bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using Migration Microdata from the Samples of Anonymised Records and the Longitudinal Studies
Authors: Norman Paul , Boyle Paul
Published: May 2010

In this chapter we describe the Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) and Longitudinal Studies (LSs). The SARs are cross-sectional data like the area and interaction data, but the LSs track people over time. These datasets differ from the United Kingdom’s other census outputs being individual-level ‘microdata’ and population samples. The microdata files are very versatile, allowing multi-way crosstabulations and statistical techniques and enabling application-relevant re-coded variables and study populations to be defined. The SARs files offer UK coverage although a UK-wide study is challenging because data for each country may be in separate files with different access arrangements and variable detail may be country specific. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Longitudinal Study for England and Wales has underpinned a wide range of research since the 1970s. This well-established source is now complemented by longitudinal data for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Largely driven by the need to ensure respondent confidentiality, the SARs and LSs have some drawbacks for migration-related research. In addition to stringent access arrangements, the geographical area to which individuals are located in the SARs tend to be coarse and although the LS databases record the small area in which the LS member was living at each census, specific ‘place’ information is unlikely to be considered non-disclosive unless for large geographies. However, generic, contextual information about the ‘space’ in which people live is useful even though actual places are not identified. Whilst the SARs and LSs are samples, they are, however, very large samples in comparison with other national surveys and represent first rate resources to complement other sources. In the course of this chapter, along with other references to SARs and LS-based migration research, we review work which utilised these sources to investigate inter-relationships between health, deprivation and migration. The SARs data show that migration is health-selective by age and distance moved and that those persons living in the public housing tenure who are moving into or within deprived areas are most likely to be ill. The role of migration in changing health inequalities between differently deprived areas can be explored using longitudinal data on both origins and destinations. The ONS LS reveals that migrants into and between the least deprived areas have better health than non-migrants, but migrants into and between the most deprived areas have the worst health. The effect of these changes has been to increase the inequality in health between differently deprived areas. A sorting, largely driven by selective migration occurs.
Migration and Socio-Economic Polarisation within British City Regions
Authors: Champion Tony , Coombes Mike
Published: May 2010

In recent years, census-based and other studies have documented a widening gap between better-off and more deprived residential areas in Britain. While much of this will have come about in situ, through increasing disparities in household wealth and incomes across the social scale, migration may also be contributing. The decennial population census is the only source that can provide robust statistical data on the social composition of residential movement between sub-regional and local areas. This chapter uses the 2001 Census Special Migration Statistics to examine whether migration is increasing the degree of socio-spatial polarisation within Britain’s larger city regions. Following an introduction to the study approach and the intricacies of the census data on migration, the results of data analysis are presented in three sections. The first looks at the social composition of the migration exchanges taking place between the 27 cities and the rest of their city regions, testing to see whether the cities’ migration balances are less favourable for people of higher occupational status. This identifies three types of city region, based on whether there is a positive, negative or no strong relationship between migration and socio-economic status. An example of each of these types of city region – London, Birmingham and Bristol respectively – is selected for a more detailed examination of the patterns of movement between their constituent residential zones. For these three cases, the second set of analyses compares the migration performance of each of the residential zones with its existing social status in order to see whether or not these within-city-region movements are reinforcing the existing socio-economic patterns. The third set of results seeks a better understanding of the dynamics of the migration through examining the residential movements between all pairings of the zones in each of the three city regions and identifying how consistently the balance of these migration exchanges favours the better-off of the two zones.
Estimating Spatially Consistent Interaction Flows Across Three Censuses
Authors: Feng Zhiqiang , Boyle Paul
Published: May 2010

A significant problem facing geographical researchers who wish to compare migration and commuting flows over time is that the boundaries of the geographical areas, between which flows are recorded, often change. This chapter describes an innovative method for re-estimating the migration and commuting data collected in the 1981 and 1991 Censuses for the geographical units used in the 2001 Census. The estimated interaction data are provided as origin-destination flow matrices for wards in England and Wales and pseudo-postcode sectors in Scotland. Altogether, there were about 10,000 zones in 1981, 1991 and 2001, providing huge but sparsely populated matrices of 10,000 by 10,000 cells. Because of the changing boundaries during inter-censal periods, virtually no work has attempted to compare local level migration and commuting flows in the two decades, 1981-91 and 1991-2001. The re-estimated spatially consistent interaction flows described here allow such comparisons to be made and we use migration change in England and commuting change in Liverpool to demonstrate the value of these new data.
Commuting to School
Authors: Harland Kirk , Stillwell John
Published: May 2010

