bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
User Assisted Creation of Open-Linked Data for Training Web Information Extraction in a Social Network
Authors: Necasky Martin , Lasek Ivo , Fiser Dominik , Peska Ladislav , Vojtas Peter
Published: May 2013

For the first problem we propose several procedures on how to create Open-Linked data, including assisted creation of annotations (serving as base line or training set for Web Information Extraction tools), employing the social network, and also specific approaches to creating Open-linked data from governmental data resources. We describe some cases where such data can be used (e.g., in e-commerce, recommending systems, and in governmental and public policy projects).
Publishing Statistical Data following the Linked Open Data Principles
Authors: Rodríguez Jose María Alvarez , Clement Jules , Gayo José Emilio Labra , Farhan Hania , Ordoñez de Pablos Patricia
Published: May 2013

This chapter introduces the promotion of statistical data to the Linked Open Data initiative in the context of the Web Index project. A framework for the publication of raw statistics and a method to convert them to Linked Data are also presented following the W3C standards RDF, SKOS, and OWL. This case study is focused on the Web Index project; launched by the Web Foundation, the Index is the first multi-dimensional measure of the growth, utility, and impact of the Web on people and nations. Finally, an evaluation of the advantages of using Linked Data to publish statistics is also presented in conjunction with a discussion and future steps sections.
2008 – 2011 World Economic Crisis, New Paradigms, Science Methodology, Information Systems, and Decision Systems
Authors: Güvenen Orhan
Published: May 2013

The human society and market structures need a “regulatory framework,” new paradigms which endogenize ethics, efficiency, rights, and minimize risks in decision systems, which can converge in peace and human sustainability. Ethics is a necessary condition for any system at the individual, institutional, corporation, national, and international levels. Globalization with automation transformed global market parameters. Information distortion in information systems may create high alternative costs such as problems of quantification of socio-economic phenomena and negative impacts on quantitative and qualitative distortions in decision-making structures. In the 21st century, it became a necessary condition to transform power driven systems to science and culture and endogenize ecology, ethics, which aims “human optimal” welfare decision systems at the world level.
Financial Crisis Reveals Systemic Crisis of Official Statistics
Authors: Wernicke Immo H.
Published: May 2013

The financial crisis of 2008 reveals a significant distortion of the information system and a systemic crisis of the internationally agreed upon National Accounts Approach in Germany. Reports on economic growth and on political key indicators like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) failed, when in 2008 the bankruptcy of the finance system and in 2011 the end of the EURO were to be feared. Comments on the poor statistical results were expressed by the German chancellor Angela Merkel first in 2008. The investigation of the political relevance and reliability of official results reveal distortions and failures that are due to National Accounts and its “toxically infected” database. Positivists like Popper, Carnap, and Friedman criticized for long the tautological bookkeeping approach. Schumpeter puts aggregations to planned economies. The “monetary curtain” of Mises, however, hides the “real economy” and the “bubbles” created by credit financing. Adam Smith might oppose the macro-economic theory of Paul Samuelson and John Meynard Keynes, as they do not differentiate between market production and state and bank services. GDP is a false political reference for monitoring and controlling economic stability. The enterprises, their balances, cash flow, liquidity, and equity are neglected. National assets, like natural resources and property, infrastructure, and logistics and geographical issues are inadequately covered by the present system. Data are poor on the impact of public debt and public ownership on the markets. Data bases are “toxically infected” due to “false response,” “shadow economy,” and “off-shore-hidden-money.” The framework of National Accounts needs revision to improve political relevance and reliability. Investigation is needed to estimate the bias of the database. Audited stocktakings and re-evaluations of accounts and balances are preconditions.
The Effect of Crises on Leadership
Authors: Çesmeci Nazmi , Özkaynak Süleyman , Ünsalan Deniz
Published: May 2013

Crises can be regarded as the nursery of leadership in a way. They have both created new leaders and have also proved to be a testing ground for the existing leaders, as well as a filter where the inefficient have been eliminated. Man-made crises have been classified as social, economical, and political crises up to recent times. With the development of modern markets, new financial tools have emerged. Those financial tools have the function of regulating the modern economy, but also they have the handicap of propagating their own crises from the economic field to social and political areas. In this context, crises give way to radical changes in the management paradigm. In such an environment, the leadership virtues of the previous paradigm period turn out to be insufficient. Institutions used to survive during the crisis periods by employing their crisis management plans. However, crises gain a permanent nature during the modern times and tactical crisis management becomes insufficient in the new environment. The phenomenon of permanent crisis forces leadership to have some special virtues. Therefore, it becomes necessary to define a new type of leadership, namely “strategic crisis leadership.” The aim of this chapter is to examine the impact of crises on leadership virtues and express reflections on the new type of leadership in the new paradigmal period.
Historically Reading the Concept of Gender by the Dilemma of Heterodox-Orthodox Vision
Authors: Akansel Ilkben
Published: May 2013

