bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
E-Learning and M-Learning
Authors: Soon Lisa
Published: October 2011

This research explores the relationship between e-learning and m-learning by investigating distance education students’ use of a learning management system, “Interact,” for virtual team work. The paper explores their experience of online collaborative group assignments in the subject “Information Management in Organisations.” International and local students were grouped. Each group undertook a case study project to propose solutions for identified problems in their chosen organisations. Students developed their assignment in wikis and used various tools for communication and document storage. An anonymous web-based survey was conducted after students completed the group assessment. The results reflected a wide range of factors including technology use, working with students from a different country, and challenges they faced completing group assessment online. Their feedback on their e-learning experience indicated the need for m-learning to address their concerns. The findings indicate a need for m-learning to support e-learning further, which could significantly improve the facilitation of online collaborative group assignments.
An Investigation Into Mobile Learning for High School Mathematics
Authors: Kalloo Vani , Mohan Permanand
Published: October 2011

This paper describes an investigation which was carried out to determine if mobile learning can be used to help high school students improve their performance in mathematics. The investigation was driven by the need to develop innovative learning solutions to eradicate the problem of low pass rates in mathematics in the Caribbean. A mobile learning application called MobileMath was developed targeting a subset of the mathematics curriculum. MobileMath offers the learner different learning strategies, game-based learning, and personalization. Two of the evaluation studies conducted are described in this paper. The first study focused on students using mobile learning on their own, while the second study explored the effects of teacher support while using mobile learning. A t-test analysis shows that there was a significant improvement in performance by students in both evaluation studies. The paper also compares the students’ performance with actual usage of the mobile learning application.
Guidelines for the Design of Location-Based Audio for Mobile Learning
Authors: FitzGerald Elizabeth , Sharples Mike , Jones Robert , Priestnall Gary
Published: October 2011

A consistent finding of research into mobile learning guides and outdoor learning games has been the value of audio as a medium of communication. This paper discusses the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. Three types of audio learning experience are distinguished, based primarily upon differing levels of narrative cohesion: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. A case study of a novel audio experience, called ‘A Chaotic Encounter,’ delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.
An Integrated Approach for the Enforcement of Contextual Permissions and Pre-Obligations
Authors: Elrakaiby Yehia , Cuppens Frédéric , Cuppens-Boulahia Nora
Published: October 2011

Pre-obligations denote actions that may be required before access is granted. The successful fulfillment of pre-obligations leads to the authorization of the requested access. Pre-obligations enable a more flexible enforcement of authorization policies. This paper formalizes interactions between the obligation and authorization policy states when pre-obligations are supported and investigates their use in a practical scenario. The main advantage of the presented approach is that it gives pre-obligations both declarative semantics using predicate logic and operational semantics using Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules. Furthermore, the presented framework enables policy designers to easily choose to evaluate any pre-obligation either (1) statically (an access request is denied if the pre-obligation has not been fulfilled); or (2) dynamically (users are given the possibility to fulfill the pre-obligation after the access request and before access is authorized).
A Proposal for Enhancing the Mobility Management in the Future 3GPP Architectures
Authors: Penhoat J. , Guillouard K. , Bonjour S. , Seïté P.
Published: October 2011

The management of the mobility between radio networks composed of heterogeneous radio technologies, called inter-access mobility management, provides the capability to tie together heterogeneous radio networks into an integrated network. The 3GPP architectures with well-designed inter-access mobility management capabilities are a part of the solution to cope with the growth of the mobile data traffic. This paper reviews the 3GPP architectures to highlight those with these capabilities. In order to evaluate if the mobility management is well-designed into these architectures, the authors describe the phases making up the management of the mobility and design an evaluation grid to assess the integration of these phases into the highlighted architectures. Since the assessment shows the existence of loopholes in the design of the inter-access mobility management, this paper proposes to enhance the 3GPP architectures by implementing a method called Hierarchical and Distributed Handover.
Cooperative Caching in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Chauhan Naveen , Awasthi Lalit K. , Chand Narottam , Joshi R.C. , Misra Manoj
Published: October 2011

Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) presents a constrained communication environment due to fundamental limitations of client’s resources, insufficient wireless bandwidth and users’ frequent mobility. MANETs have many distinct characteristics which distinguish them from other wireless networks. Due to frequent network disconnection, data availability is lower than traditional wired networks. Cooperative caching helps MANETs in alleviating the situation of non availability of data. In this paper, the authors present a scheme called global cluster cooperation (GCC) for caching in mobile ad hoc networks. In this scheme, network topology is partitioned into non-overlapping clusters based on the physical network proximity. This approach fully exploits the pull mechanism to facilitate cache sharing in a MANET. Simulation experiments show that GCC mechanism achieves significant improvements in cache hit ratio and average query latency in comparison with other caching strategies.
An Energy-Efficient Multilevel Clustering Algorithm for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Soni Surender , Katiyar Vivek , Chand Narottam
Published: October 2011

