bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trade Policies and Development of Technology in Africa
Authors: Osuji Louis O.
Published: April 2012

Trade between nations is very crucial in the process of economic and technological growth. Directly or indirectly, trade facilitates the process of technology innovation, transfer and diffusion. It offers the trajectory to evaluate and understand how technology penetrates economies and remains a good indicator to measure national progress on technology creation and assimilation. The growth link between international trade and economic development could be traced to the classical trade theory of Adam Smith, and David Ricardo and the modern neoclassical trade model of Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O). While there is no single model that captures the route to economic development, this chapter explores how African countries working closely can harness and utilize technological advancements to improve their share of global trade so as to accelerate their overall economic growth and development.
The Scenario of a Learning Society Model Toward Promoting a Positive Paradigm Shift for Communities
Authors: Charungkaittikul Suwithida
Published: April 2012

This study uses a prospective qualitative approach. The Ethnographic Delphi Futures Research (EDFR) technique is used to propose a learning society model. The data include a review of peer-reviewed literature, a field study visit and observation of five best practices communities in Thailand, in-depth interviews to gain experts’ perspectives, mini-Delphi techniques questionnaires, focus group discussions, and model evaluation. Qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed using content-analysis. Policy makers, practitioners from public and private agencies, educational personnel, and community leaders were among the 42 individuals involved in the data collection effort. Results revealed essential elements for development of a learning society including, principles, developmental processes, strategies, and key success factors to enhance a positive paradigm shift for communities. It is anticipated that the findings will (1) add meaningful information and practical guidelines for developing a learning society, (2) contribute to ensuring the quality of citizen participation and ensure balanced and sustainable development of communities and societies, and (3) serve as a basis for further research.
Social Justice, America, & African American Children
Authors: Jackson Mary S. , Jackson Heather M.
Published: April 2012

Technology plays a very important role in the world. Therefore if some individuals or groups have no access or very limited access to technological advances, these advances have little or no value to them. In American society, which by its standards is considered a technological leader, there are some vulnerable populations which are underserved in critical areas such as health care and education. America’s proficiency at highly technological advances does not serve to elevate the quality of life nor eliminate social injustices for these vulnerable populations. This chapter examines one of America’s most vulnerable groups, African American children. Its intent is to remind readers of the importance of working toward continued efforts to ensure that children are not forgotten or lost in the ever-expanding global awareness of technological advances. The focus on health care and education is to provide a cursory view of the past, awaken a consideration for the present, and solicit anticipation of the future for these African American children if they continue to be the underserved population in American society.
Crossing Borders
Authors: Maynard Nicholas , McKethan Aaron , Luger Michael I. , Uppalapati Alekhya
Published: April 2012

In the United States, many chronically depressed counties are adjacent to their state’s border. This article explores how some non-urban counties that are contiguous but located in different states have worked with their state governments to develop institutional mechanisms to overcome the artificial barrier to technology-based economic development that state borders create. The story the authors tell can apply both to other countries that are also divided into states and to smaller countries within a federated region (such as the member states of the EU). The authors argue that political boundaries that transect otherwise integrated economic regions often impede economic development coordination and cooperation, in general, and for technology access, workforce training, and business innovation in particular. The authors use case study evidence from several successful cross-border efforts in the United States and internationally to demonstrate the critical success factors required to overcome political boundaries and initiate technology-based development. These success factors include the creation of diverse funding sources, effective leadership by a coordinated team, and the development of formal legal entities to confront legal and infrastructure challenges.
A Theory for Sustainability of Townscape
Authors: Gurer Tan Kamil
Published: April 2012

Many metropolitan cities have been faced with sustainability issues at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The problems are related to several subjects. Two of them are essential for the sustainability of townscapes: one is the subject of visual sustainability of the character of a townscape, and the other is the sustainable development of the city and its relation with the urban form. Overcoming the difficulties arising from the improper use of city’s resources can be possible by understanding the true nature of its urban form, how urban landscapes have developed historically, and which processes have shaped their forms. Typomorphology is a method for understanding the character of the urban form. It reveals the physical and spatial structure of cities. In this work, typomorphological method will be introduced, and its importance will be discussed according to sustainability of townscapes.
Using ICT to Foster Human Rights Defense Processes for Mexican Immigrants
Authors: Silva Maria Alejandra Rocha , Contreras-Castillo Juan , Acosta-Díaz Ricardo
Published: April 2012