In this chapter, the authors analyze the concept of gender and its history; they look at the crisis that is caused by this concept in terms of both orthodox economy and the heterodox economy. A wide range of feminist economics arguments are considered. Feminist economics arguments correspond to the points of Antonio Gramsci’s “hegemony” and Louis Althusser’s “ideology.” Starting with both philosophers’ concepts, the authors explicate the dilemma of orthodox-heterodox economics. First, they discuss the vision of heterodox-orthodox economics. Then, they discuss how technology becomes an important part of orthodox economics, and through the aforementioned philosophers, they discuss what would happen in the economic system if this situation changes.
Major Factors Instigating Engineers to Shift their Career from Engineering to Management
Authors: Mahmood Shahid , Shahrukh  , Sajid Ali
Published: May 2013

This chapter investigates major factors contributing to shifting of career by engineers to management, the challenges faced by them after career shift, and the level of job satisfaction. Respondents of this study consisted of professionally certified engineers who have accepted the managerial role in their existing organizations or at any other company. The survey found that natural career path and better job opportunity were the two main factors that contributed to shift of careers from engineering to management. These results can be used to improve the quality of curriculum and education in engineering schools to produce engineers with diverse capabilities. A need has also been established to improve Human Resource planning and development in public sector organizations to stop brain drain and keep their engineers motivated and associated with their professional work.
Legal Effect of Economic Turmoil
Authors: Akdogan M. Ugur
Published: May 2013

For companies that have been unable to succeed in transforming the economic turmoil into opportunities for growth, it is not surprising to observe either higher losses or lower profits in comparison to their previous years. Apart from efforts to struggle against the economic crisis, management teams also have legal responsibility to manage the technical insolvency position of their companies. In Turkey, “technical insolvency” mainly occurs when one-third of a company’s capital is lost as a result of their losses and increases bankruptcy pressure on financial management. Moreover, it also causes other difficulties such as losing legal grounds for increasing capital or carrying out various structuring plans such as mergers and spinoffs. Accordingly, it is crucial for companies to resolve technical insolvency. There are alternatives for overcoming technical insolvency problems, but each alternative also has disadvantages that need to be carefully taken into consideration.
Analysis of the Analytical Balance Sheet of Central Bank of Republic of Turkey During 2000 - 2009 Period in terms of Crises
Authors: Özkök Yildiz
Published: May 2013

Today, Central Banks’ primary target is to maintain the price stability. In that context, through their monetary policy, they intervene in the money market with different tools. The Analytical Balance Sheet was created upon summing up and offsetting Balance Sheet of the Central Bank of Republic of Turkey (CBRT) in order to represent specific monetary aggregates. By means of that, CBRT aims to make the balance sheet more understandable and simple. In this chapter, firstly the sub items of the Analytical Balance Sheet are explained; secondly, the economic crises of Turkey during 2000-2009 is mentioned; finally, effects of these crises on the CBRT’s Analytical Balance Sheet, changes in monetary aggregates which are Currency Issued, Reserve Money, Monetary Base, and Central Bank’s Money, and in this context structure of the monetary policy of the CBRT in this period is analyzed.
Are the Banks in India Comfortable on the Eve of Basel III?
Authors: Das Rituparna
Published: May 2013

Non-occurrence of the banking crises in India like those in the mature economies of Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, UK, and USA is not because Indian banks are strong in terms of risk management expertise and healthy in terms of capital, but because the public sector undertaking banks holding majority of businesses in terms of deposits and loans get solutions or waivers from the regulator for the problems they cannot manage and get capital infusion from the government. In these circumstances, their fear of default during economic slowdown is making the credit-financed trading and exporting activities suffer from resource dry-up. Against this backdrop, this chapter throws light on (1) the relationship between credit risk premium on loans and risk free rates, (2) credit rating migration during economic slowdown, (3) the fall-out of maturity-mismatch between assets and liabilities on basis risk and yield curve risk, and (4) the level of preparation of Indian banks for Basel III implementation in terms of enhanced requirements of capital.
General Outlook on Financial Structure and Capital Adequacy of ISE-30 Companies during Economic Crisis (2008-2009)
Authors: Erhan Deniz Umut , Akdogan M. Ugur
Published: May 2013

