bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Infomediaries and Community Engagement are Key
Authors: Gould Elizabeth , Gomez Ricardo
Published: October 2011

Building capacity for collecting content and enabling access to information by community members means training staff as well building their digital capacities. The involvement of local community members in the establishment of public access venues, and the ability of the venues to serve the community’s information needs, suggests that the focus on technology may be less important than a focus on community-gathering spaces (Hearn, 2005), i.e. the effective exchange of information may be more dependent upon the venue than upon the technology. The expansion of information-gathering tools can develop through these trusted centers.
How do Public Access Venues Meet Information Needs in Underserved Communities?
Authors: Gould Elizabeth , Gomez Ricardo , Camacho Kemly
Published: October 2011

User information needs vary by geographic location as well as by economic and social standing, among other factors. These factors drive the format, content, currency, and language in which information is produced and presented. Information needs of users of ICT in public access venues are satisfied in a variety of manners. The question arises as to how public access venues determine information needs in a community, and how best to satisfy those needs. There is no lack of information. What needs to be established is where do people presently get information, and if ICT can help to service their needs in a better way. In this chapter, we consider what types of information users need, and what they seek when they go to public access venues to use ICT.
Behind the Scenes
Authors: Gomez Ricardo , Camacho Kemly , Gould Elizabeth
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes how the global Landscape Study was designed and carried out. The Landscape Study informs all the findings and results presented in this volume. The authors describe here the criteria for the country selection and selection of local research partners in each country, the procedures and instruments for data collection, the way we analyzed the data, and some of the limitations of the study.
The Integration of Aspects of Geo-Tagging and Microblogging in m-Learning
Authors: Safran Christian , Garcia-Barrios Victor Manuel , Ebner Martin
Published: October 2011

The recent years have shown the remarkable potential use of Web 2.0 technologies in education, especially within the context of informal learning. The use of Wikis for collaborative work is one example for the application of this theory. Further, the support of learning in fields of education, which are strongly based on location-dependent information, may also benefit from Web 2.0 techniques, such as Geo-Tagging and m-Learning, allowing in turn learning in-the-field. This chapter presents first developments on the combination of these three concepts into a geospatial Wiki for higher education, TUGeoWiki. Our solution proposal supports mobile scenarios where textual data and images are managed and retrieved in-the-field as well as some desktop scenarios in the context of collaborative e-Learning. Within this scope, technical restrictions might arise while adding and updating textual data via the collaborative interface, and this can be cumbersome in mobile scenarios. To solve this bottleneck, we integrated another popular Web 2.0 technique into our solution approach, Microblogging. Thus, the information pushed via short messages from mobile clients or microblogging tools to our m-Learning environment enables the creation of Wiki-Micropages as basis for subsequent collaborative learning scenarios.
Supporting Local Connections with Online Communities
Authors: Malinen Sanna , Virjo Tytti , Kujala Sari
Published: October 2011

Online communities have become popular among geographically distributed users of the internet. However, there is growing interest in using online communities to support social interaction in geographically-based communities too. In this chapter, we study the value of online sociability and the role of local networking in two different online social internet sites. We present the results of a survey carried out among members of Finnish Facebook groups, and complement the results with interviews for users of a local online service for people living in the surroundings of the city of Helsinki. The goal of this study was to investigate how online groups and services with local content connect with real-life networks and sociability, or whether they remain separated. The results show that Facebook is used mainly for nourishing existing friendships online and less for meeting or looking for information on new people. However, Facebook groups are often connected to real-life activities and places, thus local connections and networks play an important role in the use of Facebook. For the users of the local online service My City, the strong local identity experienced and attachment to the place of residence were important motivators for active participation and the creation of content.
P2P SCCM
Authors: Zhou Jiehan , Rautiainen Mika , Ou Zhonghong , Ylianttila Mika
Published: October 2011

Peer-to-Peer Service-oriented Community Coordinated Multimedia (SCCM) is envisioned as a novel paradigm in which the user consumes multiple media through requesting multimedia-intensive Web services via diversity display devices, converged networks, and heterogeneous platforms within a virtual, open and collaborative community in this chapter. A generic P2P SCCM scenario is created and examined first. A SCCM model is designed with the adoption of the service orientation approach and principles. A tunneled hierarchical P2P model is designed for improving performance of service lookup and session setup. Next, performance analysis is presented with the average number of service lookup hops in the tunneled hierarchical P2P model. Finally, a prototype service implementation is presented with the design of content annotation service and application on face detection.
Evaluation Challenges for Computer-Aided Diagnostic Characterization
Authors: Horsthemke William H. , Raicu Daniela S. , Furst Jacob D. , Armato Samuel G.
Published: October 2011

