bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Template for Defining Enterprise Modelling Constructs
Authors: Opdahl Andreas L. , Henderson-Sellers Brian
Published: February 2011

The paper explains the need for a standard way of defining modelling constructs from different enterprise modelling languages and proposes a template for defining enterprise modelling constructs in a way that facilitates language integration. The template is based on the Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) representation model of information systems (IS) and has been used on several existing modelling languages and frameworks. It is illustrated with definitions of constructs from the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The paper focusses on modelling constructs that represent concrete problem domains, i.e., that represent materials rather than concepts, and thus focuses on the concrete parts and aspects of enterprises.
XTOPO
Authors: Fong Joseph , Wong Hing Kwok
Published: February 2011

The need for interoperation and data exchange through the Internet makes XML a dominant standard language. Much work has been done on translating relational data into XML documents and vice versa. However, there is not an integrated method to combine them together as one technology for mass information transmission on the Internet. Furthermore, most XML-enabled database management systems can only translate a few relations into an XML document without data semantics constraints consideration, which is not sufficient for information highway on the Web. This paper presents a methodology, XTOPO, to transmit a relational database on the Internet using XML document as medium. XTOPO facilitates the translation from relational database to XML document and vice versa. XTOPO divides an XML document hierarchical structure into four different topologies—single sub-element (element, sub-element), multiple sub-elements (element, multiple sub-elements), group (element, group of sub-elements), and referral element (element, element—and captures their semantics into classification tables as a knowledge-based repository. The view of a sender company’s information in a relational database is mapped into four topological XML documents according to their data semantics constraints. The intermediate XML documents are integrated into an XML document using DOM (Document Object Model). The XML document instances are loaded into a relational database with generated Object Identity as key. The receiver company translates the XML document back to relational database for processing. The result is a mechanism of mass information transmission on the Internet for an information highway.
Data Warehousing Interoperability for the Extended Enterprise
Authors: Triantafillakis Aristides , Kanellis Panagiotis , Martakos Drakoulis
Published: February 2011

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness and identify a number of challenges regarding the issue of data warehouse interoperation in Web-based collaborative environments. Adopting system and information quality as success variables, we argue that existing works fell short of addressing complex issues that relate to their refreshment and extent far beyond view maintenance solutions within single warehouses. Considering a solution that approaches warehouse refreshment as a business process in a federation of data warehouses, we define a special kind of materialized view that emanates from such an environment, provide a roadmap for implementing the appropriate warehousing architecture, and give some preliminary empirical results.
Clustering Schema Elements for Semantic Integration of Heterogeneous Data Sources
Authors: Zhao Huimin , Ram Sudha
Published: February 2011

Interschema relationship identification (IRI), that is, determining the relationships among schema elements in heterogeneous data sources, is an important step in integrating the data sources. This article proposes a cluster analysis based approach to semi-automating the IRI process, which is typically very time-consuming and requires extensive human interaction. The authors apply multiple clustering techniques, including K-means, hierarchical clustering, and self-organizing map (SOM) neural network, to identify similar schema elements from heterogeneous data sources, based on a combination of features such as naming similarity, document similarity, schema specification, data patterns, and usage patterns. An SOM prototype the authors have developed provides users with a visualization tool for display of clustering results as well as for incremental evaluation of candidate similar elements.
On U.S. Homeland Security and Database Technology
Authors: Kim Won
Published: February 2011

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, “homeland security” has become the centerpiece of U.S. domestic and foreign policies. The number of terrorists is a tiny fraction of all the people who live in or enter the U.S. However, given the enormous consequences of a repeat of the September 11 attacks, all non-terrorists have been subjected to security measures. The cost of all the security measures includes not only the cost of human resources, deployment of defensive weaponry and technology purchases, but also the time that all people waste. One of the ways to reduce costs is to make terrorist-related intelligence more precise and accurate, so that efforts to track, arrest and deter terrorists, their supporters and movements of funds and weapons can be more precisely directed. One of the ways to make such intelligence more precise is the use of data gathered and stored in databases, and database and related technologies to query, search and mine the databases. This paper first reviews the difficulties in tracking terrorist suspects and their activities. It then examines how databases, and database and related technologies, can be used and made more effective in aiding the war against terror.
Text Mining, Names and Security
Authors: Thompson Paul
Published: February 2011