In the simplest terms, economic crises could be recognised as abnormal fluctuations adversely impacting market conditions. Despite subsequent economic recoveries, markets and the financial system remain in a period of significant uncertainty after such crises. The baseline scenario is for balance sheets to strengthen gradually as the economy recovers and as progress is made in addressing structural problems in financial positions. However, substantial downside risks always remain for companies. Even companies with a high “Capital Adequacy Ratio” (CAR) face the difficult challenge of managing a smooth transition to self-sustaining growth while stabilising debt burdens under low and uncertain economic prospects. Without further bolstering of balances sheets, markets remain susceptible to funding shocks that could intensify deleveraging pressures and place further drag on public finances and recovery. Companies have proven resilient to economic turbulence but are vulnerable to a slowdown and face risks in managing sizable and potentially volatile capital inflows. Policy actions need to be intensified to contain risks, address debt burdens, and implement effective and institutional frameworks to ensure financial stability. Based on this perspective and through applying the financial soundness indicators methodology, the financial structures and soundness indicators of the top 30 companies on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE-30) are subjected to an assessment for determining the impact of the global crisis. The short- and long-run credits and non-monetary debit lines of ISE-30 companies are investigated together with the momentum of growth in assets, liabilities, and cash-flow stabilities. The financial soundness of ISE-30 companies is discussed in terms of the “capital-liabilities ratios” performance measure. Finally, the study focuses on long-run economic impacts and the analysis assumes that companies should transition to new levels of capital and liquidity to strengthen their financial stability and sustainability.
The Impact of Crises
Authors: Ergin Emre
Published: May 2013

Stock markets are the barometers of an economy. They are very sensitive to the news and can measure economic pressures to forecast economy. They react momentarily to crises that might be triggered by such events as a currency crisis, a debt crisis, a political crisis, or an accounting fraud crisis. According to technical analysts, drastic decreases in stock prices recover from their crash value rapidly since these decreases are realized with low traded values. The overreaction hypothesis affirms that extreme price movements are subsequently adjusted by opposite direction. This chapter analyses these assertions by measuring the impacts of the crises on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) over the last decade. The duration of the crises and weekly negative abnormal percentage returns in the period of 01.01.2000-31.12.2011 are analyzed using a regression model. In this period, from a total of 621 weeks, 277 weeks have negative returns, 93 of which are identified as negative abnormal returns. The results are statistically significant, and suggest that the duration of the crises is related to the magnitude of negative returns. On the other hand, research shows that the duration of the crisis and traded value are positively correlated. This study offers empirical observations that would be useful for technical analysts and stock investors.
Optical Network Optimization
Authors: Wang Bin , Kavian Yousef S.
Published: May 2013

Optical networks form the foundation of the global network infrastructure; hence, the planning and design of optical networks is crucial to the operation and economics of the Internet and its ability to support critical and reliable communication services. This book chapter covers various aspects of optimal optical network design, such as wavelength-routed Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, Spectrum-Sliced Elastic (SLICE) optical networks. As background, the chapter first briefly describes optical ring networks, WDM optical networks, and SLICE optical networks, as well as basic concepts of routing and wavelength assignment and virtual topology design, survivability, and traffic grooming in optical networks. The reader is referred to additional references for details. Many optical network design problems can be formulated as sophisticated optimization problems, including (1) Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) and virtual topology design problem, (2) a suite of network design problems (such as variants of traffic grooming, survivability, and impairment-aware routing), (3) various design problems aimed at reducing the overall energy consumption of optical networks for green communication, (4) various design optimization problems in SLICE networks that employ OFDM technologies. This chapter covers numerous optical network design optimization problems and solution approaches in detail and presents some recent developments and future research directions.
Monitoring Devices for Providing Network Intelligence in Optical Packet Switched Networks
Authors: Vilar Ruth , Ramos Francisco
Published: May 2013

The development of all-Optical Packet Switching (OPS) networks brings about new challenges in the topic of Optical Performance Monitoring (OPM). The objectives of this chapter are addressed to the proposal of new monitoring techniques capable of packet-by-packet monitoring in the optical domain to preserve packet transparency. Moreover, new optical layer functionalities such as dynamic reconfiguration and link level restoration also introduce a level of complexity that may require advanced OPM capabilities. In this chapter, an OSNR monitoring technique and its application for providing network intelligence are explained in detail. In particular, the integration of the monitoring system with the control and management planes is investigated to perform other functions such as quality of service implementation, OSNR-assisted routing, and backup route selection.
Energy-Efficient Optical Transport Networks with Mixed Regenerator Placement
Authors: Zhu Zuqing
Published: May 2013

