bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Globalization or Hegemony? Childcare on the Brink: Hints from Three Geographically Distant Localities in North America
Authors: Manning John P. , Thirumurthy Vidya , Field Harriet
Published: April 2012

In a previous publication the authors examined selected aspects of the structure and curriculum of fifteen childcare centers located in three geographically distant locations in North America and determined that contrasts within and between the regions in terms of structure and curriculum guided by the National Association for the Education of Young Children's approach indicated that a culture inherent to childcare centers exists. Methods included participant observation and archival research. Journal data were analyzed for emergent themes utilizing modified grounded theory. Content analysis was used on government regulations, environmental and learning materials lists, and curriculum forms. In this article the authors re-examine the data to find that NAEYC's positional power, as a childcare organization, appears to be influencing the nature of childcare in North America, with some negative consequences.
Aesthetic Education in the Early Years: Exploring Familiar and Unfamiliar Personal-Cultural Landscapes
Authors: Blank Jolyn
Published: April 2012

This article explores a double-bind in early schooling: a persistent value placed upon presenting multicultural art forms to a child constructed as incapable of grasping what is not familiar. The author argues that this bind is situated within dominant developmental discourses that emphasize the appropriateness of concrete and sequential activities and within dominant school art discourses that have constructed early school art as ‘process over product’ and that have understood culture as heritage. Suggesting that all novices — adults and children — make meaning from complex cultural values intertwined with the arts in some similar ways, she presents a description of a personal encounter with a Japanese tea garden and ceremony in order to (a) explore notions of art, development, and school art as cultural sensibilities, and (b) illustrate a cyclical process of direct perception, personal-contextual meaning-making, and discursive analysis. She concludes by arguing that encounters with the unfamiliar present unrealized educative possibilities for aesthetic experience in early schooling and by discussing new directions for an aesthetic early childhood education.
United We Stand: Seeking Cohesive Action in Early Childhood Education and Care
Authors: MacFarlane Kym , Lewis Patricia
Published: April 2012

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a complex field comprised of practitioners who possess disparate qualifications and understandings. While this diversity provides richness in terms of practice possibilities, it can also be challenging in terms of the divisions produced by different disciplinary and philosophical approaches. This is particularly evident in relation to how different practitioners advocate for who holds the truth within their grasp, in relation to best practice within this field. Such advocacy can ultimately divide practitioners in ways that are particularly problematic when political activism is necessary. This article examines the implications of the workforce divisions within ECEC in Queensland, Australia and the impact of such divisions on how practitioners advocate in particular contexts. The authors argue that differences that exist in disciplinary approaches have tended to highlight concomitant differences in understanding about what are regarded as being exemplary practices and in the quest for ‘best practice’. This means that in times when political activism or advocacy is required, ECEC practitioners are divided rather than united as to what high-quality/exemplary practices might actually look like. Such division has constrained rather than enabled practitioners in terms of how they support each other in the practice and political arenas in Queensland and in Australia as a whole. It is suggested that it might be better to gain advantage from a more united approach. The authors use the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who situates social and systemic practices as ‘games' of practice; and that of Michel Foucault, who conceptualises such notions as ‘games of truth and error’.
Adapting an Ant Colony Metaphor for Multi-Robot Chemical Plume Tracing
Authors: Meng Qing-Hao , Yang Wei-Xing , Wang Yang , Li Fei , Zeng Ming
Published: April 2012

We consider chemical plume tracing (CPT) in time-varying airflow environments using multiple mobile robots. The purpose of CPT is to approach a gas source with a previously unknown location in a given area. Therefore, the CPT could be considered as a dynamic optimization problem in continuous domains. The traditional ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm has been successfully used for combinatorial optimization problems in discrete domains. To adapt the ant colony metaphor to the multi-robot CPT problem, the two-dimension continuous search area is discretized into grids and the virtual pheromone is updated according to both the gas concentration and wind information. To prevent the adapted ACO algorithm from being prematurely trapped in a local optimum, the upwind surge behavior is adopted by the robots with relatively higher gas concentration in order to explore more areas. The spiral surge (SS) algorithm is also examined for comparison. Experimental results using multiple real robots in two indoor natural ventilated airflow environments show that the proposed CPT method performs better than the SS algorithm. The simulation results for large-scale advection-diffusion plume environments show that the proposed method could also work in outdoor meandering plume environments.
Ready, Set, Fuse! The Coronavirus Spike Protein and Acquisition of Fusion Competence
Authors: Heald-Sargent Taylor , Gallagher Tom
Published: April 2012

