bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Making the Case for Critical Realism
Authors: Dobson Phillip , Myles John , Jackson Paul
Published: February 2011

This article seeks to address the dearth of practical examples of research in the area by proposing that critical realism be adopted as the underlying research philosophy for enterprise systems evaluation. We address some of the implications of adopting such an approach by discussing the evaluation and implementation of a number of automated performance measurement systems (APMS). Such systems are a recent evolution within the context of enterprise information systems. They collect operational data from integrated systems to generate values for key performance indicators, which are delivered directly to senior management. The creation and delivery of these data are fully automated, precluding manual intervention by middle or line management. Whilst these systems appear to be a logical progression in the exploitation of the available rich, real-time data, the statistics for APMS projects are disappointing. An understanding of the reasons is elusive and little researched. We describe how critical realism can provide a useful “underlabourer” for such research, by “clearing the ground a little ... removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way of knowledge” (Locke, 1894, p. 14). The implications of such an underlabouring role are investigated. Whilst the research is still underway, the article indicates how a critical realist foundation is assisting the research process.
Lack of Skill Risks to Organizational Technology Learning and Software Project Performance
Authors: Jiang James , Klein Gary , Beck Phil , Wang Eric T.G.
Published: February 2011

To improve the performance of software projects, a number of practices are encouraged that serve to control certain risks in the development process, including a lack of essential skills and knowledge related to the application domain and system development process. A potential mediating variable between the lack of skill risk and project performance is the ability of an organization to acquire the essential domain knowledge and technology skills through learning, specifically organizational technology learning. However, the same lack of knowledge that hinders good project performance may also inhibit learning. This study examines the relationship between information system personnel skills and domain knowledge, organizational technology learning, and software project performance with a sample of professional software developers. Indications are that the relationship between information systems (IS) personnel skills and project performance is partially mediated by organizational technology learning.
The Diffusion Of Customer-Related IT Among Large And Mid-Sized Companies
Authors: Dardan Shana L. , Kumar Ram L. , Stylianou Antonis C.
Published: February 2011

This study develops a diffusion model of customer-related IT (CRIT) based on stock market announcements of investments in those technologies. Customer-related IT investments are defined in this work as information technology investments made with the intention of improving or enhancing the customer experience. The diffusion model developed in our study is based on data for the companies of the S&P 500 and S&P MidCap 400 for the years of 1996–2001. We find empirical support for a sigmoid diffusion model. Further, we find that both the size and industry of the company affect the path of CRIT diffusion. Another contribution of this study is to illustrate how data collection techniques typically used for financial event studies can be used to study information technology diffusion. Finally, the data collected for this study can serve as a Bayesian prior for future diffusion forecasting studies of CRIT.
The Post-Offshoring IS Organization
Authors: King William R.
Published: February 2011

In the age in which many traditional IS functions will be taken over by offshore vendors or otherwise outsourced, attention needs to be paid to those functions that will increase in importance and/or need to be developed by IS departments if they are to be effective in this new environment. This article suggests a framework that may be judgmentally applied to IS activities in order to determine if they should be considered for offshoring/outsourcing. The results of applying the framework will be unique to each firm that uses it. However, in using that approach in more than 25 firms, the author has found that most firms will wish to retain a number of functions in-house. Fourteen such activities are discussed in three broad categories: “activities related to external relations,” “activities related to the development, customization, and implementation of systems” and “business and IS strategic activities.”
Hybrid Offshoring
Authors: Denny Nathan , Mani Shivram , Nadella Ravi Sheshu , Swaminathan Manish , Samdal Jamie
Published: February 2011

Inspired by round-the-clock manufacturing, the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory endeavors to transform the production of software and other intangibles into a process of continuous development. While the concept of offshore software development is well established, few enterprises are currently able to develop the same code artifacts around the clock. We discuss the benefits of applying the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory to software development. We also present a representative scenario highlighting the problems of asynchronous communication in current offshore software development practices. Further, we introduce the notion of composite persona as a potential collaboration model within the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory and explain its ability to mitigate problems arising from communicating across cultures, languages, and time zones. Finally, we present a suite of new collaboration tools and techniques that are being developed specifically for use by composite personae in the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory.
An Empirical Investigation of Stress Factors in Information Technology Professionals
Authors: Raghavan Vijay V. , Sakaguchi Toru , Mahaney Robert C.
Published: February 2011