In this chapter, the authors first discuss the background and basic concepts of all-optical regeneration and translucent optical networks. Since all-optical regenerator is much more energy-efficient than traditional O/E/O ones, they investigate translucent lightpath arrangement that involves mixed placement (MRP) of optical inline amplifiers (1R), all-optical 2R regenerators, and O/E/O 3R regenerators for energy-saving. In order to make sure that the end-to-end transmission performance requirement can still be satisfied with this arrangement, the authors analyze the signal BER evolution through fiber links and different types of regenerators, and propose a theoretical model. They then develop search strategies based on exhaustive search and genetic algorithms, and discuss how to use them to optimize the energy-efficiency of lightpaths using MRP. Finally, the authors move to the network design using MRP, in which they considered both offline network design and online network provisioning.
Topological Design Using Genetic Algorithms
Authors: Morais Rui Manuel , Pinto Armando Nolasco
Published: May 2013

The proliferation of Internet access and the appearance of new telecommunications services are originating a demand for resilient networks with extremely high capacity. Thus, topologies able to recover connections in case of failure are essential. Given the node location and the traffic matrix, the survivable topological design is the problem of determining the network topology at minimum capital expenditure such that survivability is ensured. This problem is strongly NP-hard and heuristics are traditionally used to search near-optimal solutions. The authors present a genetic algorithm for this problem. As the convergence of the genetic algorithm depends on the used operators, an analysis of their impact on the quality of the obtained solutions is presented as well. Two initial population generators, two selection methods, two crossover operators, and two population sizes are compared, and the quality of the obtained solutions is assessed using an integer linear programming model.
Hopfield Neural Networks for Routing in Communication Networks
Authors: Bastos-Filho Carmelo J. A. , Junior Marcos Antonio da Cunha Oliveira , Silva Dennis Rodrigo da Cunha , Cavalcanti Jheymesson Apolinário , Pedrosa Victor Vilmarques Capistrano
Published: May 2013

Although some interesting routing algorithms based on HNN were already proposed, they are slower when compared to other routing algorithms. Since HNN are inherently parallel, they are suitable for parallel implementations on parallel platforms, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Graphic Processing Units (GPU). In this chapter, the authors show parallel implementations of a routing algorithm based on Hopfield Neural Networks (HNN) for GPU and for FPGAs, considering some implementation issues. They analyze the hardware limitation on the devices, the memory bottlenecks, the complexity of the HNN, and, in the case of GPU implementation, how the kernel functions should be implemented, as well as, in the case of the FPGA implementation, the accuracy of the number representation and memory storage on the device. The authors perform simulations for one variation of the routing algorithm for three communication network topologies with increasing number of nodes. They achieved speed-ups up to 78 when compared the FPGA model simulated to the CPU sequential version and the GPU version is 55 times faster than the sequential one. These new results suggest that it is possible to use the HNN to implement routers for real networks, including optical networks.
Lessons from the International Governance of Biotechnology
Authors: Rhodes Catherine
Published: May 2013

This chapter covers the development and operation of norms within the international system and more specifically within the international governance of biotechnology. Through the use of case studies it highlights several key points which should be considered when analysing the role, application and implementation of norms in other governance areas.
Governance in Technology Development
Authors: Kurt Aygen , Duquenoy Penny
Published: May 2013

With an increasing focus on the inclusion of considering the ethical and social impact of technology developments resulting from research in the European Union, and elsewhere, comes a need for a more effective process in technology development. Current ethics governance processes do not go far enough in enabling these considerations to be embedded in European Union research projects in a way that engages participants in technology development projects. Such a lack of engagement not only creates a distance between the technology developers and ethics (and ethics experts) but also undermines the legitimacy of decisions on ethical issues and outcomes, which in turn has an impact on the resulting innovation and its role in benefitting individuals and society. This chapter discusses these issues in the context of empirical work, founded on a theoretical base, undertaken as part of the EGAIS (Ethical Governance of Emerging Technologies) EU co-funded FP7 project.
A Pragmatic Approach to Polynormative Governance
Authors: Kettner Matthias
Published: May 2013

In the first and second part of the present article, the author provides a pragmatic reading of the very idea of governance. With the help of the late pragmatist Frederick Will’s thoughts about the philosophic governance of norms, governance can be construed as a practice that is situated within other practices and whose aim is lending guidance to these practices. Since the point of establishing governance practices is to improve the targeted governed practices, governance is characterized by normativity, e.g. rationality assumptions, reflexivity and relativity to the general and particular significance of the governed practice. A schema is introduced for abductive inferences (as outlined by Charles Sanders Peirce) from observed defects in practices to expected improvements in governance practices. In response to the question, how governance itself is to be governed where it stands in further need of governance, I argue in the third section that there is an interesting problem of “polynormative” governance: Different forms of governance in different domains of practice may differ drastically in their advantages and disadvantages when compared from some particular evaluative point of view, and they will differ drastically across different evaluative points of view. The author argues that argumentative discourse, not in Michel Foucault’s, but in Karl-Otto Apel’s and Jürgen Habermas’ sense of the term, is the governance practice of last resort for our giving and taking reasons. The relation of argumentative discourse to democracy (being the governance practice of last resort for political power) remains to be explored.
Impact of Architecture on Governance
Authors: Cornu Jean-Michel
Published: May 2013

