bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Action Research
Authors: Mumford Enid
Published: May 2011

This chapter has been written to provide some guidance to researchers who wish to be actively associated with assisting change taking place in the organizations that they are studying. This means that they will not be detached observers interested only in observation and documentation, but will take on a role as a facilitator of the change process. This can be done through advice to management, in which case the researcher is operating in a manner similar to a consultant, but it can also be done more democratically. My own approach, which has been developed over many years, is to assist the future users of any new system, together with those who will be affected by its use, to play an important role in the systems design process. This role can take different forms but usually incorporates the design of the organizational structures that will surround new technology. Many groups have now become designers of their own systems ranging from clerks, salespeople and technologists to senior managers.
A Classification Scheme for Interpretive Research in Information Systems
Authors: Klein Heinz K. , Myers Michael D.
Published: May 2011

Given the increase in the number of interpretive research articles being published in IS today, we believe it is timely to develop and explain a classification scheme of the literature. Such a classification scheme draws attention to the tremendous variety and breadth of interpretive research today, from the most abstract and general philosophical foundations to the most in-depth, detailed field studies. The explicit consideration of different types may contribute to a more effective division of labor among scholars with different research interests. It should also help interpretive researchers to better focus their work and to identify their research priorities.
Benchmarking IT
Authors: van der Zee Han
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, apparent benchmarking characteristics and the main conditions for success will be reviewed, followed by a description of the process of IT benchmarking. Also, the execution of the benchmarking process will be illustrated in three case studies, each demonstrating the practical application of benchmarking for different purposes and answering different management questions about specific aspects of the application and supply of IT.
Online Exchanges and Beyond
Authors: Gallaugher John M. , Ramanathan Suresh C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview of critical issues associated with crafting a valuable and sustainable electronic marketplace. In order to provide a foundation for examples and discussion, the first section reviews B2B markets and provides a simple classification mechanism. Next, the issues of price presentation and price setting are introduced as they relate to the classification framework. The second half of the chapter explores factors associated with participant motivation regarding the key issues of liquidity formation and maintenance, exchange ownership and governance, and the delivery of value-added services.
Manufacturing Connectedness
Authors: Meister Darren
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to enable managers in manufacturing organizations to recognize and anticipate common concerns in implementing connectedness as well as to prepare to take action to minimize negative outcomes. While it does not offer all of the solutions that will be necessary for every situation, it does provide a building block for the improvement of a company’s connectedness capabilities.
Supply-Chain Challenges for B2B eCommerce with Examples from the Chemical Industry
Authors: Sodhi ManMohan S.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, I examine supply-chain-related challenges that eMarketplaces and existing companies face as business-to-business eCommerce increases. Although the Internet is increasingly attractive for B2B commerce and for supply-chain management, eCommerce is more likely to reveal the inefficiencies in supply chain and to increase customer expectations relative to offline trade. Therefore, managers must understand the supply-chain management challenges associated with B2B eCommerce, especially in light of the fulfillment failures already experienced in business-to-consumer eCommerce.
Dynamic Digital Process Integration in Business-to-Business Networks
Authors: Warkentin Merrill
Published: May 2011

Transparent end-to-end business process integration is the leading edge of today’s business-to-business electronic commerce revolution. Firms enter into electronic inter-organizational networks not only to conduct procurement-oriented transactions (supply chain management), but increasingly, they are strategically outsourcing business processes and activities which are not part of the their distinctive competence (strategically core activities) and provided by a new breed of digital process specialists. The evolution of agent-based inter-organizational systems enables complex direct interaction between heterogeneous information systems, which allow Web-based eServices to act autonomously, communicate independently, discover each other, provide dynamically configured services to one another, and establish composite business systems.
Aggression on the Networks
Authors: Hutchinson William , Warren Matthew
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the attitudes of Australian IS/IT managers to the concept of cyber-vigilantism. Also, it explores the policies and procedures which have been set in place by various organizations to cope with concerted attacks on their systems. It finds that although a majority of managers do approve of the concept of “striking back’, only a minority are prepared for this eventuality. There appears to be complacency about the threats posed by organized, offensive attackers.
Policies for the Prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury Among Computer Users
Authors: Fairweather N. Ben
Published: May 2011

