bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Building Social Relationships in a Virtual Community of Gamers
Authors: Mohd Yusof Shafiz Affendi
Published: May 2010

The explosive growth of the Internet has enabled virtual communities to engage in social activities such as meeting people, developing friendships and relationships, sharing experiences, telling personal stories, or just listening to jokes. Such online activities are developed across time and space with people from different walks of life, age groups, and cultural backgrounds. A few scholars have clearly defined virtual community as a social entity where people relate to one another by the use of a specific technology (Jones, 1995; Rheingold, 1993; Schuler, 1996) like computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies to foster social relationships (Wood & Smith, 2001). It is further supported by Stolterman, Agren, and Croon (1999) who refers to virtual community as a new social “life form” surfacing from the Internet and CMC. There are several types of virtual community such as the virtual community of relationship, the virtual community of place, the virtual community of memory, the virtual community of fantasy, the virtual community of mind/interest, and the virtual community of transaction (Bellah, 1985; Hagel & Armstrong, 1997; Kowch & Schwier, 1997). These types of virtual community all share a common concept, which is the existence of a group of people who are facilitated with various forms of CMCs. With the heightened use of CMCs, people begin to transit and replicate the same sense of belonging through meaningful relationships by creating a new form of social identity and social presence. As emphasized by Hiltz and Wellman (1997), people can come from many parts of the world to form “close-knit” relationships in a virtual community. The purpose of this article is to understand how online gamers as a virtual community build social relationships through their participation in online games. Empirically, several aspects in the context of virtual community are still not fully understood, such as: (1) What types of rules, norms, and values are grounded in virtual community? (2) How do people institutionalize their members in a virtual community? and (3) Why do they create social relationships in virtual environment? The identified gap thus explains why studies have produced inconsistent findings on the impacts of online game play (Williams, 2003), in which many studies in the past have only looked at aggression and addiction. A more detailed understanding of the social context of in-game interactions would help to improve our understanding of the impact of online games on players and vice versa. Therefore, this article will present a case study of a renowned online game, Ever Quest (EQ), with the aim of understanding how players establish and develop social relationships. In specific, the Institutional Theory was applied to examine the social relationships among the players, and a hermeneutic- interpretive method was used to analyze the data in order to address the following general research question, “How is the social world of EQ constituted in terms of building social relationships?”
Active Patient Role in Recording Health Data
Authors: Kern Josipa , Fister Kristina , Polasek Ozren
Published: May 2010

The healing process can be viewed as a partnership between doctors and patients, nurses and physicians or, more generally, a partnership of health professionals and health care users (Anonymous, 2008, Graham, 2007). A patient-centered approach that empowers patients to participate in decisions about their treatment and health care options asks for active participation of patients themselves, specifically, in health information gathering and exchange of this information with their health or medical records (Bachman, 2007; Stolyar, Lober, Drozd, & Sibley, 2005).
Improving Data Quality in Health Care
Authors: Kerr Karolyn , Norris Tony
Published: May 2010

The increasingly information intensive nature of health care demands a proactive and strategic approach to data quality to ensure the right information is available to the right person at the right time in the right format. The approach must also encompass the rights of the patient to have their health data protected and used in an ethical way. This article describes the principles to establish good practice and overcome practical barriers that define and control data quality in health data collections and the mechanisms and frameworks that can be developed to achieve and sustain quality. The experience of a national health data quality project in New Zealand is used to illustrate the issues.
Inventing the Future of E-Health
Authors: Medina-Garrido José Aurelio , Crisóstomo-Acevedo María José
Published: May 2010

E-health involves the use of information and communications technologies to improve health in general and the healthcare system in particular (Alvarez, 2002; Chau & Hu, 2004; Roger & Pendharkar, 2000). Healthcare, one of the largest industries in the world, suffers from some inefficiencies and inequities in both service provision and quality. Some of these problems are due to the poor management of the information flows (Kirsch, 2002). In this respect, there are business opportunities for e-health. But to understand what the future holds for e-health, we need to find a precise definition of the concept and identify the possible sources of business. This article is structured as follows. The second section, the background, defines the concept of e-health. The third section outlines some of the business opportunities in the area of e-health based on the communications platform that is the Internet, and discusses some practical guidelines for e-health businesses to create value. The fourth section discusses the low level of adoption of e-health at present, as well as the future trends, in which e-health will presumably grow. e-health is also expected to be used to reduce the disparities in the population in access to healthcare, and for the treatment of the chronically ill. The fifth section is dedicated to the final conclusions.
Social and Human Elements of Information Security
Authors: Carr Mahil
Published: May 2010

