bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modeling of Tool Wear in Turning EN 31 Alloy Steel using Coated Carbide Inserts
Authors: Sethi Davinder , Kumar Vinod
Published: December 2012

The experimental investigations of the tool wear in turning of EN 31 alloy steel at different cutting parameters are reported in this paper. Mathematical model has been developed for flank wear using response surface methodology. This mathematical model correlates independent cutting parameters viz. cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut with dependent parameters of flank wear. This model is capable of estimating the tool wear at different cutting conditions. The central composite design has been used to plan the experiments. Coated carbide inserts have been used for turning EN 31 alloy steel. Results revealed that cutting speed is the most significant factor effecting flank wear, followed by depth of cut and feed rate. Flank wear increases with increase in all the three cutting parameters.
Speech Cueing on the Web by ‘The Little Dude’
Authors: Mann Bruce L. , Schulz Henry , Cui Jianping
Published: December 2012

There is a real need for studies on learning from multimedia with school-age children, even pre-school children. In this research, temporal speech cueing was proposed to help young children as they listened to a speaking pedagogical agent direct their attention to details in on-screen text and graphics. An experiment was conducted with 4th and 5th graders (n = 133) who read on-screen text, and listened to cues presented by a pedagogical agent. Results showed that children in the speech cueing group out-performed those in the on-screen text group in immediate and delayed post-tests. Agent movement had no effect. Implications are discussed for helping young children to learn from the on-screen text presented in contemporary educational multimedia.
Designing Digital Video to Support Learner Outcomes
Authors: Kellam Hugh , MacDonald Colla J. , Archibald Douglas , Puddester Derek
Published: December 2012

This pragmatic, mixed methods study explored how the design and implementation of digital video resources in an online educational environment affected learning outcomes. Forty-five health professionals and students evaluated the digital videos incorporated into ePhysicianHealth.com, the world’s first comprehensive online resource on health and wellness for physicians and medical students. Specifically the participants were to evaluate how digital videos impacted their learning experiences. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from two sources: surveys and interviews. The findings of the study clearly indicated that the majority of the participants found the digital videos a valuable addition to ePhysicianHealth.com. There were numerous practical conclusions from this study that provided recommendations for the future design and delivery of digital videos in pedagogical settings. They included: the use of personal testimonials and stories; the use of problem-solving scenarios involving modeling and demonstrations; and tailoring modeling scenarios to the specific needs of learners.
Efficiency Study on Proposed Merger Plan of State Bank of India (SBI) and its Subsidiaries
Authors: Nandy Debaprosanna , Baidya Manas Kr.
Published: December 2012

The Banking industry is undergoing unprecedented changes driven by consolidation through mergers and acquisitions all over the world. India is no exception. Merger of State Bank of India (SBI) and its subsidiary banks have been for several years, and SBI has already merged State Bank of Saurashtra (2008) and State Bank of Indore (2010) with itself. SBI management proposes to merge its five remaining subsidiaries within the next two fiscal years. The present paper measures and examines technical efficiency of SBI and its subsidiaries before and after their hypothetical merger. The study has utilized the two basic DEA models – CCR (Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes) and BCC (Bankers, Charnes and Cooper) to measure technical efficiencies of selected major Indian commercial banks before and after merger of SBI and its associates for the financial year 2009-10.The results reveal that the merger proposal of SBI associates may bring in fully technical efficiency but not fully scale efficiency of the merged entity. In order to be fully technical and scale efficient, merged SBI has to reduce its present number of employees substantially and should follow the prudent operating practices of three peer banks namely Corporation Bank, Axis Bank and Federal Bank.
A Study on the Contribution of 12 Key-Factors to the Growth Rates of the Region of the East Macedonia-Thrace (EMTH) by Using a Neural Network Model
Authors: Stathakis E. , Hanias M. , Antoniades P. , Magafas L. , Bandekas D.
Published: December 2012

This study gives a new methodological framework regarding the measuring of the contribution of some key-factors on the regional growth rate and forecasting the future development rates, based on Neural Network Models (NN Models). It’s a serious attempt to study the contribution of twelve key-factors to the change of the Regional Gross Domestic Product of the Region of East Macedonia -Thrace during a long-term of growth process, by creating and using a suitable Neural Network Model. Specifically, twelve key-factors, time functioned in the period 1991-2008, are studied for the first time, in order to be investigated, scientifically, firstly their % contribution to growth of the regional economy and secondly, to be predicted how much the (Regional Growth Domestic Product) RGDP-under certain conditions-will be changed. It’s a NN Model with inputs the twelve key-factors in order to be evaluated and measured, at the best precise, their percentage contribution to the RGDP. The model and results can be found further into the article.
Selection of Concrete Production Facility Location Integrating Fuzzy AHP with TOPSIS Method
Authors: Kabir Golam , Sumi Razia Sultana
Published: December 2012

