bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Introduction to Multi-Objective Optimization
Authors: Bui Lam Thu , Alam Sameer
Published: May 2011

This chapter is devoted to summarize common concepts related to multi-objective optimization (MO). An overview of “traditional” as well as CI-based MO is given. Further, all aspects of performance assessment for MO techniques are discussed. Finally, challenges facing MO techniques are addressed. All of these description and analysis give the readers basic knowledge for understandings the rest of the book.
Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization for Assignment Problems
Authors: Kleeman Mark P. , Lamont Gary B.
Published: May 2011

Assignment problems are used throughout many research disciplines. Most assignment problems in the literature have focused on solving a single objective. This chapter focuses on assignment problems that have multiple objectives that need to be satisfied. In particular, this chapter looks at how multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have been used to solve some of these problems. Additionally, this chapter examines many of the operators that have been utilized to solve assignment problems and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of using specific operators.
Knowledge Management
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

Delving into tacit knowledge flows requires at least a cursory understanding of its parent discipline, namely Knowledge Management (KM). In turn, discussion of KM is not possible without briefly discussing knowledge and more specifically organisational knowledge. Knowledge Management is a discipline that is quite recent, having been exposed largely in the 1990s. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of KM is that no one true definition, rather like with tacit knowledge, exists. If one were pressed to define KM, it would be the process whereby an organisation has in place plans or actions to maximise its knowledge assets both codified and soft to its best advantage. At this stage, let us examine the issues regarding this discipline and later examine how they relate to tacit knowledge management specifically. Concepts of knowledge relating specifically to tacit knowledge are discussed in much greater detail in the following chapter.
Results with Formal Concept Analysis
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

Chapter V provided some introduction to formal concept analysis through the visualization of biographical results from the tacit knowledge questionnaire. The attention now turns to the strength of using FCA by examining the tacit knowledge inventory results which are one of the two major underpinnings of this work. To remind the reader, FCA had its beginnings at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, and was the work of Professor Rudolf Wille. Formal Concept Analysis is a means of illustrating via a lattice like structure all sorts of information in virtually any discipline. The lattice-like structure illustrates relationships between objects (typically any type of noun), and their corresponding attributes (typically any kind of adjective). Through connecting these “concepts” together, sense is gained for the body of knowledge dealt with. The application of FCA to questionnaire results is rare but not unheard of, but its application to better understanding tacit knowledge is.
Taxpayer Compliance Simulation
Authors: Bloomquist Kim M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the development of a prototype multi-agent based model – the Tax Compliance Simulator (TCS) – designed to help tax administrators think about ways to reduce tax evasion. TCS allows the user to define unique behavioral, income, and tax enforcement characteristics for one or two distinctive taxpayer populations. The capabilities of the model are demonstrated in a simulation of the deterrent effects of taxpayer audits. The simulation finds that a significant portion of audit-based deterrence may depend on the influence of taxpayers’ social networks rather than the probability of detection or penalty for underreporting as indicated by economic theory (Allingham and Sandmo, 1972).
Probability Distribution Dynamics Explaining Agent Model Convergence to Extremism
Authors: Deffuant Guillaume , Weisbuch Gérard
Published: May 2011

This chapter studies continuous opinion models with extremists, and we use probability distribution models which approximate the behaviour of agents based models in order to explain their attractor patterns. The probability distribution is defined on a discrete grid in the opinion / uncertainty space. We compute the equations of probability flows between each couple of sites of the grid for different variants of the opinion influence model (bounded confidence, relative agreement and two others). The simulations show that the probability distribution models yield attractor patterns very similar to those obtained with the agent based models. Moreover, a study of the probability distribution evolution helps to better understand the process of convergence to single and double extreme attractors observed in agent based models.
Probabalistic Inference for Actor Centered Models
Authors: Schwenk Gero
Published: May 2011

The analysis of relations between different levels of a system is a key issue in social science simulation. Here, I discuss the contribution of different modeling methodologies to this. Special emphasis is given to the formalism of “Probabilistic Graphical Models“, resp. “Bayesian Networks“, which is both advantageous for level transitory inference and integration of empirical data. Furthermore, issues of practicability and area of application are considered. The argumentation is exemplified by demonstration of a toy-application for which explicit level-transitory statements are inferred.
Analyzing the Influences of Passive Investment Strategies on Financial Markets via Agent-Based Modeling
Authors: Takahashi Hiroshi , Takahashi Satoru , Terano Takao
Published: May 2011

