bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Success and Failure in Building Electronic Infrastructures in the Air Cargo Industry
Authors: Christiaanse Ellen , Damsgaard Jan
Published: May 2011

Reasons behind the failure and success of large-scale information systems projects continue to puzzle everyone involved in the design and implementation of IT. In particular in the airline industry very successful (passenger reservation) systems have been built which have totally changed the competitive arena of the industry. On the cargo side, however, attempts to implement large-scale community systems have largely failed across the globe. Air cargo parties are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of IT and they understand the value that IOS could provide for the total value chain performance. However, whereas in other sectors IOSs have been very successful, there are only fragmented examples of successful global systems in the air cargo community, and the penetration of IOS in the air cargo industry is by no means pervasive. This case describes the genesis and evolution of two IOSs in the air cargo community and identifies plausible explanations that lead one to be a success and one to be a failure. The two examples are drawn from Europe and from Hong Kong SAR. The case clearly demonstrates that it was the complex, institutional and technical choices made by the initiators of the system in terms of their competitive implications that were the main causes for the systems’ fate. The case thus concludes that it was the institutional factors involved in the relationships of the stakeholders that led to the opposite manifestations of the two initiatives, and that such factors should be taken into account when designing and implementing large-scale information systems.
Implementing and Managing a Large-Scale E-Service
Authors: Clark Theordore H.K. , Reiner Lang Karl , Ma Will Wai-Kit
Published: May 2011

This case concerns a recently launched retirement protection scheme, the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), in Hong Kong. Service providers, employers, employees and the government are the four main parties involved in the MPF. The service has been implemented in two versions, i.e., a bricks model and a clicks model. The former is based on conventional paper-based transactions and face-to-face meetings. The focus of this case, however, is on the latter, which introduces MPF as a service in an e-environment that connects all parties electronically and conducts all transactions via the Internet or other computer networks. The case discusses the MPF e-business model, and its implementation. We analyze the differences between the old and the new model and highlight the chief characteristics and benefits of the e-business model as they arise from the emerging digital economy. We also discuss some major problems, from both managerial and technical perspectives, that have occurred during the phases of implementing and launching the new service.
Identifying Supply Chain Management and E-Commerce Opportunities at PaperCo Australia
Authors: Fowler Danielle , Swatman Paula M.C. , Parker Craig
Published: May 2011

Established supply chain management techniques such as Quick Response (QR) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) have proven the potential benefits of reorganizing an organization’s processes to take advantage of the characteristics of electronic information exchange. As the Internet and other proprietary networks expand, however, organizations have the opportunity to use this enabling infrastructure to exchange other, more varied types of information than traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) messages. This is especially true of companies with global operations and interests, which lead to a more diverse set of trading activities. This case presents the experiences of a large Australian paper products manufacturer in implementing an electronic document exchange strategy for supply chain management, including the drivers for change which spurred their actions, and describes the issues associated with trying to support existing and future requirements for document exchange across a wide variety of trading partners. The experiences of PaperCo will be relevant to organizations with diverse trading partners, especially small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
Agent Technologies and Business Models for Electronic Commerce
Authors: Timmers Paul , Gasos Jorge
Published: May 2011

Agent technologies have proved to provide adequate solutions to some of the challenges posed by the new business models that are arising in the field of electronic commerce. In this chapter, we present some of the key challenges in turning agents’ research into commercial applications, provide an overview of the electronic commerce business models, and discuss how they can benefit from the new developments in agent technologies. We illustrate the discussion with examples of the work that is being developed by projects from the IST research program of the European Union.
An Enterprise Viewpoint of Wireless Virtual Communities and the Associated Uses of Software Agents
Authors: Loke Seng W. , Rakotonirainy Andry , Zaslavsky Arkady
Published: May 2011

We envision the integration of the concepts of virtual communities, electronic markets, and ubiquitous wireless services into agent-enhanced mobile virtual communities which we call AMV-communities, a set of which form the AMV-community-space. We present concepts for an AMV-community modelled with RM-ODP Enterprise Viewpoint concepts, and outline an architecture of AMV-communities using software agents attached to roles. We also illustrate how we cope with disconnected computing by using agents and meta-policy rules.
Distributed Recommender Systems
Authors: Sarwar Badrul M. , Konstan Joseph A. , Riedl John T.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we introduce the concepts of recommender systems as a very successful Internet commerce tool. Then, we describe the basic principles of recommender systems and carefully analyzes how these systems relate to other prevailing data-analysis techniques and how they are more suitable for providing real-time personalized recommendations for customers of Internet commerce. The following section depicts the importance of recommender systems and their strategies for improving sales. We then analyze the nature and necessity of recommender systems in future commerce applications and establish the need for distributing such services to make them widely available. Later we present a detailed taxonomy of distributed recommender system applications and three different implementation frameworks for providing distributed recommender system services for Internet commerce, we analyze some of the design issues as well.
Assessing the Impacts of Land Use Policy on Soil Erosion Risk
Authors: Van Rompaey A. , Govers G.
Published: May 2011