Evaluation and selection of a concrete production facility location is an important strategic decision making problems for both the public and private sector. The multi-dimensional, multi-criteria nature of the concrete production facility location problem limits the usefulness of any particular single objective model. In this study, social, economical, technological, environmental, and transportation factors and sub criteria have been derived to make the optimal concrete production facility location selection decision more realistic and effectual. This study shows an improved and appropriate concrete production facility location evaluation and selection model has been developed by integrating Modified Delphi and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) with Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. An example is presented to show applicability and performance of the proposed methodology followed by a sensitivity analysis to discuss and explain the results.
Research on Tax Transfer inside China’s Different Regions by Using a Statistical Analysis Method
Authors: Jinshan Liu , Jiaqing Luo
Published: December 2012

The paper demonstrates that China has undergone an increasingly severe transfer of regional taxes from the central and western areas to the coastal region between 1997 and 2006, and among the taxes transferred, the enterprise income tax claimed a lion’s share. Such transfer of regional taxes resulted in an unfair distribution of tax revenue, failing to alleviate the gap between rich and poor.
Using ZigBee in Ambient Intelligence Learning Scenarios
Authors: García Óscar , Alonso Ricardo S. , Tapia Dante I. , Corchado Juan M.
Published: December 2012

The inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies, especially mobile devices, in learning environments has allowed both the emergence of new ways of learning and the adaptation of traditional teaching methods. In this sense, Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm represents a promising approach that can be successfully applied to education. Pervasive computing, context and location awareness are AmI features that can allow students to receive customized information in a transparent way. Fortunately, there are several technologies that can help to gather such information. In this regard, Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) is a key technology that can improve context-awareness in AmI-based systems. This paper presents the use of a novel RTLS based on ZigBee technology that provides users’ positions in order to enhance context information in learning applications. This way, this system allows customizing the content offered to the users without their explicit interaction, as well as the granularity level provided by the system.
Periodic Mutation Operator for Nurse Scheduling by Using Cooperative GA
Authors: Ohki Makoto
Published: December 2012

This paper proposes an effective mutation operator for Cooperative Genetic Algorithm (CGA) to be applied to a practical Nurse Scheduling Problem (NSP). NSP is a complex combinatorial optimizing problem for which many requirements must be considered. The changes of the shift schedule yields various problems, for example, a drop in the nursing level. The author describes a technique of the reoptimization of the nurse schedule in response to a change. CGA well suits local search, but its failure to handle global search leads to inferior solutions. CGA is superior in ability for local search by means of its crossover operator, but often stagnates at the global search. To solve this problem, a mutation operator activated is proposed depending on the optimization speed. This mutation yields small changes in the population depending on the optimization speed. Then the population is able to escape from a local minimum area by means of the mutation. However, this mutation operator is composed of two well-defined parameters. This means that users have to consider the value of the parameters carefully. To solve this problem, a periodic mutation operator is proposed which has only one parameter to define itself. This simplified mutation operator is effective over a wide range of the parameter value.
Optimal Test Sequence Generation in State Based Testing Using Cuckoo Search
Authors: Srivastava Praveen Ranjan , Singh Ashish Kumar , Kumhar Hemraj , Jain Mohit
Published: December 2012

The present work describes a method for increasing software testing efficiency by identifying the optimal test sequences in the state machine diagram. The method employs a Meta-heuristic algorithm called Cuckoo Search to investigate best paths in the diagram. It tries to provide a technique for exhaustive coverage with minimal repetition which ensures all transitions coverage and all paths coverage at least once with minimal number of repetitions of states as well as transitions. The algorithm works by maximising an objective function which focuses on most error prone parts of the program so that critical portions can be tested first. State machine diagram is given as input, and Cuckoo Search is performed to generate a list of test sequences as output.
The Digital Geography Lab at Salem State University
Authors: Pappathanasi Kym , Young Stephen S.
Published: December 2012