This chapter develops an agent-based model to analyze microscopic and macroscopic links between investor behaviors and price fluctuations in a financial market. This analysis focuses on the effects of Passive Investment Strategy in a financial market. From the extensive analyses, we have found that (1) Passive Investment Strategy is valid in a realistic efficient market, however, it could have bad influences such as instability of market and inadequate asset pricing deviations, and (2) under certain assumptions, Passive Investment Strategy and Active Investment Strategy could coexist in a Financial Market.
A Field Study on the Role of Assistive Learning Technologies
Authors: Khek Claire , Lim John , Zhong Yingqin
Published: May 2011

Assistive Learning Technologies (ALT) have gained increasing research attention for supporting physically-disadvantaged learners to realize their potential in the educational process. This paper reports on a multiple-case study that sought to explore the underlying mechanisms (i.e., the how and why issues) relating to the role of ALT in helping students with special needs to circumvent their disabilities and integrating them into the mainstream schools. It is found that the use of ALT enables the subjects to access the electronic learning environment, as well as improve their time management. The end result is that these students can perform their everyday (learning) tasks on par with their peers in school. The study has also unveiled moderating factors influencing the usage of ALT; examples are the ease of use of ALT, and the subjects’ desire to enhance their academic and social competency.
Asynchronous Learning
Authors: Aggarwal Anil , Turoff Murray , Legon Ron , Hackbarth Gary , Fowler Danni
Published: May 2011

This paper presents a discussion of emerging pedagogical, technical and regulatory issues in asynchronous learning. Based on discussions with several faculty members with more than six years of e-teaching experience, as well as administrators and business advisory board members, the paper presents several ongoing experiments and discusses the authors’ experiences with asynchronous learning. The paper should be useful for Universities considering asynchronous learning, as well as businesses entering the asynchronous learning software market. The paper discusses the needs and opportunities for developing products compatible with emerging standards such as SCORM, up-and-coming mobile broadband network technologies like 4G and identification technologies such as active RFID.
Discretization of Rational Data
Authors: Mugan Jonathan , Truemper Klaus
Published: May 2011

Frequently, one wants to extend the use of a classification method that, in principle, requires records with True/False values, so that records with rational numbers can be processed. In such cases, the rational numbers must first be replaced by True/False values before the method may be applied. In other cases, a classification method in principle can process records with rational numbers directly, but replacement by True/False values improves the performance of the method. The replacement process is usually called discretization or binarization. This chapter describes a recursive discretization process called Cutpoint. The key step of Cutpoint detects points where classification patterns change abruptly. The chapter includes computational results, where Cutpoint is compared with entropy-based methods that, to date, have been found to be the best discretization schemes. The results indicate that Cutpoint is preferred by certain classification schemes, while entropy-based methods are better for other classification methods. Thus, one may view Cutpoint to be an additional discretization tool that one may want to consider.
Spatial Navigation Assistance System for Large Virtual Environments
Authors: Kantardzic Mehmed , Sadeghian Pedram , Sheta Walaa M.
Published: May 2011

Advances in computing techniques, as well as the reduction in the cost of technology have made possible the viability and spread of large virtual environments. However, efficient navigation within these environments remains problematic for novice users. Novice users often report being lost, disorientated, and lacking the spatial knowledge to make appropriate decisions concerning navigation tasks. In this chapter, we propose the Frequent Wayfinding-Sequence (FWS) methodology to mine the sequences representing the routes taken by experienced users of a virtual environment in order to derive informative navigation models. The models are used to build a navigation assistance interface. We conducted several experiments using our methodology in simulated virtual environments. The results indicate that our approach is efficient in extracting and formalizing recommend routes of travel from the navigation data of previous users of large virtual environments.
The Implementation of ERP Packages as a Mediation Process
Authors: Petrini Maira , Pozzebon Marlei
Published: May 2011

