bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Computer-Mediated Discussions within a Virtual Learning Community of High School and University Students
Authors: Jetton Tamara L.
Published: May 2011

A university education professor and a high school English teacher redesigned the curricula of their classrooms, so their students could participate in a literacy project that focused on computer-mediated discussions of literature. The goal of the project was to develop both the technological literacies of these students and the more traditional literacies in the form of reading and writing skills. The Book Buddy Project afforded the author the opportunity to create a virtual learning community in which high school and university students incorporated the traditional literacies of reading and writing within a virtual environment that facilitated communication, collaboration, and learning with text.
Metacognitive Feedback in Online Mathematical Discussion
Authors: Kramarski Bracha
Published: May 2011

Effects of two online inquiry discussions in mathematics are compared: one inquiry was based on metacognitive feedback guidance (MFG) and the other with no such guidance (NG). The MFG students were exposed to the IMPROVE metacognitive questioning method that serves as cues for solving the problem and features of providing feedback (Kramarski & Mevarech, 2003). A total of80 eighth-grade students participated in the study. Students were asked to solve online a real-life task and provide feedback to their peers about the solution process. Results indicated that the MFG students significantly outperformed the NG students in online problem-solving task. The MFG students were engaged more in online discussion with respect to mathematical and metacognitive aspects. They also succeeded more on a delayed written mathematical transfer test. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.
Organizational Motivation and Interorganizational Systems Adoption Process
Authors: Rahim Md. Mahbubur , Shanks Graeme , Johnston Robert , Sarker Pradip
Published: May 2011

Interorganizational systems (IOS) play a critical role in today’s e-commerce environment. These systems are introduced by different organizations following different adoption processes. Existing literature on IOS adoption, however, does not explain the variations in the IOS adoption processes initiated by different organizations. A theory of IOS adoption known as IOS Motivation Model (IMM) has recently been developed by the authors that explains the differences in IOS adoption processes in terms of differences in organizations’ adoption motivations for any given IOS project. This chapter reports an application of the model in the Australian automotive industry. The findings provide support for the model and are useful for IT managers.
The Complex New World of Information Security
Authors: Porter David
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the latest developments in the shifting threat landscape and their impact on the world of information security. It describes how we are now moving into a “third wave” of cybercrime, where sophisticated criminals are applying relatively “soft” techniques that are more pervasive in their execution. It argues that, as a consequence, information security countermeasures based on the latest information intelligence technologies will need to be complemented by softer, more pervasive techniques drawn from disciplines such as process engineering, policy development, behavioral science, psychology and benefit management. The chapter also considers how these countermeasures can be fully realized in today’s business environment and concludes by discussing future directions such as the growth in complexity and the rise of the surveillance society. The author hopes that by understanding these new imperatives, information security practitioners will be in a stronger position to protect their organizations from today’s threats — and those of tomorrow.
Social Engineering and its Countermeasures
Authors: Twitchell Douglas P.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces and defines social engineering, a recognized threat to the security of information systems. It also introduces a taxonomy for classifying social engineering attacks along four dimensions: who or what the targets are, what media are used, how the attacks fit in an attack cycle, and the techniques used to execute the attacks. Additionally, the chapter discusses current social engineering countermeasures and how to map attack types to these countermeasures. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of future trends and technologies for defending against social engineering attacks. Use of the taxonomy should help security professionals and researchers understand social engineering attacks, and implementation of the discussed current and future countermeasures should help professionals reduce the risks associated with social engineering attacks.
Information Security Awareness
Authors: Hinson Gary
Published: May 2011

This chapter highlights the broad range of factors that are relevant to the design of information security awareness programs, primarily by reference to the literature. It emphasizes the need to supplement technical information security controls with security awareness, training and educational activities to address human vulnerabilities. It outlines requirements noted in standards, laws and regulations, and explains the value of motivational employee communications techniques in creating a security culture.
Information Security at Large Public Displays
Authors: Röcker Carsten , Magerkurth Carsten , Hinske Steve
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present a novel concept for personalized privacy support on large public displays. In the first step, two formative evaluations are conducted in order to analyze the requirements of potential users regarding the protection of private information on large public displays. The insights gained in these evaluations are used to design a system that automatically adapts the information visible on public displays according to the current social situation and the individual privacy preferences of the user working on the display. In a third evaluation, the developed system is evaluated regarding its appropriateness for daily usage and its usefulness to protect privacy. The results of the evaluation show that users are in general willing to trust system-based protection mechanisms, provided that they are well implemented. In this context, the proposed combination of pre-defined privacy profiles and context-adapted information visualization proved to be a good trade-off between usability and adequate privacy protection.
Information Systems Success and Failure—Two Sides of One Coin, or Different in Nature? An Exploratory Study
Authors: Fowler Jeremy
Published: May 2011

