bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of Earthquake Induced Lateral Soil Movement On Pile Behavior
Authors: Muthukkumaran K. , Subha I.P.
Published: October 2011

One of the most common causes of ground failure during earthquakes is the liquefaction phenomenon, which produces severe damage to property. Although methods are available for seismic analysis of pile foundations, most of them consider soil to be an elastic material. Collapse of piled foundations in liquefiable areas has been observed in most recent strong earthquakes despite the fact that a large margin of safety is employed in their design. Lateral spreading of gently-sloping deposits of liquefiable sand is a cause of much damage in earthquakes, reportedly more than any other form of liquefaction-induced ground failure. The present investigation finds the effect of earthquake induced lateral soil movement on lateral pile capacity. Parametric study is carried out on the same model by changing the ground surface to different slopes on the top of the non liquefiable layer and by changing the length of the pile in the bottom layer of the non liquefiable layer. The paper focuses on the behaviour of pile under lateral soil movement due to earthquake. The bending moment and displacement behaviour of pile is studied in detail for different slope conditions.
On Construction of Cluster and Grid Computing Platforms for Parallel Bioinformatics Applications
Authors: Yang Chao-Tung , Shih Wen-Chung
Published: October 2011

Biology databases are diverse and massive. As a result, researchers must compare each sequence with vast numbers of other sequences. Comparison, whether of structural features or protein sequences, is vital in bioinformatics. These activities require high-speed, high-performance computing power to search through and analyze large amounts of data and industrial-strength databases to perform a range of data-intensive computing functions. Grid computing and Cluster computing meet these requirements. Biological data exist in various web services that help biologists search for and extract useful information. The data formats produced are heterogeneous and powerful tools are needed to handle the complex and difficult task of integrating the data. This paper presents a review of the technologies and an approach to solve this problem using cluster and grid computing technologies. The authors implement an experimental distributed computing application for bioinformatics, consisting of basic high-performance computing environments (Grid and PC Cluster systems), multiple interfaces at user portals that provide useful graphical interfaces to enable biologists to benefit directly from the use of high-performance technology, and a translation tool for converting biology data into XML format.
An Intelligent Sensor Placement Method to Reach a High Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Khezri Shirin , Faez Karim , Osmani Amjad
Published: October 2011

Adequate coverage is one of the main problems for Sensor Networks. The effectiveness of distributed wireless sensor networks highly depends on the sensor deployment scheme. Optimizing the sensor deployment provides sufficient sensor coverage and saves cost of sensors for locating in grid points. This article applies the modified binary particle swarm optimization algorithm for solving the sensor placement in distributed sensor networks. PSO is an inherent continuous algorithm, and the discrete PSO is proposed to be adapted to discrete binary space. In the distributed sensor networks, the sensor placement is an NP-complete problem for arbitrary sensor fields. One of the most important issues in the research fields, the proposed algorithms will solve this problem by considering two factors: the complete coverage and the minimum costs. The proposed method on sensors surrounding is examined in different area. The results not only confirm the successes of using the new method in sensor placement, also they show that the new method is more efficiently compared to other methods like Simulated Annealing(SA), PBIL and LAEDA.
Cost Efficient Implementation of Multistage Symmetric Repackable Networks
Authors: Chakrabarty Amitabha , Collier Martin
Published: October 2011

Symmetric rearrangeable networks (SRN) (Chakrabarty, Collier, & Mukhopadhyay, 2009) make efficient use of hardware, but they have the disadvantage of momentarily disrupting the existing communications during reconfiguration. Path continuity is a major issue in some application of rearrangeable networks. Using repackable networks (Yanga, Su, & Pin, 2008) is a solution to the path continuity problem in SRN. These networks provide functionality comparable to that of strict sense no blocking networks (SNB) but with minimum increase in the hardware than SRN. This paper proposes an efficient implementation of multistage symmetric repackable networks requiring optimum hardware cost than the method proposed in the literature. Cost optimization is achieved through the use of minimum number of bypass link(s). Investigated method works for networks built with more than three switching stages and shows promise of scalability.
A Grid and Cloud Based System for Data Grouping Computation and Online Service
Authors: Li Wing-Ning , Hayes Donald , Baran Jonathan , Porter Cameron , Schweiger Tom
Published: October 2011