The education sector in England and Wales is becoming increasingly data rich, with the regular collection of the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) and school preference information, together with the compilation of school performance league tables. However, it is also a rapidly changing environment both in terms of demographic demand as well as policy responses from Government. The latest policy documents require that local education authorities provide fair and equitable admissions policies for all, while at the same time limiting the number of surplus school places. Moreover, funding has to be targeted appropriately in the face of significant changes in the complexion and number of state educated school pupils. Therefore, it is crucial for education planners to be able to interpret the large quantities of data collected each year into valuable intelligence to support planning and decision making. This chapter explores the use of classic spatial interaction models with journey to school data for the purpose of school network planning for the city of Leeds. The limitations associated with the application of spatial interaction models in the education sector will be discussed, and modifications to the computational form will be explored using a genetic algorithm. Spatial interaction models representing pupils from different socio-demographic backgrounds will be calibrated and incorporated into an overarching logic model called the Spatial Education Model (SEM). Finally, the SEM will be used to forecast pupil numbers attending schools in the study area up to the year 2013.
Weights Direct Determination of Feedforward Neural Networks without Iterative BP-Training
Authors: Zhang Yunong , Tan Ning
Published: May 2010

Artificial neural networks (ANN), especially with error back-propagation (BP) training algorithms, have been widely investigated and applied in various science and engineering fields. However, the BP algorithms are essentially gradient-based iterative methods, which adjust the neural-network weights to bring the network input/output behavior into a desired mapping by taking a gradient-based descent direction. This kind of iterative neural-network (NN) methods has shown some inherent weaknesses, such as, 1) the possibility of being trapped into local minima, 2) the difficulty in choosing appropriate learning rates, and 3) the inability to design the optimal or smallest NN-structure. To resolve such weaknesses of BP neural networks, we have asked ourselves a special question: Could neural-network weights be determined directly without iterative BP-training? The answer appears to be YES, which is demonstrated in this chapter with three positive but different examples. In other words, a new type of artificial neural networks with linearly-independent or orthogonal activation functions, is being presented, analyzed, simulated and verified by us, of which the neural-network weights and structure could be decided directly and more deterministically as well (in comparison with usual conventional BP neural networks).
A Novel Neural Fuzzy Network Using a Hybrid Evolutionary Learning Algorithm
Authors: Lin Cheng-Jian , Chen Cheng-Hung
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents an evolutionary neural fuzzy network, designed using the functional-link-based neural fuzzy network (FLNFN) and a new evolutionary learning algorithm. This new evolutionary learning algorithm is based on a hybrid of cooperative particle swarm optimization and cultural algorithm. It is thus called cultural cooperative particle swarm optimization (CCPSO). The proposed CCPSO method, which uses cooperative behavior among multiple swarms, can increase the global search capacity using the belief space. Cooperative behavior involves a collection of multiple swarms that interact by exchanging information to solve a problem. The belief space is the information repository in which the individuals can store their experiences such that other individuals can learn from them indirectly. The proposed FLNFN model uses functional link neural networks as the consequent part of the fuzzy rules. This chapter uses orthogonal polynomials and linearly independent functions in a functional expansion of the functional link neural networks. The FLNFN model can generate the consequent part of a nonlinear combination of input variables. Finally, the proposed functional-link-based neural fuzzy network with cultural cooperative particle swarm optimization (FLNFN-CCPSO) is adopted in several predictive applications. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed CCPSO method performs well in predicting the time series problems.
Power System Load Frequency Control Using Combined Intelligent Techniques
Authors: Karnavas Yannis L.
Published: May 2010

The load frequency control (LFC) is to maintain the power balance in the electrical power system such that the system’s frequency deviates from its nominal value to within specified limits and according to practically acceptable dynamic performance of the system. The control strategy evolved may also result in overall high efficiency (fuel saving) and minimum additional equipment to avoid cost, maintenance etc. The supplementary controller i.e. of a diesel or steam turbine generating unit, called the load frequency controller, may satisfy these requirements. The function of the controller is to generate, raise or lower command signals to the speed-gear changer of the prime mover (i.e. diesel engine) in response to the frequency error signal by performing mathematical manipulations of amplification and integration of this signal. The speed-gear changer must not act too fast, as it will cause wear and tear of the engine and, also, should not act too slow, as it will deteriorate system’s performance. Therefore, an optimum load frequency controller is required for satisfactory operation of the system. In this Chapter, intelligent controllers for the LFC problem are analyzed and discussed. The use of any single technique or even a combination of genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and neural networks is explored instead of conventional methods.
Data Mining Meets Internet and Web Performance
Authors: Borzemski Leszek
Published: May 2010

