bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Une Vie illustrée du Buddha (Shishi yuanliu, 1425), modèle pour les peintures murales d'un monastère du XVe s. (Jueyuan si, Sichuan oriental)
Authors: Lesbre Emmanuelle
Published: July 2010

The Monastery of the Garden of Enlightenment (Jueyuan si) in Jiange, Eastern Sichuan, has a unique set of mural paintings, which were done between 1457 and 1489, including 205 episodes, each with a short inscription. Their comparison with the oldest extant illustrated Life of the Buddha, a woodblock-printed edition of the Shishi yuanliu dating 1425, shows that the book was used as a model for the set of paintings. The study of this book, which was compiled by the monk Baocheng from 65 different sources, canonical or apocryph, identified in a separate table, shows that beyond its hagiographical elements, with numerous stories of conversions or refutations of heterodox views, this book also includes heterogeneous parts including ritual rules, presentation of some major Buddhist texts, as well as the story of the first Buddhist patriarchs up to Bodhidharma. Those various categories are analysed through a selection of episodes, for which the relationship between text and image is studied. This shows that transposing text into image for non-hagiographical episodes, tending to stereotype in the illustrated edition, did not make such sense when the mural paintings were deprived of text in the Jueyuan si. This may explain the exceptional character of this isolated set of paintings, whereas other painted lives of the Buddha in Buddhist temples had fewer episodes and remained more strictly hagiographical.
L'iconographie du temple royal de Caṅgu Nārāyaṇa (vallée de Kāṭhmāṇḍu)
Authors: Juramie Anne-Claire
Published: July 2010

Le temple de Garuda Nārāyana à Cangu Nārāyana dans la partie orientale de la vallée de Kāthmāndu est le symbole majeur de l'importance du visnuisme au Népal. Ce temple royal, fondé aux environs du Ve s. et reconstruit de nombreuses fois, date dans son état actuel du début du XVIIIe s. Tous les éléments de bois encastrés dans la maçonnerie reçoivent un décor sculpté très riche dans lequel des séries divines plus ou moins complètes (tels les avatars, les gardiens de l'espace et les divinités astrales) constituent les thèmes iconographiques privilégiés. D'autres formes visnuites sont également représentées, des plus classiques aux plus complexes (composites ou cosmiques). La description des principaux thèmes illustrés met en évidence la coexistence d'une iconographie traditionnelle et d'une iconographie originale. De plus, l'analyse du programme iconographique démontre d'une part une volonté d'organisation et de cohérence, notamment dans la disposition des séries divines et le dédoublement de certains thèmes; elle reflète d'autre part l'omniprésence de Visnu par une multiplication de son image et de ses manifestations cependant que toutes les autres divinités sont «visnuisées». Enfin, le dispositif d'ensemble suggère très fortement un mandata à trois dimensions organisé autour du dieu souverain du temple, Visnu Nārāyana.
Angkor Thom, une utopie réalisée? Structuration de l'espace et modèle indien d'urbanisme dans le Cambodge ancien
Authors: Gaucher Jacques
Published: July 2010

Angkor Thom, ancienne capitale royale à l'époque angko- rienne aujourd'hui recouverte par la forêt, fait l'objet, depuis 2000, d'une exploration méthodique menée à l'échelle du site (9000000 m2) et fondée, dans une première phase, sur des prospections morphologiques et pédologiques, des levés topographiques et des sondages stratigraphiques ponctuels. La méthode mise en place, relevant d'une archéologie urbaine, a permis la découverte d'un grand nombre de structures - chaussées, fossés, canaux, voies d'eau- dont l'échelle, la fonction et la régularité constituent des données urbaines nouvelles essentielles. Un plan schématique de la ville dans son dernier état montre l'ensemble des grands réseaux urbains

découverts à ce jour. L'auteur souligne le caractère urbain du site et insiste sur la régularité de sa structuration. Le caractère géométrique de la figure dessinée par un certain nombre des structures mises au jour incite à rechercher l'application d'un modèle théorique. L'auteur souligne le faisceau d'affinités qui existe entre les données archéologiques et les prescriptions urbaines provenant des traités indiens de l'habitat. Sachant qu'aucun plan de capitale royale ancienne indienne conforme aux traités n'a été réellement reconnu à ce jour, la capitale khmère apparaîtrait alors comme une utopie, au sens propre du terme, réalisée au-delà des mers.
Tissus et broderies Miao de la province du Guizhou en Chine
Authors: Quiquemelle Marie-Claire
Published: July 2010