This chapter attempts to understand the human and social factors in information security by bringing together three different universes of discourse – philosophy, human behavior and cognitive science. When these elements are combined they unravel a new approach to the design, implementation and operation of secure information systems. A case study of the design of a technological solution to the problem of extension of banking services to remote rural regions is presented and elaborated to highlight human and social issues in information security. It identifies and examines the concept of the ‘Other’ in information security literature. The final objective is to prevent the ‘Other’ from emerging and damaging secure systems rather than introducing complex lock and key controls.
Engineering Mobile Group Decision Support
Authors: Kronsteiner Reinhard
Published: May 2010

This chapter is about mobile multimedia and its usage in group decisions. With respect to the complexity of mobile decision scenarios, this paper presents the foundation for engineering mobile group decision support systems. Mobile multimedia allows the adaptation of information technology to the increasing mobile work practice with location independent access to information resource. This spatial and temporal flexibility strongly affects group behaviour in decision scenarios. As a prerequisite for identifying the potential of mobile technology a set of indicators is identified. Using these indicators an exemplary decision process is presented and evaluated according potential for mobile support and mobile needs. Analysing the scenario leads to particular implementation requirements on interaction, spatial distribution, and temporal distribution to be respected in mobile group decision support systems.
Next Generation Mobile Multimedia
Authors: Fergus Paul
Published: May 2010

The number of consumer devices that are being equipped with networking capabilities is increasing rapidly. This is seen as a fundamental strategy within the consumer electronics domain where failure to provide such support may result in a considerable loss in market share. As end users become more comfortable with the idea of networking the devices they own, there will be a need to allow the heterogeneous devices they own to seamlessly work together irrespective of their capabilities or conventional usage scenarios. Addressing this challenge means that next generation mobile multimedia will be highly multidisciplinary where advances from many research domains will be included. In parallel, users will be empowered where they will not only be able to generate user content, but also interact with it. Content itself will become increasingly more influenced by the environment, where new technologies, such as sensor networks, will play a significant part. Social networks and immersive environments are commonplace, where users now choose to socialise within these environments. Many mobile multimedia solutions will capitalise on the benefits social networking technologies provide to help change the face of next generation mobile multimedia, where real-time interaction with content at anytime and anyplace will become standard. In this chapter we provide a discussion on the state-of-the-art research initiatives that are trying to address these challenges. A discussion is presented on some of the more recent background work and a view of what future mobile multimedia might look like. Throughout the discussion we present the challenges faced by many research communities and the likely trends that will emerge given such challenges.
Opportunities and Risks for Mobile Decision Support
Authors: Kronsteiner Reinhard , Thurnher Bettina
Published: May 2010

This chapter considers the mobility of persons while they are changing between different working environments and the influence of increasing mobility on strategic decision-making. The discrepancy of the concern of the decision and the dynamic of context information in mobile environments leads to a more sceptic use of mobile technology, in particular decision scenarios. The scope of this chapter is to discuss in which decision scenarios mobile technology support is advisable and on the other hand in which decision scenarios mobile technology support influences the thoughtfulness of a decision. This chapter introduces the “Mobile-Decision-Support Model (MDSM)” to categorise the efficiency and effectiveness of mobile tool support within disjunctive mobile scenarios.
Comparison of Video Coding Standards Used in Mobile Applications
Authors: Gvozden Goran , Grgic Mislav , Grgic Sonja , Gosta Miran
Published: May 2010