Evaluating the success of computer-aided decision support systems depends upon a reliable reference standard, a ground truth. The ideal gold standard is expected to result from the marking, labeling, and rating by domain experts of the image of interest. However experts often disagree, and this lack of agreement challenges the development and evaluation of image-based feature prediction of expert-defined “truth.” The following discussion addresses the success and limitation of developing computer-aided models to characterize suspicious pulmonary nodules based upon ratings provided by multiple expert radiologists. These prediction models attempt to bridge the semantic gap between images and medically-meaningful, descriptive opinions about visual characteristics of nodules. The resultant computer-aided diagnostic characterizations (CADc) are directly usable for indexing and retrieving in content-based medical image retrieval and supporting computer-aided diagnosis. The predictive performance of CADc models are directly related to the extent of agreement between radiologists; the models better predict radiologists’ opinions when radiologists agree more with each other about the characteristics of nodules.
Issues and Techniques to Mitigate the Performance Gap in Content-Based Image Retrieval Systems
Authors: Traina Agma J. M. , Traina Caetano , Cordeiro Robson , Ribeiro Marcela , Azevedo-Marques Paulo M.
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses key aspects concerning the performance of Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems. The so-called performance gap plays an important role regarding the acceptability of CBIR systems by the users. It provides a timely answer to the actual demand for computational support from CBIR systems that provide similarity queries processing. Focusing on the performance gap, this chapter explains and discusses the main problems currently under investigation: the use of many features to represent images, the lack of appropriate indexing structures to retrieve images and features, deficient query plans employed to execute similarity queries, and the poor quality of results obtained by the CBIR system. We discuss how to overcome these problems, introducing techniques such as how to employ feature selection techniques to beat the “dimensionality curse” and how to use proper access methods to support fast and effective indexing and retrieval of images, stressing the importance of using query optimization approaches.
Putting the Content Into Context
Authors: Müller Henning , Kalpathy-Cramer Jayashree
Published: October 2011

Digital management of medical images is becoming increasingly important as the number of images being created in medical settings everyday is growing rapidly. Content-based image retrieval or techniques based on the query-by-example paradigm have been studied extensively in computer vision. However, the global, low level visual features automatically extracted by these algorithms do not always correspond to high level concepts that a user has in his mind for searching. The role of image retrieval in diagnostic medicine can be quite complex, making it difficult for the user to express his/her information needs appropriately. Image retrieval in medicine needs to evolve from purely visual retrieval to a more holistic, case-based approach that incorporates various multimedia data sources. These include multiple images, free text, structured data, as well as external knowledge sources and ontologies.
Decision Making by Emergency Room Physicians and Residents
Authors: Hine Michael J. , Farion Ken J. , Michalowski Wojtek , Wilk Szymon
Published: October 2011

Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) are typically constructed from expert knowledge and are often reliant on inputs that are difficult to obtain and on tacit knowledge that only experienced clinicians possess. Research described in this article uses empirical results from a clinical trial of a CDSS with a decision model based on expert knowledge to show that there are differences in how clinician groups of the same specialty, but different level of expertise, elicit necessary CDSS input variables and use said variables in their clinical decisions. This article reports that novice clinicians have difficulty eliciting CDSS input variables that require physical examination, yet they still use these incorrectly elicited variables in making their clinical decisions. Implications for the design of CDSS are discussed.
The Impact of Information Technology across Small, Medium, and Large Hospitals
Authors: Bourgeois Stacy , Prater Edmund , Slinkman Craig
Published: October 2011

Hospitals invest in Information Technology to lower costs and to improve quality of care. However, it is unclear whether these expectations for Information Technology are being met. This study explores Information Technology (IT) in a hospital environment and investigates its relationship to mortality, patient safety, and financial performance across small, medium, and large hospitals. Breaking down IT into functional, technical, and integration components permits the assessment of different types of technologies’ impact on financial and operational outcomes. Findings indicate that both IT sophistication (access to IT applications) and IT sophistication’s relationship to hospital performance varies significantly between small, medium, and large hospitals. In addition, empirical investigation of quality, safety, and financial performance outcomes demonstrates that the observed impact of IT is contingent upon the category of IT employed.
Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community amongst College Students
Authors: Golubski Pamela M.
Published: October 2011