Soil erosion is regarded as a major and widespread soil degradation process. The consequences of soil erosion occur both on- and off-site. On-site consequences are particularly important on agricultural land where the redistribution of soil within a field, the loss of soil from a field, the breakdown of soil structure and the decline in organic matter and nutrients result in a reduction of the cultivable soil depth and a decline in soil fertility (Morgan, 1996). Off-site problems result from sedimentation downstream which reduces the capacity of rivers and drainage ditches, enhances the risk of flooding, blocks irrigation canals and shortens the design life of reservoirs (Verstraeten and Poesen, 1999). Sediment is also a pollutant in its own right, and through the chemicals absorbed it can increase the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in water bodies and result in eutrophication (Steegen et al., subm.). The rate of soil loss is normally expressed in units of mass or volume per unit area per unit time. Young (1969) quotes annual rates of the order of 0.0045 Mg ha-1 for areas of moderate relief and 0.45 Mg ha-1 for steep relief. For comparison, rates from agricultural land are in the range of 5 to 500 Mg ha-1 (Morgan, 1996; Van Rompaey et al., 2000).
GIS Application for Detection of Ecological Risk Zones
Authors: Belogurov Victor P.
Published: May 2011

Many emergency safety problems are connected to detection of risk zones. It is not enough only to display on a map sources of risk and protected objects. The correct prediction of dangerous directions and areas is necessary. However, the traditional mathematical methods do not always suit this purpose. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are the most appropriate tool to solve these problems. The main aims of the chapter are to solve three typical problems from practice of work civil defense and emergency rescue service and to generalize the used approach as a new kind of modeling—the mathematical-cartographic modeling.
Spatial Monitoring and Routing System for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials
Authors: Boulmakoul Azedine , Laurini Robert , Zeitouni Karine
Published: May 2011

The concept of Environmental Information Systems (EIS) emerged from the concerns and the efforts carried on by world wide private and official organisations in order to promote an effective use of environmental data. These data are of various natures such as statistics, thematic maps, or documents describing the identification and the quantification of the environmental resources. The Environmental Information Systems became institutional tools providing pragmatic solutions for sustainable development in various fields. The objective of an EIS is to increase the quality and the efficiency in the decision-making process. To achieve this goal, the EIS requires the integration of various information processing technologies: Geographical Information Systems (GIS); Database Management Systems (DBMS); Space Imagery; Decision Support Systems (DSS); etc. However, the implementation of such an integration generates new requirements, namely data interoperability, data description by metadata, reverse engineering from existing applications and remote data access and data processing. This leads to the reconsideration of the analysis and design methodology.
Metadata Information Systems for Geospatial Data
Authors: Gobel Stefan , Jasnoch Uwe
Published: May 2011

The more information and data are produced by the actual information society, the more important become mechanisms and systems which organize the data and include information where to find which data. The most popular peculiarities of such information systems are metadata information systems (MIS) and catalogue systems (CS). The main difference between these systems is the extent of the information spectrum covered. Whilst e.g. catalogues for department stores or phone books are typical representatives of CS covering a relatively clearly outlined information spectrum (address, phone number, article no., price etc.), other systems cover a quite larger spectrum. Examples of this are environmental MIS such as the UDK (German: Umweltdatenkatalog, engl.:environmental data catalogue, see Swoboda et al., 1999) on a national basis or GELOS (Global Environment Information Locator Service, see GELOS, 2000 and ETC/CDS, 1999) and EIONET (European Environment Information and Observation Network, see EIONET, 1999) on an European basis. This chapter describes general aspects of the topic, outlines typical strengths and problems of existing systems and gives some impressions about trends and current activities in the field of MIS for geospatial data.
Metadata-Supported Automated Ecological Modelling
Authors: Brilhante Virginia , Robertson Dave
Published: May 2011