Les objets textiles et les techniques décoratives (tissage, broderie, teinture à réserve) des diverses populations que regroupe la «nationalité» Miao, sont peu connus, tant à l'étranger qu'en Chine même où les Miao sont environ 6 millions (près de 60 % dans la province du Guizhou). Grâce au maintien des nombreux parlers locaux et au traditionnel refus des mariages entre groupes différents, les Miao ont conservé des coutumes originales extrêmement diversifiées. Chez ces peuples sans écriture, l'histoire légendaire se transmet oralement mais également à travers les motifs décoratifs des costumes qui évoquent le passé mythique, l'exode et même les violents combats qui les ont opposés à la majorité Han. L'article traite des techniques vestimentaires traditionnelles, qui sont encore bien vivantes (173 styles de costumes Miao identifiés) et manifestent à la fois la singularité des groupes et sous- groupes, et l'identité de chacun des individus. Aujourd'hui l'incroyable richesse vestimentaire des Miao est particulièrement menacée par l'intrusion brutale des modes de vie modernes.
Les travaux de la cathédrale de Beauvais dans un arrêt du Parlement de Paris (1512)
Authors: Meunier Florian
Published: July 2010

On 27 November 1512, the Parlement of Paris sentenced the bishop of Beauvais, Louis de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, to pay one thousand livres tournois every year to the cathedral fabric as a contribution to the building of the transept, which had been initiated by the canons in 1500 and supervised since then by the architect Martin Chambiges. The judgment remained ineffectual, because the bishop, having embarked on a number of building projects of his own, was found insolvent. It contains various new pieces of information, both on the preparatory phase of the project, launched as early as 1484, and on the part which bishops and abbots used to play in the construction of their churches. Just as the cathedral chapters of Sens and Bourges had done a few years earlier, the chapter of Beauvais won its case despite the customary law of the kingdom according to which the chapters alone were to sustain the financial burden of any construction. Not only is the judgment quite informative about the architectural conceptions shared by the canons, it also mentions a few figures which make up in part for the loss of the account books of the cathedral.
Mazarin et le « grand dessein » du Louvre projets et réalisations de 1652 à 1664
Authors: Cojannot Alexandre
Published: July 2010

Since Louis Hautecoeur’s substantial study (1927), the history of the Louvre at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV has been the object of much research. The whole of the planning and building done during the years 1652-1664 may now be reassessed in the light of fresh evidence. Cardinal Mazarin’s correspondence and the contracts for the main walls dating to the years 1659-1663 (published as an appendix to this article), together with further documents, bring to light the essential part played by the minister, who should be seen as the actual patron of the revival of the «grand dessein» for the Louvre from 1657 onwards. His was the initiative, and he exerted his personal influence on the plans, entrusted to the architect Louis Le Vau. He then watched over the construction through the superintendent of royal works, Antoine Ratabon, and through his own agent, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. After the cardinal died in 1661, the project was at first continued and expanded upon, but it was finally brought to a standstill when Colbert was appointed superintendent of building works in 1664.
Un chantier de décoration picturale à la fin du Moyen Âge : le pèlerinage de Dusenbach (1489-1492)
Authors: Lorentz Philippe , Rapp Francis
Published: July 2010

Dusenbach, a small locality near Ribeauvillé in Alsace, is one of the many local pilgrimage sites known to have existed in that region in the late Middle Ages. Though of no great importance at the time, it is exceptionally well documented, partly thanks to the meticulous records kept by Maximin de Ribeaupierre from 1483 to 1517. One jewel of the archive is the account book concerning the embellishment of the church of Notre-Dame, an initiative of Maximin’s. A specific section, transcribed and analysed in this article, deals with painting (interior decoration and two altarpieces), on which a large part of the income was spent. Much information is provided on the hiring of the three painters, their working conditions, their tools and the materials they used.
Les « caractères » magiques au Moyen Âge (XIIe-XIVe siècle)
Authors: Grévin Benoît , Véronèse Julien
Published: July 2010

A great number of mysterious signs are to be found in books of magic from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Occasionally described as “ characters ” they were supposed to possess a power with multiple effects. Their peculiarity has caused them to be excluded from most recent studies of mediaeval magic; but a systematic survey reveals the multifarious forms they could assume and the changing names they were given in manuscripts. “ Magic characters ” also occur in 13th-century treatises on theology (William of Auvergne, Thomas Aquinas) and language (al-Kindî, Roger Bacon) concerned with the conventional value of writing signs and the conditions for their legitimate use. The latter problem was all the more acute since the word “ character ” was invested with widely varying meanings in the Latin world, some of which touched on dogma. A tentative graphic analysis shows that the formof magic characters might relate to writing signs from various linguistic backgrounds (such as Eastern alphabets, runes, stenography and cryptography). Possibly derived from such sources, they tend to prove that the mysterious graphic knowledge expressed in magic texts was not unconnected with the linguistic culture of Western clerics.
La pratique du transfixe dans la Hongrie du XIIIe siècle
Authors: Solymosi László
Published: July 2010