Retention in higher education is a forefront goal for most administration, staff, and faculty members. For this goal to be achieved, college professionals must go above and beyond to ensure students are engaged socially, successfully integrated into the campus community, and actively involved during college. When these interactions occur, students are more likely to experience a sense of belonging, as, evident from developmental research theories, an institution could experience an increase in overall retention rates. However, to achieve engagement, integration, involvement, and feelings of belonging, it requires staff and faculty members to offer and encourage continuous interactions with students, both inside and outside the classroom. While these interactions in the past usually happened through face-to-face methods, today, the Web 2.0 and virtual technological tools have extended opportunities for college professionals to interact more often with students. Two such virtual technologies are Google Wave and Wimba Collaboration Suite (Voice, Pronto, and Classroom).
Curriculum Development for Online Learners
Authors: Farmer Lesley S. J.
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses on curriculum development issues as they apply to online education. Curriculum and its development are defined and contextualized within online learning environments. The development of online-delivered curriculum is impacted by social forces, the treatment of knowledge, human development, the learning process, technology, and management issues.
Encouraging Student Motivation in Distance Education
Authors: Parker Judith
Published: October 2011

While motivating students to enroll, participate, and complete any learning activity has always been a challenge, distance education adds a new dimension of complexity to the problem. This chapter will explore the development of distance education and the internal and external motivational factors that need to be considered when attempting to encourage student motivation in distance education.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) in Utility Computing Systems
Authors: Wu Linlin , Buyya Rajkumar
Published: October 2011

In recent years, extensive research has been conducted in the area of Service Level Agreement (SLA) for utility computing systems. An SLA is a formal contract used to guarantee that consumers’ service quality expectation can be achieved. In utility computing systems, the level of customer satisfaction is crucial, making SLAs significantly important in these environments. Fundamental issue is the management of SLAs, including SLA autonomy management or trade off among multiple Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. Many SLA languages and frameworks have been developed as solutions; however, there is no overall classification for these extensive works. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to present a comprehensive survey of how SLAs are created, managed and used in utility computing environment. We discuss existing use cases from Grid and Cloud computing systems to identify the level of SLA realization in state-of-art systems and emerging challenges for future research.
Dependability Modeling
Authors: Maciel Paulo R. M. , Trivedi Kishor S. , Matias Rivalino , Kim Dong Seong
Published: October 2011

This chapter presents modeling method and evaluation techniques for computing dependability metrics of systems. The chapter begins providing a summary of seminal works. After presenting the background, the most prominent model types are presented, and the respective methods for computing exact values and bounds. This chapter focuses particularly on non-state space models although state space models such as Markov models and hierarchical models are also presented. Case studies are then presented in the end of the chapter.
Service-oriented Collaborative Business Processes
Authors: Xu Lai , de Vrieze Paul , Bouguettaya Athman , Liang Peng , Phalp Keith , Jeary Sherry
Published: October 2011

The ability to rapidly find potential business partners as well as rapidly set up a collaborative business process is desirable in the face of market turbulence. Traditional linking of business processes has a large ad hoc character. Implementing service-oriented business process mashup in an appropriate way will deliver the collaborative business process more flexibility, adaptability and agility. In this chapter, we describe new landscape for supporting collaborative business processes. The different solutions and tools for collaborative business process applications are presented. A new approach for supporting situational collaborative business process, process-oriented mashup is introduced. We have highlighted the security and scalability challenges of process-oriented mashups. Further, benefits of using process-oriented mashup are discussed.
Performance, Availability and Cost of Self-Adaptive Internet Services
Authors: Arnaud Jean , Bouchenak Sara
Published: October 2011

Although distributed services provide a means for supporting scalable Internet applications, their ad-hoc provisioning and configuration pose a difficult tradeoff between service performance and availability. This is made harder as Internet service workloads tend to be heterogeneous, and vary over time in amount of concurrent clients and in mixture of client interactions. This chapter presents an approach for building self-adaptive Internet services through utility-aware capacity planning and provisioning. First, an analytic model is presented to predict Internet service performance, availability and cost. Second, a utility function is defined and a utility-aware capacity planning method is proposed to calculate the optimal service configuration which guarantees SLA performance and availability objectives while minimizing functioning costs. Third, an adaptive control method is proposed to automatically apply the optimal configuration to the Internet service. Finally, the proposed model, capacity planning and control methods are implemented and applied to an online bookstore. The experiments show that the service successfully self-adapts to both workload mix and workload amount variations, and present significant benefits in terms of performance and availability, with a saving of resources underlying the Internet service.
Engineering Secure Web Services
Authors: Rodrigues Douglas , Estrella Julio Cezar , Monaco Francisco José , Branco Kalinka Regina Lucas Jaquie Castelo , Antunes Nuno , Vieira Marco
Published: October 2011