The chapter starts with a very brief review of the nature of repetitive strain injury (RSI) and some of the less helpful advice about RSI. There is consideration of general issues of employer responsibility for health and safety and mention of the peculiarities of RSI prevention before attention is turned to the balance of individual versus corporate responsibility as shown in policies studied. Attention is then drawn to particular issues of mouse use and then computer games. There is a short discussion of the issues of stress and work pressure, followed by mention of some issues raised by monitoring, and the chapter concludes with a look at the issues raised by consideration of shared workstations.
On the Role of Human Morality in Information System Security
Authors: Siponen Mikko T.
Published: May 2011

This chapter argues, following the scholars of the first category, that human morality has a role as a means for ensuring security. But to achieve this goal solid theoretical foundations, on which a concrete guidance can be based, are needed. The existing proposals (e.g., Kowalski, 1990; Baskerville, 1995; Dhillon & Backhouse, 2000) do not suggest any theoretical foundation nor concrete means for using ethics as a means of ensuring security. The aim of this paper is to propose a framework for the use of ethics in this respect. To achieve this aim, a critique of the relevance of ethics must be considered. The use of human morality as a means of ensuring security has been criticized by Leiwo and Heikkuri (1998a, 1998b) on the grounds of cultural relativism (and hacker ethics/hacking culture). If cultural relativism is valid as an ethical doctrine, the use of human morality as a means of protection is very questionable. It would only be possible in certain “security” cultures, i.e., cultures in which security norms have been established–if at all. However, the objection of Leiwo and Heikkuri (1998a, 1998b) is argued to be questionable. We feel that cultural relativism has detrimental effects on our well-being and security. Things might be better if the weaknesses of cultural relativism were recognized. This paper adopts the conceptual analysis in terms of Järvinen (1997, 2000) as the research approach. An early version of this paper was presented at an international conference on information security (IFIP TC11, Beijing, China, 2000).
Aspects of a Viable Social Responsibility Program in the Information Age
Authors: Dhillon Gurpreet S.
Published: May 2011

Various chapters in this book have addressed a broad range of social responsibility issues. In many ways, each chapter has identified a category of social responsibility concerns which if ignored are going to result in some ethical strain. In the paragraphs below, based on an understanding of potential ethical strains, key elements of a viable social responsibility program are identified and described.
Supporting Electronic Negotiation for Intelligent Trading
Authors: Alem Leila , Kowalczyk Ryszard , Lee Maria R.
Published: May 2011

Intelligent negotiation agents are software agents, which can negotiate the terms of transactions on behalf of purchasers and vendors on the Internet. Current solutions are mostly limited to single attribute negotiations, and are typically used to determine price. Moreover they typically assume information to be precisely defined and shared between the parties. Bargaining situations are, in most cases, characterized by conflicting interests among the agents that don’t cater for common interests and possibility for collaboration to improve the outcomes of the parties. Another limitation of existing on-line negotiation agents is that their negotiation is usually taking place in a centralized marketplace where the agents meet and negotiate following a set of protocols that don’t cater for more open and direct party-to-party negotiations. This chapter reports on solutions for addressing the issues of negotiations with incomplete and imprecise information, dynamic coalition formation and negotiation ontologies. The negotiation with incomplete and imprecise information uses fuzzy constraint-based reasoning and the principle of utility theory. The formation of coalition is based on negotiation over the distribution of the coalition value and the agent level of resources. The negotiation ontologies make use of shared ontologies as well as individual ontologies to avoid misunderstanding and make data exchange meaningful.
E-Commerce Software
Authors: Rittgen Peter
Published: May 2011

Early information systems were mainly built around secondary, administrative processes of the value chain (e.g., accounting). But since the Internet came into use, more and more primary processes have become accessible to automation: customer acquisition, ordering, billing and, in the case of intangible goods such as software, even delivery. To facilitate this complex task, we suggest that the relevant parts of the enterprise be modeled according to the MEMO (Multi-perspective Enterprise MOdeling) method. It allows for the description of an enterprise on three levels-strategy, organization and information system-and from four angles-process, structure, resources and goals. All partial models for the views are integrated via a common object-oriented core. In this framework we suggest a modeling language for the IS layer, the Event-driven Method Chain (EMC), a process-oriented language based on Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs), which we adapt to fit both the MEMO framework and the object-oriented paradigm, thus making it suitable for the development of Web-based applications in an object-oriented programming language. To illustrate this we use the example of a software trading company.
Digital Asset Management
Authors: Subramanian Ramesh , Yen Minnie Yi-Miin
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we examine Digital Asset Management concepts, detail the desirable features and components of DAM, the taxonomy of the DAM systems, the e-commerce aspects of digital assets and discuss the various open research issues associated with Digital Asset Management.
Poems in the Information Jungle - How Do Physicians Survive?
Authors: Shaughnessy Allen F. , Slawson David C. , Fischer Joachim E.
Published: May 2011

