bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pedagogical Mash Up
Authors: Baird Derek E. , Fisher Mercedes
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we outline how educators are creating a “mash up” of traditional pedagogy with new media to create a 21st Century pedagogy designed to support the digital learning styles of Gen Y students. The research included in this paper is intended as a directional means to help instructors and course designers identify social and new media resources and other emerging technologies that will enhance the delivery of instruction while meeting the needs of today’s digital learning styles. The media-centric Generation Y values its ability to use the web to create self-paced, customized, on-demand learning paths that include using multiple platforms for mobile, interactive, social, and self-publishing experiences. These can include wiki, blogs, podcasts and other developing social platforms like Second Life, Twitter, Yackpack and Facebook. New media provides these hyper-connected students with a medium for understanding, social interaction, idea negotiation, as well as an intrinsic motivation for participation. The active nature of today’s digitally connected student culture is one that more resourcefully fosters idea generation and experience-oriented innovation than traditional schooling models. In addition, we describe our approach to utilizing current and emerging social media to support Gen Y learners, facilitate the formation of learning communities, foster student engagement, reflection, and enhance the overall learning experience for students in synchronous and asynchronous virtual learning environments (VLE).
Basics of Telecommunication Management
Authors: Tarnay Katalin
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a simple understandable approach to the basics of telecommunications management. This chapter is composed of four logically interlaced parts: the background information, the main components of telecommunications management, the future trends, and the conclusion. The background information section reviews the literature. The main part discusses management notions together with a short explanation of basic management systems. These systems include the management functions, the managed objects, the management information base, and the management protocols. The future trends section provides solutions most likely to appear in the future. The conclusion summarizes the fundamental mechanisms of this field.
A Survey on Classical Teletraffic Models and Network Planning Issues for Cellular Telephony
Authors: Barcelo-Arroyo Francisco , Martin-Escalona Israel
Published: May 2011

Research on traffic characterization and analysis of cellular networks has been very active in the past decades. However, it is difficult for networks planners to incorporate new results to network engineering. On the one hand, some models are very complex and need advanced programming and skills to be properly computed. On the other hand, reliability on those models is poor because there is a general lack of published field studies to corroborate them. This paper proposes simple well-known teletraffic models for cellular networks compared to the conventional Erlang-B frequently applied when a first estimate is needed. To this purpose, the latest results on the characterization of the arrival process and service time in cellular systems are reviewed. According to the arrival and service characteristics, three models are proposed to obtain a first approach to the performance characteristics of the cellular system. The first two models are extremely simple, allowing direct computation of performance through closed formulas, while the third requires simple programming.
Local Networks in Global Markets
Authors: Pires Iva Miranda
Published: May 2011

Competitiveness might be defined as the success with which firms and regions compete with one another over market shares and resources. Clusters are innovative, firm, organizational forms (networks of firms, services and institutions linked in a production value chain) in way to improve regional competitiveness in flexible, highly demanding and unpredictable markets. Since the early eighties, the “region” was rediscovered and a burgeoning literature from Californian, Italian and French scholars in sociology, economics and geography offered a wide range of perspectives on the relevance of the territory and the region to economic and social life.
Nature-Inspired Informatics for Telecommunication Network Design
Authors: Nesmachnow Sergio , Cancela Héctor , Alba Enrique
Published: May 2011

The speedy pace of change in telecommunications and its ubiquitous presence have drastically altered the way people interact, impacting production, government, and social life. The infrastructure for providing telecommunication services must be continuously renewed, as innovative technologies emerge and drive changes by offering to bring new services to the end users. In this context, the problem of efficiently designing the underlying networks in order to satisfy different requirements while at the same time keeping the capital and operative expenditures bounded is of ever growing importance and actuality. Network design problems have many variations, depending on the characteristics of the technologies to be employed, as well as on the simplifying hypothesis that can be applied on each particular context, and on the planning horizon. Nevertheless, in most cases they are extremely complex problems, for which exact solutions cannot be found in practice. Nature-inspired optimization techniques (belonging to the metaheuristic computational methods) are important tools in these cases, as they are able to achieve good quality solutions in reasonable computational times. The objective of this chapter is to present a systematic review of nature-inspired techniques employed to solve optimization problems related to telecommunication network design. The review is aimed at providing an insight of different approaches in the area, in particular covering four main classes of applications: minimum spanning trees, reliable networks, local access network design and backbone location, and cellular and wireless network design. A large proportion of the papers deal with single objective models, but there is also a growing number of works that study multi-objective problems, which search for solutions that perform well in a number of different criteria. While genetic algorithms and other evolutionary algorithms appear most frequently, there is also significant research on other methods, such as ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, and other nature-inspired techniques.
Cross-Layer Radio Resource Management Protocols for QoS Provisioning in Multimedia Wireless Networks
Authors: Bejaoui Tarek , Nasser Nidal
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the cross layer design for resource allocation over multimedia wireless networks. Conventional layered packet scheduling and call admission control schemes are presented and a number of cross-layered protocols that are recently proposed are investigated. The chapter highlights the QoS improvement and the performance gain obtained while considering the interlayer dependencies concept for various real-time and non-real-time applications. The authors hope that this chapter will assist in the understanding of the cross layering and its enhancement of the layered design for QoS provisioning in future multimedia wireless networks.
Strategic Technology Options in the Wireless Industry
Authors: Kim Hak j. , Weiss Marin B. , Morel Benoit
Published: May 2011

