bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Web as a Platform for e-Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Authors: Garaizar Pablo , Vadillo Miguel A. , López-de-Ipiña Diego , Matute Helena
Published: February 2012

As a consequence of the joint and rapid evolution of the Internet and the social and behavioral sciences during the last two decades, the Internet is becoming one of the best possible psychological laboratories and is being used by scientists from all over the world in more and more productive and interesting ways each day. This chapter uses examples from psychology, while reviewing the most recent Web paradigms, like the Social Web, Semantic Web, and Cloud Computing, and their implications for e-research in the social and behavioral sciences, and tries to anticipate the possibilities offered to social science researchers by future Internet proposals. The most recent advancements in the architecture of the Web, both from the server and the client-side, are also discussed in relation to behavioral e-research. Given the increasing social nature of the Web, both social scientists and engineers should benefit from knowledge on how the most recent and future Web developments can provide new and creative ways to advance the understanding of the human nature.
E-Research Methodology
Authors: Khatibi Vahid , Montazer Gholam Ali
Published: February 2012

Electronic scientific databases (ESDs) such as “ScienceDirect,” “GoogleScholar,” and “Scopus” became popular in the scientific community, because scientific contents and diverse scientific Web services such as scientific communications and collaborations have taken place electronically in the ESDs. In this way, scientific research has evolved accordingly, yielding electronic research (e-Research) process in which scientists initiate their research, drive it, and reach its determined goals electronically. In this chapter, the authors focus on the ESDs’ scientific Web services role in the research process. After representing a classification for the scientific Web services, a comprehensive methodology for the e-Research process is proposed. Also, the effects of scientific Web services on the e-Research process adoption are studied. The findings show that scientific Web services of information storage and sharing, searching, and communications are the most popular and useful Web services in scientific community.
Collaborative and Distributed e-Research Environment for Supporting Scientific Research and the Education Process
Authors: Nam Dukyun , Lee Junehawk , Cho Kum Won
Published: February 2012

The efficient use of a scientific application service built on a computing environment requires technology that integrates each application service into a workflow so that the workflow is executed in a cooperative environment. There have been a number of attempts to automate research activities as a scientific workflow. However, there are practical problems in the full automation of research activities for a number of simulation programs and researchers. In the cyber environment for Collaborative and Distributed E-Research (CDER), the types of workflows need to be studied and supported separately and with different methodologies. In this chapter, the authors analyze the scientific research and education processes and categorize them into four types: simulation, experiment, collaborative work, and educational activity. They then describe the applications needed for each category. To justify their categorization of the CDER workflow, they examine the workflow of e-AIRS (e-Science Aerospace Integrated Research System), a problem-solving environment for aerospace research.
Connecting and Enabling the Humanities
Authors: Arthur Paul
Published: February 2012

E-Research is well-established in science and technology fields but is at an earlier stage of development in the humanities. Investments in technology infrastructure worldwide, however, are starting to pay dividends, and a cultural change is occurring, enabling closer collaborations between researchers in a sector that has traditionally emphasized individual research activities. This chapter discusses ways in which the humanities are utilizing digital methods, including: creating and enhancing online collections; building knowledge communities around projects, disciplines, and data; and communicating research results in widely accessible formats. E-Research has brought with it new attitudes, behaviors, and expectations. Topics include the growing opportunities for collaborative and cross-disciplinary approaches, building the information commons, and the need for long-term strategic investment in research infrastructure.
An Ontological Structure for Gathering and Sharing Knowledge among Scientists through Experiment Modeling
Authors: Casillas Luis , Daradoumis Thanasis
Published: February 2012

This chapter presents a proposal for modeling / simulating experiments conducted by scientists working in common scientific problems, based on gathering and exploiting knowledge elements produced among them. The authors’ approach enables the adaptation of knowledge structures (bounded to scientific problems) and is based on recurrent refining processes that are fed by indicators, which come from collaboration among the scientists involved. This scheme captures a web-based infrastructure, which allows scientists to collaborate on synthesizing experiments online. The proposed model is approached as an ontology that contains scientific concepts and actions. This ontology is linked to the scientific problem and represents both the “common understanding” for such a problem and the way it could be managed by the group. This dynamic ontology will change its structure according to the collaboration acts among scientists. Frequent collaboration over certain elements of the experiment will make them prevail in time. Besides, this process has been defined in a way that provides a global understanding of the scientific treatment that could be applied on any scientific problem. Hence, the ontology represents a virtualization of the scientific experiment. This whole representation is aimed at providing the media for developing e-research among scientists that are working on common problems.
E-Mentoring
Authors: Faulin Javier , Juan Angel A. , Lera Fernando , Barrios Barry B. , Forcada Alex
Published: February 2012