Established in 1983, the Digital Geography Lab (DGL) at Salem State University (SSU) is one of the oldest higher-education digital spatial labs. This paper details the evolution of the DGL as well as its current status as one of the best computer labs at Salem State University. This paper describes the changing technology of the DGL over the past 28 years. The DGL not only provides SSU students with cutting edge geospatial technology, but it is a research lab for faculty and is extensively used in community outreach programs. The DGL is being used more and more by other departments such as Geology, Criminal Justice, Computer Science and Inter-disciplinary Studies which reflects the expansion of the geo-spatial sciences beyond geography. The success of the DGL lies in part with the University’s management of the facility where major decisions are made in consultation with the Department and DGL staff. The configuration and technology of the DGL has changed considerably through the years, reflecting the transformations in technology and educational philosophies, but the core mission of the DGL has not, which is to serve the students, faculty and the local community with cutting edge geospatial technology.
Strategic Study on Culture Brand in Shijiazhuang
Authors: Zhao Bing , Zhao Jiantao , Xu Fengye
Published: December 2012

Brand-driven cultural industry development was the inevitable requirement for coordinated development of regional economy and society. In order to create the culture brand of Shijiazhuang, the authors first analyzed its cultural resources, clear focus. Then created a culture brand with characteristic of Shijiazhuang by a number of strategies such as: Found a suitable site of the culture brand, cultivated spirit of the city, focus on creating superiority culture brand in Shijiazhuang, take measures to enlarge and strengthen the enterprises of culture, used modern media to multi-dimensional propaganda culture brand, implemented “Walk out” strategy of the culture brand, and strengthened human resources to support the creation of culture brand.
The Impact of Perceived Severity of an Outcome Upon Purchase Intention from the Perspective of Attribution
Authors: Wu Yaxiong , Zhao Bing
Published: December 2012

In this paper, the authors study the impact of perceived severity of an outcome in different types of product harm crisis from the angel of consumer attribution-blame. By experimenting the authors found that when the responsibility of product harm crisis is not clear, the higher degree of perceived injury, the more responsibility customer attribute to enterprise; and when the responsibility is clear, the customers won’t have the attribution bias; perceived severity of an outcome to customer blame was regulated by responsibility attribution and intention attribution.
Video Capture System Based on PXA270 Platform
Authors: Yang QingLi
Published: December 2012

In this paper, the author introduces a video capture system based on embedded Linux PXA270 platform. First, the paper briefly introduces PXA270 platform. The author then describes implementation of video capture on the platform. The system captures a real-time video stream by USB camera and designs video program by Video 4 Linux APIs. The paper particularly presents the method and process of realizing video data capture, as well as how to implement the application to target board.
An Improved Connection Method for Multi-Core SoC
Authors: Zhang Chunping
Published: December 2012

With rapid development of multi-core processor, the communication becomes a bottleneck increasingly. Traditional electronic connections face a serious complexity restriction. The network on chip has been a prevalent solution in the present. However using the recent technology (ultra-wide band interconnection) technology, the over-all performance including delay and throughput can achieve a new level in multi-core SOC. This paper will introduce a new solution designed for UWB-I based SOC. This solution includes multi-channeling, topology design and routing etc.
A Virtual Laboratory Environment for Tertiary Educational Institutions
Authors: Correia Eduardo , Watson Ricky , Quintana Adriana , Perera Madhu
Published: December 2012

Computer laboratories at tertiary educational institutions need to be flexible and easy to manage, as they typically cater for a wide range of needs. This article describes how a particular virtual laboratory environment can be extended to include server-based virtualization. It explores some of the major technical challenges of implementing one particular hypervisor and associated management software, specifically to deploy a set of virtual machines that form part of a particular course, as this is one of the envisaged uses for this technology. It goes on to suggest a number of solutions and includes two scripts that can serve as templates for automating the creation and removal of sets of student virtual machines.
The Sachet Telecom Architecture for Off Grid Locations
Authors: Prasad Rohit , Mehrotra Rakesh
Published: December 2012

In the light of past attempts to provide universal access to telephony and data connectivity, this paper outlines a new telecom architecture tailored to the needs of rural areas, the Sachet Telecom technology. It presents an economic model for an Indian state, Rajasthan, showing the Sachet Telecom architecture, besides empowering local entrepreneurs, scores over the conventional approach in commercial and environmental terms. The approach has the potential to be replicated for rural voice and data connectivity in energy starved regions across the world and can act as a bridge to prepare the population for the coming of fibre networks.
The Many Faces of Green IT
Authors: Cai Shun , Chen Xi , Bose Indranil
Published: December 2012

The importance of sustainable development has been widely recognized by people, society, governments, and the business world. Green information technology (IT) has therefore become one of the latest considerations to improve the environmental sustainability of a business. Yet, as important as this term is, it is being used in so many different ways that it might lose meaning altogether. It is important to clarify the different meanings of green IT to understand how to pursue it better as a business, economic and social objective. Four different perspectives on green IT, and the benefits and barriers of green IT strategy adoption are reviewed and discussed in this article.
Achieving Agile Enterprise Through Integrated Process Management
Authors: Bahrami Ali
Published: December 2012