Web services are key components in the implementation of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), which must satisfy proper security requirements in order to be able to support critical business processes. Research works show that a large number of web services are deployed with significant security flaws, ranging from code vulnerabilities to the incorrect use of security standards and protocols. This chapter discusses state of the art techniques and tools for the deployment of secure web services, including standards and protocols for the deployment of secure services, and security assessment approaches. The chapter also discusses how relevant security aspects can be correlated into practical engineering approaches.
Teaching Off-Line Digital Video Editing On-Line
Authors: Atkinson Sarah
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses upon a case study of an online higher education intervention – an interactive resource the author has devised as an aid to the teaching and learning of undergraduate digital video editing (DVE). This resource specifically addresses drama and fiction postproduction principles, practice and techniques. The repository, which includes streamed materials available to download, guides the student through the film production process in a step-by-step way (for students), with suggested class based activities and tasks using the materials (for tutors). The resources include the script, all planning documentation, all production paperwork, and all rushes shot for different productions. The student/tutor navigates through these materials guided by a combination of voice-overs, video tutorials by those personnel involved in the production, and clips taken from the “making of” documentaries. This chapter explores the intervention within the wider context of higher education online teaching and through the lens of virtual learning environment pedagogic theory.
In the Current or Swimming Upstream?
Authors: Osteen Billy , Basu Arin , Allan Mary
Published: October 2011

In the not too distant future, university students will have trouble recalling a pre-You Tube or pre-podcast world. While streaming media in those formats has become ubiquitous in many areas of their lives through ease of use and dissemination, how does it factor into their learning? Should instructors in higher education utilize students’ engagement with streaming media as teachable opportunities? Or, in lieu of instructors intentionally choosing to use streaming media, what about the potential for it to be imposed on them for logistical or operational reasons and the effects of that on student learning and teaching? Building upon prior work that has been done on the use of streaming media in higher education (Chang, 2007; Phillips et al., 2007; Shepherd, 2003; Foertsch et al., 2002; Brahler et al., 1999), this chapter will examine it from several instructors’ perspectives with a focus on their decision-making processes, implementations, challenges, and opportunities. From their experiences, a set of grounded guidelines for using streaming media in higher education will be developed and offered as starting points for others interested in trying this in their teaching.
Higher Education in a Virtual World
Authors: McLaren Patricia Genoe , Francis Lori
Published: October 2011

Following years of discussion surrounding the characteristics, both positive and negative, of generations X and Y, we are seeing the emergence of what is referred to as the virtual generation, the net generation, or Generation V. To some, the virtual generation includes 15 to 24 year olds who spend significant amounts of time playing video games, browsing the Web, and communicating over the Internet (Proserpio & Gioia, 2007). Tapscott (2009) defines the net generation as the first generation to have grown up in the digital age. To others, Generation V is a generation that transcends age, gender, social demographic, and geography, and encompasses everyone who participates in a virtual environment (Sarner, 2008). Regardless of the exact parameters of the generation in use, as the virtual generation enters our academic institutions en masse, we need to ensure that we are providing educational environments that encompass the technological world in which they live, that defines who they are. Rather than requiring them to be confined solely to traditional lecture-based pedagogy, let the virtual generation learn in a virtual world.
Motivated Learning for Computational Intelligence
Authors: Starzyk Janusz A.
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes a motivated learning (ML) method that advances model building and learning techniques required for intelligent systems. Motivated learning addresses critical limitations of reinforcement learning (RL), the more common approach to coordinating a machine’s interaction with an unknown environment. RL maximizes the external reward by approximating multidimensional value functions; however, it does not work well in dynamically changing environments. The ML method overcomes RL problems by triggering internal motivations, and creating abstract goals and internal reward systems to stimulate learning. The chapter addresses the important question of how to motivate an agent to learn and enhance its own complexity? A mechanism is presented that extends low-level sensory-motor interactions towards advanced perception and motor skills, resulting in the emergence of desired cognitive properties. ML is compared to RL using a rapidly changing environment in which the agent needs to manage its motivations as well as choose and implement goals in order to succeed.
Application of Machine Learning Techniques to Predict Software Reliability
Authors: Mohanty Ramakanta , Ravi V. , Patra M. R.
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors employed machine learning techniques, specifically, Back propagation trained neural network (BPNN), Group method of data handling (GMDH), Counter propagation neural network (CPNN), Dynamic evolving neuro–fuzzy inference system (DENFIS), Genetic Programming (GP), TreeNet, statistical multiple linear regression (MLR), and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), to accurately forecast software reliability. Their effectiveness is demonstrated on three datasets taken from literature, where performance is compared in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) obtained in the test set. From rigorous experiments conducted, it was observed that GP outperformed all techniques in all datasets, with GMDH coming a close second.
Machine Learning and Data Mining in Bioinformatics
Authors: Tzanis George , Berberidis Christos , Vlahavas Ioannis
Published: October 2011