A Process Query System, a new approach to representing and querying multiple hypotheses, is proposed for cross-document co-reference and linking based on existing entity extraction, co-reference and database name-matching technologies. A crucial component of linking entities across documents is the ability to recognize when different name strings are potential references to the same entity. Given the extraordinary range of variation international names can take when rendered in the Roman alphabet, this is a daunting task. The extension of name variant matching to free text will add important text mining functionality for intelligence and security informatics’ toolkits.
Privacy-Preserving Data Mining
Authors: Thuraisingham Bhavani
Published: February 2011

This article first describes the privacy concerns that arise due to data mining, especially for national security applications. Then we discuss privacy-preserving data mining. In particular, we view the privacy problem as a form of inference problem and introduce the notion of privacy constraints. We also describe an approach for privacy constraint processing and discuss its relationship to privacy-preserving data mining. Then we give an overview of the developments on privacy-preserving data mining that attempt to maintain privacy and at the same time extract useful information from data mining. Finally, some directions for future research on privacy as related to data mining are given.
Intelligent Cache Management for Mobile Data Warehouse Systems
Authors: Huang Shi-Ming , Lin Binshan , Deng Qun-Shi
Published: February 2011

This research proposes an intelligent cache mechanism for a data warehouse system in a mobile environment. Because mobile devices can often be disconnected from the host server and due to the low bandwidth of wireless networks, it is more efficient to store query results from a mobile device in the cache. For more personal use of mobile devices, we use a data mining technique to determine the pattern from a record of previous queries. Then the data, which will be retrieved by the user, are prefetched and stored in the cache, thus, improving the query efficiency. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach with experiments using simulation. Comparison of our approach with a standard approach indicates that there is a significant advantage to using mobile data warehouse systems.
Refinement Equivalence in Model-Based Reuse
Authors: Soffer Pnina
Published: February 2011

Reuse of models assists in constructing a new model on the basis of existing knowledge by retrieving a model that matches a preliminary partial input model or some facts about the domain and adapting it to the current needs. It often employs similarity measures to identify reusable models that are structurally and semantically similar to the input model. However, in many cases, an input model, being a preliminary one, is of a higher level of abstraction than the detailed models to be retrieved, and structural similarity cannot be detected. This paper proposes the concept of refinement equivalence, which means that a detailed model is a refinement of an abstract input model. Measuring refinement equivalence rather than structural similarity enables retrieving an appropriate model, despite differences in the abstraction level between the models. The paper discusses the structural characteristics of refinement operations in Object-Process Methodology (OPM) models and presents an algorithm that detects refinement equivalence.
On the Adaptation of an Agile Information Systems Development Method
Authors: Aydin Mehmet N. , Harmsen Frank , van Slooten Kees , Stagwee Robert A.
Published: February 2011

Little specific research has been conducted to date on the adaptation of agile information systems development (ISD) methods. This article presents the work practice in dealing with the adaptation of such a method in the ISD department of one of the leading financial institutes in Europe. Two forms of method adaptation, static adaptation and dynamic adaptation, are introduced and discussed in detail. We provide some insights plus an instrument that the ISD department studied uses to deal with the dynamic method adaptation. To enhance our understanding of the observed practice, we take into account two complementary perspectives: the engineering perspective and the socio-organizational perspective. Practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.
The Knowledge Transfer Process
Authors: Kwan M. Millie , Cheung Pak-Keung
Published: February 2011

Knowledge transfer in an organization is the process through which one unit (e.g., group, department, or division) is affected by the experience of another. Yet, experience has shown that transferring knowledge, whether at the individual, group, product line, department, or division level, is usually a laborious, time-consuming, and difficult task. In this article, we review 20 recent empirical studies on knowledge transfer and suggest a four-stage process model to summarize and organize their findings. This resulted in a framework where determinants for success at each stage of the knowledge transfer process are defined. Based on this knowledge transfer framework, we propose a knowledge transfer management system that integrates current knowledge management tools and technologies to support the needs at different stages of the knowledge transfer process.
Semantic Enrichment in Knowledge Repositories
Authors: Wei Chih-Ping , Cheng Tsang-Hsiang , Pai Yi-Chung
Published: February 2011