This study explores whether organizations can employ job design strategies to relieve organizational stress for information technology (IT) professionals. The effect of flexible work schedule, employee support and training, and telecommuting as potential coping resources to relieve stress were studied. Perceived workload, role ambiguity, work facilitation, and decision latitude were drawn from previous studies as potential stressors of IT professionals. Perceived stress was measured by two commonly used measures: work exhaustion and depressed mood. The results suggest that removing role ambiguity and improving work-facilitation ease work-related stress. Allowing employees to have flexible work schedules was also found to ease their perceptions of workload. Employee support and training strategies were found to influence decision latitude and role ambiguity. Telecommuting did not have any effect on the stressors. Results also indicate that the association between work exhaustion and depressed mood was stronger for males than females.
Exploratory Study on Effective Control Structure in Global Business Process Sourcing
Authors: Kim Gyeung-min , Kim Saem-Yi Kim
Published: February 2011

In an IT-intensive global business process sourcing (global BPS) project, the structure chosen to control knowledge transfer is critical. The objective of this study is to explore the effective control structure for knowledge transfer in IT-intensive global BPS project. The research methods used in this study are a case study and survey. First, a generic framework on the control structure for knowledge transfer is derived from extant literature. This framework is applied to a case analysis of a service provider in Mauritius. As a result of the case analysis, a model for control structure facilitating knowledge transfer in global BPS is derived. The model includes a social control mechanism, communication mechanism, project control mechanism as independent variables, and governance mechanism as a moderator variable. The degree of knowledge transfer and success of global BPS are used as dependent variables. The propositions describing the relationships between the variables are formulated. A total of 19 survey items were generated for these variables. As results of the survey, the model is revised and a set of more refined propositions are generated in the conclusion. Both service providers and clients can benefit from this study by focusing on control mechanisms that affect the knowledge transfer and BPS success.
Contributing Knowledge to Knowledge Repositories
Authors: Subramanian Annapoornima M. , Soh Pek-Hooi
Published: February 2011

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) such as electronic knowledge repositories (EKR) have brought substantial changes to the way organizations leverage their knowledge resources. Despite the importance of KMS, organizations are faced with a challenge to realize the benefits of KMS. One challenging issue that has not been extensively investigated by prior KMS studies is the factors that drive employees’ usage of KMS and their willingness to contribute knowledge. This chapter posits that the drivers of KMS usage can be defined by two facets: (1) the inducement mechanism that motivates the employees to contribute knowledge and (2) the opportunity mechanism that facilitates their knowledge contribution. To examine the determinants of KMS usage, we propose a multi-dimensional model that forms three antecedents of inducement – rewards, power, and centrality – and three antecedents of opportunity – ease in using EKR, organizational structure and top management support. The model is tested using 180 survey responses collected from a software company. The analysis demonstrates that KMS usage is jointly determined by both the inducement and opportunity mechanisms.
Visible IT in Credit Unions
Authors: Nelson H. James
Published: February 2011

Research indicates that rapidly evolving technology and markets do not provide a first mover strategic advantage but favor the second mover. This paper introduces a third variable: hype. In a time of rapid technology and market evolution, hype overrides the expected results and gives the first mover a strategic advantage. This study examines a homogeneous set of medium-sized information-dependent and information-intensive organizations as they implement visible information technology in two eras: during a time of intense hype and during a more normal time where technology has become commonplace. One hundred matched triples of credit unions were examined as they chose to remain offline, implement an informational website, or implement a transactional website during the highly hyped Internet expansion time of 1998 through 2002. One hundred matched pairs of credit unions were then examined during the more normal time from 2003 through 2007. Results indicate that credit unions that embraced the hyped technology gained significant strategic advantage. Second-moving credit unions that waited for the more mature technology survived, whereas the credit unions that did not adopt the technology were at a significant strategic disadvantage.
Study on Chinese Low Carbon Economic Model
Authors: Li Huifeng , Wang Xiaofang
Published: February 2011

Global warming, which is caused by over consumption of fossil energy during economic development in human society, threatens global ecological balance, tampers social and economic development, imperils energy security, ecological safety, water and food safety, and endangers the entire human race. Low carbon economy is a new economic development model based on low energy consumption, low pollution, and low-emission-based. This paper analyzes the Status quo and Limits of the Chinese Low Carbon Economy, making deep research on Design and Implementation Strategy of Chinese Low Carbon Economic model.
A Comparative Study of Metaheuristic Methods for Transmission Network Expansion Planning
Authors: Verma Ashu R. , Bijwe P. K. , Panigrahi B.
Published: February 2011