The major U.S. wireless operators already have announced their plans for the evolution of their networks towards 3G, but some uncertainties remain, such as emergence of new technologies (WiMAX and WLAN) and the consolidation among operators (AT&T Mobile and Sprint Nextel). The article discusses a real option based model for technology decisionsand applies it to the U.S. wireless industry as a case study. We also discuss what decisions must be made, what the outcomes are, and how the options model is validated. The preliminary results show that the evolution of wireless network technologies between generations (inter-generations migration scenario) is desirable (a positive net option value), but not desirable (a negative net option value) within generations (intra-generation migration scenario), in the U.S.
Role of Telecommunications in Precision Agriculture
Authors: McKinion James M.
Published: May 2011

Precision agriculture has been made possible by the confluence of several technologies: geographic positioning systems, geographic information systems, image analysis software, low-cost microcomputer- based variable rate controller/recorders, and precision tractor guidance systems. While these technologies have made precision agriculture possible, there are still major obstacles which must be overcome to make this new technology accepted and usable. Most growers will not do image processing and development of prescription maps themselves but will rely upon commercial sources. There still remains the challenge of storage and retrieval of multi-megabytes of data files for each field, and this problem will only continue to grow year by year. This chapter will discuss the various wireless technologies which are currently being used on three proof-of-concept farms or areas in Mississippi, the various data/information intensive precision agriculture applications which use wireless local area networking and Internet access, and the next generation technologies which can immensely propel precision agriculture to widespread use in all of agriculture.
On the Internationalization of the Wireless Telecommunications Industry
Authors: Powell Steven R.
Published: May 2011

Companies can benefit from diversifying internationally. This article analyzes the internationalization efforts of six major European wireless telecommunications service providers: Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Vodafone, Telenor and TeliaSonera. Although all six companies have invested heavily in foreign markets, their internationalization paths have not been the same, resulting in foreign market portfolios with different characteristics. Utilizing a proportionate customer weighting scheme based on the number of subscribers controlled by a company in each market, the article examines how the companies compared in 2007 versus 2002 in their extent and scope of internationalization and in the attractiveness of their foreign market portfolios with respect to some key growth, profitability, and risk market characteristics.
Broadband in America
Authors: Cooper Mark N.
Published: May 2011

Under the Bush Administration, the U.S. failed to close the digital divide and fell behind on broadband. In 2001, 54 percent of households did not have the Internet. In late 2007, 49 percent of households did nothave broadband. About 25 percent of households with incomes below $25,000 per year had broadband in 2007; whereas over 80 percent of households with incomes above $75,000 did. In 2001, the U.S. ranked third in the world in the penetration of broadband, but had fallen to 15th by 2007. A variety of measures of performance and econometric models that control for economic and social factors show a dozen nations are ahead of the U.S. The laissez faire policy pursued by the Bush administration let a duopoly of cable and telephone companies dribble out broadband at slow speed and high prices. In contrast, the nations that passed the U.S. implemented much more aggressive policies to promote broadband and instead of relying on weak intermodal competition, they required the dominant networks to be open to competition in Internet services. This kept the price down and stimulated adoption and innovation.
Designing Contracts for Business Networks
Authors: Rittgen Peter
Published: May 2011