This chapter gives description and comparison of video coding standards currently used in bandwidth limited mobile communications emphasizing at the same time the importance of coding efficiency and robustness, particularly for video applications. Due to its exceptional efficiency and performance a number of mobile service operators recognized and embraced relatively new H.264/AVC compression method. Utilization of this efficient compression method in the bandwidth limited and distortion prone mobile environment enables and provides transport of high quality video on low data rates. In order to demonstrate these abilities a comparison of H.264/AVC relative to MPEG-4 SP and H.263 method is presented. Comparison is performed using objective video quality assessment methods accompanied with description of different issues related to video quality measurement and its implication on coding process. Finally, comparison showed and confirmed great efficiency and performance possibilities, which will make H.264/AVC the ubiquitous coding technique of multimedia world in time to come.
Routing Algorithms for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Harous Saad
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, we will introduce mobile ad hoc networks and issues related to routing data in such networks. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are multi-hop networks made up of mobile nodes cooperating together to maintain the network connectivity. These kinds of network are very useful in situations where a temporary network is needed, such as military area, disaster area, and so on. MANET routing protocols are divided into two categories: proactive (table driven routing) and reactive (on-demand routing) routing. In conventional routing algorithms, if information is to be sent between two nodes, then the shortest path connecting these two nodes is found and used. However this approach does not take into consideration the fact that these devices are battery-operated, so the energy consumed is very important. A number of energy aware algorithms will be presented and their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed in this chapter. Also we will present and discuss the different metrics considered when designing a power aware routing algorithm
Event-Condition-Action (ECA) Rules for Maintaining the Integrity Constraints of Mobile Databases
Authors: Ibrahim Hamidah
Published: May 2010

An important problem for a database system is to guarantee database consistency. Difficulty arises in devising an efficient algorithm for checking database integrity against updates and for maintaining the consistency of the database, which indisputably desires great attention. However, it is intricate to accomplish particularly in a distributed and mobile environment due to the nature and characteristics of these environments. This chapter presents a model for maintaining the consistency of mobile databases. A rule-based mechanism based on the Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules is proposed wherein the process of constraint maintenance will trigger the appropriate rule depending on the location (site) where the update is executed. In mobile databases, violation of integrity constraints can occur (detect) at three different levels (locations), namely: mobile host, local base station and remote base station. We believe that the proposed mechanism will reduce the amount of data accessed in addition to the amount of data transferred across the network during the process of maintaining the consistency of the mobile databases. Besides, it is without a doubt that it will speed up the checking process.
A Practical Perspective on Building Identification from Low-Resolution Mobile Images
Authors: Mai Wanji , Tweed Chris , Hung Peter , McLoone Seán , Farrell Ronan
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, the idea of identification of outdoor buildings using mobile devices is presented. The prototype system involves integration of various hardware devices and a building identification application using sensor fusion. The goal is to allow real-time interaction with clients and provide ‘location-based’ information about the building after identification. Clients, such as a PDA, can wirelessly connect to a server that handles building identification requests. It consists of a GIS server, an application for communication with clients, an image database used to identify the building and a ‘location-based’ image processing application. The data collected include a captured image of the object concerned as well as the corresponding GPS positioning and orientation data. Several different image processing techniques are employed to study the different features of an image, including the colour structure, roof shape as well as building textures. Promising experimental results are presented showing both the individual feature matching and overall matching performance.
Context-Awareness in Mobile Tourist Guides
Authors: Schwinger Wieland , Grün Christoph , Pröll Birgit , Retschitzegger Werner
Published: May 2010

Today’s tourists expect to get personalized access to tourism information at anytime, from anywhere with any media. Mobile tourist guides provide the user with such a ubiquitous access. The prerequisite for this is the notion of customization, requiring awareness of the applications context together with appropriate adaptation mechanisms. Currently, there is a proliferation of mobile tourist guides, proposing an unmanageable number of diverse functionalities. This chapter sheds light on those approaches by identifying their strengths and weaknesses, thus providing the basis for next-generation mobile tourist guides. For this, an evaluation framework is used comprising detailed criteria for the two orthogonal dimensions of context and adaptation.
Design and Implementation of a Mobile and Portable Lifelog Media System
Authors: Prananto Baud Haryo
Published: May 2010

Lifelog media system stores and manages users’ everyday experiences in the form of multimedia data. To build such a system, we require an integrated framework for capturing the experiences to multimedia data, storing and managing those data, and also presenting the data to the user in a user-friendly way. Due to the mobility of the user, we built a mobile framework that includes wearable devices that enable the user to capture experiences easily, and a Web-based management system that can be presented anytime and anywhere using Web interface. In this chapter, we provide solutions for some issues that emerge in this system (such as mobility and user friendliness), mostly on the database performance.
Speech Synthesis and Recognition Based on Mobile Computing Application
Authors: Moreira Alves Diego
Published: May 2010