Transmission network expansion planning is a very complex and computationally demanding problem due to the discrete nature of the optimization variables. This complexity has increased even more in a restructured deregulated environment. In this regard, there is a need for development of more rigorous optimization techniques. This paper presents a comparative analysis of three metaheuristic algorithms known as Bacteria foraging (BF), Genetic algorithm (GA), and Particle swarm optimization (PSO) for transmission network expansion planning with and without security constraints. The DC power flow based model is used for analysis and results for IEEE 24 bus system are obtained with the above three metaheuristic drawing a comparison of their performance characteristic.
Supercritical Pitchfork Bifurcation in Implicit Regression Modeling
Authors: Lipovetsky Stan
Published: February 2011

Chaotic systems have been widely studied for description and explanation of various observed phenomena. The problem of statistical modeling for messy data can be attempted using the so called Supercritical Pitchfork Bifurcation (SPB) approach. This work considers the possibility of applying SPB technique to regression modeling of the implicit functions. Theoretical and practical advantages of SPB regression are discussed with an example from marketing research data on advertising in the car industry. Results are very promising, which can help in modeling, analysis, interpretation, and lead to understanding of the real world data.
Algorithms and Computations in BL-Algebras
Authors: Lele Celestin
Published: February 2011

In this paper, the authors study the notion of n-fold implicative and fuzzy n-fold implicative filters, which correspond to various sets of provable formulaes, in BL-algebras. Several characterizations of fuzzy n-fold implicative filters are given and the authors analyse some relationships with various n-fold and fuzzy n-fold filters in BL-algebras, while constructing some algorithms for studying the foldness of filters in BL-algebras. The authors describe the relation between fuzzy n-fold implicative filters and fuzzy (n+1)-fold implicative filters and establish the extension property for fuzzy n-fold implicative filters in BL-algebras.
Stochastic Learning for SAT- Encoded Graph Coloring Problems
Authors: Bouhmala Noureddine , Granmo Ole-Christoffer
Published: February 2011

The graph coloring problem (GCP) is a widely studied combinatorial optimization problem due to its numerous applications in many areas, including time tabling, frequency assignment, and register allocation. The need for more efficient algorithms has led to the development of several GC solvers. In this paper, the authors introduce a team of Finite Learning Automata, combined with the random walk algorithm, using Boolean satisfiability encoding for the GCP. The authors present an experimental analysis of the new algorithm’s performance compared to the random walk technique, using a benchmark set containing SAT-encoding graph coloring test sets.
A Reinforced Tabu Search Approach for 2D Strip Packing
Authors: Gómez-Villouta Giglia , Hamiez Jean-Philippe , Hao Jin-Kao
Published: February 2011

This paper discusses a particular “packing” problem, namely the two dimensional strip packing problem, where a finite set of objects have to be located in a strip of fixed width and infinite height. The variant studied considers regular items, rectangular to be precise, that must be packed without overlap, not allowing rotations. The objective is to minimize the height of the resulting packing. In this regard, the authors present a local search algorithm based on the well-known tabu search metaheuristic. Two important components of the presented tabu search strategy are reinforced in attempting to include problem knowledge. The fitness function incorporates a measure related to the empty spaces, while the diversification relies on a set of historically “frozen” objects. The resulting reinforced tabu search approach is evaluated on a set of well-known hard benchmark instances and compared with state-of-the-art algorithms.
Page Number and Graph Treewidth
Authors: Xianglu Li
Published: February 2011

Book-embedding of graph G involves embedding its vertices along the spine of the book and assigning its edges to pages of the book such that no two edges cross on the same page. The pagenumber of G is the minimum number of pages in a book-embedding of G. In this paper, the authors also examine the treewidth TW(G), which is the minimum k such that G is a subgraph of a k-tree. The authors then study the relationship between pagenumber and treewidth. Results show that PN(G)=TW(G), which proves a conjecture of Ganley and Heath showing that some known upper bounds for the pagenumber can be improved.
Exploring Multi-Organizational Interaction Issues
Authors: Kasimin Hasmiah , Ibrahim Huda
Published: February 2011

In Malaysia major information technology transfer in public sector agencies is usually due to policy implementation. This policy-led technology transfer involves central government directives to implementation agencies. The technology transfer process usually not only involves multi-organizations that consist of many public agencies and private sector organizations but also involved many phases. Each organization plays certain roles and contributes to the achievement of the technology transfer objectives. Each phase serves a different purpose and each role during each phase has different requirements. Coordinating and encouraging multiple organization participation in each phase is complex and a challenge that may at least result in project delays or technological decision-making based on non-technical considerations. In such a case understanding interactions between stakeholders is important in designing activities and strategies for effective technology transfer processes suitable to the local environment. This is especially true for technology that requires further development to adapt it to the local environment.
Is a Stock Exchange a Computer Solution?
Authors: Muniesa Fabian
Published: February 2011

