bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Corporate Collapse and IT Governance within the Australian Airlines Industry
Authors: Poon Simpson , Hardy Catherine , Adams Peter
Published: October 2011

The Kendell case illustrates issues of IT governance in the airlines industry. The case is written using the corporate collapse of Kendell’s parent company Ansett Australia as the background. The case also explores the potential issues facing the re-established company now called Regional Express (REX) and how to implement the lessons learned.
An Expectation of Privacy
Authors: Urbaczewski Andrew , Rikala Juho
Published: October 2011

This case presents the ethical dilemma of an IT staff member at an academic university. The IT staffer was caught in the middle of a squabble between the dean of the business school and the associate dean, also of the business school. Professional differences spilled over into personal differences, and the Dean was seeking methods of retribution against the associate dean while the associate dean was on sabbatical. E-mail is an extensively used tool at this university, and the dean suspected that the associate dean was sending personal messages on the universitys server. The dean asked the IT staffer to intervene in two ways: 1) remove her from the staff e-mail list; and 2) forward all of her e-mail to both the dean and the deans secretary. He hoped that there would be evidence of misuse of government resources, giving him just cause to terminate her. While this case is based on real events in a real organization, we have changed the names of organizations and participants involved. We regret having to make changes to even the nation in which the program is located, but the tightness of the community compelled the players involved to require absolute anonymity before they gave their consent to publish.
Canon Financial Services, Inc.
Authors: Yermish Ira
Published: October 2011

Canon Financial Services, Inc. (CFS, www.cfs.canon.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of CANON USA. Originally, an independent office products leasing company, CITILEASE, founded by Albert Smith who remains the president, CFS has grown to be an important financial arm for the U.S. Canon copier and office products business. Since CITILEASE was acquired in 1990, the operation has grown dramatically. In 1996, CANON USA recognized CFS as one of its premier divisions. A key success factor for this growth has been the strategic management of information within a corporate framework of outstanding customer service. The strong leadership of Smith and his organization as well as the commitment to information technology resources has fueled this explosive growth. In this case study we will first examine the structure of the copier and office products leasing industry. Few businesses find it desirable to purchase copiers, fax machines and other computer equipment. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is the flexibility of capital in light of rapidly changing technological capabilities of the products being leased. The complex relationships of CANON dealers, independent dealers and service organizations, customers, credit reporting agencies, banks and CFS will be described, especially with respect to the complex flows of information necessary to complete the leasing application and contract tasks.
Comparative Study of the Usefulness of Online Technologies in a Global Virtual Business Project Team Environment
Authors: Poon Simpson , Rai Shri
Published: October 2011

Lifelong learning is quickly becoming an integrated part of todays working life because of the demand for keeping up to date with latest developments due to rapid change in technology and business. To maintain flexibility and quality, online technology is often used as a medium of educational service delivery. In this chapter, we examine a case where online technology has been used to coordinate virtual project teams (in an educational setting) around the world. The experience from the case study is that although online technology promises to offer an independent learning environment anytime and anywhere, only some aspects of the technology are useful depending on the nature of the task. In addition, there are behavioural and cultural issues, which can be exacerbated by underdeveloped personal relationships due to constraints imposed by online technology. The case study also shows that synchronous communication is not necessarily a better means to coordinate than its asynchronous counterpart. A challenge faced by online education providers is to find the right mix and how to come up with a framework that will provide optimal results.
Geochemia
Authors: Christozov Dimitar
Published: October 2011

In Bulgaria, mineral resources are the property of the State. The States Committee of Geology (SCG) executes control and supervision and supports geological research. The latter includes access to information and laboratory services. SCG has established a system, with the following functions: Distribution of soil samples among the laboratories; Execution of quality control on the chemical analytical methods used in laboratories; Maintenance of the information fund (archive). The enterprise, responsible to the performance of the system is Geochemia. The case specifies the functions of Geochemia, information systems and technologies used to support execution of its activities in the time of transition to market economy. It provides basis for development of course projects in three areas: Design of database and TPS; Design of a MIS for quality control; Development of DSS: Statistical Inference Procedures for usability and calibration of chemical analytical methods.
Using DSS for Crisis Management
Authors: Kamel Sherif
Published: October 2011

