bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Architectural Model for Supply Chain Orchestration and Management
Authors: Janssen Marijn
Published: May 2010

In a global economy, organizations are increasingly geographically dispersed, which means that the coordination process becomes increasingly complex and information-intensive. Conducting transactions and carrying out online business requires information sharing and supply chain coordination. An efficient and effective coordination of supply chains becomes increasingly important with competition taking place more and more at the level of supply chains, rather than at the level of individual organizations. Consequently, success in creating and maintaining a competitive advantage depends on the reconfiguration of supply chains. Although organizations participating in a supply chain are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities and threats of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) when it comes to improving coordination with their supply chain partners, organizations whose core business does not involve ICT and supply chain management often lack the knowledge and experience needed to coordinate of supply chains. In this respect, Supply Chain Coordinators (SCC) and Supply Chain Orchestrators (SCO) play a pivotal role in providing the means to automate and manage the coordination of supply chains (Hagel-III, Durchslag, & Brown, 2002). These specialized organizations can provide the necessary services and support to enable the creation and operation of supply chains.
Potential Benefits of Analyzing Website Analytic Data
Authors: Votta Elizabeth
Published: May 2010

This article presents an overview of the potential benefits of analyzing website analytic data. During the last several years I have gained first-hand knowledge of Internet marketing programs of a variety of companies ranging from national name brands to small businesses. In addition, I have been active in the local chapter of the American Marketing Association. During this time, it has become clear to me that many small business owners and marketing managers at various size companies lack a basic understanding of the potential benefits of analyzing website analytic data. This article introduces the basics of website analytics and the potential benefits derived from analyzing that data.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Authors: O’Reilly Kelley , Paper David
Published: May 2010

By establishing the position that electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) is a form of CRM, this chapter sets out to aid the reader in understanding why CRM and eCRM initiatives are both promising and challenging. By exposing the reader to common CRM literature, the chapter documents how companies can determine the best blended approach to CRM initiatives that balance both online and offline marketing initiatives. Additionally, by considering that each unique customer touch point represents a key market strategy decision, companies can thoughtfully, and with strategic intent, design, develop, and ultimately deploy systems that effectively balance human and computer interaction. By following the suggested guidelines provided for optimizing strategic marketing decisions, companies are more likely to avoid the common pitfalls and barriers to success that have been experienced by others as documented in the literature.
Understanding E-Payment Services in Traditionally Cash-Based Economies
Authors: Li Xiaolin , Yao Dong-Qing , Liu Yanhua
Published: May 2010

Electronic payment or e-payment refers to any payment transactions conducted electronically. In narrow terms, it usually refers only to online payment. E-payment is a crucial part of e-commerce. It increases transaction speed, improves merchants’ liquidity, and enhances buyers’ online shopping satisfaction. E-payment also reduces transport costs, robbery, and counterfeiting of fiat cash (Panurach, 1996). However, e-payment development in emerging economies—most of which rely heavily on cash for e-commerce transactions—has not kept up with advances in e-commerce. As a result, inefficient payment methods have become a bottleneck of further e-commerce growth.
E-HRM in Turkey
Authors: Gürol Yonca , Wolff R. Aysen , Berkin Esin Ertemsir
Published: May 2010

This chapter is about the role of electronic Human Resource Management (E-HRM) in Turkey. E-HRM can be briefly defined as the planning, implementation and application of information technology for both networking and supporting at least two individuals or collective actors in their shared performing of HR activities. New knowledge economy increased competition throughout the world and living in an age of massive technological evolution is changing the nature of business; especially e-business. E-business is challenging current HRM policies and functions as it uses internet technology to drive organizational performance. This study attempts to investigate several specific and critical points that will contribute to a better understanding of E-HRM by illustrating how it is used by a Turkish firm in the health sector. In this sense, the authors’ findings will try to exemplify how an E-HRM policy is realized. Our aim is to provide a model for the implementation of E-HRM in other companies.
An Integrated Model for E-CRM in Internet Shopping
Authors: Kim Changsu , Zhao Weihong , Yang Kyung Hoon
Published: May 2010

Customer relationship management in electronic commerce (e-CRM) is one of the fastest growing management techniques adopted by online enterprises (Letaifa & Perrien, 2007). Much research has been done on topics such as e-CRM management (Romano & Fjermestad, 2003; Letaifa & Perrien, 2007), e-CRM marketing techniques (Jackson & Wang 1995; Pan & Lee, 2003), the adoption of e-CRM in organizations (Wu & Wu, 2005), and e- CRM applications that facilitate Internet business (Wang & Head 2001; Adebanjo, 2003; Joo & Sohn, 2008). Still, many online enterprises encounter difficulties implementing effective e-CRM because they tend to overlook customer’s perspective on e-CRM issues (Woodcock & Starkey, 2001).
Mobile Communications / Mobile Marketing
Authors: Nasco Suzanne Altobello
Published: May 2010