Coronavirus-cell entry programs involve virus-cell membrane fusions mediated by viral spike (S) proteins. Coronavirus S proteins acquire membrane fusion competence by receptor interactions, proteolysis, and acidification in endosomes. This review describes our current understanding of the S proteins, their interactions with and their responses to these entry triggers. We focus on receptors and proteases in prompting entry and highlight the type II transmembrane serine proteases (TTSPs) known to activate several virus fusion proteins. These and other proteases are essential cofactors permitting coronavirus infection, conceivably being in proximity to cell-surface receptors and thus poised to split entering spike proteins into the fragments that refold to mediate membrane fusion. The review concludes by noting how understanding of coronavirus entry informs antiviral therapies.
Progression-Free Survival as a Clinical Trial Endpoint in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Hotte S.J. , Bjarnason G.A. , Heng D.Y.C. , Jewett M.A.S. , Kapoor A. , Kollmannsberger C. , Maroun J. , Mayhew L.A. , North S. , Reaume M.N. , Ruether J.D. , Soulieres D. , Venner P.M. , Winquist E.W. , Wood L. , Yong J.H.E. , Saad F.
Published: April 2012

Traditionally, overall survival (os) has been considered the “gold standard” for evaluating new systemic oncologic therapies, because death is easy to define, is easily compared across disease sites, and is not subject to investigator bias. However, as the available options for continuing therapy increase, the use of os as a clinical trial endpoint has become problematic because of the increasing crossover and contamination of trials. As a result, the approval of promising new therapies may be delayed. Many clinicians believe that progression-free survival (pfs) is a more viable option for evaluating new therapies in metastatic and advanced renal cell carcinoma. As with all endpoints, pfs has inherent biases, and those biases must be addressed to ensure that trial results are not compromised and that they will be accepted by regulatory authorities. In this paper, we examine the issues surrounding the use of pfs as a clinical trial endpoint, and we suggest solutions to ensure that data integrity is maintained.
Enantioselective supramolecular devices in the gas phase. Resorcin[4]arene as a model system
Authors: Fraschetti Caterina , Letzel Matthias C , Filippi Antonello , Speranza Maurizio , Mattay Jochen
Published: April 2012

This review describes the state-of-art in the field of the gas-phase reactivity of diastereomeric complexes formed between a chiral artificial receptor and a biologically active molecule. The presented experimental approach is a ligand-displacement reaction carried out in a nano ESI-FT-ICR instrument, supported by a thermodynamic MS-study and molecular-mechanics and molecular-dynamics (MM/MD) computational techniques. The noncovalent ion–molecule complexes are ideal for the study of chiral recognition in the absence of complicating solvent and counterion effects.
CHARACTERIZING CLOUD COVER AND SATELLITE REVISIT WITH CLOUD MASKS IN NORTH WEST ENGLAND
Authors: Ogunbadewa Ebenezer Yemi
Published: April 2012

The aim of this study is to determine the availability of cloud-free images in relation to satellite revisit periods for the UK and in particular for the North West of England. Cloud cover was analysed with cloud masks from AVHRR/APOLLO and TERRA/MODIS cloud products. Availability of cloud-free images was determined from revisit frequency and the numbers of monthly images from Landsat ETM+, ASTER, Quickbird and SPOT satellite sensor series. The average number of cloud-free days at Risley Moss and Charter's Moss is five days per month with a minimum of one cloud-free day. The results show that satellite revisit periods and cloud cover are major determinants of satellite data availability and in this study it was also found that contrary to popular opinion, satellite overpass does not necessarily mean imaging opportunity and additional cloud-free images could be obtained when there are no satellite overpasses. The numbers of cloud-free images at a given site may be increased by combining data from different satellite sensors.
Engagements volontaires et croissance verte dans l'ère d'après Copenhague
Authors: Sterner Thomas
Published: April 2012

Résumé L’espoir d’un accord climatique a été violemment balayé à Copenhague ainsi qu’à chaque Conférence des parties (COP) qui a suivi. Une des conséquences est que la croissance verte est promue quasiment comme si elle était une voie alternative. Évidemment, la croissance verte est le but au final, mais on n’y parviendra pas d’un coup de baguette magique. L’économie mondiale va avoir besoin de politiques économiques sévères pour devenir verte – et il est naïf de penser autrement. En effet, même une croissance verte va stimuler la demande d’énergie et le charbon est typiquement la ressource la meilleure marché. L’ampleur du défi est encore plus grande si l’on considère également les problèmes entraînés par l’utilisation du nucléaire, et, dans certains cas, des biocarburants (puisqu’ils vont entraîner une compétition pour l’utilisation de terres qui peuvent être essentielles pour les pauvres). Cet article examine quelques-uns des ingrédients nécessaires à une stratégie mondiale à long terme pour protéger le climat. Nous aurons toujours besoin d’un accord climatique mondial, mais, alors que nous sommes dans l’attente d’un accord mondial final (et peut-être difficile à atteindre), nous devons entre-temps mener des politiques économiques cohérentes qui faciliteront le développement de cet accord mondial.
Estrategias de armado en estructuras reticuladas de hormigón
Authors: Aroca Hernández-Ros Ricardo
Published: April 2012

