bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Information Communication Technology Adoption Model for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
Authors: Kim Dan J.
Published: May 2010

Despite the increased number of SME adopters of information communication technology (ICT) for their business, there are limited studies that address the factors affecting SME’s adoption decision. Especially, a theoretical perspective on E-business adoption model for SMEs is required to better understand the SME’s complex adoption decision process and, in turn, to provide a realistic means of creating guidelines for other SME’s to consider when making their adoption decision. Thus, the goal of this chapter is three-fold: i) to review key literature of the factors affecting SME’s adoption decision and then summarize major determinants of key dimensions with definition and literature sources, ii) to propose a theoretical framework of e-business adoption for SMEs, namely an OBTG (Organizational – Business – Technological - Governmental) e-business adoption model for SMEs, and finally iii) to provide insightful discussions on the driving factors and barriers of the SMEs’ e-business adoption decision.
ICT for Development (ICT4D) Projects in Developing Countries
Authors: Ashraf Md. Mahfuz , Malik Bushra Tahseen
Published: May 2010

It is argued that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can lead to the socio-economic development of people, especially in developing countries. Hence, developing countries have been rushing to implement ICT for Development (ICT4D) projects in rural areas through the direct-indirect supervision of institutions such as the World Bank, the United Nations (UN) and other donor/local agencies. While there is considerable interest regarding donor agencies or funding bodies and the ways ICT can be deployed in developing countries, identifying the actual impact at the micro (community) level is less observed in the literature. The aim of this chapter is to understand ICT4D project/research in developing countries, presenting key challenges which influence the success of ICT4D projects. In this chapter, the authors propose a conceptual framework aimed to improve this understanding at the micro (community) level.
Citizens' Readiness for E-government in Developing Countries (CREG)
Authors: Abdelghaffar Hany
Published: May 2010

Many developing countries are facing difficulties in applying successful electronic government (e-government) projects. A major part of these difficulties that they are not used by citizens due to the lack of appropriate ICT infrastructure that support e-government services; in addition to the existence of a small percentage of citizens who are able to deal with such technology. This chapter introduces an empirical research that closely investigates the e-government weaknesses in developing countries from two major perspectives: e-readiness and trust. The research proposes a model based on e-readiness assessments and relevant literature that investigates the impact of citizens’ readiness for e-government (CREG) on e-government success within developing countries. The model was tested on the Egyptian e-government project as a sample of developing countries. The research findings confirmed the importance of the CREG model to achieve successful e-government projects in developing countries.
Communicating Farm Technologies through Traditional and New Media Channels
Authors: Prathap Dr. D. Puthira
Published: May 2010

This chapter begins by looking at the importance of knowledge and information in agricultural development. Then the chapter discusses how the traditional mass media channels, viz., radio, print and television had been instrumental in India’s agricultural technology transfer. Next, it explores the characteristics of new media, the problems associated with the advent of Internet and how self-help groups and ICTs could be effectively used in technology transfer. The focus narrows to a comparative study on the effectiveness of traditional and new media in communicating farm technologies. Finally, the chapter examines how the extension agents, based on the results could formulate communication strategies for effectively using the mass media channels.
Strategy of Accounting Automation
Authors: Dahawy Khaled
Published: May 2010

Decisions relating to choice and implementation of computerized accounting systems differ dramatically between developed and developing nations in respect to the cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors. This study aims to assess the implementation of accounting information system in a company in a developing nation; Egypt. The case indicates the importance of the integration of accounting and technology. However, in a developing nation like Egypt, characterized with over population and high unemployment, automation becomes a very sensitive issue. Therefore, there is a need for strong management support and commitment to insure successful implementation. Developing countries, especially Egypt, should direct its companies to increase its dependence on Information Communication Technology (ICT). As the case shows there are many benefits that ICT can offer to the individual companies. If each individual company can become more efficient and effective the whole economy will be better and will be able to utilize scare resources more efficiently and effectively.
Information Technology Projects System Development Life Cycles
Authors: Abu-Taieh Evon M. O. , El Sheikh Asim A. , Abu-Tayeh Jeihan M. , El-Mahied Maha T.
Published: May 2010