This chapter introduces the interrelated concepts of e-Research and e-Mentoring, reviews some recent works related to them, and discusses their importance in a global, Internet-based world. In this chapter, a conceptual framework is proposed to distinguish among the concepts of e-Research, e-Science, and Cyberinfrastructure, which are frequently used synonymously in the existing literature. Then, some issues related to e-Mentoring are discussed, including its characteristics, benefits, challenges, and a review of different Web 2.0 tools that can facilitate and promote e-Mentoring practices in most research organizations. Some personal experiences in e-Mentoring are then related. These experiences involve different universities and international programs, and their study points out several key factors of a successful e-Mentoring collaboration.
E-Research Collaboration of International Scope in Social and Political Sciences
Authors: Morell Mayo Fuster
Published: February 2012

This chapter presents a comparative analysis of three case studies (all from the field of social and political science) on global e-research collaboration, describing how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are facilitating the overcoming of geographical barriers. Previous research points out that physical e-research collaboration meetings play a relevant role. This chapter explores whether this requirement of physical meetings in e-research collaboration is independent of the scale and complexity of the collaboration established. The findings suggest that high complexity can be achieved using communication tools if the scale of the group is small, while very large groups can collaborate using communication tools if their target is a loose collaboration. However, if the collaboration involves both a large group and a considered complexity of collaboration, establishing a balance between communication tools with the requirement of physical meetings becomes a relevant issue.
Low Loss Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Data Gathering Applications in Wireless Sensor Network
Authors: El-Basioni Basma M. Mohammad , El-Kader Sherine M. Abd , Eissa Hussein S. , Zahra Mohammed M.
Published: February 2012

But, as the energy-efficiency is critical for periodical data gathering applications in wireless sensor networks, it has the highest priority in algorithms design; also the latency, packet loss, and throughput are important factors and should be addressed. This chapter proposes a routing protocol inspired by an energy-efficient cluster-based routing protocol called Energy-Aware Routing Protocol (EAP). The new enhanced protocol that is called Low Loss Energy-Aware Routing Protocol (LLEAP) enhances the performance of EAP in terms of some quality of service parameters by adding a second iteration for constructing the tree structure for multi-hop communication among cluster heads, by modifying the used weights of the cluster heads and parent node selection, and finally by selecting suitable aggregation method to decrease losses and delay. Simulation results showed that LLEAP significantly outperforms EAP in terms of packet loss percentage by on average 93.4%.
Theoretical Foundations for Information Systems Success in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Authors: Devos Jan , Van Landeghem Hendrik , Deschoolmeester Dirk
Published: February 2012

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) in order to achieve business goals and obtain net benefits. However, adopting IT/IS into an existing organizational structure is a complex and risky task. Many investments in IT/IS, outsourced as well as in-sourced, never fully reach the intended objectives and are therefore considered as not being successful. In this chapter, the authors focused on IS success in small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs) in order to find theoretical foundations. They explain four well-known theories, often used in IS research, which constitute the basics of their thinking. These theories are the technology acceptance model (TAM), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the DeLone & McLean IS success model (D&M), and the transaction cost economy (TCE) model. The authors weaved the constructs of these theories into a compound framework that delivers explanatory and predicting power for the successful adoption of IT/IS in SMEs. This framework is also consistent with the nomological IS network established by Benbasat and Zmud (Benbasat & Zmud, 2003). In order to validate the framework, the authors examined the extent to which the theoretical model could provide support for the Cobit framework, often used by practitioners as an IT governance framework, and also suitable for SMEs. Findings show that the framework offers surprising coherence and proposes a strong theoretical foundation for the normative directions of the methods used in Cobit by IT practitioners.
A Model to Assist the Maintenance vs. Replacement Decision in Information Systems
Authors: Pusatli O. Tolga , Regan Brian
Published: February 2012