The main objective of this chapter is to present a solution to the development of speech synthesis and speech recognition systems through mobile computing application. A system model that captures the audio data from a mobile device for further recognition is presented. This way, the mobile device is capable of receiving a word in plain text format and synthesizing it. These two processes are executed over a voice recognition and synthesis server, such as a typical client-server model. A simple mobile application example for learning and practicing the English language is used as a test environment.
A Taxonomy of Database Operations on Mobile Devices
Authors: Ying Lim Say
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, we present an extensive study of database operations on mobile devices which provides an understanding and direction for processing data locally on mobile devices. Generally, it is not efficient to download everything from the remote databases and display on a small screen. Also in a mobile environment, where users move when issuing queries to the servers, location has become a crucial aspect. Our taxonomy of database operations on mobile devices mainly consists of on-mobile join operations and on-mobile location dependent operations. For the on-mobile join operation, we include pre- and post-processing whereas for on-mobile location dependent operations, we focus on set operations arise from location-dependent queries.
Spatial Data on the Move
Authors: Hyong Tok Wee , Bressan Stéphane , Kalnis Panagiotis , Zheng Baihua
Published: May 2010

The pervasiveness of mobile computing devices and wide-availability of wireless networking infrastructure have empowered users with applications that provides location-based services as well as the ability to pose queries to remote servers. This necessitates the need for adaptive, robust, and efficient techniques for processing the queries. In this chapter, we identify the issues and challenges of processing spatial data on the move. Next, we present insights on state-of-art spatial query processing techniques used in these dynamic, mobile environments. We conclude with several potential open research problems in this exciting area.
Context Awareness for Pervasive Assistive Environment
Authors: Ali Feki Mohamed
Published: May 2010

This chapter will describe our experience concerning a model-based method for environment design in the field of smart homes dedicated to people with disabilities. An overview of related and similar works and domains will be presented in regards to our approach: adaptive user interface according to environment impact. This approach introduces two constraints in a context aware environment: the control of different types of assistive devices (environmental control system) and the presence of the user with disabilities (user profile). We have designed a service-oriented approach to make it easier the management of services life cycle, and we are designing a semantic specification language based on XML to allow dynamic generation of user interface and environment representation. With the new design of context representation, context framework, and context rule specification, we will demonstrate how changes in contexts adapts supervisor task model which in turn configure the whole system. This chapter is dedicated to researchers having strong interest in developing context aware applications based on existing framework. The application to assistive technology for dependant people is the most suitable since the demand of such pervasive environment is clearly identified.
Distribution Patterns for Mobile Internet Applications
Authors: Wagner Roland , Gruber Franz , Hartmann Werner
Published: May 2010

After the enormous success of the internet and mobile networks, the next upcoming boost for information technology will be the combination of both. But developing applications for this domain is challenging, because first, most mobile devices provide only small memory and processor footprints, prohibiting resource intensive code at client side and second, mobile networks offer only limited bandwidth, and the probability to connection losses is relatively high compared to wired networks. Selecting the appropriate software architecture in terms of distributing the functionality of the system between server and client device is crucial. Application distribution patterns, known from conventional system development, are analysed for their applicability for the mobile environment. After the more abstract analysis of the patterns, the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) which is part of the current specification of 3G mobile networks is introduced and its support for different application distribution patterns is examined.
Mobile Marketing Management
Authors: Pousttchi Key , Wiedemann Dietmar G.
Published: May 2010

Mobile marketing is a new form of marketing communication using mobile communication techniques to promote goods, services, and ideas. The marketing instrument provides anytime and anywhere interaction, location and situation dependency, targeted addressing of consumers, and inherent measurement of campaign effectiveness. Based on case study research and empirical studies this chapter examines marketing objectives, types and implementation techniques of mobile marketing. Moreover two instruments for mobile marketing are provided: The campaign type implementation toolbox supports the development of campaigns on a tactical level and the campaign type selection toolbox enables a purposive planning of mobile marketing campaigns on a strategic level.
Segmentation Challenges Posed by ‘Transnationals' in Mobile Marketing
Authors: Sirkeci Ibrahim , Mannix Richard
Published: May 2010

Mobile technologies have posed new challenges for marketers as well as opportunities in an increasingly global market with high human mobility within and across borders. To understand and address customer needs more effectively, this chapter proposes to add new variables to market segmentations formula such as change of residence, movement and commuting distance/hours. A discussion of ‘mobile nationals’, and ‘transnationals’, as segments, is undertaken. The transnationals segment includes immigrants, refugees, tourists as well as businesspeople and professionals whose careers span into several countries. These groups create multiple reference points, which are likely to determine their characteristics and behaviour. This is an emerging and promising customer segment particularly for mobile marketing and mobile services. To explore the viability of such a segment, we have made use of several existing theoretical frameworks and concepts of segmentation. Future research should focus on the identification of transnational and national mobile segments while also developing and fine tuning the new variables –movement, change of residence and commuting for segmentation theory.
Supporting Marketing Practices
Authors: NASIR Süphan
Published: May 2010