Ecological models should be rooted in data derived from observation, allowing methodical model construction and clear accounts of model results with respect to the data. Unfortunately, many models are retrospectively fitted to data because in practice it is difficult to bridge the gap between concrete data and abstract models. Our research is on automated methods to support bridging this gap. The approach proposed consists of raising the data level of abstraction via an ecological metadata ontology and from that, through logic-based knowledge representation and inference, to automatically generate prototypical partial models to be further improved by the modeler. In this chapter we aim to: 1) give an overview of current automated modelling approaches applied to ecology, and relate them to our metadata-based approach under investigation; and 2) explain and demonstrate how it is realized using logic-based formalisms. We give the overview of current automated modelling approaches in the section “Ecological Modeling and Automation: Current Approaches,” focusing on compositional modelling and model induction. The contrast between these and our approach, where we adopt metadata descriptions through an ontology and logic-based modelling, is discussed in the section “Our Automated Ecological Modelling Avenue.” The next section, “Towards a System for Metadata–Supported Automated Modeling,” makes ideas more concrete, starting with further details on the Ecolingua ontology, followed by examples of automated model structuring and parameter estimation. In the concluding section, “A Look Ahead and Conclusion,” we comment briefly on the ontologies trend and on the outlook of our research.
Turning Your Brick and Mortar into a Click and Mortar
Authors: Kudyba Stephan , Hoptroff Richard
Published: May 2011

I recently read an article about words and terms that evolved exclusively from the American culture. This piece traced the history of American-born verbiage throughout the 1900s and into the year 2000. Not surprisingly, many of the words that appeared in later years were some of the most pervasive buzzwords and terms of our Web-wild culture: e-business, e-commerce, click-and-mortar, among others. It’s daunting, really; no wonder some retailers are confounded by what faces them as they ponder the move from offline to online. You’ve spent millions of dollars implementing a customer relationship management system to better understand your customers: their wants, their desires, their buying habits. You’ve used it to great success to build excellent offline customer relations. You’re now looking for the next big opportunity, the jump into something beyond what you’re currently doing. The truth is that those that do make the jump can be exposed to a tremendous amount of opportunity and increased revenue. Using the data that your customer relationship management (CRM) solution has collected about offline customers and “multichanneling” it, as it’s called, can lead to big profits. Traditional marketers’ eyes light up when they see forecasts predicting that $199 billion will have been spent by consumers online by 2005 (“Online Influencing Offline: The Multichannel Mandate,” Jupiter Communications, June, 2000). The challenge presented to marketers is how to successfully make the jump to promoting their goods in cyberspace. The thing to remember is that a lot of the same rules apply—but on the Web, you have a lot more options. Be aware that Web and offline marketing share some basic truisms. The ultimate goal is to identify your appropriate audiences and market to them accordingly. Get to know your audiences, present them information that is customized to their needs and interests, and deliver it to them in a non-intrusive manner. The Web makes it exceedingly easy to do this, especially with solutions like online profiling, which this chapter will cover in detail.
What the Future Holds for Data Mining
Authors: Kudyba Stephan , Hoptroff Richard
Published: May 2011

Predicting the future is always a difficult task, of course that depends on how far into the future one attempts to delve. With regard to data mining, there’s no doubt the future should entail some interesting new applications that seek to enhance the process of discovering patterns and relationships existing between variables underpinning a given business application. This chapter seeks to enlighten the reader with regards to “what’s in the pipeline” for the coming years in the world of data mining. This topic can be broken down into two major components which include: 1) Innovations in statistics and algorithms that will provide new revelations to the world of mining. 2) Innovations in overall information technology that will augment the current functionality of mining methodology. This chapter will emphasize the second point mentioned above as the area for the greatest potential for mining enhancements over the next year or so.
RUP
Authors: Hesse Wolfgang
Published: May 2011

Recently, the Rational Unified Process (RUP) has been published as the second part of Rational’s Unified Method project. The RUP is advertised as an “iterative and incremental, use case-driven, architecture-centric” process model and aims to support system designers, builders and managers working with the Unified Modeling Language (UML) by a procedural guideline. In this chapter, a brief review and a critical analysis of the RUP is attempted. Its general aim and its contribution towards more harmonisation in the software process field are acknowledged. However, its ability to reduce the complexity of software development and to clarify its interlaced structure and terminology is doubted. Major problems may result from concepts not clearly specified like workflow or architecture. In particular, RUP core concepts like phase, iteration, workflow and milestone are debated. It is argued that RUP phases and milestones do not support the requirements of modern object-oriented (and, in particular, component-based) software projects. Iteration cycles should be based on software building blocks rather than on phases and activities. As one possible alternative to the RUP, a component-based (and truly architecture-centric) process model is sketched, and a multi-variant approach to software process modelling is recommended.
Doing Critical IS Research
Authors: Cecez-Kecmanovic Dubravka
Published: May 2011