Economic activities within and between networked organizations can be coordinated via hierarchies (internal coordination) or markets (external coordination). There are theories that explain both agency theory (Jensen & Meckling, 1976) and transaction cost economics (Williamson, 1985). It is assumed that networked organizations design their organization and network of trading partners such that the sum of internal and external coordination costs is minimized. The impact of information technology (IT) has been assessed in different ways. Malone, Yates, and Benjamin (1987) expected that IT will lower transaction costs and lead to increased market coordination. Clemons, Reddi, and Row (1993, p. 9) posited that organizations will “move to the middle”, that is, to “more outsourcing, but from a reduced set of stable partnerships” if non-contractible issues such as quality and trust play an important role. Empirical evidence (Holland & Lockett, 1997) shows that companies often mix aspects from both markets and hierarchies.
A Strategy for Enterprise VoIP Security
Authors: Stevens Dwayne , Green David T.
Published: May 2011

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks signal an evolution in telecommunications that is accelerating the convergence of the Internet and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Offering decreased costs and other benefits, VoIP is poised to transform telecommunications and the organizations that use them. However, some consider VoIP a security nightmare, combining the worst vulnerabilities of IP networks and voice networks. DOS attacks, crash attacks, packet spoofing, buffer overflow attacks, spam over Internet telephony (SPIT), and word injection all pose threats to commercial enterprise networks and the mission critical operations that they support.
Distributed Algorithms for Delay Bounded Minimum Energy Wireless Broadcasting
Authors: Çiftlikli Serkan , Öztoprak Figen , Erçetin Özgür , Bülbül Kerem
Published: May 2011

In this article, we investigate two different distributed algorithms for constructing a minimum power broadcast tree with a maximum depth ? which corresponds to the maximum tolerable end-to-end delay in the network. Distributed Tree Expansion (DTE) is based on an implementation of a distributed minimum spanning tree algorithm in which the tree grows at each iteration by adding a node that can cover the maximum number of currently uncovered nodes in the network with minimum incremental transmission power and without violating the delay constraint. In Distributed Link Substitution (DLS), given a feasible broadcast tree, the solution is improved by replacing expensive transmissions by transmissions at lower power levels while reserving the feasibility of the tree with respect to the delay bound. Although DTE increases the message complexity to O(n3) from O(n2?) in a network of size n, it provides up to 50% improvement in total expended power compared to DLS.
Game Theory for PHY Layer and MAC Sublayer in Wireless Telecommunications
Authors: Escudero-Garzás J. Joaquín , García-Armada Ana
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to address the role of a novel concept in wireless telecommunications: Game theory. Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics, which has recently drawn attention as a powerful tool to solve complex problems in wireless environments. To fulfil the intended goal, this chapter introduces the most relevant concepts of game theory such as game, player, and strategy, and give an overview of the applications of game theory in wireless networks.
Handoff Management in Next Generation Wireless Networks
Authors: Nasser Nidal , Bejaoui Tarek
Published: May 2011

Major research challenges in the next generation of wireless networks include the provisioning of worldwide seamless mobility across heterogeneous wireless networks, the improvement of end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), supporting multmedia services over wide area and enabling users to specify their personal preferences. The integration and interoperability of this multitude of available networks will lead to the emergence of the fourth generation (4G) of wireless technologies. 4G wireless technologies have the potential to provide these features and many more, which at the end will change the way we use mobile devices and provide a wide variety of new applications. However, such technology does not come without its challenges. One of these challenges is the user’s ability to control and manage handoffs across heterogeneous wireless networks. This chapter proposes a solution to this problem using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). The proposed method is capable of distinguishing the best existing wireless network that matches predefined user preferences set on a mobile device when performing a vertical handoff. The overall performance of the proposed method shows 87.0 % success rate in finding the best available wireless network.
Structural Changes and Regulatory Challenges in Japanese Telecommunications
Authors: Fuke Hidenori
Published: May 2011

The structure of the telecommunications industry in Japan has been changing revolutionarily. The changes are observed in five phases: (1) development of competition into the local call market, (2) diffusion of broadband Internet and development of inter-platform competition, (3) rapid growth of cellular services and Internet access via cellular, (4) decline of POTS (plain old telephone service), and (5) structural changes from vertical integration to layered structure and development of media convergence. These changes require total review of the regulatory framework that was formed in the POTS era. In this chapter, I propose to review: (a) essential facilities regulation, (b) a universal service system, and (c) a flat-rate pricing system of the Internet to solve problems that are likely to distort the new industry structure and would stress the importance of a regulatory system that is competition, technology, and content neutral.
Improvement of Simulative Analysis in Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Fazio M. , Villari M. , Puliafito A.
Published: May 2011