This case focuses on the use of crisis management support systems in Egypt in leveraging the decision-making process in the government and the public sector for socioeconomic development. It describes the experience of the Egyptian public sector in socioeconomic decision-making and the related emergence of an information-based support organization for the government Information and Decision Support Center. The case reflects on the type of decision-making and the crisis management mode of operation at the top policy level and the needs and requirements in terms of resources and infrastructure to support the decision-making process. The case addresses the basics and concepts of crisis management support systems in the context of a developing country, Egypt, stemming from the experience of the Information and Decision Support Center from 1985 to date, the growing implications of the information and communication technology evolution and the lessons learned in responding to crisis management situations in supporting decision and strategic issues at the government and the public sector. The essence of the case is to address the use of advanced information systems in responding to socioeconomic development needs. The case demonstrates the use of management and decision support systems in a crisis mode that has had a number of successes over the last decade that implied concrete results within the developmental process that Egypt, a developing country, is realizing.
Isobord's Geographic Information System (GIS) Solution
Authors: Neufeld Derrick J. , Griffith Scott
Published: October 2011

Isobord, a start-up company that is setting up a new strawboard production plant in Manitoba, Canada, is facing critical operational problems that threaten its future. Isobords product is a high quality particleboard substitute that uses straw, rather than wood, as the main raw manufacturing material. To achieve viability, Isobord must develop processes to carefully coordinate and manage its straw baling, stacking and hauling operations. Through effective information systems, Isobord has the potential to reduce the amount of equipment it needs to purchase to meet straw harvest requirements. A small investment in optimization technology could yield considerable cost savings if the efficiency of capital equipment can be improved. A geographic information system (GIS) / relational database management system (RDBMS) solution is being explored, but budget and time constraints, as well as organizational inexperience, seriously threaten the project. An information technology decision must be made immediately if there is to be any hope of implementing technology to manage the first years straw harvest.
Implementation Failure of an Integrated Software Package
Authors: Sarker Suprateek , Sarker Saonee
Published: October 2011

The case study describes the process of implementation of an integrated software package at the Thai subsidiary (SMTL) of a Hong Kong-based multinational company (SMHK) engaged in the manufacturing of electronic equipment. Several factorssuch as a poor fit between the business process assumptions inscribed in the software and the business processes in SMTL, poor leadership at different levels, cultural clash between the headquarters and the Thai subsidiary, organizational politics, and poor human resource managementcontributed to the confusion in the organization, project delays, budget overruns, and ultimately, to the failure of the systems implementation project. The case study is likely to be valuable for illustrating issues related to managing IS implementation in a multinational context.
An Innovative Adaptation of General Purpose Accounting Software for a Municipal Social Services Agency
Authors: Schiff Andrew , Mersha Tigineh
Published: October 2011

Organizations with unique characteristics and transaction processing requirements, such as government agencies, often satisfy these requirements by (a) acquiring software from vendors who have developed applications for that particular type of organization, or (b) developing software internally from scratch. When either of these approaches is taken, the development costs are spread over a relatively small number of organizations, and the resulting system can be very expensive. Also, due to the uniqueness of the application and the relatively small number of users, it may take a long time to identify and correct any processing errors. An alternative is to acquire generalpurpose software that has been developed for a wide range of organizations, and to adapt it for the agency in which it will be installed. However, this alternative approach is frequently not undertaken because it is often believed that general-purpose software is unable to provide all of the information required by the organization. When the required information can be provided, though, general-purpose software can be less expensive and less timeconsuming to implement.
DataNaut Incorporated
Authors: Shaw Nancy C. , O’Reilly Fix Joan
Published: October 2011

This case was written for the 8th annual Kogod School of Business Case Competition at American University. It discusses a small, locally run company that faced several strategic decisions at the end of 1999: marketing its new high-tech products, securing sufficient venture capital financing, and creating a profit-sharing plan for current and future employees. The case involves an actual corporation (although some of the employee names have been changed) and the issues that confronted the management team at the end of 1999. The case includes a complete description of the companys products, a glossary of terms, a list of Web sites summarizing existing radio market research, detailed operating expenses and pro-forma financial statements (numbers have been altered for confidentiality). This case combines new technology development, HR decisions, marketing and finance, which makes it a true cross-disciplinary case that can be used in several different courses. At the end of 1999, a small software development company located on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. is faced with several strategic decisions regarding the marketing and financing of its high-tech products. The principals of the company must decide the type and dollar amount of financing they will try to secure, which of their two products should be the focus of their marketing efforts and how they should structure an equitable compensation plan for their existing and future employees. Cash flow has been an ongoing problem for this small company, which began as a one-person technical consulting company and has grown into a consulting and product development company with several full and part-time employees. While consulting has traditionally paid the bills, the CEO is interested in becoming a part of the Internet Revolution with the development of multimedia streaming applications.
The Dilemma of Dairy Farm Group between Redesigning of Business Processes and Rebuilding of Management Information Systems
Authors: Ng Eugenia M. W. , Farhoomand Ali F. , Banerjee Probir , Morillo Juan Llorens
Published: October 2011