Critical information systems (IS) research denotes a critical process of inquiry that seeks to achieve emancipatory social change by going beyond the apparent to reveal hidden agendas, concealed inequalities and tacit manipulation involved in a complex relationship between IS and their social, political and organisational contexts. It has its philosophical and theoretical roots in critical social theory (Held, 1980; Fay, 1987; Morrow and Brown, 1994). As a critical social researcher studies the social life of people in order to help them change conditions and improve their lives, so too does a critical IS researcher. By demystifying technological imperatives and managerial rationalism justifying a particular information system design, the critical IS researcher helps both IS practitioners and users understand its social consequences, envisage desirable alternatives and take action.
Conducting Action Research
Authors: Baskerville Richard
Published: May 2011

the goal of this chapter is to define and analyze these risks and to discuss their practical effects. An understanding and awareness of the risks enables the action researcher to manage these risks, particularly in terms of an academic career. In order to keep this analysis within a useful sphere, the discussion will be grounded in the context of a range of six actual action research cases.
Challenges to Qualitative Researchers in Information Systems
Authors: Lee Allen S.
Published: May 2011

A conventional “trends” chapter on qualitative research in information systems (IS) would review the state of the art (the methods and findings) of such research, laud its achievements, criticize its shortcomings, and then specify what it should do in the future to add to its achievements and rectify its shortcomings. However, I will write this chapter unconventionally instead, so that the reader will be able to gain a sense of my own engagement with issues in qualitative IS research. Furthermore, although the editor of this volume originally commissioned me to write a chapter on trends, the chapter has evolved as a critical commentary on qualitative IS research. The chapter’s turn in this direction resulted from the editor’s guidance to me about how to account for the comments of the anonymous reviewers of the initial draft.
Structuration Theory
Authors: Pavlou Paul A. , Majchrzak Ann
Published: May 2011

This chapter argues that the three most commonly used perspectives in conducting research on business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce-transaction cost economics, electronic market hypothesis, and network analysis-have inadequately explained the unfolding nature of how B2B intermediaries are being employed in industry today. We argue that these perspectives are insufficient because they assume that technology is deterministic and thus not worthy of critical analysis. This chapter proposes structuration theory as an alternative perspective, which differs from the traditional perspectives in several ways: a) structuration theory examines the impact of B2B intermediaries not just on economic indicators of business success but on such process outcomes as mutual trust, coordination, innovation, and utilization of shared knowledge; b) it examines not just technology, but the alignment between technology, the interorganizational structure, and the nature of the task (e.g., basic procurement vs. collaboration); and c) it recognizes that no technology is simply installed, but rather brought into an organization through a series of adaptations that affect both the technology and the organization over time.
Pricing and Service Quality in Electronic Commerce
Authors: Altinkemer Kemal , Tomak Kerem
Published: May 2011

The study divides the Internet Economy into four layers. The first layer consists of the telecommunications companies, Internet Service Providers, Internet backbone carriers, local access companies and manufacturers of end-user networking equipment. In the second layer, Internet Applications Infrastructure involves software products and services necessary to facilitate Web transactions and transaction intermediaries. In addition to the software products that help facilitate Web transactions, this layer of the Internet Economy includes the consultants and service companies that design, build and maintain all types of Web sites, from portals to full e-commerce sites. The third layer, called the Internet Intermediary Indicator, consists of businesses that do not generate transaction-related revenues in the same way as the companies in other layers. There is a distinct type of company that operates in layer three, one that is predominantly an Internet pure-play. While not directly generating revenues from transactions, their Web-based business generates revenues through advertising, membership subscription fees and commissions. Many of the layer three companies are purely Web content providers, while others are market makers or market intermediaries. Finally, the companies that are included in layer four are only those companies that are conducting Web-based commerce transactions (Barua and Whinston, 2000).
The Concept of Knowledge Media
Authors: Stanoevska-Slabeva Katarina
Published: May 2011