Project management tools are used to manage projects from time as well as from resource leveling perspectives. Workflow management systems guide users through processes by driving the processes based on formal process definitions also called workflow types. This paper describes an integrated process management system that will integrate project management, business process modeling, simulation, and workflow technologies in order to support scheduled workflow execution. The target will be achieved by utilizing a tool for modeling work processes that can semi-automatically generate workflow processes based on a scheduling tool and then export it to a workflow engine via Web services using XML process definition language (XPDL). Addition of simulation capability allows testing workflows before deployment.
A Lightweight Mobile Framework for Business Services
Authors: Liang Leo Z. , Wong Raymond K.
Published: December 2012

Business Services Networks (BSNs) facilitate a large variety of business service models and business service automation. While mobile computing is becoming increasingly important, issues of extending BSNs for mobile applications have not been addressed. This paper investigates and experiments with a few issues that will occur mostly for supporting mobile applications through BSNs. In particular, this paper will examine service location discovery, service invocation, and information conversion for mobile environments.
Image Compression Based on Generalized Principal Components Analysis and Simulated Annealing
Authors: Santo Rafael Do Espírito , Pereira Fabio Henrique , Júnior Edson Amaro
Published: December 2012

The authors propose a new data dimensionality reduction method that is formulated as an optimization problem solved in two stages. In the first stage, Generalized Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) is used to find a solution with local maximum (local solution) whereas the algorithm Simulated Annealing (SA) is performed, in the second stage, to converge the local solution to the optimal solution. The performance of GPCA and GPCA with Simulated Annealing (GPCA-SA) as images compressors was evaluated in terms of the Compression Peak Signal-to-Noise Rate (CPSNR), memory size necessary to store the resulting compressed image and Contrast-to-Noise ratio. The results show that GPCA and GPCA-SA requires the same amount of memory to store compressed data, but GPCA-SA provides better CPSNR than GPCA. They also compared the performance of our designed method with a wavelet-based compression technique widely used in medical imaging, known as Lifting, to demonstrate the efficiency of GPCA-SA in clinical application.
Portable Devices to Detect Directed Energy
Authors: Boyd Andrew D. , Naiman Melissa , Preston Richard , Stevenson Greer , Valenta Annette L.
Published: December 2012

The malicious use of lasers to interfere with the activities of individuals in diverse environments is a growing concern. To increase awareness of public health workers, the Tricorder, a unique laser characterization sensor, is being fabricated. In this paper, the Tricorder’s human factors aspects and operational use are studied to enhance acceptance and increase use. Users’ perspectives were collected with Q-methodology. The first question explored technical features. The second question dealt with the intended use. Twelve individuals responded to the first question, and nine individuals responded to the second question. Statistical analysis of the responses revealed four factors (common opinion groups) about equipment and three factors about use. Interestingly, job titles did not correlate with any single opinion group, implying user acceptance will depend on factors not captured by studying workflow or equipment specifications alone.
Scalability of Piecewise Synonym Identification in Integration of SNOMED into the UMLS
Authors: Huang Kuo-Chuan , Geller James , Halper Michael , Elhanan Gai , Perl Yehoshua
Published: December 2012

Synonym identification during source terminology integration into the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) is a labor-intensive task needed for every new release of the source. The piecewise synonym (PWS) methodology was previously used for the integration of a small source. The goal of this paper is to determine whether the piecewise synonym methodology with two control parameters scales to a much larger terminology (a subset of SNOMED CT), the control parameters are necessary to make the methodology viable, and the control parameters lead to any loss of matching results. Additional methods for limiting the size of the dictionary used in the PWS generation methodology are used. The authors’ methodology discovered 41% of concepts not found by string matching. The necessity and effectiveness of the control parameters were confirmed. Furthermore, when comparing the results of experiments with and without control parameters, no matches were lost.
Understanding Weight Change Behaviors through Online Social Networks
Authors: Ma Xiaoxiao , Chen Guanling , Xiao Juntao
Published: December 2012

Online Social Networks (OSNs) provide a good way to make connections with people with similar interests and goals. In particular, health-centered OSNs are emerging to provide knowledge and support for those interested in managing their own health. This paper provides an empirical analysis of a health OSN, which allows its users to record their foods and exercises, track their diet progress toward weight-change goals, and socialize and group with each other for community support. Based on about five month data collected from more than 107,000 users, the authors studied their weigh-in behaviors and tracked their weight-change progress. The authors found that the users’ weight changes correlated positively with the number of weigh-ins, the number of their friends, and their friends’ weight-change performance. The authors also show that the users’ weight changes have rippling effects in the OSN due to social influence. The strength of such online influence and its propagation distance appear to be greater than those in a real-world social network.
Towards Digital Competencies in Mathematics Education
Authors: Jasute Egle , Dagiene Valentina
Published: December 2012