This research has investigated the implementation of ERP as mediation process that is, as an interactive process developed between the organization’s members and external consultants. The adoption of a mediation lens helps identify how global and local skills have been combined in ERP projects, and how these different arrangements have affected the project results. Underlying our analysis were two main questions: (1) How do patterns of mediation emerge, and what kinds of elements influence their emergence? and (2) What kind of association can be established between patterns of mediation and project results? Our conclusions point towards certain drivers. The local firm’s position regarding the head office and the meaning attached to each project have directly influenced the way external consultants are perceived by the local firm’s members, and these perceptions influence team members’ and consultants’ roles. Team members’ and consultants’ roles, in turn, contribute to reinforcement or transformation of established mediation patterns.
Visual query languages, representation techniques and data models
Authors: Caschera Maria Chiara , D’Ulizia Arianna
Published: May 2011

An easy; efficient and effective way to retrieve stored data is obviously one of the key issues of any information system. In the last few years considerable effort has been devoted to the definition of more intuitive; visual-based querying paradigms; attempting to offer a good trade-off between expressiveness and intuitiveness. In this chapter we analyze the main characteristics of visual languages specifically designed for querying information systems; concentrating on conventional relational databases but also considering information systems with a less rigid structure; such as Web resources storing XML documents. We consider two fundamental aspects of visual query languages: the adopted visual representation technique and the underlying data model; possibly specialized to specific application contexts.
Designing a Visual Language for Interaction Representation, Based on Aspects of Human Movement
Authors: Deray Kristine
Published: May 2011

Interactions are core part of interactive computing. However, their mechanisms remain poorly understood. The tendency has been to understand interactions in terms of the results they produce rather than to provide the mechanisms that explain “how” interactions unfold in time. In this chapter, we present a framework for creating visual languages for representing interactions, which uses human movement as a source for the core concepts of the visual language. Our approach is motivated and supported by the evidence, coming from the research on kinaesthetic thinking, that constructs based on human movement support higher-level cognitive processes and can be intuitively recognised by humans. We presented an overview of the framework, an instance of a visual language design using the proposed framework and its application for representing and analysing interactions between patients and practitioners in the healthcare domain. Developed approach and the corresponding techniques target interactive computer systems for facilitating interaction-rich domains, such as health care, in particular occupational therapy, collaborative design, and learning.
Sketch Understanding
Authors: Deufemia Vincenzo
Published: May 2011

Recognition of hand-drawn, diagrammatic sketches is a very active research field, since it finds a natural application in a wide range of domains, such as engineering, software design, and architecture. However, it is a particularly difficult task since the symbols of a sketched diagram can be drawn by using a different stroke-order, -number, and -direction. The difficulties in the recognition process are often made harder by the lack of precision and by the presence of ambiguities in messy hand-drawn sketches. In this article we present a brief survey on sketch understanding techniques and tools. We first present major problems that should be considered in the construction of on-line sketch recognizers. We analyze representative works for the recognition of freehand shape and describe several shape description languages for the automatic construction of sketch recognizers.
User Interface Formalization in Visual Data Mining
Authors: Catarci Tiziana , Kimani Stephen
Published: May 2011

Despite the existence of various data mining efforts that deal with user interface aspects, very few provide a formal specification of the syntax of the interface and the corresponding semantics. A formal specification facilitates the description of the system properties without being concerned about implementation details and enables the detection of fundamental design issues before they manifest themselves in the implementation. In visual data mining, a formal specification can: enable users to decide which interaction/operation to apply to get a desired result; help users to predict the results of their interactions/operations with the system; enable the development of a general interaction model that designers/developers can use to understand the relationships between user interactions and their compositions. In this work, we describe an approach for formalizing the visual interface of a core data mining system, which has been employed in the development of a visual data mining system named VidaMine.
Visual Development of Defeasible Logic Rules for the Semantic Web
Authors: Kontopoulos Efstratios , Bassiliades Nick
Published: May 2011

This chapter is concerned with the visualization of defeasible logic rules in the Semantic Web domain. Logic plays an important role in the development of the Semantic Web and defeasible reasoning seems to be a very suitable tool. However, it is too complex for an end-user, who often needs graphical trace and explanation mechanisms for the derived conclusions. Directed graphs can assist in this affair, by offering the notion of direction that appears to be extremely applicable for the representation of rule attacks and superiorities in defeasible reasoning. Their applicability, however, is balanced by the fact that it is difficult to associate data of a variety of types with the nodes and the connections between the nodes in the graph. In this chapter we try to utilize digraphs in the graphical representation of defeasible rules, by exploiting the expressiveness and comprehensibility they offer, but also trying to leverage their major disadvantages. Finally, the chapter briefly presents a tool that implements this representation methodology.
User Interaction and Interface Design with UML
Authors: Almendros-Jiménez Jesús M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter is devoted to show how to use and specialise UML diagrams for describing the user interfaces of a software system. In order to accomplish the description of user interfaces, the proposed technique considers three specialised UML diagrams called user-interaction, user-interface and GUI-class diagrams, which will be built following a model-driven development (MDD) perspective. These diagrams can be seen as the UML-based UI models of the system. In addition, this paper concerns with code-generation to implement the user interfaces of the system by using GUI-class diagrams and user-interaction diagrams. A case study of an Internet book shopping system is introduced in this chapter to proof and illustrate the proposed user interaction and interface design technique.
Questioning Usability
Authors: Padula Marco , Reggiori Amanda
Published: May 2011