Record linkage deals with finding records that identify the same real world entity, such as an individual or a business, from a given file or set of files. Record linkage problem is also referred to as the entity resolution or record recognition problem. To locate those records identifying the same real world entity, in principle, pairwise record analyses have to be performed among all records. Analytical operations between two records vary from comparing corresponding fields to enhancing records through large knowledge bases and querying large databases. Hence, these operations are complex and take time. To reduce the number of pairwise record comparisons, blocking techniques are introduced to partition the records into blocks. After that records in each block are analyzed against one and another. One of the effective blocking methods is the closure approach, where a “related” equivalence relation is used to partition the records into equivalence classes. This paper introduces the closure problem and describes the design and implementation of a parallel and distributed closure prototype system running in an enterprise grid.
High Performance Computing Design by Code Migration for Distributed Desktop Computing Grids
Authors: Yoshida Makoto , Kojima Kazumine
Published: October 2011

Large scale loosely coupled PCs can organize clusters and form desktop computing grids on sharing each processing power; power of PCs, transaction distributions, network scales, network delays, and code migration algorithms characterize the performance of the computing grids. This article describes the design methodologies of workload management in distributed desktop computing grids. Based on the code migration experiments, transfer policy for computation was determined and several simulations for location policies were examined, and the design methodologies for distributed desktop computing grids are derived from the simulation results. The language for distributed desktop computing is designed to accomplish the design methodologies.
Parallelization of Littlewood-Richardson Coefficients Computation and its Integration into the BonjourGrid Meta-Desktop Grid Middleware
Authors: Abbes Heithem , Butelle Franck , Cérin Christophe
Published: October 2011

This paper shows how to parallelize a compute intensive application in mathematics (Group Theory) for an institutional Desktop Grid platform coordinated by a meta-grid middleware named BonjourGrid. The paper is twofold: it shows how to parallelize a sequential program for a multicore CPU which participates in the computation; and it demonstrates the effort for launching multiple instances of the solutions for the mathematical problem with the BonjourGrid middleware. BonjourGrid is a fully decentralized Desktop Grid middleware. The main results of the paper are: a) an efficient multi-threaded version of a sequential program to compute Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, namely the Multi-LR program and b) a proof of concept, centered around the user needs, for the BonjourGrid middleware dedicated to coordinate multiple instances of programsfor Desktop Grids and with the help of Multi-LR. In this paper, the scientific work consists in starting from a model for the solution of a compute intensive problem in mathematics, to incorporate the concrete model into a middleware and running it on commodity PCs platform managed by an innovative meta Desktop Grid middleware.
Knowledge Transfer in Offshore Outsourcing
Authors: Huong Nguyen Thu , Katsuhiro Umemoto , Chi Dam Hieu
Published: October 2011

This paper discusses the knowledge transfer process in offshore outsourcing. The focus is a case study of software offshore outsourcing from Japan to Vietnam. Initial results confirm that willingness to cooperate and good impressions facilitate the knowledge transfer process. In addition, communication barriers, cultural differences, lack of equivalence in individual competence, and lack of common rules slow down the transfer process. The study also identifies the Bridge System Engineer (Bridge SE)-a type of coordinator who mediates and enhances the relationship between Japanese clients and Vietnamese service providers. Employing a Bridge SE is an effective way to fill the communication gap, the cultural gap, and generally improve the business relationship. Bridge SEs use their background of higher education and long-term residence in Japan to give advice to Vietnamese software teams on Japanese cultural characteristics, such as the apology culture and the separation between work and private time. In other situations, Bridge SEs use their IT background and communication skills to verify and adjust communication contents before information is sent from one side to another.
Factors Affecting Usage of Information Technology in Support of Knowledge Sharing
Authors: Chow Ngai-Keung
Published: October 2011

This study explores key factors affecting the usage of information technology (IT) tools in support of knowledge sharing in service organizations in Hong Kong. In a case study of five firms, the usage of IT tools is influenced by an array of factors acting as enablers, barriers, and motivators. The findings support extant theories on knowledge management (KM). This research discovers relationships between multiple factors and the usage of IT tools for knowledge sharing at various hierarchical levels. Operational factors like perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, staff capability, and nature of work induce higher usage of IT for knowledge sharing. These findings and related analyses have managerial implications for firms engaging in service business.
Offshore Vendors’ Software Development Team Configurations
Authors: Chakraborty Suranjan , Sarker Saonee , Rai Sudhanshu , Sarker Suprateek , Nadadhur Ranganadhan
Published: October 2011