This paper presents the basics about network architecture and some of the current proposals for the future of the internet. There are two keys factors to understand the ongoing discussions: the definition of what is a Network usually depends of the industry you are coming from, while all of these kinds of networks are needed. The second key deals with two different kinds of values: the value of scarcity and the value of abundance: efficiency versus adaptability. This leads to new technology such as Cognitive Radio.
Chase-Like Decoding of Arithmetic Codes with Applications
Authors: Zribi Amin , Zaibi Sonia , Pyndiah Ramesh , Bouallègue Ammar
Published: May 2013

Motivated by recent results in Joint Source/Channel (JSC) coding and decoding, this paper addresses the problem of soft input decoding of Arithmetic Codes (AC). A new length-constrained scheme for JSC decoding of these codes is proposed based on the Maximum a posteriori (MAP) sequence estimation criterion. The new decoder, called Chase-like arithmetic decoder is supposed to know the source symbol sequence and the compressed bit-stream lengths. First, Packet Error Rates (PER) in the case of transmission on an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel are investigated. Compared to classical arithmetic decoding, the Chase-like decoder shows significant improvements. Results are provided for Chase-like decoding for image compression and transmission on an AWGN channel. Both lossy and lossless image compression schemes were studied. As a final application, the serial concatenation of an AC with a convolutional code was considered. Iterative decoding, performed between the two decoders showed substantial performance improvement through iterations.
Construction of 3D Triangles on Dupin Cyclides
Authors: Belbis Bertrand , Garnier Lionel , Foufou Sebti
Published: May 2013

This paper considers the conversion of the parametric Bézier surfaces, classically used in CAD-CAM, into patched of a class of non-spherical degree 4 algebraic surfaces called Dupin cyclides, and the definition of 3D triangle with circular edges on Dupin cyclides. Dupin cyclides was discovered by the French mathematician Pierre-Charles Dupin at the beginning of the 19th century. A Dupin cyclide has one parametric equation, two implicit equations, and a set of circular lines of curvature. The authors use the properties of these surfaces to prove that three families of circles (meridian arcs, parallel arcs, and Villarceau circles) can be computed on every Dupin cyclide. A geometric algorithm to compute these circles so that they define the edges of a 3D triangle on the Dupin cyclide is presented. Examples of conversions and 3D triangles are also presented to illustrate the proposed algorithms.
Edge Detection by Maximum Entropy
Authors: Guelzim Ibrahim , Hammouch Ahmed , Mouaddib El Mustapha , Aboutajdine Driss
Published: May 2013

In the edge detection, the classical operators based on the derivation are sensitive to noise which causes detection errors. It is even more erroneous in the case of omnidirectional images, due to geometric distortions caused by the used sensors. This paper proposes a statistical method of edge detection invariant to image resolution applied to omnidirectional images without preliminary treatments. It is based on the entropy measure. The authors compared its behavior with existing methods on omnidirectional images and perspectives images. The criteria of comparisons are the parameters of Fram and Deutsch. For omnidirectional images, the authors used two types of neighborhood: fixed and adapted to the parameters of the sensor. The authors compared the results of detection visually. The tests are performed on grayscale images.
Faster Ranking Using Extrapolation Techniques
Authors: Norozi Muhammad Ali
Published: May 2013

Extrapolations are techniques in linear algebra that require little additional infrastructure that must be incorporated in the existing query-dependent Link Analysis Ranking (LAR) algorithms. Extrapolations in LAR settings relies on the prior knowledge of the (iterative) process that created the existing data points (iterates) to compute the new (improved) data point, which periodically leads to the desired solution faster than the original method. In this study, the author presents novel approaches using extrapolation techniques to speed-up the convergence of query-dependent iterative methods, link analysis based ranking methods, where hyperlink structures are used to determine relative importance of a document in the network of inter-connections. The author uses the framework defined in HITS and SALSA and proposes the use of different Extrapolation techniques for faster ranking. The paper improves algorithms like HITS and SALSA using Extrapolation techniques. With the proposed approaches it is possible to accelerate the iterative ranking algorithms in terms of reducing the number of iterations and increasing the rate of convergence.
Character Segmentation Scheme for OCR System
Authors: Win Htwe Pa Pa , Khine Phyo Thu Thu , Tun Khin Nwe Ni
Published: May 2013