This chapter uses the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory and examines a business case, highlighting certain gaps in the theory. First, confusion can be present between the innovation construct (in this instance, replacing the enterprise systems) and the diffusion construct (that is, selling that innovation to upper management). Second, the business case has never been examined in diffusion research. Research about business cases generally focuses on techniques such as Discounted Cash Flows and Total Cost of Ownership. Third, although a good business case can lead to successful innovation, it should not influence upper management to be overly positive or too cautious. One extreme leads to over-commitment. The other extreme leads to under-commitment or upper management’s inability to commit. Both extremes have unexpected and undesirable consequences. This single-case study examined a business case. The data included in the triangulation are observations, in-depth interviews, and archival documents. The analysis of a business case document was done with the ATLAS.ti v5.0 software. It is hoped that understanding a “real world” business case will give the academics insights on the relationship between the innovation and its diffusion as well as teach the practitioners the caveats of a business case.
Time/Space Aware Event Correlation
Authors: Yoneki Eiko
Published: May 2010

Ubiquitous computing, with a dramatic increase in the event monitoring capabilities of wireless devices and sensors, requires more complex temporal and spatial resolution in event correlation. In this chapter, we describe two aspects of event correlation to support such environments: event modelling including spatio-temporal information, and composite event semantics with interval-based semantics for efficient indexing, filtering, and matching. It includes a comparative study of existing event correlation work. The described durative event model, combined with interval-semantics, provides a new vision for data processing in ubiquitous computing. This makes it possible to extend the functionality of simple publish/subscribe filters to stateful subscriptions, parametrisation, and computation of aggregates, while maintaining high scalability.
StreamMine
Authors: Fetzer Christof , Brito Andrey , Fach Robert , Jerzak Zbigniew
Published: May 2010

StreamMine is a novel distributed event processing system that we are currently developing. It is architected for running on large clusters and uses content-based publish/subscribe middleware for the communication between event processing components. Event processing components need to enforce application-specific ordering constraints, e.g., all events need to be processed in order of some given time stamp. To harness the power of modern multi-core computers, we support the speculative execution of events. Ordering conflicts are detected dynamically and rolled backed using a Software Transactional Memory.
Event Processing in Web Service Runtime Environments
Authors: Michlmayr Anton , Leitner Philipp , Rosenberg Florian , Dustdar Schahram
Published: May 2010

Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) and Web services have received a lot of attention from both industry and academia. Services as the core entities of every SOA are changing regularly based on various reasons. This poses a clear problem in distributed environments since service providers and consumers are generally loosely coupled. Using the publish/subscribe style of communication service consumers can be notified when such changes occur. In this chapter, we present an approach that leverages event processing mechanisms for Web service runtime environments based on a rich event model and different event visibilities. Our approach covers the full service lifecycle, including runtime information concerning service discovery and service invocation, as well as Quality of Service attributes. Furthermore, besides subscribing to events of interest, users can also search in historical event data. We show how this event notification support was integrated into our service runtime environment VRESCo and give some usage examples in an application context.
Event-Driven Mobile Computing with Objects
Authors: Van Cutsem Tom , De Meuter Wolfgang
Published: May 2010

We motivate why event-driven approaches are suitable to address the challenges of mobile and ubiquitous computing. In particular, we describe the beneficial properties of event-based communication in so-called mobile ad hoc networks. However, because contemporary programming languages feature no built-in support for event-driven programming, programmers are often forced to integrate event-driven concepts with a different programming paradigm. In particular, we study the difficulties in combining events with the object-oriented paradigm. We argue that these difficulties form the basis of what we call the object-event impedance mismatch. We highlight the various issues at the software engineering level and propose to resolve this mismatch by introducing a novel object-oriented programming language that supports event-driven abstractions from the ground up.
Event-Based System Architecture in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs)
Authors: Pei Guanhong , Ravindran Binoy
Published: May 2010