This research uses configuration theory and data collected from a major IT vendor organization to examine primary configurations of distributed teams in a global off-shoring context. The study indicates that off-shoring vendor organizations typically deploy three different types of configurations, which the authors term as thin-at-client, thick-at-client, and hybrid. These configurations differ in terms of the size of the sub-teams in the different distributed locations and the nature of the ISD-related tasks performed by the distributed team members. In addition, the different configurations were compared on their inherent process-related and resource-related flexibilities. The thick-at-client configuration emerged as the one that offers superior flexibility (in all dimensions).However, additional analysis also revealed contingencies apart from flexibility that may influence the appropriateness of the distributed ISD team configuration, including the volatility of the client organization’s environment and the extent to which the ISD tasks can be effortlessly moved to the vendor’s home location.
Modeling the Success of Small and Medium Sized Online Vendors in Business to Business Electronic Marketplaces in China
Authors: Wang Shan , Hong Yili , Archer Norm , Wang Youwei
Published: October 2011

This paper explores the performance of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic marketplaces (EMs). Based on a content analysis of 155 cases of high performing online Chinese vendors, this paper explains the success of SME online B2B vendors within a Motivation-Capability framework. This first generation of SME B2B online vendors proved highly motivated to increase sales and developed a set of Internet leveraged organizational capabilities to compete online, including capabilities for online marketing, product innovation, eCommerce management, etc. This study differs from traditional wisdom that online marketplaces will render Guanxi (a Chinese cultural phenomenon defined as close and pervasive interpersonal relationships, Yang, 1994) irrelevant since online marketplaces are perceived to be impersonal. In fact, Guanxi still matters online, but it takes new forms. This research offers important managerial implications for B2B SME online vendors on how to leverage EMs for higher performance.
Proposals for Postgraduate Students to Reinforce Information Security Management Inside ITIL®
Authors: Larrocha Elena Ruiz , Minguet Jesús M. , Díaz Gabriel , Castro Manuel , Vara Alfonso , Martín Sergio , San Cristobal Elio
Published: October 2011

This paper is complementary to the previous work published and awarded as Best Student Paper at the International Conference EDUCON 2010 (sponsored by the IEEE Education Society): “Filling the gap of Information Security Management inside ITIL®: proposals for postgraduate students”. This paper reviews and updates those different proposals made at UNED, for post-graduate students, at the area of IT Services Management and tries to fill the gap of the treatment due in ITIL® (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) to Information Security Management. The treatment given to Information Security Management in ITIL, both versions 2 and 3, are analyzed. The different post-graduate courses offered that fill these methodologies and the opinions and evaluations of the students are discussed.
The I5P Visualisation Framework for Performance Estimation through the Alignment of Process Maturity and Knowledge Sharing
Authors: Georgiadou Elli , Siakas Kerstin , Balstrup Bo
Published: October 2011

This paper argues that Knowledge Management (KM) and Knowledge Sharing (KS) are strongly linked to organisational maturity. The mechanisms that enable this upward movement and depict measurable effects of performance as the organisation climbs from ad hoc levels to institutionalised high levels of process maturity are investigated. The I5P visualisation framework which aligns a Knowledge Sharing level to the appropriate maturity level and characterises the process from incidental to innovative is examined. This framework provides the basis, in terms of preparedness and disposition towards knowledge sharing, for estimating and measuring organisational performance. In today’s competitive global business environment organisations are increasingly dependent on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and particularly vulnerable to knowledge dilution. The framework links knowledge sharing to process maturity providing a framework that aims to encapsulate tacit accumulated knowledge in the organisation by preserving it for future needs. The framework will be useful to Information Technology (IT) organisations that are familiar with maturity models, such as CMMI.
A 2D Barcode Validation System for Mobile Commerce
Authors: Kuo David , Wong Daniel , Gao Jerry , Chang Lee
Published: October 2011

The wide deployment of wireless networks and mobile technologies and the significant increase in the number of mobile device users has created a very strong demand for emerging mobile commerce applications and services. Barcode-based identification and validation solutions are considered an important part of electronic commerce systems, particularly in electronic supply chain systems. This paper reports a mobile-based 2D barcode validation system as part of mobile commerce systems. This barcode-based validation solution is developed based on the Data Matrix 2D-Barcode standard to support barcode-based validation in mobile commerce systems on mobile devices. The paper demonstrates its application by building a mobile movie ticketing system.
DSOA
Authors: Buzeto Fabricio Nogueira , Filho Carlos Botelho de Paula , Castanho Carla Denise , Jacobi Ricardo Pezzuol
Published: October 2011