Ad hoc networks present special issues that often makes classical approaches for network analysis insufficient. In this paper we propose a new methodology to study communication protocols and architectures in ad hoc networks. Usually, solutions for ad hoc scenarios are analyzed and evaluated through simulative tools. The paper shows limitations of the traditional simulative approach and the improvements that the Discrete Fourier Transform analysis can produce if it is applied on the results from simulations. The proposed methodology gets advantages (such as simplicity and flexibility) from simulative investigation approaches overcoming the great drawback of loss of information on rare events. In fact, it transfers the time-dependent measurements into the frequency domain allowing to point out the occurrence of events which take place only under particular conditions and to detect occasional misbehaviors of the system. For these reasons the presented technique is suitable for both protocol debugging and system performances evaluation.
Performance and Complexity Evaluation of OTR-UWB Receiver
Authors: Gharaee Hossein , Nabavi Abdolreza , Etminan Jalil ("Joe")
Published: May 2011

This article presents a new transmitted reference UWB receiver, which utilizes the orthogonal property of even and odd order derivatives of Gaussian pulses in neighboring chips for synchronization. This system, referred to as orthogonal TR-UWB (OTR-UWB), employs only a single spreading code, which results in much lower mean detection time compared to DS-UWB systems. The hardware complexity for OTR-UWB receiver is significantly reduced against conventional TR-UWB systems. In addition, simulation results show that BER performance is improved, while the new system is capable of supporting higher data rates. Also, this article presents the FPGA implementation of OTR-UWB, with a bit-rate of 25Mb/s without using equalizer. In addition, we present the DSP algorithm of baseband. Hardware of this system is implemented on two different FPGAs from ALTERA and XILINX, CycloneII (EP2C35F672C6) and Spartan 3 (3s4000fg676-5). Gate estimation and power analysis are performed by Quartus II 7.2 (ALTERA) and ISE 8.1 (XILINX) softwares.
Monitoring and Controlling of Healthcare Information Systems (HIS)
Authors: Graeber Stefan M. , Kutscha Ansgar
Published: May 2011

Information management (IM) at a health care institution encompasses the management of information, the management of application systems, and the management of information and communication technology whether computer supported or not, that is, IM provides function, performance, and quality of HIS. Management means, as well, the responsible persons and organizational units as the tasks of planning, directing, and monitoring HIS. IM has to be done systematically to enable an orderly processing of information coherent with the goals of the health care institution. While planning and directing are supported comprehensively by basic methods of strategic planning and project management (Brigl, Ammenwerth, Dujat et al., 2005; Haux, Winter, Ammenwerth, & Brigl, 2004; Winter, Ammenwerth, Bott et al., 2001), the monitoring is neglected sometimes and thus insufficiently supported (Ammenwerth, Ehlers, Hirsch, & Gratl, 2007). As nevertheless a continuous and careful monitoring is a very important task in interaction with all other management tasks, we will define the relevant terms and describe the most significant concepts and methods.
Evaluating Healthcare IT and Understanding the Work of Healthcare are Entangled Processes
Authors: Schulman Joseph
Published: May 2011

Parallel to the monumental problem of replacing paper- and pen-based patient information management systems with electronic ones is the problem of evaluating the extent to which the change represents an improvement. Meaningful and useful evaluation rests upon: a) explicitly conceptualizing the goals and tasks of the daily clinical work; b) thinking of electronic information management technology as a cognitive tool; c) explicitly representing in the tool the pertinent information elements; d) selecting among possibilities for representing a problem formulation so as to facilitate the solution; and e) appreciating the dynamic interaction between the work and the tool–that changing a tool necessarily changes the work. Anchored in the story of how one hospital committee learned to think about the purpose and impact of a patient information management system, this chapter gives practical insight to these evaluative considerations.
Enhancing ‘Fit’ of Health Information Systems Design Through Practice Support
Authors: Kuziemsky Craig E.
Published: May 2011