Knowledge is the internal state of humans that results from the input and processing of information during learning and performing tasks. According to Nonaka (1991), we can distinguish two kinds of knowledge: tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is highly personal and is deeply rooted in an individual’s actions and experience as well as in his ideas, values and emotions. This type of knowledge is difficult to formalize, to communicate, and to share. Explicit knowledge can be expressed independently from its human carrier in the form of data, scientific formulae, specifications, manuals, experience, project reports, and the similar. In its externalized form, “Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody–either by becoming grounds for action, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action” (Drucker, 1991). As a result, knowledge is considered the most valuable resource in the information age.
Building Internet Multimedia Applications
Authors: Yang Zhonghua , Gay Robert , Siew Chee Kheong , Sun Chengzheng
Published: May 2011

The Internet has become a ubiquitous service environment. This development provides tremendous opportunities for building real-time multimedia applications over the Internet. In this chapter, we present a state-of-the art coverage of the Internet integrated service architecture and two multimedia frameworks that support the development of real-time multimedia applications. The Internet integrated service architecture supports a variety of service models beyond the current best-effort model. A set of new real-time protocols that constitute the integrated service architecture are described in some detail. The new protocols covered are those for real-time media transport, media session setup and control, and those for resource reservation in order to offer the guaranteed service. We then describe two emerging media frameworks that provide a high-level abstraction for developing real-time media applications over Internet: CORBA Media Streaming Framework (MSF) and Java Media Framework (JMF), both of which provide an object-oriented multimedia middleware. The future trends are also discussed.
News on Demand
Authors: Maybury Mark T.
Published: May 2011

Recently scientists have been focusing on a new class of application that promises on-demand access to multimedia information such as radio and broadcast news. This chapter describes how the synergy of speech, language and image processing has enabled a new class of information on demand news systems. We will describe the ability to automatically process broadcast video 7x24 and serve this to the general public in individually tailored personalcasts. We describe several systems and identify some remaining challenging research areas.
A Layered Multimedia Presentation Database for Distance Learning
Authors: Shih Timothy K.
Published: May 2011

Multimedia presentations are suitable for instruction delivery. In a distance learning environment, multimedia presentations are lecture materials to be broadcasted among a number of workstations connected by networks. In order to manage these course materials efficiently, a multimedia database management system (MDBMS) is essentially important. We propose a MDBMS, which has five layers. Attributes of elements in each layer as well as database operations are discussed. The system supports storage sharing and object reuse. The system is implemented on Windows ’98 with the support from a conventional database management system. Also, we present an instruction-on-demand system, which is an application of the underlying MDBMS. The instruction-on-demand system is used in the realization of several computer science-related courses in our university.
Methods for Dealing with Dynamic Visual Data in Collaborative Applications - A Survey
Authors: Pham Binh
Published: May 2011

Many important collaborative applications require the sharing of dynamic visual data that are generated from interactive 3D graphics or imaging programs within a multimedia environment. These applications demand extensive computational and communication costs that cannot be supported by current bandwidth. Thus, suitable techniques have to be devised to allow flexible sharing of dynamic visual data and activities in real time. This chapter first discusses important issues that need to be addressed from four perspectives: functionality, data, communication and scalability. Current approaches for dealing with these problems are then discussed, and pertinent issues for future research are identified.
Network Service Availability and Performance
Authors: Fisk Mike
Published: May 2011

As computer networks, specifically the Internet, become more and more integral to business and society, the performance and availability of services on the Internet become more critical. It is now a common need to provide a reliable network service to millions of Internet users and customers. The performance of these services is commonly a key factor in their success. Web portals and popular sites build relationships with customers based in part on their speed and availability. Even services internal to an enterprise frequently have serious consequences if there is a loss of availability. This chapter discusses how advanced, multilayer switches can be used to increase the performance of network services. For this discussion, the term “performance” refers to availability, latency, and throughput, since all of these factors affect a user’s impression of a site’s performance. This chapter is intended for network service providers who must scale their services, network administrators who need to apply policies to their networks, and developers of switches who need to understand what the utility and requirements for these switches are. It is assumed that the reader has a working familiarity with networking principles, but substantial background information is also provided.
Management and Control of Intelligent Optical Networks
Authors: Pendarakis Dimitrios , Biswas Subir
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we first present a brief overview of the technologies that have enabled the spectacular growth in optical networking. Next, we discuss various emerging architectures for heterogeneous optical networks. The remainder of this chapter presents details on the management and control of optical networks.
Web Caching
Authors: Danalis Antonis , Markatos Evangelos
Published: May 2011