Machine learning is one of the oldest subfields of artificial intelligence and is concerned with the design and development of computational systems that can adapt themselves and learn. The most common machine learning algorithms can be either supervised or unsupervised. Supervised learning algorithms generate a function that maps inputs to desired outputs, based on a set of examples with known output (labeled examples). Unsupervised learning algorithms find patterns and relationships over a given set of inputs (unlabeled examples). Other categories of machine learning are semi-supervised learning, where an algorithm uses both labeled and unlabeled examples, and reinforcement learning, where an algorithm learns a policy of how to act given an observation of the world.
Applying Commonsense Reasoning to Place Identification
Authors: Mamei Marco
Published: October 2011

Recent mobile computing applications try to automatically identify the places visited by the user from a log of GPS readings. Such applications reverse geocode the GPS data to discover the actual places (shops, restaurants, etc.) where the user has been. Unfortunately, because of GPS errors, the actual addresses and businesses being visited cannot be extracted unambiguously and often only a list of candidate places can be obtained. Commonsense reasoning can notably help the disambiguation process by invalidating some unlikely findings (e.g., a user visiting a cinema in the morning). This paper illustrates the use of Cyc—an artificial intelligence system comprising a database of commonsense knowledge—to improve automatic place identification. Cyc allows to probabilistically rank the list of candidate places in consideration of the commonsense likelihood of that place being actually visited on the basis of the user profile, the time of the day, what happened before, and so forth. The system has been evaluated using real data collected from a mobile computing application.
Visual Semantic Analysis to Support Semi-Automatic Modeling of Semantic Service Descriptions
Authors: Bhatti Nadeem , Fellner Dieter W.
Published: October 2011

The service-oriented architecture has become one of the most popular approaches for distributed business applications. A new trend service ecosystem is merging, where service providers can augment their core services by using business service delivery-related available functionalities like distribution and delivery. The semantic service description of services for the business service delivery will become a bottleneck in the service ecosystem. In this chapter, the Visual Semantic Analysis approach is presented to support semi-automatic modeling of semantic service description by combining machine learning and interactive visualization techniques. Furthermore, two application scenarios from the project THESEUS-TEXO (funded by German federal ministry of economics and technology) are presented as evaluation of the Visual Semantic Analysis approach.
Hybrid Emotionally Aware Mediated Multiagency
Authors: Vincenti Giovanni , Braman James
Published: October 2011

Emotions influence our everyday lives, guiding and misguiding us. They lead us to happiness and love, but also to irrational acts. Artificial intelligence aims at constructing agents that can emulate thinking processes, but artificial life still lacks emotions and all the consequences that come from them. This work introduces an emotionally aware framework geared towards multi-agent societies. Basing our model on the shoulders of solid foundations created by pioneers who first explored the coupling of emotions and agency, we extend their ideas to include inter-agent interaction and virtual genetics as key components of an agent’s emotive state. We also introduce possible future applications of this framework in consumer products as well as research endeavors.
Learning and Prediction of Complex Molecular Structure-Property Relationships
Authors: Singh Rahul
Published: October 2011

The problem of modeling and predicting complex structure-property relationships, such as the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of putative drug molecules is a fundamental one in contemporary drug discovery. An accurate model can not only be used to predict the behavior of a molecule and understand how structural variations may influence molecular property, but also to identify regions of molecular space that hold promise in context of a specific investigation. However, a variety of factors contribute to the difficulty of constructing robust structure activity models for such complex properties. These include conceptual issues related to how well the true bio-chemical property is accounted for by formulation of the specific learning strategy, algorithmic issues associated with determining the proper molecular descriptors, access to small quantities of data, possibly on tens of molecules only, due to the high cost and complexity of the experimental process, and the complex nature of bio-chemical phenomena underlying the data. This chapter attempts to address this problem from the rudiments: the authors first identify and discuss the salient computational issues that span (and complicate) structure-property modeling formulations and present a brief review of the state-of-the-art. The authors then consider a specific problem: that of modeling intestinal drug absorption, where many of the aforementioned factors play a role. In addressing them, their solution uses a novel characterization of molecular space based on the notion of surface-based molecular similarity. This is followed by identifying a statistically relevant set of molecular descriptors, which along with an appropriate machine learning technique, is used to build the structure-property model. The authors propose simultaneous use of both ratio and ordinal error-measures for model construction and validation. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated in a real world case study.
Cost-Sensitive Learning in Medicine
Authors: Freitas Alberto , Brazdil Pavel , Costa-Pereira Altamiro
Published: October 2011