The design and implementation of healthcare information systems (HIS) is problematic as many HIS projects do not achieve the desired outcomes. There exist a number of theories to enhance our ability to successfully develop HIS. Examples of such theories include ‘fit’ and the sociotechnical approach. However, there are few empirical studies that illustrate how to understand and operationalize such theories at the empirical level needed for HIS design. This chapter introduces a practice support framework that bridges the gap between the theoretical and empirical aspects of HIS design by identifying specific process and information practice supports that need to be considered to actively produce fit of an HIS within a healthcare setting. The chapter also provides an empirical case study of how practice support was used to develop a computer based tool in the domain area of palliative care severe pain management.
Managing Mobile Healthcare Knowledge
Authors: Räisänen Teppo , Oinas-Kukkonen Harri , Leiviskä Katja , Seppänen Matti , Kallio Markku
Published: May 2011

Incorporating healthcare information systems into clinical settings has been shown to reduce medication errors and improve the quality of work in general by improving medical decision making and by saving time. This chapter aims to demonstrate that mobile healthcare information system may also help physicians to communicate and collaborate as well as learn and share their experiences within their work community. Physicians’ usage of a mobile system is analyzed through a knowledge management framework known as the 7C model. The data was collected through the Internet among all of the 352 users of the mobile system. The results indicate that frequent use of the system seemed to improve individual physicians’ knowledge work as well as the collective intelligence of a work community. The guide for acute care, evidence-based medicine guidelines and information related to drug interactions supported the knowledge creation to a large extent. As such, mobile healthcare information systems may be capable of supporting the different sub-processes of knowledge creation and the knowledge work of individual physicians, and through this also improving the collective intelligence of the work community. Overall, knowledge management seems to be a prominent approach for studying healthcare information systems and their impact on the work of physicians.
Personal Health Records Systems Go Mobile
Authors: Olla Phillip , Tan Joseph
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview of mobile personal health record (MPHR) systems. A Mobile personal health record is an eclectic application through which patients can access, manage, and share their health information from a mobile device in a private, confidential, and secure environment. Personal health records have evolved over the past three decades from a small card or booklet with immunizations recorded into fully functional mobile accessible portals, and it is the PHR evolution outside of the secure healthcare environment that is causing some concerns regarding privacy. Specifically, the chapter reviews the extant literature on critical evaluative components to be considered when assessing MPHR systems.
Exploiting Process thinking in Health Care
Authors: Paavola Teemu
Published: May 2011

In Finland, a project designed to modernize processes and reduce the waiting list for joint replacement surgery has recently been completed. The new surgery arrangements for artificial joint patients were monitored for a period of 1 year. The new arrangements involved relocating the anaesthesia phase outside the operating theatre. The reorganization of the patient care process for joint replacement surgery succeeded in achieving a 50% increase in operations. While conventional operations can often be pushed up a notch with state-of-the-art technology, for example, this article supports the argument that process thinking can be exploited effectively to support new ways of work and improve productivity in health care. Paying enough attention to this at the planning stage can be vital to the success of new IT system implementation.
Developing Global Competitiveness in Healthcare
Authors: Wall William P.
Published: May 2011

Healthcare is a competitive business in its own right. Global competition in healthcare adds yet another complex dimension to the success of a healthcare organization. Providing state of the art technology along with the manpower and management skills to bridge boundaries and cultures, confronts today’s healthcare organizations with challenges that, while on the surface may appear simple, may also prove to be a bigger challenge to their success and survival than the medical care they are actually providing. This case study explores one major healthcare organization in Thailand posing the question of what it sees as critical to the success of healthcare competition in the global community. An inductive approach was utilized for a method of determining competitiveness. The resulting qualitative analysis of that data addresses issues of seeking and maintaining global competitiveness, providing superior quality care with competitive and reasonable pricing of sub-specialty and high acuity services and work effectively through strategic alliances. In the case of the healthcare organization in this study, global competitiveness is maintained through what they term “Thainess”. That “Thainess” or ability to provide comfort and hospitality at the same time as providing excellent medical care and facilities give them both economy of scale to provide reasonable pricing and a uniqueness in the medical care provided. Uniqueness and quality in service attracts strategic alliances of similar quality and allows for expansion into global communities that were not possible in the past.
Physician Characteristics and EMR Attitudes
Authors: Meinert David , Peterson Dane K.
Published: May 2011

Despite the numerous purported benefits of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), the medical profession has been extremely reluctant to embrace the technology. One of the barriers believed to be responsible for the slow adoption of EMR technology is resistance by many physicians who are not convinced of the advantages of using EMR systems. This study examined potential characteristics of physicians that might help identify those individuals that are most likely to pose a threat to the successful implementation of an EMR system in a multi-specialty clinic. The results demonstrated that older physicians and physicians with only minimal computer skills are more likely to have negative attitudes regarding EMR technology. Medical specialists were most likely to have positive attitudes with respects to the use of EMR systems, while primary care physicians were most likely to have doubts regarding the purported benefits of EMR technology.
Difficulties in Accepting Telemedicine
Authors: Crisóstomo-Acevedo María José , Aurelio Medina-Garrido José
Published: May 2011