Mobile communications have become so widespread around the world that they are now ubiquitous, mostly due to the widespread availability, adoption, and affordability of mobile technologies. Today, there are almost 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide. Wireless services have grown at an annual rate of over 20% per annum over the past 8 years and mobile penetration has more than doubled every 4 years. Mobile penetration is now at over 60% worldwide (based on number of mobile subscriptions, not people); this growth is driven mostly by the Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) economies (Acharya, 2008). China is the largest wireless market, with over 600 million subscribers for mobile services. Reports by the mobile industry’s trade association, Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), state that the U.S. mobile phone market accounted for over 276 million wireless subscriptions in June 2009 and over 89% of the U.S. population has at least one wireless phone subscription (CTIA, 2009). As of early 2009, worldwide, there are over 1 billion more mobile phones than there are computers (Mandel, 2008).
C2C Mobile Commerce
Authors: Leonard Lori N. K.
Published: May 2010

C2C e-commerce is being changed by the acceptance of mobile commerce devices. However, the extent of the use of mobile devices for C2C e-commerce is affected by many factors. A model of an individual’s intention to make use of mobile devices for C2C e-commerce is presented. That model includes usefulness, ease of use, convenience, trust, and security. Propositions are developed for future research endeavors.
Facilitating Interaction between Virtual Agents by Changing Ontological Representation
Authors: McNeill Fiona , Bundy Alan
Published: May 2010

Fluent, effortless and diverse e-business transactions depend on the ability of automated agents to interact. The difficulties of tailoring representation and information to be consistent and therefore interoperable needs to fall not on human users but on these automated agents. In this chapter, the authors present our system, ORS (Ontology Repair System), which is designed to be a tool for automated agents, acting on behalf of people or systems, which need to interact, to enable them to understand one another, despite the fact that they are not centrally or consistently designed.
Speeding up the Internet
Authors: Kumar Chetan
Published: May 2010

The Internet has witnessed a tremendous growth in the amount of available information, and this trend of increasing traffic is likely to continue. According to a Cisco Systems forecast report (2008) the growth in Internet traffic is to be driven by Web 2.0 technologies such as video and social networking and collaboration. Some excerpts of the Cisco forecast report (2008) are as follows.
Design Elements and Principles for Maintaining Visual Identity on Websites
Authors: Kang Sunghyun R. , Satterfield Debra
Published: May 2010

The visual design of a website is critical when establishing a strong corporate identity on the web. The look and feel of a website will quickly influence a user with regard to how they perceive the image of the business. It will determine whether they feel comfortable or included in the site’s target audience and whether or not they feel the business is professional or trustworthy. If at a first glance, the visual design does not connect on these levels with the user the likelihood of them using the site or purchasing products is greatly diminished. Therefore, the site must quickly capitalize on a known and trusted pre-existing corporate identity, or establish a new corporate identity that is professional and appropriate. The purpose of this chapter is to examine design factors and determine which of these factors affect people’s ability to identify and perceive information on web sites. This chapter discusses how design elements can cross media boundaries and create a consistent and effective user experience between the physical business and its presence on the web. This chapter explains branding elements such as logos, color systems, typography, grid structure, photography, graphic style, and the visual hierarchy of information with regard to how they can be used in static and dynamic applications.
Evolving e-Business Systems
Authors: Caro Denis
Published: May 2010

This chapter posits that transgenic governance forces are evolving and will engage future international e-business professionals in a multi-polar world of 2050. Social governance will be a cogent and compelling force in a tomorrow’s internationalized world community. This is a call to e-business professionals and academicians to understand and engage themselves in the underlying different perceptions and paradigms, or Weltanschauung, of diverse sectors in a world of rising new cultures. They must become “transgenic” in their perspective and seize every opportunity to develop and sensitize themselves to the socio-political dynamics that influence future growth and development of international e-business systems. An understanding of strategic socio-political forces serves as an inter-organizational learning paradigm that fosters innovation and social responsibility for the betterment of humankind internationally.
Emerging Trends of E-Business
Authors: Li Pengtao
Published: May 2010