The Dairy Farm Group of Companies (DFG), is a leading food and drugstore retailer in the Asia- Pacific Region. DFG and its associates operated supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores and drugstores in nine territories and had sales of US$6.9 billion in 1997. However, the profit margin of DFG was low compared to its competitors in Hong Kong and China and other retailers in Europe and the U.S. Consequently, a new chief executive officer was hired in June that year. The new management team hired the services of two consulting firms to independently carry out a preliminary investigation of existing systems at DFG and to recommend solutions. Firm A stressed primarily the development of a management information system and use of emerging trends in technology and firm B focused on the re-engineering of crucial business processes with supporting technology. If you are the management team, which firm will be awarded the contract?
Developing a Hypertext GUIDE Program for Teaching the Simple Tasks of Maintaining and Troubleshooting the Educational Equipments
Authors: Rahouma Kamel Hussein , Zinterhof Peter
Published: October 2011

The educational technologists (ETs) are needed in all the stages of the teaching and learning processes at all the educational levels. In these processes, they become responsible for the used educational equipment (EE). To perform their roles effectively, they should acquire the simple maintenance and troubleshooting (MaT) tasks of the used equipment. The hypertext GUIDE system has been used to implement a hypertext program for this purpose. A list of the commonly used EEs and their simple MaT tasks was first collected and then validated. The list includes 81 MaT items divided into 11 groups and each group represents one or a group of the EEs. The first group includes seven general MaT tasks of the EEs. The following 10 groups regard the simple MaT tasks of the projectors (11 items), the audio and video cassette recorders and players (6 items), the normal television (4 items), the photographic camera (5 items), the microfiche (9 items), the photocopiers (7 items), the audio mixers (5 items), the personal computers (8 items for hardware and 8 items for software), the speakers-headphones-microphones (8 items) and the lighting devices (3 items). An explorational study showed that there is a common view between the Arab and non-Arab experts in the fields of education and educational technology regarding the importance of the listed equipment and its simple MaT tasks which should be acquired by the ETs. The list was programmed in a hypertext program that has been validated. The program was applied on a group of educational technology students, faculty of specific education, Minia University, Egypt. A special test for evaluating the program effectiveness was also designed, validated and applied to the study sample. The test results showed the effectiveness of the designed program in acquiring the simple MaT tasks of the EEs. The study has concluded some main points and suggested some useful recommendations and future work points. Important note: A copy of all the materials of this chapter including the validated list of EEs and their simple MaT tasks, the achievement test, and the hypertext program, can be requested from the first author who hold the copyrights for the materials.
Shared Workplace for Collaborative Engineering
Authors: Trossen Dirk , Schuppen André , Walbaum Michael
Published: October 2011

In the broad context of the collaborative research center project IMPROVE (Information Technology Support for Collaborative and Distributed Design Processes in Chemical Engineering), the presented case study has been concentrating on the provision of appropriate communication technology, specifically shared workspace means, to enable collaborative working between distributed engineering teams. Issues like distributed developer meetings, sharing common data, or even sharing entire workspaces including off-the-shelf tools being used for the development process are the driving forces for the studies on how to provide appropriate technology means in collaborative engineering. The considered case in the field of chemical engineering and development represents a difficult candidate for collaborative engineering due to the variety of proprietary data and tools to be integrated in a shared workspace. Furthermore, common aspects of cooperative working among development teams have to be considered as well. The resulting architecturebased on the findings of the current stage of the case is presented, trying to use as many existing software as possible. Drawbacks and challenges being encountered during the case study due to the a-posteriori approach are outlined, leading to a revised architecture proposal to be used in the future as a common platform for the information technology support within the context of the research project. Expected benefits and problems of the introduction of the new architecture are drawn.
IT in Improvement of Public Administration
Authors: Kisielnicki Jerzy
Published: October 2011