Ubiquitous environments are composed by a wide variety of devices, each one with different characteristics like communication protocol, programming and hardware platforms. These devices range from powerful equipment, like PCs, to limited ones, like cell phones, sensors, and actuators. The services provided by a ubiquitous environment rely on the interaction among devices. In order to support the development of applications in this context, the heterogeneity of communication protocols must be abstracted and the functionalities dynamically provided by devices should be easily available to application developers. This paper proposes a Device Service Oriented Architecture (DSOA) as an abstraction layer to help organize devices and its resources in a ubiquitous environment, while hiding details about communication protocols from developers. Based on DSOA, a lightweight middleware (uOS) and a high level protocol (uP) were developed. A use case is presented to illustrate the application of these concepts.
Modeling and Analyzing User Contexts for Mobile Advertising
Authors: Jing Nan , Yao Yong , Ru Yanbo
Published: October 2011

Context-aware advertising is one of the most critical components in the Internet ecosystem today because most WWW publisher revenue highly depends on the relevance of the displayed advertisement to the context of the user interaction. Existing research work focuses on analyzing either the content of the web page or the keywords of the user search. However, there are limitations of these works when being extended into mobile computing domain, where mobile devices can provide versatile contexts, such as locations, weather, device capability, and user activities. These contexts should be well categorized and utilized for online advertising to gain better user experience and reaction. This paper examines the aforementioned limitations of the existing works in context-aware advertising when being applied for mobile platforms. A mobile advertising system is proposed, using location tracking and context awareness to provide targeted and meaningful advertisement to the customers on mobile devices. The three main modules of this comprehensive mobile advertising system are discussed, including advisement selection, advertisement presentation, and user context databases. A software prototype that is developed to conduct the case studies and validate this approach is presented.
Security Assurance Evaluation and IT Systems’ Context of Use Security Criticality
Authors: Ouedraogo Moussa , Mouratidis Haralambos , Dubois Eric , Khadraoui Djamel
Published: October 2011

Today’s IT systems are ubiquitous and take the form of small portable devices, to the convenience of the users. However, the reliance on this technology is increasing faster than the ability to deal with the simultaneously increasing threats to information security. This paper proposes metrics and a methodology for the evaluation of operational systems security assurance that take into account the measurement of security correctness of a safeguarding measure and the analysis of the security criticality of the context in which the system is operating (i.e., where is the system used and/or what for?). In that perspective, the paper also proposes a novel classification scheme for elucidating the security criticality level of an IT system. The advantage of this approach lies in the fact that the assurance level fluctuation based on the correctness of deployed security measures and the criticality of the context of use of the IT system or device, could provide guidance to users without security background on what activities they may or may not perform under certain circumstances. This work is illustrated with an application based on the case study of a Domain Name Server (DNS).
Design and Implementation of Binary Tree Based Proactive Routing Protocols for Large MANETS
Authors: Pandey Pavan Kumar , Biswas G. P.
Published: October 2011

The Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of connected mobile nodes without any centralized administration. Proactive routing approach is one of those categories of proposed routing protocol which is not suitable for larger network due to their high overhead to maintain routing table for each and every node. The novelty of this approach is to form a binary tree structure of several independent sub-networks by decomposing a large network to sub-networks. Each sub-network is monitored by an agent node which is selected by several broadcasted regulations. Agent node maintains two routing information; one for local routing within the sub-network and another for routing through all other agent node. In routing mechanism first source node checks for destination within sub-network then source sends destination address to respective parent agent node if destination is not available in local routing, this process follows up to the destination node using agent mode. This approach allowed any proactive routing protocol with scalability for every routing mechanism. The proposed approach is thoroughly analyzed and its justification for the connectivity through sub-networks, routing between each source to destination pair, scalability, etc., are given, which show expected performance.
Exploring the Effect of mHealth Technologies on Communication and Information Sharing in a Pediatric Critical Care Unit
Authors: Luppicini Rocci , Aceti Victoria
Published: October 2011

Communication and information sharing is an important aspect of healthcare information technology and mHealth management. A main requirement in the quality of patient care is the ability of all health care participants to communicate. Research illustrates that the complexity of communicating within the health care system hinders the quality of health care service delivery. Health informatics have been touted as a way to improve communication deficiencies, which has led to the exponential growth of health informatics integration. However, research still lags in understanding how health informatics affects patient care, health professional work routines, and the overall health care system. This study investigates the extent to which mHealth technologies influence communication information sharing patterns between interdisciplinary health care providers in the delivery of health care services. This study was conducted at Hamilton Health Sciences and through a sociotechnical approach, focuses on both the end user’s experiences with mHealth in daily work communication scenarios, and the extent to which mHealth use affects interdisciplinary communication. Results indicate that there are several mitigating factors which influence communication patterns using mHealth technologies, including: information sharing, mobility, ergonomic and system design.
Culturally Different Learning Styles in Online Learning Environments
Authors: Adeoye Blessing Foluso
Published: October 2011