E-business has grown dramatically in the last ten years. Its only constant is change. Awareness of these changes can help both business and customers better utilize and take advantage of e-business. This chapter presents the emerging trends of e-business in various areas, including Web services, Web 2.0, Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce), and corresponding ethical and social issues.
Grounding Principles for Governing Web 2.0 Investments
Authors: De Hertogh Steven , Viaene Stijn
Published: May 2010

During the early years of the World Wide Web, also commonly referred to as the internet, there was relatively little engagement between content providers and end-users, or between end-users. Although some specialized communities, such as newsgroups, approached the internet as an open, decentralized, participative platform, not many content providers really did. Communication occurred mainly in a top-down, one-to-many, centralized mode of content broadcasting. In many ways the internet remained similar to already existing media such as television or radio. This first era of development is now being referred to as web 1.0. The advent of Web 2.0 has been about embracing the inherently open and social characteristics of the internet. It supports a profound change in communication toward a many-to-many, decentralized format. The latter favors the emergence of bottom-up trends rather than the design of top-down, paternalistically imposed strategies and structures. Web 2.0 applications aspire to make maximal use of the level playing field for engagement offered by the internet, both technologically and socially (O’Reilly, 2005, 2006). The World Wide Web has thereby entered “the realm of sociality” (Bouman et al., 2007), where software becomes fused with everyday social life. Social software applications such as Wikipedia, Facebook and MySpace have all but become household names.
A Linguistic Recommender System for Academic Orientation
Authors: Castellano E. J. , Martínez L.
Published: May 2010

Students must face up to decision making situations since early ages, in order to keep on the chase of some professional competences. However, the suitability of people in jobs or studies is not only based on their preferences. Other factors are involved: capacities, skills, social attitudes, etc. that must be taken into account to successfully decide (Salgado, 1996). Many countries have created a so-called advisor figure, whose role is to guide them in decisions regarding their academic future. Advisors consider different criteria and indicators in their task, the key one being the student’s marks. Marks mean much more than a simple assessment: they indicate not only knowledge, but also skills, preferences about fields, attitudes, etc. Advisors generally are required to guide support several hundreds of students and hence analyze large amounts of information. The aim of this contribution is to support them in their task of guiding students by means of Decision Support systems (DSS) that uses students’ marks and provides linguistic information about the choices that students can make.
The New Paradigm of Business on the Internet and Its Ethical Implications
Authors: Emens Susan
Published: May 2010

The advent of the internet and the subsequent growth in e-business has forced organizations to think beyond the traditional business model and develop a new paradigm in order to compete effectively in such a dynamic environment. This new paradigm has permeated all aspects of how an organization conducts their operations and manages relationships from purchasing to sales. With these changes come ethical implications for both buyers and suppliers. This chapter will begin to explore those ethical implications as a consequence of this new paradigm.
Anonymity and Trust
Authors: Terjesen Andrew
Published: May 2010

E-business offers an opportunity to create markets that transcend the “real-world” limitations on markets. However, E-business transactions carry an added level of distrust that is not present in “real-world” transactions due to the anonymity of the Internet. Attempts to deal with the problem of distrust using economic approaches have limited the markets that E-business is able to create and, consequently, the potential of e-business. Overcoming distrust requires an ethical approach to the problem of trust, which would mean that participants feel they ought to take a risk even when fraud is a possibility. Insisting that people adhere to traditional ethical principles does not address the root of the problem, which is the lack of personal contact that anonymity creates (which in turn undermines our motivation to be moral). A moral sentimentalist approach suggests a way to overcome the motivation problem without sacrificing all the added benefits of e-business.
Ethics in E-Marketing
Authors: Özdemir Erkan
Published: May 2010

Some of the ethical issues experienced in traditional marketing practices are encountered in those of e-marketing as well. However, e-marketing practices raise specific new and different ethical issues as well. For instance, new forms of dynamic pricing, spam email advertising, and the use of tracking cookies for commercial purposes have all raised ethical issues. These issues can be examined from the perspective of such components of the traditional marketing mix as product, price, place and promotion, which are under the control of marketing executives. As such, an awareness of the ethical issues in e-marketing under the control of marketing executives is central to the realization of an ethical climate in e-businesses. The aim of this chapter is to present a critical analysis of ethical issues in e-commerce in relation to the marketing mix. The topics discussed within this framework will be enlightening for the ethical decision making process and practices of e-marketing.
Privacy Revisited
Authors: Martin Kirsten
Published: May 2010