Bialystok City Hall is an organ of public administration. The city of Bialystok has 280,000 inhabitants. In result of the political transformation in Poland, the new authorities have inherited a bureaucratic and inefficient management system as well as an outdated IT. In the electoral programme for 2000 - 2004, the following objectives have been set for the City Hall: to significantly improve the quality of operations and, in particular, to reduce time of handling affairs; to provide complex and professional customer service; to improve the management of assets. In order to improve the City Hall management system, reengineering and TQM rules have been applied. The new management system has been based on new IT solutions, including extranet network and integrated database. In consequence of those changes, some significant results have been achieved, e.g., an improvement of the quality of customer service and also a possibility to monitor the City Hall operational procedures. The vital result however, was a reduction of the decision-making time by the average of 30% and the reduction of the routine affairs handling time by the average of 25%.
Adopting IT
Authors: Anderson John M. , Gwinn William H.
Published: October 2011

Small companies are often reluctant to try innovative approaches to information management because of the cost of the hardware and software, the potential disruption of processes already dependent on overstressed resources and the lack of in-house expertise. This case looks at the experience with information technology (IT) implementation of one small nonprofit company that provides administrative services for child care providers. Like many companies of all sizes, the focal company realized it must adopt new information technologies in order to survive. The company fit the profile for small companies just entering the world of IT. It experienced the expected internal problems associated with change. And then it discovered that its size and its relationship to government oversight agencies, themselves struggling to implement IT, posed special threats to its survival.
Application of Tree-Based Solutions
Authors: Paper David , Tingey Kenneth B.
Published: October 2011

This case is a study of the application of tree-based solutions to Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) challenges in the development of a computerized system to meet complex, yet exacting compliance requirements extended to thousands of employees in a largescale organization. We rehearse the history of the project and include information on the theoretical structure of the tree-based solution used. Using primary research documentation, we use a constructivist approach to the issue of subject matter expert empowerment, a major theme of the case. Of particular interest is how the engineer in question was able to modify his work paradigm to incorporate a new role as digital content designer and overseer of the project. Additionally, the study concentrates on the overall effects of the project on other INEEL systems and working environments at the INEEL. Implications of management- and subject matter expert-directed system design projects using tree-based tools are considered with respect to all aspects of enterprise systems development.
Recognizing Runaway IS Projects When They Occur
Authors: Mann Joan Ellen Cheney
Published: October 2011

Runaway projects have been a problem in information systems (IS) for quite some time. In 1988, KPMG found that 35% of their largest clients currently had a runaway project, and in 1991 the percentage of firms increased to 60%. Plus, over 50% of the respondents considered this to be normal (Rothfeder, 1988; Cringely, 1994). The traditional definition of a runaway is any project that grossly exceeds budget and time targets but yet has failed to produce an acceptable deliverable. Given that each runaway project is a dysfunctional use of organizational resources, it is important for practitioners to be able to identify them early and react appropriately. On the other hand, this case will help practitioners realize that the issues within runaway projects are complex and difficult. The case could be used in MIS courses for non-IS majors, systems analysis and project management classes for IS majors or EDP auditing courses in accounting.
Incentives and Knowledge Mismatch
Authors: Banerjee Parthasarathi
Published: October 2011

A large public bank B in an economy now under transition to liberalization, attempted reengineering its structure and business processes. B has a large branch-based structure to acquire local savings where banking processes add little value. Value is added at the head office through bankbased financial operations and through providing credit to industry. Appreciating that competition was sharpening; two successive chairmen and a few senior managers initiated change management. However, they could not choosefrom out of structure, business process, strategy and technology what was the driver of change and in what sequence of change would be the best outcome! A consultant was appointed. However, negotiations on change management between the stakeholders and the consultant resulted in tacit opportunistic alliance. An apparently loaded report on change resulted in minor changes. BPR failed because processes remained unrecognized and technology instead of hastening change turned out to be a new instrument of monitoring.
Risk in Partnerships Involving Information Systems Development
Authors: Harindranath G. , Sillince John A. A.
Published: October 2011

This is a case study of a US$ 30 million project to establish a new form of rapid healthcare service delivery within the context of a highly politicised National Health Service Hospital (NHS) Trust in the United Kingdom (UK). This project involved large-scale redesign of long-established healthcare procedures and the development of sophisticated new information systems (IS) through a unique partnership between the public sector (the UKs NHS) and a number of private sector companies (a software developer, a facilities manager, a hardware vendor and a builder). The case study concentrates on, what is often, one of the more important determinants of the success or failure of such partnerships involved in information systems development, i.e. risk.
Seaboard Stock Exchange's Emerging E-Commerce Initiative
Authors: Knight Linda V. , Steinbach Theresa A. , Graf Diane M.
Published: October 2011