Although the discipline of information systems (IS) development is well established, IS failure and abandonment remains widespread. As a result, a considerable amount of IS research literature has investigated, among other things, the factors associated with IS success and failure. However, little attention has been given to any possible relationships that exist among the uncovered factors. In an attempt to address this, we examine the development of a successful IS, and compare the factors associated with its success against the factors most reported in our review of the literature as being associated with IS failure. This may be an important area of study given, for example, project management practices may be affected by knowing whether success and failure are two sides of one coin, or different in nature. The results of our exploratory study showed that four of the six factors associated with the success of the investigated IS were related to the factors identified from our review of the literature as being associated with IS failure.
Users as Developers
Authors: Burns Beryl
Published: May 2011

We report the findings of a field study of the enactment of ICT supported knowledge work in a Human Resources contact centre, illustrating the negotiable boundary between what constitutes the developer and user. Drawing upon ideas from the social shaping of technology, we examine how discussions regarding producer-user relations require a degree of greater sophistication as we show how users develop technologies and work practices in-situ. In this case different forms of knowledge are practised to create and maintain a knowledge sharing system. We show how as staff simultaneously distance themselves from, and ally with, ICT supported encoded knowledge scripts, the system becomes materially important to the project of constructing the knowledge characteristic of professional identity. Our work implies that although much has been made of contextualising the user, as a user, further work is required to contextualise users as developers and moreover, developers as users.
mCity
Authors: Hallin Annette , Lundevall Kristina
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the mCity Project, a project owned by the City of Stockholm, aiming at creating user-friendly mobile services in collaboration with businesses. Starting from the end-users’ perspective, mCity focuses on how to satisfy existing needs in the community, initiating test pilots within a wide range of areas, from health care and education, to tourism and business. The lesson learned is that user focus creates involvement among end users and leads to the development of sustainable systems that are actually used after they have been implemented. This is naturally vital input not only to municipalities and governments but also for the IT/telecom industry at large. Using the knowledge from mCity, the authors suggest a new, broader definition of “m-government” which focuses on mobile people rather than mobile technology.
High-Tech Meets End-User
Authors: Steen Marc
Published: May 2011

One challenge within the high-tech sector is to develop products that end users will actually need and will be able to use. One way of trying to match the design of high-tech products to the needs of end users, is to let researchers and designers interact with them via a human-centred design (HCD) approach. One HCD project, in which the author works, is studied. It is shown that the relation between interacting with end users and making design decision is not straightforward or “logical.” Gathering knowledge about end users is like making a grasping gesture and reduces their otherness. Making design decisions is not based on rationally applying rules. It is argued that doing HCD is a social process with ethical qualities. A role for management is suggested to organize HCD alternatively to stimulate researchers and designers to explicitly discuss such ethical qualities and to work more reflectively.
Accountability and Ethics in Knowledge Management
Authors: Land Frank , Amjad Urooj , Nolas Sevasti-Melissa
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to argue the case that the study of Knowledge Management should embrace considerations of ethics and accountability. Knowledge Management—a relatively new discipline—is often seen as a necessary but benign component of any modern business organization. This chapter suggests that underlying modern notions of knowledge management are the far older practices comprising the management of knowledge prevalent in most spheres of human activity. Many of these are political in nature, and distort and manipulate knowledge to achieve ends which may include criminal activity and fraud, but often merely serve to further the aims of organizational actors. The discipline called Knowledge Management has much to learn from the ancient art of the management of knowledge.
The Effect of Knowledge Process Capabilities and Knowledge Infrastructure Capabilities on Strategy Implementation Effectiveness
Authors: Paisittanand Sineed , Digman L. A. , Lee Sang M.
Published: May 2011