Die ungarischen Institutionen von Ordensklerus und Weltgeistlichkeit führten den Gebrauch des Siegels um 1200 ein, nachdem sie zuvor nicht gesiegelte Chirographen verwendeten. Das Stiftskapitel von Székesfehérvár, dessen Beurkundungspraxis durch die Erstellung von Titeln für Dritte besonders intensiv war, führte die Siegelpraxis erst später ein (ab 1235/ 37). Von diesem Moment an entschied das Kapitel, im Einverständnis mit dem König, ältere Urkunden nachzusiegeln, wenn der Adressat das verlangte. Die angewandte Methode war ebenso schwerfällig wie eigentümlich: Man transkribierte den vorgelegten Chirographen und siegelte dann mit einem einzigen Siegel sowohl die alte wie die neue Urkunde, die dadurch zusammengeheftet wurden (Transfixum); auf dieseWeise konnte eine ältere Urkunde auch an einen neues Dokument geheftet werden, das den Abschluss eines Rechtsakts enthielt, bei dem der ältere Text vorgelegt worden war. Das Vorhandensein von Kanonikern und von “ Fränkischen ” Bürgern (bes. wallonischer Her- kunft) in Székesfehérvár sowie die Existenz analoger Praktiken in der Normandie dieser Zeit verstärken die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines französischen Einflusses bei der Entwicklung dieser Urkundentechnik, die für die Umwälzungen der Jahrzehnte, in denen die Einführung des Siegels die Rechtsgeschäfte veränderte, ganz charakteristisch war.
Normalized Bioimpedance Indices are Better Predictors of Outcome in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients
Authors: Koh Keng-Hee , Wong Hin-Seng , Go Kuan-Weng , Morad Zaki
Published: July 2010

Background

While phase angle of bioimpedance analysis (BIA) has great survival-predicting value in dialysis populations, it is known to be higher in male than in female subjects. In this study, we aimed to explore the factors influencing the predictive value of phase angle and to identify the appropriate physics terms for normalizing capacitance (C) and resistance (R).

Methods

We formulated body capacitive index (BCI), CBMI (capacitance x height2/weight), body resistive index (BRI), RBMI (resistance x weight/height2), and CH2 (capacitance x height2). We also studied H2/R, R/H, and reactance of a capacitor/height (XC/H). There are 3 components in this study design: ( 1 ) establishment of normal values in a control Malaysian population, ( 2 ) comparison of these with a CAPD population, and ( 3 ) prediction of survival within a CAPD population. We initially performed a BIA study in 206 female and 116 male healthy volunteers, followed by a prospective study in a cohort of 128 CAPD patients [47 with diabetes mellitus (DM), 81 non-DM; 59 males, 69 females] for at least 2 years. All the parameters during enrolment, including BIA, serum albumin, peritoneal equilibrium test, age, and DM status, were analyzed. Outcome measurement was survival.

Results

In healthy volunteers, both genders had the same BCI (2.0 nF kg/m2). On the contrary, female normal subjects had higher BRI than male normal subjects (median 15 642 vs 13242 Ω kg/m2, p < 0.001) due to higher fat percentage (35.4% ± 0.4% vs 28.0% ± 0.6%, p < 0.001), resulting in a lower phase angle (mean 5.82 ± 0.04 vs 6.86 ± 0.07 degrees, p < 0.001). Logistic regression showed that BCI was the best risk indicator in 128 CAPD patients versus 322 normal subjects. In age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched head-to-head comparison, BCI had the highest χ2 value (χ2 = 102.63), followed by CH2 (or H2/XC; χ2 = 81.00), BRI (χ2 = 20.54), and XC/H (x2 = 20.48), with p value < 0.001 for these parameters. In comparison, phase angle (χ2 = 11.42), R/H (χ2 = 7.19), and H2/R (χ2 = 5.69) had lower χ2 values. 35 (27.3%) patients died during the study period. Univariate analysis adjusted for DM status and serum albumin level demonstrated that non-surviving patients had significantly higher CH2 (245 vs 169 nF m2, p < 0.001) and BCI (4.0 vs 2.9 nF m2/kg, p = 0.005) than patients that survived. CH2 was the best predictor for all-cause mortality in Cox regression analysis, followed by BCI, phase angle, and XC/H.

Conclusion

Measures that normalize, such as BCI and CH2, have higher risk discrimination and survival prediction ability than measures that do not normalize, such as phase angle. Unlike phase angle, measurement of BCI overcomes the gender effect. In this study, the best risk indicator for CAPD patients versus the general population is BCI, reflecting deficit in nutritional concentration, while CH2 reflects total nutritional deficit and thus is the major risk indicator for survival of CAPD patients.
Linkage of Some Trace Elements, Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes, Inflammation, and Oxidative Stress in Patients Undergoing Either Hemodialysis or Peritoneal Dialysis
Authors: Guo Chih-Hung , Wang Chia-Liang , Chen Pei-Chung , Yang Te-Cheng
Published: July 2010

Background

Changes in essential trace elements may affect the inflammatory and immunological state of patients on hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD). Therefore, we aimed to determine trace element content and markers of oxidative stress, inflammation, and immune status in HD and PD patients and to assess the relationships among these parameters.