This chapter is intended to question what usability is, or should be, in the field of computer science. We focus the design of information systems meant as systems enabling large virtual communities to access information and communications; systems aimed to support the working activities of a restricted team, but also to offer services accessible and usable in the perspective of global digital inclusion. We shall not propose a specific viewpoint to usability, but a focus to many concepts, aspects, potentialities which have to be nowadays considered to detail the idea of usability and design suited systems. Systems must be used by a community of users in their complex working activity to process material or information; to modify rough material but also the working environment and methods. This requires to consider them as tools in a social context of use which has expectations from the technological progress.
From PageRank to Social Rank
Authors: Kirsch Sebastian Marius , Gnasa Melanie , Won Markus , Cremers Armin
Published: May 2011

Social information spaces are characterized by the presence of a social network between participants. This chapter presents methods for utilizing social networks for information retrieval, by applying graph authority measures to the social network. We show how to integrate authority measures in an information retrieval algorithm. In order to determine the suitability of the described algorithms, we examine the structure and statistical properties of social networks, and present examples of social networks as well as evaluation results.
Task Contingencies
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Visions and Directions
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Extended Action Rule Discovery Based on Single Classification Rules and Reducts
Authors: Ras Zbigniew W. , Wyrzykowska Elzbieta M.
Published: May 2011

Action rules can be seen as logical terms describing knowledge about possible actions associated with objects which is hidden in a decision system. Classical strategy for discovering them from a database requires prior extraction of classification rules which next are evaluated pair by pair with a goal to build a strategy of action based on condition features in order to get a desired effect on a decision feature. An actionable strategy is represented as a term r = ?????????????????, where ?, ?, ?, ?, and ? are descriptions of events. The term r states that when the fixed condition ? is satisfied and the changeable behavior (???) occurs in objects represented as tuples from a database so does the expectation (???). With each object a number of actionable strategies can be associated and each one of them may lead to different expectations and the same to different reclassifications of objects. This chapter will focus on a new strategy of construction of action rules directly from single classification rules instead of pairs of classification rules. This way we do not only gain on the simplicity of the method of action rules construction but also on its time complexity. The paper will present a modified tree-based strategy for constructing action rules followed by a new simplified strategy of constructing them. Finally, these two strategies will be compared.
SCM Models
Authors: Higuchi Toru , Troutt Marvin
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, a basic concept of the SCM is discussed. A key factor for the SCM might be to control the dynamic interactions among the supply chain partners. Supply chains form a multi-echelon system to offer the products to the customers efficiently. However, they are composed of various partners whose purpose and interests do not always harmonize. In addition, supply chain processes are so long and complex that unexpected results might be happened for supply chains. The information distortion within the supply chains is the one of the major obstacles to control the supply chain effi- ciently and effectively. As a result, supply chains would be damaged by the bullwhip effect and the boom and bust. To highlight the character of SCM, a comparison is also made among the similar concepts, the business logistics, the physical distribution and Keiretsu.
Extreme Innovators and Innovators
Authors: Higuchi Toru , Troutt Marvin
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, the innovators and extreme innovators are discussed. These types of consumers are very important because they grow the infant market. The extreme innovators purchase an incomplete product at high price and contribute to the product development. Then the innovators purchase an immature product at a relatively high price and their reviews have great effects on the future diffusion. We also follow their second and later purchases because their behavior in repeat purchases has a strong relation with the alternation of product generations. In other words, they are the motive power for the alternation of products or the change to the alternative products.
Application of the Industrial Life Cycle Concept
Authors: Higuchi Toru , Troutt Marvin
Published: May 2011