Technological innovation has influenced learning, and teachers have suggested different ways of use for digital equipment, to improve learning and to achieve better outcomes from their students. Today’s youth has grown up with digital technology and has lived immersed in environments populated by computers, video games, digital music players, video cameras, cell phones, and thousands of other toys and tools of the digital age. It is for this reason that the authors are persuaded that education in the 21st century should be directed to use digital resources as well as digital ways of teaching in all subjects. Mathematics needs digitization and the paper deals with the development of dynamic sketches for geometry teaching and learning. The concept of dynamic geometry is introduced and discussed together with problems and examples of application of dynamic geometry software. The model for interactive geometry visualization is described and the implementation of this model is reported. Together with former topics an experimental research is presented, which is based on the use of the interactive pre-constructed sketches by the dynamic geometry software Geometer’s Sketchpad. At last the didactical approach of the experiment is analyzed, the results of the experience are described and conclusions and discussions are proposed.
Mental Retardation and Learning Integrating Skills
Authors: Murdaca Annamaria , Cuzzocrea Francesca , Oliva Patrizia , Larcan Rosalba
Published: December 2012

Studies have highlighted the importance of using new technologies during the planning of educational and didactic paths to develop skills and functions in disabled patients (Bruschi, 2001). Assistive technologies represent real opportunities of e-participation to social life (Calvani, 2011; Chiappetta Caiola, 2009), which also works as scaffolding to promote developing processes (Cooke & Husey, 2002). The authors’ contribution examines the importance of technologies in supporting subjects with mental retardation. It shows the usability of many inputs that offer disabled patients the possibility to exercise cognitive styles, their own characteristics and their own autonomies to increase motivation and self esteem. The aims of this research are a) verify the effectiveness of didactic software based on Precision Teaching method; b) verify gender differences. For this study 40 children have been selected (20 boys and 20 girls) with and without mental retardation. The research consisted of 3 phases: pre-training phase, training phase and post-training phase. Results show learning improvements in each group; in spite of students’ difficulties, the use of Precision Teaching has reduced significantly the initial cognitive gap, which refers to the number of correct responses (accuracy) and to time of response (fluency) relative to the learning of how to use money.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in e-Negotiations
Authors: Graf Andrea , Koeszegi Sabine T. , Pesendorfer Eva-Maria , Gettinger Johannes
Published: December 2012

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the question of whether the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy present in face-to-face interactions can also be identified in electronic negotiation processes. In a 2x2 experiment with 116 subjects the authors found that beliefs about both the climate (conflict intensity and social relationship) and the individual negotiation style with their particular impact on negotiation outcomes came true – irrespective of the controlled context variables or negotiation partner. They confirmed the dynamics of self-fulfilling prophecy in computer-based communication. Based on the authors’ results they recommend that negotiators create a pleasant ambiance in order to support positive expectations and try to understand the partner’s negotiation style in order to (re-)act appropriately.
Configuring Systems of Massively Distributed, Autonomous and Interdependent Decision Makers
Authors: Goldstein-Lev Anat , Ariav Gad
Published: December 2012

Massively distributed systems in general and massively distributed DSS in particular have become – and will inevitably continue to become – more and more common in the contemporary massively networked world. However, the authors understanding – and corresponding intuitions – of system performance at these scales are only preliminary. This study aimed at the development of a solid approach and modeling platform for the study of Massively Distributed DSS, the MDDSS, an application at the forefront of IS/ICT applications today. The key contribution of this research is that it charts design guidelines with respect to expected MDDSS performance, guidelines which explicitly relate essential and observable attributes of the decision situations to the corresponding preferred MDDSS architecture.
A Method for Ranking Non-Linear Qualitative Decision Preferences using Copulas
Authors: Mileva-Boshkoska Biljana , Bohanec Marko
Published: December 2012

This paper addresses the problem of option ranking in qualitative evaluation models. Current approaches make the assumptions that when qualitative data are suitably mapped into discrete quantitative ones, they form monotone or closely linear tabular value functions. Although the power of using monotone and linear functions to model decision maker’s preferences is impressive, there are many cases when they fail to successfully model non-linear decision preferences. Therefore, the authors propose a new method for ranking discrete non-linear decision maker preferences based on copula functions. Copulas are functions that capture the non-linear dependences among random variables. Hence each attribute is considered as a random variable. The variables are nested into hierarchical copula structures to determine the non-linear dependences among all attributes at hand. The obtained copula structure is used for obtaining regression function and consequently for option ranking. The application of the method is presented on two examples.
Determinants of E-Payment Systems Success
Authors: Tella Adeyinka
Published: December 2012