Data mining (DM) is the key process in knowledge discovery. Many theoretical and practical DM applications can be found in science and engineering. However there are still such areas where data mining techniques are still at early stage of development and application. In particular, an unsatisfactory progress is observed in DM applications in the analysis of Internet and Web performance issues. This chapter gives the background of network performance measurement and presents our approaches, namely Internet Performance Mining and Web Performance Mining as the ways of DM application to Internet and Web performance issues. The authors present real-life examples of the analysis where explored data sets were collected with the aid of two network measurement systems WING and MWING developed at our laboratory.
Rainstorm Forecasting By Mining Heterogeneous Remote Sensed Datasets
Authors: Yang Yu-Bin , Lin Hui
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents an automatic meteorological data mining system based on analyzing and mining heterogeneous remote sensed image datasets, with which it is possible to forecast potential rainstorms in advance. A two-phase data mining method employing machine learning techniques, including the C4.5 decision tree algorithm and dependency network analysis, is proposed, by which a group of derivation rules and a conceptual model for metrological environment factors are generated to assist the automatic weather forecasting task. Experimental results have shown that the system reduces the heavy workload of manual weather forecasting and provides meaningful interpretations to the forecasted results.
A Reflection Upon the Case Studies
Authors: van Wessel Robert
Published: May 2010

Before the Corporate IT Standardization Management Framework is presented, first a summary and cross case analysis of the previous three case studies is given provided.
Information Security Management Standardization "ISO/IEC 17799 Case"
Authors: van Wessel Robert
Published: May 2010

In this Section an outline will be given on the discipline of Information Security and some of its related standards. Special attention will be paid to the ISO/IEC 17799 process standard as this information security management standard formed the basis of this case study.
Quality Evaluation of B2C m-commerce Using the ISO9126 Quality Standard
Authors: Garofalakis John , Stefani Antonia , Stefanis Vassilios
Published: May 2010

Business to Consumer M-commerce applications, are data-intensive, user-driven, and have increasing needs for accessibility, efficiency, adaptivity, portability and competitiveness. However, their design process still lacks a systematic quality control method. In this chapter we explore m-commerce quality attributes using the external quality characteristics of the ISO9126 software quality standard. Our goal is to provide a quality map of a B2C m-commerce system so as to facilitate more accurate and in detail quality evaluation. The result is a new evaluation framework based on decomposition of m-commerce services to three distinct user-software interaction patterns and mapping to ISO9126 quality characteristics.
Web Page Adaptation and Presentation for Mobile Phones
Authors: Arase Yuki , Hara Takahiro , Nishio Shojiro
Published: May 2010

According to the explosive growth of mobile phones, mobile Web has been a part of our life. People can access the Web with their mobile phones and obtain information anywhere and anytime. This trend will stimulate the coming of mobile commerce, where people look for and purchase products on the Web whenever they want. Mobile Web is one of the key technologies for mobile commerce. However, since mobile phones have to be handheld, their interface is strictly limited. Users have to browse large-sized Web pages designed for large displays with a small screen and poor input capability of mobile phones. Additionally, considering mobile users browse Web pages in various situations, users’ needs towards presentation functionalities may different depending on their browsing situations. To provide comfortable Web browsing experience under these constraints, we have proposed two systems for mobile phone users. One system provides various presentation functions for Web browsing so that users can select appropriate ones based on their browsing situations. The other system provides functions to navigate users within a Web page so that they can find the information of their interest without getting lost in the page. In this chapter, we briefly introduce designs of these systems and introduce results of user experiments, through which we show that our systems can reduce users’ burden on mobile Web by enabling to select appropriate presentation functions adapted to their situations and by navigating them on a large Web page with the entertaining interface.
Positioning and Privacy in Location-Based Services
Authors: Hu Haibo , Zhou Junyang , Xu Jianliang , Ng Joseph Kee-Yin
Published: May 2010

