluation research and practices.
A Cognitive Task Analysis Approach for Usability Evaluation of Digital Libraries
Authors: Li Ping
Published: January 2013

This chapter focuses on the usability evaluation of Digital Libraries (DL). The research literature in this area is reviewed. The strengths and weaknesses of the traditional evaluation techniques are discussed. A Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) approach is proposed based on its applicability for the iterative and formative usability evaluation of digital libraries. The theoretical framework and features of CTA are explained. The advantages of the proposed approach for the usability evaluation of digital libraries are elucidated and the procedure of carrying out this type of evaluation is detailed. Future directions for DL usability evaluation, especially for the purpose of iterative design process, are recommended.
Enterprise 2.0 in a Digital Library
Authors: Sofronijevic Adam
Published: January 2013

The chapter presents the concept of Enterprise 2.0 in a library environment. This concept describes the use of Web 2.0 tools and approaches by organizations in order to foster internal functions, e.g. communication, collaboration, innovativeness. Various aspects of this concept are tackled including implementation of Web 2.0 technologies for business purposes in a library. Importance of intrapreneurship for implementation of Enterprise 2.0 is suggested. Short theoretical reviews on both intrapreneusrhip and Enterprise 2.0 are followed by some general conclusions on the relationship between these two concepts based on the research results gathered in libraries in Serbia. Results from the ongoing European study on awareness and implementation of Enterprise 2.0 are also presented. The chapter is a valuable companion for anyone interested in the practical aspects of Enterprise 2.0 implementation in a library and presents an addition to librarianship theory by introducing a new idea on the relation between Enterprise 2.0 implementation and intrapreneurship.
Model-Driven Architecture and IT Governance Ontology
Authors: Mueller Carsten
Published: January 2013

In this article a research vision which links the disciplines Model-Driven Architecture and IT Governance is presented. Model transformation and semantic mapping are enabling technologies for new, advanced solutions to address IT (Information Technology) Governance interoperability. In a prototype the generation of a model is shown based on an IT Governance domain.
Innovative Business Opportunities and Smart Business Management Techniques from Green Cloud TPS
Authors: Vijaykumar S. , Rajkarthick K. S. , Priya J.
Published: January 2013

Presently, technology plays a vital role in the field of business to acquire its position in the global market. The authors’ proposal brings a smart way of making business by the eco-friendly and economical friendly Cloud TPS. Cloud TPS provides advance features compare with cloud computing because Cloud TPS bears with ACID property which is not acquired in cloud computing. It reveals the secret behind it and gives opportunities for students, house hold businesses and corporation in this fourth version of the authors’ research bringing you the most advanced technology and its latest opportunities. In addition it deals with how it supports to reduce global warming and an overview to which way society can be able to gives their pc to cloud and ways to earn money. The authors classified the opportunities into three categories of opportunities. An additional supporting feature behind this business opportunity is reducing global warming, as well as satisfy the RRD concept and gives an idea to utilize it in an efficient manner, which will be reveal by this paper as we take you to the next generation computing based business opportunities.
Supporting Empathetic Boundary Spanning in Participatory Workshops with Scenarios and Personas
Authors: Salmi Anna , Pöyry-Lassila Päivi , Kronqvist Juha
Published: January 2013

This paper examines the employment of design methods in combination with SimLab™ process simulation method in the context of developing IT-based support and processes for the fuzzy-front end innovation in a real-world organizational setting. The authors bring together theories and concepts from the fields of design studies and knowledge management across boundaries. They use these theories, rooted in the practice-based perspective, as analytical lenses in the case study. Acting at the interface of different knowledge domains, the authors look into the role of empathy-laden boundary objects as potential enablers of boundary spanning. The authors present empirically grounded findings from an ongoing research project with an emphasis on the methods and techniques employed. Their empirical data consists of recorded and transcribed group discussions from a participatory workshop, and individual thematic interviews have been used as raw material for constructing the process map, personas and scenarios (the boundary objects). The data was analyzed applying qualitative content analysis with an interpretative approach. Their findings are explored more closely in the article.
GA on IR
Authors: Al-Dallal Ammar , Abdul-Wahab Rasha S.
Published: January 2013