Methods

Patients on either HD ( n = 20) or PD ( n = 20) and age-, sex-, body mass index-matched healthy individuals ( n = 20) were enrolled in the study. The trace elements zinc, copper, selenium, and iron; markers of oxidative stress thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and protein carbonyl levels; activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and catalase; percentages of CD3 T lymphocytes and the subsets CD4 and CD8; the CD4/CD8 ratio; and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured.

Results

All dialysis patients had low levels of albumin and hemoglobin. Significantly decreased percentages of CD3 and CD4 T lymphocytes and increased levels of CRP, TBARS, and carbonyl compounds were observed in HD patients. HD patients also had elevated erythrocyte SOD, lower GPx and catalase activities, and decreased levels of Se, Zn, and Fe in comparison to PD patients and healthy subjects. In addition, CRP was positively associated with TBARS and carbonyl levels, but was significantly inversely associated with Zn and Se levels. Positive correlations were found between T lymphocyte CD3 and CD4 percentages and Zn, Se, and Fe levels.

Conclusions

There were significant decreases in T lymphocyte-related immunological regulation and increased inflammation and oxidative stress in dialysis patients. Essential trace element status was independently related to immune status, inflammation, and oxidative damage.
Synthesis of a novel analogue of DPP-4 inhibitor Alogliptin: Introduction of a spirocyclic moiety on the piperidine ring
Authors: Kodimuthali Arumugam , Prasunamba Padala Lakshmi , Pal Manojit
Published: July 2010

We report the synthesis of a novel analogue of Alogliptin via condensation of two key intermediates one of which is an aminopiperidine derivative bearing a spirocyclic ring on the piperidine moiety. Preparation of the aminopiperidine intermediate was carried out by constructing the cyclopropyl ring prior to assembling the piperidine ring.
Informing Response Criteria for Psoriatic Arthritis. I: Discrimination Models Based on Data from 3 Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor Randomized Studies
Authors: GLADMAN DAFNA D. , TOM BRIAN D.M. , MEASE PHILIP J. , FAREWELL VERNON T.
Published: July 2010

Objective.

To develop statistical models, based on the analysis of data from phase III randomized placebo-controlled trials of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) inhibitors over a 24-week period, that may inform the definition of response measures for clinical trials in psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

Methods.

Data from phase III randomized controlled trials with anti-TNF agents were used. A training set using baseline and 24-week data from 2 trials was used to derive the models, which were then tested on a dataset using baseline and interim data from the third trial, and baseline and interim data from the first 2 trials. Logistic regression, tree analysis, and factor analysis were considered in the development of the models. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were constructed and area under the curve (AUC) calculated to assess performance of the models.

Results.

Two models were derived. One was based on differences between baseline and last-visit values, which identified the current 68 tender joint count (TJC68), baseline and change in C-reactive protein (CRP), and the measure with the highest difference among the patient and physician global assessment of disease activity (GDA), patient assessment of pain and the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). The second model was based on percentage change from baseline and included TJC68, CRP, physician GDA, patient global assessment of arthritis pain, and HAQ. Both models provided high AUC of at least 0.8 for both the training and testing sets.

Conclusion.

Models for discriminating joint disease response patterns in PsA were derived from data from randomized controlled trials. These models can now be used to inform further consideration of response measures for trials.
The Patient Activity Scale-II Is a Generic Indicator of Active Disease in Patients with Rheumatic Disorders
Authors: PAREKH KETNA , TAYLOR WILLIAM J.
Published: July 2010

Objective.

To determine whether the Patient Activity Scale-II (PAS-II) is a generic measure of disease activity by assessing whether the relationship of PAS-II with treatment decision (indicating disease activity) is invariant across disease.

Methods.

The Health Assessment Questionnaire-II (HAQ-II), a 10 cm visual analog scale for “pain,” and another for “patient global assessment” were recorded from 1000 consecutive patients attending rheumatology outpatient clinics. Active disease was defined as treatment intensity increased and inactive disease was defined as treatment intensity unchanged or decreased. A logistic regression analysis was conducted with active disease as the dependent variable and the predictor variables were PAS-II, diagnostic category, and the interaction between diagnostic category and PAS-II.

Results.

PAS-II had a weak but statistically significant association with active disease that was independent of diagnosis. An increase of 1 point in PAS-II increased the odds of being in the active disease state by 1.19 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.37). The relationship between active disease state and PAS was not affected by diagnostic category.

Conclusion.

PAS-II can be used as a generic self-report indicator of active disease across different rheumatic disorders, and not just in rheumatoid arthritis. The strength of the relationship with disease activity is weak and physician-derived indicators remain very important.
Responses to Adalimumab in Patients with Active Psoriatic Arthritis Who Have Not Adequately Responded to Prior Therapy: Effectiveness and Safety Results From an Open-label Study
Authors: GLADMAN DAFNA D. , SAMPALIS JOHN S. , ILLOUZ OLIVIER , GUÉRETTE BENOÎT
Published: July 2010

Objective.

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of adalimumab in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and an inadequate response to prior therapy.

Methods.