La influencia de la cuantía y disposición de armaduras en la redistribución de momentos flectores en una pieza de hormigón armado, trae como consecuencia que la comprobación o la determinación de la seguridad de una estructura se realice por un camino "inverso":
1) Determinación de una estrategia de armado.
2) Comprobación de la ductilidad de la estructura y de la distribución real de momentos.
3) Determinación del margen de seguridad en esa sección.
Obras del arquitecto Manuel Barbero Rebolledo. Rehabilitación del antiguo colegio universitario de San Agustín de Alcalá de Henares para juzgados comarcales. Madrid/España.
Authors: Clemente San Román Carlos
Published: April 2012

Manuel Barbero Rebolledo, autor del proyecto del Instituto Torroja, ha sido uno de los arquitectos más estrechamente ligados a la historia del Instituto y por tanto también a la revista Informes. Su obra, continuamente galardonada, ha sido un permanente foco de aportaciones a la tecnología y arquitectura españolas.
Aspectos particulares del diseño de muros
Authors: Calavera J. , Ley Urzaiz J.
Published: April 2012

A partir de la Instrucción EH-82, en el cálculo de los distintos elementos estructurales, lo que se ponderan por el coeficiente de seguridad y, no son los esfuerzos en dichos elementos, sino las acciones que dan lugar a ellos. Esta importante diferencia conceptual, en la mayoría de las estructuras que manejamos, no conduce a diferencias numéricas grandes entre los resultados obtenidos por uno u otro método. En el presente trabajo se muestra cómo en el caso de los muros, las diferencias son grandes y la variación del nivel de seguridad importante si se ponderan los esfuerzos y no las acciones.
Permeabilidad del hormigón al aire. Efecto de la edad del hormigón en la permeabilidad
Authors: Muñoz Martialay Rafael
Published: April 2012

Se describen los resultados obtenidos sobre la evolución de la permeabilidad al aire de seis placas de hormigón durante un período de 23 años.
Las medidas se han realizado a cuatro escalones de presión: 0,40; 0,95; 1,35 y 1,90 kp/cm2 y las placas de hormigón, de dimensiones 1 x 1 x 0,20 m; se han mantenido en una nave de ensayos.
Los resultados de la permeabilidad que se presentan tienen un valor cualitativo, pues se desconoce el efecto de borde. En la bibliografía que se cita, la publicación (1) incluye resultados cuantitativos de ocho hormigones de distinta dosificación.
Es de destacar las diferencias obtenidas entre las placas, aún teniendo la misma dosificación y estar igualmente conservadas.
Después de 23 años de fabricado el hormigón y en las condiciones de conservación normales de una nave de ensayos, se observa que el valor de la permeabilidad tiende a estabilizarse, especialmente a la presión más baja, 0,40 kp/cm2.
Mobility, Context and Cloud
Authors: Gr Tor-Morten , Hansen Jarle , Ghinea Gheorghita
Published: April 2012

In this paper we pursue the context-aware paradigm in a distributed mobile environment. Context-awareness plays a significant role in the domain of implicit human computer interaction and we present an intelligent context-aware meeting room application. The distributed mobile application consists of multiple mobile operating system clients, a Google Android based presenter that, through proximity technology, communicates with a server in the meeting room, and a Google Cloud backend server. Over 40 users have evaluated the application. Results show that the context aware meeting room was well received by users who displayed a strong positive bias towards cloud integration and, in particular, automatic meeting-note push. We conclude that our context-aware meeting assistant can provide valuable assistance to end users and that there is promise for such use of heterogeneous mobile context-aware platforms.
Elaboration of Statistics Learning Objects for Mobile Devices
Authors: Tapia Moreno Francisco Javier
Published: April 2012

Mobile learning (m-learning) allows a person to study using a mobile computer device anywhere and anytime. In this work we report the elaboration of learning objects for the teaching of introductory statistics using cellular phones.
Efficient Packet Forwarding in Mesh Network
Authors: Kanrar Soumen
Published: April 2012

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a multi hop low cost, with easy maintenance robust network providing reliable service coverage. WMNs consist of mesh routers and mesh clients. In this architecture, while static mesh routers form the wireless backbone, mesh clients access the network through mesh routers as well as directly meshing with each other. Different from traditional wireless networks, WMN is dynamically self-organized and self-configured. In other words, the nodes in the mesh network automatically establish and maintain network connectivity. Over the years researchers have worked, to reduce the redundancy in broadcasting packet in the mesh network in the wireless domain for providing reliable service coverage, the source node deserves to broadcast or flood the control packets. The redundant control packet consumes the bandwidth of the wireless medium and significantly reduces the average throughput and consequently reduces the overall system performance. In this paper I study the optimization problem in Wireless Mesh Networks. We have proposed a novel approach to reduce the broadcast redundant packet in the wireless mesh network. Also we have shown, a novel procedure to forward the control packet to the destination nodes and efficiently minimize the transmitted control packet in the wireless mesh cloud , that covers the domain.
Supply Chain Management in the Context of Economic Area
Authors: Rusko Rauno
Published: April 2012