The life cycle of products is a major concern in business all over the world. This Appendix proposes the Industrial Life Cycle Concept integrating the innovation, location, and marketing aspects. It is a very holistic concept in two regards. First, it deals with a whole category of products including multigeneration products. Second, it considers the whole supply chain from the consumers to suppliers. We demonstrated the industrial life cycle concept through a home-use VCR case study. The time frame is divided into five stages: introduction stage (before 1980); early growth stage (1980-1984); late growth stage (1985-1989); maturity stage (1990-2001); and decline stage (after 2002).
The Future of M-Commerce
Authors: Yen David C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the growing significance of M-commerce with special focus on Bluetooth and WiMax. There is a detailed investigation of the components involved with, and the marketplace for, M-commerce transactions. The chapter concludes with the future opportunities and obstacles for M-commerce. The authors hope that the reader will gain a better understanding of, not only M-commerce, but the impact of Bluetooth and WiMax.
Policy-Based Security for M-Commerce Networks
Authors: Itani Wassim
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present an overview of a general policy-based security architecture for securing the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of enterprise m-commerce data. A policy-based architecture protects data based on content and sensitivity and highly surpasses the performance of bulk encryption protocols such as SSL and TLS by utilizing a customizable, policy-driven approach. This approach makes use of the structure of enterprise data objects (Web pages, relational database entities, directory hierarchies, log files, etc…) to provide flexible, multi-level, and fine-grained encryption and hashing methodologies. This makes policy-based security protocols a very efficient choice for operation in wireless m-commerce environments characterized by low-bandwidth networks and supporting limited-resource devices with low memory, battery, and processing power.
The Design of Mobile Television in Europe
Authors: Ballon Pieter
Published: May 2011

Mobile Television is potentially the most anticipated mass-market mobile application across Europe. This chapter examines the business model design of Mobile TV by the various stakeholders currently piloting mobile broadcasting in the European national markets. It adapts a generic business model framework to systematically compare five recent pilots of the two mobile broadcasting technologies that are currently trialled most intensively in Europe, i.e. DVB-H and DAB-IP. The article illustrates the cross-impact of cooperation agreements between the various stakeholders with technological, service-related and financial design choices. It also provides insights as to the likely business models in the upcoming commercialisation phase of mobile broadcasting in Europe.
M-Commerce Market Development Scenarios in Korea
Authors: Baek Seung
Published: May 2011

A growth curve of m-commerce market would be alike that of the mobile voice market or broadband internet service in the past in Korea, and then m-commerce will bring the mobile operators the second revenue. Even though, the subscribers of m-commerce are continues ascent in external appearance, in effect it is have an important problem to though revenue. In this research, after defining m-commerce market, we will discover trends based on technological, social, and politic changes and the development scenarios of m-commerce market. We reviews the technological, social, and policy changes that have occurred in Korea in order to present the mega trends that could affect the m-commerce market most significantly, by finding out the inner and outer arena trends of the m-commerce market. And then, show four scenarios: (1) Gloomy market scenario, (2) Dream market scenario, (3) Market collapse scenario, and (4) Rainbow compromise scenario. We are expected that an analysis of the trend that could create an m-commerce market in Korea and a study of the development scenarios will provide some foresight to communication service providers in Korea and overseas countries in order to cope with the future m-commerce market.
Individual Telecommunications Tariffs in Chinese Communities
Authors: Chen H.
Published: May 2011

The chapter addresses mobile service pricing and affordability issues in China. The goal is to assist fast diffusion and sustainable development of mobile services through pricing mechanisms. Diverse situations exist with a split between a large number of mostly rural people still lacking basic services; and some affluent mostly urban users wanting personalized value added services. A historical perspective is taken and tariff data are reported. Focussing on content and interactions, solutions are found in community-based individual tariffs; this business model fits especially well with the community culture rooted in Chinese tradition. Such a solution can facilitate the diffusion to all types of users, and also allow community members themselves to satisfy their own demands. Two cases are described: the gaming communities of Lianzhong; and the “Tianfu” rural communication communities in Sichuan province. Concluding remarks are made about existing technologies and standards needed by this approach, and about how to close the gap between the current situation and the envisaged implementation.
Language Norms and Debate in Triple Helix Organizations
Authors: Hayes Kathryn J. , Fitzgerald J. Anneke
Published: May 2011