An extensive literature review shows that Information Systems (IS) are changed and eventually replaced by substitutes under the influence of productivity, popularity, and specialisation of IS along with associated available support facilities, maintenance activities, failures, and user feedback. This chapter compiles those factors emerged from software engineering, IS, software quality assurance measurements, and computer science literature. A final product is a proposed model bringing those factors together as they are suspected to raise a need for taking the decision of evaluating change requests that may lead to a further maintenance or replace the IS. While keeping in mind that limitations on advanced testing exist, an expected service of such a model may help decision makers to explain maintenance/replacement decision of IS/component in a more itemized manner, hence diminish overburden pressure of experience responsibility on them.
Website Evaluation Criteria
Authors: Ghandour Ahmad , Benwell George L. , Deans Kenneth R.
Published: February 2012

There is often a need for business organisations to evaluate their current and potential website in order to maximize the payoffs from website investments. Current evaluative approaches for the performance of e-commerce websites do not adequately address owners’ concerns regarding the payoffs from their e-commerce investment. This chapter establishes criteria to evaluate e-commerce websites based on an owner’s perception rather than the customer’s perception. Drawing upon theories of communication, resource based view and process oriented approach, an evaluation framework of three dimensions is developed. The three dimensions are: website offer, usage, and payoff. These three dimensions are used to explain the performance of a website, culminating in a website evaluation model. Each dimension is a business process of the website that the organisation needs to monitor.
End-User Participation in Health IT Development
Authors: Høstgaard Anna Marie Balling
Published: February 2012

Despite there being extensive cumulative knowledge and many experiences about factors that contribute to health Information Technology (HIT) success, lessons are yet to be learned as many HIT developments still face a number of problems - many of them of an organizational nature. This chapter presents a new method - the EUPHIT method – for studying and understanding one of the most crucial organizational success factors in HIT development: end-user participation. The method was developed and used for the first time throughout a research study of an EHR planning process in a Danish region. It has proved effective in disclosing the interactions that occur between the different social groups involved in HIT development, and in understanding the underlying reasons for these. This allows HIT project management to explore new avenues during the development process in order to support, facilitate, and improve real end-user participation.
The Development of a Model for Information Systems Security Success
Authors: Dunkerley Kimberley , Tejay Gurvirender
Published: February 2012

Information security has received a great deal of attention from a number of researchers. However, there has been little research aimed at understanding the dimensions critical for the success of organizational information security programs. This chapter considers a large body of information security literature and organizes the research based on their findings. This taxonomy is used to develop a parsimonious model for information security success within organizations. Also, the utility of the proposed model within the contexts of government and healthcare is considered.
Evolutional Patterns of Intranet Applications
Authors: Previtali Pietro
Published: February 2012

The objective of this chapter is to propose a theoretical examination, strengthened by an empiric survey of intranet evolutional patterns and the neologism that designates a communication system, for access to and searching of business information based on Internet technologies. This chapter analyses intranet applications and functionalities in order to classify them according to a taxonomy that allows us to distinguish between an institutional intranet, a knowledge management intranet, and an operating intranet. The main research hypothesis is the existence of an intranet life cycle, as an evolutional model starting from an institutional intranet that moves to a knowledge management intranet and then to an operating one. This last one is considered as a proxy for successful IS implementation. To substantiate the above-mentioned hypothesis an empirical study was conducted among 110 large Italian corporations, with a response rate of 66% (73 corporations). The method used was a survey conducted during the months of March, April, and May 2010, applying a mix of random sampling (randomly selected interviewees from the directory) and “snowball” sampling (contacting interviewees through leads). The results show how, basically, companies approach intranet implementation processes in an incremental way, which begins with the integration of the basic functionalities as “communication channel,” “service platform,” or “document management.”
Designing an Information Systems Performance Management System
Authors: Perego Angela
Published: February 2012

Contribution of Information Systems (IS) to business has been widely debated among both business scholars and practitioners. Even though a consistent body of literature has examined the problem over a time frame of more than 20 years, and a plethora of theoretical contributions has been produced, the issue of evaluating IS effectiveness remains unresolved. Starting from the assumption that real-world experiences differ from theoretical explications, and with the intent to contribute to IS Performance Management field bringing evidences from the reality, this chapter describes and discusses the design of an IS performance management system implemented by an insurance corporation.
Optical Networking
Authors: Raghuwanshi Sanjeev Kumar
Published: February 2012