While Seaboard Stock Exchange remains one of the top stock exchanges in the United States, its relative position in the world is slipping. E-commerce is threatening the organization by accelerating the rate of disintermediation and the entrance of new competitors into Seaboards market. Against this backdrop, Seaboards e-commerce initiative has emerged. Tension between control and experimentation surfaces as the association attempts to incorporate emerging technology while maintaining its traditional way of doing business. The organization struggles to merge new technology with existing IT strategy while internal entrepreneurs strive to shape a Web development methodology and define an appropriate role for standards and controls in an emerging technology environment.
Added Value Benefits of Application of Internet Technologies to Subject Delivery
Authors: Burgess Stephan , Darbyshire Paul
Published: October 2011

The application of Internet technologies towards distance education is widely discussed in the literature. This case applies Porters added value theory relating to the use of IT to the application of Internet technologies used as a supplement to traditional classroom subject delivery. Most of the reported advantages of this type from online course and subject delivery relate to cost savings in terms of efficiency, flexibility and/or convenience for the students. The case study examines a range of subjects taught in the School of Information Systems at Victoria University, Australia. Each subject uses Internet technologies for different added value benefits. Subject coordinators comment upon the use of the Internet technologies for both academic and administrative aspects. Students are surveyed to determine the value of Internet technologies from their perspective. Student responses indicated the applications were perceived to be at least useful, and findings supported Porters theory. The challenge for the faculty is to demonstrate the business benefits to faculty staff of adopting Internet technology for teaching. The case studies have shown that the use of Internet technologies by students seems to be higher where the coordinator actively encourages it.
Systems Design Issues in Planning and Implementation
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S.
Published: October 2011

Telecommunications Company (TC) [company identity is concealed] produced a sales management application through internal and contract resources. This application, Schedule Graph (SG) System, was designed to automate the sales schedule process that had previously been a paper and pencil process. The system was designed and implemented in a matter of months to reduce cost and deliver an application that was long overdue. The project had been proposed for years, but funding issues had routinely delayed initiation. The sales development organization worked on the design and development for this application for approximately six months. The application was released with numerous software, hardware and network problems. The effects on the customer community, the information systems department and other stakeholders were sharp and far reaching. This case study investigates the lessons learned with this application and the implications for theory and practice. It can be instrumental to information systems managers, academicians and students to learn from the success and pitfalls of other organizations related to information systems development and management.
Optimal Robot Path Planning with Cellular Neural Network
Authors: Zhong Yongmin , Shirinzadeh Bijan , Yuan Xiaobu
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a new methodology based on neural dynamics for optimal robot path planning by drawing an analogy between cellular neural network (CNN) and path planning of mobile robots. The target activity is treated as an energy source injected into the neural system and is propagated through the local connectivity of cells in the state space by neural dynamics. By formulating the local connectivity of cells as the local interaction of harmonic functions, an improved CNN model is established to propagate the target activity within the state space in the manner of physical heat conduction, which guarantees that the target and obstacles remain at the peak and the bottom of the activity landscape of the neural network. The proposed methodology cannot only generate real-time, smooth, optimal, and collision-free paths without any prior knowledge of the dynamic environment, but it can also easily respond to the real-time changes in dynamic environments. Further, the proposed methodology is parameter-independent and has an appropriate physical meaning.
Impedance Control of a Spherical Parallel Platform
Authors: Carbonari Luca , Bruzzone Luca , Callegari Massimo
Published: October 2011

This article describes the impedance control of an in-parallel actuated orientation platform. The algorithm is based on a representation of platform orientation which exploits the equivalent axis of rotation: this approach is more intuitive and easier to visualize than conventional methods based on Cardan or Euler angles. Moreover, since for small angular displacements the Mozzi’s axis lies very close to angular velocity, impedance control algorithms based on such representation provides better performances and smoother motions. Results of numerical simulations and experimental tests are shown and commented with reference to the spherical parallel machine.
Processing of 3D Unstructured Measurement Data for Reverse Engineering
Authors: Zhong Yongmin
Published: October 2011

