bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cooperation Between Expert Knowledge and Data Mining Discovered Knowledge
Authors: Alonso Fernando , Martínez Loïc , Pérez Aurora , Valente Juan Pedro
Published: September 2010

Although expert elicited knowledge and data mining discovered knowledge appear to be completely opposite and competing solutions to the same problems, they are actually complementary concepts. Besides, together they maximize their individual qualities. This chapter highlights how each one profits from the other and illustrates their cooperation in existing systems developed in the medical domain. The authors have identified different types of cooperation that combine elicitation and data mining for knowledge acquisition, use expert knowledge to enact the knowledge discovery, use discovered knowledge to validate expert knowledge, and use discovered knowledge to improve the usability of an expert system. The chapter also describes their experience in combining expert and discovered knowledge in the development of a system for processing medical isokinetics data.
Network Security
Authors: Thurimella Ramakrishna , Baird Leemon C.
Published: September 2010

Three pillars of security—confidentiality, integrity, and availability—are examined in the context of networks. Each is explained with known practical attacks and possible defenses against them, demonstrating that strong mathematical techniques are necessary but not sufficient to build practical systems that are secure. We illustrate how adversaries commonly side-step cryptographic protections. In addition, we contend that effective key management techniques, along with privacy concerns must be taken into account during the design of any secure online system. We conclude with a discussion of open problems for which fundamentally new methods are needed.
Cryptography-Based Authentication for Protecting Cyber Systems
Authors: Wang Xunhua , Lin Hua
Published: September 2010

Entity authentication is a fundamental building block for system security and has been widely used to protect cyber systems. Nonetheless, the role of cryptography in entity authentication is not very clear, although cryptography is known for providing confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation. This chapter studies the roles of cryptography in three entity authentication categories: knowledge-based authentication, token-based authentication, and biometric authentication. For these three authentication categories, we discuss (1) the roles of cryptography in the generation of password verification data, in password-based challenge/response authentication protocol, and in password-authenticated key exchange protocols; (2) the roles of cryptography in both symmetric key-based and private key-based token authentications; (3) cryptographic fuzzy extractors, which can be used to enhance the security and privacy of biometric authentication. This systematic study of the roles of cryptography in entity authentication will deepen our understanding of both cryptography and entity authentication and can help us better protect cyber systems.
Applied Cryptography in Infrastructure-Free Wireless Networks
Authors: Zhang Lei , Chang Chih-Cheng , Yao Danfeng
Published: September 2010

This chapter presents the technical challenges and solutions in securing wireless networks, in particular infrastructure-less wireless networks such as mobile ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks. Communications in infrastructure-less wireless networks are challenging, as there are no trusted base stations to coordinate the activities of mobile hosts. Applied cryptographic tools, in particular threshold cryptography, play an important role in the trust establishment, message security, and key management in such networks. We describe several technical approaches that integrate applied cryptography techniques into mobile ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks. We also outline several research directions in these areas.
Applied Cryptography in Electronic Commerce
Authors: Grzonkowski Slawomir , Ensor Brian D. , McDaniel Bill
Published: September 2010

Electronic commerce has grown into a vital segment of the economy of many nations. It is a global phenomenon providing markets and commercialization opportunities world-wide with a significantly reduced barrier to entry as compared to global marketing in the 20th century. Providing protocols to secure such commerce is critical and continues to be an area for both scientific and engineering study. Falsification, fraud, identity theft, and disinformation campaigns or other attacks could damage the credibility and value of electronic commerce if left unchecked. Consequently, cryptographic methods have emerged to combat any such efforts, be they the occasional random attempt at theft or highly organized criminal or political activities. This chapter covers the use of cryptographic methods and emerging standards in this area to provide the necessary protection. That protection, as is common for web-based protocols, evolves over time to deal with more and more sophisticated attacks. At the same time, the provision of security in a manner convenient enough to not deter electronic commerce has driven research efforts to find easier to use and simpler protocols to implement even as the strength of the cryptographic methods has increased. This chapter covers current standards, looking at several facets of the secure commercialization problem from authentication to intrusion detection and identity and reputation management. Vulnerabilities are discussed as well as capabilities.
Multimedia Information Security
Authors: Yang Ming , Trifas Monica , Bourbakis Nikolaos , Chen Lei
Published: September 2010