The underlying concept of privacy has not changed for centuries, but our approach to acknowledging privacy in our transactions, exchanges, and relationships must be revisited as our technological environment – what we can do with information – has evolved. The goal of this chapter is to focus on the debate over the definition of privacy as it is required for other debates and has direct implications to how we recognize, test, and justify privacy in scholarship and practice. I argue privacy is best viewed as the ability of an individual to control information within a negotiated zone. I illustrate this view of privacy through an analysis of Facebook’s Beacon program and place the case in the context of both privacy violations and successful business strategies. I find privacy zones are illuminating for situations from 10th century England to current social networking programs and are useful in identifying mutually beneficial solutions among stakeholders.
Using Virtual Worlds for Learning
Authors: Kuznik Lea
Published: May 2010

Virtual worlds for adults (e.g. Second Life), youth (e.g. Habbo) and children (e.g. Whyville) have a great potential for learning and teaching practices for enriching wider public and engendering collective experience and collaboration. Informal learning environments such as virtual worlds offer people various intellectual and sensory activities or »peak« experiences, according to Gogala. Virtual worlds promote social interaction and offer visitors an opportunity for various interactive activities which can sometimes not be realized in real life corporate learning and training which is one of the major concerns for large companies. Adults can explore and learn in a different way and from a different perspective. Virtual worlds represent a new medium that allows people to connect in new virtual ways and offer new challenges in the corporate educational field.
Enhancing the Electronic Customer Relationship Management through Data Mining
Authors: Vignesh M.
Published: May 2010

According to the Moore’s law, the number of transistors per microprocessor will double in every two years. In no doubt, this exponential increase in the processing speeds would be flanked by the increasing amount of data that corporates contend on a daily basis. Hence all corporates are literally drowning in data. But definitely there exists a hiatus between the data storage and the information retrieval. One can ask an enigmatic question, how effectively a stored data can be utilised for the decision making in the long-term perspective. The answer is not yet arrived out. Hence the “Organizations are data rich, but information poor!”. If capturing and storing the relevant data is a hectic task, then analyzing and translating this data into the actionable information is the other corner stone in any information systems of a concern. This gap can be bridged or overruled by the concept of business intelligence. Business Intelligence (BI) can be simply defined in terms of data –driven approach rather than information driven which includes methods as decision support systems, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, query and reporting, forecasting which can be primarily done by data mining. BI along with customer relationship management (CRM) software forms the second tier of a firm’s IT infrastructure. This chapter holds a bird’s eye view of the usage of datawarehousing approaches for a systematic business intelligence approach and its varied applications in view of electronic customer relationship management.
A Visualization and Clustering Approach to Analyzing the Early Warning Signals of Currency Crises
Authors: Liu Shuhua , Eklund Tomas , Collan Mikael , Sarlin Peter
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, the authors investigate the use of advanced machine learning and data analysis methods for analyzing the early warning signals of currency crisis. So far the empirical studies on economic crises have focused on conventional economic modeling methods. Their study aims to see if new insights can be gained from the application of other methods, more specifically neural network based clustering analysis methods such as the SOM (Self-Organizing Maps), in analyzing important economic indicators for the prediction of financial crises. The authors shall first give a review of studies on crisis early warning systems, introduce the SOM method, then present and discuss the results from analyzing the 1992 Finnish currency crisis using the SOM.
Empirical Evaluation of Ensemble Learning for Credit Scoring
Authors: Wang Gang , Hao Jin-xing , Ma Jian , Huang Li-hua
Published: May 2010

Credit scoring is an important finance activity. Both statistical techniques and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been explored for this topic. But different techniques have different advantages and disadvantages on different datasets. Recent studies draw no consistent conclusions to show that one technique is superior to the other, while they suggest combining multiple classifiers, i.e., ensemble learning, may have a better performance. In this study, we conduct an empirical evaluation of the performance of three popular ensemble methods, i.e., bagging, boosting, and stacking, based on four base learners, i.e., Logistic Regression Analysis (LRA), Decision Tree (DT), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The experiment uses the credit dataset including 239 companies’ financial records from China, collected by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Results reveal that ensemble learning can substantially improve individual base learners. Stacking, in our experiments, gets the best performance in terms of all six performance indicators, i.e., type I error, type II error, average accuracy, precision, recall, and F-value.
Forecasting Crude Oil Demand Using a Hybrid SVR and Markov Approach
Authors: Xu Wei , Wang Jue , Ma Jian
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, a hybrid support vector regression (SVR) and Markov forecasting approach is proposed for energy demand prediction. The original time series of energy demand is firstly decomposed into the general trend series and the random fluctuation series. Then the SVR method is used to model the general trend series and the Markov forecasting method is used to model the random fluctuation series so that the tendencies of two series can be accurately predicted. The prediction results of two series are integrated to formulate an ensemble output for future energy demand. The proposed forecasting approach makes full use of the historical time series information so as to improve the forecasting precision of time series with large random fluctuation. To illustrate the applicability and capability of the proposed approach, it is used to analyze and forecast world crude oil demand. For verification, the proposed approach is compared with SVR method, Markov forecasting method and ARIMA. The results show that the hybrid SVR and Markov forecasting approach proposed in this chapter can be applied successfully and provide high accuracy and reliability for forecasting world crude oil demand.
Electricity Demand Forecasting
Authors: Elakrmi Fawwaz , Abu Shikhah Nazih
Published: May 2010