Location positioning by GPS has become a standard function in modern handheld device specifications. Even in indoor environments, positioning by utilizing signals from the mobile cellular network and the wireless LAN has been intensively studied. This chapter starts with some review of the state-of-the-art technologies. Positioning technologies propel the market of location-based services (LBS). They are mobile content services that provide location-related information to users. However, to enjoy these LBS services, the mobile user must explicitly expose his/her accurate location to the service provider, who might abuse such location information or even trade it to unauthorized parties. To protect privacy, traditional approaches require a trusted middleware on which user locations are anonanonymous ymized. This chapter presents two new privacy-preserving approaches without such a middleware. The first is a non-exposure location cloaking protocol where only relative distances are exchanged. The second is a protocol for nearest neighbor search with controlled location exposure.
Survivability in RFID Systems
Authors: Zuo Yanjun
Published: May 2010

There has been an increasing popularity of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) techniques in various applications. A tiny RFID tag is attached to a mobile object, which can be scanned and recognized by a head-held reader (e.g., a PDA, a mobile scanner). RFID offers opportunities for real-time item tracking, human identification, and inventory management. For applications using low-cost RFID tags and hand-held devices, however, various risks could threaten their abilities to provide essential services to users. In this chapter, survivability issues related to RFID systems are studied. For mission-critical systems empowered by the RFID technology, any interruption of essential services, even for a short period of time, is not acceptable. Hence, survivability must be provided to ensure that the critical services can be continuously delivered, despite malicious attacks and system failures. Our main contribution is a study and survey of survivability enhancing techniques in face of the special challenges that limited computational capacities, high mobility, and sensitive nature of RFID devices pose.
Distributed Video Coding for Video Communication on Mobile Devices and Sensors
Authors: Lambert Peter , Mys Stefaan , Škorupa Jozef , Slowack Jürgen , Van de Walle Rik , Grecos Christos
Published: May 2010

In the context of digital video coding, recent insights have led to a new video coding paradigm called Distributed Video Coding, or DVC, characterized by low-complexity encoding and high-complexity decoding, which is in contrast to traditional video coding schemes. This chapter provides a detailed overview of DVC by explaining the underlying principles and results from information theory and introduces a number of application scenarios. It also discusses the most important practical architectures that are currently available. One of these architectures is analyzed step-by-step to provide further details of the functional building blocks, including an analysis of the coding performance compared to traditional coding schemes. Next to this, it is demonstrated that the computational complexity in a video coding scheme can be shifted dynamically from the encoder to the decoder and vice versa by combining conventional and distributed video coding techniques. Lastly, this chapter discusses some currently important research topics of which it is expected that they can further enhance the performance of DVC, i.e., side information generation, virtual channel noise estimation, and new coding modes.
Communicability in Educational Simulations
Authors: Nicol Emma
Published: May 2010

Simulation and game-based learning are powerful modes of learning that are used in many fields including subjects as diverse as medicine and aviation. While institutes of further and higher education are making increasing use of VLEs to deliver teaching and learning, there are currently few examples of simulated environments for learning. The SIMPLE (Simulated Professional Learning Environment) and Cyberdam environments are two of the few dedicated simulation environments. This chapter will look at both of these environments and the results of user evaluations to determine what makes a simulation environment successful and what aspects of a simulation environment would have to be evaluated in order to establish its communicability.
Venture to the Interior –Virtual Object Lessons
Authors: Kratky Andreas , Hwang Juri
Published: May 2010

The question of how to design and implement efficient remote learning environments gains a new quality in the light of extensive digital education projects such as the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. At the core of this consideration is not only the task of developing content for very different cultural settings but also the necessity to reflect the effects of learning processes that operate exclusively with digitally mediated content. This chapter outlines the design strategies of the project Venture to the Interior, an interactive experience that presents selected objects from the collections of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, Germany, and displays them in a context reflecting the museum as an institution and the practices of collecting as knowledge constitution. The project investigates the role of objects as knowledge devices and the possibilities for a translation of the didactic effects of experiential learning into virtual environments.
A Diacritical Study in Web Design
Authors: Ficarra Francisco Vicente Cipolla , Ficarra Maria Valeria
Published: May 2010

In the current chapter the authors present a heuristic and diacritical analysis of the communicability in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 carried out in the contents of the websites of Southern Europe, especially between Italy and Spain. The real examples that will be presented are related to the loss of the veracity of on-line information and the decay of credibility of the traditional information sources, such as digital newspapers, university context and the industrial or commercial sector. These results are directly related to the statistical aspect and the new phenomenon of the star enunciator and the use of statistics in the Internet, especially in websites such as university websites, social networks, digital newpapers and magazines, portals, etc., whose consequence in the short and middle term may be the total destruction of transparency in the communication process among the users of the interactive systems and the freedom of access to true online information.
Nursing Home
Authors: Xie Shuyan , Xiao Yang , Chen Hsiao-Hwa
Published: May 2010