Information security has traditionally been ensured with data encryption techniques. Different generic data encryption standards, such as DES, RSA, AES, have been developed. These encryption standards provide high level of security to the encrypted data. However, they are not very efficient in the encryption of multimedia contents due to the large volume of digital image/video data. In order to address this issue, different image/video encryption methodologies have been developed. These methodologies encrypt only the key parameters of image/video data instead of encrypting it as a bitstream. Joint compression-encryption is a very promising direction for image/video encryption. Nowadays, researchers start to utilize information hiding techniques to enhance the security level of data encryption methodologies. Information hiding conceals not only the content of the secret message, but also its very existence. In terms of the amount of data to be embedded, information hiding methodologies can be classified into low bitrate and high bitrate algorithms. In terms of the domain for embedding, they can be classified into spatial domain and transform domain algorithms. In this chapter, we have reviewed various data encryption standards, image/video encryption algorithms, and joint compression-encryption methodologies. Besides, we have also presented different categories of information hiding methodologies as well as data embedding strategies for digital image/video contents. This chapter is organized as following: in Section-1, we give a brief introduction to data encryption system as well as the state-of-the-art encryption standards; Section-2 presents a review of representative image encryption algorithms; Section-3 first gives a brief introduction of lossless compression and then moves to joint compression-encryption algorithms; Section-4 presents different video encryption methodologies; Section-5 gives a brief introduction to information hiding techniques; Section-6 presents different categories of low bitrate information algorithms; Section-7 presents different categories of high bitrate information algorithms; Section-8 discusses the embedding strategies within digital video contents; this chapter is summarized in Section-9.
A User-Driven Approach to Developing Ambient Assisted Living Systems for Older People
Authors: Sixsmith Andrew , Mueller Sonja , Lull Felicitas , Klein Michael , Bierhoff Ilse , Delaney Sarah , Byrne Paula , Sproll Sandra , Savage Robert , Avatangelou Elena
Published: September 2010

This chapter describes some of the results of the EU-funded SOPRANO project to develop an Ambient Assisted Living system to promote active ageing and ageing-in-place. The chapter outlines SOPRANO‘s experience and application research approach to ensure that end-users are involved in all stages of the research and development. A number of key areas for application development were identified and developed as a set of use cases (or descriptive models), for example for medication reminding, and to support exercise. These use cases were further refined through visualization and iterative prototyping techniques with end-users to ensure usability, usefulness and acceptability for users. The SOPRANO prototype system is described together with future plans for deployment in demonstration sites and field trials.
Falls Prevention in the Home
Authors: Kenny Rose A. , Scanaill Cliodhna Ni , McGrath Michael
Published: September 2010

Approximately 1 in 3 people over the age of 65 fall each year; therefore it is of little surprise that falling is often accepted as a natural part of the aging process. Many falls are simply managed using alarm pendants to notify others when a falls event occurs. However, falls technology extends beyond simple notification; technology can be used to screen for falls risk, or to prevent a fall from occurring. In this chapter, we review the latest best practices for the identification of falls risk. We review the technology, if any, developed to support these practices, and discuss the challenges of using technology for in-home falls prevention, risk assessment and falls detection. Recommendations and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.
Meeting the Needs of Diverse User Groups
Authors: Zimmermann Gottfried , Alexandersson Jan , Buiza Cristina , Urdaneta Elena , Diaz Unai , Carrasco Eduardo , Klima Martin , Pfalzgraf Alexander
Published: September 2010

“Pluggable user interfaces” is a software concept that facilitates adaptation and substitution of user interfaces and their components due to separation of the user interface from backend devices and services. Technically, the concept derives from abstract user interfaces, mainly in the context of device and service control. Abstract user interfaces have been claimed to support benefits such as ease of implementation, support for User Centered Design, seamless user interfaces, and ease of use. This paper reports on experiences in employing pluggable user interfaces in the European project i2home, based on the Universal Remote Console framework, and the Universal Control Hub architecture. In summary, our anecdotal evidence supports the claims on the benefits, but also identifies significant costs. The experience reports also include some hints as to how to mitigate the costs.
Thinking Outside the Box
Authors: Pachana Nancy A. , Poulsen Emma E.
Published: September 2010

This chapter aims to examine the adoption of technology by older adults within a framework of current gerontological theories and research. Cognitive, physical, mental and interpersonal development and change later in life will also be described. Two main psychological frameworks for understanding successful ageing are briefly outlined and within these frameworks, the role of technology in enhancing the lives of older adults, regardless of the level at which they incorporate it into their lives, will be discussed. The chapter concludes with suggestions for removing barriers and enhancing uptake of technology for older adults, helping to bridge the grey digital divide.
Promoting Active Ageing through Technology Training in Korea
Authors: Han Donghee , Braun Kathryn L.
Published: September 2010