Electricity demand forecasting has attracted the attention of many researchers and power company staff. It still does so because with better forecasting, power companies can approach exact plans with no over- or –under planning. This is reflected as being the right investment in terms of time, money, and performance. In essence a good demand forecast means the right investment plan and therefore, satisfied customers. In reality this is the objective of any business; to be able to estimate the demand as close to reality as possible. The number and extent of demand forecasting methodologies and models developed is tremendous, however, there exists no novel technique that can serve all situations. Basically forecasting models can be divided into statistically based and intelligence-based models. A description of forecasting models helps in identifying the characteristics, features, and strengths of each model. The selection of the most suitable forecasting algorithm is not an easy process. The time frame of the forecast, data availability, the accuracy and cost of the forecast, the application and purpose of the forecast are some of the important parameters in the selection process. A case study of two forecasting models used in Jordan is presented. The discussion of the case study shows that load forecasting in Jordan is based on an intelligence-based model for short term forecasting, and on a combination of traditional statistically-based models for long term forecasting.
What Makes Companies to be More Innovative and Profitable?
Authors: Pérez-Luño Ana , Valle-Cabrera Ramón , Wiklund Johan
Published: May 2010

The aims of this chapter are the following. First, we delimitate the innovation and imitation concepts. Secondly, using Structural equation modeling method, we empirically test the impact of two dimensions of market and entrepreneurial orientations, respectively, on the decision to be more or less innovative. Thirdly, we relate this decision with the company’s performance. Based on a survey of 304 companies, our empirical results support, on one hand, the view that proactivity is the most important determinant of the decision of weather to innovate or imitate. On the other hand, we find that the company’s performance is not conditioned by the decision of innovating or imitating, but is rather determined by the company’s proactivity and focus on customers.
The Impact of Labour Flexibility and HRM on Innovation
Authors: Zhou Haibo , Dekker Ronald , Kleinknecht Alfred
Published: May 2010

We investigate the impact of labour relations (including use of flexible labour and certain HRM practices) on a firm’s innovative output. Using firm-level data for the Netherlands, we find that active HRM practices such as job rotation, performance pay, high qualification levels of personnel, as well as making use of employees with long-term temporary contracts contribute positively to innovative output, the latter being measured by the log of new product sales per employee. Furthermore, firms that retain high levels of highly qualified personnel are more likely to introduce products that are new to the market (other than only’new to the firm’). Our findings contribute to the growing literature on determinants of innovative performance.
Advancing the Potential of Diversity for Innovation
Authors: Erbe Nancy D.
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces a collaborative conflict resolution model with a focus on cultural diversity and innovation. Its practices are research based, presented with explanatory theories, and uniquely suited to the multicultural teams of the global market. The chapter presents the optimal criteria for multicultural process identified in evaluative research conducted in four parts of the world: the Balkans, Cameroon, Nepal and Ukraine. It aims to demonstrate the correlations between collaborative conflict process at its best and innovation within diverse teams and organizations.
Formalization of MOF-Based Metamodels
Authors: Favre Liliana María
Published: May 2010