The strong decoupling between information producers and consumers in event-based (usually publish/subscribe) systems is attractive in the loosely coupled and dynamic network scenarios such as mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). However, achieving end-to-end timeliness, reliability properties, with limited message overhead, is still an open problem in publish/subscribe (P/S) systems in MANETs. In this chapter, we cover the current state of the knowledge of interconnection topology, event routing schemes and innovative architectural support of P/S systems in MANETs with latest academic and industrial research practices and outcomes. We consider challenging issues from timeliness, reliability, message overhead, etc. with multi-publish-hop event delivery in typical use notional scenarios. Both theoretical analysis and performance evaluation of different solutions are afforded. We also examine and discuss a special issue on system re-configurability and “event causal dependencies.”
Mobile Push for Converged Mobile Services
Authors: Tarkoma Sasu , Heikkinen Jani , van Gurp Jilles
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, we outline an event-based infrastructure that combines the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Web technologies in order to realize secure converged mobile services. Our main service scenario has been supporting proactive information delivery to airline customers. This application built on top of the infrastructure is designed to help customers in several airport activities, such as check-in and boarding, and to enable highly crowded airports to offer consumer services. We focus on the two key technologies, namely SIP and Web technologies, and outline a distributed system architecture that was developed for the airline scenario. The scenario involves supporting the identification and tracking of users across different networks, enabling proactive information delivery (push) to the devices, and supporting rich multimedia interactions with users. The push system architecture is based on a lightweight access network consists of access points and edge proxies. The edge proxies connect the mobile users to the information backbone in a secure way using TLS or DTLS connections.
Data Dissemination and Query Routing in Mobile Peer-to-Peer Networks
Authors: Repantis Thomas , Kalogeraki Vana
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors study the problems of data dissemination and query routing in mobile peerto- peer networks. They provide a taxonomy and discussion of existing literature, spanning overlay topologies, query routing, and data propagation. They proceed by proposing content-driven routing and adaptive data dissemination algorithms for intelligently routing search queries in a peer-to-peer network that supports mobile users. In the authors’ mechanism, nodes build content synopses of their data and adaptively disseminate them to their most appropriate peers. Based on the content synopses, a routing mechanism is being built, to forward the queries to those peers that have a high probability of providing the desired results. The authors provide an experimental evaluation of different dissemination strategies, which shows that content-driven routing and adaptive data dissemination is highly scalable and significantly improves resource usage.
Bagging Probit Models for Unbalanced Classification
Authors: Wang Hualin , Su Xiaogang
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents an award-winning algorithm for the data mining competition of PAKDD 2007, in which the goal is to help a financial company to predict the likelihood of taking up a home loan for their credit card based customers. The involved data are very limited and characterized by very low buying rate. To tackle such an unbalanced classification problem, the authors apply a bagging algorithm based on probit model ensembles. One integral element of the algorithm is a special way of conducting the resampling in forming bootstrap samples. A brief justification is provided. This method offers a feasible and robust way to solve this difficult yet very common business problem.
Towards Automated Bypass Testing of Web Applications
Authors: Miller J. , Zhang L. , Ofuonye E. , Smith M.
Published: May 2010

The construction and testing of Web-based systems has become more complex and challenging with continual innovations in technology. One major concern particularly for the deployment of mission critical applications is security. In Web-based systems, the principal vulnerabilities revolve around deficient input validation. This chapter describes a partially automated mechanism, the tool InputValidator, which seeks to address this issue through bypassing client-side checking and sending test data directly to the server to test the robustness and security of the back-end software. The tool allows a user to construct, execute and evaluate a number of test cases through a form-filling exercise instead of writing bespoke test code.
Web-Based Geospatial Services
Authors: Sikder Iftikhar U. , Gangopadhyay Aryya , Shampur Nikhil V.
Published: May 2010

This chapter characterizes the requirements of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) middleware and its components for dynamic registering and discovering of spatial services specifically for collaborative modeling in environmental planning. The chapter explores the role of Web services with respect to implementation standard and protocols and identifies implementation features for exposing distributed GIS business logic and components via Web services. In particular, the chapter illustrates applications of the interoperability specifications of Open GIS Consortium’s (OGC) Web Mapping Service and (WMS), Web Processing Standards (WPS) with respect to implementation feature. The chapter demonstrates a prototype implementation of collaborative environmental decision support systems (GEO-ELCA- Exploratory Land Use Change Assessment) where Web service-enabled middleware adds core functionality to a Web mapping service. The application demonstrates how individual workspace-based namespaces can be used to perform Web mapping functionality (such as spatial analysis in visualization) through the integration of environmental simulation models to explore collective planning scenario. Built on OGC compliant connector and supports WMS and WPS, the system includes interactive supports for geospatial data query, mapping services and visualization tools for multi-user transactions.
Development of Artificial Mouths for In Vitro Studies of Aroma from Liquid and Solid Foods
Authors: Arvisenet Gaëlle , Poinot Pauline , Prost Carole
Published: May 2010