By 2050, people aged 60 and older will comprise 33% of Korea’s population, up from about 12% currently. In many occupational sectors, women retire at 55 and men at 60. This rapidly shifting demographic requires a new perspective on retirement and a better image of older persons in Korea. In line with the Active Ageing Framework of the World Health Organization, the Active Ageing Consortium in Asia Pacific (ACAP) advocates for changes to individual practices, social norms, and social policy to support the continued engagement of older adults as active contributors to society in the 21st century. Digital literacy is a critical element of Active Ageing, enhancing participation in today’s modes of communication and social connectivity. To promote the concept of Active Ageing with Digital Ageing, Korea’s Research Institute of Science for the Better Living of the Elderly (RISBLE) aims to increase Korean elders’ access to information and their opportunities for communication and participation. RISBLE’s programs—Cyber Family, Internet Navigator, and the 1080 Family Online Game Festival—help elders master new technology, strengthen intergenerational relations, gain leadership roles, and contribute as community teachers. This chapter reviews the Korean situation of ageing, outlines ACAP’s commitment to Active Ageing with Digital Ageing, and presents information on three RISBLE programs. These “best practices” are shared in hopes that other communities can learn from RISBLE’s work to reduce the ageing digital divide and promote digital life for older persons in South Korea.
Towards Next Generation Web
Authors: Akaltun Aylin , Maisch Patrick , Thalheim Bernhard
Published: September 2010

The rapid growth of information demands that new technologies make the right information available to the right user. The more unspecified content published, the more general usability of the World Wide Web is lost. The next generation‘s Web information services will have to be more adaptive to keep the web usable. User demands for knowledge reflecting his or her life case, specific intentions, and therefore a particular quality of content must be served in an understandable way. As a possible solution, the authors present a new technology that matches content against particular life cases, user models and contexts. In a first approach the authors give a quick overview of knowledge, the way it is perceived and an example application dealing with content matching and different views of information required for different kinds of audiences.
Your Personal, Virtual Librarian
Authors: Krumpholz Alexander , Hawking David , Gedeon Tom
Published: September 2010

Searching scientific literature is a common and critical activity for research scientists, students, and professionals such as medical clinicians. These search tasks can be time consuming and repetitive, but literature search and management tools are already making the job much easier. This chapter analyses the literature retrieval process, reviews some currently available tools and elaborates on potential future support for the knowledge worker by an intelligent automated assistant. A special focus of this chapter is the automatic retrieval of medical literature and the exploration of the answer space.
Dimensions of Design in K-12 Telementoring Programs
Authors: O’Neill Kevin
Published: September 2010

Teachers and researchers have been designing telementoring programs for more than fifteen years, yet there are many possible program designs that have not yet been attempted, and enormous potential yet to fulfill. An attempt is made to map out the “design space” of K-12 telementoring by discussing the major decisions made in designing a telementoring program, and the relationship of these decisions to one another. Where possible, research findings and examples of specific programs are cited in this discussion. By providing a look “under the hood” of telementoring programs, the chapter aims to help teachers become more equal partners in the effort to refine existing programs and develop new ones. Encouragement is offered to researchers to more fully articulate the rationale behind their designs in their writing, and to carry out more research on the efficacy of particular design choices, so that the field can develop cumulative literature on telementoring design.
Telementoring and Project-Based Learning
Authors: Yukawa Joyce
Published: September 2010

While common models of telementoring (ask-an-expert services, tutoring, and academic and career telementoring) can serve a variety of learning objectives, these models are limited with respect to sustained inquiry learning such as project-based learning (PBL). To reach the full potential of PBL with telementoring, this chapter proposes a telementoring model that integrates inquiry learning, information literacy, and digital media literacy and is implemented by a team of experts – subject matter experts as telementors, classroom teachers, school librarians, and instructional technology specialists. The model provides for multifaceted learning experiences for students that involve disciplinary knowledge and habits of mind, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, and information, media, and technology skills. Brief overviews of inquiry learning approaches, information literacy, and digital media literacy are described in relation to telementoring. Design considerations, the benefits and challenges of the model, and broader implications for educational change are also discussed. Using the integrated telementoring model, the PBL team exemplifies the interdisciplinary collaboration and new literacy skills that students need in today’s workplaces and communities.
Meeting the Needs of Adolescents and Young Adults with Disabilities
Authors: Hill Katharine , Timmons Joe , Opsal Christen
Published: September 2010