Telecommunication networks based on optical fiber technology have become a major information transmission system with high capacity optical fiber links encircling the globe in both terrestrial and undersea installation. At present there are numerous passive and active optical devices within a light wave link that perform complex networking functions in the optical domain, such as signal restoration, routing, and switching. Along with the need to understand the functions of these devices comes the necessity to measure both components and network performance and to model and simulate the complex behavior of reliable high capacity networks. This chapter presents the fundamental principles for understanding and applying these issues. This chapter is primarily about TCP/IP network protocols and Ethernet network architectures, but also briefly describes other protocol suites, network architectures, and other significant areas of networking. It explains in simple terms the way networks are put together, and how data packages are sent between networks and subnets, along with how data is routed to the Internet.
Analysis of the High-Speed Network Performance through a Prediction Feedback Based Model
Authors: Ramachandra Manjunath , Pattabhirama Pandit
Published: February 2012

Performance modeling of a high speed network is challenging, especially when the size of the network is large. The high speed networks span various applications such as the transportation, wireless sensors, et cetera. The present day transportation system makes uses of Internet for efficient command and control transfers. In such a communication system, reliability and in-time data transfer is critical. In addition to the sensor information, the present day wireless networks target to support streaming of multimedia and entertainment data from mobile to infrastructure network and vice versa. In this chapter, a novel modeling method for the network and its traffic shaping is introduced, and simulation model is provided. The performance with this model is analyzed. The case-study with wireless networks is considered. The chapter is essentially about solving the congestion control of packet loss using a differentially fed neural network controller.
Token Based Mutual Exclusion in Peer-to-Peer Systems
Authors: Singh Mayank , Tapaswi Shashikala
Published: February 2012

Mutual exclusion is one of the well-studied fundamental primitives in distributed systems, and a number of vital solutions have been proposed to achieve the same. However, the emerging Peer to Peer systems bring forward several challenges to protect consistent and concurrent access to shared resources, as classical peer-to-peer systems, like Napster, Gnutella, et cetera, have been mainly used for sharing files with read only permission. In this chapter, the authors propose a quorum based mutual exclusion algorithm that can be used over any Peer to Peer Distributed Hash Table (DHT). The proposed approach can be seen as extension to traditional Sigma protocol for mutual exclusion in Peer to Peer systems. The basic idea is to reduce message overhead with use of smart nodes present in each quorum set and message passing between the current owners of resource with next resource requester nodes.
Becoming an Authentic Community College Teacher
Authors: Cranton Patricia
Published: February 2012

In this paper, a study of how adult vocational educators develop authenticity in their teaching within a Canadian community college context is presented. Six participants from different disciplines, five of whom were relatively new teachers, and one of whom had considerable experience, were interviewed three times over two years. With the assistance of the participants, narratives were constructed for each educator. Three categories of issues—personal issues (such as confidence), college system issues (policies and procedures), and educational system issues (government mandated curriculum)—were identified as influencing the development of authenticity. Implications for teacher preparation and professional development within the college environment are discussed.
Towards More Socio-Culturally Sensitive Research and Study of Workplace E-Learning
Authors: Remtulla Karim A.
Published: February 2012

This article advocates workplace adult education and training researchers and scholar practitioners interested in career and technical education (CTE), adult education and technology, and who are attempting social and cultural critiques of workplace e-learning. The emphasis on the technological and artefactual in workplace e-learning research and study are not producing the expected learning outcomes from workplace adult education and training to the degree anticipated. Given increasingly global and diverse workforces, the research and study of workplace e-learning as a socio-culturally ‘negotiated’ space may be an alternate approach toward a more socially and culturally informed understanding of adult learning from workplace e-learning.
Rethinking the Right Teaching Methods that Work for Online Learners
Authors: Wang Victor X. , Kania-Gosche Beth
Published: February 2012

This article addresses the phenomenon of why andragogical instructional approaches should work for online learners in the 21st century. As some senior faculty members and institutional administrators are reluctant to embrace education delivered via web 2.0 technologies, this article reveals discussions that will change these misconceptions. This article prompts readers to rethink their instructional strategies that will work well for online learners in particular. Even for face to face courses, instructors should incorporate an online component, as the principles of adult learning lend themselves well to an online environment.
Merging Education and Business Models to Create and Sustain Transformational Change
Authors: Isenberg Susan
Published: February 2012