Telemedicine requires a new type of worker: the health care teleworker. Nevertheless, physicians remain wary of adopting telemedicine. This work examines the sources of the resistance to incorporating telemedicine. We adopt a focus centering on the difficulties that human factors have in accepting the practice of telemedicine. Employees’ resistance to change comes mainly from the inertia that perpetuates traditional routines and methods of working. The success of telemedicine projects will be determined by these human factors as well as by an adequate use of information technology and an appropriate organizational management. This work also offers some practical implications in human resource management for managers of telemedicine projects to consider.
Practical Applications of Case Management Software for Practitioners in Health and Human Services
Authors: Cooper Lesley , Fox Dana , Stanley-Horn Diane
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims to demonstrate the capabilities and practical applications of a case management software system for not-for-profit organizations. Whilst a variety of software systems are available, for the purposes of this chapter the authors will use/refer to “Penelope,” a system designed by Athena, a Kitchener, Ontario software company. Penelope is a sophisticated piece of technology that can collect and analyze information on clients, services, human resources and outcomes. Although a wide range of data can be collected using this software, it cannot make decisions about what to record or how to scrutinize the data. The “what to record” and the “how to analyze and interpret” are management and clinical decisions. Effective use of case management software requires technical, management and analytical skills combined with leadership and imagination. Case management software systems and the information they provide are only as good as the planning and organizational systems in which they are used. The best starting point for practitioners and managers seeking answers to questions about their clients, services, community and policy, and to maximize the capabilities of case management software systems is the development and application of a program logic model unique to the agency in question. A program logic model focuses on the services and programs provided by the agency describing its’ inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes. Understanding how to develop and apply their model allows practitioners and managers to perform tasks such as performance monitoring, experimental and quasi experimental approaches program evaluations, and client satisfaction and outcome studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of their services to funding bodies, consumer groups, and their boards of directors whilst also providing a tool that can be used to enhance agency performance.
Privacy Management of Patient-Centered E-Health
Authors: Järvinen Olli P.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the privacy management framework as a means of studying patient-centered e-health. The chapter raises some important issues in regards to the privacy domain of e-health and offers a privacy framework to look at the issue that addresses some of the concerns people and industries have regarding privacy. The framework does not neglect the important distinction between the different interests affected by e-health. It acknowledges the voluntary nature of the way in which individuals have surrendered control over personal information in exchange for the benefits that information technology brings. Because the applications of information technology are logically malleable, there are sufficient strategic reasons to suggest that privacy management as a concept and practice will survive, and that to ignore privacy issues might be fatal for the success of PCEH.
Improving the Quality of Healthcare Research Data Sets
Authors: Ghosh Biswadip
Published: May 2011

The goal of many healthcare research projects and evidence based medicine programs within healthcare organizations is to support clinical care team members by mining evidence from patient outcomes to support future treatment recommendations. In these research studies, the data is often extracted from secondary sources such as patient health records, benefits systems, and other nonresearch data sources. Good data is important to facilitate a good research study and to support clinical decisions using the results. Often multiple applicable healthcare data sources are available for a research study, some of which may be internal to the organization, while others may be external, such as state or national databases. This chapter attempts to develop an understanding of how the quality of data for healthcare research data sets can be established and improved when using secondary data sources, such as clinical or benefits databases, which were created without primary intentions for research use.
Queuing Theory and Discrete Events Simulation for Health Care
Authors: Kolker Alexander
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes applications of the discrete events simulation (DES) and queuing analytic (QA) theory as a means of analyzing healthcare systems. There are two objectives of this chapter: (i) to illustrate the use and shortcomings of QA compared to DES by applying both of them to analyze the same problems, and (ii) to demonstrate the principles and power of DES methodology for analyzing both simple and rather complex healthcare systems with interdependencies. This chapter covers: (i) comparative analysis of QA and DES methodologies by applying them to the same processes, (ii) effect of patient arrival and service time variability on patient waiting time and throughput, (iii) comparative analysis of the efficiency of dedicated (specialized) and combined resources, (iv) a DES model that demonstrates the interdependency of subsystems and its effect on the entire system throughput, and (v) the issues and perspectives of practical implementation of DES results in health care setting.
Mobile Health Applications and New Home Care Telecare Systems
Authors: Tafa Žilbert
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the very actual issues on mobile health (M-H) and home care (H-C) telecare systems, reviewing state of the art as well as theoretical and practical engineering issues crucial for designing these applications. The purpose, advantages and overall information and communication technology (ICT) architectures of M-H and H-C telecare systems are firstly presented. There are several engineering fields involved in the design of modern M-H and H-C applications. Making the optimal application-specific choice in each engineering aspect and achieving the right balance between complementary coupled technological requests are of crucial meaning so the main critical engineering issues (weighted at sensing node’s design and the wireless communications) are presented in details as well. Systematic theoretical review and accentuation of the design and realization problems given in this chapter can contribute in better understanding of crucial engineering issues and challenges on this topic as well as in giving the proper direction lines to approaching the practical realization of M-H and H-C telecare systems.
The S’ANT Imperative for Realizing the Vision of Healthcare Network Centric Operations
Authors: Wickramasinghe Nimini , Bali Rajeev K.
Published: May 2011