Frequently, Mexicans who cannot find solutions for their financial problems migrate to the United States hoping to improve their quality of life. However, they usually face abuses, mostly because they are illegal aliens, but also because they arrive to a society which is not their own. These migrants are mainly excluded from American society not only because of their race and religion, but also because they do not speak English in most cases, do not have studies higher than primary school, and are not proficient in using information and communications technologies (ICT). With this panorama in mind, the Colimenses sin Fronteras Web Portal becomes a tool to support and help them overcome the adaptation process, which might help reduce the discrimination that many of them face upon arriving to the receiving country. It also provides migrants with information about the abuses they might suffer and how to file a legal complaint.
Knowledge Management
Authors: Iqbal Salman , Jalal Hayati Abdul , Toulson Paul , Tweed David
Published: April 2012

Organisational culture plays an important role for enabling the process of knowledge sharing. Organisational culture is not only reflected in the visible aspects of organization such as structure, mission, and objectives, it is also embedded in the behaviour of people. The purpose of this chapter is to close research gaps present in knowledge sharing success by examining the linkages between employees’ knowledge-sharing through collaboration, perceived values of involvement, trustworthiness, and formal recognition. The research data was collected by using simple random sampling techniques from a population of knowledge workers in Malaysian IT organisations. The findings highlight the importance of organisational culture for successful knowledge sharing within organisations. The results of factor analysis show the emergence of four new cultural values extant in the Malaysian context. These values are involvement, trustworthiness, formal recognition, and independence. Successful knowledge sharing is significantly related to the perceived value of involvement, trustworthiness, and formal recognition. This chapter will be beneficial for researchers, practitioners, scholars, and organisations (leaders and employees); it will also be helpful for those interested in organisational structure and relationships across organisations in knowledge contexts.
Data Mining, Validation, and Collaborative Knowledge Capture
Authors: Atzmueller Martin , Beer Stephanie , Puppe Frank
Published: April 2012

For large-scale data mining, utilizing data from ubiquitous and mixed-structured data sources, the extraction and integration into a comprehensive data-warehouse is usually of prime importance. Then, appropriate methods for validation and potential refinement are essential. This chapter describes an approach for integrating data mining, information extraction, and validation with collaborative knowledge management and capture in order to improve the data acquisition processes. For collaboration, a semantic wiki-enabled system for knowledge and experience management is presented. The proposed approach applies information extraction techniques together with pattern mining methods for initial data validation and is applicable for heterogeneous sources, i.e., capable of integrating structured and unstructured data. The methods are integrated into an incremental process providing for continuous validation options. The approach has been developed in a health informatics context: The results of a medical application demonstrate that pattern mining and the applied rule-based information extraction methods are well suited for discovering, extracting and validating clinically relevant knowledge, as well as the applicability of the knowledge capture approach. The chapter presents experiences using a case-study in the medical domain of sonography.
Hidden Markov Models for Context-Aware Tag Query Prediction in Folksonomies
Authors: Trabelsi Chiraz , Moulahi Bilel , Ben Yahia Sadok
Published: April 2012

Recently, social bookmarking systems have received surging attention in academic and industrial communities. In fact, social bookmarking systems share with the Semantic Web vision the idea of facilitating the collaborative organization and sharing of knowledge on the web. The reason for the apparent success of the upcoming tools for resource sharing (social bookmarking systems, photo sharing systems, etc.) lies mainly in the fact that no specific skills are needed for publishing and editing, and an immediate benefit is yielded to each individual user, e.g., organizing one’s bookmarks in a browser-independent, persistent fashion, without too much overhead. As these systems grow larger, however, the users address the need of enhanced search facilities. Today, full-text search is supported, but the results are usually simply listed decreasingly by their upload date. The challenging research issue is, therefore, the development of a suitable prediction framework to support users in effectively retrieving the resources matching their real search intents. The primary focus of this chapter is to propose a new, context aware tag query prediction approach. Specifically, the authors adopted Hidden Markov Models and formal concept analysis to predict users’ search intentions based on a real folksonomy. Carried out experiments emphasize the relevance of the proposal and open many issues.
Current Trends of Media Literacy in Europe
Authors: Cervi Laura Manuel Pérez , Paredes Oralia , Tornero José
Published: April 2012

In this paper, the authors give an overview of the current trends of media literacy in Europe. The study titled “Current trends and approaches to media literacy in Europe”, commissioned in the second half of 2007 by the European Commission to the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, maps current practices in implementing media literacy in Europe and recommends measures to increase the level of media literacy in Europe. Starting with information from the study, this paper will examine the evolution of media literacy in Europe, its orientation, and its relationship with other related fields, such as media education and digital literacy to explore the emerging trends, innovations, changes, crisis points, alternatives, and so forth.
Information Communication Technologies for the Lifelong Learning
Authors: Corazza Laura
Published: April 2012