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are generally believed to be homogeneous, but some sensor nodes of higher energy can be used to prolong the lifetime and reliability of WSNs. This gives birth to the concept of Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks (HWSNs). Clustering is an important technique to prolong the lifetime of WSNs and to reduce energy consumption as well, by topology management and routing. HWSNs are popular in real deployments (Corchado et al., 2010), and have a large area of coverage. In such scenarios, for better connectivity, the need for multilevel clustering protocols arises. In this paper, the authors propose an energy-efficient protocol called heterogeneous multilevel clustering and aggregation (HMCA) for HWSNs. HMCA is simulated and compared with existing multilevel clustering protocol EEMC (Jin et al., 2008) for homogeneous WSN. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol performs better.
Enhancing Data Availability in MANETs with Cooperative Caching
Authors: Kumar Prashant , Chauhan Naveen , Awasthi LK , Chand Narottam
Published: October 2011

Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) are very popular solutions where network infrastructure installation is not possible. In MANETs, nodes are mobile, and due to this mobility, topology of the network changes rapidly. This dynamic topology reduces the data availability in MANETs. Cooperative caching provides an attractive solution for this problem. In this paper, a new cooperative caching algorithm, ProCoCa, is proposed. This algorithm is based on a proactive approach. Each node will be associated with a zone and the data of leaving node will be cached. The authors simulate the algorithm on OMNET++ simulator, and simulation results show that ProCoCa improves the data availability as well as overall performance of the network.
Content-Based Keyframe Clustering Using Near Duplicate Keyframe Identification
Authors: Younessian Ehsan , Rajan Deepu
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors propose an effective content-based clustering method for keyframes of news video stories using the Near Duplicate Keyframe (NDK) identification concept. Initially, the authors investigate the near-duplicate relationship, as a content-based visual similarity across keyframes, through the Near-Duplicate Keyframe (NDK) identification algorithm presented. The authors assign a near-duplicate score to each pair of keyframes within the story. Using an efficient keypoint matching technique followed by matching pattern analysis, this NDK identification algorithm can handle extreme zooming and significant object motion. In the second step, the weighted adjacency matrix is determined for each story based on assigned near duplicate score. The authors then use the spectral clustering scheme to remove outlier keyframes and partition remainders. Two sets of experiments are carried out to evaluate the NDK identification method and assess the proposed keyframe clustering method performance.
Utilizing Context Information to Enhance Content-Based Image Classification
Authors: Zhu Qiusha , Lin Lin , Shyu Mei-Ling , Liu Dianting
Published: October 2011

Traditional image classification relies on text information such as tags, which requires a lot of human effort to annotate them. Therefore, recent work focuses more on training the classifiers directly on visual features extracted from image content. The performance of content-based classification is improving steadily, but it is still far below users’ expectation. Moreover, in a web environment, HTML surrounding texts associated with images naturally serve as context information and are complementary to content information. This paper proposes a novel two-stage image classification framework that aims to improve the performance of content-based image classification by utilizing context information of web-based images. A new TF*IDF weighting scheme is proposed to extract discriminant textual features from HTML surrounding texts. Both content-based and context-based classifiers are built by applying multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). Experiments on web-based images from Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA-MM) dataset show that the proposed framework achieves promising results.
How Do People Use Their Mobile Phones?
Authors: Chen Tianyi , Harper Simon , Yesilada Yeliz
Published: October 2011

The usability evaluation of small devices (i.e., mobile phones and PDAs) is an emerging area of research. Compared with desktop computers, designing a usability evaluation for small devices is more challenging. Context of use, such as environmental disturbance and a user’s physical activities affect the evaluation results. However, these parameters are usually ignored or excluded from simple and unnatural evaluation settings; therefore generating unrealistic results. This paper presents a field study that investigates the behaviour of small device users in naturalistic settings. The study consists of a series of unobtrusive remote observations and interviews. Results show that small device users normally use the device with just one hand, press the keys with thumb and make phone calls and send text messages while walking. They normally correct typing errors and use abbreviations. On average, small device users switch their attention between the device screen and the surrounding environment 3 times every 20 seconds, and this increases when they are walking.
Good Times?!
Authors: El Ali Abdallah , Nack Frank , Hardman Lynda
Published: October 2011