The paper examines, through a case study on the Arizona Stock Exchange, how computerization challenged the definition of the stock exchange in the context of North-American financial markets in the 1990’s. It analyses exchange automation in terms of trials of explicitness: the computational formulation of what an exchange is calls for a detailed explication of the (variable, often conflicting and unanticipated) processes and properties of price formation. The paper focuses in particular on the argument of the concentration of liquidity in one single point, which was central to the development of the Arizona Stock Exchange (an electronic call auction). It then asks what kind of revolution is the ‘explicitness revolution’ in the design of allocation mechanisms.
An Evaluation of the RFID Security Benefits of the APF System
Authors: Ayoade John , Symonds Judith
Published: February 2011

The main features of RFID are the ability to identify objects without a line of sight between reader and tag, read/write capability and ability of readers to read many tags at the same time. The read/write capability allows information to be stored in the tags embedded in the objects as it travels through a system. Some applications require information to be stored in the tag and be retrieved by the readers. This paper discusses the security and privacy challenges involve in such applications and how the proposed and implemented prototype system Authentication Processing Framework (APF) would be a solution to protect hospital patient data. The deployment of the APF provides mutual authentication for both tags and readers and the mutual authentication process in the APF provides security for the information stored in the tags. A prototype solution for hospital patient data protection for information stored on RFID bracelets is offered.
Inscribing Interpretive Flexibility of Context Data in Ubiquitous Computing Environments
Authors: Andersson Magnus , Lindgren Rikard
Published: February 2011

Ubiquitous computing environments grant organizations a multitude of dynamic context data emanating from embedded and mobile components. Such data may enhance organizations’ understanding of the different contexts in which they act. However, extant IS literature indicates that the utility of context data is frequently hampered by a priori interpretations of context embodied within the acquiring technologies themselves. Building on a 5-year canonical action research study within the Swedish transport industry, this paper reports an attempt to shift the locus of interpretation of context data by rearranging an assemblage of embedded, mobile, and stationary technologies. This was done by developing a vertical standard as a means to inscribe interpretive flexibility of context data. With the objective to extend the current understanding of how to enable cross-organizational access to reinterpretable context data, the paper contributes with an analysis of existing design requirements for context-aware ecosystems. This analysis reveals the complexity of accomplishing collaborative linkages between socio-technical elements in ubiquitous computing environments, and highlights important implications for research and practice.
Mobile Technologies in the New Zealand Real-Estate Industry
Authors: Scornavacca Eusebio , Herrera Federico
Published: February 2011

The Real Estate industry can be viewed as a prime candidate for using mobile data solutions since it possesses a dispersed workforce as well as intensive and complex information requirements. This paper investigates the perceived value of mobile technologies in the New Zealand Real-Estate industry. It was found that mobile technologies are perceived as a strategic element in the Real-Estate industry. However, the use of data services still is bounded by industry practices and voice remains the most used application among agents.
Opportunities and Constraints for Wide Adoption of RFID in Agri-Food
Authors: Gandino Filippo , Sanchez Erwing Ricardo , Montrucchio Bartolomeo , Rebaudengo Maurizio
Published: February 2011

RFID is a pervasive technology, which provides appealing opportunities for improving supply chain management and security in the agri-food sector. All over the world, food safety is considered a requirement, and in several countries the traceability of food products is mandatory. Therefore, several studies on traceability management have been conducted both by industrial and academic research communities, especially on not traditional technologies as RFID. The aim of this article is to analyze and to describe the most relevant results on RFID-based systems for agri-food traceability. The RFID technology seems to be able to bring great opportunities to agri-food, nevertheless, not negligible constraints are slowing its adoption. This survey may provide readers with an exhaustive overview on opportunities and constraints for RFID wide adoption in agri-food.
A Bluetooth User Positioning System for Locating, Informing, and Extracting Information Using Data Mining Techniques
Authors: Garofalakis John , Mettouris Christos
Published: February 2011

Until now, user positioning systems were focused mainly on providing users with exact location information. This makes them computational heavy while often demanding specialized software and hardware from mobile devices. In this article we present a new user positioning system. The system is intended for use with m-commerce, by sending informative and advertising messages to users, after locating their position indoors. It is based exclusively on Bluetooth. The positioning method we use, while efficient is nevertheless simple. The m-commerce based messages, can be received without additional software or hardware installed. Moreover, the location data collected by our system are further processed using data mining techniques, in order to provide statistical information. After discussing the available technologies and methods for implementing indoor user positioning applications, we shall focus on implementation issues, as well as the evaluation of our system after testing it. Finally, conclusions are extracted.
Reliability-Aware Proactive Energy Management in Hard Real-Time Systems
Authors: Munaga Satyakiran , Catthoor Francky
Published: February 2011