The creation and the use of knowledge have increasingly been regarded as important issues for management. A wide range of studies have investigated this topic during the past decade. Notwithstanding these contributions, very little systematic attention has been paid to the linkages between knowledge capabilities and strategy implementation. Drawing from knowledge capabilities theory and strategy implementation literature, two aspects of knowledge capabilities in an organization and their effect on strategy implementation effectiveness are investigated; knowledge process capabilities (KPC) and knowledge infrastructure capabilities (KIC). This study hypothesized that KPC affects strategy implementation effectiveness (SIE) and that KPC affects KIC. The third hypothesis proposed the effect of KIC on SIE by examining the mediating role played by KIC in linking KPC and SIE. 1,321 middle-managers were sent questionnaires via electronic mail and 162 were returned. The findings indicated the presence of a mediation effect of KIC on the relationship between KPC and SIE. This study provides guidelines for middle-managers to better understand how to develop activities of KPC and KIC for SIE. It is hoped that the results of this study will enhance our understanding of the strategic importance of knowledge in an organization, especially in the area of strategy implementation.
Discourses on User Participation
Authors: Iivari Netta
Published: May 2011

Users should participate in information technology (IT) artifact development, but it has proven to be challenging. This applies also in the open source software (OSS) development. This chapter critically examines discursive construction of user participation in academic literatures and in practice, in IT artifact development. First three academic discourses constructing user participation are discussed. Then the discursive construction of user participation is explored in OSS development literature. Afterwards, results from several empirical, interpretive case studies are outlined. Some of them have been carried out in the IT artifact product development organizations, others in the OSS development context. Clear similarities can be identified in the discourses constructing user participation in these divergent IT artifact development contexts. The academic discourses on user participation clearly also legitimate certain ways of constructing user participation in practice. The OSS development literature bears resemblance mainly with the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) discourse on user participation. Therefore, it is argued that especially the HCI community should carefully reflect on what kinds of discourses on user participation it advocates and deems as legitimate.
Successes and Failures of SAP Implementation
Authors: Bondarouk Tanya , van Riemsdijk Maarten
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we conceptualize the implementation process associated with SAP_HR as an experiential learning one (Kolb, 1984), and analyze qualitative data collected using discourse analysis during a sixmonth case study. We saw that a lack of communication plus misunderstandings between the different parties involved in the project led to mistakes in working with the system. However, with encouragement from the “top” to improve learning, working with the system became easier for the whole group involved and for the individual users. Although Kolb’s theory is widely acknowledged by academics as a fundamental concept that contributes towards our understanding of human behavior, we propose another use: to consider this theory in association with an IT implementation strategy to identify the mechanism of IT adoption in an organization.
Performance and Cost Analysis of Service-Oriented Enterprise Architectures
Authors: Jonkers Henk , Iacob Maria-Eugenia
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the authors address the integration of functional models with non-functional models in the context of service-oriented architectures. Starting from the observation that current approaches to model-driven development have a strong focus on functionality, we argue the necessity of including nonfunctional aspects as early as possible in the service design process. We distinguish two modelling spaces, the design space and the analysis space, which can be integrated by means of model transformations. Quantitative results obtained in the analysis space, using special-purpose analysis techniques, can be related back to the design models by means of a reverse transformation. This provides a framework for incorporating non-functional analysis into methodological support for e-service development. While, for detailed design models, quantitative analysis is more or less covered by existing techniques, there is still a gap at the architectural overview level. Therefore, we propose an approach for performance and cost analysis of layered, service-oriented architecture models, which consists of two phases: a “top-down” propagation of workload parameters, and a “bottom-up” propagation of performance or cost measures. By means of an example, the authors demonstrate the application of the approach, and show that a seamless integration with detailed quantitative analysis methods (e.g., queueing analysis for performance predictions) can be achieved.
Significance of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Nominal Group Technique (NGT) in ERP Implementation
Authors: Parthasarathy S.
Published: May 2011

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an integrated software system reflecting the business processes of an enterprise. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a generic term for integrated systems for corporate computing that supersedes concepts such as Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) of the 1970s and, later, Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) of the 1980s. The objective of customization in ERP implementation is to achieve a fit between the ERP system and the business process that the system supports. Literature review reveals that the customization is the major annoyance in most of the ERP projects. A solution is proposed using a process framework that incorporates participatory learning and decision-making processes based on Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and the evaluation methodology adopting the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). A case study is presented to illustrate its applicability in practice. The upshot of the study is the identification of various customization possibilities for ERP implementation. This study is meant to help managers think about the various feasible customization options available to them. Future research work that can be done in ERP software customization is also indicated.
Planning Staff Training for Virtual High Schools
Authors: Thompson Chris , Berge Zane L.
Published: May 2011