Formal and semiformal techniques can play complementary roles in MDA-based software development processes. We consider it beneficial for both semiformal and formal specification techniques. On the one hand, semiformal techniques lack a precise semantics; however, they have the ability to visualize language constructions, allowing a great difference in the productivity of the specification process, especially when the graphical view is supported by means of good tools. On the other hand, formal specification allows us to produce a precise and analyzable software specification and clarifies the intended meaning of metamodels, helps to validate model transformations, and provides reference for implementations; however, they require familiarity with formal notations that most designers and implementers do not currently have and the learning curve for the application of these techniques requires considerable time. A combination of metamodeling and formal specification techniques can help us to address MDAbased processes such as reverse engineering, forward engineering and round-trip engineering. In light of this, we propose to use the algebraic metamodeling language, called NEREUS which can be viewed as an intermediate notation. NEREUS can be integrated with different formal languages and object-oriented languages. It is particularly suited for specifying metamodels based on the concepts of entity, relation and system. Most of the MOF metamodel concepts can be mapped directly to NEREUS.
Towards MDA Software Evolution
Authors: Favre Liliana María
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses software evolution, challenges and strategic directions in the context of MDA. Various authors agreed that it is difficult to define completely software and then, software evolution. Software is certainly more that bits stored in a file, it is an abstract idea that encompasses the concepts, algorithms embodied in the implementation as well as all its associated artifacts and processes. Research seems to confirm that computer software and process software have much in common. Osterweil (2003) assures that software processes are software too. In other paper (Osterweil, 2007), he suggests analyzing the nature of software and proposes to define taxonomies for exploring characteristics and approaches to the development, verification of qualities and software evolution. The exploration of these questions is an important current of software engineering research. On the other hand, evolution is defined as a process of gradual change and development from fewer and simpler forms to higher, more complex, or better ones. In biology, evolution is related to develop over time often many generations, into forms that are better adapted to survive changes in their environment. Thus, evolution captures the notion of something improving and changes occur in species in successive generations, i.e. individuals get old and species evolve. Jazayeri (2005) analyzes the definition of software evolution. The concept of “specie” in software may be associated to meta-levels describing families (species) of software systems. These meta-levels or architectures are created as improvements to previous existing ones and describe evolved families of software systems.
Increasing the Numbers of Women in Science
Authors: White Gwen
Published: May 2010

The fields of engineering and technology have traditionally been male dominated. The numbers of females in engineering and technology are traditionally less than their male counterparts. Within the past thirty years, women have had more opportunities to enter these fields. Previously stereotypes, misinformation and ignorance have shut women out of these important career choices. The short and long term goals are to eradicate stereotypes and make sure there is enough pertinent information available for women and girls about engineering and technology. There are a number of programs available that encourage females to enter the fields of engineering and technology; they just need to move up on the priority lists of corporations, guidance counselors and parents.
SET Women and Careers
Authors: Durbin Susan
Published: May 2010

Very few studies of senior female scientists have been conducted in the UK. This chapter explores the careers of 13 senior female scientists in a male-dominated, UK public sector organisation. These women operate within a context which reinforces, ‘think management, think male’ (Schein 2007). Despite this, they have followed traditional career paths of science qualifications and employment. Whilst many parallels can be drawn with other women in science, engineering and technology (SET) these women buck the trend in that they have achieved senior positions and unusually long lengths of service, post-childbirth, despite little or no help from mentors and support networks. Although these women’s experiences of gender relations were variable and they have limited strategic leadership career options, they have sustained a positive work orientation and a strong desire to reputation-build. Notwithstanding their failure so far to break through the glass ceiling, they hold the potential to be role models for others in SET.
The Career Challenge of the Gendered Academic Research Culture
Authors: Manuel Anne
Published: May 2010

It is clear from many of the contributions to this volume that there are career advancement challenges that are specific to women in the science, engineering and technology (SET) disciplines. In this chapter I will be looking at one of the career challenges that face not just women in those disciplines (although the problem here is particularly acute) but women seeking an academic career in any discipline, and that is the gendered nature of its predominant research culture. I go on to consider how the use of Internet technologies (ITs) by academics in their research might be enabling women to meet this particular challenge and whether women in a scientific academic setting have a different experience in this respect from colleagues in social sciences and humanities. Findings are presented from 25 in-depth interviews and content analysis of 750 academic web profiles. Results would suggest that although there are areas where the gendered research culture is being circumvented by the use of ITs for women in all disciplines, yet there are areas where women are not taking full advantage of the potential of the web to increase their visibility and research profile. Moreover, the opportunities presented by ITs are not necessarily tied to discipline and women in SET disciplines appear to be no more or less likely to take advantage of them. Finally in some important respects, the gendered cultures and structures that exist in ‘real’ society are continued into the ‘virtual’ one, rendering the gendered research culture little changed by increasing use of ITs.
Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Konstantinos E. Parsopoulos , Michael N. Vrahatis
Published: May 2010

This chapter is devoted to particle swarm optimization (PSO), from early precursors to contemporary standard variants. The presentation begins with the main inspiration source behind its development, followed by early variants and discussion on their parameters. Severe deficiencies of early variants are also pointed out and their solutions are reported in a relative historical order, bringing the reader to contemporary developments, considered as the state-of-the-art PSO variants today.
The Human Centred Approach to Bionanotechnology in Telemedicine
Authors: Morais da Costa Gonçalo Jorge , Araújo da Silva Nuno Miguel , Alves da Silva Nuno Sotero
Published: May 2010