Advanced technologies such as sub-45nm CMOS and 3D integration are known to have more accelerated and increased number of reliability failure mechanisms. Classical reliability assessment methodology, which assumes ad-hoc failure criteria and worst-case for all influencing dynamic aspects, is no longer viable in these technologies. In this paper, the authors advocate that managing temperature and reliability at run-time is necessary to overcome this reliability-wall without incurring significant cost penalty. Nonlinear nature of modern systems, however, makes the run-time control very challenging. The authors suggest that full cost-consciousness requires a truly proactive controller that can efficiently manage system slack with future in perspective. This paper introduces the concept of “gas-pedal,” which enhances the effectiveness of the proactive controller in minimizing the cost without sacrificing the hard guarantees required by the constraints. Reliability-aware dynamic energy management of a processor running AVC motion compensation task is used as a motivational case study to illustrate the proposed concepts.
An Architecture-Based Adaptation Framework for Soft Real-Time Applications
Authors: Gui Ning , Sun Hong , Blondia Chris
Published: February 2011

Real-time systems are increasingly used in dynamic changing environments with variable user needs hosting real-time applications ranging in number and nature over time. However, to the authors’ knowledge, no unified framework exists that is able to cope with those competing real-time concerns across multiple real-time application domains. This paper proposes an architecture-based framework for managing real-time components’ dependence and lifecycle in an effective and uniform way. A real-time component runtime service is proposed here to maintain the global view, control the whole lifecycle of the components, and keep existing real-time components’ promised contracts in the face of run-time changes. This framework is designed to be easily extended with other constraint resolving policies as well as dependence descriptions languages. At end of this paper, the framework is tested by a simulated control application via adaptation and performance aspects.
A Multi-User Ad-Hoc Resource Manager for Public Urban Areas
Authors: Huerta-Canepa Gonzalo , Lee Dongman
Published: February 2011

Smart spaces are defined as an environment capable of communicating with users in order to support them in achieving a goal. Previously, smart spaces were restricted to closed private areas in a well defined environment. However, factors such as the omnipresence of mobile devices, the advancement in wireless communication, and the low cost of technological infrastructure allows the creation of smart spaces everywhere. One trend that is acquiring relevance these days is to use surrounding public resources to perform tasks on behalf of mobile devices, which are resource constrained. To achieve this, systems should be able to control the access to public resources, minimize possible interference among users, and maintain the purpose of public resources untouched. This work presents a multi-user ad-hoc resource manager for smart urban areas based on previous considerations. The current system helps to avoid conflicts between users by means of a distributed scheme based on social gain for the community. The management is performed without the need of a central infrastructure. Results show that it is possible to discover and manage public resources from mobile devices while handling conflicts in a distributed manner.
Mixing Workflows and Components to Support Evolving Services
Authors: Baude Françoise , Legrand Virginie , Henrio Ludovic , Naoumenko Paul , Pfeffer Heiko , Bassbouss Louay , Linner David
Published: February 2011

Composite distributed services involve local and remote services that get orchestrated according to specific business logic. This logic can be programmed by applying a traditional general-purpose programming language, but is generally described using a workflow language that coordinates a set of given services. The services involved in the composition, or the composition may need to evolve both at the business logic level (workflow level) and the global architecture level. This paper presents a solution to ease such evolution for compound distributed services and the authors’ proposal enables the evolution of both the business logic and the underlying architecture. This paper suggests relying on a distributed software component model to represent and easily manage the set of local or remote software entities (services) involved in the composition. Composite services are represented in a model that combines the use of a distributed and hierarchical software component model and new timed-automata based workflow language. This combination makes explicit the separation between functional and non-functional concerns, and as a consequence this approach helps in defining the required and various evolution procedures in context to compound services.
Designing Izbushka
Authors: Braman James
Published: February 2011