The days when newly graduated doctors were well equipped with the knowledge and information they would need during a lifetime are long since gone. Today’s clinicians’ knowledge becomes almost as rapidly outdated as the analysts’ forecasts on the stock market. Tsunamis of new articles reporting scientific achievements flood the shorelines of current knowledge. Modern physicians need to be lifelong learners in order to adapt to the rapidly evolving medical environment. But how can physicians survive in the information jungle? What are the tools they need to weave a fabric of best medical practice that is woven from the relevant scientific knowledge and the detailed information about the patients’ preferences? Are medical schools and the postgraduate educational systems preparing doctors for this?
MPEG - 4 Facial Animation and its Application to a Videophone System for the Deaf
Authors: Sarris Nikolaos , Strintzis Michael G.
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims to introduce the potential contribution of the emerging MPEG-4 audio-visual representation standard to future multimedia systems. This is attempted by the ‘case study’ of a particular example of such a system--‘LipTelephone’--which is a special videoconferencing system being developed in the framework of MPEG-4 (Sarris et al., 2000b). The objective of ‘LipTelephone’ is to serve as a videophone that will enable lip readers to communicate over a standard telephone connection. This will be accomplished by combining model-based with traditional video coding techniques in order to exploit the information redundancy in a scene of known content, while achieving high fidelity representation in the specific area of interest, which is the speaker’s mouth. Through this description, it is shown that the standard provides a wide framework for the incorporation of methods that had been the object of pure research even in recent years. Various such methods are referenced from the literature, and one is proposed and described in detail for every part of the system being studied. The main objective of the chapter is to introduce students to these methods for the processing of multimedia material, provide to researchers a reference to the state-of-the-art in this area and urge engineers to use the present research methodologies in future consumer applications.
VBR Traffic Shaping for Streaming of Multimedia Transmission
Authors: Chang Ray-I. , Chen Meng-Chang , Ko Ming-Tat , Ho Jan-Ming
Published: May 2011

In multimedia applications, media data such as audio and video are transmitted from server to clients via network according to some transmission schedules. Different from the conventional data streams, end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) is necessary for media transmission to provide jitter-free playback. Therefore, each data packet has been assigned with related timing constraints for transmission. As network resources are allocated exclusively in fixed-size chunks to serve different data streams, it is simple to support constant-bit-rate (CBR) transmission. Grossglauser and Keshav (1996) have investigated the performance of CBR traffic in a large-scale network with many connections and switches. They concluded that the network queuing delay for CBR transmission is less than one cell time per switch even under heavy loading. Besides, resource allocation and admission control are simple as there are no variations in resource requirements. However, media streams are notably variable-bit-rate (VBR) in nature due to the coding and compression technologies applied (Garrett and Willinger, 1994). The average data rate of an MPEG-1 movie is usually less than 25% of its peak data rate. It is inherently at odds with the goals of designing efficient real-time network transmission and admission control mechanisms capable of achieving high resource utilization (Sen et al., 1997). The conventional CBR service model that allocates the peak data rate to transmit the VBR stream would be a waste of bandwidth. Furthermore, it requires a large size of client buffer. To ameliorate this problem, we need a good traffic shaping algorithm to transmit VBR video in a less bursty (i.e., smoother) manner by exploiting different performance measurements. In a multimedia system, we usually measure the performance of a transmission schedule by the following four indices: peak bandwidth, network utilization, initial delay and client buffer.
RAC
Authors: Lee Wonjun , Srivastava Jaideep
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present a novel disk admission control algorithm that exploits the degradability property of continuous media applications to improve the performance of the system. The algorithm is based on setting aside a portion of the resources, i.e., disk I/O bandwidth, as reserves and managing it intelligently so that the total utility of the system is maximized. This reserve-based admission control strategy (RAC) is a compromise between purely greedy and non-greedy strategy, and it leads to an efficient protocol that improves the performance of the system. While the protocol is simple for admission decision, it also results in better performance for the system by reserving some resources for the important future applications. The framework consists of two parts. One is the reserve-based admission control mechanism in which new streams, arriving during periods of congestion, are offered lower QoS, instead of being blocked. The other one is a resource scheduler for continuous media with dynamic resource allocation to achieve higher utilization than non-dynamic schedulers by effectively sharing available resources among contending streams and by reclamation, which is a scheduler-initiated negotiation to reallocate resources among streams to improve overall QoS.
Playout Control Mechanism for Speech Transmission over the Internet
Authors: Roccetti Marco
Published: May 2011