The concept of mobile communication has been rapidly changing all over the world and the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) business has been evolving from voice services to value added services (VAS). The rapid growth in mobile technology enables Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide a wide range of VAS to their corporate customers and these VAS change and transform companies’ way of doing business. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the corporate VAS of a MNO, which has gained global acceptance and recognition, as a case study in order to understand how the mobile communication changes the companies’ way of doing business. The key supporting mobile technologies, services and solutions, which are provided by the case company to its corporate customers, are reviewed in order to comprehend the mobile technologies, practices, and devices that support mobile business (m-business) and mobile marketing (m-marketing) applications.
Mobile Customer Acquisition in the Swiss Health Care Industry
Authors: Nohlen Niklas , Smolnik Stefan , Riempp Gerold
Published: May 2010

Applications based on mobile technologies are predicted to achieve increasing distribution as well as high potential for business processes especially with regard to customer interfaces. This chapter is going to analyze and present perspectives and approaches for initiation efforts by means of mobile technologies of Switzerland’s health care industry. On the one hand, acceptance and success factors of such mobile applications are analyzed by means of empirical studies involving customers and companies, on the other hand a prototype of mobile processes for initiation efforts is introduced, which was developed in the course of a case study.
Opportunistic Networks as an Enabling Technology for Mobile Word-of-Mouth Advertising
Authors: Heinemann Andreas , Straub Tobias
Published: May 2010

The growing share of people using mobile devices, that support wireless peer-to-peer interaction, offers the opportunity to build a ubiquitous infrastructure for electronic word-of-mouth messaging and advertising. This chapter introduces Opportunistic Networks as a layer for one-hop communication that opens up electronic word-of-mouth messaging for mobile devices. The reader will learn about adPASS (short for advertisement passing), a system build on top of Opportunistic Networks for digital advertisement distribution stimulated by an anonymous and tamper-resistant bonus point model. A simulation based on empirical movement patterns indicates the feasibility of our approach. This chapter concludes with a summary and provides an outlook on further research paths starting from our findings.
Theories behind Mobile Marketing Research
Authors: Vatanparast Ramin
Published: May 2010

The future of mobile communication is expected to rely on mobile services and revenue generated through mobile marketing. Marketing activities supported by mobile devices allow companies to directly communicate with their consumers without location or time barriers. It is becoming vital for today’s marketers to understand the processes behind the factors affecting consumers’ intention to use and adopt mobile marketing. One can often argue that the mobile marketing adoption is difficult to understand due to a lack of relevant research. However, much research has already been conducted on the adoption of mobile services and technology acceptance that likely can support mobile marketing research. Thus it is essential for mobile marketing researchers to get a thorough understanding of the theory behind mobile service adoption and technology acceptance. Theories in this area have been developed gradually and built up on each other. This chapter covers some of the theories and related models and shows how those could be used in mobile services and mobile marketing research.
In Search of Successful Mobile Advertising
Authors: Barnes Stuart J. , Scornavacca Eusebio , McKenzie Jonathon , Carroll Amy
Published: May 2010

The deployment of SMS-based marketing campaigns has been noted as a very successful mean of reaching consumers. With this mind, this chapter reports on three different studies that we have conducted aimed at better understanding what makes SMS marketing campaigns successful. The studies were conducted in the past four years and they explore business as well as consumer perspectives: (i) a consumer scenario perspective, which examines the importance of three factors in SMS advertising acceptance; (ii) a consumer decision perspective, which analyses the opt-in decision for an SMS campaign; and (iii) a business, perspective examining managers’ perceptions of the critical success factors in advertising campaigns. The paper rounds off with conclusions and recommendation for future research and practice in the area of mobile advertising.
The Impact of Gender and Age on Consumer Responsiveness to Permission-Based Mobile Advertising
Authors: Karjaluoto Heikki , Lehto Heikki , Leppäniemi Matti
Published: May 2010