Resilience in at-risk youth is anchored by supportive adults who may be relatives, neighbors, teachers, employers, or other members of the community. Telementoring or electronic mentoring (e-mentoring) is a promising practice for improving transition-to-adulthood outcomes for youth with disabilities through connections with caring adults. E-mentoring supports the development of technological and social skills and also increases their understanding of the employment and educational opportunities that await youth upon completion of high school. Connecting to Success (CTS) is an e-mentoring program for transition-age youth with disabilities. In this chapter, CTS is discussed in the context of healthy youth development and transition to adulthood. An overview of the CTS program model is provided, and a discussion of future directions is identified.
Telementoring and Virtual Professional Development
Authors: Maurer Matthew J.
Published: September 2010

In science, examining how teachers can effectively learn content and inquiry-based pedagogy can often be nothing short of an intellectual, cognitive, and motivational maze. Professional development (PD) programs constructed specifically to aid teacher learning may fall short of their goals due to the high background variability of the participants, especially when mixing novice and master-level teachers. Only through conscious reorganization of instructional approaches can PD programs effectively address specific content and pedagogical needs while concurrently aiding the transition from novice to master-level teachers. It is time for a shift in how PD providers think about how teachers learn. Utilizing a theoretical perspective from Science Education, this chapter will demonstrate the benefits of moving to more of a contextual-based discourse that is accomplished through a virtual telementoring-based professional learning community (PLC) in order to enhance content, pedagogy, leadership skills, and positively impact teaching self-efficacy.
An Orientation to Web 2.0 Tools for Telementoring
Authors: Hastings Robin
Published: September 2010

This chapter gives an overview of Web 2.0 technologies and how they can support telementoring partnerships. Web 2.0 tools offer opportunities for increased networking and social interactivity. Synchronous (chats) and asynchronous (email) communication are possible with these tools. Some of the Web 2.0 capabilities that are introduced in this chapter include cloud computing, Facebook, Ning, and Twitter. FriendFeed and Groupware are also discussed as methods to organize and track a number of Web 2.0 applications for ease of use. Stability, data portability, privacy, and security are issues that are indicated for future research.
Web 2.0 for Tele-Mentoring
Authors: Smith Shari McCurdy , Shaik Najmuddin , Boles Emily Welch
Published: September 2010

Web 2.0 technologies are designed to be open, flexible, and collaborative offering many tools to support traditional or non-traditional tele-mentoring activities. The benefit of effortless sharing and connectivity comes with challenges in how we view such things as ownership, privacy, and duplicity. The Web 2.0 toolkit includes applications for web-based note-taking, shared documents, feedback, reflection, informal discussion, and presentation. The collaborative opportunities provided by mashable, social networking platforms allow users to flex time, geography, and projects. Professional educators continue to inform their practice and explore new ways to meet the needs of students. Web 2.0 technologies can support educational professionals by opening doors and classrooms world-wide. The chapter makes a comparison between online and mentoring instructional practice and highlights models for educational use of and aids in identification of tools for mentors and mentees.
Interoperability, Learning Designs and Virtual Worlds
Authors: Farley Helen
Published: September 2010

Given the relatively high costs associated with designing and implementing learning designs in virtual worlds, a strategy for the re-use of designs becomes imperative. IMS LD has emerged as the standard for the description and expression of learning designs. This chapter explores some of the issues associated with using the IMS LD specification for learning designs in virtual worlds such as Second Life and multi-player online role playing games such as World of Warcraft. The main issues relate to the inadequate description of collaborative activities and the inability to alter the design ‘on-the-fly’ in response to learner inputs. Some possible solutions to these problems are considered.
Building a Framework for an English Language Course in an LMS with SCORM Compliant Learning Objects and Activities
Authors: Arcos Francisco , Ortega Pablo
Published: September 2010

The human mind needs order to understand anything and, in this respect, standards are essential because they impose order on the world. More specifically, standards are bringing great new benefits to the e-learning realm. For instance, by adhering to standards, courseware builders can construct components completely independent of the management systems under which they are intended to run—that‘s interoperability. There is a tough struggle nowadays to find the most appropriate specification for learning content and to assure it is fully operative across the existing LMSs (Learning Management Systems) in the market. In that authors view, SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is coming afloat, outplaying most —if not all— its competitors. For that reason, the authors have been using SCORM learning objects to manage their course in Moodle for their students of English at the University of Alicante, obtaining so far satisfactory results. The authors‘ purpose in this article is twofold: on the one hand, they give an account of the problems they have met using SCORM in Moodle and how they have solved them. On the other, they explain the guiding aims of their Language Blend, which broadly said are the following: to set up a standard in language learning by means of a framework, wherein e-learning and in-person lectures merge strategically so that the benefits of both are enhanced.
E-Learning
Authors: Agustí Marta Fuentes , Velasco Margarida Romero , Serrano María José Hernández
Published: September 2010