Sophisticated applications of Internet multimedia conferencing will become increasingly important only if their users will perceive the quality of the communications as sufficiently good. The result of extensive experiments has shown that audio is frequently perceived as one of the most important components of multimedia communications. Unfortunately, the actual architecture of the Internet is not a good environment for real-time audio communications, since very high transmission delay and transmission delay variance (known as jitter) may be experienced that impair human conversations. Hence, in the absence of network support to provide guarantees of quality to users of Internet voice software, an alternative to coping with problems caused by delay and delay jitter is to use adaptive control mechanisms. These mechanisms are based on the idea of using a voice reconstruction buffer at the receiver in order to add artificial delay to the audio stream to smooth out the jitter. In this chapter, we describe three different control mechanisms that are able to dynamically adapt the audio application to the network conditions so as to minimize the impact of delay jitter (and packet loss). We also present a set of performance results we have gathered from an extensive experimentation with an Internet audio tool we have designed and developed in order to conduct voice-based audio conversations over the Internet.
An Isochronous Approach to Multimedia Synchronization in Distributed Environments
Authors: Yang Zhonghau , Gay Robert , Siew Chee Kheong , Sun Chengzheng , Sattar Abdul
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we provide a new look at the synchronization issue in distributed environments. We attempt to explore the power of isochronous protocols, as advocated by Lamport, to the multimedia synchronization. It is based on the use of synchronized physical clock time instead of any form of logical clock or sequence numbers, and thus the clock synchronization across the distributed system is assumed. An isochronous protocol for achieving multimedia synchronization is presented. Derived from the globally synchronized clock, there exists a lattice structure in a system. Media conference participating processes in the system execute a simple clock-driven protocol, and all significant events (the sending and delivering of media data) are restricted to occur at lattice points of the globally synchronized space/time lattice. This lattice structure greatly simplifies the multimedia synchronization and readily maintains the temporal and causal relationship among the media. The basic simplicity of the approach makes it easier to understand the precise properties and behavior of a system. The availability of globally synchronized clock (for example, the new version of Internet NTP) and predictable quality of service of advanced communication networks make the isochronous synchronization approach not only attractive but also practical.
Organizational Impacts and Social Shaping of Web Management Practice
Authors: Eschenfelder Kristin R.
Published: May 2011

The extraordinary growth of individual and organizational use of the Internet, particularly the Web, during the past decade has led scholars to question the social impacts of this incredible technology diffusion. In this chapter, I discuss a currently under-explored aspect of the social impacts of Web usage–the impacts of ongoing Web information system management (Web management) on the organizations and employees that maintain commercial Web sites (Web managers). This chapter is organized in the following manner. In the first section, I describe how this chapter supports the book’s theme. I then introduce key principles of social informatics and my general research approach and discuss the objectives of the study. In the second section, I define key constructs, review relevant literature, introduce the study’s theoretical framework, and summarize the methodology. In the third section, I describe the research results. In the fourth section, I draw on the data to present a summary model of Web management, suggest specific improvements to Web management practice, and discuss future impacts of Web information systems (Web IS) and trends in Web management. I conclude the chapter with sections on future research and final comments.
e-Democracy and Community Networks
Authors: Gross Tom
Published: May 2011

Political systems and technology are interdependent and influence each other. On the one hand, political systems and political leaders aim at influencing technological development and benefiting from technological progress; on the other, technological development has a considerable proportion of its own dynamics and potential to influence society and political systems. This chapter particularly focuses on electronic democracy and virtual communities and accordingly discusses recent ideas and plans of political leaders, derives requirements for technology, presents systems and prototypes, and reports cases demonstrating how and what technology is really used.
e-Government in Canada
Authors: Kieley Barb , Lane Greg , Paquet Gilles , Roy Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