In today’s knowledge society, better identified as a learning society, the opportunities for self-instruction and lifelong learning are playing an increasing role due to Information Communication Technologies. Old and new communication technologies offer possibilities for learning, as long as the worker is capable of learning in autonomy. Training has a central role as an educational activity, which aims at promoting and updating knowledge. Knowledge society does not only require citizens and workers to have basic skills; it asks for a life-long learning. Documentation is a form of communication that allows tacit, unexpressed, informal knowledge to emerge. It provides knowledge of the individual experiences of teachers and educators that can be widely shared. In knowledge management, audiovisual and multimedia documentation has proved to be a useful and efficient means of recording the experiences that are to be shared.
E-Skills and ICT Certification in Greek Cultural and Travel Agencies
Authors: Lazarinis Fotis , Kanellopoulos Dimitris
Published: April 2012

ICT skills are fundamental for the further enhancement and development of productivity and knowledge-intensive products and services. The long-term-demand for professionals with ICT skills still exceeds the supply, particularly in user industries such as the travel industry. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at analysing the impact of ICT certification for people working in cultural and travel agencies in Greece. The authors consider if the e-skills acquired during training for an ICT certification are of practical value while presenting the opinions of the survey participants, statistics about the required e-skills, and the correlation between these skills and the syllabus of the ECDL ICT certification. It is claimed that the ECDL ICT certification plays a crucial role in cultural and travel agencies as their employees being technologically skilful can offer better services to their customers.
Frameworks for the Benchmarking of Digital and Knowledge Management Best Practice in SME and Organizations
Authors: Cartelli Antonio
Published: April 2012

The paper discusses the impact of IT/ICT on society by analyzing the effects it has on subjects and organizations. The recent proposal of frameworks for digital competence assessment and the construction of suitable instruments helping students in the acquisition of this competence are the main reason for the transfer to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In this paper, the author compares knowledge phenomena in subjects with the strategies of knowledge management in the organizations. A framework for benchmarking best practices in SME and organizations is also given on the basis of the results obtained in virtual campuses. The author presents instruments for the acquisition of further information from all stakeholders, and possible interventions toward the improvement of digital processes in SMEs and organizations are discussed.
Cooperative Learning through Communities of Practice
Authors: Lastrucci Emilio , Pascale Angela
Published: April 2012

A community made up of a group of individuals becomes a “community of practice” when a mutual engagement is established between its members. The mutual engagement unites the participants in the carrying out of a common task (Wenger, 1998). The main aim of a community of practice is to find the solution to a problem by sharing experiences (Midoro, 2002). This paper examines the definition, characteristics, management and effectiveness of communities of practice. They are understood as being communities of self-managed learning where professional development is not based on a pre-set training course but on sharing experiences, identifying best practices and helping each other face the daily problems encountered in one’s profession (Trentin, 2000). Such communities are useful in particular working environments as an opportunity to improve digital competences. In communities of practice, it is possible to encourage ways of co-building knowledge through teaching methods such as cooperative learning. Until now cooperative learning has been limited to traditional training contexts, but it can be realised via Web technologies.
Levels of Self-Efficacy among Harassed Teachers
Authors: Cantón Isabel , Morán Consuelo
Published: April 2012

The aim of this study was to examine the differences among harassed teachers and un-harassed ones, regarding coping strategies, self-efficacy, and locus of control. Participants were 255 teachers (163 women and 92 men) who completed a set of three questionnaires, the Mobbing Perceived Questionnaire, a battery of control expectancies, and the Brief COPE to assess, respectively, mobbing perceived at work, self-efficacy, locus of control, and cooping strategies. The results showed differences in self-efficacy, locus of control, and use of coping strategies depending on the teachers’ degree of mobbing perceived. The authors believe that the efforts for preventing mobbing made by educational organizations must be intensified, as they not only affect teachers’ quality of life but also the quality of the educational system, furthermore new technologies can have a relevant role on this side by making available all information on those phenomena.
Employee Monitoring and Ethics
Authors: Kiser Angelina I. T. , Porter Timothy , Vequist David
Published: April 2012