Commercialization activities combining the discoveries of one occupational group, such as scientists, with the commercial skills of managers involve interactions across occupational cultures. This chapter considers how dissent can be interpreted as a sign of dysfunction or cause for concern. The context of the study is temporary Australian hybrid industry-research organizations composed of academic, government, and industry personnel. Semi-structured interviews of twenty scientists, engineers, and managers focused on their experiences and perceptions of occupational culture, including styles of debate. Distinctive patterns of argumentation were identified as typical of commercial and research occupations. Extended argumentation contributed to knowledge creation, and played a role in maintaining a hierarchy among research institutions. Members of research and commercial occupational subcultures working in Australian CRCs reported frustration and reduced effectiveness of argumentation due to different norms for dissent. Initial expectations of similarity, built upon identification of occupational hierarchies, heighten the impact of these differences.
Professional Dimension of IT Specialists' Social Role
Authors: Postula Agnieszka
Published: May 2011

This chapter gives the opportunity to describe and analyze how IT specialists construct their professional reality and how they perform their roles. Nowadays companies (or top management) influence its employees in multiple aspects. Thus, professional relations should be investigated in the terms of mutual interactions within the organization, which is the main topic of the chapter. Often, top management tries to conclusively define (consciously or unconsciously) what the organization is. It means that workers of lower levels in such companies are manipulated by their higher-level colleagues. Sometimes this influence, albeit both hierarchical and controlling, leaves some space for the development of more equal bonds. In other organizations, manipulation is not a part of the standard work climate. The relations between the employees are, in such organizations, based on rituals and direct communication. The most important detail of this construction is to take care of every interaction between all organization’s actors. In this chapter, I intend to describe work relations and other aspects of everyday work life of IT professionals. Empirical material is derived from the field research conducted during 2002-2004 in two stages with different intensity of data gathering. The first stage of the research concerned a software company creating customized business software “to meet the requirements of clients.” The second stage was based on interviews with IT professionals from different organizations including software companies, international corporations, and also IT departments within companies operating in different business branches. Complete analysis of gathered material is presented in a doctoral thesis (Postula, 2007). Therefore, in case of some discontinuity of considerations in this chapter I would refer to the full text.
Trustworthiness as an Impression
Authors: Latusek Dominika
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses current developments in the theory of trust and distrust drawing upon a field study between solution providers and their clients in the IT industry in Poland. It addresses the question of how the suppliers (trust-takers) establish the image of being trustworthy, and how their trustworthiness is in turn examined by their potential customers, when cooperation takes place in the context of the openly expressed lack of trust (or distrust). Trust in the chapter is seen as a tranquilizer that suspends the feeling of vulnerability and enables action regardless of uncertainty involved in the situation. Cooperation is understood in dramaturgic terms--the supplier is to produce an impression that will make them appear trustworthy as perceived by the customer.
Managerial Image, Social Capital, and Risk in a Czech Engineering Enterprise
Authors: Passmore Ben
Published: May 2011

High tech Czech enterprises have faced a transformation, which is shared with similar enterprises throughout the developed world. The value of manufacturing has declined while the value of highly skilled and educated workers has grown. This has placed new demands on workers and managers. Previous research indicates that Czechs harbor considerable doubt about the honesty of their political and economic system. One response to this perceived dishonesty has been disengagement from their work and public life. This behavior has proven problematic for the managers who have aggressively pursued strategies to control perception of risk, create trust, and build engagement in work. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at a Brno engineering firm, this chapter will analyze these strategies and their results, and suggest how the understandings developed in this case might be more broadly applied.
Identifying Flexibilities
Authors: Trux Marja-Liisa
Published: May 2011

This chapter takes you to a data security workplace in Finland. It presents reflections on the tensions of managing selves and others, as experienced by the employees and the managers. It argues that a generally critical approach to normative management may be overlooking the actual complexity and ambiguous nature of the late modern cultural environment. Both self-authoring and manipulative moves are made difficult by the amalgamating hegemonic and countercultural currents. The author points at chances for resistance through new forms of literacy. Instead of dropping “culture” as a conservative or managerial pursuit, we must learn to navigate successfully in the broken cultural landscape of today’s workplaces. The very same images that can be used for manipulation are open to more solidary configurations by the cultural and social imagination of organisational members.
Intention Driven Conceptual Modelling
Authors: Rolland Colette
Published: May 2011