Moving industrial society government onto a digital platform would simply produce a digitized industrial government—a form of governance that would be increasingly out of step with the changing realities of citizens and businesses alike.1
A Preliminary Exploration of Social Needs in Distance Education
Authors: Martz Jr. William B. , Shepherd Morgan M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the concern for social needs in distance education. As a foundation, the chapter discusses the evolving learning environment and stakeholder expectations that distance education must address as it grows in prevalence. In addition, technology is a key enabler of any distance learning program. This chapter analyzes several theories that integrate learning and technology for potential insights applicable to distance learning. These insights lead to an exploratory study to compare the “need for affiliation” between students working in groups for distance classes (virtual groups) and students working in groups for on-campus classes (actual groups). The preliminary results of the study indicate that some issues concerning socialization do exist between the two groups. Ultimately, the study points to the need for more formal and definitive measures of the social aspects of group work in distance education.
Institutional and Library Services for Distance Education Courses and Programs
Authors: Buchanan Elizabeth
Published: May 2011

Institutions are quickly embracing distance education in the forms of online or web-based courses and programs at phenomenal rates. Often, however, significant institutional structures, including such areas as registration, advising, library, and technical support are overlooked until too late. Institutions must have clear, well-planned strategies in place in order to maximize their students’ learning experiences and overall satisfaction with distance education programs to avoid attrition and maximize retention. This chapter provides many useful and easy to implement strategies for institutions considering distance education, as well as for those already engaged in serving students online.
Leveraging Distance Education Through the Internet
Authors: Onay Zeynep
Published: May 2011

In a global knowledge-based economy, with an ever-growing demand for learning, the Internet is seen as a vehicle for promoting effectiveness in teaching and reaching wider audiences. The number of online courses and programs offered by traditional higher education institutions, as well as new players in the education industry, has been increasing at an exponential rate. Yet the implementation of distance education through the Internet involves much more than a change of medium from face-to-face classroom interaction to an environment free of time and place constraints. Institutions are faced with the challenge of redefining their strategies to incorporate the e-learning paradigm. This chapter provides an overview of the different models that have emerged, and addresses the key issues that need to be resolved for integrating Internet-based learning in traditional universities. The breadth of strategic, administrative, academic and technological concerns encountered through the evolution of an Internet-based education system, from its inception to implementation, are discussed and illustrated by the e-learning initiative of Middle East Technical University in Turkey.
Electronic Commerce (EC) Tools in Context
Authors: Bunker Deborah
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes the idea of electronic commerce (EC) systems as tools that are created within a given context. The implications of this view are discussed regarding implementation of these tools in the business-to-consumer marketplace (B2C) and their impact on consumer activities and B2C processes. It is argued that EC systems by definition, are artefacts, tools that are made, used, inherited and studied within a cultural context. This context encompasses economic, historical, technical and social values and assumptions that are focused on particular ideas and definitions relating to B2C activities and processes. It is assumed that these ideas and definitions are mostly in evidence in any culture that applies EC systems tools for use. The issue we must face as makers, users, inheritors and scholars of EC tools, however, is that the tool context and inherent in-built values on which this context is based, particularly relating to matters of effective use of EC tools in a B2C marketplace, may not be evident across all cultures. This would make the successful use of EC, in a global sense, a difficult and complex undertaking.
Systems Thinking and the Internet
Authors: Maani Kambiz E.
Published: May 2011

In the past decade two movements have had a profound influence on the way we think and communicate–Systems Thinking and the Internet. Both are grounded in sciences and technology and complement each other in principle and practice. But the similarities almost end here. While one has become a household name, the other still remains a mystery. The Internet was born in the elite military and academic quarters, but has rapidly moved to public neighborhoods and has already become a mass movement. Systems Thinking also originated from scientific circles and is only now beginning to make a public appearance. Despite their benign appearances, both Systems Thinking and the Internet challenge mankind’s age-old ways to think and disseminate information. At a fundamental level, they challenge the hierarchy and authority, and power and leadership. Through technology, the Internet has, in essence, brought down the boundaries that define business, trade and even nationhood. Through equally powerful scientific principles, Systems Thinking has broken the superficial dichotomies of the whole vs. the part, the individual vs. the community, integration and autonomy, and business and society.
Internet Data Mining
Authors: Kumar Kuldeep , Baker John
Published: May 2011

Data mining has emerged as one of the hottest topics in recent years. It is an extraordinarily broad area and is growing in several directions. With the advancement of the Internet and cheap availability of powerful computers, data is flooding the market at a tremendous pace. However, the technology for navigating, exploring, visualizing and summarizing large databases are still in their infancy. The quantity and diversity of data available to make decisions has increased dramatically during the past decade. Large databases are being built to hold and deliver these data. Data mining is defined as the process of seeking interesting or valuable information within large data sets. Some examples of data mining applications in the area of management science are analysis of direct-mailing strategies, sales data analysis for customer segmentation, credit card fraud detection, mass customization, etc. With the advancement of the Internet and World Wide Web, both management scientists and interested end-users can get large data sets for their research from this source. The Web not only contains a vast amount of useful information, but also provides a powerful infrastructure for communication and information sharing. For example, Ma, Liu and Wong (2000) have developed a system called DS-Web that uses the Web to help data mining. A recent survey on Web mining research can be seen in the paper by Kosala and Blockeel (2000).
The Virtual Corporation and Trust
Authors: Jansen Wendy , Jagers Hans P.M. , Steenbakkers Wilchard
Published: May 2011