The success of an information system (IS) depends on the users’ satisfaction with the system. In this study, the Technology Acceptance Model by Davies (1989) was extended. The paper synthesized the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explain and predict the success of e-payment system using users’ satisfaction as dependent variable. The hypothesized model was validated empirically using a sample data collected from of a modified e-payment questionnaire. A total of 74 teaching and non teaching academic staff selected from the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin, Nigeria constituted the sample for the study. The results revealed correlation among perceived benefits, perceive enjoyment, speed; service quality, perceive ease of use and actual use and e-payment success. Moreover, all the seven e-payment predictive factors together made 69% of e-payment system success. Similarly perceived benefits, perceive enjoyment, speed; service quality, perceive ease of use and actual use are good predictors of e-payment system success. One of the implications pointed out by the study is that the measures for the construct of e-payment system success used are self-reported. In the light of this, future research should develop more objective and accurate measures for determining e-payment system success.
Evaluating the Virtual Products for Online Games via the Grey Relational Analysis
Authors: Hsu Pi-Fang , Tsai Chia-Wen
Published: December 2012

Over the past years, researchers and practitioners in marketing fields have seen a dramatic growth of online games. This growth and development also influence players’ behavior and market change of hardware and software companies. This study proposes a model for selecting the optimal virtual products for online games by referring to the views of online players. The proposed model adopts the “modified Delphi method” to find suitable evaluative criteria for virtual products, and then applies the “grey relational analysis (GRA)” to rank the alternatives and select the best virtual products. In addition, the example of a renowned online game, MapleStory, is used to demonstrate the process of virtual products selection using this model. This model provides the online gamer an objective and effective way to select virtual products, and provides suggestions for the manufacturers of online games in regard to developing and improving the virtual products.
Revisiting Media Choice
Authors: Bok H. S. , Kankanhalli A. , Raman K. S. , Sambamurthy V.
Published: December 2012

How do managers select media for communication and collaboration? Previous research has identified a myriad of contextual factors, individual characteristics, social factors, and the fit between medium characteristics and task requirements as influencing media choice. An implication from the cumulative research base is that managers must consider a large number of factors in the process of media selection, but task contingencies may not allow for the assessment of numerous criteria. Based on a behavioral decision-making perspective, this study proposes that task contingencies in the form of complexity, importance, and urgency influence the extent to which individuals evaluate various factors for media selection. The authors utilize data from a survey of managers in a financial organization. Under conditions of high task complexity and/or importance, managers are found to extensively appraise information for media selection. However, if the task is urgent, the extent of information evaluation during medium choice is constrained. Further, to the extent that managers’ appraisal is limited, their actual medium choice diverges from the optimal choice. The results indicate that a behavioral decision-making view can provide a fresh perspective and enhance understanding of how managers actually select media for their communication and collaboration activities.
Digital Mastery
Authors: Roy Shelly R.
Published: December 2012

With support from the research literature, this paper argues that to lead effectively in a virtual environment, the leaders of virtual teams need relationship building, technical, and leadership skills, as well as the ability to defuse the frustrations of virtual team members. Relationship building skills include the ability to establish trust, embrace diversity, skill in fostering a team spirit, and motivating team members. Technical skills include the ability to use video conferencing software, instant messaging, e-mail, virtual worlds, avatars, and communication skills. Leadership skills needed by leaders in virtual environments include emotional intelligence, the ability to create an open and supportive environment, and to lead by example.
The Effect of Inter-Organization Trust and Dependency on E-Procurement Adoption
Authors: Al-Hakim Latif , Abdullah Nik Ab Halim Nik , Ng Eric
Published: December 2012

Firms often have to integrate their daily business activities with supply chain partners, to remain competitive in today’s ever changing business environments. Information technology (IT) such as e-procurement has enabled firms to take advantage of the many benefits of integrating these business activities electronically. A review of the literature indicates that there is an apparent lack of research into the effects of trust and dependency on e-procurement adoption decisions, which is the key focus of this study. Through the use of survey questionnaire distributed to 834 manufacturers across different industries in Malaysia, this research seeks to investigate the impact of inter-organization trust and dependency on e-procurement adoption decisions. Findings revealed that dependency, interaction between trust and dependency, and size of company have a strong impact on the adoption decisions while trust has only a modest effect.
Policy Testing in Virtual Environments
Authors: Kardara Magdalini , Fuchs Omri , Kosta Eleni , Aisopos Fotis , Spais Ilias , Varvarigou Theodora
Published: December 2012