Conceptual modelling aims to capture the relevant aspects of the world on which it is necessary to provide information. Whereas conceptual models succeeded in telling us how to represent some excerpt of the world in informational terms, they failed to guide system analysts in conceptualising purposeful systems, i.e. systems that meet the expectations of their users. This chapter aims to investigate the issue of conceptualising purposeful systems and to discuss the role that goal driven approaches can play to resolve it. It considers the challenge of new systems having a multifaceted purpose and shows how intention/strategy maps help facing this challenge.
Integrated Goal, Data and Process Modeling
Authors: Krogstie John
Published: May 2011

In organizations, goals and rules on different levels ranging from visions, to strategies, tactics, and operational goals have been expressed for a long time. In the IS-field, the interest on goals and rules has come from two directions. A) Business goals for use in requirements specification. B) Rule-based (expert) systems, focusing on automation of rule-execution. We were already 15 years ago involved in an EU-project Tempora together with Benkt Wangler and others where we tried to combine these worlds. Although able to produce interesting prototypes, the approaches we used then proved to be difficult to scale to an industrial setting. 15 years later we are involved in taking these approaches to a new level. We will in this paper present our approach to combining goal, data, resource and process modeling, in the support of the development and user-led evolution of what we term Model-generated Workplaces (MGWP), with an emphasis on the use of goal and rule-modeling in combination with process modeling. A case study extending an ongoing industrial trial of production rule systems is provided to illustrate some of the benefits of the approach.
A metadata Model and Related Framework for Unstructured Document Management in Organizations
Authors: Paganelli Federica , Pettenati Maria Chiara , Giuli Dino
Published: May 2011

Effectively managing documents is a strategic requirement for every organization. Available Document Management Systems (DMS) often lack effective functions for automatic document management. One reason is that relevant information frequently is conveyed by unstructured documents, whose content cannot be easily accessed and processed by applications. This article proposes a metadata model, the DMSML (Document Management and Sharing Markup Language), to enable and to ease unstructured document management by supporting the design of DMSs. We argue that the extensive use of this metadata language will render organizational information explicit, promoting information reuse and interoperability, in a more profitable way than what is guaranteed by proprietary DMSs. We also describe the DMSML Framework, a set of tools that we have developed in order to ease DMS design and deployment. Finally, we briefly depict the design and deployment phases of a Web-based DMS prototype based on the DMSML Framework.
Modeling, Analysing, and Control of Agents Behaviour
Authors: Capkovic František
Published: May 2011

An alternative approach to modeling and analysis of agents’ behaviour is presented in this chapter. The agents and agent systems are understood here to be discrete-event systems (DES). The approach is based on the place/transition Petri nets (P/T PN) that yield both the suitable graphical or mathematical description of DES and the applicable means for testing the DES properties as well as for the synthesis of the agents’ behaviour. The reachability graph (RG) of the P/T PN-based model of the agent system and the space of feasible states are found. The RG adjacency matrix helps to form an auxiliary hypermodel in the space of the feasible states. State trajectories representing the actual interaction processes among agents are computed by means of the mutual intersection of both the straight-lined reachability tree (developed from a given initial state toward a prescribed terminal one) and the backtracking reachability tree (developed from the desired terminal state toward the initial one; however, oriented toward the terminal state). Control interferences are obtained on the base of the most suitable trajectory chosen from the set of feasible ones.
Example-Based Framework for Propagation of Tasks in Distributed Environments
Authors: Król Dariusz
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we propose a generic framework in C# to distribute and compute tasks defined by users. Unlike the more popular models such as middleware technologies, our multinode framework is task-oriented desktop grid. In contrast with earlier proposals, our work provides simple architecture to define, distribute and compute applications. The results confirm and quantify the usefulness of such adhoc grids. Although significant additional experiments are needed to fully characterize the framework, the simplicity of how they work in tandem with the user is the most important advantage of our current proposal. The last section points out conclusions and future trends in distributed environments.
The Macroeconomic Benefits of Intelligent Enterprise
Authors: Siems Thomas F.
Published: May 2011