Since the democratization of personal computers and Internet access formal and informal learning opportunities have multiplied, increasing the technological-supported contexts and contents. Despite the increasing opportunities for education, not all teachers have developed a satisfactory level of eCompetence (Schneckenberg, 2006), not being able to choose and implement a technology-supported learning solution efficiently. On the one hand we need to consider the phenomenon of digital emigrant teachers, which is linked to the avoidance of technologies; but on the other, we have a large number of technological-enthusiastic teachers that try to introduce tools and functionalities without assessing first: the cognitive load, the cost, the utility, the usability, the accessibility and the psycho-pedagogical criteria that must be considered before innovate with technologies. This chapter aims at both groups of teachers or instructional developers, by offering a review of the e-learning possibilities and criteria, based on several analyses carried out by the authors on higher educational settings. Based on the learner cantered perspective, this chapter purposes some criteria for assuring the quality in higher education e-learning contexts, mainly based on three categories: psycho-pedagogical utility, usability and accessibility. One of the principal goals of the chapter is to support -by means of the criteria- the selection of technologies and functionalities (collaborative tools, e-learning 2.0 solutions...), considering, above all, the learning objectives and the specific learning contexts. The chapter will introduce also some of the main technology-supported learning solutions and will provide a decision-framework to choose, implement and evaluate the integration of educational technology for e-learning.
Satisfaction Measurement in Education
Authors: Nacheva-Skopalik Lilyana
Published: September 2010

The chapter presents the importance of providing high quality e-learning and the need to apply the requirements of the standards from ISO 9000 series for continual improvement of the quality management systems in education. The work applies the main principles for multiple criteria decision making. An approach for satisfaction measurement is developed. It uses weighting coefficients as qualitative valuation of the importance of the quality characteristics and numerical valuation for the level of satisfaction with the quality characteristics. The suggested approach is suitable to apply for different purposes in education in order to achieve high quality e-learning. It is also suitable to apply to different areas within quality management systems.
Quality E-Learning Guidelines and their Implementation
Authors: Milne John , Suddaby Gordon
Published: September 2010

Quality e-learning guidelines have the potential to support staff and help provide e-learning that is learner centred, follows good practice, and is innovative, collaborative and sustainable. This chapter will introduce the e-Learning Guidelines for New Zealand and show how organisations have used them. It will present some of the benefits of the guidelines as well as the limitations and discuss how these limitations may be managed. The guidelines have been used in various ways in different organisations. Teaching staff have used the guidelines to search for information and ideas or to help in course design or redevelopment. Managers have used the guidelines to develop procedures to help staff in their use of e-learning. Staff developers have used them as a tool to inform debate about the quality of e-learning. The guidelines allow organisations to share their e-learning knowledge and experiences. Direction from the literature and experience from this project show that guidelines can enable organisations to improve their e-learning but that guidelines need careful implementation and staff support.
Online Delivery of Deaf Studies Curricula in Ireland at Third Level
Authors: Nolan Brian , Leeson Lorraine
Published: September 2010