Among various knowledge management initiatives, the creation of knowledge repositories has emerged as a prevalent approach in current knowledge management practices. In order to transfer tacit knowledge from individuals to a knowledge repository, organizations usually deploy community-based discussion forums. Typically, discussions among participants are organized into reply-replied structures, and reply semantic relationships among these discussion documents exist either explicitly or implicitly. Such relationships, once discovered or annotated in the knowledge repository, can facilitate subsequent knowledge navigation by providing a novel and more semantic mechanism and can support other organizational knowledge management activities (e.g., construction of expert networks). In this study, we propose a preliminary taxonomy of reply semantic relationships for discussion documents organized in reply-replied structures and develop a Semantic Enrichment between Knowledge-sharing documents (SEEK) technique that automatically annotates semantic relationships between reply pairs of documents. Specifically, we propose and evaluate six different feature models that combine keyword features, part-of-speech statistic features, and/or text statistic features.
Organizational Memory Management
Authors: Nilakanta Sree , Miller L. L. , Zhu Dan
Published: February 2011

As new information technologies are available to the design and implementation of organizational memory and as organizations continue to automate their business processes and collect explosive amounts of data, researchers in knowledge management need to confront new opportunities and new challenges. Some of the core issues of organizational memory management include organizational context, retention structure, knowledge taxonomy, ontology, organizational learning, and so forth. In this article, we review the literature of organizational memory management. We further present a basic framework of the technological components and their applications in organizational memory systems and discuss a number of important research issues.
Physical Modeling of Data Warehouses Using UML Component and Deployment Diagrams
Authors: Lujan-Mora Sergio , Trujillo Juan
Published: February 2011

Several approaches have been proposed to model different aspects of a Data Warehouse (DW) during recent years, such as the modeling of a DW at the conceptual and logical level, the design of the ETL (Extraction, Transformation, Loading) processes, the derivation of the DW models from the enterprise data models, and customization of a DW schema. At the end of the design, a DW has to be deployed in a database environment, requiring many decisions of a physical nature. However, few efforts have been dedicated to the modeling of the physical design of a DW from the early stages of a DW project. In this article, we argue that some physical decisions can be taken from gathering main user requirements. In this article, we present physical modeling techniques for DWs using the component diagrams and deployment diagrams of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Our approach allows the designer to anticipate important physical design decisions that may reduce the overall development time of a DW, such as replicating dimension tables, vertical and horizontal partitioning of a fact table, and the use of particular servers for certain ETL processes. Moreover, our approach allows the designer to cover all main design phases of DWs from the conceptual modeling phase to the final implementation. To illustrate our techniques, we show a case study that is implemented on top of a commercial DW management server.
Evaluating XML-Extended OLAP Queries Based on Physical Algebra
Authors: Yin Xuepeng , Pedersen Torben Bach
Published: February 2011

In today’s OLAP systems, physically integrating fast-changing data (e.g., stock quotes) into a cube is complex and time-consuming. The data is likely to be available in XML format on the World Wide Web (WWW); thus, instead of physical integration, making XML data logically federated with OLAP systems is desirable. In this article, we extend previous work on the logical federation of OLAP and XML data sources by presenting simplified query semantics, a physical query algebra, and a robust OLAP-XML query engine, as well as the query evaluation techniques. Performance experiments with a prototypical implementation suggest that the performance for OLAP-XML federations is comparable to queries on physically integrated data.
Semantics of the MibML Conceptual Modeling Grammar
Authors: Zhang Hong , Kishore Rajiv , Ramesh Ram
Published: February 2011

A conceptual modeling grammar should be based on the theory of ontology and possess clear ontological semantics to represent problem domain knowledge in a precise and consistent manner. In this paper, we follow the notion of ontological expressiveness and conduct an ontological analysis of a newly-developed conceptual modeling grammar termed MibML (Multiagent-based Integrative Business Modeling Language). The grammar is developed to respond to the emerging needs for a special-purpose conceptual modeling grammar for the MIBIS (multi-agent-based integrative business information systems) universe. We assign ontological semantics to the MibML constructs and their relationship using the BWW (Bunge Wand-Weber) model. This article provides a starting point to further develop ontological principles and step-by-step guidelines to ensure the straightforward mapping from domain knowledge into MibML modeling constructs.
Optimization of Multidimensional Aggregates in Data Warehouses
Authors: Pears Russel , Houliston Bryan
Published: February 2011