The importance of individual culture depends on the characteristics of national culture and the individual’s background; within individual culture, different learning styles also exist. This paper addresses the topic of how learning style interacts with receptivity to online methods in different cultures, in this case in Nigeria. It examines and analyzes online learning environments in terms of differences in the learning styles of Nigeria university students according to their cultural backgrounds, specifically tribes, gender, and program of studies and how that can affect their online learning. The differences in tribes and learning styles affect the way the students respond to online learning. Despite the need for improvement, the future of online learning environments seems bright. The online instructor should try to offer learning activities that will appeal to the widest variety of learning styles possible. The ethnicity and cultural diversity of students needs to be considered in online systems design.
Exploring the Co-Development of Mathematical and Technological Knowledge Among African American Students
Authors: Nzuki Francis
Published: October 2011

This study examines African American students’ interactions with the graphing calculator as a tool to support their mathematical learning. Two participants, chosen through purposive sampling, were the focus of this study. The participants were presented with a task-based interview, and the strategies they employed in solving these tasks with the help of a graphing calculator were examined. The participants’ strategies were analyzed using Goos, Galbraith, Renshaw, and Geiger’s (2003) framework of the varying modes of sophistication with which students work and interact with technology and the ways in which technology can mediate learning. These modes include technology as master, technology as servant, technology as partner, and technology as an extension of self. In solving the mathematical tasks, the participants’ modes of interacting with the graphing calculator technology were influenced by how and when they chose to use the graphing calculator. They were also influenced by their ability to reinforce their mathematical and technological knowledge mutually. It is this ability to develop an interactive relationship between mathematical and technological knowledge that shaped the participants’ fluency in solving the mathematical tasks.
Electronic Networks and Gaining Market Share
Authors: Al-Weshah Ghazi , Al-Hyari Khalil , Abu-Elsamen Amjad , Al-Nsour Marwan
Published: October 2011

This study provides a deep understanding of the current status of electronic networks in the Jordanian handicrafts sector from managers’ perspectives. More specifically, this study enhances utilisation of the e-environment to gain market share in local, regional, and international markets. Four cases of handicraft projects are selected to conduct face to face interviews. The results show that handicraft projects have initial attempts to use E-electronic in their activities, but these attempts are still in embryonic stages, and they do not use E-networks effectively to gain market share. However, project managers believe that there is a direct link between the use of electronic networks and increases in the business’s market share. Furthermore, it is intended that these initiatives be treated as innovative and at the end utilised to enhance the business development of similar enterprises belonging to the small and medium enterprises sector. The study recommends that such projects consider adoption of e-networks in their future plans, enhance their staff skills in terms of improving their IT and English language skills, and develop their own internet website to create new marketing channels.
From Rural Outsourcing to Rural Opportunities
Authors: Kawlra Aarti
Published: October 2011

Inspired by the potential of Information and Communication Technologies, henceforth ICTs, for socio-economic development, and supported by a university based technology and business incubator, Rural Production Company, henceforth RPC, was set up in 2007 employing an ICT-mediated distributed production model. This paper reveals how RPC, initially an exploratory project whose key innovation was its Internet kiosk-facilitated model of crafts production and local empowerment, morphed into a social enterprise catering to global demands. The context of innovation provided by the Incubator led to a transformation of an ICT4D (ICT for Development) project into a business venture through the practice of formal and informal questioning at every stage of its implementation. This paper focuses on the iterative method adopted while highlighting the role of the incubator in the overall design and development process of the enterprise. This paper is a reflexive mapping of the organization’s evolution from the original research agenda of outsourcing production cum rural employment, to one that privileges local networks both as a conscious business strategy and as an arena for collaborative change for human development.
Web-Based Intellectual Property MarketPlace
Authors: Ramos Isabel , Fernandes José
Published: October 2011

In the past year, knowledge and innovation management have acquired increasing relevance in organizations. In the last decade, open innovation strategy, and in particular, crowdsourcing innovation model has also gained increasing importance. This model is seen as a new innovation model, capable of accelerating the innovation process. Therefore, it is important to understand how organizations can best take advantage of this innovation model. This paper approaches in two ways for commercializing intellectual property: crowdsourcing innovation, and intellectual property marketplaces. Thus, with the intention of understanding the concepts and practices, the study started by collecting scientific articles through bibliographic data bases. The paper provides knowledge about concepts and practices underlying the ways for commercializing intellectual property. It also contributes with a proposal of architecture for an intellectual property marketplace, based on the analysis of practices about crowdsourcing innovation and intellectual property marketplaces. This architecture is still in a draft stage, but already includes helpful insights for organizations interested in applying the open innovation strategy.
The Role of ICT-Based Market Information Services in Spatial Food Market Integration
Authors: Katengeza Samson P. , Kiiza Barnabas , Okello Julius Juma
Published: October 2011