The information and communication technologies (ICTs) field is expanding rapidly and affecting several domains of mankind, as for example healthcare. Therefore, ICTs can act as an enabler or a provider these fields through telemedicine. Consequently, promoting an human centred and ethical approach is the primary challenge concerning ICT healthcare innovation. Simultaneously, can we deter- or at least discourage- innovation that serves malicious ends, or that causes serious threats to humanity? So, the purpose of this contribution is to discuss the relationship between ICT evolution and healthcare, particularly concerning a specific correlated research fields: bionanotechnology and telemedicine. For that, the authors will focus in its applications, and sort of ethical and moral dilemmas encompasses.
Empirical Evidence of Resistance to the Implementation of Electronic Prescription in Brazil
Authors: Joia Luiz Antonio , Magalhães Carlos
Published: May 2010

This research investigates the main causes for the unsuccessful implementation of an electronic prescription system in a general hospital – from an explanatory-exploratory case study standpoint – adopting resistance to information systems as its theoretical background. In the case under analysis, the study shows that the main motives for resistance to the system were: lack of training of the physicians; the age of the physicians; problems with the design and safety of the system; inadequate technological infrastructure; the employment relationship of the physicians; and the interference of the system with the power and autonomy of the physicians. The chapter concludes that the intra-organizational context of the hospitals must be analyzed in a systemic way in order to understand fully how the system will be accepted and used by its main potential users, namely physicians.
Organizational Implementation of Healthcare Information Systems
Authors: Charissis G. , Melas C. , Moustakis V. , Zampetakis L.
Published: May 2010

Health-care information systems (HCIS) intervene in medical reasoning and function. In a continuously changing environment health-care professionals find themselves overwhelmed with fast pacing advances both in information technology (IT) and in medical practice. Use of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is flourishing and the coupling between HCIS and EBM opens new frontiers for both. Yet the problems that relate to HCIS development and implementation remain the same. The problems of today have been problems of yesterday and are likely to stay, or evolve, in the future. The chapter takes the reader to a journey around the factors that are involved in HCIS development and implementation. Discussion is mostly non-technical and focuses on organization and individual readiness to adopt HCIS technology in the workplace. Discussion formalizes to a concrete framework, which is accompanied by a formal statistical methodology on how to apply the framework in practice. The proposed framework integrates existing formal models related to technology readiness and acceptance, EBM, organization climate and computer knowledge and skills.
E-Health Strategic Planning
Authors: Carrasqueiro Sara , Monteiro Maria Helena
Published: May 2010

Nowadays there are a myriad of e-Health services. Due to their innovative character, these services often lack systematization raising difficulties when selecting, implementing or evaluating an e-Health service. The purpose of this chapter is introducing the reader to different types of e-Health services and to providing guidelines for the development of a strategic plan for e-Health. The authors present a list of sixteen e-Health services’ types discussing their main potentials, features and requirements and characterising them according to a multi-dimensional attributes model. This classification model groups e-Health services in order to perform case studies analysis and benchmarks between services inside each group. The attributes dimensions used are: interaction pair, type of interaction, main goals and measurement of impact and critical success factors. The authors also discuss the processes of planning, selecting, implementing and evaluating e-Health services, based on their perspectives and on a review of existing literature, identifying major problems and purposing guidelines.
Web-Based Learning Environment for Medical Education
Authors: Monguet Josep Maria , Costa João , Gaspar Pedro , Costa Rogério
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes the saliency of learning environments supported by information and communication technologies, followed by a conceptualization of the virtual learning environments, highlighting their overall advantages, more specifically those in the field of medical education. Special attention is also paid to some learning methodologies and strategies and their applicability. Before describing the e-fer, as Web based learning system, the authors also introduce some practical examples of the use of information and communication technologies in medical education. The importance of this training platform for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic wounds is demonstrated here, with a description of its functionalities, as well as its characteristics such as case based learning and game based learning. At the end of this chapter, the authors present the research projects currently in progress, based on the e-fer, in areas such as the impact of the content adaptive model in learning processes, cost estimate as a result of non-training and the build up of communities of practice.
ICTs and Family Physicians Human Capital Upgrading
Authors: Teixeira Aurora A.C. , Dieguez Teresa
Published: May 2010