This chapter introduces cost-sensitive learning and its importance in medicine. Health managers and clinicians often need models that try to minimize several types of costs associated with healthcare, including attribute costs (e.g. the cost of a specific diagnostic test) and misclassification costs (e.g. the cost of a false negative test). In fact, as in other professional areas, both diagnostic tests and its associated misclassification errors can have significant financial or human costs, including the use of unnecessary resource and patient safety issues. This chapter presents some concepts related to cost-sensitive learning and cost-sensitive classification and its application to medicine. Different types of costs are also present, with an emphasis on diagnostic tests and misclassification costs. In addition, an overview of research in the area of cost-sensitive learning is given, including current methodological approaches. Finally, current methods for the cost-sensitive evaluation of classifiers are discussed.
A Cognitive Computational Knowledge Representation Theory
Authors: Najjar Mehdi , Mayers André
Published: October 2011

Encouraging results of last years in the field of knowledge representation within virtual learning environments confirms that artificial intelligence research in this topic find it very beneficial to integrate the knowledge psychological research have accumulated on understanding the cognitive mechanism of human learning and all the positive results obtained in computational modelling theories. This chapter introduces a novel cognitive and computational knowledge representation approach inspired by cognitive theories which explain the human cognitive activity in terms of memory subsystems and their processes, and whose aim is to suggest formal computational models of knowledge that offer efficient and expressive representation structures for virtual learning. Practical studies both contribute to validate the novel approach and permit to draw general conclusions.
The Application of Machine Learning Technique for Malaria Diagnosis
Authors: Ugwu C. , Onyejegbu N. L , Obagbuwa I. C
Published: October 2011

Healthcare delivery in African nations has long been a worldwide issue, which is why the United Nations and World Health Organization seek for ways to alleviate this problem and thereby reduce the number of lives that are lost every year due to poor health facilities and inadequate health care administration. Healthcare delivery concerns are most predominant in Nigeria and it became imperatively clear that the system of medical diagnosis must be automated. This paper explores the potential of machine learning technique (decision tree) in development of a malaria diagnostic system. The decision tree algorithm was used in the development of the knowledge base. Microsoft Access and Java programming language were used for database and user interfaces, respectively. During the diagnosis, symptoms are provided by the patient in the diagnostic system and a match is found in the knowledge base.
Multiple Sensorial Media and Presence in 3D Environments
Authors: Farley Helen , Steel Caroline
Published: October 2011

This chapter will begin by unraveling the relationship between ‘immersion’, with a special emphasis on ‘sensory immersion’, and ‘presence’ in relation to MulSeMedia. In addition, it will look at the nature of the sensory stimulation provided by MulSeMedia in relation to the amount of immersion it engenders. For example, sound that is directional will have a positive effect on immersion and sensory feedback that is not conflicting will further enhance the immersive experience.
Appreciating Individual Differences
Authors: Kyritsis Markos , Gulliver Stephen R.
Published: October 2011

Learning the spatial layout of an environment is essential in application domains including military and emergency personnel training. Training each and every member of staff, however, within a real-world space cannot practically be achieved, especially if the space is under-development or potentially unsafe. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how individual difference factors can significantly impact upon training requirements when acquiring spatial knowledge from a virtual environment. Although experimental setup is not mulsemedia, the impact of appreciating individual differences is of direct relevance to mulsemedia technologies. This chapter shows how individual differences impact information assimilation; showing that user information assimilation, and therefore feedback, must be personalised for individual needs. The chapter looks at the importance of: gender, orientation skill, cognitive style, system knowledge, and environmental knowledge – showing how individual user differences significantly influence the training time required to ensure effective virtual environment spatial knowledge acquisition (SKA). We introduce the problem of contradicting literature in the area of SKA, and discuss how the amount of exposure time given to a person during VE training is responsible for the feasibility of SKA.
Olfactory Display Using Solenoid Valves and Fluid Dynamics Simulation
Authors: Nakamoto Takamichi , Ishida Hiroshi , Matsukura Haruka
Published: October 2011