Patients were treated with subcutaneous injections of adalimumab 40 mg every other week in addition to their standard antirheumatic therapies in a 12-week, open-label study. Effectiveness evaluations at Week 12 included American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) response rates, Psoriatic Arthritis Response Criteria (PsARC), active dactylitis, enthesitis, and target lesion assessment. Physical function was evaluated using the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI).

Results.

A total of 127 patients were enrolled. At Week 12, patients achieved ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 response rates of 78.0%, 55.9%, and 21.3%, respectively. PASI50 and PASI75 response rates were 64.7% and 47.1%. A PsARC response was experienced by 70.1% of patients. Between baseline and Week 12, clinically and statistically significant reductions occurred in the mean total plaque score of the target lesion as well as in the percentages of patients with active dactylitis and enthesitis. A mean improvement in HAQ-DI was also observed (−0.44; p < 0.001). Three serious adverse events were reported, but none was considered related to adalimumab therapy.

Conclusion.

Adalimumab-treated patients achieved significant improvements in both skin and joint manifestations of PsA, as well as in physical function. Adalimumab was well tolerated and had a safety profile similar to that observed in other clinical trials of adalimumab for the treatment of PsA. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00427362.
Biodiversity of shallow-water brachiopods from New Caledonia, SW Pacific, with description of a new species
Authors: Bitner Maria Aleksandra
Published: July 2010

Twelve species of recent brachiopods belonging to the genera Lingula, Discradisca, Novocrania, Xenobrochus, Eucalathis, Frenulina, Argyrotheca, Campages, Thecidellina and Lacazella were identified in samples collected during shallow-water cruises around New Caledonia, southwest Pacific. Six genera, Lingula, Xenobrochus, Eucalathis, Frenulina, Campages and Thecidellina, have been already reported from the New Caledonian region, while four genera, Discradisca, Novocrania, Argyrotheca and Lacazella are the first records from this region. Additionally, Discradisca stella is the first discinid brachiopod recognized in the New Caledonia area. One new species is described, the megathyridid Argyrotheca neocaledonensis n. sp. The biogeographical affinities of the New Caledonia brachiopod faunas are briefly discussed.
Forecasting the poleward range expansion of an intertidal species driven by climate alterations
Authors: Xavier Raquel , Lima Fernando P. , Santos Antonio M.
Published: July 2010

Accurate distributional models can be used to reliably predict the response of organisms to climatic changes. Though such models have been extensively applied to terrestrial organisms, they have hardly ever been applied to the marine environment. Recent changes in the distribution of the marine gastropod Patella rustica (L.) were previously modelled with Classification and Regression Tree (CART) and the results revealed that increases in temperature were the major driver of those changes. However, the accuracy scores during the validation of the model were unsatisfactory, preventing its use for forecasting purposes. To fulfil this objective, in the present study a more robust method, Artificial Neural Network (ANN), was employed to produce a model suited to forecasting changes in the distribution of P. rustica. Results confirmed that the ANN model behaved better than the CART, and that it could be used for forecasting future distributional scenarios. The model forecasts that by the 2020s P. rustica is likely to expand its range at least 1000 km northwards. These results should be interpreted with caution considering the dispersal limitations of this species, but if such an expansion took place, major changes in the colonized ecosystems are expected due to the key role of limpets in intertidal communities.
How to Transform the Information Infrastructure of Enterprise into Sustainable, Global-Oriented and to Monitor and Predict the Sustainability of Civilization
Authors: Targowski Andrew
Published: July 2010

In this paper, the author defines the evolution of the Classic Enterprise Information Infrastructure into Sustainability and Global Enterprise Information Infrastructure. However, this is not the end of evolution. Since Enterprise Systems operate within larger entities, such as Local, National, Global Information Infrastructures and these create the Civilization Information Infrastructure. The latter is the foundation for modern civilizations and the emerging Global Civilization, with repercussions for lower level infrastructures as well as World Civilization. If such civilizations want to survive, they must be able to monitor and predict sustainability in relationship with enterprises. In this paper, the author then gives recommendations for pathways to a sustainable future.
Virtual Product Development in University-Enterprise Partnership
Authors: Dragoi George , Draghici Anca , Rosu Sebastian Marius , Cotet Costel Emil
Published: July 2010

Development teams involved in product development are often geographically and temporally distributed, and there is a high level of outsourcing in product development efforts. Enterprises give rise to a special type of virtual enterprise, in which each company maintains the greatest flexibility and business independence. This paper presents a vision of next generation engineering working environments and describes a core information technology on which future systems can be built. Cooperative processes are not the automatic results of implementing collaborative, real-time communication technologies, but the result of a carefully designed and systematically maintained virtual team development plan. This paper discusses the critical issues of the virtual product development and builds a general architecture of an experimental platform for training, research and consulting in the new digital economy, located in the PREMINV center from University “POLITEHNICA” of Bucharest.
Practical Approaches to Spatial Estimation of Disaster-Affected Populations
Authors: Jordan Lisa , Watkins Benjamin , Biegon Patrick , Mwangi Margaret , Rose Rob
Published: July 2010