The government of Malawi in 2004 initiated an ICT-based Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange (MACE), a market information service project, to improve access by farmers to market information. MACE was intended to improve the efficiency of agricultural markets as part of the strategy to improve food security. This study uses quantitative methods to examine whether MACE has contributed to efficiency of rice markets in Malawi. It especially tests if MACE has contributed to spatial integration of rice markets. As hypothesized, the study finds that the tendency of rice prices to move together in spatially separated markets has significantly increased since the implementation of MACE. It concludes that ICT-based market information services project enhances linkages between markets and can therefore improve the efficiency with which agricultural markets perform. The study discusses implications of this finding for policy.
Managing Client Contacts of Small KIBS Companies
Authors: Eriksson Päivi , Henttonen Elina , Meriläinen Susan
Published: October 2011

This article investigates how small companies providing new-technology-based services (T-KIBS) manage their client contacts. Many KIBS companies have extensive and close contacts with their clients, to the extent that their services can actually be co-produced together with the clients. This study analyzes data from four empirical cases and provides new knowledge on the relevance, forms and consequences of managing client contacts. The data was collected through ethnographic field work and qualitative interviews with the owner-managers of four Finnish software service companies, which can also be called T-KIBS. The results show that although every company had its unique way of managing its client contacts, they all used their client contacts as a vehicle in turning technology into business.
Tripartition of Knowledge in Knowledge-Intensive Services
Authors: Kurtti Tytti , Määttä Samppa , Aaltonen Jukka , Turunen Annamari , Riipi Sari
Published: October 2011

The Service Process Management in Travel Business Networks project focuses on knowledge tripartition. It is carried out at the University of Lapland with the aim of defining knowledge management, network management, and customer relations management from the practical point of view. The implementation of the project entails cooperation with enterprises involved in the travel industry in Lapland. This article examines knowledge-intensive services in the travel industry from the viewpoint of knowledge tripartition. The focus is on implicit knowledge and its special character in the organizational context. Implicit knowledge lies between explicit and tacit knowledge. The conclusion is that implicit knowledge should be taken into account in organizational action. The question is whether this tripartition makes organizational environment clearer or more complex.
Technology-Push or Market-Pull?
Authors: Saidi Edwin
Published: October 2011

Technological advancements and market needs are some of the significant forces fuelling the introduction of products and services in a wide range of business sectors. Many product and service providers have utilized the so-called technology-push and market-pull, the simple linear views of innovation which prescribe the use of technological discoveries and the involvement of the market respectively to produce goods and services. Others have gone further to adopt models of innovation which recognize the interaction of the different functional units of a firm and the combination of the technology-push and market-pull views with feedback from the external environment. Malawi has witnessed the introduction of a complete array of technology-based products and services catering for different business sectors. This paper investigates how Malawian firms manage the process of innovation in the development or introduction of Information Technology (IT) products and services and proposes suitable models which firms can adopt in managing and strategizing around technological innovation in the Malawian environment. The results suggest that while firms must adhere to specific models of innovation, it is generally useful to take full advantage of the linear market-pull model and the conceptual framework of innovation.
Self Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization for Efficient Virtual Machine Provisioning in Cloud
Authors: Jeyarani R. , Nagaveni N. , Ram R. Vasanth
Published: October 2011

Cloud Computing provides dynamic leasing of server capabilities as a scalable, virtualized service to end users. The discussed work focuses on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model where custom Virtual Machines (VM) are launched in appropriate servers available in a data-center. The context of the environment is a large scale, heterogeneous and dynamic resource pool. Nonlinear variation in the availability of processing elements, memory size, storage capacity, and bandwidth causes resource dynamics apart from the sporadic nature of workload. The major challenge is to map a set of VM instances onto a set of servers from a dynamic resource pool so the total incremental power drawn upon the mapping is minimal and does not compromise the performance objectives. This paper proposes a novel Self Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (SAPSO) algorithm to solve the intractable nature of the above challenge. The proposed approach promptly detects and efficiently tracks the changing optimum that represents target servers for VM placement. The experimental results of SAPSO was compared with Multi-Strategy Ensemble Particle Swarm Optimization (MEPSO) and the results show that SAPSO outperforms the latter for power aware adaptive VM provisioning in a large scale, heterogeneous and dynamic cloud environment.
Intelligent Information Retrieval Using Fuzzy Association Rule Classifier
Authors: Veeramalai Sankaradass , Kannan Arputharaj
Published: October 2011