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

Although it has been widely recognized that post-deployment changes of information technology (IT) are unavoidable, little attention has been paid to the management of post-deployment IT changes. This study intends to advance our knowledge in this area. It first introduces a general framework for technology change in use, developed in an organizational study. Then, through tracking the post-deployment changes of a large workflow application, this study develops an enhanced and expanded categorization of post-deployment IT changes. The findings suggest that even custom-developed software can be plagued by misfit and that a learning-in-working perspective should be added to understand and resolve the misfit between IT and the organization. For future study, the findings of this study suggest that more efforts should be directed toward the issues of balancing system stability and volatility and continuous post-deployment communication between IT management and users.
Social Network Structures in Open Source Software Development Teams
Authors: Long Yuan , Siau Keng
Published: February 2011

Drawing on social network theories and previous studies, this research examines the dynamics of social network structures in open source software (OSS) teams. Three projects were selected from SourceForge.net in terms of their similarities as well as their differences. Monthly data were extracted from the bug tracking systems in order to achieve a longitudinal view of the interaction pattern of each project. Social network analysis was used to generate the indices of social structure. The finding suggests that the interaction pattern of OSS projects evolves from a single hub at the beginning to a core/periphery model as the projects move forward.
A Space-Efficient Protocol for Consistency of External View Maintenance on Data Warehouse Systems
Authors: Huang Shi-Ming , Yen David C. , Hsueh Hsiang-Yuan
Published: February 2011

The materialized view approach is widely adopted in implementations of data warehouse systems in or-der for efficiency purposes. In terms of the construction of a materialized data warehouse system, some managerial problems still exist to most developers and users in the view resource maintenance area in particular. Resource redundancy and data inconsistency among materialized views in a data warehouse system is a problem that many developers and users struggle with. In this article, a space-efficient protocol for materialized view maintenance with a global data view on data warehouses with embedded proxies is proposed. In the protocol set, multilevel proxy-based protocols with a data compensating mechanism are provided to certify the consistency and uniqueness of materialized data among data resources and materialized views. The authors also provide a set of evaluation experiences and derivations to verify the feasibility of proposed protocols and mechanisms. With such protocols as proxy services, the performance and space utilization of the materialized view approach will be improved. Furthermore, the consistency issue among materialized data warehouses and heterogeneous data sources can be properly accomplished by applying a dynamic compensating and synchronization mechanism. The trade-off between efficiency, storage consumption, and data validity for view maintenance tasks can be properly balanced.
Migrating Legacy Information Systems to Web Services Architecture
Authors: Li Shing-Han , Huang Shi-Ming , Yen David C. , Chang Cheng-Chun
Published: February 2011

Web services-based systems with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are widely accepted as one of the possible solutions for an enterprise information system to retain/keep its old legacy systems. Using this aforementioned architecture, enterprise information systems tend to be more flexible and agile to fit into the capricious business environment, and thus, will be easier to be integrated with other additional applications. The purpose of this manuscript is to propose a migrating solution to convert the architecture of the legacy system into SOA with a systematic approach. This proposed methodology is different from other traditional object-oriented approaches, which migrates the system to have a services-oriented focus without incorporating general objected-oriented (OO) or functional oriented feature. In this study, a case study and information capacity theory were employed to verify/validate that this approach is indeed an effective and a practicable one.
Design of a Data Model for Social Network Applications
Authors: Mitra Susanta , Bagchi Aditya , Bandyopadhyay A.K.
Published: February 2011

A social network defines the structure of a social community like an organization or institution, covering its members and their inter-relationships. Social relationships among the members of a community can be of different types like friendship, kinship, professional, academic, and so forth. Traditionally, a social network is represented by a directed graph. Analysis of graph structure representing a social network is done by the sociologists to study a community. Hardly any effort has been made to design a data model to store and retrieve social-network-related data. In this paper, an object-relational graph data model has been proposed for modeling a social network. The objective is to illustrate the power of this generic model to represent the common structural and node-based properties of different social network applications. A novel, multi-paradigm architecture has been proposed to efficiently manage the system. New structural operators have been defined in the paper and the application of these operators has been illustrated through query examples. The completeness and the minimality of the operators have also been shown.
Dimensions of UML Diagram Use
Authors: Dobing Brian , Parsons Jeffrey
Published: February 2011

The UML is an industry standard for object-oriented software engineering. However, there is little empirical evidence on how UML is used. This article reports results of a survey of UML practitioners. We found differences in several dimensions of UML diagram usage on software development projects including; frequency, the purposes for which they were used, and the roles of clients/users in their creation and approval. System developers are often ignoring the “use case-driven” prescription that permeates much of the UML literature, making limited or no use of either use case diagrams or textual use case descriptions. Implications and areas requiring further investigation are discussed.
Conflicts, Compromises and Political Decisions
Authors: Smolander Kari , Rossi Matti
Published: February 2011