Irish Sign Language (ISL), an indigenous language of Ireland, is recognized by the European Union as a natural language. It is a language separate from the other languages used in Ireland, including English, Irish, and, in Northern Ireland, British Sign Language. Some 5,000 Deaf people use ISL. Given the history of suppression of signed languages across what is now the European Union, the average Deaf person leaves school with a reading age of 8.5 to 9 years. It is no surprise, therefore, that Deaf people are the most under-represented of all disadvantaged groups at third level. This poses two challenges: (1) getting Deaf people into third level and (2) presenting education in an accessible form. In the authors‘ work, they address directly these challenges in an Irish context, and this chapter reports on this work. In Ireland, two Dublin based institutions, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the Institute for Technology Blanchardstown, Dublin (ITB) have partnered to create a unique elearning environment based on MOODLE as the learning management system, in the delivery of Deaf Studies programmes at TCD. This partnership delivers third level programmes to students in a way that resolves problems of time, geography and access, maximizing multi-functional uses of digital assets across our programmes. Students can take courseware synchronously and asynchronously. The authors have built a considerable digital asset and have created a re-architected framework to avail of current best practice in rich digital media over Moodle with learning objects for ISL. Their digital assets include a corpus of ISL, the ‘Signs of Ireland Corpus’ which is one of the largest, most richly annotated in the world. They have operated online delivery since 2005, hosted by ITB. The hallmark of this project is the delivery of blended learning, maximizing ICT in the teaching and learning of ISL. It is important to note that there are currently no other universities delivering Deaf Studies programmes with this degree of online content internationally. Thus, this programme and its associated research is cutting edge innovation in its philosophy, its rich content and its utilization of rich media. Signed languages, by their nature, are visual-gestural languages, which (unlike spoken languages) do not have a written form. Given this, the online content is required to be multi-modal in nature and the authors utilize rich-media learning objects in their delivery. Within ITB and TCD, the authors have a number of doctoral level studies linked to this project. These focus, at one end of the continuum, on focusing on Deaf culture and is linked to the perspectives on Deaf Studies teaching modules, and at the opposite end of the continuum on describing, for ISL, the phonological-morphological interface in ISL ad which will enrich the digital corpus of ISL. These feed into the online programme.
Particle Swarm Optimizer for High-Dimensional Data Clustering
Authors: Lu Yanping , Li Shaozi
Published: September 2010

This chapter aims at developing effective particle swarm optimization (PSO) for two problems commonly encountered in studies related to high-dimensional data clustering, namely the variable weighting problem in soft projected clustering with known the number of clusters k and the problem of automatically determining the number of clusters k. Each problem is formulated to minimize a nonlinear continuous objective function subjected to bound constraints. Special treatments of encoding schemes and search strategies are also proposed to tailor PSO for these two problems. Experimental results on both synthetic and real high-dimensional data show that these two proposed algorithms greatly improve cluster quality. In addition, the results of the new algorithms are much less dependent on the initial cluster centroids. Experimental results indicate that the promising potential pertaining to PSO applicability to clustering high-dimensional data.
Text Mining for Analysis of Interviews and Questionnaires
Authors: Yamada Yasuhiro , Kato Kanji , Hirokawa Sachio
Published: September 2010

Interviews and questionnaires are the basis for collecting information about the opinions, concerns and needs of people. Analysis of those texts is crucial to understand the kansei of people. Text mining is an approach to discover useful and interesting patterns, knowledge and information from texts. This chapter contains two sections on text mining for beginners of it. The first section gives a brief survey of basic text mining techniques, such as keyword extraction, word graphs, clustering of texts and association rule mining. The second section demonstrates an example of text mining applied to interview analysis. Two text mining systems - the concept graph system and the matrix search system - are applied to analyze 2,409 remarks about products and services from 19 people. The analysis shows that text mining systems with a search function achieve interactive analysis of texts and an examination of various problems that we targeted.
Emotional Semantic Detection from Multimedia
Authors: Wang Shang-fei , Wang Xu-fa
Published: September 2010

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the size of digital media collections. Because emotion is an important component in the human classification and retrieval of digital media, emotional semantic detection from multimedia has been an active research area in recent decades. This chapter introduces and surveys advances in this area. First, the authors propose a general frame of research on affective multimedia content analysis, which includes physical, psychological and physiological space, alongside the relationships between the three. Second, the authors summarize research conducted on emotional semantic detection from images, videos, and music. Third, three typical archetypal systems are introduced. Last, explanations of several critical problems that are faced in database, the three spaces, and the relationships are provided, and some strategies for problem resolution are proposed.
3D3C Real Virtual Worlds Defined
Authors: Sivan Yesha
Published: September 2010

The goal of this chapter is to two fold: first to define and expose the domain of “Real Virtual Worlds” and secondly to define the critically of Commerce within this domain. It is the assumption of this chapter that this new field of virtual worlds is destined to become a major force in 5-10 years. Much like the internet, Real Virtual Worlds, will change, enhance, and sometimes hamper how we learn, have fun, work, and perform human action. Virtual worlds are defined as an integration of 3D, Community, Creation and Commerce (3D3C). Building on this definition, we develop the “commerce” factor. My goal is to establish commerce in a critical integral part of virtual worlds. Even more, without commerce, we will probably miss the larger potential of real virtual worlds.
Virtual Market Economies and the Business of Virtual Worlds
Authors: Hwang Lee
Published: September 2010