A nursing home is an entity that provides skilled nursing care and rehabilitation services to people with illnesses, injuries or functional disabilities, but most facilities serve the elderly. There are various services that nursing homes provide for different residents’ needs, including daily necessity care, mentally disabled, and drug rehabilitation. The levels of care and the care quality provided by nursing homes have increased significantly over the past decade. The trend nowadays is the continuous quality development towards to residents’ satisfaction; therefore healthcare technology plays a significant role in nursing home operations. This chapter points out the general information about current nursing home conditions and functioning systems in the United States, which indicates the way that technology and e-health help improve the nursing home development based on the present needs and demanding trends. The authors’ also provide a visiting report about Thomasville Nursing Home with the depth of the consideration to how to catch the trends by implementing the technologies.
Sensor Networks Security for Pervasive Healthcare
Authors: Krontiris Ioannis
Published: May 2010

Body-worn sensors and wireless interconnection of distributed embedded devices facilitate the use of lightweight systems for monitoring vital health parameters like heart rate, respiration rate and blood pressure. Patients can simply wear monitoring systems without restricting their mobility and everyday life. This is particularly beneficial in the context of world’s ageing society with many people suffering chronic ailments. However, wireless transmission of sensitive patient data through distributed embedded devices presents several privacy and security implications. In this book chapter the authors’ first highlight the security threats in a biomedical sensor networks and identify the requirements that a security solution has to offer. Then the authors’ review some popular architectures proposed in the bibliography over the last few years and they discuss the methods that they employ in order to offer security. Finally the authors’ discuss some open research questions that have not been addressed so far and which they believe offer promising directions towards making these kinds of networks more secure.
Model-Driven Prototyping Support for Pervasive Healthcare Applications
Authors: Kurschl Werner , Mitsch Stefan , Schoenboeck Johannes
Published: May 2010

Pervasive healthcare applications aim at improving habitability by assisting individuals in living autonomously. To achieve this goal, data on an individual’s behavior and his or her environment (often collected with wireless sensors) is interpreted by machine learning algorithms; their decision finally leads to the initiation of appropriate actions, e.g., turning on the light. Developers of pervasive healthcare applications therefore face complexity stemming, amongst others, from different types of environmental and vital parameters, heterogeneous sensor platforms, unreliable network connections, as well as from different programming languages. Moreover, developing such applications often includes extensive prototyping work to collect large amounts of training data to optimize the machine learning algorithms. In this chapter the authors present a model-driven prototyping approach for the development of pervasive healthcare applications to leverage the complexity incurred in developing prototypes and applications. They support the approach with a development environment that simplifies application development with graphical editors, code generators, and pre-defined components.
Tools and Techniques for Digital Conversion
Authors: Choudhary Pravin Kumar
Published: May 2010

In the last two decades, significant theoretical work has been done in the area of electronic conversion of documents. There are different methods, tools and techniques to carry on digitization activities. This chapter tries to bridge the gap between theory and practice by presenting generalized tools that link digitization and electronic document management practices. This connection can be understood most readily at the organization process level where workflow, information flow, and service delivery come together, i.e. Electronic Document Management Goals. The detailed tools and techniques which need to be integrated into the system design process, and result in the identification of technology specifications and opportunities for improving performance through improved access to documents has been incorporated. Different products and technology options have also been discussed. The content discussed in this chapter can form the models for action: Practical approaches to Electronic Records Management and Preservation. It also presents practical tools that seamlessly integrate into the system design process and result in the identification of technical specifications and opportunities for improving performance through improved access to records. At the end different considerations with regard to the tools also identify critical management and policy factors which must be in place to support a full system implementation have been discussed.
Web 2.0 and Social Web Approaches to Digital Libraries
Authors: Chakraborty Arun Kumar
Published: May 2010