This article describes the architecture development process in an international ICT company, which is building a comprehensive e-business system for its customers. The implementation includes the integration of data and legacy systems from independent business units and the construction of a uniform Web-based customer interface. We followed the early process of architecture analysis and definition over a year. The research focuses on the creation of e-business architecture and observes that instead of guided by a prescribed method, the architecture emerges through somewhat non-deliberate actions obliged by the situation and its constraints, conflicts, compromises, and political decisions. The interview-based qualitative data is analyzed using grounded theory and a coherent story explaining the situation and its forces is extracted. Conclusions are drawn from the observations and possibilities and weaknesses of the support that UML and RUP provide for the process are pointed out.
Evaluation of MDE Tools from a Metamodeling Perspective
Authors: de Sousa Saraiva João , Rodrigues da Silva Alberto
Published: February 2011

Ever since the introduction of computers into society, researchers have been trying to raise the abstraction level at which we build software programs. We are currently adopting an abstraction level based on graphical models instead of source code: MDE. MDE is the driving force for some recent modeling languages and approaches, such as OMG’s UML or Domain-Specific Modeling. All these approaches are founded on metamodeling: defining languages that represent a problem-domain. A key factor for the success of any approach is appropriate tool support. However, only recently have tool creators started considering metamodeling as an important issue in their list of concerns. In this paper, we evaluate a small set of MDE tools from the perspective of the metamodeling activity, focusing on both architectural and practical aspects. Then, using the results of this evaluation, we discuss open research issues for MDE-based software development tools.
Reverse Engineering from an XML Document into an Extended DTD Graph
Authors: Shiu Herbert , Fong Joseph
Published: February 2011

The extensible markup language (XML) has become a standard for persistent storage and data interchange via the Internet due to its openness, self-descriptiveness, and flexibility. This article proposes a systematic approach to reverse engineer arbitrary XML documents to their conceptual schema, extended DTD graphs, which are DTD graphs with data semantics. The proposed approach not only determines the structure of the XML document, but also derives candidate data semantics from the XML element instances by treating each XML element instance as a record in a table of a relational database. One application of the determined data semantics is to verify the linkages among elements. Implicit and explicit referential linkages are among XML elements modeled by the parent-children structure and ID/IDREF(S), respectively. As a result, an arbitrary XML document can be reverse engineered into its conceptual schema in an extended DTD graph format.
Ontology for Data Mining and its Application to Mining Incomplete Data
Authors: Wang Hai , Wang Shouhong
Published: February 2011

Ontology has recently received considerable attention in the knowledge management community. This article discusses the needs of ontology development for data mining. Based on a domain analysis of knowledge representations in data mining, it proposes a generic structure of ontologies for data mining. Furthermore, this article specifies the unique ontology resources of the subdomain of innovative data mining with incomplete data. A project on an ontology-based data mining system for discovering knowledge from incomplete data demonstrates the effectiveness of ontology in knowledge management.
3-D Virtual Worlds in Education
Authors: Eschenbrenner Brenda , Nah Fiona Fui-Hoon , Siau Keng
Published: February 2011

Three-dimensional virtual world environments are providing new opportunities to develop engaging, interactive experiences in education. These virtual worlds are unique in that they allow individuals to interact with others through their avatars and with objects in the environment, and can create experiences that are not necessarily possible in the real world. To assess the impact that these virtual worlds are currently having on education, a literature review is conducted to identify current applications, benefits being realized, as well as issues faced. Based on this review, virtual world capabilities, experiences, and factors associated with educational opportunities are presented as well as gaps in meeting pedagogical objectives. Practical and research implications are then addressed. Virtual worlds are proving to provide unique educational experiences, with its potential only at the cusp of being explored.
Ontology Based Object-Oriented Domain Modeling
Authors: Evermann Joerg , Wand Yair
Published: February 2011