This chapter deals with the development of “artificial mouths” in food aroma research. After a brief outline on how aroma is perceived in vivo, the need to develop instrumental techniques that reproduce mouth conditions is explained. The devices described in the literature are then presented, and the difficulties and advances in reproducing oral functions, such as mouth temperature, saliva, breathing and mastication, are discussed. Finally, the artificial mouth designed by the authors is presented as well as the improvements it will bring in food aroma research. In particular, this is the first device enabling the aroma of especially hard food to be studied. By means of this technique, volatile compounds contributing to the aroma perception of all kinds of foodstuffs can be identified and a better understanding of the release of aroma during mastication will be possible.
Current Molecular Technologies for Assessing the Amount of Microbial Pathogens in Oral Plaque Biofilms
Authors: Horz Hans-Peter , Conrads Georg
Published: May 2010

The goal of identifying and quantifying defined oral microbial populations has gained increasing importance in clinical dentistry. Standard laboratory culture-based procedures - despite their importance for the generation of resistance profiles - are unfortunately inadequate to grow the majority of mainly anaerobic species that predominate at pathological sites, such as periodontal pockets or infected root canals. Conversely, the rapidly evolving field of nucleic-acid-based technologies is a promising approach to access the full breadth of the oral microflora. Critical to this development, however, is a proper understanding and application of the methodologies and knowledge of their limitations. In this chapter molecular tools based on real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTQ-PCR) will be described along with ways showing the computation and analysis of the datasets. RTQ-PCR allows the determination of the amount of almost any given bacterial species or the total bacterial load in oral clinical sample in a sensitive and highly reproducible way. The precise and time-efficient nature of this technique allows to run large numbers of samples and if several bacterial targets are studied in parallel to study the dynamics and potential interactions of microbial populations over space and time. This chapter will be complemented by discussing potential pitfalls that should be taken into consideration for producing proper results along with referring the reader to pertinent literature that will allow an individual deepening into the concept of molecular-based diagnosis in clinical dentistry.
Fuzzy Database Modeling
Authors: Urrutia Angélica , Galindo José
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors present an overview of different fuzzy database modeling definitions by different authors. They highlight the FuzzyEER model, which is an extension of an EER model incorporating fuzzy semantics and notation. FuzzyEER is probably the most complete modeling tool. It has numerous characteristics, and in this chapter the authors list the main components and enhance some definitions relative to fuzzy attributes, fuzzy degrees associated to one or more attributes or with an independent meaning, fuzzy entities, as well as the definition of multivalued disjunctive attributes.
A Quick Presentation of Evolutionary Computation
Authors: Collet Pierre
Published: May 2010

Evolutionary computation is an old field of computer science, that started in the 1960s nearly simultaneously in different parts of the world. It is an optimization technique that mimics the principles of Darwinian evolution in order to find good solutions to intractable problems faster than a random search. Artificial Evolution is only one among many stochastic optimization methods, but recently developed hardware (General Purpose Graphic Processing Units or GPGPU) gives it a tremendous edge over all the other algorithms, because its inherently parallel nature can directly benefit from the difficult to use Single Instruction Multiple Data parallel architecture of these cheap, yet very powerful cards.
Type-2 Fuzzy Interface for Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Sajja Priti Srinivas
Published: May 2010

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based systems are bio-inspired mechanisms for intelligent decision support with capabilities to learn generalized knowledge from the large amount of data and offers high degree of self-learning. However, the knowledge in such ANN system is stored in the generalized connection between neurons in implicit fashion, which does not help in providing proper explanation and reasoning to users of the system and results in low level of user friendliness. On the other hand, fuzzy systems are very user friendly, represent knowledge in highly readable form and provide friendly justification to users as knowledge is stored explicitly in the system. Type-2 fuzzy systems are one step ahead while computing with words in comparison to typical fuzzy systems. This chapter introduces a generic framework of type-2 fuzzy interface to an ANN system for course selection process. Resulting neuro-fuzzy system offers advantages of self-learning and implicit knowledge representation along with the utmost user friendliness and explicit justification.
A Bayesian Belief Network Methodology for Modeling Social Systems in Virtual Communities
Authors: Daniel Ben K. , Zapata-Rivera Juan-Diego , McCalla Gordon I.
Published: May 2010

Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) are increasingly used for understanding and simulating computational models in many domains. Though BBN techniques are elegant ways of capturing uncertainties, knowledge engineering effort required to create and initialize the network has prevented many researchers from using them. Even though the structure of the network and its conditional & initial probabilities could be learned from data, data is not always available and/or too costly to obtain. Further, current algorithms that can be used to learn relationships among variables, initial and conditional probabilities from data are often complex and cumbersome to employ. Qualitative-based approaches applied to the creation of graphical models can be used to create initial computational models that can help researchers analyze complex problems and provide guidance/support for decision-making. Once created, initial BBN models can be refined once appropriate data is obtained. This chapter extends the use of BBNs to help experts make sense of complex social systems (e.g., social capital in virtual communities) using a Bayesian model as an interactive simulation tool. Scenarios are used to update the model and to find out whether the model is consistent with the expert’s beliefs. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to help explain how the model reacted to different sets of evidence. Currently, we are in the process of refining the initial probability values presented in the model using empirical data and developing more authentic scenarios to further validate the model. We will elaborate on how database technologies were used to support the current approach and will describe opportunities for future database tools needed to support this type of work.
An Exposition of Feature Selection and Variable Precision Rough Set Analysis
Authors: Beynon Malcolm J. , Griffiths Benjamin
Published: May 2010

This chapter considers, and elucidates, the general methodology of rough set theory (RST), a nascent approach to rule based classification associated with soft computing. There are two parts of the elucidation undertaken in this chapter, firstly the levels of possible pre-processing necessary when undertaking an RST based analysis, and secondly the presentation of an analysis using variable precision rough sets (VPRS), a development on the original RST that allows for misclassification to exist in the constructed “if … then …” decision rules. Throughout the chapter, bespoke software underpins the pre-processing and VPRS analysis undertaken, including screenshots of its output. The problem of US bank credit ratings allows the pertinent demonstration of the soft computing approaches described throughout.
Congestion Control Using Soft Computing
Authors: Revathi T. , Muneeswaran K.
Published: May 2010

In the recent Internet era the queue management in the routers plays a vital role in the provision of Quality of Service (QoS). Virtual queue-based marking schemes have been recently proposed for Active Queue Management (AQM) in Internet routers. In this chapter, the authors propose Fuzzy enabled AQM (F-AQM) scheme where the linguistics variables are used to specify the behavior of the queues in the routers. The status of the queue is continuously monitored and decisions are made adaptively to drop or mark the packets as is done in Random Early Discard (RED) and Random Early Marking (REM) algorthms or schemes. The authors design a fuzzy rule base represented in the form of matrix indexed by queue length and rate of change of queue. The performance of the proposed F-AQM scheme is compared with several well-known AQM schemes such as RED, REM and Adaptive Virtual Queue (AVQ).
The Problem of Governance from an Autopoietic Perspective (and a Critical Comment on the Role of ICT)
Authors: Gregory Amanda J.
Published: May 2010

The aim of this chapter is to examine the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the governance of modern society from an autopoietic perspective. For the main part, discussions of ICT use by government have focused on either practical issues, dissemination issues, or the assessment of perceived benefits of e-government initiatives; in this chapter a more critical approach will be adopted. This chapter will adopt an autopoietic view in seeking to address the role of government as a steering mechanism in modern society and the use of ICT as an instrument of governance by administrators.
Technology and Government
Authors: Ochoa-Arias Alejandro
Published: May 2010

This chapter develops an argument of both technology and government as historically determined phenomena within what has been called liberalism. Technology helps the government to make clear and assist with individuals’ choices. The author asks the question about the existence of an alternative ideological framework to guide the use and implementation of both government and technologies and defines possible ways forward for the pursuit of citizenship in societies.
E-System for Public Health in India
Authors: Chowdhury Rajneesh , Medhi Deepankar
Published: May 2010

Public health stands for the study and practice of those activities and initiatives that result in the prevention and reduction of incidences of illnesses and diseases in the population. The application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can considerably facilitate Public Health project initiatives. In spite of the huge benefits of using ICT in Public Health, it can also pose considerable challenges in certain populations, pertaining to the access and comprehension of information shared through modern technology stemming from a range of issues such as illiteracy, demographic and linguistic diversity, differing economic strata of people, and differing priorities. In this chapter, after presenting a discussion on the issues faced by the public and relevant systems thinking approaches that may enable addressing the same, we propose a visionary architectural framework for ICT in Public Health through the eye of systems-thinking. We have called this framework e-System for Public Health (ePH). The understanding draws heavily from the Indian context as the country presents an interesting array of the challenges that we have mentioned above.
Online Communities
Authors: Loureiro-Koechlin Cecilia
Published: May 2010