The Chapter begins with a definition of digital library approaches and features, examines ways in which open source and social software applications can serve to fill digital library roles. In order to incorporate Web 2.0 functionality effectively, digital libraries must fundamentally recast users not just as content consumers, but as content creators. This chapter analyzes the integration of social annotations – uncontrolled user-generated content – into digital collection items. The chapter briefly summarizes the value of annotations and finds that there is conceptual room to include user-generated content in digital libraries, that they have been imagined as forums for social interaction since their inception, and that encouraging a collaborative approach to knowledge discovery and creation might make digital libraries serve as boundary objects that increase participation and engagement. The chapter concludes with a review of positive and negative outcomes from this approach and makes recommendations for further research.
Digital Library and Repositories
Authors: Kumar Bharat
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses digital libraries and repositories. The purpose of this research is to identify digital libraries and repositories in India available in the public domain. It highlights the state of digital libraries and repositories in India. The digital libraries and repositories were identified through a study of the literature, as well as internet searching and browsing. The resulting digital libraries and repositories were explored to study their collections. Use of open source software especially for the creation of institutional repositories is found to be common. However, major digital library initiatives such as the Digital Library of India use custom-made software.
Digital Divide and Economic Wealth
Authors: Paul Shampa
Published: May 2010

This chapter aims at identifying and analyzing the factors that have resulted in a digital divide in Asia-Pacific countries. There are several factors that can be used as proxy of the digital divide. In this study, Internet density has been used as a proxy of the digital divide along with other variables such as gross domestic product, computer density, telephone density, & information and communication technology expenditure. Using data from 1995 to 2007 for 10 countries, the study finds evidence of the pivotal role played by communication infrastructure in the diffusion of ICTs, and there is also a high correlation between Internet usage and telephone density. It appears that GDP has been a major factor influencing varying degrees of the diffusion of ICTs and the consequent digital divide.
Data Collection on Personal Movement using Mobile ICTs
Authors: Lee-Gosselin Martin , Doherty Sean T. , Shalaby Amer
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines the current status of data collection methods employing location/time-aware devices to observe evolving patterns of spatio-temporal behaviour, including patterns that are affected by ICTs. Drawing mostly on transport research, it is suggested that two streams of development have emerged: a “passive” stream that maximises the automatic interpretation of positioning data, and an “active” stream, that is using increasingly sophisticated mobile computing devices and/or the Internet to engage respondents in the validation, interpretation and enhancement of their own data. Recent and future developments are described that promise to go beyond simply using technologies to carry out conventional travel surveys: rather, some new classes of data may be obtained, notably because of common or overlapping interests with other fields, such as public health research. There are, however, some ethical and public acceptability constraints that must be respected.
Law and Technology
Authors: Finocchiaro Giusella , Vishik Claire
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors analyze the concept and definitions of anonymity in the modern connected world. In particular, they explore if modern technology renders complete anonymity impossible and if a new definition of anonymity needs to be adopted. They examine examples of anonymous use of technology that illustrate the complexity of the concept of anonymity and demonstrate that access to anonymity is not uniform for data owners with regard to multiple data controllers and audiences in complex systems and processes. They evaluate legal definitions of “anonymity” and “anonymous data” as well as the right to anonymity provided in the European directives and by some European statutes, observing that anonymity cannot be absolute, that only “relative” anonymity is realistic in the present technological environment, and that different degrees of anonymity exist. They address the issue of measuring these degrees or levels of anonymity in complex systems, in order to provide a new foundation for a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of anonymity. The authors conclude that the concept of relative anonymity can become the basis for a new and more effective approach to personal data protection.
Delay Constrained Admission Control and Scheduling Policy for IEEE 802.11e HCCA Method
Authors: Deng Der-Jiunn , Huang Yueh-Ming , Chen Hsiao-Hwa
Published: May 2010

In order to obtain better Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements for multimedia traffic, the 802.11TGe has proposed HCF Controlled Channel Access (HCCA) method for the Controlled Access Period (CAP) in the HCF (Hybrid Coordination Function) to enhance the original IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, and it is expected to provide integrated traffic service to realize mobile multimedia communications. However, the reference design of admission control and scheduling policy in HCCA still can not provide stringent delay requirements to fulfill a hard QoS guarantee, a necessary feature for most multimedia applications. In this chapter, the authors propose a pragmatic admission control scheme with a novel polling based packet scheduling policy for multimedia transmission, such as Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and Variable Bit Rate (VBR) traffic, for IEEE 802.11e HCCA method. Our design is simple, it is compatible with the standard, it can guarantee delay constraint, and it utilizes bandwidth efficiently. A simple and accurate analytical model is carried out to study the average queueing delay estimation of the proposed scheme. In addition to theoretical analysis, simulations are conducted in NS2 network simulator to verify our analysis and to validate the promising performance of the proposed scheme.
Quality of Service in Heterogeneous Traffic Wireless Systems
Authors: Zorba Nizar , Verikoukis Christos V.
Published: May 2010