This chapter investigates the impact of gender and age on mobile marketing responsiveness among regular customers of Finnish night club chain. The study develops sixteen research propositions which are tested with a sample of 8578 members of the company’s permission- based, opt-in mobile advertising list . The results contribute to mobile marketing and technology acceptance literature in various ways. First, the authors find support for four out of eight gender related propositions. Second, five out of the eight age-related hypotheses are supported. The results further show that among opt-in customers, gender and age explain various antecedents of intention to engage in mobile marketing. The study provides several theoretical and managerial contributions and outlines vital avenues for further investigation in the field.
Mobile DM Coupon Promotion in Japan
Authors: Kondo Fumiyo N. , Uwadaira Yasuhiro , Nakahara Mariko , Akter Shahriar
Published: May 2010

This chapter investigates the changes in customers’ responses to mobile direct mail (DM) coupons on the shop visit probability (SVP) of a beauty parlor. Two experiments were carried out to examine the promotional effects of mobile DM coupons. The first experiment, conducted in 2004, compared mobile DM coupons with postcard DM coupons. The mobile DM coupons were found to have no effect on SVP, although positive effects were observed for postcard DM coupons. The second experiment, conducted in 2005 with three types of mobile DM coupons, compared the responses of new customers with those of repeat customers. The results varied according to the settings but demonstrated stability in the same settings. For repeat customers, mail with shop’s telephone number for reservation had positive effects on SVP; however, ordinary mail had no effect, while hyperlink mail had negative effects. For new customers, all three types of mobile DM coupons exhibited positive effects on SVP.
An Introduction to Women's Health and Informatics
Authors: Stone Peter
Published: May 2010

Improving women’s health is a vital task for the world. The consequences of obstetric and gynecological disease are serious both for the women involved, their families, and communities. This introductory chapter introduces the reader to the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The continuum of pregnancy from conception to childbirth, and the postnatal period are discussed. There is coverage of the pathology that can arise within the female reproductive tract. Data collection and use has a long history in this area. In order to improve care, evidence-based medicine has been strongly emphasized and women’s health has often led the way. Audit of practice, governance, and quality reviews are all areas where electronic information systems are assisting with improvements. Increasing use of e-health technologies are a major influence on the improvement.
Women's Health Informatics
Authors: Fade Premila
Published: May 2010

Principlism (derived from common sense morality) is the most common theory used within the healthcare sphere. The elements of this theory are explored and discussed in context. A theoretical woman presenting in pregnancy is used to identify issues which can arise and explore the potential conflicts. In the second half of the chapter, health informatics and the law are discussed. Issues such as consent, confidentiality, privacy, and human rights are discussed in general. Legislation in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are discussed in detail.
The Electronic Health Record to Support Women's Health
Authors: Parry Emma
Published: May 2010

The seamless electronic health record is often hailed as the holy grail of health informatics. What is an electronic health record? This question is answered and consideration is given to the advantages and disadvantages of an electronic health record. The place of the electronic health record at the centre of a clinical information system is discussed. In expanding on the advantages several areas are covered including: analysis of data, accessibility and availability, and access control. Middleware technology and its place are discussed. Requirements for implementing a system and some of the issues that can arise in the field of women’s health are elucidated. Finally, in this exciting and fast moving field, future research is discussed.
Building Knowledge in Maternal and Infant Care
Authors: Massey Kiran , Morris Tara , Liston Robert M.
Published: May 2010

Our ultimate goal as obstetric and neonatal care providers is to optimize care for mothers and their babies. As such, we need to identify practices that are associated with good outcomes. Although the randomized controlled trial is the gold standard for establishing the benefits of interventions, trials are very expensive and must be reserved for the most important of clinical questions. As an alternative, continuous quality improvement involves iterative cycles of practice change and audit of ongoing clinical care. An obvious prerequisite to this is ongoing data collection about interventions and outcomes, as well as demographics, pregnancy characteristics, and neonatal care that may affect the intervention- outcome relationship. In Canada (as in some other developed countries), much of the country is covered by regional reproductive care databases. These collect information on maternal demographics, pregnancy characteristics, labour and delivery, and basic information on maternal and perinatal outcomes. The primary objective of these databases is to monitor geographical trends and disparities in health outcomes. As such, there is little information about interventions, especially outside the period of labour and delivery. Also, there is no standardization of definitions, and efforts to produce a “minimal dataset” have not yet yielded agreement, even after many years of work. A more comprehensive system is required. Moving in this direction would serve many purposes: efficiency, economy in the setting of shrinking budgets, standardization of definitions, collaboration, and creation of stable background data collection onto which researchers could “clip” extra data required for specific studies. These activities would lay the foundation for the electronic health record, which cannot build its foundation on the “Tower of Babel” that is our current definitional structure in women’s health and obstetrics, in particular. Continuous quality improvement efforts and interaction with regional reproductive care programmes will facilitate translation and transfer of knowledge to care-givers and patients. These efforts raise concerns about privacy and security which remain major barriers to the EHR. However, security must be balanced with the need for health information.
Women's Health and Health Informatics
Authors: Abuidhail Jamila
Published: May 2010