In the information-intensive environment of healthcare, the networkcentric approach has been proffered as one that allows free and rapid sharing of information and effective knowledge building required for the development of coherent objectives and their rapid attainment. This article asserts that if we are to realize such a vision it is imperative to draw upon strong rich analysis tools and techniques and thus calls for the application of Social Network Analysis combined with Actor-network Theory (S’ANT).
Still in Pursuit of the Fast Lane
Authors: Beneke Justin Henley
Published: May 2011

South Africa may be renowned for its natural attractions, warm climate and fine wine. But certainly not for high quality broadband. The country has fallen behind its international peers – both developing and developed markets – in the race to rollout Internet connectivity. In fact, even within the African continent, it is neither a leader nor progressive in comparison to its North African counterparts. This chapter aims to provide a chronology of the major developments in the provision of broadband Internet services in South Africa, as well as touching on the challenges faced in bringing this phenomenon into the mainstream. Reasons for the lack of diffusion and adoption of such services point to high end user costs of the service, a limited geographical footprint of both fixed-line and mobile broadband infrastructure, as well as a lack of computer literacy and understanding of what broadband is able to offer. The chapter continues to look at possible solutions including introducing a greater degree of competition into the market to facilitate downward pressure on prices, provisioning further international bandwidth through undersea fibre optic cables, as well as the unbundling of the local loop, to further this objective.
The Federal Communication Commission’s National Broadband Plan
Authors: Meisel John B. , Navin John , Sullivan Timothy S.
Published: May 2011

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 charged the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop and deliver to Congress a national broadband plan by February 17, 2010. The FCC formally commenced the process of developing the plan by issuing a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on April 8, 2009. The NOI identified broadband issues and critical questions and asked stakeholders to respond to these issues and questions with data and analysis. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the written documents generated by stakeholders’ responses concerning the specific issues of open networks and competition and to make recommendations to the FCC in its formulation of federal policy as to the position that makes the most economic sense on these issues. We find that many of the arguments and concerns of stakeholders are dependent upon predictions regarding the competitiveness of ISP markets. We predict with confidence that technological innovations are likely to make many legal arguments (on all sides) obsolete in the near future.
Mobile Phones Like Any Other ICT?
Authors: Tsatsou Panayiota
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores mobile phones and how they have been received in juxtaposition with the Internet and in close association with socio-cultural contexts of life. By examining the Greek case and its particularities, the chapter provides some sense of why different Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones and the Internet, might be received and adopted differently by people living in the same socio-cultural context (at the national level). In the case of Greece, statistical and historical data confirm the contrasting receptions of mobile phones and the Internet but empirical evidence is lacking to explain the exceptionally high adoption rates of mobile phones in the country. Thus, the chapter reports on original empirical evidence obtained in elite actors’ interviews and focus groups of ordinary people to explain the contrasting ways mobile phones and the Internet have been received in the country. On the basis of these empirical findings, the chapter finds that certain socio-cultural contexts, such as that of Greece, favour mobile phones more than the Internet, thus making mobile telephony a distinctive case of ICT.
The European Research and Education Networks
Authors: Mustafee Navonil , Taylor Simon J.E.
Published: May 2011