More advanced technologies that make it possible to monitor employees in the workplace have led to controversies on both legal and ethical grounds. Employers can now easily monitor emails, Internet usage and sites visited, and keystrokes, as well as use GPS systems to track employees’ movements throughout the day. At one end of the spectrum is the employer who claims that monitoring not only improves productivity but is a legal necessity that assists in keeping the company from becoming legally liable for employees’ misuse of technology. Employees, on the other hand, want their privacy protected, and many believe that it is more a matter of them not being trusted. In this paper, an examination is presented that describes various forms of workplace surveillance and monitoring, viewpoints of both employers and employees, policies that companies have implemented, and the ethical and legal implications of such policies.
The mHealth Stack
Authors: Falchuk Benjamin , Famolari David , Fischer Russell , Loeb Shoshana , Panagos Euthimios
Published: April 2012

Applications accessible through mobile devices, such as mobile phones, are playing an increasingly important part in the delivery of high quality and personalized healthcare services. In this paper, we examine current usage of mobile devices and networks by mobile healthcare applications, and present our views on how mobile devices and networks could be used for creating patient-centered healthcare applications. The patient-centered healthcare paradigm allows for increased quality of care and quality of life for patients while increasing personal freedom to move about and be always connected to care-givers and healthcare services. The structure of our discussion is analogous to layered protocol stack in communications, progressing from the network and radio technologies, servicing middleware, cloud services, health sensors, mobile smartphones, and applications. All these layers come into play to support future mobile healthcare services.
‘Pragmatic Evaluation’
Authors: Scott Richard E.
Published: April 2012

E-Health continues to be implemented despite continued demonstration that it lacks value. Specific guidance regarding research approaches and methodologies would be beneficial due to the value in identifying and adopting a single model or framework for any one ‘entity’ (healthcare organisation, sub-national region, country, etc.) so that the evidence-base accumulates more rapidly and interventions can be more meaningfully compared. This paper describes a simple and systematic approach to e-health evaluation in a real-world setting, which can be applied by an evaluation team and raises the quality of e-health evaluations. The framework guides and advises users on evaluation approaches at different stages of e-health development and implementation. Termed ‘Pragmatic Evaluation,’ the approach has five principles that unfold in a staged approach that respects the collective need for timely, policy relevant, yet meticulous research.
Fostering User Participation in Ambient Assisted Living Projects
Authors: Serrano J. Artur
Published: April 2012

Participatory design has been widely accepted as an effective strategy for understanding and including users’ needs in technology development. But the successful integration of user participation depends on the way it is carried out, that is, when and how are the users involved in the process, how are the users’ needs and requirements transferred to the technologists, and how is it verified that these requirements have been satisfied in the developed prototypes? These questions can be summarized as, how can one make the users’ voice heard across the development of complex ubiquitous healthcare services? Finding adequate answers to these questions normally is complex due to the challenges that arise when using new and untested technology, as is the case of ubiquitous healthcare services. This paper will present answers to such questions from experience gathered during European projects in the AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) area, in which qualified specialists collaborate to provide a pool of competences that are vital in guaranteeing the success of ubiquitous healthcare services.
An Automated Method for Differential Blood Counting Using Microscope Color Image of Isolated WBC
Authors: Koppar Anant R. , Sridhar Venugopalachar
Published: April 2012

Healthcare Delivery Systems are becoming overloaded in developed and developing countries. It is imperative that more efficient and cost effective processes be employed by innovative applications of technology in the delivery system. One such process in Haematology that needs attention is “Generation of report on the Differential Count of Blood”. Most rural centers in India still employ traditional, manual processes to identify and count White Blood Cells under a microscope. This traditional method of manually counting the white blood cells is prone to human error and time consuming. Medical Imaging with innovative application of algorithms can be used for recognizing and analyzing the images from blood smears to provide an efficient alternative for differential counting and reporting. In this regard, the objective of this paper is to provide a simple and pragmatic software system built on innovative yet simple imaging algorithms for achieving better efficiency and accuracy of results. The resulting work-flow process has enabled truly practical tele-pathology by enabling e-collaboration between lesser skilled technicians and more skilled experts, which cuts down the total turnaround time for differential count reporting from days to minutes. The system can be extended to detect malarial parasites in blood and also cancerous cells.
Response Time Estimation of a Web-Based Electronic Health Record (EHR) System using Queuing Model
Authors: Díez Isabel de la Torre , Pernas Francisco Javier Díaz , Coronado Miguel López , Sánchez Roberto Hornero , Gálvez María Isabel López , Rodríguez Miriam Antón
Published: April 2012