Using Location-aware Multimedia Messaging (LMM) systems as a research testbed, this paper presents an analysis of how ‘fun or playfulness’ can be studied and designed for under mobile and ubiquitous environments. These LMM systems allow users to leave geo-tagged multimedia messages behind at any location. Drawing on previous efforts with LMM systems and an envisioned scenario illustrating how LMM can be used, the authors discuss what playful experiences are and three problems that arise in realizing the scenario: how playful experiences can be inferred (the inference problem), how the experience of capture can be motivated and maintained (the experience-capture maintenance problem), and how playful experiences can be measured (the measurement problem). In response to each of the problems, three design considerations are drawn for playful Human-Computer Interaction: 1) experiences can be approached as information-rich representations or as arising from human-system interaction 2) incentive mechanisms can be mediators of fun and engagement, and 3) measuring experiences requires a balance in testing methodology choice.
Phylogenetic Differential Evolution
Authors: Veloso de Melo Vinícius , Vargas Danilo Vasconcellos , Crocomo Marcio Kassouf
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a new technique for optimizing binary problems with building blocks. The authors have developed a different approach to existing Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs). Our technique, called Phylogenetic Differential Evolution (PhyDE), combines the Phylogenetic Algorithm and the Differential Evolution Algorithm. The first one is employed to identify the building blocks and to generate metavariables. The second one is used to find the best instance of each metavariable. In contrast to existing EDAs that identify the related variables at each iteration, the presented technique finds the related variables only once at the beginning of the algorithm, and not through the generations. This paper shows that the proposed technique is more efficient than the well known EDA called Extended Compact Genetic Algorithm (ECGA), especially for large-scale systems which are commonly found in real world problems.
Incorporation of Preferences in an Evolutionary Algorithm Using an Outranking Relation
Authors: Oliveira Eunice , Antunes Carlos Henggeler , Gomes Álvaro
Published: October 2011

The incorporation of preferences into Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) presents some relevant advantages, namely to deal with complex real-world problems. It enables focus on the search thus avoiding the computation of irrelevant solutions from the point of view of the practical exploitation of results (thus minimizing the computational effort), and it facilitates the integration of the DM’s expertise into the solution search process (thus minimizing the cognitive effort). These issues are particularly important whenever the number of conflicting objective functions and/or the number of non-dominated solutions in the population is large. In EvABOR (Evolutionary Algorithm Based on an Outranking Relation) approaches preferences are elicited from a decision maker (DM) with the aim of guiding the evolutionary process to the regions of the space more in accordance with the DM’s preferences. The preferences are captured and made operational by using the technical parameters of the ELECTRE TRI method. This approach is presented and analyzed using some illustrative results of a case study of electrical networks.
MP Modelling of Glucose-Insulin Interactions in the Intravenous Glucose Tolerance Test
Authors: Manca Vincenzo , Marchetti Luca , Pagliarini Roberto
Published: October 2011

The Intravenous Glucose Tolerance Test is an experimental procedure used to study the glucose-insulin endocrine regulatory system. An open problem is to construct a model representing simultaneously the entire regulative mechanism. In the past three decades, several models have appeared, but they have not escaped criticisms and drawbacks. In this paper, the authors apply the Metabolic P systems theory for developing new physiologically based models of the glucose-insulin system, which can be applied to the IVGTT. Ten data-sets obtained from literature were considered and an MP model was found for each, which fits the data and explains the regulations of the dynamics. Finally, each model is analysed to define a common pattern which explains, in general, the action of the glucose-insulin control system.
Implementation on CUDA of the Smoothing Problem with Tissue-Like P Systems
Authors: Peña-Cantillana Francisco , Díaz-Pernil Daniel , Christinal Hepzibah A. , Gutiérrez-Naranjo Miguel A.
Published: October 2011

Smoothing is often used in Digital Imagery for improving the quality of an image by reducing its level of noise. This paper presents a parallel implementation of an algorithm for smoothing 2D images in the framework of Membrane Computing. The chosen formal framework has been tissue-like P systems. The algorithm has been implemented by using a novel device architecture called CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) which allows the parallel NVIDIA Graphics Processors Units (GPUs) to solve many complex computational problems. Some examples are presented and compared; research lines for the future are also discussed.
A Reduced-Order General Continuum Method for Dynamic Simulations of Carbon Nanotube
Authors: Yang Yang , Liou William W.
Published: October 2011