This study introduces geographical viewpoints for supply chain management (SCM) focusing on the branch of information communication technology (ICT) in the case of city and region of Oulu. The City of Oulu is a remarkable planning and administration centre of ICT branch in Finland. In this study we - instead of using commonly used cluster or resource dependence theories - utilize SCM framework to describe the development and path-dependence of knowledge-intensive geographical area, which is specialized in high tech or actually ICT business. In the context of geographical analysis, or of geographical economics, SCM is less-used viewpoint. This case study shows that SCM, and especially strategic level SC endowment viewpoint (introduced initially in Rusko, Kylänen & Saari, 2009), is valuable and useful tool in analysing the geo-economic development and path-dependence of a high tech centre. As a result, we notice that the development of Oulu is based on the development of SC endowment connected with amounts of talents and also multi-dimensional coopetition. One essential result is the observed erosion in the SC endowment of high tech Oulu, which sets remarkable challenges for city planning.
University Education and Intellectual Property in the Digital Era
Authors: Kiggundu John
Published: April 2012

The national level of Intellectual Property Law covers national legislation and policy as well as common law, while at the international level it covers international treaties and conventions to which Botswana is a signatory. The Mission of the University of Botswana is to advance the intellectual and human resource capacity of the nation and the international community. In this regard, the goal of this paper is that the University plays a central role in the development of intellectual property law and policy and in the protection of intellectual property at the University and the nation at large. The University must articulate its position on intellectual property issues so as to influence national policy and legislation as well as international developments in intellectual property in the digital era. The area that greatly affects the University of Botswana in its core business is copyright. Accordingly, this paper focuses mainly on issues arising in copyright especially in the digital era and how they affect the University’s core business. The paper covers the duration of copyright, licensing agreements, the cost of digital information, the preservation of digital information, distance learning, the protection of indigenous knowledge systems, and the development of intellectual property education.
Implementation of Discrete and Integrated IT
Authors: Burns Colm , Hewitt-Dundas Nola
Published: April 2012

Integrated organisational IT systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM) and digital manufacturing (DM), have promised and delivered substantial performance benefits to many adopting firms. However, implementations of such systems have tended to be problematic. ERP projects, in particular, are prone to cost and time overruns, not delivering anticipated benefits and often being abandoned before completion. While research has developed around IT implementation, this has focused mainly on standalone (or discrete), as opposed to integrated, IT systems. Within this literature, organisational (i.e., structural and cultural) characteristics have been found to influence implementation success. The key aims of this research are (a) to investigate the role of organisational characteristics in determining IT implementation success; (b) to determine whether their influence differs for integrated IT and discrete IT projects; and (c) to develop specific guidelines for managers of integrated IT implementations. An in-depth comparative case study of two IT projects was conducted within a major aerospace manufacturing company.
Adoption of ICT in Rural Medical General Practices in Australia
Authors: Deering Patricia , Tatnall Arthur , Burgess Stephen
Published: April 2012

ICT has been used in medical General Practice throughout Australia now for some years, but although most General Practices make use of ICT for administrative purposes such as billing, prescribing and medical records, many individual General Practitioners themselves do not make full use of these ICT systems for clinical purposes. The decisions taken in the adoption of ICT in general practice are very complex, and involve many actors, both human and non-human. This means that actor-network theory offers a most suitable framework for its analysis. This article investigates how GPs in a rural Division of General Practice not far from Melbourne considered the adoption and use of ICT. The study reported in the article shows that, rather than characteristics of the technology itself, it is often seemingly unimportant human issues that determine if and how ICT is used in General Practice.
RAD and Other Innovative Approaches to Facilitate Superior Project Management
Authors: Bali Rajeev K. , Wickramasinghe Nilmini
Published: April 2012

Rapid Application Development (RAD) is promising to bring many benefits and state-of-the-art uses to the discipline of software engineering. The plethora of low cost RAD tools, together with the claims made by advocates of this methodology, has lead to an explosion in the use of this technique across the field. Unfortunately, however, there has been comparatively little regard in context to the project management issues of adopting RAD methodologies on which this paper will focus.
Using Actor-Network Theory to Facilitate a Superior Understanding of Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Transfer
Authors: Wickramasinghe Nilmini , Tatnall Arthur , Bali Rajeev K.
Published: April 2012