Response time measurement of a Web system is critically important to evaluate its performance. This response time is one of the main barriers usually found in the implementation of an effective Electronic Health Records (EHRs) system. The database selected will affect the system performance. This paper presents a comparison of the response times of a EHRs Web system, TeleOftalWeb, using different databases. In order to calculate these times, M/M/1 queuing models is used. Four databases were selected: Oracle 10g, dbXML 2.0, Xindice 1.2, and eXist 1.1.1. The final objective of the comparison is choosing the database system resulting in the lowest response time to TeleOftalWeb.
Joint Uplink and Downlink Performance Profiling of LTE Protocol Processing on a Mobile Platform
Authors: Szczesny David , Hessel Sebastian , Showk Anas , Bilgic Attila , Hildebrand Uwe , Frascolla Valerio
Published: April 2012

This article provides a detailed profiling of the layer 2 (L2) protocol processing for 3G successor Long Term Evolution (LTE). For this purpose, the most processing intensive part of the LTE L2 data plane is executed on top of a virtual ARM based mobile phone platform. The authors measure the execution times as well as the maximum data rates at different system setups. The profiling is done for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) directions separately as well as in a joint UL and DL scenario. As a result, the authors identify time critical algorithms in the protocol stack and check to what extent state-of-the-art hardware platforms with a single-core processor and traditional hardware acceleration concepts are still applicable for protocol processing in LTE and beyond LTE mobile devices.
Implementation of FFT on General-Purpose Architectures for FPGA
Authors: Garzia Fabio , Airoldi Roberto , Nurmi Jari
Published: April 2012

This paper describes two general-purpose architectures targeted to Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation. The first architecture is based on the coupling of a coarse-grain reconfigurable array with a general-purpose processor core. The second architecture is a homogeneous multi-processor system-on-chip (MP-SoC). Both architectures have been mapped onto two different Altera FPGA devices, a StratixII and a StratixIV. Although mapping onto the StratixIV results in higher operating frequencies, the capabilities of the device are not fully exploited. The implementation of a FFT on the two platforms shows a considerable speed-up in comparison with a single-processor reference architecture. The speed-up is higher in the reconfigurable solution but the MP-SoC provides an easier programming interface that is completely based on C language. The authors’ approach proves that implementing a programmable architecture on FPGA and then programming it using a high-level software language is a viable alternative to designing a dedicated hardware block with a hardware description language (HDL) and mapping it on FPGA.
Performance Analysis of On-Chip Communication Structures under Device Variability
Authors: Hassan Faiz-ul , Vanderbauwhede Wim , Rodríguez-Salazar Fernando
Published: April 2012

On-chip communication is becoming an important bottleneck in the design and operation of high performance systems where it has to face additional challenges due to device variability. Communication structures such as tapered buffer drivers, interconnects, repeaters, and data storage elements are vulnerable to variability, which can limit the performance of the on-chip communication networks. In this regard, it becomes important to have a complete understanding of the impact that variability will have on the performance of these circuit elements in order to design high yield and reliable systems. In this paper, the authors have characterized the performance of the communication structures under the impact of random dopant fluctuation (RDF) for the future technology generations of 25, 18, and 13 nm. For accurate characterization of their performance, a Monte Carlo simulation method has been used along with predictive device models for the given technologies. Analytical models have been developed for the link failure probability of a repeater inserted interconnect which uses characterization data of all communication structures to give an accurate prediction of the link failure probability. The model has also been extended to calculate the link failure probability of a wider communication link.
Schedulability Analysis for Real Time On-Chip Communication with Wormhole Switching
Authors: Shi Zheng , Burns Alan , Indrusiak Leandro Soares
Published: April 2012

In this paper, the authors discuss a real-time on-chip communication service with a priority-based wormhole switching policy. The authors present a novel off-line schedulability analysis approach, worst case network latency analysis. By evaluating diverse inter-relationships and service attributes among the traffic flows, this approach can predict the packet network latency for all practical situations. The simulation results provide evidence that communication latency calculated using the real time analysis approach is safe, closely matching the figures obtained from simulation.
Inside Entrepreneurship and Innovation Activities
Authors: Korres George M.
Published: April 2012

The growing importance of entrepreneurship and innovation activities in world production and employment is one of the characteristics of the last four decades. Entrepreneurship is not only a determinant of growth, but also affects the international competition and the modernization of a country. This chapter analyses the entrepreneurship and innovation activities and the way they contribute essentially to growth and competitiveness. The chapter aims to investigate how entrepreneurship affects not only and innovation capabilities, but also the whole periphery and economy, as well as how technological innovation is essential if companies - and countries - are to maintain their competitiveness in global markets. There are a lot of underlying problems and questions regarding the measurement of entrepreneurship and innovation activities. In particular, this chapter attempts to analyze the whole framework of entrepreneurship and innovation activities and in particular to analyse the effects and implications to growth and competitiveness. Within this context, it also aims to emphasize and review the appropriate techniques, the most common methods, and the particular related problems.
Towards an Improved Hotel Reservation System
Authors: González-Carrasco Israel , López-Cuadrado José Luis , García-Crespo Ángel , Colomo-Palacios Ricardo , Ruiz-Mezcua Belén
Published: April 2012