Virtual corporations are seen as new organisational forms to ensure knowledge sharing and innovation. In this chapter the reason for the knowledge-creating competence of virtual corporations is explained. A shared identity and mutual trust of the participants are of paramount importance to innovation. Virtual corporations are in fact balancing on a tightrope. They have to create an identity which is strong enough for the participants to trust each other. At the same time the identity shared by the participants of the virtual corporation must not become so strong that very promising innovative avenues are blocked. ICT will fulfil an important function here which is mainly aimed at the support of the social relation between the participants.
The Virtual Web-Based Supply Chain
Authors: Chandrashekar Ashok , Schary Philip
Published: May 2011

The virtual Web-based supply chain is emerging as a new form of industrial organization. This paper discusses the concept as a juncture of three forces: the virtual organization, Web-based communication and the application service provider (ASP). The virtual organization is a familiar concept in many industries, even without electronic connections. Web-based communication provides access and networks with new institutions. The ASP makes rapid change and flexible connections feasible. Together they establish focus, flexibility and rapid response to change in demand and customer requirements. Casting it in a strategic framework of structure, process and organization provides a basis for projecting its future.
A Basic Approach Towards Cost Accounting for Virtual Web Organizations
Authors: Veil Tim , Hess Thomas
Published: May 2011

Virtual corporations (VCs) may be defined as a specific form of inter-company networks. Whereas vertically integrated strategic networks primarily appear in the automobile industry, VCs are frequently found in the software industry or the consulting sector. In the last years, VCs have been subject to different research activities, e.g., the relevance of IT infrastructure for VCs or the economical reasons for their appearance. Today, questions of how to manage VCs arise more and more often. Nevertheless, until today issues concerning planning and control have rarely been discussed. One traditional and major element of a planning and control system is the cost accounting system. As will be shown, multiple questions regarding cost accounting for virtual Web organizations come up theoretically as well as in practice.
From Evolution to Immune to Swarm to? A Simple Introduction to Modern Heuristics
Authors: Rodstein Jay T. , Watters Katherine S.
Published: May 2011

Safety and health issues in virtual offices are part of progressive telecommuting programs. Telecommuting agreements between employers and employees typically include clauses related to keeping the workspace free from hazards, conditions to clarify employer liability for injuries and illnesses and mechanisms for the employee to report them. In practice, employers are not providing all of the tools, training and follow-up needed to offer complete programs. This chapter provides a set of tools and implementation strategies to help employers reduce safety and health risks in the virtual office.
On the Use of Evolutionary Algorithms in Data Mining
Authors: Cantu-Paz Erick
Published: May 2011

With computers becoming more pervasive, disks becoming cheaper, and sensors becoming ubiquitous, we are collecting data at an ever-increasing pace. However, it is far easier to collect the data than to extract useful information from it. Sophisticated techniques, such as those developed in the multi-disciplinary field of data mining, are increasingly being applied to the analysis of these datasets in commercial and scientific domains. As the problems become larger and more complex, researchers are turning to heuristic techniques to complement existing approaches. This survey chapter examines the role that evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can play in various stages of data mining. We consider data mining as the end-to-end process of finding patterns starting with raw data. The chapter focuses on the topics of feature extraction, feature selection, classification, and clustering, and surveys the state of the art in the application of evolutionary algorithms to these areas. We examine the use of evolutionary algorithms both in isolation and in combination with other algorithms including neural networks, and decision trees. The chapter concludes with a summary of open research problems and opportunities for the future.
Evolution of Spatial Data Templates for Object Classification
Authors: Dunstan Neil , de Raadt Michael
Published: May 2011