When a disaster occurs, the response depends critically on an estimate of the affected population. However, retrieval of crucial statistics can be time consuming, often at the expense of the neediest populations. This article reviews spatial population estimation techniques and datasets that facilitate disaster response and management. The authors conclude that the LandScan population distribution estimates best suit the needs of Population Explorer, an Internet GIS that presents a way to quickly deliver answers to queries about local population and demographic composition to users who may not be formally trained in GIS or demography. By referencing LandScan population distributions, Population Explorer retrieves adjusted, official census population counts, for user-defined point buffers, line buffers, or polygons on a global map. Participants from a variety of agencies, i.e., government and non-government, local and international, can collaborate in updating baseline population estimates with local information that can then be queried with the baseline counts.
Critical Incident Management and Geographically–Based Systems
Authors: Webb David W. , Hoffpauir David R.
Published: July 2010

In the United States there is a strong dependence on decentralized policing services, distributed by thousands of police departments. As a primary police professional development management institute in the United States, the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) identified that there existed a paucity of management development opportunities for police command staff engaged in critical incident management. This paper describes how LEMIT met this challenge and became a leading U.S. institute in this exciting field of operation.
Metaheuristic Search with Inequalities and Target Objectives for Mixed Binary Optimization – Part II
Authors: Glover Fred , Hanafi Saïd
Published: July 2010

Recent metaheuristics for mixed integer programming have included proposals for introducing inequalities and target objectives to guide this search. These guidance approaches are useful in intensification and diversification strategies related to fixing subsets of variables at particular values. The authors’ preceding Part I study demonstrated how to improve such approaches by new inequalities that dominate those previously proposed. In Part II, the authors review the fundamental concepts underlying weighted pseudo cuts for generating guiding inequalities, including the use of target objective strategies. Building on these foundations, this paper develops a more advanced approach for generating the target objective based on exploiting the mutually reinforcing notions of reaction and resistance. The authors demonstrate how to produce new inequalities by “mining” reference sets of elite solutions to extract characteristics these solutions exhibit in common. Additionally, a model embedded memory is integrated to provide a range of recency and frequency memory structures for achieving goals associated with short term and long term solution strategies. Finally, supplementary linear programming models that exploit the new inequalities for intensification and diversification are proposed.
A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Optimization of Two-dimensional Cutting-Stock Problem
Authors: Mellouli Ahmed , Masmoudi Faouzi , Kacem Imed , Haddar Mohamed
Published: July 2010

In this paper, the authors present a hybrid genetic approach for the two-dimensional rectangular guillotine oriented cutting-stock problem. In this method, the genetic algorithm is used to select a set of cutting patterns while the linear programming model permits one to create the lengths to produce with each cutting pattern to fulfil the customer orders with minimal production cost. The effectiveness of the hybrid genetic approach has been evaluated through a set of instances which are both randomly generated and collected from the literature.
Valuation of Alternative Business Models in Information, Communication and Media Markets
Authors: Nascimento Álvaro , Santos Fernando
Published: July 2010

Information, Communication and Media Markets (ICMM) are in a process of tremendous change. IP-based technologies and services such as broadband and triple/quadruple-play are realities that have the ability to enforce the convergence of so far parallel industries, that is, Telephony, Internet, and Broadcast. In this paper, the authors derive a scenario where a telecom operator aims to design, develop, and validate a global B3G (Beyond 3rd Generation) framework to support secure, personalized, and pervasive telecommunications services built on heterogeneous network and service infrastructures. The authors rethink the telecommunications architecture and business models to enable easy, seamless, and pervasive access to content and services, while supporting user preferences and context. This proposal involves significant changes in current industry business models. A value chain approach allows the identification of different scenarios, where the firm faces several options from which to choose. The authors investigate operators’ decision process and evaluates the project based on its flexibility, using a real option approach.
Modeling Social Influences in a Knowledge Management Network
Authors: Franco Giacomo , Maresca Paolo , Nota Giancarlo
Published: July 2010

The issue of knowledge management in a distributed network is receiving increasing attention from both scientific and industrial organizations. Research efforts in this field are motivated by the awareness that knowledge is more and more perceived as a primary economic resource and that, in the context of organization of organizations, the augmented management complexity of its whole life cycle requires new reference models. In this paper, we build on recent research work to propose a distributed knowledge management framework that can be used in several application domains. We characterize the dimension of social influences in terms of identity, negotiation and trust modeling them within a framework that can augment learning and cooperation capabilities through knowledge sharing and effective communication. A particular instance of the presented framework, to handle the problem of risk management in enterprise alliance partnership, is discussed as a case study that shows the practical applicability of our approach.
Adapting SCORM Compliant LOs in a Knowledge Engineering Scenario
Authors: Di Bitonto Pierpaolo
Published: July 2010