World Wide Web traffic increases at exponential rates saturating network links and web servers. By replicating popular web pages in strategic places on the Internet, web caching reduces core network traffic, reduces web server load, and improves the end-users’ perceived quality of service. In this paper we survey the area of web caching. We identify major research challenges and their solutions, as well as several commercial products that are being widely used.
Internet Usage in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Anakwe Uzoamaka P.
Published: May 2011

Using the Internet in the developed part of the world has become a necessity or a matter of choice. However, for the majority in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, Internet usage is still an illusion since Africa has remained the least Internet-connected region in the world (Lishan, 1997). Such “digital divide” between the developed and developing countries has raised interests and concerns from different parties, ranging from indigenes and governments of these countries to international organizations or agencies. Since such a gap impedes development and progress in these countries, as well as limits the potential of a truly global and competitive e-economy, the need to understand the dynamics of Internet usage in these countries becomes relevant. This chapter discusses Internet usage in Sub-Saharan Africa, citing examples from Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. The factors that influence Internet usage in these countries are presented, followed by two general propositions. Furthermore, organizational implications and suggested guidelines for connectivity are discussed, as well as future trends, followed by a conclusion.
Universal Site Accessibility
Authors: Tang Beth Archibald
Published: May 2011

At least 15% of the American population has a disability (Kaye, 1998); some estimate it is as high as one in five. For research studies, the United States government usually defines the term disability as a limitation in a person’s major life activities during daily living, working, and attending school (Job Accommodation Network, 1992).1 Assistive technologies—the tools that help individuals complete their daily tasks—serve as adjuncts that help to bridge the gap between dependence and self-reliance. Webmasters2 have their tools, too. They use software that enhance the sites and make them interesting. While Web usability specialists place emphasis on completing tasks, the purpose of some Web sites may be more about evoking a “wow” response, and less about imparting information that visitors can use. On occasion, being able to access these Web pages requires that users go to a third-party Web site and download plug-ins to listen to an audio file, watch a video clip, or read downloaded documents. For people with disabilities, however, many of the Web sites inadvertently establish barriers that could be prevented.
The Future of Distance Learning in the Traditional University
Authors: Saunders Gary
Published: May 2011

The growth in college and university offerings of Internet courses has been phenomenal and, as that growth accelerates, some writers have predicted that the university, as we now know it, will cease to exist. There is little doubt that distance learning with Internet courses will have an impact on the traditional university and a very important question is, will Internet courses represent a new and significant improvement over traditional pedagogy for educating students or just a lessening in the rigor of academic programs? This chapter presents the attitudes of accounting department chairpersons and College of Business (COB) deans on Internet courses. Ninety-four accounting chairpersons and 66 COB deans returned E mail questionnaires. In the view of the nearly 65% of the chairs and almost half of the deans. Internet courses are simply correspondence courses presented with new technology.
Faculty Perceptions and Participation in Distance Education
Authors: Dooley Kim E. , Magill Jane
Published: May 2011

Motivating faculty members to teach at a distance has been a challenge for most colleges and universities. What will be the impact of teaching using technology on faculty responsibility? Is teaching students through any or all distance education methods really nothing more than adapting traditional classroom approaches? What are the attitudes and barriers to using technologies often associated with distance education? In this chapter the authors present data obtained from an extensive survey of faculty opinions on teaching at a distance, as well as several case studies describing incentives and training made available for distance education. To enhance participation in distance education, faculty must have the competence, attitude that distance education is important and valuable, and infrastructure available to facilitate the additional time and effort to convert courses. Faculty training programs cannot be “one-shot” and should include personnel in close proximity to faculty, preferable on their own equipment. Release time is an important incentive to encourage participation.
The Internet, Sustainable Development and Ecosystems Management
Authors: Courtney James F. , Richardson Sandra M. , Paradice David
Published: May 2011

Sustainable development promotes the idea that development should be capable of meeting the needs of today without sacrificing the resources needed by future generations. This notion has evolved from recognition of the current problems faced when development occurs without regard for its impact on the surrounding ecosystem. The problems that occur are legion and the solutions complex. They involve many stakeholders with often significantly different perspectives and vastly different goals. New approaches to defining problems, approaches that incorporate multiple perspectives and support communication among multiple stakeholders, are needed to structure the complexity of modern decision-making situations and achieve sustainable development.
Banks and Financial Consulting in the Internet Age
Authors: Peters George
Published: May 2011