Increasing the growth rates of websites’ number has led to the challenge of assisting Web customers in finding appropriate details from the Internet using an intelligent search engine. Information retrieval (IR) is an essential and useful strategy for Web users; thus, different strategies and techniques are designed for such purpose. Currently, the focus on the usefulness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been improved with IR. One AI area is Evolutionary Computation (EC), which is based on designs of natural selection. A traditional and important strategy in EC is Genetic Algorithm (GA); this paper adopts the GA technique to enhance the retrieval of HTML documents. This improvement is obtained by creating a modern evaluation function and applying a hybrid crossover operator. The proposed evaluation function is based on term proximity, keyword probability within the document, and HTML tag weight query. Experimental results are compared with two well known evaluation function functions applied in IR domain which are Okapi-BM25 and Bayesian interface network model. The results demonstrate a good level of enhancement to the recall and precision. In addition, the documents retrieved by the proposed system were more accurate and relevant to the queries than that retrieved by other models.
Anti-Synchronization of Pan and Lorenz-Lu-Liu-Cai Chaotic Systems by Active Nonlinear Control
Authors: Khan Ayub , Prasad Ram Pravesh
Published: January 2013

In this paper, the authors investigate the anti-synchronization of chaotic Pan, Lorenz, and Lu systems and anti-synchronization of Liu and Cai systems. Global exponential synchronization of Pan, Lorenz, Lu, Liu, and Cai chaotic systems are established by using Lyapunov stability theory. Numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization schemes for Pan, Lorenz, Lu, Liu, and Cai chaotic systems.
On Quasi Discrete Topological Spaces in Information Systems
Authors: Herawan Tutut
Published: January 2013

This paper presents an alternative way for constructing a topological space in an information system. Rough set theory for reasoning about data in information systems is used to construct the topology. Using the concept of an indiscernibility relation in rough set theory, it is shown that the topology constructed is a quasi-discrete topology. Furthermore, the dependency of attributes is applied for defining finer topology and further characterizing the roughness property of a set. Meanwhile, the notions of base and sub-base of the topology are applied to find attributes reduction and degree of rough membership, respectively.
Consumer Perceived Value and Brand Loyalty
Authors: Verma Harsh V. , Kainth Jyoti , Gupta Priya
Published: January 2013

Consumer Perceived Value (CPV) perceived to have been derived from the consumption of product or service is the Value that a consumer believes that he receives for a certain amount of money. This study was conceptualized so as to understand the most important CPV dimensions and its role in predicting Attitudinal Brand Loyalty in pre purchase situations in the Indian Retail Banking context on the basis of SPERVAL (Services Perceived Value) Scale. The empirical study was based on descriptive research design (cross-sectional) and used questionnaire as the key research instrument. The questionnaire was administered to 100 respondents using a mix of judgmental and convenience non-probability sampling methods. The most important CPV dimensions, which were also the major predictors towards attitudinal brand loyalty in the context of Indian retail banking, were Functional Value, Economic Value, After Sale Value and Epistemic Value. The study has implications for retail banking marketers and can help them understand the consumer psychology behind evaluating the product offering. The service providers can also use the findings from the research to build on their competitive advantage by developing core competencies in strategic arenas. The limitations of the study included limited coverage with respect to sample size.
Factors Affecting Customer Linking Capabilities and Customer Satisfaction in CRM
Authors: Al-Refaie Abbas , Li Ming-Hsien , Ko Jong-Hwan
Published: January 2013

The implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) is increasingly taking centre stage in organizations’ corporate strategies. This research examines the relationships between human resources, customer orientation, service responsiveness, customer linking capabilities, provider reliability, loyalty, complaint management, customer satisfaction, content usefulness, and content efficiency. To achieve this purpose, two models related to CRM, including customer linking capabilities and customer satisfaction models are built. The data is collected from guests of 3-star, 4-star, 5-star hotels in Jordan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is then used for empirical analyses. The results of the first model reveal that: (i) human resource and content usefulness are positively related with service responsiveness and (ii) service responsiveness and customer orientation positively influence customer linking capabilities. While, the results of the second model highlight that complaint management, provider reliability, customer linking capabilities and content efficiency positively influence customer satisfaction. Thus, decision makers in Jordanian hotel industry should continually consider these relations when planning new business activities and improving existing ones.
Designing a New Integrated IT Governance and IT Management Framework Based on Both Scientific and Practitioner Viewpoint
Authors: Pereira Ruben , Mira da Silva Miguel
Published: January 2013

IT Governance (ITG) has been recognized as a CIO top-10 issue for more than five years and has risen in priority between 2007 and 2009. There are several Frameworks to help organizations in ITG implementation but these lack scientific viewpoint, are complex, and also overlap each other. However, besides the existence of several frameworks to help organizations in ITG implementation, most organizations keep designing their own Framework. Such statements reinforce the possibility of improvements in the existing Frameworks. In this paper the authors make a literature review to leverage ITG Contingency factors, ITG general guidelines and main ITG and IT Management (ITM) areas in order to provide a scientific viewpoint validation. Therefore, they integrate their artefacts and propose a new integrated ITG framework. The authors then evaluate their artefacts with expert’s interviews so as to provide practitioner viewpoint validation and also map the authors’ artefacts with current theories. Finally, they conclude their research with main contributions and future work.
A Case on ERP Custom Add-On in Taiwan
Authors: Ng Celeste See-Pui
Published: January 2013

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are complete and complex information systems that consist of firms’ business best practices. This study examines an ERP custom-made add-on/bolt-on system of a medium-sized computer memory producer with global business units around the world, and investigates implications of the customized system from the perspectives of system fit, user attitude and acceptance, and subsequent maintenance and upgrade costs. The authors adopted a rich descriptive case study method and conduct a cost and benefit analysis prediction of subsequent maintenance and upgrade costs on the system. The empirical data indicates that although developing an add-on may create integration problems and/or compatibility problems with the ERP system, in overall, the system users accept the system better as the add-on helps in improving their job performance. Also, even though having a custom development does create additional costs in this case study, this does not necessarily cost more than not having it. Instead, having an idiosyncratic system may actually transfer a lot of benefits to the company. This is the first empirical study showing why custom development is favored by SMEs. These results and implications can be valuable to IT managers and top management when making ERP customization decisions.
Performance Analysis of Temperature Management Approaches in Networks-on-Chip
Authors: Wegner Tim , Gag Martin , Timmermann Dirk
Published: January 2013

With the progress of deep submicron technology, power consumption and temperature related issues have become dominant factors for chip design. Therefore, very large-scale integrated systems like Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) are exposed to an increasing thermal stress. On the one hand, this necessitates effective mechanisms for thermal management. On the other hand, application of thermal management is accompanied by disturbance of system integrity and degradation of system performance. In this paper the authors propose to precompute and proactively manage on-chip temperature of systems based on Networks-on-Chip (NoCs). Thereby, traditional reactive approaches, utilizing the NoC infrastructure to perform thermal management, can be replaced. This results not only in shorter response times for application of management measures and a reduction of temperature and thermal imbalances, but also in less impairment of system integrity and performance. The systematic analysis of simulations conducted for NoC sizes ranging from 2x2 to 4x4 proves that under certain conditions the proactive approach is able to mitigate the negative impact of thermal management on system performance while still improving the on-chip temperature profile.
International Symposium on System-on-Chip 2011
Authors: Nurmi Jari
Published: January 2013