In this paper, a reduced-order general continuum method for simulating the three-dimensional transient mechanical behaviors of carbon nanotube (CNT) is presented. The method builds the potential energy density for carbon nanotubes by applying the macroscopic deformation gradient to the atomistic energy potential based on a modified Cauchy-Born rule. The minimum energy principle in finite element methods can be used to obtain the equilibrium solution of the resulting equations. To compute the dynamic behaviors of carbon nanotubes, an explicit Newmark time integration scheme is applied to augment the static formulation. Details of the proposed formulation to study CNT dynamics are described. The results of simulation cases are then presented. The cases include a two-dimensional carbon atomic ring interacting with carbon substrate, static deformation of carbon nanotube, such as elongation, buckling, and twisting, and dynamic deformation of CNT-AFM probe with point force loading. Where possible, the results are compared with those obtained by molecular dynamics and atomic based finite element methods. The comparison shows that the current method can capture unique nonlinear characteristics of CNTs and provide predictions of the CNT’s transient behaviors.
Unconventional Computing in the Built Environment
Authors: Armstrong Rachel
Published: October 2011

The Synthetic Biology engineering based approach to living systems intersects with the new interdisciplinary field of unconventional computing and suggests a new method for design in architectural practice. Living systems possess unique properties that are not present in digital/mechanical systems - their sensors and effectors are intrinsically coupled, perform parallel forms of computation, are able to respond to unpredictable circumstances, respond in real time to environmental changes, and possess a robustness that can result in evolutionary change. This paper proposes how living technology, operating through the principles of unconventional computing could offer new environmentally remediating materials for architectural practice using a bottom-up approach to the construction of buildings and other human-made interventions.
Analysis of Inner-Loop Mapping onto Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architectures Using Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Gnanaolivu Rani , Norvell Theodore S. , Venkatesan Ramachandran
Published: October 2011

Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architectures (CGRAs) have gained currency in recent years due to their abundant parallelism and flexibility. To utilize the parallelism found in CGRAs, this paper proposes a fast and efficient Modulo-Constrained Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (MCHPSO) scheduling algorithm to exploit loop-level parallelism in applications. This paper shows that Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is capable of software pipelining loops by overlapping placement, scheduling and routing of successive loop iterations and executing them in parallel. The proposed algorithm has been experimentally validated on various DSP benchmarks under two different architecture configurations. These experiments indicate that the proposed MCHPSO algorithm can find schedules with small initiation intervals within a reasonable amount of time. The MCHPSO scheduling algorithm was analyzed with different topologies and Functional Unit (FU) configurations. The authors have tested the parallelizability of the algorithm and found that it exhibits a nearly linear speedup on a multi-core CPU.
In or Out
Authors: Wang Yinglei , Meister Darren , Gray Peter H.
Published: October 2011

The way individuals use internal and external knowledge sources influences organizational knowledge integration, an important source of competitive advantage. Drawing on research into knowledge sourcing and consumer switching behavior, the authors develop an integrated model to understand individuals’ choices between internal and external knowledge sources in contemporary work settings, where information technology has made both easily accessible. A test of the model using survey data collected from an international consulting firm yields an important new insight: satisfied individuals in knowledge reuse friendly environments are likely to use internal knowledge sources while they may also be tempted by easily accessible external knowledge sources. The implications for researchers and practitioners are also discussed.
Understanding User Dissatisfaction
Authors: Klaus Tim
Published: October 2011

This paper examines the role of fairness and how it shapes a user’s view in IT-enabled change. Drawing from several fairness theories, components of fairness are identified and examined in two studies. The first study examines the role of fairness through user interviews and finds that all five components of fairness are considered by users in enterprise system implementations. The second study operationalizes and analyzes the components of fairness through a questionnaire distributed to users. This second study finds that fairness is comprised of all five components that were proposed and a significant relationship exists with user dissatisfaction. The two studies lead to a new theoretical perspective and provide practical implications regarding the role of fairness in IT-enabled change and their strategic implications.
Preparing IS Students for Real-World Interaction with End Users Through Service Learning
Authors: Hall Laura L. , Johnson Roy D.
Published: October 2011