In 2004, a large Midwest hospital was losing money, patients, employees, and physicians. A business consultant was hired to engage key employees in a process to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care. The improvement was negligible after the first year, so a 3-man consultancy was added in 2005 to engage all employees in an educational process with the same mission. The author was the hospital director of this experimental change project titled Transformation and worked with both the business and education consultants. The opposing models were serendipitously discovered to be parallel and resulted in positive change. The business model was the application of two Six Sigma models, DMAIC (define, measure, analysis, improvement, control) and Ten Step Kaizen. The education model was proprietary but discovered to be a learning process toward self-direction (Taylor, 1986). Interviews were conducted in this grounded theory study to understand the perceived relationship between the 2005 experiment and current realities. Significant improvements were immediate and sustained over time. The hospital is currently making money and attracting patients, employees, and physicians and the emerged theory posits that merging the models creates transformational change, but sustainability requires empowered leaders to manage the process.
Learning in 2010
Authors: Allen Jeff , Bracey Pamela , Gavrilova Mariya
Published: February 2012

Decades of research into learning have demonstrated that learners are diverse, changing, and adaptable. In this regard, the practice as educators must become flexible and adaptive to meet the wide variation of learning needs. A general consensus exists among educators, businesses, and other stakeholders that there is a significant gap between the knowledge and skills needed for success in life and the current state of education in schools throughout the world (The Conference Board et al., 2006). The internet, social networking, and distance education have created learners with a different set of characteristics, incoming skills, needs, desires, and goals. To meet the learning challenges of the 21st century, instructors must serve as catalysts of change by encouraging classrooms of open dialogue and developing the ability to effectively and efficiently use online communications. Through the process of learning from one another through problem-based activities, students and instructors improve the student-instructor relationship, encounter challenges, and solve them collaboratively.
The Relationship between Job Training and Job Satisfaction
Authors: Schmidt Steven W.
Published: February 2012

As stand-alone concepts, job satisfaction and job training have each been researched extensively. However, encouraged by researchers who have found a myriad of effects of job training on employee behavior in the workplace, the concepts of job training and job satisfaction are being examined together. Results of many studies indicate that the effects of job training go beyond those that might be considered traditional, that is, the acquisition of knowledge, the improvement of skill, and the increasing of efficiency in the workplace. This review of literature looks at the relationship between job training and job satisfaction, and also examines the concept of job training satisfaction. It has been found that the research on the relationship between these two concepts can be categorized as follows: job training satisfaction as a measured construct, workplace and employee studies, training methodology studies, perception and meaning, and additional outcomes. Training and development practitioners must be aware of the relationship between job training and job satisfaction when planning and promoting workplace training programs.
Resilient and Timely Event Dissemination in Publish/Subscribe Middleware
Authors: Esposito Christian , Cotroneo Domenico
Published: February 2012

Recently we have witnessed an increasing demand of fault-tolerant communications in publish/subscribe middleware. Although several reliable solutions have been proposed, none of them address the problem of achieving a resilient and timely event dissemination. We investigate how guaranteeing assured message dissemination despite occurrence of network faults without breaking temporal constraints. The contribution of this article is on devising a FEC approach where encoding functionality is placed at the root and on a subset of interior nodes in the multicast tree. Simulations-based experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach allows all the interested subscribers to receive all the published messages and the adopted resiliency mean does not affect the performance of the multicast protocol.
Adaptive Modeling of Routing Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Cinque Marcello , Di Martino Catello
Published: February 2012

Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of routing algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), hence complicating the choice of the proper algorithm to be used for a given application. Simulation frameworks represent a viable solution to anticipate crucial choices, however existing solutions do not encompass the impact of changes (e.g., route updates, node crashes) on the nodes behavior and vice-versa. This article proposes a novel adaptive modeling approach to master the complexity of the thorough simulation of routing algorithms for WSN. Experimental results are provided showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach at managing changes, and dealing with detailed aspects, during the simulation and comparison of several routing algorithms.
Adaptation and Dependability and Their Key Role in Modern Software Engineering
Authors: De Florio Vincenzo , Blondia Chris
Published: February 2012

Current software systems and the environments such systems are meant for requiring a precise characterization of the available resources and provisions to constantly re-optimize in the face of endogenous and exogenous changes and failures. This paper claims that it is simply not possible today to conceive software design without explicitly addressing adaptability and dependability. As an example, the authors remark on how mobile computing technologies call for effective software engineering techniques to design, develop and maintain services that are prepared to continue the distribution of a fixed, agreed-upon quality of service despite of the changes in the location of the client software, performance failures, and the characteristics of the environment. This paper concludes that novel paradigms are required for software engineering so as to provide effective system structures for adaptive and dependable services while keeping the design complexity under control. In this paper, the authors discuss this problem and propose one such structure, also briefly surveying the major milestones in the state of the art in this domain.
A Machine Learning Based Meta-Scheduler for Multi-Core Processors
Authors: Rai Jitendra Kumar , Negi Atul , Wankar Rajeev , Nayak K. D.
Published: February 2012