The success of communities generally implies both growth of the participants (and thus of their contributions), and an increasing array of services offered. For this reason, it is often difficult for new users to fully understand the potential of the community, while for expert users it becomes difficult both to manage the resources available in an effective and efficacious way, and to keep track of the expansion of the community. In order to overcome this problem it is necessary to provide the user with some teaching about the changes occurring in the community. The present paper focuses on the problem of personalising such teaching, tailoring it to the user’s cognitive and learning styles in order to supply the didactic material in the form best suited to the user, and thus facilitate learning of the knowledge sharing environment. Tailoring the teaching strategy is an innovative issue in the context of knowledge sharing communities.
Web-Based Two-Tier Diagnostic Test and Remedial Learning Experiment
Authors: Lai Ah-Fur , Chen Deng-Jyi
Published: July 2010

Offering a series of diagnosis and individual remedial learning activities for a general class by means of web and multimedia technology can overcome the dilemma of conventional diagnosis and remedial instruction. The study proposes a three-layer conceptual framework and adopts a two-tier diagnostic test theory to develop a web-based two-tier diagnostic test and remedial learning management system called “the Dr. System.” The study also designs the two-tier diagnostic test items of electro-magnetic concepts and the related multimedia remedial learning materials based on the theory of modular course for the purpose of investigating the remedial learning effects. In addition, the study helps the participants eliminate their misconception through a quasi-experiment at an elementary school in a metropolitan area of northern Taiwan. The results show that the learners of the experimental group who received the treatment under the Dr. System performed significantly better than those who took the traditional remedial class. The study also indicates that the web-based two-tier diagnostic test helps us understand learners’ misconceptions. As a result, it also provides learners useful remedial multimedia materials, which are necessary for them to eliminate their individual misconceptions in the remedial learning process.
Revealing Student Blogging Activities Using RSS Feeds and LMS Logs
Authors: Derntl Michael
Published: July 2010

Blogs are an easy-to-use, free alternative to classic means of computer-mediated communication. Moreover, they are authentically aligned with web activity patterns of today’s students. The body of studies on integrating and implementing blogs in various educational settings has grown rapidly recently; however, it is often difficult to distill practical advice from these studies since the application contexts, pedagogical objectives, and research methodology differ greatly. This paper takes a step toward an improved understanding of employing blogs in education by presenting a follow-up case study on using blogs as reflective journals in an undergraduate computer-science lab course. This study includes lessons learned and adaptations following from the first-time application, the underlying pedagogical strategy, and a detailed analysis and discussion of blogging activity data obtained from RSS feeds and LMS logs.
An Adaptive Course Generation Framework
Authors: Li Frederick W. B. , Lau Rynson W. H. , Dharmendran Parthiban
Published: July 2010

Existing adaptive e-learning methods are supported by student (user) profiling for capturing student characteristics, and course structuring for organizing learning materials according to topics and levels of difficulties. Adaptive courses are then generated by extracting materials from the course structure to match the criteria specified in the student profiles. In addition, to handle advanced student characteristics, such as learning styles, course material annotation and programming-based decision rules are typically used. However, these additives demand certain programming skills from an instructor to proceed with course construction; they may also require building multiple course structures to handle practical pedagogical needs. In this paper, the authors propose a framework based on the concept space and the concept filters to support adaptive course generation where comprehensive student characteristics are considered. The concept space is a data structure for modeling student and course characteristics, while the concept filters are modifiers to determine how the course should be delivered. Because of the “building block” nature of the concept nodes and the concept filters, the proposed framework is extensible. More importantly, the authors’ framework does not require instructors to equip with any programming skills when they construct adaptive e-learning courses.
Assigning Ontological Meaning to Workflow Nets
Authors: Soffer Pnina , Kaner Maya , Wand Yair
Published: July 2010

A common way to represent organizational domains is the use of business process models. A Workflow-net (WF-net) is an application of Petri Nets (with additional rules) that model business process behavior. However, the use of WF-nets to model business processes has some shortcomings. In particular, no rules exist beyond the general constraints of WF-nets to guide the mapping of an actual process into a net. Syntactically correct WF-nets may provide meaningful models of how organizations conduct their business processes. Moreover, the processes represented by these nets may not be feasible to execute or reach their business goals when executed. In this paper, the authors propose a set of rules for mapping the domain in which a process operates into a WF-net, which they derived by attaching ontological semantics to WF-nets. The rules guide the construction of WF-nets, which are meaningful in that their nodes and transitions are directly related to the modeled (business) domains. Furthermore, the proposed semantics imposes on the process models constraints that guide the development of valid process models, namely, models that assure that the process can accomplish its goal when executed.
Maintaining Mappings between Conceptual Models and Relational Schemas
Authors: An Yuan , Hu Xiaohua , Song Il-Yeol
Published: July 2010