This chapter presents a tool that distinguishes selects and supplies, among all products with similar characteristics that appear in the catalogue of a company, the product that better adapts to the necessities of the users. In order to achieve this, it uses a search system based on fuzzy logic techniques, being able to handle vague information or of difficult specification and thus making possible to administer to the tool by means of rules of “common sense,” which talk about indefinite amounts. A fundamental aspect that provides great flexibility to the application is that the system can be modified and adjusted by the expert in real time. This allows changing quickly the output product set and without stopping the operation of the system based on the necessities of the company. The results are codified in XML format, facilitating the interoperability between systems and allowing the execution of the tool in multiple operative systems, as they only have to process the generated content. The possibility of displaying the clients the products that they are looking for, directly responding to their necessities, guiding and advising them in the purchase that are ready to make, is a competitive advantage that the company must not let escape.
A Risk Assessment Framework for Inter-Organizational Knowledge Sharing
Authors: Aljafari Ruba , Sarnikar Surendra
Published: April 2012

Internet-based information, communication, and collaboration technologies are making it easier for organizations and knowledge workers to collaborate across organizational boundaries. However, it is necessary for organizations to monitor, regulate, and build appropriate security mechanisms in collaboration systems to prevent loss of strategic knowledge and competitive advantage. In this chapter, the authors synthesize literature on knowledge sharing and IS/IT risk assessment to present a risk assessment framework that can help organizations identify valuable knowledge assets exposed through collaboration technologies, and assess the risk of knowledge loss, intellectual property leakage, and the subsequent loss of competitive advantage so that appropriate security mechanism can be designed to prevent such a loss.
Knowledge Management for Web-Based Learning Systems
Authors: Sandhu Kamaljeet
Published: April 2012

There is very little knowledge about how different users learn on websites and retain that knowledge for doing tasks. Web-based systems characteristics may be an influencing factor that may positive or negatively impact user’s attitude. In this research, users’ experience with information explains how different users derive the knowledge to use the systems that forms the basis of interaction with the system.
Innovation for E-Services Management
Authors: Sandhu Kamaljeet
Published: April 2012

Over the last several years traditional services (face to face) have been transferred over to the electronic environment on the the Web, also known as E-Services. There is very little knowledge to know how and why these services are used by consumers based on their knowledge and experience and motivation, ease of use, and usefulness of e-services, acceptance, and continued usage for e-services. This research explores the theoretical framework for developing e-services acceptance model (E-SAM).
Framework of Knowledge and Intelligence Base
Authors: Rabaey Marc , Mercken Roger
Published: April 2012

This chapter introduces the concept of the “Intelligence Base,” developed in a study on the information requirement of the management of an (military) organization. The purpose of the study was to conceive, for each level of an organization, an appropriate Decision Support System (DSS) and/or Knowledge and Information System. All systems would eventually have been integrated in an overall Enterprise Architecture (EA). By discussing the OODA-cycle of John Boyd and the Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) the authors show that the concept of Intelligence Base can be a DSS for very demanding environments. Related topics are knowledge, culture, and real options (business example). The proposed framework is based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing, which will determine the configuration of the Information Technology (IT) systems.
Cloud Computing for Education and Research in Developing Countries
Authors: Truong Hong-Linh , Pham Tran-Vu , Thoai Nam , Dustdar Schahram
Published: April 2012

Recently cloud computing has offered attractive solutions for academic and research institutions due to several reasons. In this chapter, the authors present a study of how cloud computing can be used for research and teaching activities in higher educational and research institutions in developing countries. Instead of focusing on cloud computing offering for basic IT infrastructures used in daily work of these institutions, the authors concentrate on the use of cloud computing for satisfying ad hoc needs of computing resources in research and teaching activities. Thorough analyses of research and teaching activities, requirements for cloud computing, benefits of utilizing cloud computing, and adoption barriers for these activities are also included. The authors then present the selected challenges in tackling these barriers and discuss possible approaches for solving these challenges and report lessons learned and experiences in utilizing and developing cloud computing solutions for teaching and research activities in Vietnam.
Legal and Contractual Issues of Cloud Computing for Educational Institutions
Authors: Sclater Niall
Published: April 2012