Given today’s dynamic business environment it becomes essential for organisations to maximise their intellectual assets in order to ensure that they are able to support flexible operations and sustain their competitive advantage. Central to this is the ability to extract germane knowledge to enable rapid and effective decision making. At present, knowledge creation techniques tend to focus on either human or technology aspects of organisational development and less often on process-centric aspects of knowledge generation. However, to truly understand knowledge creation and transfer, thereby enabling an organisation to be better positioned to leverage the full potential of its intellectual capital, it is important to view knowledge creation and all socio-technical organisational operations that result in knowledge generation through a richer lens. Actor-network Theory is proffered in this article as such a lens.
Design of Multi Agent System for Resource Allocation and Monitoring
Authors: Arora Manish , Devi M. Syamala
Published: April 2012

The objective of Resource Allocation and Monitoring System is to make the procedures involved in allocating fund resources to competing clients transparent so that deserving candidates get funds. Proactive and goal directed behaviour of agents make the system transparent and intelligent. This paper presents design of Multi Agent Systems for Resource Allocation and Monitoring using Agent Unified Modelling Language (AUML) and implementation in agent based development tool. At a conceptual level, three agents are identified with their roles and responsibilities. The identified agents, functionalities, and interactions are also included and results show that multi agent technology can be used for effective decision making for resource allocation and monitoring problem.
The Effects of Different Interaction Protocols in Agent-Based Simulation of Social Activities
Authors: Ronald Nicole , Arentze Theo , Timmermans Harry
Published: April 2012

Decision making in models of activity and travel behaviour is usually individual-based and focuses on outcomes rather than the decision process. Using agent-based modelling techniques and incorporating interaction protocols into the model can assist in modelling decision-making in more detail. This paper describes an agent-based model of social activity generation and scheduling, in which utility-based agents interact with each other to schedule activities. Six different protocols are tested. The authors show that the model outcomes reflect minor changes in the protocol, while changing the order of the protocol leads to significantly different outcomes, hence the protocol plays a large role in the simulation results and should be studied in more detail.
Modeling Virtual Footprints
Authors: Kadaba Rajiv , Budalakoti Suratna , DeAngelis David , Barber K. Suzanne
Published: April 2012

Entities interacting on the web establish their identity by creating virtual personas. These entities, or agents, can be human users or software-based. This research models identity using the Entity-Persona Model, a semantically annotated social network inferred from the persistent traces of interaction between personas on the web. A Persona Mapping Algorithm is proposed which compares the local views of personas in their social network referred to as their Virtual Signatures, for structural and semantic similarity. The semantics of the Entity-Persona Model are modeled by a vector space model of the text associated with the personas in the network, which allows comparison of their Virtual Signatures. This enables all the publicly accessible personas of an entity to be identified on the scale of the web. This research enables an agent to identify a single entity using multiple personas on different networks, provided that multiple personas exhibit characteristic behavior. The agent is able to increase the trustworthiness of on-line interactions by establishing the identity of entities operating under multiple personas. Consequently, reputation measures based on on-line interactions with multiple personas can be aggregated and resolved to the true singular identity.
Multi-Agent Negotiation Paradigm for Agent Selection in B2C E-Commerce
Authors: Mazumdar Bireshwar Dass , Basak Swati , Modanwal Neelam
Published: April 2012

Multi agent system (MAS) model has been extensively used in the different tasks of E-Commerce such as customer relation management (CRM), negotiation and brokering. The objective of this paper is to evaluate a seller agent’s various cognitive parameters like capability, trust, and desire. After selecting a best seller agent from ordering queue, it applies negotiation strategies to find the most profitable proposal for both buyer and seller. This mechanism belongs to a semi cooperative negotiation type, and selecting a seller and buyer agent pair using mental and cognitive parameters. This work provides a logical cognitive model, logical negotiation model between buyer agent and selected seller agent.
The Performance of Grey System Agent and ANN Agent in Predicting Closing Prices for Online Auctions
Authors: Lim Deborah , Anthony Patricia , Ho Chong Mun
Published: April 2012

The introduction of online auction has resulted in a rich collection of problems and issues especially in the bidding process. During the bidding process, bidders have to monitor multiple auction houses, pick from the many auctions to participate in and make the right bid. If bidders are able to predict the closing price for each auction, then they are able to make a better decision making on the time, place and the amount they can bid for an item. However, predicting closing price for an auction is not easy since it is dependent on many factors such as the behavior of each bidder, the number of the bidders participating in that auction as well as each bidder’s reservation price. This paper reports on the development of a predictor agent that utilizes Grey System Theory GM (1, 1) to predict the online auction closing price in order to maximize the bidder’s profit. The performance of this agent is compared with an Artificial Neural Network Predictor Agent (using Feed-Forward Back-Propagation Prediction Model). The effectiveness of these two agents is evaluated in a simulated auction environment as well as using real eBay auction’s data.
Price Rigidity and Strategic Uncertainty
Authors: Somogyi Robert , Vincze János
Published: April 2012