In our analysis we concentrate on the effects of the Internet on private banking and abstract from other effects that may have changed private banking. We limit our analysis to the aspects of financial consulting; we do not discuss the pros and cons of traditional and online banks in the field of order placement. In the chapter we focus on the German private banking sector. The private banking sector1 has changed dramatically since Internet technologies have been introduced. Online banks have been founded and grown rapidly (Consors, Comdirekt, Direktanlage Bank, etc.). They do not have branch networks, but they offer their services via telephone and Internet. Most online banks do not offer financial consulting services (Advance Bank, a subsidiary of Dresdner Bank in Germany is an exception) but they provide extensive financial information on their Web sites. They are high-tech companies in comparison to the over-the-counter business of traditional banks. In the business model of traditional banks, the private investors do not have to pay for the labor and cost-intensive, face-to-face financial consulting services directly. The order and depot fees for shares and funds not only cover the transaction costs but also consulting services. The consulting services of the traditional banks are fully subsidized by the order and depot fees.
eTIPS - Educational Technology Integration and Implementation Principles
Authors: Dexter Sara
Published: May 2011

In this chapter of the section, I present a set of educational technology integration and implementation principles, or eTIPs. These principles are offered as an explanation of the conditions that should be present in order for educational technology integration to be effective. The principles are an elaboration of two premises: First, that the teacher must act as an instructional designer, planning the use of the technology so it will support student learning. Second, that the school environment must support teachers in this role by providing adequate technology support. Thinking about these principles while deciding whether or how to integrate technology can help a teacher to take an instructional design perspective while also taking the “technology ecology” of the setting into perspective.
Constructing Technology Learning Activities to Enhance Elementary Students' Learning
Authors: Judd Diane L.
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter of the section is to assist elementary teachers to integrate technology into their curriculum through instructions and models of activities and projects. The extension suggestions and supporting information for each activity are provided to assist teachers in designing activities for their students, their learning objectives, and their curricula. The goals of these activities are to encourage and support teachers in their use of technology and to promote students’ engagement in learning through productivity and creativity.
Designing and Evaluating Instruction for e-Learning
Authors: Naidu Som
Published: May 2011

The focus of this chapter of the section is on designing and evaluating e-learning environments and directions for research in technology enhanced learning generally. Its particular emphasis is on models and approaches to learning and teaching that stand to take greatest advantage of the unique attributes of online learning technologies. These include the flexibility that they afford because of their time and place independence and the possibility of access to a variety of electronic and multimedia-based materials.
Designing Hypermedia Instruction
Authors: Uden Lorna
Published: May 2011

Hypermedia technology is increasingly being used as a vehicle to deliver instruction. All hypermedia involves the integration of hypertext with images, video, sounds, animation and simulations, i.e., multimedia. Hypermedia offers many potential benefits to teachers for delivering instruction. However, to develop effective instruction that facilitates learning is not trivial. It must be based on sound instructional design principles, research from hypermedia development and multimedia interface design from cognitive psychology.
United We Stand - Divided We Fall! Development of a Learning Community of Teachers on the Net
Authors: Jakobsdottir Solveig
Published: May 2011

In this paper I will describe how we have successfully created in our program, with the aid of different types of technologies, a strong educational community of teachers involved with ICT use. I will especially focus on how the first course of the program is organized where I can draw upon personal experience. Many of you are now in the process of creating or changing courses or programs to an on-line format. This article provides a good model to design such courses.
Distributed Multimedia Databases
Authors: Shih Timothy K.
Published: May 2011

Distributed Multimedia Database involves network technology, distributed control, security, and multimedia computing. This chapter discusses fundamental concepts and introduces issues of image database and digital libraries, video-on-demand systems, multimedia synchronization, as well as some case studies of distributed multimedia database systems. Requirements of multimedia database management systems and their functions are also presented.
Content-Based Trademark Recognition and Retrieval Based on Discrete Synergetic Neural Network
Authors: Zhao Tong , Tang H. Lilian , Ip Horace H.S. , Qi Feihu
Published: May 2011

Synergetic Neural Network (SNN) as proposed by Hermann Haken is a novel top-down, self-organized system. In this chapter, its associated discrete SNN is proposed and the recognition stability and the convergence of a generalized discrete SNN is analyzed. We proposed an adaptive algorithm of iterative step length refinement for synergetic recognition, which can ensure fast convergence and network steadily for all kinds of input pattern. Additionally, we apply the SNN to trademark retrieval and study its ability to support affine invariant retrieval of 2D patterns. To this end, we propose an affine invariant input vector in the frequency domain for the SNN and evaluate the retrieval ability of such networks for different types of input queries, for example, query by complete trademark pattern and query by image components. We show experimentally that our proposed SNN method is noise tolerant as well as able to support affine invariant retrieval. This led us to propose a novel paradigm for trademark retrieval based on visual keywords whereby trademark images can be queried in terms of simple geometric components.
Watermarking on Compressed/Uncompressed Video Using Communications with Side Information Mechanism
Authors: Lu Chun-Shien , Liao Hong-Yuan Mark , Chen Jan-Ru , Fan Kuo-Chin
Published: May 2011