Sharing resources such as caches and memory buses between the cores of multi-core processors may cause performance bottlenecks for running programs. In this paper, the authors describe a meta-scheduler, which adapts the process scheduling decisions for reducing the contention for shared L2 caches on multi-core processors. The meta-scheduler takes into account the multi-core topology as well as the L2 cache related characteristics of the processes. Using the model generated by the process of machine learning, it predicts the L2 cache behavior, i.e., solo-run-L2-cache-stress, of the programs. It runs in user mode and guides the underlying operating system process scheduler in intelligent scheduling of processes to reduce the contention of shared L2 caches. In these experiments, the authors observed up to 12 percent speedup in individual as well as overall performance, while using meta-scheduler as compared to default process scheduler (Completely Fair Scheduler) of Linux kernel.
Mixing Workflows and Components to Support Evolving Services
Authors: Baude Françoise , Legrand Virginie , Henrio Ludovic , Naoumenko Paul , Pfeffer Heiko , Bassbouss Louay , Linner David
Published: February 2012

Composite distributed services involve local and remote services that get orchestrated according to specific business logic. This logic can be programmed by applying a traditional general-purpose programming language, but is generally described using a workflow language that coordinates a set of given services. The services involved in the composition, or the composition may need to evolve both at the business logic level (workflow level) and the global architecture level. This paper presents a solution to ease such evolution for compound distributed services and the authors’ proposal enables the evolution of both the business logic and the underlying architecture. This paper suggests relying on a distributed software component model to represent and easily manage the set of local or remote software entities (services) involved in the composition. Composite services are represented in a model that combines the use of a distributed and hierarchical software component model and new timed-automata based workflow language. This combination makes explicit the separation between functional and non-functional concerns, and as a consequence this approach helps in defining the required and various evolution procedures in context to compound services.
Significant Advances in Applied Geography from Combining Curiosity-Driven and Client-Driven Research Methodologies
Authors: Wellar Barry
Published: February 2012

The central thesis of the 2005 Anderson Lecture is that significant achievements in applied geography occur when the principles and practices of curiosity-driven and client-driven research are combined in the statement of problem, the idealized and operational research design, and the procedures of evaluating results. A companion thesis extends the Anderson Lectures by Jack Dangermond, Brian Berry, and Tom Wilbanks by positing that the best of applied geography incorporates a commutative perspective when establishing the parameters of an inquiry. That is, using pairwise combinations for illustration, research study parameters such as epistemology-praxis, conceptual-empirical, spatial-aspatial, theory-hypothesis, method-technique, cause-effect, analysis-synthesis, and structure-function are necessary elements in applied research that validates geography as a science-based, societally-relevant discipline, and geographers as professional practitioners. The examples of remote sensing, optimization techniques, decision support systems, geographic information systems, and the Walking Security Index project are used to illustrate how significant advances in applied geography result from combining curiosity-driven and client-driven research methodologies.
Geospatial Technology
Authors: Boehm Richard G. , Mohan Audrey
Published: February 2012

Research into the nature and function of curricular matters in applied geography has provided an opportunity to assess the penetration and relative importance of geospatial technology to the discipline of geography. Departments of Geography with degree programs in applied geography were surveyed to find out how important geospatial technology was in the preparation of students for meaningful jobs and careers. The Applied Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) was also surveyed about the value of geospatial technology, as was the 95 academic programs that listed applied geography as a “program specialty” in the AAG Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. There was a uniform agreement across these various groups that geospatial technology occupied an extremely important position in their overall course offerings, and if you are watching the workplace, such courses are not only sensible but offer critical employable skills for students upon graduation. It is widely known that geospatial technology education and training require a large commitment of departmental resources, including faculty lines, equipment expenditures, space, and technical support. A geography department and its university’s administration have to understand these unique requirements and allocate resources, more akin to a computer science department than a traditional academic unit. This reality is of immediate importance to geography departments because almost one quarter of all academic jobs advertised in geography over the last six years have been in the broad area of geospatial technology. A final conclusion to this research is a policy matter that suggests geography departments take a strong proprietorial position toward providing education in geospatial technology because other disciplines and training programs see opportunities in a rapidly expanding workplace skill and they are aggressively pursuing a niche of their own.
An Examination of Job Titles Used for GIScience Professionals
Authors: Wikle Thomas A.
Published: February 2012