Designing computer interfaces and other technologies that interact with users in adaptive ways that attempt to emulate their natural styles of learning is difficult. As technology has become main stream in our daily interactions, adaptive interfaces are key in helping users in many situations. In this article we discuss the preliminary investigation with the intelligent agent named Izbushka and how it can be used to collect various data from human users in an attempt to understand how they learn while interacting with technology. Izbushka as a tool will help to generate new ways of understanding and conceptualizing interaction by presenting users with a “zero-context” environment. Izbushka presents users with a unique interface in an attempt to study user interactions that lack traditional metaphors or ontological grounding typical in many computer interfaces. The Izbushka agent is our first step towards filtering out preconceived metaphorical ideas in order to generate new understanding of human computer interaction.
Security Issues in Mobile Agent Applications
Authors: Ojesanmi O. A.
Published: February 2011

An autonomous mobile agent is an executing program that can migrate from machine to machine in a heterogeneous network under its own control. An agent can either follow a pre-assigned path on the network or determine its itinerary based on the data collected from the network. Facilities for highly dynamic movement of code and data enable a program to take advantage of the locality of data. It also allows one to optimize between the requirements of low bandwidth, high latency and disconnected network connections. This computing paradigm, which exploits code, data and state mobility, raises many new security issues that are quite different from conventional client/server systems. Agent servers that provide an execution environment for the agents to execute can be attacked by malicious agents. Similarly agents could be carrying sensitive information about their owners and should be protected from tampering by malicious hosts. The data collected by the agent from one host should also be protected from tampering by another host in the itinerary. In this paper, various security issues that arise in mobile agents applications were examined.
Is Entropy Suitable to Characterize Data and Signals for Cognitive Informatics?
Authors: Kinsner Witold
Published: February 2011

This article provides a review of Shannon and other entropy measures in evaluating the quality of materials used in perception, cognition, and learning processes. Energy-based metrics are not suitable for cognition, as energy itself does not carry information. Instead, morphological (structural and contextual) metrics as well as entropy-based multi-scale metrics should be considered in cognitive informatics. Appropriate data and signal transformation processes are defined and discussed in the perceptual framework followed by various classes of information and entropies suitable for characterization of data, signals, and distortion. Other entropies are also described including the Rényi generalized entropy spectrum, Kolmogorov complexity measure, Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, and Prigogine entropy for evolutionary dynamical systems. Although such entropy-based measures are suitable for many signals, they are not sufficient for scale-invariant (fractal and multifractal) signals without corresponding complementary multi-scale measures.
A Relative Fractal Dimension Spectrum for a Perceptual Complexity Measure
Authors: Kinsner W. , Dansereau R.
Published: February 2011

This article presents a derivation of a new relative fractal dimension spectrum, DRq, to measure the dissimilarity between two finite probability distributions originating from various signals. This measure is an extension of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance and the Rényi fractal dimension spectrum, Dq. Like the KL distance, DRq determines the dissimilarity between two probability distibutions X and Y of the same size, but does it at different scales, while the scalar KL distance is a single-scale measure. Like the Rényi fractal dimension spectrum, the DRq is also a bounded vectorial measure obtained at different scales and for different moment orders, q. However, unlike the Dq, all the elements of the new DRq become zero when X and Y are the same. Experimental results show that this objective measure is consistent with the subjective mean-opinion-score (MOS) when evaluating the perceptual quality of images reconstructed after their compression. Thus, it could also be used in other areas of cognitive informatics.
Formal RTPA Models for a Set of Meta-Cognitive Processes of the Brain
Authors: Wang Yingxu
Published: February 2011

The cognitive processes modeled at the metacognitive level of the layered reference mode of the brain (LRMB) encompass those of object identification, abstraction, concept establishment, search, categorization, comparison, memorization, qualification, quantification, and selection. It is recognized that all higher layer cognitive processes of the brain rely on the metacognitive processes. Each of this set of fundamental cognitive processes is formally described by a mathematical model and a process model. Real-time process algebra (RTPA) is adopted as a denotational mathematical means for rigorous modeling and describing the metacognitive processes. All cognitive models and processes are explained on the basis of the object-attribute- relation (OAR) model for internal information and knowledge representation and manipulation.
On Cognitive Properties of Human Factors and Error Models in Engineering and Socialization
Authors: Wang Yingxu
Published: February 2011

Human factors are the most predominated factors in all systems where humans are part of the systems. Human traits and needs are the fundamental force underlying almost all phenomena in human task performances, engineering organizations, and socialization. This article explores the cognitive foundations of human traits and cognitive properties of human factors in engineering. A comprehensive set of fundamental traits of human beings are identified, and the hierarchical model of basic human needs is formally described. The characteristics of human factors and their influences in engineering organizations and socialization are explored. Based on the models of basic human traits, needs, and their influences, driving forces behind the human factors in engineering and society are revealed. A formal model of human errors in task performance is derived, and case studies of the error model in software engineering are presented.
A Cognitive Informatics Reference Model of Autonomous Agent Systems (AAS)
Authors: Wang Yingxu
Published: February 2011