Automatic machine-printed Optical Characters or texts Recognizers (OCR) are highly desirable for a multitude of modern IT applications, including Digital Library software. However, the state of the art OCR systems cannot do for Myanmar scripts as the language poses many challenges for document understanding. Therefore, the authors design an Optical Character Recognition System for Myanmar Printed Document (OCRMPD), with several proposed techniques that can automatically recognize Myanmar printed text from document images. In order to get more accurate system, the authors propose the method for isolation of the character image by using not only the projection methods but also structural analysis for wrongly segmented characters. To reveal the effectiveness of the segmentation technique, the authors follow a new hybrid feature extraction method and choose the SVM classifier for recognition of the character image. The proposed algorithms have been tested on a variety of Myanmar printed documents and the results of the experiments indicate that the methods can increase the segmentation accuracy as well as recognition rates.
Detecting Corners for 3D Objects
Authors: Irshad Misbah , Elahi Irfa , Hussain Malik Zawwar
Published: May 2013

In this paper, a corner detection algorithm for 3D objects is presented. This algorithm is an extension of corner detection scheme for planar objects (Chetrikov & Zsabo, 1999). This algorithm finds corners and other high curvature points for 3D objects.
New Marketing Applications for the Internet
Authors: Enaba Hala M. Labib , Hegazy Nermeen Atef Ahmed
Published: May 2013

The Internet is an important source for data and knowledge; hence, it currently plays a significant role in our daily lives. Internet applications have contributed tremendously in facilitating our work in terms of cost and effort cutting, expanding markets, changing the methods used to carry out activities, different applications, changing the quality required by customers, and consumer desires and behavior. Examples of these applications are online marketing, e-mail marketing, home business, and mobile marketing. E-research can also be considered as an Internet application. In fact, there are many terminologies related to this concept such as Internet research, online research, and Web research. This chapter provides an illustration of some of the new marketing applications of the Internet.
Social Media Marketing
Authors: Mahrous Abeer A.
Published: May 2013

This chapter aims at shedding the light on the rising global phenomena of social media marketing either in the B2C or in the B2B markets. Specifically, the chapter provides a review and synthesis of the prominent literature on social media marketing as well as examining the best practices of companies that use social media platform to achieve marketing objectives. A special emphasis is given on delineating the effect of social media use on customer buying behavior. The chapter concludes with useful insights and tips that can help companies to develop social media marketing strategies in order to boost brand visibility and enhance sales.
Analyzing the Digital License Reselling Problem and Its Impact on E-Commerce
Authors: Gaber Tarek , Zhang Ning
Published: May 2013

Existing Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems allow consumers to buy digital licenses to access the corresponding contents on their devices. However, with these DRM systems, the consumers are unable to resell their licenses. Supporting digital license reselling adds additional challenges to DRM technologies and could find a new E-market. The aims of this chapter are as follows. The problem of reselling digital licenses is formally formulated. Then the state-of-the-art of the existing license reselling solutions proposed in the literature is discussed. Their strengths and limitations are analyzed. Then a framework allowing a consumer to resell his/her license to another consumer without compromising the underlying security of the DRM system is proposed. Finally, the impact of allowing license reselling on E-commerce is discussed.
Ethics and E-Marketing
Authors: Codling Jim
Published: May 2013

The use of electronics has made old standards obsolete or at least “Passé.” Therefore, the question of ethics in the use of electronics has not been addressed very well. Common practices are forgotten as well as privacy and separation of work and down time. What this chapter entertains is to set up standards by which the entrepreneur can make best use of e-marketing, use of Internet, e-mails, and other electronic processes that can be used for commerce, while being sensitive to the standards that exist in differing societies and cultures. A starting point must be in distinguishing the needs and cultural standards between developed and developing countries. Another consideration must be the cultural norms of people who live in different places to include religions and moral/ethical standards.
Improving Consumer Performance and Perceived Service Quality in a New Type of Commercial Environment in 3D, Thanks to Embodied Virtual Sales Agents
Authors: Slim Ben Mimoun Mohamed , Marion Garnier , Ingrid Poncin
Published: May 2013

Considering the development of interactive and rich media technologies on the Internet, the present research sets up the link between a 3D commercial website and embodied virtual agents. Thanks to an experiment on a 3D commercial website, the impact of a virtual salesperson is observed on consumer performance (effectiveness in product retrieving), immersion, and satisfaction. Results highlight the immersive capacity of such a commercial environment, the positive contribution of a virtual salesperson on consumer performance and the interest in a virtual salesperson’s help with online purchases. Theoretical and managerial implications are developed and discussed.
Well-Being, Wisdom, Health, and IT
Authors: Targowski Andrew
Published: May 2013