Although teaching the technical skills required of Information Systems (IS) graduates is a straightforward process, it is far more difficult to prepare students in the classroom environment for the challenges they will face interacting with end users in the real world. The ability to establish a successful relationship with end users is a critical success factor for any IS project. One way to prepare students for interaction with end users is through the implementation of service learning projects. Service learning projects provide a rich environment for students to experience real world interactions with users. This paper presents an organizational model to guide the implementation of service learning projects in IS curriculums. Service learning projects better prepare students to assume important management positions by giving them experience in applying the system development life cycle to an IS project and working with people. This organizational model uses the system development life cycle approach to integrate typical curriculum and service learning models. The organizational model is grounded in anecdotal evidence from prior experiences with IS students in service learning environments.
Comments on Two Models for Operating Two-Warehouse Inventory Systems with Deteriorating Items and Inflationary Effects
Authors: Xiong Huachun , Xie Jinxing , Niu Bo
Published: October 2011

This paper deals with the two-warehouse partial backlogging inventory problems under inflation for a deteriorating product with a constant demand rate over an infinite horizon. In contrast to the traditional model in which each replenishment cycle starts with an instant replenishment and ends with shortages, an alternative model is proposed in recent literature in which each cycle starts with shortages. It is proven to be less expensive to operate than the traditional model in terms of the present value of the cost per unit time. The present paper points out that the criteria of minimizing the cost per unit time is unreasonable when the inflationary effect is taken into consideration, and instead, the criteria of minimizing the present value of the total cost over the whole infinite planning horizon should be used. The objective functions of these two models are changed and proved that the model with shortages at the start of the cycle is less expensive to operate than the traditional model in terms of the present value of the total cost, but the optimal solutions of the models minimizing the cost per unit time indicate significantly higher total costs.
Predicting Donations from a Cohort Group of Donors to Charities
Authors: Chao Gary H. , Hsu Maxwell K. , Scovotti Carol
Published: October 2011

Charity fundraising organizers increasingly attempt to predict the donations to their causes to maximize the effectiveness of their expenditures and achieve their “social good” objectives. Much of the scholarly work in cause-related fundraising uses organization-specific demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral information about its donors to forecast donation amounts. Instead of distinguishing the potential donors, this study focuses on the prediction of the donations from existing donors. Specifically, a large dataset containing four years worth of transactional, appeals, source, and donor data related to a leading U.S. charitable organization was made available to the authors by the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation. The current paper contributes to the literature on donor lifetime value by documenting, in the context of a case study, the results of seven models for predicting future contributions using historic data over four years related to the cohort group of acquired donors.
Data Envelopment Analysis with Fuzzy Parameters
Authors: Hatami-Marbini Adel , Saati Saber , Tavana Madjid
Published: October 2011

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a methodology for measuring the relative efficiencies of a set of decision making units (DMUs) that use multiple inputs to produce multiple outputs. In the conventional DEA, all the data assume the form of specific numerical values. However, the observed values of the input and output data in real-life problems are sometimes imprecise or vague. Previous methods have not considered the preferences of the decision makers (DMs) in the evaluation process. This paper proposes an interactive evaluation process for measuring the relative efficiencies of a set of DMUs in fuzzy DEA with consideration of the DMs’ preferences. The authors construct a linear programming (LP) model with fuzzy parameters and calculate the fuzzy efficiency of the DMUs for different a levels. Then, the DM identifies his or her most preferred fuzzy goal for each DMU under consideration. A modified Yager index is used to develop a ranking order of the DMUs. This study allows the DMs to use their preferences or value judgments when evaluating the performance of the DMUs.
EOQ Model with Time Dependent Demand Rate and Time Dependent Holding Cost Function
Authors: Tripathi R. P.
Published: October 2011

In this paper the authors consider the continuous deterministic, infinite horizon, single item inventory system within the setting of a retailer sector in which the demand rate for an item is time dependent. The parameter of the replenishment cost is kept constant, but the carrying cost per unit is allowed to vary. The optimal policies are found, and decision rules and classical EOQ model have been obtained by considering two different models. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed models.
An Integrated Vendor - Buyer Model with Uncertain Lead Time, Life Time under Inflation and Variable Holding Cost
Authors: Singh S.R. , Bhatia Diksha
Published: October 2011

This paper considers the problem of a vendor which supplies an item to the buyer with imprecise partial backlogging rate of unsatisfied demand and non instantaneous deterioration rate considering variable holding cost, the effect of inflation and time value of money. Supplier’s lead time is a stochastic function of his managing cost. The extra costs incurred on the retailer due to the uncertain lead time in terms of shortages costs or lost sales costs should be owed by the supplier. A numerical example is cited to illustrate the results and its significant features. Finally, to study the effect of changes of demand parameters, deterioration, inflation and managing cost on supplier and the retailer’s profit, a sensitivity analysis is presented numerically.
Explaining Involuntary Spinoffs from Teams
Authors: Rao T. V. S. Ramamohan
Published: October 2011