Despite the fact that the origin of software agent systems has been rooted in autonomous artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology, their implementations are still based on conventional imperative computing techniques rather than autonomous computational intelligence. This paper presents a cognitive informatics perspective on autonomous agent systems (AAS’s). A hierarchical reference model of AAS’s is developed, which reveals that an autonomous agent possesses intelligent behaviors at three layers known as those of imperative, autonomic, and autonomous from the bottom up. The theoretical framework of AAS’s is described from the facets of cognitive informatics, computational intelligence, and denotational mathematics. According to Wang’s abstract intelligence theory, an autonomous software agent is supposed to be called as an intelligent-ware, shortly, an intelware, parallel to hardware and software in computing, information science, and artificial intelligence.
IPML
Authors: Hu Jun , Feijs Loe
Published: February 2011

This paper addresses issues of distributing multimedia presentations in an ambient intelligent environment, examines the existing technologies and proposes IPML, a markup language that extends SMIL for distributed settings. It uses a metaphor of play, with which the timing and mapping issues in distributed presentations are covered in a natural way. A generic architecture for playback systems is also presented, which covers the timing and mapping issues of presenting an IPML script in heterogeneous ambient intelligent environments.
Adaptive Narration in Multiplayer Ubiquitous Games
Authors: Natkin Stéphane , Yan Chen
Published: February 2011

The goal of this research is to develop new gameplays and new narration principles for MUGs (Multiplayer Ubiquitous Games). We aim to formalize a narrative mechanism to generate events which can stimulate the user’s physical actions with the real world, and social communications with other players. We first present a pattern to identify the feedback relationship between the real world and the virtual world. We then analyze the notion of narration in games and the notion of user’s model in information technology. Based on this analysis, a narration adaptive to the user’s profile in considering the real world context is proposed. The last part of the paper is devoted to an experimental game MugNSRC developed through of the preceding principles. A prototype of this game has been developed using off the shell services available on geolocalized mobile phones.
Formal Descriptions of Cognitive Processes of Perceptions on Spatiality, Time, and Motion
Authors: Wang Yingxu
Published: February 2011

Recent researches in both cognitive informatics and computational intelligence are interested in the human perceptual senses of spatiality, time, and motion, which are fundamental cognitive life functions according to the Layered Reference Model of the Brain (LRMB). This paper presents the cognitive process of human perceptual senses on spatiality, time, and motion. The sense of spatiality is investigated into the coordinate system, orientations, and cognitive maps, followed by the development of the mathematical model and the cognitive process of human spatial senses. The sense of time with the biological clocks, cognitive clocks, and their mathematical models are analyzed in order to explain the cognitive process of human time sense. On the basis of the formal models of senses of spatiality and time, the sense of motion is modeled as a complex sense incorporating both of spatiality and time. Then, the cognitive, mathematical, and process models of the sense of motion are rigorously established. This work provides a theoretical framework for the rigorous implementation of the intelligent behaviors of cognitive computers, autonomous agent systems, and robots in cognitive informatics and computational intelligence.
Comparing Learning Methods
Authors: Hidalgo-Herrero Mercedes , Rodríguez Ismael , Rubio Fernando
Published: February 2011

In this article we perform some experiments to study how an automatic system learns a set of rules from its interaction with an artificial environment. In particular, we are interested in comparing these capabilities to the skills shown by humans to learn the same rules in similar conditions. We perform this analysis by conducting two experiments. On the one hand, we observe the evolution of the automatic learning system in terms of its performance along time. At the beginning, the system does not know the rules, but it can observe the positive/negative results of its decisions. As its knowledge about the environment becomes more precise, its performance improves. On the other hand, seventy students faced the same artificial environment in the same conditions, though this time the experiment was presented as a game. The objective of the game consists in gaining points, but the rules of the game are not known a priori. So, there is a clear incentive for finding them out. We use these experiments to compare the learning curves of both humans and automatic systems, and we use this information to analyze the similarities/differences between both learning processes. In particular, we are interested in assessing how close the automatic system is from passing the Turing test.
Classification of Breast Masses in Mammograms Using Radial Basis Functions and Simulated Annealing
Authors: do Espírito Santo Rafael , de Deus Lopes Roseli , Rangayyan Rangaraj M.
Published: February 2011