The chapter describes the basic tenets of online communities, their typology and their fundamental elements with a view of informing ways in which people can get to participate online, something that those individuals or organizations dealing with e-governance initiatives also aim at. A key consideration is the importance of socializing as an ingredient that motivates individuals and which can offer them a degree of freedom to discuss government related matters.
Building the Digital Government in Regions
Authors: Criado J. Ignacio
Published: May 2010

The author traces the unfolding of modernisation efforts in the region of Valencia in Spain, showing a number of assemblages whose study requires developing varied employing complementary approaches and concepts. The inclusion of regional governments as important actors in modernization processes is put forward and explored in the case of Valencian Comunidad Autonómas (Autonomous Community). The chapter shows how the interplay of institutional practices, the development of new forms of organization to provide e-government services and the unfolding of regional policies within Spain and Europe all contribute to make e-government what is now in the region of study.
A Historical Perspective of the Development of E-Gov in Brazil
Authors: Barbosa Alexandre F. , Junqueira Álvaro , Diniz Eduardo H. , Prado Otávio
Published: May 2010

Initiatives of reform and modernisation of the public sector in Brazil have intensified, not only as a consequence of the fiscal crisis that occurred during the 1980s, but also as a result of the exhaustion and collapse of bureaucratic management and government interventionist models. The development of the Brazilian e-gov program officially started in 2000 and today is in its third phase after two different government administrations. It plays an important role in the modernisation of the public sector in the country and faces the challenge of giving proper support to public policies to universalise opportunities that promote economic and social development. The currently available literature analysing the history of the Brazilian e-gov program focuses too narrowly on the identification of relevant technological aspects affecting its designing and development, failing to use a theoretical framework that takes into consideration social actors and other intervening factors. This chapter presents and employs an approach that takes into consideration the relevant social groups involved in each phase of the construction process of e-gov programs, the intervening factors impacting this construction, and the strength of the relationships among them. Based on qualitative empirical research, this chapter discusses the validity of the proposed framework for studying the history of e-gov in Brazil. As a result of an in-depth documental analysis and interviews with key actors throughout the different administration tenures, this chapter identifies important intervening factors that guided successful and unsuccessful government initiatives in the e-gov program.
Intelligent Manufacturing and Manufacturing Intelligence
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2010

Manufacturing is a prime generator of wealth and is critical in establishing a sound basis for economic growth. Manufacturing is also the cornerstone of all economic activities, and efforts to continuously advance manufacturing technology are therefore vital to a richer and more stable future. Intelligent Manufacturing (IM), believed to be the next generation advanced manufacturing paradigm is extensively investigated by industry and academia. In this chapter, we firstly recall the course of manufacturing development and summarize the characteristics of the four revolutions in this course. Subsequently, the broad sense of ‘manufacturing’ is articulated and the characteristics of manufacturing activities in the operation of manufacturing processes are depicted. The differences and relationships between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Manufacturing Intelligence (MI) are then presented. The background of intelligent manufacturing, the attributes of intelligent manufacturing technology and the future development of intelligent manufacturing system are described. Lastly, a summary of this chapter is given.
Knowledge-Based System
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2010

Knowledge-Based System (KBS), a branch research area of AI, has been widely used in interpretation, prediction, diagnosis, debugging, design, planning, monitoring, repair, instruction, and control (Stefik et al., 1982) since it emerged in 1960s. KBS has been recognized as a promising paradigm for the next generation manufacturing systems and there is no doubt that the use of KBS in manufacturing will continue to expand, both in areas of application as well as in depth of knowledge. As a result, factories will benefit a lot, such as improved productivity, more stable and increased yields and increased asset utilization, all leading to improved factory performance. Now KBS are finding an increasing number of applications in almost each stage of intelligent manufacturing, including design, process planning and scheduling, production control, diagnosis and etc. Followed by a case study, the overview over all these applications will be discussed in this chapter after the key technologies of KBS are presented, including knowledge representation, knowledge use, knowledge acquisition and evaluation of KBS.
Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2010

Multi-Agent systems (MAS) are typical KBS and intelligent agents are viewed as extensions of KBS. Originating from the field of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI), agent and Multi-Agent (MA) technology has been at the forefront of research in the last decade (Nilsson, 1998). Since the late 1980s, researchers have applied agent technology to perform tasks, and it is considered a promising paradigm for intelligent manufacturing (Shen & Norrie, 2001). In the 21st century especially, the manufacturing industry has become more and more competitive in a market that is frequently changing. Manufacturing systems should therefore move to support product innovation, global competitiveness and rapid market responsiveness. Recent new developments in agent and MA technology have brought new and interesting possibilities (Jennings & Wooldridge, 1998), researchers have been trying to develop and apply agent technology for supporting intelligent manufacturing, and there have been many projects in agent-based intelligent manufacturing. The basic theory and applications of agent and MAS are introduced in this chapter. The recent development of agent and MAS is reviewed, and the current research level of MAS is also summarized. Finally, the fundamentals of agent technology including communication and interaction, collaboration and behavior coordination, are presented.
Computational Intelligence
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2010