The purpose of this study is to define a comprehensive solution for the improvements of lives of Americans. It is assumed that health is one of the three major constituents of life. The other two are well-being and Health Information Infrastructure. A lack of one of these minimizes the chance for Americans, and in general humans in any country, to lead good lives. It will be a quest for the answer to the question of how to minimize civilizational negatives, particularly in the area of health and its quickly rising costs. Key goals and strategies are defined by improving well-being and health of Americans. Issues such as wisdom and intelligence of the society are evaluated in the context of mental health, prevention, and lifestyles. Special attention is given to the issues of health-care quality and costs and the role and architecture of the Health Information Infrastructure. The conclusion evaluates the chances for implementing the proposed solutions.
The Psychosocial Impact of ICT Efficiency on Speech Disorders-Treatment
Authors: Tobolcea Iolanda
Published: May 2013

ICT is an important aspect in the field of education, and it involves redefining the role of instructors within the educational context. The aim of this chapter is to capture the psychosocial impact among specialists (instructors/speech therapists) and parents regarding the use and efficiency of ICT in the treatment of language disorders. To this purpose, the authors organized their research into two stages: (1) the construction of a questionnaire that outlines the psychosocial impact of ICT use and ICT efficiency in the therapy of language disorders among specialists (instructors and speech therapists) and parents; (2) the research stage itself, used to capture the specificity of each sample of subjects concerning the object of research. Both the professionals and the parents recognize the benefits of using computer technology as a means for stimulating the children’s interest, motivation, and involvement in educational activities, but also as didactic methods that facilitate teaching and strengthen the children’s newly acquired knowledge.
Information Challenges of the Deaf in their Health and Social Care Needs
Authors: Guimarães Cayley , Antunes Diego Roberto , García Laura Sánchez , Fernandes Sueli
Published: May 2013

The members of the deaf communities have been excluded for many years from society and their own culture. Deaf culture is a term applied to the social movement that holds deafness to be a difference in human experience (which includes the right to use Sign Language) rather than a disability. The deaf suffer, daily, through life-threatening situations that go unattended, mostly due to lack of awareness, proper practices, and policies, among others. The Deaf are in dire need of acknowledgment of their plight, in particular by Health and Social Care practitioners, politicians, and researchers. This chapter calls attention to this minority and its needs, including social, political, citizenship, strategies, and polices dimensions. It presents a Human-Computer Interaction architecture with which to inform the design of Information and Communication Technologies to aid Health and Social Care professionals in their work with the deaf.
Assistive Technology for Cognition
Authors: Best Catherine , O’Neill Brian , Gillespie Alex
Published: May 2013

Assistive Technology for Cognition (ATC) is the use of technology to extend human mental capacity. The present chapter reviews the use of assistive technology in health and social care for people with cognitive impairment. The review conceptualizes ATC in terms of function (reminding, alerting, micro prompting, distracting, storing and displaying, navigating, and biofeedback), as opposed to the type of technology (mobile phone, desk-top computer, etc.). This is necessary as many modern devices can perform multiple functions. Some important distinctions are revealed by this new way of looking at assistive technology. Of particular significance is whether the ATC intervention is enabling the external control of action or whether it prompts internal self-regulation.
The Effects of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Use in Primary Care on the Physician-Patient Relationship
Authors: Assis-Hassid Shira , Reychav Iris , Pliskin Joseph S. , Heart Tsipi Heart
Published: May 2013

The implications of the physician-patient relationship and communication on healthcare quality have been widely discussed in previous research. Communication has been characterized as one of the most powerful, encompassing, and versatile instruments available to the physician, and it has been suggested that good physician-patient communication can improve healthcare outcomes. The incorporation of ICT in healthcare and, more specifically, the introduction of EMRs in primary care provide an opportunity for improving healthcare services and quality of care. Healthcare ICT has without a doubt transformed the dynamics of the medical encounter. Implications of EMRs on the physician-patient communication, and thus on healthcare quality have not yet reached a full understanding. The authors suggest a research model based on theoretical frameworks derived from the IS and medicine disciplines, describing factors affecting appropriate use of EMR, which will lead to physician and patient satisfaction.
Community Networks
Authors: Carroll John M. , Rosson Mary Beth
Published: May 2013

The authors present a socio-technical design that illustrates how a community network health intervention can mobilize human resources across social boundaries and enhance health and well-being for people on both sides of the boundary. They specifically address how to reduce the barriers to social engagement experienced by autistic individuals who want more supportive life opportunities. The authors focus on the social milieu of an American college town, on traditional town-gown boundaries, and on possibilities for integrating social resources within this context. Their design adopts community networking to not only connect autistic persons living within an existing social milieu (university undergraduates; local autistic children and their families), but also to integrate individuals across milieus. The key design idea is that facilitating cross-milieu interactions can initiate and sustain a virtuous cycle of being helped by helping others.
Security of ICTs Supporting Healthcare Activities
Authors: Gaivéo José Manuel
Published: May 2013