This paper describes a round-trip engineering approach for incrementally maintaining mappings between conceptual models and relational schemas. When either schema or conceptual model evolves to accommodate new information needs, the existing mapping must be maintained accordingly to continuously provide valid services. In this paper, the authors examine the mappings specifying “consistent” relationships between models. First, they define the consistency of a conceptual-relational mapping through “semantically compatible” instances. Next, the authors analyze the knowledge encoded in the standard database design process and develop round-trip algorithms for incrementally maintaining the consistency of conceptual-relational mappings under evolution. Finally, they conduct a set of comprehensive experiments. The results show that the proposed solution is efficient and provides significant benefits in comparison to the mapping reconstructing approach.
Impact of Flow and Brand Equity in 3D Virtual Worlds
Authors: Nah Fiona Fui-Hoon , Eschenbrenner Brenda , DeWester David , Park So Ra
Published: July 2010

This research is a partial test of Park et al.’s (2008) model to assess the impact of flow and brand equity in 3D virtual worlds. It draws on flow theory as its main theoretical foundation to understand and empirically assess the impact of flow on brand equity and behavioral intention in 3D virtual worlds. The findings suggest that the balance of skills and challenges in 3D virtual worlds influences users’ flow experience, which in turn influences brand equity. Brand equity then increases behavioral intention. The authors also found that the impact of flow on behavioral intention in 3D virtual worlds is indirect because the relationship between them is mediated by brand equity. This research highlights the importance of balancing the challenges posed by 3D virtual world branding sites with the users’ skills to maximize their flow experience and brand equity to increase the behavioral intention associated with the brand.
Service Convenience, Trust and Exchange Relationship in Electronic Mediated Environment (EME)
Authors: Dai Hua
Published: July 2010

The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically validate a research framework in relation to Chinese consumers’ service convenience perceptions, its determinants, and influences in EME. The analysis of data from 415 Chinese consumers reveals that service convenience serves a very significant meditating role in terms of services in EME and consumer relational exchange in the Chinese context. This study provides companies and service providers in EME, who are seeking to acquire and retain customers in Chinese marketplace, specific information about the Chinese consumer’s perceptions in EME in relation to service consumption decisions.
Classification of Peer-to-Peer Traffic Using A Two-Stage Window-Based Classifier With Fast Decision Tree and IP Layer Attributes
Authors: Raahemi Bijan , Mumtaz Ali
Published: July 2010

This paper presents a new approach using data mining techniques, and in particular a two-stage architecture, for classification of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) traffic in IP networks where in the first stage the traffic is filtered using standard port numbers and layer 4 port matching to label well-known P2P and NonP2P traffic. The labeled traffic produced in the first stage is used to train a Fast Decision Tree (FDT) classifier with high accuracy. The Unknown traffic is then applied to the FDT model which classifies the traffic into P2P and NonP2P with high accuracy. The two-stage architecture not only classifies well-known P2P applications, but also classifies applications that use random or non-standard port numbers and cannot be classified otherwise. The authors captured the internet traffic at a gateway router, performed pre-processing on the data, selected the most significant attributes, and prepared a training data set to which the new algorithm was applied. Finally, the authors built several models using a combination of various attribute sets for different ratios of P2P to NonP2P traffic in the training data.
Driving IT Architecture Innovation
Authors: Mabry Sibylle
Published: July 2010

The spotlight on business innovation in growth-oriented organizations has never been hotter. Information systems (IS) innovation, in particular, has become the main focus for many businesses and their CIOs because of its potential for business agility and competitiveness. However, creating a culture that can effectively exploit the innovative forces of an organization is challenging, and no shared guidelines exist. The purpose here is to examine empirically how the competing forces of organizational cultures in tandem with senior executives constructively influence the innovative efforts of organizations. Central to this investigation is the adoption of an IS architecture (SOA) whose implementation may entail radical transformation of traditional business patterns. Data were collected from U.S. top IS executives, and the results suggest that the adopters of SOA (45%) are organizations whose executives embrace certain collaborative behavior, which, in people and progress-oriented cultures, seems to be a catalyst for change and adoption of transformational IS architecture.
An Evaluation of WebCT Course Content Management System at the University of Botswana
Authors: Tella Adeyinka , Mutula S. M. , Mutshewa Athulang , Totolo Angelina
Published: July 2010

This study evaluated a WebCT course content management (CCMS) system at the University of Botswana. Survey methodology was used and questionnaires were distributed to 503 students selected from six faculties, and an in-depth interview were conducted involving (20) twenty lecturers who teach via the WebCT platform. Findings reveal that, generally, WebCT CCMS is doing well at the University of Botswana and that the system has been a success. The results also confirm the quality of course materials uploaded on the system, that is, service quality and the quality of the teaching and learning via the system. Furthermore, by learning through WebCT, students are able to self regulate their learning and, given the opportunity, they are ready to use and continue learning using the WebCT platform. Results also indicate that generally students are satisfied with the performance of WebCT and that there are many benefits associated with the system in context to teaching and learning at the university. Problems associated with WebCT CCMS that are experienced by staff and students of the University include access, network /server failure, lack of link between ITS and WebCT, lack of teaching expertise using WebCT, and failure to remove completed courses from the system.