As the use of web applications increases, when users use search engines for finding some information by inputting keywords, the number of web pages that match the information increases at a tremendous rate. It is not easy for a user to retrieve the exact web page which contains information he or she requires. In this paper, an approach to web page retrieval system using the hybrid combination of context based and collaborative filtering method employing the concept of fuzzy association rule classification is introduced and the authors propose an innovative clustering of user profiles in order to reduce the filtering space and achieves sub-linear filtering time. This approach can produce recommended web page links for users based on the information that associates strongly with users’ queries quickly with better efficiency and therefore improve the recall, precision of a search engine.
An Ontology Based Model for Document Clustering
Authors: Sridevi U. K. , Nagaveni N.
Published: October 2011

Clustering is an important topic to find relevant content from a document collection and it also reduces the search space. The current clustering research emphasizes the development of a more efficient clustering method without considering the domain knowledge and user’s need. In recent years the semantics of documents have been utilized in document clustering. The discussed work focuses on the clustering model where ontology approach is applied. The major challenge is to use the background knowledge in the similarity measure. This paper presents an ontology based annotation of documents and clustering system. The semi-automatic document annotation and concept weighting scheme is used to create an ontology based knowledge base. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) clustering algorithm can be applied to obtain the clustering solution. The accuracy of clustering has been computed before and after combining ontology with Vector Space Model (VSM). The proposed ontology based framework gives improved performance and better clustering compared to the traditional vector space model. The result using ontology was significant and promising.
A Methodology for Inter-Organizational Emergency Management Continuity Planning
Authors: Lindström John , Harnesk Dan , Laaksonen Elina , Niemimaa Marko
Published: October 2011

This paper extends emergency management literature by developing a methodology for emergency management continuity planning (EmCP). In particular, the methodology focuses on inter-organizational continuous and coordinated planning among emergency management organizations. The authors draw on Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland & Scholes, 1999; Checkland, 2000), using it as a base for better understanding of EmCP. Barriers that must be overcome before the methodology can be introduced and established, as well as potential benefits, are also discussed.
Interaction Design Principles for Web Emergency Management Information Systems
Authors: Onorati Teresa , Malizia Alessio , Díaz Paloma , Aedo Ignacio
Published: October 2011

The interaction design for web emergency management information systems (WEMIS) is an important aspect to keep in mind due to the criticality of the domain: decision making, updating available resources, defining a task list, and trusting in proposed information. A common interaction design strategy for WEMIS seems to be needed, but currently there are few references in literature. The aim of this study is to contribute to this lack with a set of interactive principles for WEMIS. From the emergency point of view, existing WEMIS have been analyzed to extract common features and to design interactive principles for emergency. Furthermore, the authors studied design principles extracted from a well-known (DERMIS) model relating them to emergency phases and features. The result proposed here is a set of design principles for supporting interactive properties for WEMIS. Finally, two case studies have been considered as applications of proposed design principles.
Visualizing Composite Knowledge in Emergency Responses using Spatial Hypertext
Authors: Canós José H. , Penadés M. Carmen , Solís Carlos , Borges Marcos R.S. , Vivacqua Adriana S. , Llavador Manuel
Published: October 2011

Having the right information at the right time is crucial to make decisions during emergency response. To fulfill this requirement, emergency management systems must provide emergency managers with knowledge management and visualization tools. The goal is twofold: on one hand, to organize knowledge coming from different sources, mainly the emergency response plans (the formal knowledge) and the information extracted from the emergency development (the contextual knowledge), and on the other hand, to enable effective access to information. Formal and contextual knowledge sets are mostly disjoint; however, there are cases in which a formal knowledge piece may be updated with some contextual information, constituting composite knowledge. In this paper, the authors extend a knowledge framework with the notion of composite knowledge, and use spatial hypertext to visualize this type of knowledge. The authors illustrate the proposal with a case study on accessing to information during an emergency response in an underground transportation system.
Ontology Alignment Quality
Authors: Sampson Jennifer , Krogstie John , Veres Csaba
Published: October 2011