The use of real-time delay-sensitive applications in wireless systems has significantly increased during the last years. Consequently, the demand to guarantee certain Quality of Service (QoS) is a challenging issue for the system’s designers. On the other hand, the use of multiple antennas has already been included in several commercial standards, where the multibeam opportunistic transmission beamforming strategies have been proposed to improve the performance of the wireless systems. A cross-layer based dynamically tuned queue length scheduler is presented in this chapter, for the Downlink of multiuser and multiantenna WLAN systems with heterogeneous traffic requirements. An opportunistic scheduling algorithm is applied, while users from higher priority traffic classes are prioritized. A trade-off between the throughput maximization of the system and the guarantee of the QoS requirements is obtained. Therefore the length of the queue is dynamically adjusted to select the appropriate conditions based on the operator requirements.
Management, Monitoring and QoS in Multi-cell Centralized WLANs
Authors: Cacace Filippo , Iannello Giulio , Vollero Luca
Published: May 2010

Large deployments of access points in wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on the IEEE 802.11 standard require management, configuration and control mechanisms. Centralized WLANs are defined as multi-cell wireless access networks that implement some of these functions in a centralized manner. In this chapter the authors illustrate how the mechanisms designed for the management of centralized WLANs can also be used for monitoring parameters related to QoS support and for pursuing QoS goals. They describe the Control and Provisioning Wireless Access Protocol (CAPWAP), a recent IETF standard for the management of centralized WLANs which is currently in the final stages of the definition process, its implementation for the existing types of centralized WLANs, and its use for monitoring and QoS management. The authors discuss the QoS goals that can be pursued in this framework, such as access control, load balancing, cell resizing, and Medium Access Control parameters adaptation, as well as the algorithms and strategies that can be used to fulfill them.
QoS Support in Multi-hop Ad-hoc Networks
Authors: Natkaniec Marek , Kosek-Szott Katarzyna , Szott Szymon
Published: May 2010

The chapter contains an overview of existing QoS solutions for multi-hop ad-hoc networks. Firstly, an introduction and short motivation are presented. The authors present an analysis of the QoS aspects of the physical layer because the wireless communication channel is constantly changing and inherently prone to errors. QoS provisioning at the data link layer is studied next. The authors focus on protocols which enable traffic differentiation, solve the hidden node problem and provide fair medium access. The chapter also deals with QoS issues at the network layer, where the authors mostly discuss QoS routing protocols. Additionally, cross-layer solutions for QoS support in multi-hop ad-hoc networks are analyzed. Finally, the expected direction of future work and a brief summary are presented.
Efficient Obstacle Avoidance for Sensory Data Propagation in Wireless Systems
Authors: Leone Pierre , Moraru Luminita , Nikoletseas Sotiris , Rolim Jose D. P.
Published: May 2010

The authors study the problem of fast and robust data propagation in wireless sensor networks in the presence of obstacles obstructing communication. They survey representative state of the art techniques, such as variations of geographic routing, which is known to scale well, mainly due to its greedy nature and low memory requirements. Still, most of these algorithms are concerned with finding some path, while the optimality of the path is difficult to achieve. Towards improving QoS, and especially latency for time-critical applications, in this chapter, the authors are presenting a novel geographic routing algorithm with obstacle avoidance properties. It aims at finding the optimal path from a source to a destination when some areas of the network are unavailable for routing due to low local density or obstacle presence. It locally and gradually with time (but, as we show, quite fast) evaluates and updates the suitability of the previously used paths and ignores non optimal paths for further routing. The performance comparison to existing state of the art protocols shows that this approach performs much better in terms of path length, thus minimizing latency and space, while introducing low overhead and being energy efficient.
4G Wireless Networks
Authors: Stratogiannis Dimitrios G. , Tsiropoulos Georgios I. , Kanellopoulos John D. , Cottis Panayotis G.
Published: May 2010

Fourth generation (4G) wireless networks aim at supporting various multiservice applications over IP architectures which satisfy enhanced users demands through innovative services of increased Quality of Service (QoS). QoS can be assured through independent optimal design of network components or by optimizing interoperability. The supported services impose also their classification into IP network service models and their specifications description. The integration of different wireless access technologies into the 4G network architecture leads to a heterogeneous network environment that raises several issues. An overview of various approaches employed to provide QoS in 4G networks concerning their architectures, different access technologies interoperability and resource management techniques are investigated in this chapter. Dynamic resource allocation, admission control, QoS provision using mobile management and pricing policies are presented. Concluding, in the demanding 4G environment under variable network conditions, appropriate schemes and architectures may provide a robust network management tool for QoS provision and efficient resource utilization.
QoS-Predictions Service
Authors: Wac Katarzyna , Hilario Melanie , van Beijnum Bert-Jan , Bults Richard , Konstantas Dimitri
Published: May 2010