Virtual worlds have long been a gleam in the visionary’s eye: the essential concept of a virtual world may have originated with Pliny (Biocca & Levy, 1995). Much has been written about the impact of virtual worlds, both socially and economically, on their users. This chapter offers an overview of the economies of virtual worlds and the business impact of managing them. Against logic, virtual economies are closer to true market economies than any real world economy. They are also rapidly growing in size and value. With increasing attention from real world governments and tax authorities, virtual economies are stimulating changes in the business of virtual worlds. Virtual world operators have an opportunity to, through their responses, either preserve their investments and their businesses by ensuring a secure role for the market economies they have created, or face serious threats to their business as the real world interferes with virtual fun.
The Role of Standards for E-Commerce in Virtual Worlds
Authors: Kloss Joerg H.
Published: September 2010

This chapter discusses the topic of standards for Virtual Worlds with emphasis on their usability as a stable and reliable basis for long-term investments into 3D-E-Commerce. The text explains why standards are important for the success of Virtual Worlds as well as the business in these shared online 3D environments, and what the relevant criteria are to decide for the right technology and/or provider. Although sometimes in the shadow of popular proprietary platforms there are already many different candidates for a Virtual World standard, currently in different states of development. By choosing a 3D platform, E-Commerce providers will decide about their business potential and at the same time strengthen one or another standard in the current technical competition phase. So it is important to get an overview about the current approaches, their advantages and disadvantages as well as the tendencies for the future developments. In this chapter the reader will be sensitized for the issues of standardization, compatibility and interoperability of Virtual Worlds for successful E-Commerce applications. An overview about the current approaches supports the orientation and decision for the different technologies. Some concrete XML-based code examples realized in the international ISO standard for interactive 3D-Graphics X3D demonstrates the practical deployment of highly compatible concepts. An outlook to the further integration of interactive 3D graphics into the Next Generation Web respectively the 3D Internet completes the overview.
Virtual Worlds
Authors: Schultz Charles P.
Published: September 2010

Christensen (2002) describes that new technologies and solutions replace established goods and services as a result of being “good enough” replacements. That is, the value of functions provided by a new solution outweighs any further incremental improvements to the entrenched product. The new value could be in terms of size, convenience, cost or other dimensions pertinent to many consumers. These attributes might be traded off for capacity or performance or other factors which are deemed less important than the new benefits. Virtual worlds are providing new value in many areas of commerce, business, health and recreation. They are not a fad. They are part of an ongoing change. Virtual worlds are in an opportunistic position to supplant many existing solutions and may be only one or two breakthroughs away from displacing more.
Stochastic Learning-based Weak Estimation and Its Applications
Authors: Oommen B. John , Rueda Luis
Published: September 2010

Although the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been researched for more than five decades, researchers, scientists and practitioners are constantly seeking superior methods that are applicable for increasingly difficult problems. In this chapter, our aim is to consider knowledge-based novel and intelligent cybernetic approaches for problems in which the environment (or medium) is time-varying. While problems of this sort can be approached from various perspectives, including those that appropriately model the time-varying nature of the environment, in this chapter, we shall concentrate on using new estimation or “training” methods. The new methods that we propose are based on the principles of stochastic learning, and are referred to as the Stochastic Learning Weak Estimators (SLWE). An empirical analysis on synthetic data shows the advantages of the scheme for non-stationary distributions, which is where we claim to advance the state-of-the-art. We also examine how these new methods can be applicable to learning and intelligent systems, and to Pattern Recognition (PR). The chapter briefly reports conclusive results that demonstrate the superiority of the SLWE in two applications, namely in PR and data compression. The application in PR involves artificial data and real-life news reports from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). We also demonstrate its applicabilty in data compression, where the underlying distribution of the files being compressed is, again, modeled as being non-stationary. The superiority of the SLWE in both these cases is demonstrated.
Capacity Development Initiatives for Grass Roots Communities
Authors: Rahman Hakikur
Published: September 2010

The world has seen the unprecedented development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and adoption of their diversified methods in elevating all forms of human endeavors. Even a few years back, it was fashionable to speak about the global village. In recent years, many countries have taken leading role in implementing innovative ICT products to accelerate their national developments, enhance their livelihoods, strengthened their national economies and improve their governance systems. This has been observed that those countries could reap the most benefits out of ICT strategies, which could penetrate at the lowest tier of their governance system. In this context, human development is an element of importance. This research emphasizes that cumulative human development through community approach would be the next level of knowledge dynamics across the world. It also argues that as much the country provides thrust on capacity development initiatives at the grass roots, it has more opportunity to reach at greater context of governance system. This chapter would like to focus on two cases, which penetrated the grass roots reaching out to the community level, act as catalyst to strengthen their national economy and government. Some features and perspectives of e-Sri Lanka and e-Korea are being discussed here to provide insight into these cases, so that researchers in developing and transitional economies could gain knowledge.
The Information Management of Co-Located Emergency Response Rooms in The Netherlands
Authors: Boersma Kees , Groenewegen Peter , Wagenaar Pieter
Published: September 2010