The phenomenon of infrequent price changes has troubled economists for decades. Intuitively one feels that for most price-setters there exists a range of inaction, i.e., a substantial measure of the states of the world, within which they do not wish to modify prevailing prices. Economists wishing to maintain rationality of price-setters resorted to fixed price adjustment costs as an explanation for price rigidity. This paper proposes an alternative explanation, without recourse to any sort of physical adjustment cost, by putting strategic interaction into the center-stage of the analysis. Price-making is treated as a repeated oligopoly game. The traditional analysis of these games cannot pinpoint any equilibrium as a reasonable “solution” of the strategic situation. Thus, decision-makers have a genuine strategic uncertainty about the strategies of other decision-makers. Hesitation may lead to inaction. To model this situation, the authors follow the style of agent-based models, by modeling firms that change their pricing strategies following an evolutionary algorithm. In addition to reproducing the known negative relationship between price rigidity and the level of general inflation, the model exhibits several features observed in real data. Moreover, most prices fall into the theoretical “range” without explicitly building this property into strategies.
Determinants of Goal-Directed Mobile Ticketing Service Adoption Among Internet Users
Authors: Wang Shen-Yao , Lie Ting
Published: April 2012

This study aims to understand the driving factors that influence the attitudes and behavioral intention to adopt mobile ticketing services, a new mobile Internet service in Taiwan applying the Theory of Planned Behavior. Empirical findings suggest that the intention to adopt the mobile ticketing service is significantly affected by the attitude towards the service, as well as the self-efficacy and controllability of adopting the mobile ticketing service. Attitude towards using the mobile ticketing service is significantly influenced by perceived usefulness and perceived monetary value of the service, whereas perceived usefulness is significantly affected by the perceived ease of use of the mobile ticketing service. Implications of this study and directions for future research are discussed.
Evolution of Electronic and Mobile Business and Services
Authors: Adams Carl , Mouatt Simon
Published: April 2012

Mobile business and services are playing an increasingly significant role in economic activity for nations. However, one of the prerequisites for successful electronic business activity is to have practical and acceptable mechanisms to conduct electronic transactions. In this paper, the authors identify weaknesses in the mobile and electronic payments markets, namely hyper-competition that results in too much variation and lack of standards. The paper gains insights from previous works on the government and money nexus. The relationship between governments and money has continued to evolve. The current global and electronic environment now presents fresh challenges for the state, as payments extend across national jurisdictions and deal with new types of services and transactions. The paper provides the basis for developing theory to fully capture and recognise the development of mobility in an electronic and global market space and by identifying practical ways governments can support the evolving mobile payments industry.
Knowledge Interoperability among Parliaments and Government
Authors: Loukis E. , Xenakis Alexandros
Published: April 2012

Parliaments possess huge amounts of valuable knowledge on public policies which concerns social needs, problems, and interventions for addressing them. This knowledge is highly useful to other parliaments and also to government agencies of various layers. However, this valuable knowledge is hidden in numerous text documents so that it cannot be efficiently exchanged and exploited. In this regard, it is highly important to extend the concept of interoperability among information systems (IS) of Parliaments and Government Agencies so that it covers not only the ‘operational level’, but also the ‘knowledge level’. This paper presents a methodology for achieving higher level interoperability among IS of parliaments and government agencies with respect to the exchange of public policy related knowledge. It is based on the use of the complex problems representation ontology provided by the ‘Issue-Based Information Systems’ (IBIS) framework for codifying public policy related knowledge. An application of the proposed methodology is presented for the case of the law on the ‘Contracts of Voluntary Cohabitation’, which has been recently passed by the Greek Parliament. The evaluation of this application gave encouraging conclusions as to the usefulness of this methodology and resulted in the development of a refinement of the IBIS ontology.
Investigating the Landscape in National Interoperability Frameworks
Authors: Charalabidis Yannis , Lampathaki Fenareti , Askounis Dimitris
Published: April 2012

Openness, accountability, and transparency have attracted researchers’ and practitioners’ interest as open data and citizen engagement initiatives try to capitalize the wisdom of crowds for better governance, policy making, or even service provision. In this context, interoperability between public organizations, citizens, and enterprises seems to remain the center of interest in the public sector and national interoperability frameworks are continually revised and expanded across the globe in an effort to support the increasing need for seamless exchange of information. This paper outlines the current landscape in eGovernment interoperability, analyzing and comparing frameworks that have reached a certain degree of maturity. Their strengths and weaknesses at conceptual and implementation level are discussed together with directions for reaching consensus and aligning interoperability guidelines at a country and cross-country level.
Management Theory
Authors: Davies John
Published: April 2012