An important step in developing the requirements for an information system is analyzing the application domain. In this step, conceptual models are used for representing an application domain. However, while languages for software design are available and widely used, no generally accepted language exists for conceptual modeling. This work suggests the use of object-oriented software modeling languages also for conceptual modeling. Such use can support a more accurate transition from domain models to software models. As software-modeling languages were not intended for modeling application domains, their constructs lack the required semantics. While previous papers addressed the representation of structural elements of domains using object concepts, this paper addresses behavioral aspects, related to change and interaction. The proposed semantics are based on a mapping between ontological concepts that describe behavior and object-oriented constructs related to dynamics. Based on these mappings, modeling rules are proposed to guide the modeler in creating ontologically well-formed models. The mappings and rules are exemplified using UML and are demonstrated using a case study.
Cardinality-Aware Purely Relational XQuery Processor
Authors: Sakr Sherif
Published: February 2011

Recently, the use of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) continues to grow in popularity, large repositories of XML documents are going to emerge, and users are likely to pose increasingly more complex queries on these data sets. In 2001 XQuery is decided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as the standard XML query language. In this article, we describe the design and implementation of an efficient and scalable purely relational XQuery processor which translates expressions of the XQuery language into their equivalent SQL evaluation scripts. The experiments of this article demonstrated the efficiency and scalability of our purely relational approach in comparison to the native XML/XQuery functionality supported by conventional RDBMSs and has shown that our purely relational approach for implementing XQuery processor deserves to be pursued further.
Transforming Activity-Centric Business Process Models into Information-Centric Models for SOA Solutions
Authors: Liu Rong , Wu Frederick Y. , Kumaran Santhosh
Published: February 2011

Much of the prior work in business process modeling is activity-centric. Recently, an information-centric approach has emerged, where a business process is modeled as the interacting lifecycles of business entities. The benefits of this approach are documented in a number of case studies. In this paper, the authors formalize the information-centric approach and derive the relationships between the two approaches. The authors formally define the notion of a business entity, provide an algorithm to transform an activity-centric model into an information-centric process model, and demonstrate the equivalence between these two models. Further, they show the value of transforming from the activity-centric paradigm to the information-centric paradigm in business process componentization and Service-Oriented Architecture design and also provide an empirical evaluation.
Accelerating Web Service Workflow Execution via Intelligent Allocation of Services to Servers
Authors: Stamkopoulos Konstantinos , Pitoura Evaggelia , Vassiliadis Panos , Zarras Apostolos
Published: February 2011

The appropriate deployment of web service operations at the service provider site plays a critical role in the efficient provision of services to clients. In this paper, the authors assume that a service provider has several servers over which web service operations can be deployed. Given a workflow of web services and the topology of the servers, the most efficient mapping of operations to servers must then be discovered. Efficiency is measured in terms of two cost functions that concern the execution time of the workflow and the fairness of the load distribution among the servers. The authors study different topologies for the workflow structure and the server connectivity and propose a suite of greedy algorithms for each combination.
Matching Attributes across Overlapping Heterogeneous Data Sources Using Mutual Information
Authors: Zhao Huimin
Published: February 2011

Identifying matching attributes across heterogeneous data sources is a critical and time-consuming step in integrating the data sources. In this paper, the author proposes a method for matching the most frequently encountered types of attributes across overlapping heterogeneous data sources. The author uses mutual information as a unified measure of dependence on various types of attributes. An example is used to demonstrate the utility of the proposed method, which is useful in developing practical attribute matching tools.
Effective DMSS Guidance for Financial Investing
Authors: Forgionne Guisseppi , Rada Roy
Published: February 2011

Investment decisions have a significant impact on individuals, groups, organizations, the economy, and society. As a result, many formal methodologies and information systems have been designed, developed, and implemented to assist with financial investing. While these tools can improve decision making, none offer complete and integrated support for financial investing. This article seeks to close the support gap by offering a theoretical decision making support system for financial investing and illustrating the system’s use in practice. The demonstration indicates that the theoretical system can improve the process of, and outcome from, investing.
Decision Support-Related Resource Presence and Availability Awareness for DSS in Pervasive Computing Environments
Authors: Russell Stephen , Forgionne Guisseppi
Published: February 2011