Olfaction is now becoming available in Multiple Sensorial Media because of recent progress of an olfactory display. One of the important functions of the olfactory display is to blend multiple of odor components to create a variety of odors. We have developed the olfactory display to blend up to 32 odor components using solenoid valves. High -speed switching of a solenoid valve enables us to blend many odors instantaneously at any recipe even if the solenoid valve has only two states such as ON and OFF. Since it is compact and is easy to use, it has been so far used to demonstrate a movie, an animation and a game with scents. However, a contents developer must manually adjust its concentration sequence because the concentration varies from place to place. The manually determined concentration sequence is not accurate and, moreover, it takes much time to make the plausible concentration sequence manually. Thus, it is adequate to calculate the concentration sequence using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation in the virtual environment. Since the spread of odor in spatial domain is very complicated, the isotropic diffusion from the odor source is not valid. Since the simulated odor distribution resembles the distribution actually measured in the real room, CFD simulation enables us to reproduce the spatial variation in the odor intensity that the user would experience in the real world. Most of the users successfully perceived the intended change in the odor intensity when they watched the scented movie, in which they approached an odor source hindered by an obstacle. Presentation of the spatial odor distribution to the users was tried, and encouraging results were obtained.
User Perception of Media Content Association in Olfaction-Enhanced Multimedia
Authors: Ghinea Gheorghita , Ademoye Oluwakemi
Published: October 2011

Olfaction (smell) is one of our commonly used senses in everyday life. However, this is not the case in digital media, where it is an exception to the rule that usually only our auditory and visual senses are employed. In mulsemedia, however, together with these traditional senses, we envisage that the olfactory will increasingly be employed, especially so with the increase in computing processing abilities and in the sophistication of olfactory devices employed. It is not surprising, however, that there are still many unanswered questions in the use of olfaction in mulsemedia. Accordingly in this chapter we present the results of an empirical study which explored one such question, namely does the correct association of scent and content enhance the user experience of multimedia applications?’
Multimedia Sensory Cue Processing in the FIVIS Simulation Environment
Authors: Herpers Rainer , Scherfgen David , Kutz Michael , Bongartz Jens , Hartmann Ulrich , Schulzyk Oliver , Boronas Sandra , Saitov Timur , Steiner Holger , Reinert Dietmar
Published: October 2011

The FIVIS simulator system addresses the classical visual and acoustical cues as well as vestibular and further physiological cues. Sensory feedback from skin, muscles, and joints are integrated within this virtual reality visualization environment. By doing this it allows for simulating otherwise dangerous traffic situations in a controlled laboratory environment. The system has been successfully applied for road safety education applications of school children. In further research studies it is applied to perform multimedia perception experiments. It has been shown, that visual cues dominate by far the perception of visual depth in the majority of applications but the quality of depth perception might depend on the availability of other sensory information. This however, needs to be investigated in more detail in the future.
A Study of Barriers to Greening the Relief Supply Chain
Authors: Sarkis Joseph , Spens Karen M. , Kovács Gyöngyi
Published: October 2011

Relief supply chain (SC) management is a relatively unexplored field. In this field, practitioners have shown some interest in greening practices, but little practical or academic literature exists to help provide insights into combining the two fields. Adoption of green SC principles in the relief SC requires a systematic study of existing barriers in order to remove these barriers and allow introduction of green practices. The aim of this chapter is to explore barriers to implementation of green practices in the relief SC. Expert opinions and literature from humanitarian logistics and green supply chain management are used to establish a list of barriers and to propose a categorization of barriers. Further research to evaluate the relationships and importance of these barrier factors is identified.
Modelling and Analysing QoS for Real-Time Interactive Applications on the Cloud
Authors: Addis Matthew , Boniface Michael , Papay Juri , Servin Arturo , Zlatev Zlatko , Kousiouris George
Published: October 2011