One of the most difficult problems in reverse engineering is the processing of unstructured data. NURBS (Non-uniform Rational B-splines) surfaces are a popular tool for surface modeling. However, they cannot be directly created from unstructured data, as they are defined on a four-sided domain with explicit parametric directions. Therefore, in reverse engineering, it is necessary to process unstructured data into structured data which enables the creation of NURBS surfaces. This paper presents a methodology to processing unstructured data into the structured data for creating NURBS surfaces. A projection based method is established for constructing 3D triangulation from unstructured data. An optimization method is also established to optimize the 3D triangulation to ensure that the resulted NURBS surfaces have a better form. A triangular surface interpolation method is established for constructing triangular surfaces from the triangulation. This method creates five-degree triangular surfaces with C1 continuity. A series of segment data are obtained by cutting the triangular surfaces with a series of parallel planes. Finally, the structured data is obtained by deleting repetitive data points in each segment data. Results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology.
Helping to Bridge the Digital Divide with Free Software and Services
Authors: Caudill Jason G.
Published: October 2011

The growing importance of digital media in citizens’ participation in government is a major issue in obtaining government services, elections and campaigning in the 21st century. In order to participate in the consumption and creation of online media, citizens must have access to, and knowledge of, appropriate technology resources. There exists a gap between those who have access to technology and those who do not A gap commonly referred to as the digital divide. While there are many different aspects to the digital divide one of them is access to the software necessary to participate in digital media. A potential solution to the software component of the digital divide is the use of open source software and free online services. Implementing these solutions can play a part in narrowing the digital divide and producing better informed citizens more capable of participating in the modern electoral process.
Open Source Software Systems
Authors: Lenin R. B. , Ramaswamy S. , Yu Liguo , Govindan R. B.
Published: October 2011

Complex software systems and the huge amounts of data they produce are becoming an integral part of our organizations. We are also becoming increasingly dependent on high quality software products in our everyday lives. These systems ‘evolve’ as we identify and correct existing defects, provide new functionalities, or increase their nonfunctional qualities - such as security, maintainability, performance, etc. Simultaneously, more software development projects are distributed over multiple locations (often globally) and are often several millions of dollars in development costs. Consequently, as the Internet continually eliminates geographic boundaries, the concept of doing business within a single country has given way to companies focusing on competing in an international marketplace. The digitalization of work and the reorganization of work processes across many organizations have resulted in routine and/or commodity components being outsourced.
Open Scientific Entrepreneurship
Authors: von Kortzfleisch Harald , Schaarschmidt Mario , Magin Philipp
Published: October 2011

The objective of this article is to conceptually transfer the concept of open source software (OSS) development to scientific entrepreneurship and to hypothetically discuss the support potentials of this rather new development philosophy for what we than call open scientific entrepreneurship. Therefore, at first the authors will go into conceptual details of scientific entrepreneurship and than of OSS development. Following, the main thrust of the article presents open scientific entrepreneurship from two points of origin: first of all, OSS development as a specific form of scientific e-entrepreneurship and further on potential benefits of opening “traditional” scientific entrepreneurship up by looking at specific action fields. These action fields are theoretically based on the process and competence perspective of scientific entrepreneurship. Finally, the general benefits as well as downsides of the concept of openness are discussed on a generic level. It becomes obvious that there is need for balancing the tensions between an open and closed design pattern for scientific entrepreneurship with a general emphasis on the open design perspective.
Technology in Marketing Education
Authors: Bridges Eileen
Published: October 2011

Company training programs provide insights for university classrooms, particularly those in schools and colleges of business. This research shows an increase in usage of technology based training among successful firms, but it is not growing as quickly as consumer use of self-service technologies because some firm goals require more personal training modes. The present findings regarding business adoption of training technology are consistent with consumer research that suggests satisfaction increases with experience in use. Also, selected technology must be congruent with learning goals–technological tools are more effective when students are learning related material–and results of training suggest increased efficacy when this is true. In this regard, university learning environments focused on business should utilize technology as appropriate to learning goals, but should not gratuitously replace traditional classroom learning activities.
Business Lessons for Higher Education Marketing
Authors: Cook Ruth Gannon , Ley Kathryn
Published: October 2011