This chapter briefly profiles three virtual schools, each at a different stage of development, yet each dependent upon a successful and sustained distance education program for its professional staff in order to remain viable long into the future. As virtual schools become more accepted by the public and the attention given to the online schools shifts from their sources of funding to their standardized test scores, a model for sustained distance training and education must be in place to deliver quality professional development that can positively impact students’ achievement scores on standardized tests for each school’s online student population.
Moments and Modes for Triggering Civic Participation at the Urban Level
Authors: De Cindio Fiorella , Di Loreto Ines , Peraboni Cristian
Published: May 2011

After more than a decade of e-participation initiatives at the urban level, what remains obscure is the alchemy—i.e., the “arcane” combination of elements—that triggers and keeps citizens’ involvement in major decisions that affect the local community alive. The Community Informatics Lab’s experience with the Milan Community Network since 1994 and its two more recent spin-off initiatives enable us to provide a tentative answer to this question. This chapter presents these experiments and looks at election campaigns and protests as triggers for (e-)participation. It also discusses these events as opportunities to engender more sustained participation aided by appropriate technology tools such as software that is deliberately conceived and designed to support participation and managed with the required expertise.
Supporting Community with Location-Sensitive Mobile Applications
Authors: Carroll John M. , Ganoe Craig
Published: May 2011

We discuss the vision, plan, and status of a research project investigating community-oriented services and applications, comprising a wireless community network, in State College, Pennsylvania, USA. Our project specifically investigates new possibilities afforded by mobile and location-sensitive wireless networking access with respect to community engagement and informal learning, as well as broader changes in community attitudes and behaviors associated with the deployment of this new infrastructure.
Citizen Science
Authors: Paulos Eric , Honicky RJ , Hooker Ben
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present an important new shift in mobile phone usage—from communication tool to “networked mobile personal measurement instrument.” We explore how these new “personal instruments” enable an entirely novel and empowering genre of mobile computing usage called citizen science. We investigate how such citizen science can be used collectively across neighborhoods and communities to enable individuals to become active participants and stakeholders as they publicly collect, share, and remix measurements of their city that matter most to them. We further demonstrate the impact of this new participatory urbanism by detailing its usage within the scope of environmental awareness. Inspired by a series of field studies, user driven environmental measurements, and interviews, we present the design of a working hardware system that integrates air quality sensing into an existing mobile phone and exposes the citizen authored measurements to the community—empowering people to become true change agents.
Managing the Customer Relationship
Authors: Ward Keith F. , Rolland Erik , Patterson Raymond A.
Published: May 2011

Proponents of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suggest that a firm can develop a value creation relationship, such that an increase in customer value, leads to an increase in firm value (Mithas et al., 2005). The value for the customers comes from the provision of goods and services that match their needs. However, the research to date on using e-CRM systems to both foster and monitor this value creation process is somewhat mixed. This chapter proposes to cross-functionally integrate organizational assets with customers’ interests via technology. The resulting framework can assist managers in improving services, through the use of e-CRM, to understand what is important to the customer.
Managerial Discretion and E-CRM Performance
Authors: Coltman Tim
Published: May 2011

Most sectors of industry, commerce, and government have reported variation in the performance payoff from electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM). In this paper we build on a surprisingly sparse literature regarding the importance of managerial discretion, to show that the heterogeneity of beliefs held by managers about e-CRM execution matter when explaining e-CRM success. Drawing on a data sample comprising 50 interviews and 293 survey responses we utilise segmentation techniques to identify significant differences in managerial beliefs and then associate these belief segments with e- CRM performance. Results indicate that three distinct types of managers can be identified based on the heterogeneity of their e-CRM beliefs: (1) mindfully optimistic, (2) mindfully realistic, and (3) mindfully pessimistic. Further, our results imply that there are far less homogeneity at the individual firm level than is normally assumed in the literature, and that heterogeneity in managerial beliefs is systematically associated with organisational performance. Finally, these results serve to remind practitioners that e-CRM performance is dependent upon the right balance between managerial optimism and realism.
Strategic Maneuvering in Healthcare Technology Markets
Authors: Yurov Kirill M.
Published: May 2011