Over the last 10 years, pervasive computing environments and mobile networks have become extremely popular. Despite the many end user benefits of pervasive computing, the intrinsic instability and context ambiguities of these environments pose impediments to data-oriented decision support systems. In pervasive computing environments where users, systems, and computing resources are distributed or mobile, the online or “available” state of decision support-related resources may be intermittent or delayed. Awareness or knowledge of these resources’ online presence and availability can affect the decision making process. This article discusses issues related to data-driven decision support systems (DSS) in pervasive computing environments (PCE) and demonstrates that a decision maker’s awareness of online status and availability can improve decision outcomes. A model for extending DSS resource presence and availability awareness to decision makers is presented and the impact of this knowledge on decision outcomes is evaluated using a management problem simulation.
Collaborative Decision Making
Authors: Jankovic Marija , Zaraté Pascale , Bocquet Jean-Claude , Cardinal Julie Le
Published: February 2011

Recent years we can hear a lot about cooperative decision-making, group or collaborative decision-making. These types of decisions are the consequences of developed working conditions: geographical dispersion, team working, and concurrent working. In the article we present two research works concerning two different collective decision situations: face-to-face decision-making and synchronous distributed decision-making. These two research studies adopt different approaches in order to support decision-making process, in view to different research objectives. Nevertheless, the conclusions show complementary aspect of these two studies.
Dynamics in IS Development
Authors: Otto Peter , Belardo Salvatore
Published: February 2011

The failure of many IS development efforts suggests that the development process, in particular the role that key antecedents play in ensuring success, is poorly understood. Information systems are based on a series of highly complex interrelated tasks that can be significantly affected by organizational (e.g., management attention), project (e.g., resources), and technical (e.g., tools) drivers. Changes or disruptions in these can have severe and, in many cases, unanticipated consequences for IS development efforts. To help understand how disruptions during the IS development initiative affect the quality of the system, we employ the system dynamics methodology to capture feedback from non-linear activities, viz., those that define a systems development effort. The results from the simulation lead to some tangible and timely recommendations to manage an IS development initiative.
A Framework for Analysis, Design and Management of Complex Large-Scale Interconnected Open Sociotechnological Systems
Authors: Mostashari Ali , Sussman Joseph M.
Published: February 2011

Standard systems engineering processes, such as the ANSI/EIA 632 or the ISO/IEC 15288 process standards, are primarily geared towards systems with homogenous stakeholders and few tightly coupled non-linear interactions within and between physical subsystems. When dealing with Complex, Large-scale, Interconnected, Open, Sociotechnological (CLIOS) systems such as the national power grid, regional transportation systems, the world wide web or the air traffic control system or other systems with wide-ranging social and environmental impact, there is a need for a new framework that takes into consideration the physical and institutional system complexities and their respective interactions in an iterative and adaptive manner. This paper presents a 12-step framework for concurrent analysis, design and management of coupled complex technological and institutional systems in the face of uncertainty. The framework can be used to analyze a CLIOS system’s underlying structure and behavior, to explore different design options in the face of uncertainty, and to identify and deploy strategic alternatives for improving the system’s performance.
The Design for Tractable Analysis (DTA) Framework
Authors: Linebarger John M. , De Spain Mark J. , McDonald Michael J. , Spencer Floyd W. , Cloutier Robert J.
Published: February 2011

The Design for Tractable Analysis (DTA) framework was developed to address the analysis of complex systems and so-called “wicked problems.” DTA is distinctive because it treats analytic processes as key artifacts that can be created and improved through formal design processes. Systems (or enterprises) are analyzed as a whole, in conjunction with decomposing them into constituent elements for domain-specific analyses that are informed by the whole. After using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to frame the problem in the context of stakeholder needs, DTA harnesses the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) to structure the analysis of the system and address questions about the emergent properties of the system. The novel use of DSM to “design the analysis” makes DTA particularly suitable for addressing the interdependent nature of complex systems. The use of DTA is demonstrated by a case study of sensor grid placement decisions to secure assets at a fixed site.
A Typology of Tacit Knowledge Sharing Themes to Fostering Group Decision Support System
Authors: Shaqrah Amin A.
Published: February 2011

Today, much effort and importance is placed on the management of knowledge, its security, and sustainability in context to organizations and their competitiveness. This paper outlines a typology to guide that applying tacit knowledge sharing themes from a social perspective, that is trust, care, leadership charisma, knowledge culture, concept ba, and social network analysis, affect a group’s decision support system. This paper shows that the mentioned themes facilitate a more open group discussion with a higher degree of consensus and agreement resulting in a vividly higher amount of accuracy in decision making.
An Integrated Decision Support System for Intercropping
Authors: Sodiya A. S. , Akinwale A. T. , Okeleye K. A. , Emmanuel J. A.
Published: February 2011