Today, recent business marketing approaches that depend upon market analysis and planning have stimulated the growth of marketing firms that offer sophisticated quantitative market analyses in order to identify an organization’s potential and current customers and their needs. This analysis contrasts educational service provider to enrollment outcomes at two nonprofit higher education institutions. The authors’ data indicates securing educational marketing services may be a costly approach in order to attract and keep customers or students.
Cloud Computing Security
Authors: Carlin Sean , Curran Kevin
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors focus on Cloud Computing, which is a distributed architecture that centralizes server resources on quite a scalable platform so as to provide on demand’ computing resources and services The authors outline what cloud computing is, the various cloud deployment models and the main security risks and issues that are currently present within the cloud computing industry.
Future Multimedia System
Authors: Murray Niall , Qiao Yuansong , Lee Brian , Fallon Enda , Karunakar A. K.
Published: October 2011

In future multimedia systems, seamless access to application services on different devices available to users in their vicinity, will be commonplace. The availability of these services will change as the mobile user moves. Current 3G multimedia systems do not support access to multiple applications operating on multiple different devices in context of a session or indeed seamless device session handover. Considering these requirements, the authors outline two multimedia communication platforms which potentially solve this problem. This paper describes a backward compatible architecture based on the widely adopted Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and also outlines a clean slate approach from ITU-T SG 16 called the Advanced Multimedia System (AMS). For each of these solutions the paper describes in terms of architecture, signalling, and capability negotiation, what are viewed as the most critical functions in future multimedia systems design. The result of this comparison displays the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and outlines solutions to satisfy challenges of current and future multimedia systems based on the service access requirement in ubiquitous environments. Furthermore, this comparison is used to suggest approaches that are best suited for future multimedia system design.
SYLPH
Authors: Alonso Ricardo S. , Tapia Dante I. , Corchado Juan M.
Published: October 2011

The significance that Ambient Intelligence (AmI) has acquired in recent years requires the development of innovative solutions. In this sense, the development of AmI-based systems requires the creation of increasingly complex and flexible applications. The use of context-aware technologies is an essential aspect in these developments in order to perceive stimuli from the context and react upon it autonomously. This paper presents SYLPH, a novel platform that defines a method for integrating dynamic and self-adaptable heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). This approach facilitates the inclusion of context-aware capabilities when developing intelligent ubiquitous systems, where functionalities can communicate in a distributed way. A WSN infrastructure has been deployed for testing and evaluating this platform. Preliminary results and conclusions are presented in this paper.
The Role of Augmented Reality within Ambient Intelligence
Authors: Curran Kevin , McFadden Denis , Devlin Ryan
Published: October 2011

An Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology which provides the user with a real time 3D enhanced perception of a physical environment with addition virtual elements—either virtual scenery, information regarding surroundings, other contextual information—and is also capable of hiding or replacing real structures. With Augmented Reality applications becoming more advanced, the ways the technology can be viably used is increasing. Augmented Reality has been used for gaming several times with varying results. AR systems are seen by some as an important part of the ambient intelligence landscape. Therefore, the authors present several types of augmentation applications of AR in the domestic, industrial, scientific, medicinal, and military sectors which may benefit future ambient intelligent systems.
Appropriate Evolutionary Algorithm for Scheduling in FMS
Authors: Choudhury B. B. , Biswal B. B. , Mishra D. , Mahapatra R. N.
Published: October 2011

The diffusion of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) has not only invigorated production systems, but has also given considerable impetus to relevant analytical fields like scheduling theory and adaptive controls. Depending on the demand of the job there can be variation in batch size. The change in the jobs depends upon the renewal rate. But this does not involve much change in the FMS setup. This paper obtains an optimal schedule of operations to minimize the total processing time in a modular FMS. The FMS setup considered here consists of four numbers of machines to accomplish the desired machining operations. The scheduling deals with optimizing the cost function in terms of machining time. The powers Evolutionary Algorithms, like genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA), can be beneficially utilized for optimization of scheduling FMS. The present work utilizes these powerful approaches and finds out their appropriateness for planning and scheduling of FMS producing variety of parts in batch mode.
Assessing the Impact of Temperature Change on the Effectiveness of Insecticide-Treated Nets
Authors: Davis Gregory J.
Published: October 2011

Malaria is a vector-borne illness affecting millions of lives annually and imposes a heavy financial burden felt worldwide. Moreover, there is growing concern that global climate change, in particular, rising temperature, will increase this burden. As such, policy makers are in need of tools capable of informing them about the potential strengths and weaknesses of intervention and control strategies. A previously developed agent-based model of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito is extended, one of the primary vectors of malaria, to investigate how changes in temperature influence the dynamics of malaria transmission and the effectiveness of a common malaria intervention: insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). Results from the simulations suggest two important findings. Consistent with previous studies, an increase in mosquito abundance as temperature increases is observed. However, the increase in mosquito abundance reduces the effectiveness of ITNs at a given coverage level. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Customer Relationship and Satisfaction
Authors: Ahmed Abdel Moneim M. B.
Published: October 2011