International Symposium on System-on-Chip 2011 was the 13th SoC event in Tampere, Finland. This paper discusses briefly the history of the event which is technically co-sponsored by IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. The main focus is in an overview of the year 2011 contents, and in particular in its tutorial and invited talks.
Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network Design with Recovery of Glass Containers
Authors: Golara Sina , Mousavi Nasim , Tarokh Mohammad Jafar , Hosseinzadeh Mostafa
Published: January 2013

Reverse logistics (RL) and closed-loop supply chains (CLSC) have recently received enormous attention due to growing environmental concerns and legislations coupled with the lucrative business potential. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a closed-loop supply chain network design model capable of recovering glass containers. A multi-period multi-product mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed to maximize profit. The strategic design of the supply chain is dealt simultaneously with the tactical planning of its operation, which covers procurement, production, storage, distribution, take-back, reprocessing, reuse, and recycling. To illustrate the efficiency and practicability of the model, it is applied to a real-world case of beverage supply chain where the glass containers are either re-used or recycled into their original form, as raw materials. Finally, sensitivity analyses, from a financial perspective, have been conducted to reveal the determinants of profitable product recovery and grasp their managerial implications. The analyses showed that return rate and return acquisition cost have determinant impact on the economic viability of product recovery practice.
Factors Influencing Specialization vs. Diversification Decision Making
Authors: Folinas Dimitris , Altharwa Mohammed
Published: January 2013

This paper explores the role of various economical, financial, and strategic forces influencing firms towards diversification and specialization decision making within the Saudi Arabian manufacturing industry. Surveying 100 decision makers in the industrial cities of Riyadh using questionnaires developed for both groups, the study attempts to identify the factors that had the greatest impact on firm performance based on firm returns on investment. Several factors were found significant; first, attempts of specialization were found associated with risk avoidance and managers craving to achieve industry dominant economic features, whilst results show an increased concern among diversified firm decision makers towards changes in import and export policies and regulations. Moreover, industry type was found effective in managerial responses as they weigh the role of the factors presented to the direction of the expansion made.
Towards Large-Scale Unsupervised Relation Extraction from the Web
Authors: Min Bonan , Shi Shuming , Grishman Ralph , Lin Chin-Yew
Published: January 2013

The Web brings an open-ended set of semantic relations. Discovering the significant types is very challenging. Unsupervised algorithms have been developed to extract relations from a corpus without knowing the relation types in advance, but most rely on tagging arguments of predefined types. One recently reported system is able to jointly extract relations and their argument semantic classes, taking a set of relation instances extracted by an open IE (Information Extraction) algorithm as input. However, it cannot handle polysemy of relation phrases and fails to group many similar (“synonymous”) relation instances because of the sparseness of features. In this paper, the authors present a novel unsupervised algorithm that provides a more general treatment of the polysemy and synonymy problems. The algorithm incorporates various knowledge sources which they will show to be very effective for unsupervised relation extraction. Moreover, it explicitly disambiguates polysemous relation phrases and groups synonymous ones. While maintaining approximately the same precision, the algorithm achieves significant improvement on recall compared to the previous method. It is also very efficient. Experiments on a real-world dataset show that it can handle 14.7 million relation instances and extract a very large set of relations from the Web.
Predicting Lexical Answer Types in Open Domain QA
Authors: Gliozzo Alfio Massimiliano , Kalyanpur Aditya
Published: January 2013

Automatic open-domain Question Answering has been a long standing research challenge in the AI community. IBM Research undertook this challenge with the design of the DeepQA architecture and the implementation of Watson. This paper addresses a specific subtask of Deep QA, consisting of predicting the Lexical Answer Type (LAT) of a question. Our approach is completely unsupervised and is based on PRISMATIC, a large-scale lexical knowledge base automatically extracted from a Web corpus. Experiments on the Jeopardy! data shows that it is possible to correctly predict the LAT in a substantial number of questions. This approach can be used for general purpose knowledge acquisition tasks such as frame induction from text.