A firm consists of different teams with each of them producing a separate product (which may be related to other products of the firm). In turn, each team has individuals of different talents (though some talents may be substitutable across products) who work together to achieve synergies. Some team members may find it advantageous to induct new talents into an existing team and/or introduce new products based on their experience. The firm will efficiently integrate a new product by forming a new team if it (a) has the organizational capabilities to translate potential synergies to reality, (b) can accommodate the strategic bargaining power of the existing team members in resource allocation across talents, and (c) can attract and coordinate the efficient combination of talents. A Spinoff, i.e., the production of the new product in a separate firm, will occur if any one, or more, of these conditions is not satisfied. A variant of the CES function can be shown to provide the most efficient analytical device to examine the stability of teams and spinoffs when teams cannot maintain such cohesion.
Emotions and Information Processing
Authors: Alvandi Ebrahim Oshni
Published: October 2011

An animate system standing in nature and trying to investigate its surroundings for different purposes does a type of cognitive processing. Emotions as mental states are leading human cognitive features that attract life by interactions processed in the world. This paper examines how this cognitive feature process works. By researching history and theories related to emotions and their generation, it becomes clear that information processing is discussed as a tool for their processes. Three different styles of information processing are evaluated for emotional processes. The pragmatic notion of information processing fits as a processing tool in modeling emotions and artificial emotions and explains the emotional process.
Guidelines for Designing Computational Models of Emotions
Authors: Hudlicka Eva
Published: October 2011

Rapid growth in computational modeling of emotion and cognitive-affective architectures occurred over the past 15 years. Emotion models and architectures are built to elucidate the mechanisms of emotions and enhance believability and effectiveness of synthetic agents and robots. Despite the many emotion models developed to date, a lack of consistency and clarity regarding what exactly it means to ‘model emotions’ persists. There are no systematic guidelines for development of computational models of emotions. This paper deconstructs the often vague term ‘emotion modeling’ by suggesting the view of emotion models in terms of two fundamental categories of processes: emotion generation and emotion effects. Computational tasks necessary to implement these processes are also identified. The paper addresses how computational building blocks provide a basis for the development of more systematic guidelines for affective model development. The paper concludes with a description of an affective requirements analysis and design process for developing affective computational models in agent architectures.
Employee Behavioral Intentions in Adopting Information Technology
Authors: Katou Anastasia A. , Vogiatzi Margarita A.
Published: October 2011

This study investigates the impact of perceived information technology (IT) beliefs on behavioural intention to use IT. The study is based on a national sample of 18 organisations from the private hotel industry in Greece, and on data obtained from 215 employees. The statistical method employed is structural equation modelling. The findings of the study suggest that employee attitudes positively and fully mediate the relationship between perceived IT beliefs and behavioural intention to use IT. Furthermore, it suggests that this relationship is influenced by individual factors such as task-technology fit, self-efficacy, individual contingencies, and social factors such as subjective norm. Finally, the study argues that women, younger people, well-educated employees, and people with managerial experience are keen in adopting new technologies in the hotel industry in Greece.
Sustainable Tourism Development in India
Authors: Dhiman Mohinder C. , Dubey Arvind Kumar
Published: October 2011

The issues surrounding the understanding and practice of sustainability in tourism are becoming increasingly important to both academicians and tourism planners. For more than two decades the attainment of sustainable development and the protection of touristic assets have been at the forefront of central policy issues in global tourism development. Recently, it has been argued that collaborative and associative forms of governance among tourism stakeholders are growing in importance in the drive for sustainable tourism development. Despite the increasing number of debates on the role of stakeholders in tourism, they are not well supported by empirical studies and how such stakeholders can contribute to the sustainable development of tourism. This study investigates various sustainable tourism development dimensions among tourism stakeholders and whether these dimensions depend on the demographic characteristics of stakeholders. By employing factor analysis, the study reveals that there is a set of sustainable tourism development parameters that is most common. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference among the tourism stakeholders in terms of perceived sustainable tourism development dimensions in India.
The Effect of Business Characteristics on the Methods of Knowledge Protections
Authors: Bin Xu , Chuan Tan Kay
Published: October 2011