Information and communication technologies include computers, telecommunication, digital networks, and television. Using informatics in healthcare systems can improve the quality of healthcare through the effective use of information systems. Nursing Informatics (NI) is a component of health informatics, and it has become a widely used tool in the nursing profession. Information technology has begun to be employed in the field of women’s health. The perinatal period is one of the topics related to women’s health, as well as to that of their newborn infants. Information technology in patients’ health education process empowered patients, and enhanced their self-management skills. However, applications of health informatics in perinatal care for women and their newborn infants have not been reported widely in research studies and projects. Thus, there is a gap of knowledge related to this topic on the Internet.
eHealth Systems, Their Use and Visions for the Future
Authors: Nykänen Pirkko
Published: May 2010

eHealth refers to use of information and communication technologies to improve or enable health and healthcare. eHealth broadens the scope of health care delivery, citizens are in the center of services and services are offered by information systems often via the Internet. In this chapter eHealth systems are classified on the basis of their use and their functionality and the use is discussed from the viewpoints of citizens and health professionals. Citizens are increasingly using Internet and eHealth systems to search for medicine or health related information, and they become better informed and may take more responsibility of their own health. Health professionals are more reluctant to use the Internet and eHealth systems in physician-patient communication due to power and responsibility problems of decisions. In the future the socio-technical nature of eHealth should be considered and future systems developed for real use and user environment with user acceptable technology.
Increasing Capital Revenue in Social Networking Communities
Authors: Bishop Jonathan
Published: May 2010

The rise of online communities in Internet environments has set in motion an unprecedented shift in power from vendors of goods and services to the customers who buy them, with those vendors who understand this transfer of power and choose to capitalize on it by organizing online communities and being richly rewarded with both peerless customer loyalty and impressive economic returns. A type of online community, the virtual world, could radically alter the way people work, learn, grow consume, and entertain. Understanding the exchange of social and economic capital in online communities could involve looking at what causes actors to spend their resources on improving someone else’s reputation. Actors’ reputations may affect others’ willingness to trade with them or give them gifts. Investigating online communities reveals a large number of different characters and associated avatars. When an actor looks at another’s avatar they will evaluate them and make decisions that are crucial to creating interaction between customers and vendors in virtual worlds based on the exchange of goods and services. This chapter utilizes the ecological cognition framework to understand transactions, characters and avatars in virtual worlds and investigates the exchange of capital in a bulletin board and virtual. The chapter finds strong evidence for the existence of characters and stereotypes based on the ecological cognition framework and empirical evidence that actors using avatars with antisocial connotations are more likely to have a lower return on investment and be rated less positively than those with more sophisticated appearing avatars.
Teens and Social Networking Services
Authors: Mori Maryann
Published: May 2010

This chapter provides an overview of the ways teens interact with social networking services. It acknowledges that teens are active users of social networking sites, and the implications of this usage affect and/or cross social, moral, educational and political lines. By reviewing current trends and statistics from various authors and sources, this chapter provides background information to understanding the growth and importance of online social networking among the Internet generation. Topics include demographics, ramifications on social behavior, adults’ concerns, policies designed to restrict teens’ Internet access, educational benefits and future directions of teens’ use of social networking services. Realizing the importance and influence of online social networks among teens should provide readers with a better understanding of how these sites can not only be used for educational and marketing purposes, but also be integrated within work environments.
Social and Distributed Cognition in Collaborative Learning Contexts
Authors: Mok Jeffrey
Published: May 2010

Technological artifacts such as computers and mobile electronic devices have dramatically increased our learning interactions with machines. Coupled with the increasingly different forms of collaborative learning situations, our contemporary learning environments have become more complex and interconnected in today’s information age. How do we understand the learning and collaborative processes in such environments? How do members receive, analyze, synthesize, and propagate information in crowded systems? How do we investigate the collaborative processes in an increasingly sophisticated learning environment? What is collaboration in the current technological age? This chapter, using the conceptual framework of distributed and social cognition, will seek to answer these questions. It will describe the current perspectives on social and distributed cognition in the context of learning, and examine how these theories can inform the processes of collaborative learning with computers. The chapter will conclude with implications to our learning environments today.
Genetic Code
Authors: Petoukhov Sergey , He Matthew
Published: May 2010