Healthcare technology markets have been recently identified as potential investment targets. Having survived a major environmental shock, the dot.com bust, firms in the healthcare technology industry are presently experiencing an impressive revenue growth. In this study, we investigate the strategies of Emdeon Corporation, a healthcare technology firm whose e-business model provides clues for achieving a sustained revenue growth and profitability. We trace the current sustainability of Emdeon’s e-business model to a related diversification strategy that the firm’s upper management has pursued via mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We also address the motivation behind current restructuring of Emdeon’s ebusiness model. We argue that maturation of diversified e-business models leads to the transformation of individual segments into distinct entities focusing on specific technology markets.
Innovative Marketing Strategies for Wireless Broadband Services in the Sri Lankan Context
Authors: Ranatunga Dilupa , Withanage Rasika , Arunatileka Dinesh
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes marketing strategies in concept for wireless broadband services in the Sri Lankan market. It also emphasizes different technologies offering fixed and mobile broadband services. Wi-Fi services which are mentioned here has been on offer for few years but actual marketing of such services are not actively done in Sri Lanka. Various marketing strategies that could be used to market this technology are also analyzed to gain an insight to all readers. In addition, a grid is provided to help readers to choose between different available technologies.
ISI Cancellation in 4G Wireless Mobiles
Authors: Priyatam Kumar , Banakar R. M. , Shankaranand B.
Published: May 2011

Physical layer issues of broadband wireless communication systems form the bottleneck in providing fast and reliable communication over wireless channel. Critical performance limiting challenges are time selective fading channels, frequency selective fading channels, noise, inter symbol interference (ISI), inter carrier interference, power, and bandwidth. Addressing these challenges of wireless broadband communication systems, one can provide faster data processing with lower computational complexity, higher data throughput, and improved performance in terms of bit error rate (BER). In this chapter an effective technique (SISO estimation) to handle interference cancellation is developed. ISI is caused by multi-path propagation. It can be reduced by using a channel equalizer which provides the receiver with the prior knowledge of the channel. Channel estimation is a technique to acquire behavior of the channel. Accuracy of the channel estimation improves the system performance. At BER of 10-4 SISO estimator provide an improvement of 2dB as compared with MMSE DFE estimator.
Cell Broadcasting Opportunities of Modern Mobile Communications and Its Usage in Emergency Warning Facilities
Authors: Chochliouros Ioannis P. , Spiliopoulou Anastasia S. , Agapiou George , Lazaridis M.D. Ph.D Nikolaos
Published: May 2011

In the scope of the present chapter, the authors evaluate several potential opportunities from the suggested use of cell broadcasting systems in mobile communications and its specific usage mainly in emergency warning facilities, at the global level. Cell Broadcasting (CB) is a cellular-based public notification system, existing in the vast majority of all modern mobile infrastructures, worldwide. It can instantly (within a brief timeframe of some seconds) broadcast a cell phone text alert or message to a large number of people (independently of their network operators) specific to a geographical area, covered either by a single cell or by the entire (regional or national) network. Thus, CB technology enables governmental and other appropriate authorities/entities to securely transmit emergency alerts of natural or manmade disasters to the cellular phones of the subscribers in specific areas. Simultaneously, it can offer multiple extra advantages for further market offerings and development. This chapter discusses the challenge imposed by the fast development of the corresponding cellular facilities and, after providing some fundamental technical informative background, it focuses on the advantages offered due to CB with an overview of the current European and international market. The chapter then analyzes options for further evolution in several sectors (political issues, technical matters, and regulatory perspectives). CB is a strong, viable, and immediate communications solution, which can be put in place to better alert citizens.
Asynchronous Communication Protocol for Multiple Transactions in Mobile Architecture for a Mobile Agent System
Authors: Kuppuswami Anand
Published: May 2011