The authors provide a quantitative assessment of ICTs role in general practitioners (GPs) medical daily practice and scientific performance. They focus on the Portuguese underexplored context, where the health sector has been under pressure for wide and profound reforms. These reforms have been extensively relying on ICTs, namely on the Internet. Based on the responses of 342 GPs, the authors concluded that 94% uses the Internet and 57% agrees that the Internet is essential to their medical daily practice. GPs tend to use the Internet mainly for professional purposes. Our data shows that the Internet for the respondent GPs has a critical role on updating and improving their professional knowledge basis. They recognise, however, that the vast majority of GPs lack specific and general training in ICT-related technologies. Such training handicap uncovers that a large part of Portuguese GPs may be unable to reap the benefits of ICTs in their daily medical practice.
Internet Use and Health Decision Making by Breast Cancer Patients in Malaysia
Authors: Guan Gan Gerald Goh , Lim Khor Yoke
Published: May 2010

Being diagnosed with breast cancer is a complicated and disruptive experience for many. Apart from the effects of cancer on their physiological state, patients are required to make important life-changing decisions within a short period of time. To most patients, their physicians act as the main source of medical treatment information. While physicians maintain their trusted role as being the key source of medical treatment information, patients find that their physicians do not provide all the answers to their questions. The Internet is a convenient and inexpensive information resource that assists patients and their care-givers in the decision-making process by providing them with answers to queries that come to mind, detailed explanation of medical jargon and cancer treatment options. Due to the limited time that physicians have with their patients and the power imbalance inherent in their possession of medical knowledge, patients and their care-givers turn to the Internet to seek for more detailed information to supplement the medical advice provided by their physicians. Apart from that, the Internet also provides patients with enhanced capacity to engage in constructive discourse with their healthcare providers thereby bringing new issues and concerns to the patient-physician relationship.
Personal Environments
Authors: Rasheed Tinku , Javaid Usman
Published: May 2010

The Fourth Generation of wireless networks promises to offer a vast range and diversity of converged services in order to revolutionize the way we communicate today. 4G can not only offer ultra-high data rates, but would also enable the ubiquitous computing paradigm, particularly interesting for the end-user with the help of various personalized and user-friendly services and devices. This increase in short-range communication among users and introduction of personalized services would form a “Personal Ubiquitous Environment” around the user. Since in such environments, multiple users will come closer (without any third-party barriers); their cooperation would be the key to success. Several technological and social barriers have prevented so far an effective cooperation between technologies, systems or users. This chapter focuses on the potential impacts of cooperative ubiquitous services in 4G networking systems. The authors explain the technological implications of cooperative systems considering the personal environment ubiquity. Furthermore, it attempts to characterize the socio-technical dimension of the potentials and limits of cooperation in 4G systems.
Wireless Collaboration
Authors: Tooher Patrick , Soleymani M. Reza
Published: May 2010

To achieve performance gains in the wireless channel, spatial diversity is employed. These higher order transmit diversity gains generally require multiple transmit antennas at the source. This requirement is not always possible in real world applications, where practical concerns limit the number of antennas a wireless device can have. Recently, a new method to achieve transmit diversity has been proposed: collaborative communications. In this framework, a node in a wireless network can use the resources of other idle nodes and form what can be viewed as a virtual transmitting antenna array. This chapter presents an overview of the development of collaborative communications. Two-phase protocols that can achieve collaboration are presented. A discussion on the improvement of collaborative communications protocols is given. A broader perspective of collaborative communications is given by discussing ideas such as power allocation and multiple relays.
QoS Architecture of WiMAX
Authors: Vannithamby Rath , Venkatachalam Muthaiah
Published: May 2010

WiMAX technology, based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, is a promising broadband wireless technology for the upcoming 4G network. WiMAX has excellent QoS mechanisms to enable differentiated Quality of service of various applications. QoS in broadband wireless access network such as WiMAX is a difficult and complicated task, as it adds unpredictable radio link, user and traffic demand. WiMAX supports end-to-end QoS provisioning to allow various applications and services. This chapter aims to provide a detailed overview of the QoS in WiMAX, the current and the future. Various air-interface and network mechanisms that enable the end-to-end QoS provisioning are then discussed. Finally, the novel mechanisms to improve the QoS provisioning in the next generation WiMAX system are also discussed.
Towards Designing High-Throughput Routing Metrics for Wireless Mesh Networks
Authors: Nyandeni T. , Kyara C. , Mudali P.
Published: May 2010

Routing is an essential mechanism for proper functioning of large networks, and routing protocols make use of routing metrics to determine optimal paths. The design of routing metrics is critical for achieving high throughput and we begin this chapter by proposing the design principles for routing metrics. These design principles are for ensuring the proper functioning of the network and achieving high throughput. We continue by giving a detail analysis of the existing routing metrics. We also look at the pitfalls of the existing routing metrics. We conclude the chapter by outlining the future research directions.