Healthcare activities and all that are related with it are conducted by people. This single fact has brought up many precautions about patients and about information related with their health. Using information and communication technologies to support this kind of information requires particular attention about what happens, namely about who can use it and for what it can be used. This chapter intends to identify the vulnerabilities that could be explored, using an international security standard to support a proactive attitude in face of potential threats that explore the identified vulnerabilities, damaging organizational information assets. Another intention is the establishment of a basis of references in information security to define a level of risk classification to build a referential to the potential that a given threat has to exploit the vulnerabilities of an asset, preventing damages to personal and organizational property, including information, and also activity continuity.
Elderly Care Cost Control using Observation, Assessment, and Decision-Making
Authors: Eklund Patrik
Published: May 2013

Municipal and regional best practices for strategic planning and management of ageing is achieved by developing accurate socio-economic modelling tools based on rigorous design of information and processes. Demographic models enable analysis and prediction of demographic change, and socio-economic modelling, based on ageing information and process design, is sensitive and specific in particular concerning variables related to demographic change. Service forms based on observation, assessment, and decision-making are typically used in home care, adult day care centres, residential care, nursing homes, and/or wards. The suggested approach to socio-economic modelling-based strategic planning is both customer-centric with respect to information and process design as well as care-centric with respect to care management.
Independent Living Support for Disabled and Elderly People using Cell Phones
Authors: Zapirain Begoña García , Zorrilla Amaia Mendez
Published: May 2013

This chapter presents a technological solution to promote and help independent access to work for disabled people using Smart Phones. A deep state of the art about smart phones technologies and about examples of other projects is presented. The aim is to develop a form of technical assistance that supports them in the control of schedules, prevention of dangerous areas in the work place, warnings, and automatic alarm generation. The device chosen to exchange all this information is a Smartphone based on Android Operating System and GPS technology. A set of Android applications have been developed using Java language, and controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. All of these are connected to the Server Application through the Communications Module. The server Application Module provides the assistants or psychologists the possibility of supervise all the handicapped people’s activities. The assistants, psychologists, and users have all evaluated the application very positively as it covers disabled people’s needs perfectly.
Fall Detection Systems to be Used by Elderly People
Authors: Igrejas Getúlio , Amaral Joana S. , Rodrigues Pedro J. S.
Published: May 2013

Statistics show that, each year, falls affect tens of millions of elderly people throughout the world. Falls are the leading cause of injury deaths and injury-related hospitalization among people over 65 years old. A system able to automatically detect falls could be an important tool from a social point of view, as it would contribute to the prompt assistance of these emergency cases. Currently, many researchers are interested in the development of fall detection systems. This chapter presents several approaches suggested so far, with special attention to the different strategies and technologies applied. Other sensor technologies that could be applied to this field are also referred. Additionally, a new fall detection system based on a machine learning paradigm, using neural networks, is suggested. The system was trained using fall and non-fall examples. Although the test set has included some particular examples, problematic for detection of the correspondent motion, the obtained results present good specificity (88.9%) and sensitivity (93.9%) rates.
Identifying Requirements for Healthcare Information Systems with Focus Groups
Authors: Farinha Carla , Mira da Silva Miguel
Published: May 2013

Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) are essential in the healthcare industry since they manipulate vital information. For example, HIS may keep track of the patient’s medical history, avoiding mistakes with medications, dosages, and treatments. However, the traditional methods for identifying HIS requirements focus on specifying functional requirements for the software. Moreover, system scope should be fully understood by stakeholders, such as healthcare workers and hospital managers, something extremely difficult to achieve in practice. As such, many requirements are incomplete, missing, or not needed, leading to expensive and inadequate HIS. The authors identify requirements for Healthcare Information System using Focus Groups. They evaluate this method with experiments, applying a variety of techniques and having encouraging preliminary results. In particular, they verify that stakeholders can reach consensus on high-level requirements by discussing different perspectives about the system scope. The authors conclude that Focus Groups are really effective.
Electronic Health Record Proposal for Long-Term Preservation
Authors: Bote Juanjo
Published: May 2013

This chapter introduces a model approach to long-term digital preservation of Electronic Health Record (EHR). The long-term digital preservation is an emerging trend in the environment of digital libraries. However, legal or business needs may cause the use of digital preservation strategies in different fields. This is the case of the EHR as part of the information system of a healthcare institution. After a reasonable space of time without activity, an EHR becomes a passive information unit. Consequently, this passive information unit remains safe in a separate information system where the main purpose is digitally preserving this information on a long-term basis. There are two appropriate methodologies, Trustworthy Repository Audit and Certification Criteria (TRAC) and a Reference Model for Open Archival Information System (OAIS). These methodologies can widely be adopted by health care organizations to preserve EHR in the long-term.