This paper develops a systems perspective on the interdependent relationships between management academics, management theory and management practice. The author re-examines issues raised by Ghoshal, not only about how the uncritical acceptance of an ideologically based gloomy vision of human nature has led to “bad management theories ... destroying good management practices”, but also how practice can impact the development of theory. The approach provides an opportunity to reinterpret and reveal the systemic nature of related feedback and learning processes labelled as the double hermeneutic by Giddens (1987) and as reciprocal determinism by Bandura (1978), to draw a parallel with the role of theory in the decision sciences. This paper provides a constructive illustration of the use of the systems representational tools of system dynamics to develop a systems perspective on these matters to identify the underpinning systemic structure that gives rise to Ghoshal’s views. Finally, the author identifies a means of addressing issues of concern to management theorists, analysts, and practitioners.
From Childhood Poverty to Catfish
Authors: Cheong France , Corbitt Brian
Published: April 2012

Strategic decision makers are frequently faced with unstructured problems that cannot be solved adequately by analytical means. In such situations, a better decision-making approach is one based on stakeholders’ participation. A particular form of such an approach is known as participatory modelling, whereby participatory methods are used for knowledge elicitation while simulation modelling techniques are used to determine optimal strategies. In this paper, the authors discuss a participatory modelling framework using agent-based modelling and System Dynamics, which illustrates the use of the framework for two projects. These projects include participatory agent-based modelling of childhood poverty in Vietnam, and participatory System Dynamics modelling of the Vietnamese catfish industry.
Testing for Overreaction and Return Continuations in Stock Price Index Returns
Authors: Joseph Nathan Lael , Mazouz Khelifa
Published: April 2012

In this paper, the authors examine the impacts of large price changes (or shocks) on the abnormal returns (ARs) of a set of 39 national stock indices. Their initial results support returns continuations for both positive and negative shocks in line with prior results. After controlling for market size, their findings provide support for over-reaction, return continuations and market efficiency, but these result depend on the magnitude of the price shocks. Whilst the market is efficient when the positive shocks are large, the market also over-reacts when negative shocks are large. To illustrate, for large stock markets that are more liquid, positive shocks of more than 5% generate an insignificant day one CAR of -0.004%, whilst negative shocks of more than 5% generate a positive and significant day one CAR of 0.662%. In contrast, positive (negative) shocks of less than 5% generate a significant one day CAR of 0.119% (-0.174%) for these same (large) stock markets.
A Comparison of Pairs, Triads and Quads in Multi-Attribute Decision Making
Authors: Iacovou Charalambos L. , Shirland Larry , Thompson Ronald
Published: April 2012

The pair-wise comparison technique is a common approach for completing multi-attribute evaluations. However, this approach has limitations, especially for larger attribute sets, where the use of the technique is time-consuming because it requires a relatively large number of comparisons. The authors conducted an experiment to test the efficacy of three alternative approaches for eliciting preferences, specifically pairs, triads and quads. Ninety-three subjects used one of the three approaches to rank the importance of fifteen items. The results indicate that those employing the pair-wise approach took significantly longer than those using the triad or quad approach. In addition, the triad technique yielded more accurate results (compared to the pair and quad methods). Finally, the quad approach generated fewer intransitivities than the pair-wise or triad approaches. No differences were observed across the three techniques with respect to reliability or perceived ease of use. Implications are provided for both practitioners and researchers.
Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP)
Authors: Pita Zijad , Cheong France , Corbitt Brian
Published: April 2012

This study examines the use of formal Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) approaches and methodologies in Australia. The authors analyze the relationships between SISP success, SISP objectives, company size/type and SISP approaches and methodologies. The authors find that the most popular methodologies are not the most successful. Emerging methodologies, such as Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Information Engineering, could be considered for improving the success of SISP. They also find that a combination of SISP approaches is more successful than the implementation of any one approach. This can be interpreted that the boundary lines that distinguish theoretical approaches are blurred and that SISP theory needs a new way of thinking to stay relevant for practice. In addition, many findings of significant importance to SISP practitioners, in the context of various industries, are presented.
The Traveling Salesman Problem, the Vehicle Routing Problem, and Their Impact on Combinatorial Optimization
Authors: Laporte Gilbert
Published: April 2012

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) are two of the most popular problems in the field of combinatorial optimization. Due to the study of these two problems, there has been a significant growth in families of exact and heuristic algorithms being used today. The purpose of this paper is to show how their study has fostered developments of the most popular algorithms now applied to the solution of combinatorial optimization problems. These include exact algorithms, classical heuristics and metaheuristics.
Knowledge Sharing in Supply Chain
Authors: Ajmal Mian M. , Kristianto Yohanes
Published: April 2012

This paper examines knowledge sharing in supply chain by developing analytical models to minimize knowledge sharing uncertainty. Analogies from thermodynamics are used to describe the phenomenon in supply chain knowledge sharing. The study finds that distance and sender capacity are important to reduce knowledge sharing uncertainty. Furthermore, higher contact frequency between the sender and the receiver without considering sender capacity is proven to be insignificant to reduce uncertainty. This mechanism provides a new approach to explicate knowledge sharing in supply networks. It also serves as a deep-rooted opening point for supplementary empirical assessment. The mechanism facilitates managers to expand their understanding of composite circumstances embedded into global supply networks to share their knowledge. With enhanced understanding, managers can spotlight their actions, increasing their firms’ competitiveness. This study provides a deeper theoretical understanding of knowledge sharing in supply networks with a practical approach.
Taguchi-Particle Swarm Optimization for Numerical Optimization
Authors: Ting T. O. , Ting H. C. , Lee T. S.
Published: April 2012