We present pattern classification methods based upon nonlinear and combinational optimization techniques, specifically, radial basis functions (RBF) and simulated annealing (SA), to classify masses in mammograms as malignant or benign. Combinational optimization is used to pre-estimate RBF parameters, namely, the centers and spread matrix. The classifier was trained and tested, using the leave-one-out procedure, with shape, texture, and edge-sharpness measures extracted from 57 regions of interest (20 related to malignant tumors and 37 related to benign masses) manually delineated on mammograms by a radiologist. The classifier’s performance, with preestimation of the parameters, was evaluated in terms of the area Az under the receiver operating characteristics curve. Values up to Az = 0.9997 were obtained with RBF-SA with pre-estimation of the centers and spread matrix, which are better than the results obtained with pre-estimation of only the RBF centers, which were up to 0.9470. Overall, the results with the RBF-SA method were better than those provided by standard multilayer perceptron neural networks.
Advances in the Quotient Space Theory and its Applications
Authors: Zhao Liquan , Zhang Ling
Published: February 2011

Quotient space theory (QST), a new granule computing tool dealing with imprecise, incomplete and uncertain knowledge, uses a triplet, including the universe, its structure and attributes, to describe a problem space or simply a space. As one of important theories of granular computing (GrC), QST is very helpful to the study of cognitive informatics (CI). This article summarizes the quotient space’s model and its main principle. Then some basic operations on quotient space are introduced, and the significant properties of the fuzzy quotient space family are elaborated. Finally the main applications of quotient space theory are discussed.
Important Attributes Selection Based on Rough Set for Speech Emotion Recognition
Authors: Zhou Jian , Wang Guoyin , Yang Yong
Published: February 2011

Speech emotion recognition is becoming more and more important in such computer application fields as health care, children education, etc. In order to improve the prediction performance or providing faster and more cost effective recognition system, an attribute selection is often carried out beforehand to select the important attributes from the input attribute sets. However, it is time-consuming for traditional feature selection method used in speech emotion recognition to determine an optimum or suboptimum feature subset. Rough set theory offers an alternative, formal and methodology that can be employed to reduce the dimensionality of data. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Rough Set Theory in identifying important features in speech emotion recognition system. The experiments on CLDC emotion speech database clearly show this approach can reduce the calculation cost while retaining a suitable high recognition rate.
A User-Driven Ontology Guided Image Retrieval Model
Authors: Fan Lisa , Li Botang
Published: February 2011

The demand for image retrieval and browsing online is growing dramatically. There are hundreds of millions of images available on the current World Wide Web. For multimedia documents, the typical keyword-based retrieval methods assume that the user has a specific goal in mind by using accurate query keywords in searching a set of images. Whereas the users may face with a repository of images whose domain is less known and content is semantically complicated, or the users may only generally know what they search for. In these cases it is difficult to decide what exact keywords to use for the query. In this article, we propose a user-centered image retrieval method that is based on the current Web, keyword-based annotation structure, and combining Ontology guided knowledge representation and probabilistic ranking. A prototype of web application for image retrieval using the proposed approach has been implemented. The model provides a recommendation subsystem to support and assist the user modifying the queries and reduces the user’s cognitive load with the searching space. Experimental results show that the image retrieval recall and precision rates increased and therefore demonstrates the effectiveness of the model.
A Robust Facial Feature Tracking Method Based on Optical Flow and Prior Measurement
Authors: Wang Guoyin , Yang Yong , He Kun
Published: February 2011

Cognitive informatics (CI) is a research area including some interdisciplinary topics. Visual tracking is not only an important topic in CI, but also a hot topic in computer vision and facial expression recognition. In this paper, a novel and robust facial feature tracking method is proposed, in which Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) optical flow is taken as basis. The prior method of measurement consisting of pupils detecting features restriction and errors and is used to improve the predictions. Simulation experiment results show that the proposed method is superior to the traditional optical flow tracking. Furthermore, the proposed method is used in a real time emotion recognition system and good recognition result is achieved.
An Experiential Case Study in IT Project Management Planning
Authors: Davis Charles K.
Published: February 2011

The case covers key issues in information technology project management. It deals with developing a full set of project plans, including milestones, tasks, schedules, staffing, deliverables, and projected costs, for a complex software development project (Gido & Clements, 2003; Kerzner, 2003; Schwalbe, 2002). The essence of this case is the analyzing of a specific organizational setting with critical software needs and the developing of the needed plans. As in many similar situations, this organization is relatively complex, and the situation is not entirely clear. By reviewing the facts of the case, collecting outside information, conducting role playing interviews, analyzing requirements, and estimating schedules and costs, one can collect the information needed to develop baseline project plans for the software development envisioned in this case.