Over the last 20 years the increasing availability, utility, and importance of geospatial data has led to new kinds of positions in government agencies, non-profit organizations and private businesses. While employment opportunities have grown substantially, guidelines for assigning titles, qualifications and responsibilities have not kept pace. Inconsistency in GIScience titles and job qualifications has made it difficult for employers and job seekers to compare positions across organizations in terms of duties, compensation, and status. This paper explores job titles used by public and private organizations that hire GIScience professionals. An analysis of 204 online job ads shows variation in qualifications associated with titles. Model job titles and career ladders are suggested as a means of attracting and retaining GIScience professionals.
Geographic Disparities in Cancer Survival and Access to Care
Authors: Gordinier Mary E. , Hanchette Carol L.
Published: February 2012

From 1995-2005, ovarian cancer accounted for 2.7% of new cancer cases diagnosed among women in Kentucky and was responsible for 4.7% of female cancer deaths in the state. The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is 45% for all stages combined. Multiple studies document a survival advantage for women with gynecologic malignancies when treated by a gynecologic oncologist. The authors used Kentucky Cancer Registry data for the years 1995-2005, geocoded to 5-digit ZIP code, to examine the hypothesis that ovarian cancer survival is higher among patients receiving treatment in areas where gynecologic oncologists practice. Their hypothesis was confirmed. A secondary goal of the study was to identify geographic areas of the state with lower overall access to care. Contrary to the expected pattern of low access to care in the Appalachian region of the state, their analysis indicated that access to successful treatment is a greater issue in the western portion of Kentucky.
Location Patterns of Section 8 Housing in Jefferson County, Kentucky
Authors: Song Wei , Keeling Karl
Published: February 2012

The controversial Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is the largest federal low-income housing program. Using GIS-based spatial clustering analysis (Getis–Ord’s Gi statistic) and multiple linear regressions, in this paper, the authors examine the locational patterns of more than 13,600 Section 8 housing units in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and explore key social, economic, demographic, and locational factors underlying the spatial distribution of Section 8 housing. The findings reveal that Section 8 housing continues to concentrate in the central city area with predominantly black residents, a high proportion of families in poverty, and abundant low-cost properties. The Section 8 voucher policy has failed to successfully de-concentrate poor families from these urban areas. Residential mobility of low-income families has been restricted by various factors, most important of which is the lack of accessibility to public transportation across the metropolitan area.
A Study on Services Motivating Computing Professional Association Membership
Authors: Ritzhaupt Albert D. , Umapathy Karthikeyan , Jamba Lisa
Published: February 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate computing professionals’ perspectives on services offered by a professional association. A conceptual framework was developed based on a review of relevant literatures to explore the motivations of professionals to join and maintain professional association membership. A survey instrument was developed based on the conceptual framework, and was subsequently deployed within the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP). The analyses (N = 220) include descriptive analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and internal consistency reliability analyses. The results suggest that members’ needs and motivations are multidimensional, involving ten distinct and internally consistent underlying constructs. This paper contributes by providing a reliable measurement system for computing professional association leadership to make informed decisions and provides substantive recommendations for offering targeted services. The findings suggest that important aspects of computing professional membership are networking with local professionals, professional development programs, and promoting their concerns.
Development of "Real World" Project Skills for Engineering Students
Authors: Blicblau Aaron S. , Richards David
Published: February 2012

This work investigates the possible relationship between project results at first and final years of an engineering course for the same set of students to determine appropriateness of final year projects in a working environment. To determine if any significant prediction was applicable a multiple linear regression analysis model was applied to all sets of data. The analysis of results indicates that there is no significant correlation between grades from first year projects and final year projects. In terms of predictability of performance, exposure to first year projects is more of an initial adaptation to a teaching and learning environment. It is less of a suitable predictor of grade performance in project work in final year. For students to do well in their final year project, a period in industry greatly enhances their independent learning skills resulting in an overall enhanced learning experience. The major benefits to students in their final year project are in professional and personal areas, such as improved abilities to formulate, solve difficult problems and gain skills with independent learning.
The Ranking of Science, Technology and Society (STS) Issues by Students and Physics Teachers in Secondary School, Yemen
Authors: Mai Mohammed Yousef , Halim Lilia , Yaseen Ruhizan Mohammed , Meera T. Subahan M.
Published: February 2012