In this work, a hybrid Taguchi-Particle Swarm Optimization (TPSO) is proposed to solve global numerical optimization problems with continuous and discrete variables. This hybrid algorithm combines the well-known Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm with the established Taguchi method, which has been an important tool for robust design. This paper presents the improvements obtained despite the simplicity of the hybridization process. The Taguchi method is run only once in every PSO iteration and therefore does not give significant impact in terms of computational cost. The method creates a more diversified population, which also contributes to the success of avoiding premature convergence. The proposed method is effectively applied to solve 13 benchmark problems. This study’s results show drastic improvements in comparison with the standard PSO algorithm involving continuous and discrete variables on high dimensional benchmark functions.
Design of Multi-Criteria PI Controller Using Particle Swarm Optimization for Multiple UAVs Close Formation
Authors: Zhang Xiangyin , Duan Haibin , Shao Shan , Wang Yunhui
Published: April 2012

Close formation flight is one of the most complicated problems on multiple Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) coordinated control. This paper proposes a new method to achieve close formation tracking control of multiple UAVs by applying Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based Proportional plus Integral (PI) controller. Due to its simple structure and effectiveness, multi-criteria PI control strategy is employed to design the controller for multiple UAVs formation, while PSO is used to optimize the controller parameters on-line. With the inclusion of overshoot, rise time, and system accumulated absolute error in the multi-criteria performance index, the overall performance of multi-criteria PI controller is optimized to be satisfactory. Simulation results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithms Inspired by Immunity-Clonal Mechanism and Their Applications to Spam Detection
Authors: Tan Ying
Published: April 2012

Compared to conventional PSO algorithm, particle swarm optimization algorithms inspired by immunity-clonal strategies are presented for their rapid convergence, easy implementation and ability of optimization. A novel PSO algorithm, clonal particle swarm optimization (CPSO) algorithm, is proposed based on clonal principle in natural immune system. By cloning the best individual of successive generations, the CPSO enlarges the area near the promising candidate solution and accelerates the evolution of the swarm, leading to better optimization capability and faster convergence performance than conventional PSO. As a variant, an advance-and-retreat strategy is incorporated to find the nearby minima in an enlarged solution space for greatly accelerating the CPSO before the next clonal operation. A black hole model is also established for easy implementation and good performance. Detailed descriptions of the CPSO algorithm and its variants are elaborated. Extensive experiments on 15 benchmark test functions demonstrate that the proposed CPSO algorithms speedup the evolution procedure and improve the global optimization performance. Finally, an application of the proposed PSO algorithms to spam detection is provided in comparison with the other three methods.
UHF RFID Reader Antenna
Authors: Chakravarty Tapas , Balamuralidhar P.
Published: April 2012

This chapter addresses the various design issues, requirements, and specifications in designing reader antennas for UHF RFID applications. In a typical UHF system, the RFID reader antennas are geography specific; that is, there are different antennas for different geography, namely North America, Europe, et cetera. The discussion on the design challenges and performance expectations lead to a new form of compact and broad band antenna, which will be applicable for the global UHF RFID band of 860MHz to 960 MHz. In addition, this chapter also provides potential future trends in RFID reader antenna design. The issues and challenges discussed in this chapter are envisioned to provide a roadmap to the potential challenges to be faced by a chipless RFID system.
A Framework for Enabling Dynamic E-Business Strategies via new Enterprise Paradigms and ERP Solutions
Authors: Wan Yi , Clegg Ben , Dey Prasanta Kumar
Published: April 2012

In the global Internet economy, e-business as a driving force to redefine business models and operational processes is posing new challenges for traditional organizational structures and information system (IS) architectures. These are showing promises of a renewed period of innovative thinking in e-business strategies with new enterprise paradigms and different Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. In this chapter, the authors consider and investigate how dynamic e-business strategies, as the next evolutionary generation of e-business, can be realized through newly diverse enterprise structures supported by ERP, ERPII and so-called “ERPIII” solutions relying on the virtual value chain concept. Exploratory inductive multi-case studies in manufacturing and printing industries have been conducted. Additionally, it proposes a conceptual framework to discuss the adoption and governance of ERP systems within the context of three enterprise forms for enabling dynamic and collaborative e-business strategies, and particularly demonstrate how an enterprise can dynamically migrate from its current position to the patterns it desires to occupy in the future – a migration that must and will include dynamic e-business as a core competency, but that also relies heavily on ERP-based backbone and other robust technological platform and applications.