This case is about the re-organization of the Dutch emergency response sector. It involves the diffusion and implementation of new communication and information technologies (ICTs), the introduction of safety regions and the establishment of co-located emergency response rooms (ERRs). The challenge for those organizations is to introduce the new technologies in such a way that they meet the demands of the people who have to work with them. The impact of the reorganization is illustrated by two embedded case studies: new ICTs in the safety-regions Hollands-Midden and Amsterdam-Amstelland. What the case shows is that the implementation of new ICTs in the Dutch safety-sector is not just a matter of technological skills, but of a mutual shaping of the ICTs and the organizations to enhance platform of e-governance, in this aspect the emergency response system serves as an important element. That is an important lesson for those responsible for the Dutch safety-regions, which are confronted with a new organizational and technological challenge: Netcentric Work.
The Characteristics, Responsibilities and Future of Chief Information Officers in the Public Sector
Authors: Lawry Rachel , Waddell Dianne , Singh Mohini
Published: September 2010

This chapter presents a model which depicts the critical factors and assists in understanding the demands and effectiveness of Chief Information Officers (CIO) in public sector organisations. The chapter explores the literature on public sector CIO addressing personal and professional characteristics. It also reviews the literature pertaining to the responsibilities and career advancement and future directions in Government departments. The authors adopt a qualitative methodology by which semi-structured interviews are conducted with CIO representatives from a State Government in Australia. From collation of the interview results, utilising a ‘mind mapping’ strategy, the chapter identifies a model that adequately reflects the critical factors required for a public sector CIO. The chapter concludes that there are certain unique characteristics and responsibilities that a public sector CIO must possess yet a private sector CIO does not require. The chapter also acknowledges the importance of outlining a future direction of the role; something which is neglected by the literature.
Mobile Information Communication Technologies and Construction Project Management
Authors: Ahuja Vanita
Published: September 2010

Construction project management requires effective and real time information and data communication between all the project team agencies. In present scenario when the associating agencies may be geographically separated, and for projects with large site areas or being executed in hazardous or remote sites, the required information and data communication can be achieved through use of mobile communications. But, research shows that the adoption of mobile communications by the construction industry is limited. This chapter presents the issues affecting adoption of mobile communications by the construction industry, the research background, a case study of mobile communications adoption at a major construction project in India and further discusses the factors leading to sustainable mobile communication adoption by construction project teams. Construction industry primarily comprises small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Thus, the issues are studied with focus on adoption of mobile communications by SMEs.
Exploring Civil Servant Resistance to M-Government
Authors: de Kervenoael Ronan , Palmer Mark , Cakici N. Meltem
Published: September 2010

The concept of mobility, related to technology in particular, has evolved dramatically over the last two decades including: (i) hardware ranging from walkmans to Ipods, laptops to netbooks, PDAs to 3G mobile phone; (ii) software supporting multiple audio and video formats driven by ubiquitous mobile wireless access, WiMax, automations such as radio frequency ID tracking and location aware services. Against the background of increasing budget deficit, along with the imperative for efficiency gains, leveraging ICT and mobility promises for work related tasks, in a public administration context, in emerging markets, point to multiple possible paths. M-government transition involve both technological changes and adoption to deliver government services differently (e.g. 24/7, error free, anywhere to the same standards) but also the design of digital strategies including possibly competing m-government models, the re-shaping of cultural practices, the creation of m-policies and legislations, the structuring of m-services architecture, and progress regarding m-governance. While many emerging countries are already offering e-government services and are gearing-up for further m-government activities, little is actually known about the resistance that is encountered, as a reflection of civil servants’ current standing, before any further macro-strategies are deployed. Drawing on the resistance and mobility literature, this chapter investigates how civil servants’ behaviors, in an emerging country technological environment, through their everyday practice, react and resist the influence of m-government transition. The findings points to four main type of resistance namely: i) functional resistance; ii) ideological resistance; iii) market driven resistance and iv) geographical resistance. Policy implication are discussed in the specific context of emerging markets.