In the 1990s, a new paradigm of science characterized by uncertainty, nonlinearity, and irreversibility and tackling complex problems was generally recognized by the academic community. In this new paradigm, traditional analytical methods are ineffectual, and there is recognition of the need to explore new methods to solve the more flexible, more robust system problems. In 1994 the first Computational Intelligence Conference in Orlando, Florida, US, first combined three different areas, smart neural networks, fuzzy systems and genetic algorithms, not only because the three have many similarities, but also because a properly combined system of the three is more effective than a system generated by one single technical field. Various theories and approaches of computational intelligence including neural computing, fuzzy computing and evolutional computing are comprehensively introduced in this chapter.
Sensor Integration and Data Fusion Theory
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2010

In previous chapters, the engineering scientific foundations of manufacturing intelligence (such as the knowledge-based system, Multi-Agent system, data mining and knowledge discovery, and computing intelligence) have been discussed in detail. Sensor integration and data fusion is another important theory of manufacturing intelligence. With the development of integrated systems, there is an urgent requirement for improving system automaticity and intelligence. Without improvement, the complexity and scale of systems are increased. Such systems need to be more sensitive to their work environment and independent state, and obviously, single sensor technology hardly meets these requirements. Multi-sensor and data fusion technology are therefore employed in automatic and intelligent manufacturing as it is more comprehensive and accurate than traditional single sensor technology if the information redundancy and complementarity are used reasonably. In theory, the outputs of multi-sensors are mutually validated. Multi-sensor integration is a brand new concept for intelligent manufacturing, and without doubt, sensor integration-based intelligent manufacturing is the development orientation of manufacturing in the future. With reference to the information fusion problem of the multi-sensor integration system, the development state, technical background, application scope and basic meaning of the multi-sensor integration and the data fusion are first reviewed in this chapter. Secondly the classification, level, system structure and function model of the data fusion system is discussed. The theoretical method of the data fusion is then introduced, and finally, attention is paid to cutting tool condition detection, machine thermal error compensation and online detection and error compensation because those are the main applications of multi-sensor data fusion technology in intelligent manufacturing.
Intelligent Management Information System
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2010

The Intelligent Management Information System (IMIS) has the potential to transform human decision making by combining research in Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, and Systems Engineering. The field of Intelligent Decision Making (IDM) is expanding rapidly, due in part to advances in artificial intelligence and networkcentric environments that can deliver the technology. Communication and coordination between dispersed systems can deliver just-in-time information, real-time processing, collaborative environments, and globally up-to-date information to the human decision maker. At the same time, artificial intelligence techniques have demonstrated that they have matured sufficiently to provide computational assistance to humans in practical applications. It is the development direction of modern management science and technology. In this chapter, firstly we introduce the introduction and background of IMIS, and briefly, the related design conception. Subsequently, the Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS) is depicted, which is the most significant technology of IMIS and related activities in the manufacturing process. The applications of IDSS and two cases for industrial manufacturing are then presented, representing the future development direction of manufacturing management. Lastly, a summary of this chapter is given. IMIS researchers and technologists have built and investigated Decision Support Systems (DSS) for more than 35 years. The developments in DSS began with building model-oriented DSS in the late 1960s which were followed by theory developments in the 1970s, and the implementation of financial planning systems and Group DSS in the early and mid-1980s. During the mid-1980s, Intelligent DSS were implemented through combining knowledge systems with DSS. These developments are discussed below, as well as the origins of Executive Information Systems, On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP), Business Intelligence, and the implementation of Web-based DSS in the mid-1990s, which quickly became a topic for active discussion, and whose influence spread widely.
Creating Waves Across Geographical and Disciplinary Divides Through Online Creative Collaboration (OCC)
Authors: Martini Nataly , Harrison Jeff , Bennett Rick
Published: May 2010