Sensing devices are commonly used for the detection and classification of subsurface objects, particularly for the purpose of eradicating Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) from military sites. UXO detection and classification is inherently different to pattern recognition in image processing in that signal responses for the same object will differ greatly when the object is at different depths and orientations. That is, subsurface objects span a multidimensional space with dimensions including depth, azimuth and declination. Thus the search space for identifying an instance of an object is extremely large. Our approach is to use templates of actual responses from scans of known objects to model object categories. We intend to justify a method whereby Genetic Algorithms are used to improve the template libraries with respect to their classification characteristics. This chapter describes the application, key features of the Genetic Algorithms tested and the results achieved.
aiNet
Authors: Nunes de Castro Leandro , Von Zuben Fernando J.
Published: May 2011

This chapter shows that some of the basic aspects of the natural immune system discussed in the previous chapter can be used to propose a novel artificial immune network model with the main goals of clustering and filtering crude data sets described by high-dimensional samples. Our aim is not to reproduce with confidence any immune phenomenon, but demonstrate that immune concepts can be used as inspiration to develop novel computational tools for data analysis. As important results of our model, the network evolved will be capable of reducing redundancy and describing data structure, including their spatial distribution and cluster interrelations. Clustering is useful in several exploratory pattern analyses, grouping, decision-making and machine-learning tasks, including data mining, knowledge discovery, document retrieval, image segmentation and automatic pattern classification. The data clustering approach was implemented in association with hierarchical clustering and graphtheoretical techniques, and the network performance is illustrated using several benchmark problems. The computational complexity of the algorithm and a detailed sensitivity analysis of the user-defined parameters are presented. A trade-off among the proposed model for data analysis, connectionist models (artificial neural networks) and evolutionary algorithms is also discussed.
Parallel Data Mining
Authors: Taniar David , Rahayu J. Wenny
Published: May 2011

Data mining refers to a process on nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potential useful information (such as knowledge rules, constraints, regularities) from data in databases. With the availability of inexpensive storage and the progress in data capture technology, many organizations have created ultra-large databases of business and scientific data, and this trend is expected to grow. Since the databases to be mined are likely to be very large (measured in terabytes and even petabytes), there is a critical need to investigate methods for parallel data mining techniques. Without parallelism, it is generally difficult for a single processor system to provide reasonable response time. In this chapter, we present a comprehensive survey of parallelism techniques for data mining. Parallel data mining offers new complexity as it incorporates techniques from parallel databases and parallel programming. Challenges that remain open for future research will also be presented.
How to Train Multilayer Perceptrons Efficiently With Large Data Sets
Authors: Park Hyeyoung
Published: May 2011

Feed forward neural networks or multilayer perceptrons have been successfully applied to a number of difficult and diverse applications by using the gradient descent learning method known as the error backpropagation algorithm. However, it is known that the backpropagation method is extremely slow in many cases mainly due to plateaus. In data mining, the data set is usually large and the slow learning speed of neural networks is a critical defect. In this chapter, we present an efficient on-line learning method called adaptive natural gradient learning. It can solve the plateau problems, and can be successfully applied to the learning associated with large data sets. We compare the presented method with various popular learning algorithms with the aim of improving the learning speed and discuss briefly the merits and defects of each method so that one can get some guidance as to the choice of the proper method for a given application. In addition, we also give a number of technical tips, which can be easily implemented with low computational cost and can sometimes make a remarkable improvement in the learning speed.
Heuristics in Medical Data Mining
Authors: George Susan E.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a survey of medical data mining focusing upon the use of heuristic techniques. We observe that medical mining has some unique ethical issues because of the human arena in which the conclusions are outworked. The chapter proposes a forward looking responsibility for mining practitioners that includes evaluating and justifying data mining methods–a task especially salient when heuristic methods are used. We define heuristics broadly to include those methods that are applicable for large volumes of data, as well as those specifically directed to dealing with uncertainty, and those concentrated upon efficiency. We specifically consider characteristics of medical data, reviewing a range of mining applications and approaches. We conclude with some suggestions directed towards establishing a set of guidelines for heuristic methods in medicine.
Understanding Credit Card User's Behaviour
Authors: de Carvalho A. , Braga A. P. , Rezende S. O. , Martineli E. , Ludermir T.
Published: May 2011