Governments want to improve their policy making process by being able to accurately predict the impact of prospective policy measures to the community. Current e-government tools fail to capture the public opinion as they lack in mass participation. Instead of relying on outdated methods of communicating with the public, governments should embrace Web 2.0 technologies and take advantage of the vast the flows of information available online. In +Spaces, the authors introduce a novel way of accessing and evaluating public opinion by using popular virtual spaces, i.e., 3D Virtual Worlds and Social networks, as testing environments and developing an interface that would allow applications to operate inside them, capturing the reactions of citizens to prospective policies. They present the +Spaces platform giving emphasis on technical challenges such as Virtual Spaces interoperability as well as legal requirements related to processing user created data and how the authors addressed them.
Supporting Public Policy Making Processes with Workflow Technology
Authors: Tsohou Aggeliki , Lee Habin , Al-Yafi Karim , Weerakkody Vishanth , El-Haddadeh Ramzi , Irani Zahir , Ko Andrea , Medeni Tunc D. , Campos Luis Miguel
Published: December 2012

Workflow technology has been proven as an enabler for numerous benefits for private and public organizations. Including: cost reduction, efficiency savings in terms of time and cost, increased capability, faster processing, reductions in errors, and work iterations, service quality and customer satisfaction. Public sector has endorsed these benefits by adopting workflow management systems to support administrative processes, such as human resources management or claims processing. This technology is yet to be utilized to support the formulation of policy making processes to facilitate the participation of citizens in the policy making processes and increase their awareness on political issues. This paper Investigates the feasibility of adopting workflow tools for the support of decision making processes that lead to development of public policies, despite the variant institutional settings. To do so, public policy making processes from four countries were examined and analyzed. The results are explored further in the article.
Method and Tools to Support Stakeholder Engagement in Policy Development
Authors: Wimmer Maria , Scherer Sabrina , Moss Scott , Bicking Melanie
Published: December 2012

Good governance and open government principles require more participative, open, transparent, accountable, and collaborative. However, in public policy development, the negligence of these principles loomed particularly large until recently. In consequence, citizens have taken action by forming protest activities or responding to current politics with election turnouts leading to drastic change in political directions. Lessons from such activities are that policy makers need urgently to respond to demands of citizens to engage more pro-actively with politics in policy decisions that heavily concern particular stakeholder groups and citizens. Both groups need reliable support and up-to-date information and efficient and effective interactions on emerging societal problems and public affairs. The authors introduce an innovative approach to collaborative policy development, integrating scenario development, and formal policy modelling via an ICT toolbox. To bridge the gap between narrative texts of stakeholder-generated scenarios and formal policy models generating model-based scenarios, introducing conceptual modelling, which supports the construction of conceptual models of the policy domain and which enables tracing inputs of stakeholders to inform the formal policy models. This way, policy makers and stakeholders are better supported to understand the policy context. The OCOPOMO (Open Collaboration in Policy Modelling) approach fully supports the implementation of good governance principles.
Recent Trends in Interference Mitigation and Spoofing Detection
Authors: Dovis Fabio , Musumeci Luciano , Linty Nicola , Pini Marco
Published: December 2012

This paper gives a classification of intentional and unintentional threats, such as interference, jamming and spoofing, and discusses some of the recent trends concerning techniques for their detection and mitigation. Despite the fact that these phenomena have been studied since the early stages of Global Positioning System (GPS), they were mainly addressed for military applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). However, a wide range of recent civil applications related to user’s safety or featuring financial implications would be deeply affected by interfering or spoofing signals intentionally created. For such a reason, added value processing algorithms are being studied and designed, in order to improve accuracy and robustness of the receiver and to assure the reliability of the estimated position and time solution.
Efficient Heuristics for Large-Scale Vehicle Routing Problems Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Chandramouli A. , Srinivasan L. Vivek , Narendran T. T.
Published: December 2012

This paper addresses the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) with a homogenous fleet of vehicles serving a large customer base. The authors propose a multi-phase heuristic that clusters the nodes based on proximity, orients them along a route, and allots vehicles. For the final phase of determining the routes for each vehicle, they have developed a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach. Benchmark datasets as well as hypothetical datasets have been used for computational trials. The proposed heuristic is found to perform exceedingly well even for large problem instances, both in terms of quality of solutions and in terms of computational effort.
An Overview of Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling
Authors: Saravanan M. , Sridhar S.
Published: December 2012