Intellectual property (IP) protection has been suggested to be essential in protecting innovation in product-dominant companies. However, with the development of service industries, the ineffectiveness in IP protection becomes manifest. Meanwhile, other knowledge protecting methods enable companies to maintain their competency without formal protection. This study examines the effectiveness of different means of knowledge protection. Specifically, business is classified according to companies’ offering nature, serving mode and consider about their business hardware. The effectiveness of protection methods is analyzed among these business types. Interviews were conducted with senior managers of 39 companies in China and Singapore. It is demonstrated that the choice of knowledge protecting method does not depend mainly on whether a company provides products or services, but on how the company produces and provides its offerings. It is found that the core competency of companies largely affects their attitude on whether to protect their offerings. It is found that in weak appropriability regimes, companies apply for patents not for their knowledge protection function, but for other benefits, such as getting awards or tax reductions, and improving reputation among customers.
TQM for Sustainable Development through NPD in Developing Countries
Authors: Taddese Fasil , Osada Hiroshi
Published: October 2011

Challenged with intense market competition, developing countries are searching for methods to ensure sustainable development through business performance. In this regard, TQM and NPD play a major role. However, research is limited in the area of addressing the contextual link between TQM, NPD, and sustainable development. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between the three and the outcome of the relationship. The results show that TQM in the context of NPD for sustainable development in developing countries focuses on adaptive products through incremental improvements on production technology, NPD system, product development, production process, and employee know-how. It is also found that TQM revolutionizes the conventional R&D system by enhancing innovation capabilities. It reduces development costs and time alleviating financial limitations. The results further reveal that process focus on the TQM framework has contributed to sustainable ecology management through various environmental management systems.
Path Relinking with Multi-Start Tabu Search for the Quadratic Assignment Problem
Authors: James Tabitha , Rego Cesar
Published: October 2011

This paper introduces a new path relinking algorithm for the well-known quadratic assignment problem (QAP) in combinatorial optimization. The QAP has attracted considerable attention in research because of its complexity and its applicability to many domains. The algorithm presented in this study employs path relinking as a solution combination method incorporating a multistart tabu search algorithm as an improvement method. The resulting algorithm has interesting similarities and contrasts with particle swarm optimization methods. Computational testing indicates that this algorithm produces results that rival the best QAP algorithms. The authors additionally conduct an analysis disclosing how different strategies prove more or less effective depending on the landscapes of the problems to which they are applied. This analysis lays a foundation for developing more effective future QAP algorithms, both for methods based on path relinking and tabu search, and for hybrids of such methods with related processes found in particle swarm optimization.
How Ants Can Efficiently Solve Generalized Watchman Route Problem
Authors: Paduch Pawel , Sapiecha Krzysztof
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a new algorithm for solving the generalized watchman problem. It is the problem of mobile robot operators that must find the shortest route for the robot to see the whole area with many obstructions. The algorithm adapts the well-known ant algorithm to the new problem. An experiment where the algorithm is applied to an area containing more than 10 obstructions is described. It proves that efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm are high.
Minimum Span Frequency Assignment Based on a Multiagent Evolutionary Algorithm
Authors: Liu Jing , Li Jinshu , Zhong Weicai , Zhang Li , Liu Ruochen
Published: October 2011

In frequency assignment problems (FAPs), separation of the frequencies assigned to the transmitters is necessary to avoid the interference. However, unnecessary separation causes an excess requirement of spectrum, the cost of which may be very high. Since FAPs are closely related to T-coloring problems (TCP), multiagent systems and evolutionary algorithms are combined to form a new algorithm for minimum span FAPs on the basis of the model of TCP, which is named as Multiagent Evolutionary Algorithm for Minimum Span FAPs (MAEA-MSFAPs). The objective of MAEA-MSFAPs is to minimize the frequency spectrum required for a given level of reception quality over the network. In MAEA-MSFAPs, all agents live in a latticelike environment. Making use of the designed behaviors, MAEA-MSFAPs realizes the ability of agents to sense and act on the environment in which they live. During the process of interacting with the environment and other agents, each agent increases the energy as much as possible so that MAEA-MSFAPs can find the optima. Experimental results on TCP with different sizes and Philadelphia benchmark for FAPs show that MAEA-MSFAPs have a good performance and outperform the compared methods.
Redefining the Information Technology in the 21st Century
Authors: Xing Ruben , Wang Zhongxian , Peterson Richard L.
Published: October 2011

As one of the most influential and beneficial developments today, Information Technology (IT) is quickly transforming business infrastructures and reshaping the way how people are affected in context to how they work and live. In order to meet the fast and changing trends in the 21st century, Information Technology should be redefined in five major areas, i.e., Power of Computing, Internet-working and Telecommunications, New Features with Emerging Trends, Security and Disaster Recovery, and Green IT.
Social Media Intelligence in the Exploration of National Cultural Dimensions for Online Social Communities
Authors: Dill Sharon F. , Calongne Cynthia , Howard Caroline , Beazley Debra
Published: October 2011