Science, Technology and Society (STS) issues encompass social dilemmas with conceptual or technological links to science. Investigating the ranking STS issues that given by secondary school students and their teachers in Yemen is the major aim of this paper. It reviews the literature in order to seek for STS issues that should be infused in physics curriculum in Yemen. Then, it reports the results of the survey that measure the ranking of Science, Technology and Society issues. A valid and reliable questionnaire containing STS issues is administered on a sample of 465 students and 34 teachers from 15 schools in Sana’a city. The results of the study revealed that human health and disease, water supplies, air pollution, and energy shortages are the most important issues that should be infused in physics curriculum in Yemen. When the mean scores of students and teachers were compared, the results showed no significant differences. Implications for research and development in science education are discussed.
Leadership Development in Technology Education
Authors: Lahkim Mohammed , Draganova Anrieta
Published: February 2012

This research aims to create a methodology for the integration of leadership development in teaching Information Technology (IT) courses by using the Problem Based Learning method (PBL). The research objective was pursued through a review of important current and future leadership skills that IT students need to develop in order to meet IT job market challenges. A conceptual leadership model was developed. This research then investigated the alignment of this conceptual model with the skills requirements of the IT job market and the impact of employing the PBL approach. This study used a quantitative method of survey that was completed by undergraduate students enrolled in an IT web development course. Findings indicated that the use of PBL is an integral part of the process of daily leadership development in teaching IT courses. Students’ perceptions were studied and positive views were recorded.
Human Centricity and Perception-Based Perspective and Their Centrality to the Agenda of Granular Computing
Authors: Pedrycz Witold
Published: February 2012

In spite of their striking diversity, numerous tasks and architectures of intelligent systems such as those permeating multivariable data analysis, decision-making processes along with their underlying models, recommender systems and others exhibit two evident commonalities. They promote (a) human centricity and (b) vigorously engage perceptions (rather than plain numeric entities) in the realization of the systems and their further usage. Information granules play a pivotal role in such settings. Granular Computing delivers a cohesive framework supporting a formation of information granules and facilitating their processing. The author exploits two essential concepts of Granular Computing. The first one deals with the construction of information granules. The second one helps endow constructs of intelligent systems with a much needed conceptual and modeling flexibility. The study elaborates in detail on the three representative studies. In the first study being focused on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) used in decision-making, the author shows how an optimal allocation of granularity helps improve the quality of the solution and facilitate collaborative activities in models of group decision-making. The second study is concerned with a granular interpretation of temporal data where the role of information granularity is profoundly visible when effectively supporting human centric description of relationships existing in data. The third study concerns a formation of granular logic descriptors on a basis of a family of logic descriptors.
A Modular Dynamical Cryptosystem Based on Continuous-Interval Cellular Automata
Authors: Terrazas Gonzalez Jesus D. , Kinsner Witold
Published: February 2012

This paper presents a new cryptosystem based on chaotic continuous-interval cellular automata (CCA) to increase data protection as demonstrated by their flexibility to encrypt and decrypt information from distinct sources. Enhancements to cryptosystems are also presented including (i) a model based on a new chaotic CCA attractor, (ii) the dynamical integration of modules containing dynamical systems to generate complex sequences, and (iii) an enhancement for symmetric cryptosystems by allowing them to generate an unlimited number of keys. This paper also presents a process of mixing chaotic sequences obtained from cellular automata, instead of using differential equations, as a basis to achieve higher security and higher speed for the encryption and decryption processes, as compared to other recent approaches. The complexity of the mixed sequences is measured using the variance fractal dimension trajectory to compare them to the unmixed chaotic sequences to verify that the former are more complex. This type of polyscale measure and evaluation has never been done in the past outside this research group.
Promoting Success in the Introduction of Health Information Systems
Authors: Teixeira Paulo , Brandão Patrícia Leite , Rocha Álvaro
Published: February 2012

The significant number of publications describing unsuccessful cases in the introduction of health information systems makes it advisable to analyze the factors that may be contributing to such failures. However, the very notion of success is not equally assumed in all publications. Based in a literature review, the authors argue that the introduction of systems must be based in an eclectic combination of knowledge fields, adopting methodologies that strengthen the role of organizational culture and human resources in this project, as a whole. On the other hand, the authors argue that the introduction of systems should be oriented by a previously defined matrix of factors, against which the success can be measured.