This paper is survey of hybrid flow shop scheduling problems. An HFS scheduling problem is a classical flow-shop in which parallel machines are available to perform the same operation. Most real world scheduling problems are NP-hard in nature. The hybrid flow shop scheduling problems have received considerable research attention. The several optimization and heuristic solution procedures are available to solve a variety of hybrid flow shop scheduling problems. It discusses and reviews sustainability of several variants of the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem for economical analysis, each in turn considering different assumptions, constraints and objective functions. Sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which analysis the economics and encompasses the concept of stewardship. The Hybrid flow shop problem has sustained for several decades with multi – objective constraints. The paper shows some fruitful directions for future research and opportunities in the area of hybrid flow shop.
Engineering Sociability
Authors: Heeter Carrie , Sarkar Chandan (Dan) , Palmer-Scott Becky , Zhang Shasha
Published: December 2012

In this study, the authors show that online multiplayer gaming via local Wi-Fi can be used as a “social lubricant” to increase social connections between co-located strangers at a café. In a field experiment in real world cafés, they recruited people who were sitting alone at the same café to play an online game together using iPads, from wherever each happened to be sitting. Some pairs could see each other; some were facing in opposite directions, some were in separate rooms. Visibility influenced how and how much players communicated outside of the game, but had no impact on enjoyment or self-reported experience of social connection. The authors measured “friendship drive” and found that social yearners were more interested in gaming with a stranger and more likely to hope to see their gaming partner again than were socially satiated players. Friendship drive did not impact communication between players or feeling social connection.
Making Games for Environmental Design Education
Authors: Marlow Christopher M.
Published: December 2012

This paper features a pilot study about making games to foster good contemporary learning, challenging traditional environmental design education to embrace games as inspiration for better teaching, learning, and contributing to the general lack of investigation of video games in environmental design education. Alongside select literature supporting playing and making games for learning, this paper reveals design processes and products from an immersive, interdisciplinary, landscape architecture elective course on game design. Evidence suggests that designing and making games in the context of such an environmental design curriculum has potential to stimulate traditional pedagogies and foster student learning, providing an enriched venue for students to learn about their chosen discipline, and make teaching and learning enjoyable, meaningful, and memorable. Discussion also indicates future directions for how the course could provide an even better environment for quality learning.
Teacher Assessment of Young Children Learning with Technology in Early Childhood Education
Authors: Ntuli Esther , Kyei-Blankson Lydia
Published: December 2012

Technology integration into the early childhood curriculum has seen some improvement. Many teachers now report using technology in instruction and providing young children the opportunity to use technology as a learning resource or tool in the classroom. While there has been some development in providing children with technological tools, research shows very little is known about how teachers assess what students know and can do with the technology. The current study examines teacher assessment of young children’s learning with technology using early childhood teachers from a Midwestern school district. The study shows a general lack of teacher understanding of assessment strategies and assessment data, hence the inability to verify the progress young children are making with technology in early childhood programs. Recommendations are made regarding how technology-related data may be effectively gathered and interpreted by early childhood educators.
Developing ITV Best Teaching Practices and Effective Professional Development Programs
Authors: Keengwe Jared , Bieber Leslie Ann , Schnellert Gary
Published: December 2012

The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics of an effective State Interactive Video (ITV) program relating to teacher qualifications and strategies, student research and involvement, organization, economical benefits, and technical support. Evidence from this study suggests that ITV instructors need more organization and preparation than is typically required for face-to-face teaching in a traditional classroom and the ability of ITV instructors to adapt and learn new technology-based teaching techniques is critical for student academic success. These findings are beneficial to school administrators planning to design and implement sound ITV pedagogical and professional development programs and practices to enhance student learning.
E-Learning Perception and its Relationship with Demographic Variables
Authors: Chawla Deepak , Joshi Himanshu
Published: December 2012

The last decade is witness to a number of education centers offering e-learning courses. This paper explores students’ perceptions about e-learning as a potential medium for delivering business education. The sample comprises of students studying full-time business management course at IIM-A, a premiere management institute in India. An online survey comprising of close-ended questions was administered to a set of 240 students. In response, 154 complete and usable submissions were received. An analysis was carried out on to identify the e-learning awareness and degree of familiarity of the students with the various e-learning technologies and factor analysis was carried out on statements on perception to extract the underlying factors of perceptions. Subsequently, a chi-square analysis was carried out to determine the relationship between perception and various demographic variables like gender, age group, education, educational background and work experience. Further, a one way ANOVA is performed to examine whether the mean factor scores vary across demographic variables.