Intercropping, which is the agricultural practice of growing two or more crops in the same land area, is not currently yielding adequate results in Africa. Despite the advantages of intercropping like improved soil fertility, protection against pests and diseases and eventual increase in farm yield, this farming practice is faced with challenges—inadequate planning, bad crop management and lack of required intercropping expertise. Consequently, this has resulted in inadequate reward for farmers and a general decline in crop production. In this regard, the authors present an Intelligent and Integrated Intercropping Decision Support System for Intercropping (IDSS-I) for improved crop production. The design adopts a forecasting component that provides farmers with the estimated yield and income depending on the size of land, soil type and weather condition. Although the implementation was carried out using JAVA and SQL, usability testing revealed 85% acceptance of the tool among the contacted 10 large scale farmers. It was also confirmed that the system provided 95% diagnosis information for 90% common Africa crop diseases.
Mining Environmental Data in the ADMIRE Project Using New Advanced Methods and Tools
Authors: Habala Ondrej , Šeleng Martin , Tran Viet , Šimo Branislav , Hluchý Ladislav
Published: February 2011

The project Advanced Data Mining and Integration Research for Europe (ADMIRE) is designing new methods and tools for comfortable mining and integration of large, distributed data sets. One of the prospective application domains for such methods and tools is the environmental applications domain, which often uses various data sets from different vendors where data mining is becoming increasingly popular and more computer power becomes available. The authors present a set of experimental environmental scenarios, and the application of ADMIRE technology in these scenarios. The scenarios try to predict meteorological and hydrological phenomena which currently cannot or are not predicted by using data mining of distributed data sets from several providers in Slovakia. The scenarios have been designed by environmental experts and apart from being used as the testing grounds for the ADMIRE technology; results are of particular interest to experts who have designed them.
Service and Management Oriented Traffic Information Grid
Authors: Fang Yu , Zhang Dong Liang , Yan Chun Gang , Chen Hong Zhong , Jiang Changjun
Published: February 2011

Traffic information service plays an important role in one’s daily life. However, traffic information processing is very complicated because of its dynamic, cooperative and distributed features. This paper presents the Service and Monitoring Oriented Traffic Information Grid. In this system, it is a remarkable characteristic to provide real-time, dynamic information services for travelers and traffic managers by grid technology. The system provides travelers with services of optimized route scheme, bus arrival prediction based on real-time route status, and route status forecast. For traffic managers, the system can provide vehicle tracing, traffic monitoring, history data analysis, and decision making on traffic control strategy. In this regard, key research includes large multi-source traffic data integration, route status forecast, and optimum dynamic travel scheme implementation based on massive GPS data.
Sketch Based Video Annotation and Organization System in Distributed Teaching Environment
Authors: Chen Jia , Ma Cui-xia , Wang Hong-an , Yang Hai-yan , Teng Dong-xing
Published: February 2011

As the use of instructional video is becoming a key component of e-learning, there is an increasing need for a distributed system which supports collaborative video annotation and organization. In this paper, the authors construct a distributed environment on the top of NaradaBrokering to support collaborative operations on video material when users are located in different places. The concept of video annotation is enriched, making it a powerful media to improve the instructional video organizing and viewing. With panorama based and interpolation based methods, all related users can annotate or organize videos simultaneously. With these annotations, a video organization structure is consequently built through linking them with other video clips or annotations. Finally, an informal user study was conducted and result shows that this system improves the efficiency of video organizing and viewing and enhances user’s participating into the design process with good user experience.
Load Balancing to Increase the Consistency of Replicas in Data Grids
Authors: Belalem Ghalem , Belayachi Naima , Behidji Radjaa , Yagoubi Belabbes
Published: February 2011

Data grids are current solutions to the needs of large scale systems and provide a set of different geographically distributed resources. Their goal is to offer an important capacity of parallel calculation, ensure a data effective and rapid access, improve the availability, and tolerate the breakdowns. In such systems, however, these advantages are possible only by using the replication technique. The use of this technique raises the problem of maintaining consistency of replicas of the same data set. In order to guarantee replica set reliability, it is necessary to have high coherence. This fact, however, penalizes performance. In this paper, the authors propose studying balancing influence on replica quality. For this reason, a service of hybrid consistency management is developed, which combines the pessimistic and optimistic approaches and is extended by a load balancing service to improve service quality. This service is articulated on a hierarchical model with two levels.