This chapter is devoted to symmetrical analysis for genetic code systems. The genetic coding possesses the noise-immunity. Mathematical theories of the noise-immunity coding and discrete signals processing are based on matrix methods of representation and analysis of information. These matrix methods, which are connected closely with relations of symmetry, are borrowed for a matrix analysis of ensembles of molecular elements of the genetic code. This chapter describes a uniform representation of ensembles of genetic multiplets in the form of matrices of a cumulative Kronecker family. The analysis of molecular peculiarities of the system of nitrogenous bases reveals the first significant relations of symmetry in these genetic matrices. It permits to introduce a natural numbering the multiplets in each of the genetic matrices and to give the basis for further analysis of genetic structures. The connection of the numerated genetic matrices with famous matrices of dyadic shifts is demonstrated.
Biological Evolution of Dialects of the Genetic Code
Authors: Petoukhov Sergey , He Matthew
Published: May 2010

This chapter demonstrates results of a comparative investigation of characteristics of degeneracy of all known dialects of the genetic code. This investigation is conducted on the basis of the results of symmetrological analysis, which were described in Chapter 2, about the division of the set of the 20 amino acids into the two canonical subsets: the subset of the 8 high-degeneracy acids and the subset of the 12 low-degeneracy acids. The existence of numerical and structural invariants in the set of these dialects is shown. The derived results from the comparative investigation permit one to formulate some phenomenological rules of evolution of these dialects. These numeric invariants and parameters of code degeneracy draw attention to the formal connection of this evolution with famous facts of chrono-biology and chrono-medicine. The chronocyclic conception of the functioning of molecular-genetic systems is proposed on this basis. The biophysical basis of this conception provides connection to the genetic code structures with mechanisms of photosynthesis which produce living substance by means of utilization of solar energy. And the solar energy comes cyclically on the surface of the Earth. The revealed numeric invariants of evolution of the genetic code give new approaches to the fundamental question, why do 20 amino acids exist? We will demonstrate new patterns of the genetic code systems.
Numeric Genomatrices of Hydrogen Bonds, the Golden Section, Musical Harmony, and Aesthetic Feelings
Authors: Petoukhov Sergey , He Matthew
Published: May 2010

This chapter is devoted to a consideration of the Kronecker family of the genetic matrices, but in the new numerical form of their presentation. This numeric presentation gives opportunities to investigate ensembles of parameters of the genetic code by means of system analysis including matrix and symmetric methods. In this way, new knowledge is obtained about hidden regularities of element ensembles of the genetic code and about connections of these ensembles with famous mathematical objects and theories from other branches of science. First of all, this chapter demonstrates the connection of moleculargenetic system with the golden section and principles of musical harmony.
The Genetic Code, Hadamard Matrices, Noise Immunity, and Quantum Computers
Authors: Petoukhov Sergey , He Matthew
Published: May 2010

This chapter continues an analysis of the degeneracy of the vertebrate mitochondrial genetic code in the matrix form of its presentation, which possesses the symmetrical black-and-white mosaic. Taking into account a symmetry breakdown in molecular compositions of the four letters of the genetic alphabet, the connection of this matrix form of the genetic code with a Hadamard (8x8)-matrix is discovered. Hadamard matrices are one of the most famous and the most important kinds of matrices in the theory of discrete signals processing and in spectral analysis. The special U-algorithm of transformation of the symbolic genetic matrix [C A; U G](3) into the appropriate Hadamard matrix is demonstrated. This algorithm is based on the molecular parameters of the letters A, C, G, U/T of the genetic alphabet. In addition, the analogical relations is shown between Hadamard matrices and other symmetrical forms of genetic matrices, which are produced from the symmetrical genomatrix [C A; U G](3) by permutations of positions inside triplets. Many new questions arise due to the described fact of the connection of the genetic matrices with Hadamard matrices. Some of them are discussed here, including questions about an importance of amino-group NH2 in molecular-genetic systems, and about possible relations with the theory of quantum computers, where Hadamard gates are utilized. A new possible answer is proposed to the fundamental question concerning reasons for the existence of four letters in the genetic alphabet. Some thoughts about cyclic codes and a principle of molecular economy in genetic informatics are presented as well.