The complexity of determining resource provisioning policies for applications in such complex environments introduces significant inefficiencies in the cloud. Novel approaches are needed to efficiently model and analyse Quality of Service for such applications, especially those with real-time constraints. This chapter investigates some of the techniques that can be used to explore these trade-offs and to find business models where value can be provided at all stages in the value-chain. For example, how can an application user identify a set of service providers that provide the best solution to their workflow in combination? How much risk is involved, e.g. what is the probability and impact of a failure of a service provider to deliver the QoS they promise? How can Service Level Agreements be specified that provide the flexibility to accommodate variability in service use, yet don’t result in unnecessarily high cost to the consumer due to the service provider having to use massive over-provisioning of resources to ensure they can meet times of peak-load?
Monitoring and Metering in the Cloud
Authors: Oliveros Eduardo , Cucinotta Tommaso , Phillips Stephen C. , Yang Xiaoyu , Middleton Stuart , Voith Thomas
Published: October 2011

This chapter will present the reasons and difficulties for monitoring and metering on Cloud infrastructures. The approaches for monitoring of the execution environment and the network on virtualised infrastructures will be described together with the existing monitoring tools present on different commercial and research platforms.
Workflow Management Systems in Distributed Environments
Authors: Gogouvitis Spyridon V. , Konstanteli Kleopatra G. , Kyriazis Dimosthenis , Katsaros Gregory , Cucinotta Tommaso , Boniface Michael
Published: October 2011

With the advent of Service Oriented Architectures, more applications are built in a distributed manner based on loose coupled services. In this context, Workflow Management Systems play an important role as they are the means to both define the processes that realize the application goals as well as implement the orchestration of the different services. The purpose of the chapter is to give an overview of various solutions regarding workflow semantics and languages, as well as their enactment within the scope of distributed systems. To this end, major focus is given to solutions that are aimed at Grid environments. Scheduling algorithms and advance reservation techniques are also discussed as these are among the hottest research topics in Workflow Management Systems.
Data Storage in Cloud Based Real-Time Environments
Authors: Narasimhamurthy Sai , Muggeridge Malcolm , Waldschmidt Stefan , Checconi Fabio , Cucinotta Tommaso
Published: October 2011

The service oriented infrastructures for real-time applications (“real-time clouds1”) pose certain unique challenges for the data storage subsystem, which indeed is the “last mile” for all data accesses. Data storage subsystems typically used in regular enterprise environments have many limitations which impedes direct applicability for such clouds, particularly in their ability to provide Quality of Service (QoS) for applications. Provision of QoS within storage is possible through a deeper understanding of the behaviour of the storage system under a variety of conditions dictated by the application and the network infrastructure. We intend to arrive at a QoS mechanism for data storage keeping in view the important parameters that come into play for the storage subsystem in a soft real-time cloud environment.
Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT)
Authors: Olaniran Bolanle A. , Rodriguez Natasha , Williams Indi M.
Published: October 2011

The Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT) proposes that given time and opportunity to interact, relationships between individuals can form in online environments. Although not an overt assumption of the SIPT, it is essential to understand how cultural factors are important components of any CMC interaction. The power of the SIPT lies within its ability to foster communication between individuals through communicative behavior that is valued by the other’s culture. Therefore, Social Information Processing has the potential to aid the development of trust between virtual team members, establishing group cohesion, and accentuating cross-communication within international work groups.
Government Monitoring of Online Media and its Influence on Netizens’ Language Use in China
Authors: Gong Wengao
Published: October 2011

In the last 15 years, China has witnessed the world’s fastest growth in terms of Internet infrastructure construction and number of Internet users. In order to realize its ambition in maximizing the economic value of the Internet while minimizing its destabilizing and disruptive potential, the Chinese government has adopted a policy that encourages the technological development of the Chinese Internet. The government, however, also maintains a very tight control over the Chinese people’s online activities. In order to avoid or break through the government’s regulatory effort, netizens in China have worked out many interesting ways of expressing ideas online. Among the various linguistic strategies adopted by Chinese netizens, five are particularly prominent and arguably more effective. They are using homophony, dismantling Chinese characters, using sarcasm, extending the semantic sense of words, and using English or Pinyin initials. This chapter examines how government monitoring of online media in China is employed to restrict people’s freedom of expression and how Chinese netizens are using certain features inherent in their language and culture to exercise their right of free expression in such a context.
From Europe to China
Authors: Tan Xiaohong , Ullrich Carsten , Shen Ruimin
Published: October 2011

Course(ware) generation is the process of assembling a sequence of learning objects that is adapted to an individual user’s goals, preferences, and capabilities. This chapter investigates course generation and how it is adapted to a different educational context, an area of research that has been barely researched until now. The authors present a course generator developed within a European project and show how it was adapted to met requirements arising from the Chinese educational setting – a setting that differs from Europe being significantly more-teacher centered and whose foremost goal is to enable access to higher education to the largest amount of citizens possible.