In the last few years, a large number of companies are starting to realize the value of their databases. These databases, which usually cover transactions performed over several years, may lead to a better understanding of the customer’s profile, thus supporting the offer of new products or services. The treatment of these large databases surpasses the human ability to understand and efficiently deal with these data, creating the need for a new generation of tools and techniques to perform automatic and intelligent analyses of large databases. The extraction of useful knowledge from large databases is named knowledge discovery. Knowledge discovery is a very demanding task and requires the use of sophisticated techniques. The recent advances in hardware and software make possible the development of new computing tools to support such tasks. Knowledge discovery in databases comprises a sequence of stages. One of its main stages, the data mining process, provides efficient methods and tools to extract meaningful information from large databases. In this chapter, data mining methods are used to predict the behavior of credit card users. These methods are employed to extract meaningful knowledge from a credit card database using machine learning techniques. The performance of these techniques are compared by analyzing both their correct classification rates and the knowledge extracted in a linguistic representation (rule sets or decision trees). The use of a linguistic representation for expressing knowledge acquired by learning systems aims to improve the user understanding. Under this assumption, and to make sure that these systems will be accepted, several techniques have been developed by the artificial intelligence community, using both the symbolic and the connectionist approaches.
Reality vs. Plan
Authors: Gordon David , Skibo James E.
Published: May 2011

Part of efficient management is measuring actual performance against desired metrics. In turn, actual strategic outcomes can be measured against plan. The authors show that this is also true of organizations’ e-commerce performance versus planned performance. While most organizations with successful e-commerce tend to take the view “There’s no stopping us now!,” the authors explore the interesting relationship between what the organizations had originally intended versus what operations actually dictated and how those changes affected their sites’ performance. To add to the literature, the authors explore the ramifications of the results of a survey conducted among some of the leading organizations in today’s business and the analysis of several dot.com enterprises. Along the journey, the authors discovered changes in organizations’ “desired capability” occurred as the organizations encountered various challenges to their global e-commerce, such as currency fluctuation and logistical considerations involved with order fulfillment, from industrially powerful countries versus third world countries. The authors also explore various aspects of organizational change evidenced when organizations entered into e-commerce globally. The authors show that theoretical approaches quite often must change with the realities of business when organizations commence e-commerce operations.
SAFECO
Authors: Chatterjee Debabroto , Jessup Leonard M.
Published: May 2011

The Internet and World Wide Web present significant business opportunities and threats, particularly for business organizations that are knowledge-based and/or that offer primarily information-based services. For these types of firms, the Web offers opportunities that range from exchanging information with partner organizations, the delivery of existing services to customers, and the creation of new services. The potential threats include choosing the wrong strategies for adopting We7b technologies, poor implementation of Web technologies, entering late into the realm of electronic commerce and thus losing market share, or worse, ignoring the use of the Web altogether and potentially being replaced by more nimble rivals. The majority of large organizations in a variety of industries have slowly, cautiously begun deploying Web technologies. This is perhaps not surprising considering the implementation challenges and risks posed by this new technological innovation. It is not yet clear how large organizations, particularly those that are knowledge-based and provide primarily information-based services, should strategize about, adopt, and implement Web technologies. The purpose of this study is to understand how SAFECO, a large corporation in the insurance and financial services industry, is strategizing for and implementing technologies to exploit the Web. SAFECO was recently ranked as one of the leading innovative users of the Web technology in its industry. This further legitimizes the selection of the company as an appropriate case study site.
Design and Implementation of Multirate Digital Filters
Authors: Johansson Hakan , Wanhammar Lars
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we discuss techniques to design and implement multirate digital filters with low power consumption which also allow a reduction in the design effort, since the resulting circuits are highly modular and regular and can relatively easily be incorporated in the normal design flow of commercial tools. First we briefly review techniques that can be applied at various design levels, i.e., from algorithm level down to layout, to reduce the power consumption in CMOS implementations of both digital FIR and IIR filters and are useful in many other DSP algorithms. Second, we discuss the properties of lattice wave digital filters and various techniques to design efficient multirate digital filters for changing the sampling rate by a factor of two. Third, we discuss the design of multistage multirate digital FIR filter structures for arbitrary bandwidths. Finally, we provide some design examples.
Credit Scoring Using Supervised and Unsupervised Neural Networks
Authors: West David , Muchineuta Cornelius
Published: May 2011

Some of the concerns that plague developers of neural network decision support systems include: (a) How do I understand the underlying structure of the problem domain; (b) How can I discover unknown imperfections in the data which might detract from the generalization accuracy of the neural network model; and (c) What variables should I include to obtain the best generalization properties in the neural network model? In this paper we explore the combined use of unsupervised and supervised neural networks to address these concerns. We develop and test a credit-scoring application using a self-organizing map and a multilayered feedforward neural network. The final product is a neural network decision support system that facilitates subprime lending and is flexible and adaptive to the needs of e-commerce applications.