This paper establishes if using a comment card provides a reliable form of feedback regarding customer satisfaction in hotels. This exploratory study was conducted at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel-Dubai, UAE. They are a convenient way for guests to complain, make suggestions and praise. Managers use this input to make quick fixes and comfort distraught guests. The trouble is that hotels depend on comment cards for more than casual guest feedback. Hotels use the results for determining employee bonuses or employee performance evaluations and depend them when making business decisions. This paper examines the comment cards as an important feedback mechanism to measure customer satisfaction and argues that it is an effective instrument to strengthen relationships. Literature suggests that comment cards are not scientific or secure. Only happy or unhappy guests participate in these surveys, which can lead to extreme or misleading results.
Handling Customer Complaints in the Hospitality Industry
Authors: Dinnen Rosalynn , Hassanien Ahmed
Published: October 2011

Drawing on associated literature and empirical research, this paper examines the engagement and expertise of hotels in handling customer complaints. This is of considerable interest to practitioners and academics within the field of hospitality management. The study explores hotel management’s attitudes and practices toward handling customer complaints within the hospitality industry in Scotland. In this paper, the authors analyze case study interviews with four and five star hotel managers in Scotland. The findings reveal that encouraging customer complaints and feedback should be seen as a way in which to develop a better relationship with and retain customers. The results also confirm the importance of having employee training in the area of customer complaints, recommending that employees handle complaints themselves. Furthermore, the study suggests that hotels must be well equipped for logging, processing and analyzing complaints. Management implications and areas for further research are also discussed.
Performance of Wireless Sensor Networks for Different Mobile Event Path Scenarios
Authors: Yang Tao , Mino Gjergji , Barolli Leonard , Ikeda Makoto , Xhafa Fatos , Durresi Arjan
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors investigate how the sensor network performs when the event moves with special movement path. Simulation results are compared with four scenarios: when the event is stationary, moving randomly, moving with simple 4 path, and boids path. The simulation results show that for the case when the event is moving randomly, the performance is the worst in the four scenarios. The characteristic of goodput decreases with the increase of number of sensor nodes. In the case of the boids model, the goodput is unstable when the is lower than 10 pps. The consumed energy characteristic increases with the increase of . Simulation results show that the consumed energy of random movement is the worst among the four scenarios. The consumed energy of boids model is the lowest in four cases. This shows that the event movement with boids model can decrease the consumed energy in large scale WSNs.
Information Systems Usage in Business and Management
Authors: Berisha-Namani Mihane
Published: October 2011

Information systems in the world of business and management exist to serve varied needs. This article examines the role of information systems technology in business activities and management functions and discusses how organisations can best use information systems. This study provides managers and researchers with a framework for effective use of information systems for business and management purposes and offers an alternative approach to investigate the impact of new technology. The author concludes that a need exists for further research in this field to increase understanding of information systems usage in business and management. The study recommends that more attention be paid to information systems technology, as it is key to better management and succeeding in business.
Asynchronous P Systems
Authors: Balanescu Tudor , Nicolescu Radu , Wu Huiling
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors propose a new approach to fully asynchronous P systems, and a matching complexity measure, both inspired from the field of distributed algorithms. The authors validate the proposed approach by implementing several well-known distributed depth-first search (DFS) and breadth-first search (BFS) algorithms. Empirical results show that the proposed P algorithms have shorter descriptions and achieve a performance comparable to the corresponding distributed algorithms.
Local Search with P Systems
Authors: Gutiérrez-Naranjo Miguel A. , Pérez-Jiménez Mario J.
Published: October 2011

Local search is currently one of the most used methods for finding solutions in real-life problems. It is usually considered when the research is interested in the final solution of the problem instead of the how the solution is reached. In this paper, the authors present an implementation of local search with Membrane Computing techniques applied to the N-queens problem as a case study. A CLIPS program inspired in the Membrane Computing design has been implemented and several experiments have been performed. The obtained results show better average times than those obtained with other Membrane Computing implementations that solve the N-queens problem.