The procurement of cloud computing services involves a wide range of issues and risks for educational institutions. The technologies and services available are rapidly evolving, differ greatly between providers, and are subject to complex contractual arrangements with potentially serious legal and business implications. There is no specific cloud computing legislation, but the area is subject to a wide and growing range of laws relating to Internet-based services, some written decades ago (Baker, 2009). Resolution of the new issues relating to security, privacy, and regulation in the cloud will take many years (Kaufman, 2009). This chapter outlines the key issues institutions need to investigate when considering the deployment of services in the cloud to students, faculty, and staff.
Using Cross-Layer Techniques for ECG Transmissions in Body Area Sensor Networks
Authors: Ma Tao , Hempel Michael , Peng Dongming , Sharif Hamid , Rezaei Fahimeh , Shrestha Pradhumna L , Chen Hsiao-Hwa
Published: April 2012

Body Area Sensor Networks (BASN) with miniature sensors providing wireless communications capabilities have become a promising tool for monitoring and logging vital parameters of patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, and heart diseases. Particularly, as the technical development in BASN, a low-cost, high-quality, convenient Electrocardiographic (ECG) diagnosis system becomes a future major tool for healthcare systems. However, numerous important research issues remain to be addressed in BASN for ECG transmissions. Among these, communication energy efficiency and security are the most concerning issues. In this chapter, the authors introduce, survey, and analyze effective cross-layer strategies for wireless ECG transmissions in BASN. The key idea of these cross-layer communication techniques is to take advantage of both source data properties and communication strategies for the optimization of the system energy efficiency while providing secure wireless ECG transmissions. The goal of improving communication energy efficiency is achieved by matching the source coding of ECG signals with the channel coding strategy. In addition one can leverage biometric ECG properties to implement an energy-efficient cross-layer security strategy. As an example the authors showcase two security methods in this chapter—selective encryption and self-authentication. Thanks to the dependency property of the compressed ECG data, a selective encryption algorithm needs only to be applied on a very small portion of the transmitted data, and at the same time it provides a level of security equivalent to traditional full-scale encryption using block or stream ciphers without the burden of the associated energy and computational expense. In the example authentication scheme, sensors for the same body can authenticate each other by common traits such as inter-pulse intervals. The authors analyzed the proposed cross-layer techniques for ECG transmissions and validated the achieved energy efficiency improvements by both simulation and experimental results.
MAC and Routing Integration in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Theoleyre Fabrice , Pavkovic Bogdan
Published: April 2012

Wireless Sensor Networks are a promising way to interconnect smart objects sensing and acting on the environment, enabling the Internet of Things. However, this kind of network is particularly constrained: nodes have limited energy reserve, their CPU and memory resources are limited, and the radio bandwidth is very low. After exposing the main approaches for the routing and MAC layers, the authors explain why they must be jointly optimized. They explain why a metric reflecting the radio link quality is necessary and how it should integrate different criteria in layers 2 and 3. The authors also introduce a new architecture based on IEEE 802.15.4 and RPL so that both protocols work in symbiosis. Finally, they conclude detailing some open problems in this research area.
Cross-Layer Multimedia QoS Provisioning over Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Alturki Raad , Mehmood Rashid
Published: April 2012

The HCPR scheme is implemented as an extension to the OPNET simulation software and is analysed in detail for its QoS performance to deliver multimedia applications over ad hoc networks. It is compared with three well-known and widely used routing protocols: Ad Hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Optimised Link State Routing (OLSR), and Geographic Routing Protocol (GRP). Several networking scenarios have been carefully configured with variations in networks sizes, applications, codecs, and routing protocols to extensively analyse the proposed scheme. The HCPR enabled ad hoc network outperforms the well-known routing schemes, in particular for relatively large networks and high QoS network loads. These results are promising because many QoS schemes do work for small networks and low network loads but are unable to sustain performance for large networks and high QoS loads. Several directions to extend this research for future work are given.
Cross-Layer Optimization for Video Transmission over WLAN
Authors: Wang Chih-Yu , Huang Yin-Cheng , Mai Cheng-Han , Chang Fu-Wang , Wei Hung-Yu
Published: April 2012