Creative Waves: Visualising Issues in Pharmacy (VIP) was a global online project run over 14 weeks during 2007. The project linked over 200 students, educators, mentors and community representatives in a completely online learning environment addressing health promotion. Uniquely, the VIP project brought together the two disciplines of pharmacy and graphic design to collaborate in identifying, researching and designing public health campaigns to tackle significant health issues affecting the people living in the remote Kenyan village of Winam. In this chapter the authors describe the VIP project itself, the Omnium® Software technical platform that facilitated the online collaborations as well as quantitative and qualitative data describing the student experiences and engagement in the project. Many of the lessons learnt during the VIP project are illustrations of the literature surrounding online learning environments; we provide a summary of the key findings from VIP to benefit developers of future online collaborations.
Information and Communications Technologies and Policy Development for E-Democracy in Malaysia
Authors: Gapar Abu Bakar Abdul , Johanson Graeme
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the prospect of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) enhancing Malaysia’s policy development processes through citizen engagement to enhance the development and implementation of electronic democracy (e-democracy). The Malaysian government promotes a diverse range of ICT initiatives which this chapter seeks to examine through a series of key questions: What are the initiatives and their objectives? How do these initiatives provide opportunities for civic education and citizen empowerment? Has the government through its public administrators actually started to engage citizens in policy development processes online? Are citizens ready to take part in these online initiatives? What sort of contribution can citizens provide to government online? In order to answer these questions, this chapter discusses the role of ICT planning, strategies, and initiatives to improve democratic practices. The chapter discusses four factors influencing the thinking of the Malaysian public service toward local conceptualization and implementation of e-democracy for better policy development. The answers are based on publications in the public domain and preliminary interviews with a handful of key informants.
ePortfolios and Preservice Teachers
Authors: O'Brien Peter , Osbaldiston Nick
Published: May 2010

This chapter seeks to develop an analysis of the contemporary use of the ePortfolio (Electronic Portfolio) in education practices. Unlike other explorations of this new technology which are deterministic in their approach, the authors seek to reveal the techniques and practices of government which underpin the implementation of the e-portfolio. By interrogating a specific case study example from a large Australian university’s preservice teacher program, the authors find that the e-portfolio is represented as eLearning technology but serves to govern students via autonomization and self responsibilization. Using policy data and other key documents, they are able to reveal the e-portfolio as a delegated authority in the governance of preservice teachers. However, despite this ongoing trend, they suggest that like other practices of government, the e-portfolio will eventually fail. This however the authors conclude opens up space for critical thought and engagement which is not afforded presently.
Social Interactions in Virtual Communication Environments
Authors: Crampton Andrea , Ragusa Angela T.
Published: May 2010

Forensic science students must not only learn disciplinary-specific subject content, but also need to acquire the interpersonal and communication skills crucial for successful careers in policing and biotechnology. Utilizing various Web 2.0 computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies, asynchronous and synchronous communication, including chat rooms, podcasts, resource sharing and wikis, enabled the creation of virtual active-learning environments. A virtual crime scene was produced to permit distance and face-to-face university students to conduct a virtual forensics investigation. The virtual model allowed students to gain and become aware of the practical communication skills consistent with ‘real-life’ forensic crime scene analysis. Specifically, the use of virtual role-play reproduced patterns of dialogue routine among police officers, crime scene officers and lab technicians. CMC technologies not only facilitated these social interactions, but gave distance education students a simulated forensic workplace experience not possible due to cost, location and time. This narrowed preconceived gaps between distance and internal education. Finally, the authors’ chapter argues that with careful planning, the use of role playing and scripting can be an effective tool for encouraging pedagogically effective social interactions utilizing new CMC technologies
Virtual Learning Communities in Higher Education
Authors: Ludewig Alexandra , Vogt Karin
Published: May 2010

This chapter will examine the virtual classroom as a social constructivist educational space and identify whether and how a virtual ‘learning community’ emerges in different telecollaborative environments. A qualitative analysis of e-mails, field notes of in-class discussions, as well as a subsequent survey with open-ended questions have shown that virtual learning communities do materialize when certain preconditions are met, such as embedding virtual elements into face-to-face learning environments, sufficient monitoring by staff and the design of suitable learning environments that bring about multiple perspectives with the help of stimulating prompts and adequate tasks. For intercultural virtual learning communities, an important feature of foreign language instruction at higher education level, several success factors were identified, including a genuine interest in and commitment to the task and collaborators at hand, the willingness to engage in a discourse structure that resembles a real conversation and encourages the exchange of views, and most importantly, the full integration of mediated communication in local classrooms.