Companies are increasingly embracing the use of social media in global online communities as an important part of their business strategies. Use of social media enables organizations to extend their reach and engage with customers in a shared community. These provide forums for interacting with customers and collecting information so that companies can better make informed decisions that directly relate to customer needs. However, effective use of social media requires matching both organizational and user requirements with the features of the social media. To support the development of successful social communities, this research uses Hofstede’s dimensions to examine the impact of user’s national culture on social media feature preference in a global international scuba diving online community. Specifically, this paper focuses on the Hofstede’s Individualism and Collectivism (IC) dimension which the study found is a significant determinant of feature preferences.
Engineering Organisational Behaviour with Design Research
Authors: Tuffley David
Published: October 2011

Can Design Research be used to develop process models of organisational behavior? The question is significant given the desirability of finding ways to optimise organisational performance. It is also significant because the precursor of such process models have been largely restricted to the software engineering domain. This paper examines (a) whether Design Research is an effective tool for developing such models, and (b) asks, can process models be more broadly defined to include organisational behavior generally? The study concludes that Design Research is an excellent tool for developers of process models in general, and that there appears to be no good reason why such models cannot be used to describe optimal organisational behavior in a broad range of domains.
Strengthening and Enriching Audit Practice
Authors: Smith Peter A. C.
Published: October 2011

The audit profession has been facing reassessment and repositioning for the past decade. Enquiry has been an integral part of an audit; however, its reliability as a source of audit evidence is questioned. To legitimize enquiry in the face of audit complexity and ensure sufficiency, relevance, and reliability, the introduction of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) into theory and practice has been recommended by a number of authors. In this paper, a variant on previous VSM-based audit work is introduced to perfect auditing assessment of accountability and compliance. This variant is termed the “VSM/NVA variant” and is applicable when the VSM model is in use for an audit. This variant is based on application of Network Visualization Analysis (NVA) to a VSM-modeled organization. Using NVA, “decision leaders” can be identified and their socio-technical relevance to VSM systems explored. This paper shows how the concepts of decision leaders and their networks can enrich and clarify practical applications of audit theory and practice. The approach provides an enhanced real-world understanding of how various VSM systems and network layers of an organization coalesce, and how they relate to the aims of the VSM model at micro and macro levels.
Balancing McLuhan With Williams
Authors: Potts Liza
Published: October 2011

The article titled “Realising Virtual Reality: A Reflection on the Continuing Evolution of New Media,” presented a technological deterministic analysis on the evolution of virtual reality. A major criticism of the technological deterministic viewpoint is that it does not consider context of use and human agency. Looking specifically at the work of Raymond Williams and other British Cultural Studies researchers, this response argues for a more balanced viewpoint of technology, determined more so by cultural use than by technological enforcement.
Towards a Conceptual Knowledge Management System Based on Systems Thinking and Sociotechnical Thinking
Authors: Sajeva Svetlana
Published: October 2011

This paper contributes to the field of knowledge management arguing that knowledge management research should be grounded in both systems thinking and sociotechnical thinking. Systems thinking enables the treating of knowledge management broadly, as a complex system, not limited to knowledge management processes, but encompassing other essential elements related to managing knowledge at an organization. Sociotechnical thinking considers both social elements and technology equally important in managing knowledge. The two above mentioned approaches are used to support the idea that, in order to successfully manage knowledge, a balanced sociotechnical knowledge management system should be designed at an organization. The article seeks to investigate the main elements of such a system and to show how these elements relate to each other demonstrating that a strong correlation exists between the knowledge management process and strategic leadership.
Sparse Based Image Classification With Bag-of-Visual-Words Representations
Authors: Zuo Yuanyuan , Zhang Bo
Published: October 2011

The sparse representation based classification algorithm has been used to solve the problem of human face recognition, but the image database is restricted to human frontal faces with only slight illumination and expression changes. This paper applies the sparse representation based algorithm to the problem of generic image classification, with a certain degree of intra-class variations and background clutter. Experiments are conducted with the sparse representation based algorithm and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers on 25 object categories selected from the Caltech101 dataset. Experimental results show that without the time-consuming parameter optimization, the sparse representation based algorithm achieves comparable performance with SVM. The experiments also demonstrate that the algorithm is robust to a certain degree of background clutter and intra-class variations with the bag-of-visual-words representations. The sparse representation based algorithm can also be applied to generic image classification task when the appropriate image feature is used.