Recently semantic web technologies, such as ontologies, have been proposed as key enablers for integrating heterogeneous data schemas in business and governmental systems. Algorithms designed to align different but related ontologies have become necessary as differing ontologies proliferate. The process of ontology alignment seeks to find corresponding entities in a second ontology with the same or the closest meaning for each entity in a single ontology. This research is motivated by the need to provide tools and techniques to support the task of validating ontology alignment statements, since it cannot be guaranteed that the results from automated tools are accurate. The authors present a framework for understanding ontology alignment quality and describe how AlViz, a tool for visual ontology alignment, may be used to improve the quality of alignment results. An experiment was undertaken to test the claim that AlViz supports the task of validating ontology alignments. A promising result found that the tool has potential for identifying missing alignments and for rejecting false alignments.
Towards Next Generation Provenance Systems for e-Science
Authors: Khan Fakhri Alam , Hussain Sardar , Janciak Ivan , Brezany Peter
Published: October 2011

e-Science helps scientists to automate scientific discovery processes and experiments, and promote collaboration across organizational boundaries and disciplines. These experiments involve data discovery, knowledge discovery, integration, linking, and analysis through different software tools and activities. Scientific workflow is one technique through which such activities and processes can be interlinked, automated, and ultimately shared amongst the collaborating scientists. Workflows are realized by the workflow enactment engine, which interprets the process definition and interacts with the workflow participants. Since workflows are typically executed on a shared and distributed infrastructure, the information on the workflow activities, data processed, and results generated (also known as provenance), needs to be recorded in order to be reproduced and reused. A range of solutions and techniques have been suggested for the provenance of data collection and analysis; however, these are predominantly workflow enactment engine and domain dependent. This paper includes taxonomy of existing provenance techniques and a novel solution named VePS (The Vienna e-Science Provenance System) for e-Science provenance collection.
Predicting OSS Development Success
Authors: Raja Uzma , Tretter Marietta J.
Published: October 2011

Open Source Software (OSS) has reached new levels of sophistication and acceptance by users and commercial software vendors. This research creates tests and validates a model for predicting successful development of OSS projects. Widely available archival data was used for OSS projects from Sourceforge.net. The data is analyzed with multiple Data Mining techniques. Initially three competing models are created using Logistic Regression, Decision Trees and Neural Networks. These models are compared for precision and are refined in several phases. Text Mining is used to create new variables that improve the predictive power of the models. The final model is chosen based on best fit to separate training and validation data sets and the ability to explain the relationship among variables. Model robustness is determined by testing it on a new dataset extracted from the SF repository. The results indicate that end-user involvement, project age, functionality, usage, project management techniques, project type and team communication methods have a significant impact on the development of OSS projects.
A Mutual Authentication Protocol with Resynchronisation Capability for Mobile Satellite Communications
Authors: Lasc Ioana , Dojen Reiner , Coffey Tom
Published: October 2011

Many peer-to-peer security protocols proposed for wireless communications use one-time shared secrets for authentication purposes. This paper analyses online update mechanisms for one-time shared secrets. A new type of attack against update mechanisms, called desynchronisation attack, is introduced. This type of attack may lead to a permanent denial of service condition. A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of desynchronisation attacks against a security protocol for mobile satellite communications. A new mutual authentication protocol for satellite communications, incorporating a resynchronisation capability, is proposed to counter the disruptive effects of desynchronisation attacks. The new protocol has an esynchronisation phase that is initiated whenever desynchronisation is suspected. Thus, the possibility of causing permanent denial of service conditions by mounting desynchronisation attacks is eliminated. A security analysis of the proposed protocol establishes its resistance against attacks like replay attacks, dictionary attacks, and desynchronisation attacks.
Intrusion Detection Algorithm for MANET
Authors: Srinivasan S. , Alampalayam S. P.
Published: October 2011

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) present the opportunity to connect transient nodes to the internet without having central control. This very design supports new nodes to join and leave the network based on their proximity to the MANET. Concurrently, it creates many security challenges for authenticating nodes that are not present in a traditional wired network. Much of the existing work on MANET security has focused on routing and mobility. In this paper, the authors present an algorithm that considers the neighboring nodes’ status to determine if a particular node is malicious or not. The authors used NS2 simulation tool to test the algorithm and present the results in the paper. The major benefits of this research work are in military applications.
Technology Acceptance
Authors: Greenfield Geoffrey , Rohde Fiona H.
Published: October 2011

During the past decade there has been an increasing interest in research within Not-for-Profit (NFP) organisations. Research has indicated that there are a number of characteristics that make NFPs different from other organisations. This paper considers whether workers within the NFP sector have different attitudes to technology and whether such differences affect the measures used within technology acceptance models. An exploratory study of workers within two NFPs indicated that workers within the service delivery functions of NFPs have different attitudes to technology than workers within the standard business functions of a NFP organisation e.g., marketing. These attitudes affected their perceptions of the use of and ease of technology.