e-Science is the future of Science. It necessitates the use of powerful computing resources, massive data sets, remote instruments, scientific/visualisation software and expertise that are distributed around the world. e-Infrastructures refer to the underlying computing technologies that facilitate e-Science. To weave these distributed resources into a cohesive entity, and thereby enabling such large-scale science to be conducted in highly distributed environments, needs the utilisation of high speed communication networks. The European Research and Education Networks provide the connectivity required to ensure Europe’s leadership in e-Science. These networks not only provide the communication resources required to conduct e-Science, but they also offer high-speed Internet access to Universities and educational institutes to facilitate teaching and learning. The objective of this book chapter is to inform the readers of the organisation of the underlying European networks that are used by millions of researchers, academics and students. The importance of these networks are highlighted by presenting six e-Science and e-Infrastructure projects that are being funded by the European Commission.
Media Platform Competition
Authors: Liu Yu-li , Hsu Wen-yi
Published: May 2011

In Taiwan, there are three major TV platforms: terrestrial TV, cable TV, and IPTV. When faced with various TV platforms, the consumers in Taiwan will be able to choose from many broadcasts. When a new medium emerges, there are always concerns of its displacement effects on existing media. Many studies have explored the displacement effects of newly-emerging media, and have come up with a variety of sometimes conflicting findings (Lee & Leung, 2006). This chapter aims to analyze the media platform competition, namely, the displacement effect of IPTV on cable TV. The research methods used include a literature review and a telephone survey. With regard to the telephone survey, 612 of CHT’s IPTV users were selected systematically based on the name lists provided by the service provider. In this study, while the platform displacement effect of IPTV on cable TV is clear, the statistics reveal a different result for the time displacement effect.
Spam Detection Approaches with Case Study Implementation on Spam Corpora
Authors: Issac Biju
Published: May 2011

Email has been considered as one of the most efficient and convenient ways of communication since the users of the Internet has increased rapidly. E-mail spam, known as junk e-mail, UBE (unsolicited bulk e-mail) or UCE (unsolicited commercial e-mail), is the act of sending unwanted e-mail messages to e-mail users. Spam is becoming a huge problem to most users since it clutter their mailboxes and waste their time to delete all the spam before reading the legitimate ones. They also cost the user money with dial up connections, waste network bandwidth and disk space and make available harmful and offensive materials. In this chapter, initially we would like to discuss on existing spam technologies and later focus on a case study. Though many anti-spam solutions have been implemented, the Bayesian spam detection approach looks quite promising. A case study for spam detection algorithm is presented and its implementation using Java is discussed, along with its performance test results on two independent spam corpuses – Ling-spam and Enron-spam. We use the Bayesian calculation for single keyword sets and multiple keywords sets, along with its keyword contexts to improve the spam detection and thus to get good accuracy. The use of porter stemmer algorithm is also discussed to stem keywords which can improve spam detection efficiency by reducing keyword searches.
Network Security through Wireless Location Systems
Authors: Peres André , Weber Raul Fernando
Published: May 2011

The advantage of wireless local area networks, giving the mobile stations the possibility of moving freely inside the network access range comes with a security drawback. The fact that microwave signals can transpose walls and suffers with attenuation, reflections, refraction, diffraction and dispersion, depending of the obstacles, makes very difficult to define the network access range. Without the knowledge of the network boundaries, the network administrator cannot define a physical delimiter to network access. Without the user-location, it is impossible to restrict the network access based on the physical access boundaries defined by the administrator. When the wireless network operates indoor, the many obstacles and the dynamic behavior of these obstacles (some people moving around, for instance) make the microwave signal behavior change the range and aspect of the network. This work proposes a new approach to indoor user-location mechanism, based on the dynamic behavior of the obstacles and consequent changes on network range in IEEE 802.11 networks. Finally a new authentication system WlanAuth, based on the user location is proposed.
Biologically-Inspired Learning and Intelligent System Modeling
Authors: Morgavi Giovanna
Published: May 2011

Artifacts having to perform in the real world should be able to cope with uncertain situations and react quickly to changes in the environment. Living systems, starting from a pre-structured set of functions, develop competence to better adapt to the environment all life long, from childhood to maturity. This phenomenon is called growing up. A developmental intelligence for growing up robots must be able to generate autonomously representations for unknown knowledge and skills. Models of development can play an important role in specifying the minimal preferences, faculties, and processes needed for this skill to emerge. A perspective on the analysis of some adaptive learning processes originating from literature and experiments in natural world result in some suggestion intelligent system architecture modeling.