Digital watermarking has been proposed as very useful technology in the protection of digital data such as image, audio, video, formatted documents (PDF or PS), and 3D objects. In the literature, most of the existing watermarking approaches are conducted on images. However, video is even more useful and should be protected with higher priority. In particular, video sequences usually contain rich properties that images do not have. On the other hand, the types of attacks applied on a video are much different from those applied on an image. In this chapter, we will focus ourselves specifically on video watermarking. The content of this chapter is divided into two parts. In the first part, the existing video watermarking techniques are briefly reviewed. We have pointed out their advantages and disadvantages to realize what can be done about video watermarking. In the second part, we propose a compressed domain video watermarking scheme for copyright protection. For the sake of real-time video watermark detection, our method is directly conducted in the MPEG-2 bitstream. More specifically, watermarks are inserted into the VLC domain. We shall discuss how to select proper data in a video bitstream to embed watermarks while preserving perceptual fidelity. In addition, video watermarks are embedded by a new proposed watermarking technique, which is based on the concept of communications with side information. The power of our method is reflected by its robust capability against attacks. Future work will also be pointed out to further improve the current scheme
Case Study
Authors: Kao O. , Stapel S.
Published: May 2011

Cairo is a distributed, cluster-based image retrieval system that provides a high-quality, object-based image analysis and search. The state-of-the-art retrieval approach, which compares entire images, is extended by an exhaustive search in all image sections for the occurrence of selected regions of interest. The large computational effort requires the use of parallel architectures in order to maintain reasonable system response times. The goal of this chapter is to give an overview of the different techniques required for distributed image retrieval, such as querying mechanisms and operations for image analysis and comparison, related aspects of parallel processing, scheduling, and data placement. The proposed architecture, Cairo, combines all these aspects and offers one possible design for a user-friendly, flexible, efficient, and distributed image database. The global system structure, the design of the individual modules, the internal communication, and typical use cases are outlined in the main part of this chapter.
Introduction to Multirate Systems
Authors: Jovanovic-Dolecek Gordana
Published: May 2011

This chapter treats the fundamentals of multirate system theory and includes decimation and interpolation as the basic concepts behind the changing of the sampling rate. The conversion of the sampling rate by an integer as well as by a rational number is explained. Also discussed are some widely used interconnections of upsamplers and downsamplers.
Efficient Multirate Filtering
Authors: Milic Ljiljana D. , Lutovac Miroslav D.
Published: May 2011

Application of multirate techniques to improve digital filter design and implementation are considered in this chapter. FIR and IIR filter design and implementation for sampling rate conversion by integer and rational factors are presented. Sharp narrow-band and wide-band multirate design techniques are discussed. Accurate designs of FIR and IIR half-band filters are described in detail. Several examples are provided to illustrate the multirate approach to filter design.
Subband Coding of Signals
Authors: de Carvalho Murilo B. , da Silva Eduardo A.B.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we deal with subband coding of signals. We begin with an introduction to rate-distortion theory, and after that we discuss subband compression schemes in general. We then describe popular still image and video coding algorithms using subband decompositions, including DCT and wavelet-based methods. R-D optimization-based techniques such as wavelet packets are also described. We finish the chapter with a brief account of subband-based audio compression schemes.
Speech and Audio Signal Applications
Authors: Perez-Meana Hector , Nakano-Miyatake Mariko , Nino-de-Rivera-y-Oyarzabal Luis
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews the basic principles of multirate adaptive filters together with some of their most successful applications, as well as some recently proposed schemes that improve the subband adaptive signal processing systems.
Applications of Filter Banks to Communications
Authors: Tepedelenlioglu Cihan , Giannakis Gerogios B.
Published: May 2011

Multirate systems and filter banks have found many applications in source and channel coding over the last decade. This chapter addresses the design of multirate transceivers for optimal transmissions, blind channel identification and equalization, as well as the estimation of time-variant channels and channel statistics. It is hoped that the chapter illustrates how multirate systems and filter banks provide a bridge between communication system design/analysis and signal processing tools.