As IEEE 802.11 wireless devices have become increasingly widespread, providing Quality of Service in the context of H.264/AVC, the video coding standard for future multimedia networking, has become an important issue in the fields of communication and networking. Cross-Layer Adaptive Video Prioritization (CAVP) is a cross-layer framework that prioritizes video frame transmission according to the application-layer information and the MAC layer transmission condition. In this chapter, a Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) estimation method is proposed to sort out different priorities of H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding) video frames at the application layer to provide user-centric media quality estimation. Compared to previous heuristic algorithms, the authors also investigate a theoretic access delay estimator to monitor the wireless medium access delay at the MAC layer. In addition, an admission control is employed to serve the delay-sensitive video application and to give higher priority to those critical video frames. Video packets are dynamically classified into different 802.11e access categories according to the level of wireless medium access delay and the priority of the video frames. The myths of naïvely prioritizing video packets based on I/P/B types as well as naïvely assign packets to high priority access categories in 802.11e are resolved. Rather than creating complex scheme that is unable to be implemented in practical scenarios, the authors design the proposed scheme with practical implementability in mind. The proposed scheme is implemented with Click kernel module and the MadWifi WLAN driver. The performance of proposed CAVP design is evaluated by both NS-2 simulations and real testbed experiments, and results show that it enhances receiving video quality in error-prone wireless networking environments.
Transdisciplinary Approach to Service Design Based on Consumer’s Value and Decision Making
Authors: Takenaka Takeshi , Fujita Kousuke , Nishino Nariaki , Ishigaki Tsukasa , Motomura Yoichi
Published: April 2012

Science and technology are expected to support actual service provision and to create new services to promote service industries’ productivity. However, those problems might not be solved solely in a certain research area. This paper describes that it is necessary to establish transdisciplinary approaches to service design in consideration of consumers’ values and decision making. Recent research trends of services are overviewed. Then a research framework is proposed to integrate computer sciences, human sciences, and economic sciences. Three study examples of services are then presented. The first study is a multi-agent simulation of a cellular telephone market based on results of a psychological survey. The second presents a cognitive model constructed through integration of questionnaire data of a retail business and Bayesian network modeling. The third presents a pricing mechanism design for service facilities––movie theaters––using an economic experiment and agent-based simulation.
CSMA
Authors: Boukadi Khouloud , Vincent Lucien , Ghedira Chirine , Maamar Zakaria
Published: April 2012

Since the beginning of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm, with its various implementation technologies such as Web services, the focus of industrial communities has been on providing tools that would allow seamless and flexible application integration within and across enterprises’ boundaries. In this paper, the authors present a Context-based, Service-oriented Modeling and Analysis (CSMA) method that guides service engineers in their choices of identifying, defining, and analyzing adaptable business services. The proposed method is business centric and comprises a set of structured steps grouped in two phases. Besides, the CSMA embraces Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) principles to model and refine adaptable business services models in the PIM level. The results from a pilot validation of CSMA for SOA enablement of a realistic enterprise training solutions are also presented.
Access Control on Semantic Web Data Using Query Rewriting
Authors: Li Jian , Cheung William K.
Published: April 2012

Semantic Web technologies allow on-line resources to be semantically annotated to support more effective and intelligent online services. However, ontologies sometimes may contain sensitive information. Providing access to them requires proper control to ensure the data protection requirement. Yet, the protection should not be too restrictive to make the access management inflexible. While there has been recent work on policy-based access control, in this paper, the authors present a policy representation specifically for access control on ontology-based data and explain how issues like policy propagation and policy conflict resolution are addressed. The authors present bucket-based query rewriting algorithms for realizing the access control policies to avoid sensitive resources leakage in the context of the Semantic Web. The authors validate the correctness of the proposed mechanisms by going through some illustrative examples in detail.
Distributed Intelligence for Constructing Economic Models
Authors: Yu Ting
Published: April 2012

This paper presents an integrated and distributed intelligent system being capable of automatically estimating and updating large-size economic models. The input-output model of economics uses a matrix representation of a nation’s (or a region’s) economy to predict the effect of changes in one industry on others and by consumers, government, and foreign suppliers on the economy (Miller & Blair, 1985). To construct the model reflecting the underlying industry structure faithfully, multiple sources of data are collected and integrated together. The system in this paper facilitates this estimation process by integrating a series of components with the purposes of data retrieval, data integration, machine learning, and quality checking. More importantly, the complexity of national economy leads to extremely large-size models to represent every detail of an economy, which requires the system to have the capacity for processing large amounts of data. This paper demonstrates that the major bottleneck is the memory allocation, and to include more memory, the machine learning component is built on a distributed platform and constructs the matrix by analyzing historical and spatial data simultaneously. This system is the first distributed matrix estimation package for such a large-size economic matrix.