New information technologies, including e-commerce and the Internet, have brought fundamental changes to 21s t century businesses by making more and better information available quickly and inexpensively. Intelligent enterprises are those firms that make the most from new information technologies and Internet business solutions to increase revenue and productivity, hold down costs, and expand markets and opportunities. In this chapter, the macroeconomic benefits that intelligent enterprises can have on the U.S. economy are explored. We find that the U.S. economy has become less volatile, with demand volatility nearly matching sales volatility, particularly in the durable goods sector. Evidence also suggests that firms are utilizing new information technologies to lower inventory levels relative to sales, leading to higher productivity growth, lower prices, and more competitive markets.
Application of Computer Technology in Mechanical Industry of China
Authors: Liu Jian-Xiong , Xiao Zheng-Ming , You Cha-Biao , Wu Yu-Fei
Published: May 2011

With the constant development and constant completion of function, and its fast popularization in the world, the impact of computer technology on mechanical industry of China is more and more far-reaching. CAD/CAM/CAE, CIMS, computer controlling and network information play a very important role in rapid development and promotion of quality of mechanical industry in China. Application of computer technology has made enormous contribution to the improvement of manufacturing industry level and economic development of China. In this paper, it is analyzed that application situation of CAD/CAM/CAE technology, CIMS, computer control and network information technology in mechanical industry of China, and relevant study situation.
Society and World Wide Web in Developing Countries
Authors: Tunca Mustafa Zihni , Ipcioglu Isa
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) become ever more prevalent in last decade. ICTs profoundly affect both global and national economies. Nevertheless, the common view in the literature is that the development of ICTs has been mostly limited to developed countries and has been relatively slower in the rest of the world. There are many factors, affecting the acceptance and use of ICTs in developing countries. Although one of the most appealing research areas in recent years is technology acceptance of consumers, there is a little evidence that the findings of the majority of the technology acceptance studies, carried out in developed countries, could be generalized to developing countries. In this study, it is aimed to investigate why Turkish people use the Internet. After summarizing the recent household ICTs usage statistics, the most popular online activities, offered by the top 100 Turkish websites have been analyzed.
Fuzzy Sets and Analytical Hierarchical Process for Manufacturing Process Choice
Authors: Abdi M. Reza
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the decision process of manufacturing systems (MSs) under uncertain conditions. The decision process needs a systematic approach to structure the system requirements and highlight the management preferences while considering vague criteria. In order to establish a suitable empirical approach for the decision process compatible with the current/future requirements, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) is employed for structuring the criteria influencing the process choice. The application of the proposed AHP model for the selection of manufacturing process is demonstrated using numerical examples. In addition, due to dealing with vague data in the decision process, the uncertain criteria are characterised by typical fuzzy sets. The integrated fuzzy AHP is then analysed within the boundary conditions of the fuzzy criteria using the Expert Choice software. The proposed model is intended to be generic in structure and applicable to many firms.
Computational Intelligence Approach on a Deterministic Production-Inventory Control Model with Shortages
Authors: Roy Supriyo , Mukhopadhyay S. , Sengupta P.P.
Published: May 2011

Here, an attempt has been made to determine an optimal solution of a deterministic production-inventory model that consists of single deteriorating items and a constant rate of deterioration. In this proposed production-inventory model, lead time is taken to be negligible and demand rate is a ramp type function of time. Shortages are allowed and partially backlogged. During this shortage period, the backlogging rate is a variable which depends on the length of the waiting time over the replenishment period. Mathematical formulation of the problem highlighted the model as a complex nonlinear constrained optimization problem. Considering the complexities towards solution, modified real-coded genetic algorithms (elitist modified real coded genetic algorithm [MRCGA]) with ranking selection, whole arithmetic crossover, and nonuniform mutation on the age of the population has been developed. The proposed production-inventory model has been solved via MRCGA and simulated annealing and as well as standard optimization methods. Finally, the results are embedded with numerical example and sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to the different parameters of the system is carried out.
The Need for Systematic Replication and Tests of Validity in Simulation
Authors: Townsley Michael , Johnson Shane
Published: May 2011

This chapter outlines how simulation methods might be used to make valid causal inferences in the social sciences, specifically the study of crime. We argue that significant threats to validity exist for simulation studies and that, if researchers do not actively take measures to minimize these, much of the promise of simulation will not come to pass. Further, we nominate replication as a general method to facilitate the generation of valid findings. It is anticipated, with the burgeoning interest in simulation methods in criminology, that simulation studies will be published in sufficient detail that allows researcher scrutiny and replication, with a view to developing a cumulative body of scientific knowledge.