The success of emerging mobile services depends on the serviceability of the underlying wireless networks, expressed in terms of Quality of Service (QoS) provided by a network available to service user at a given geographical location and time. In general, this serviceability is a priori unknown. As a solution the authors propose a QoS-predictions service, providing predictions of QoS of networks available at a given user’s geographical location and time. In a case study they prove the feasibility of deriving predictions from historical data collected by a mobile service user. They have chosen this mobile user to be a patient, who uses a personalized health telemonitoring service in his daily environments for a period of one month. They consider the QoS-predictions service as a novel support for mobile services operational in 4G heterogeneous network environments.
Admission Control for QoS Provision in Mobile Wireless Networks
Authors: Tsiropoulos Georgios I. , Stratogiannis Dimitrios G. , Kanellopoulos John D. , Cottis Panayotis G.
Published: May 2010

Admission control is one of the key elements for ensuring the quality of service (QoS) in modern mobile wireless networks. Since such networks are resource constrained, supporting multimedia traffic guaranteeing its QoS levels is excessively challenging for call admission control (CAC) design. CAC is the most important radio resource management (RRM) function in wireless networks as its efficiency has a direct impact on network performance and QoS provision to end users. The goal of this chapter is to provide a thorough study of the basic concepts considering CAC design and a comprehensive analysis of the fundamental CAC schemes employed in wireless networks. The basic performance criterion considering CAC schemes is the probability of denying the access to the network for an arriving call, which is extensively studied in this chapter. Moreover, additional performance criteria are presented and discussed, which may help to provide an overall efficiency estimation of the available CAC schemes.
Status and Email Construction in Three Hong Kong Workplaces
Authors: Rowe Charley
Published: May 2010

In many workplaces, social relations such as hierarchy may be uniquely indexed and performed in the email environment. In order to study this phenomenon, 250 emails were collected in three different Hong Kong organizations (corporate, non-profit, and university), and examined the impact of hierarchy on the email practices. it was found that the ways that members of diverse organizations navigate the (sometimes competing) domains of transactional and relational workplace discourse in their email communication are influenced by social variables interacting on different levels. On the macro-level, email discourse is influenced by linguistic conventions that characterize both the “professional email culture” and norms specific to the organization or community of practice (cf. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2007, Holmes and Stubbe 2003). On the micro-level, substantial differences in emails written by members of the same organization are explained by personal, interpersonal, and socio-structural factors, among them, professional rank and individual style.
Multimodal Communication and Meta-Modal Discourse
Authors: Fägersten Kristy Beers , Holmsten Elin , Cunningham Una
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents an analysis of recordings of workplace interactions conducted with videoconferencing software. Video-conferencing offers users the widest variety of channels, or modes, of interaction, combining video with voice chat, text chat, whiteboard capabilities and collaborative document manipulation. The video-conferencing environment is therefore conducive to multimodal communication, defined in this chapter as the collaborative use of any one of these modes or combination of modes within one communicative event. The standard form of multimodal communication is a combination of video, voice chat and whiteboard application. The use of other modes is shown to reflect distinct communicative functions. Communicating via multiple modes can be technologically demanding and consequently affect usability, potentially necessitating the use of meta-modal language among video-conference participants. Overtly attending to the modes of communication during online interaction is therefore shown to be part and parcel of video-conferencing, serving to initiate repairwork and facilitate the progression of communication.
Chat Discourse
Authors: Silva Cláudia
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, the author characterizes the language that appears in one form of computer mediated communication: real-time casual chats. It is also shown that the new writing that occurs in chats in general, filled with deviations from standard writing, does not merely imply the creation of a new language but is rather the unconscious recreation of pre-existing features both from early writing systems and learning to spell. Chatters even recreate characteristics present in language acquisition. The deviations generally affect the syllable, an intuitive prosodic unit that influences changes in spelling. Chat discourse involves the use of cohesion mechanisms present in other texts, as well as new devices that allow chatters to compensate for the absence of physical clues. Thus, real-time casual chats are a medium in which language is being changed and (re)created.