Mobile agents and framework built on mobile agents have been the key research area for the past few years. The major impedances like latency factor, abrupt disconnection in service, and minimal processing power, were solved in the mobile agent paradigm. Also, with the advent of intelligent framework of mobile agents, mobile agents were empowered with decision making powers and were able to roam the network in search of the best service provider. This further increased the efficiency of the system and reduced the system outage time. Although the system projected itself as the ideal solution to the real-world problems, it could not be implemented in commercial applications. This is attributed to the lack of sessions in the mobile agent’s environment. Predominantly in the mobile agents paradigm architecture was still the client-server architecture. In this chapter the framework has been extended to incorporate transaction capabilities to the mobile agents. This would enable them to perform a full transaction and complete a workflow. We present the scenario of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) where the framework could be put to use.
Multimedia Learning and Working Memory Capacity
Authors: Doolittle Peter E.
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the role that working memory capacity (WMC) plays in learning in multimedia environments. WMC represents the ability to control attention, that is, to be able to remain focused on the task at hand while simultaneously retrieving relevant information from long-term memory, all in the presence of distraction. The chapter focuses on how individual differences in attentional control affect cognitive performance, in general, and cognitive performance in multimedia environments, in particular. A review of the relevant literature demonstrates that, in general, students with high WMC outperform students with low WMC on measures of cognitive performance. However, there has been very little research addressing the role of WMC in learning in multimedia environments. To address this need, the authors conducted a study that examined the effects of WMC on learning in a multimedia environment. Results of this study indicated students with high WMC recalled and transferred significantly more information than students with low WMC. Ultimately, this chapter provides evidence that individual differences in working memory capacity should be taken into account when creating and implementing multimedia instructional environments.
Supporting Discovery-Based Learning within Simulations
Authors: Rieber Lloyd P.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a review of research on the use and role of interactive simulations for learning. Contemporary theories of learning, instruction, and media, suggest that learning involves a complex relationship and dependency between a learner’s prior knowledge, a learner’s motivation, the context, the task, and the resources (e.g., simulations) provided to, and used by the learner to support or enable the task. Given this perspective, and data from an evolving research program, simulations are best used to help learners construct knowledge and make meaning by giving them control over phenomena modeled by the simulation. Several theoretical frameworks have guided this research program: dual coding theory, mental models, and constructivist learning theory. An overall result of this research is that learning should be based on experience, such as that derived from interacting with a simulation, and supported with explanations. This is counter to traditional educational wisdom where explanations rule instructional strategies.
Achieving Cultural Acquiescence Through Foreign Language E-Learning
Authors: Williams Indi Marie , Warren Heather N. , Olaniran Bolanle A.
Published: May 2011

Within a globalized society, foreign language acquisition is essential to promote intercultural global communication. For many, the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) to teach a foreign language is the easiest way to accomplish this task. However, it is important to consider the cultural implications of foreign language e-learning, and to answer the question: Can culture effectively be transmitted through ICT? To investigate the transmission of culture through ICT, this chapter examines language codes, culture and cross-cultural challenges to communication. Afterward, two commonly used and easily accessible ICTs, the Rosetta Stone and MyLanguageExchange.com, are evaluated for their cognitive development and cultural sensitivity. The chapter will conclude with implications and recommendations to enhance cultural awareness for teachers and students utilizing ICT for foreign language learning.
The Cognitive Process of Decision Making
Authors: Wang Yingxu , Ruhe Guenther
Published: May 2011

Decision making is one of the basic cognitive processes of human behaviors by which a preferred option or a course of actions is chosen from among a set of alternatives based on certain criteria. Decision theories are widely applied in many disciplines encompassing cognitive informatics, computer science, management science, economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and statistics. A number of decision strategies have been proposed from different angles and application domains, such as the maximum expected utility and Bayesian method. However, there is still a lack of a fundamental and mathematical decision model and a rigorous cognitive process for decision making. This chapter presents a fundamental cognitive decision making process and its mathematical model, which is described as a sequence of Cartesian-product-based selections. A rigorous description of the decision process in Real-Time Process Algebra (RTPA) is provided. Real-world decisions are perceived as a repetitive application of the fundamental cognitive process. The result shows that all categories of decision strategies fit in the formally described decision process. The cognitive process of decision making may be applied in a wide range of decision-based systems, such as cognitive informatics, software agent systems, expert systems, and decision support systems.
A Commonsense Approach to Representing Spatial Knowledge Between Extended Objects
Authors: Dong Tiansi
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes a commonsense understanding of distance and orientation knowledge between extended objects, and presents a formal representation of spatial knowledge. The connection relation is taken as primitive. A new axiom is introduced to govern the connection relation. Notions of ‘near extension’ regions and the ‘nearer’ predicate are coined. Distance relations between extended objects are understood as degrees of the near extension from one object to the other. Orientation relations are understood as distance comparison from one object to the sides of the other object. Therefore, distance and orientation relations are internally related through the connection relation. The ‘fiat projection’ mechanism is proposed to model the mental formation of the deictic orientation reference framework. This chapter shows diagrammatically the integration of topological relations, distance relations, and orientation relations in the RCC frameworks.
Development of an Ontology for an Industrial Domain
Authors: Chan Christine W.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a method for ontology construction and its application in developing ontology in the domain of natural gas pipeline operations. Both the method as well as the application ontology developed, contribute to the infrastructure of Semantic Web that provides semantic foundation for supporting information processing by autonomous software agents. This chapter presents the processes of knowledge acquisition and ontology construction for developing a knowledge-based decision support system for monitoring and control of natural gas pipeline operations. Knowledge on the problem domain was acquired and analyzed using the Inferential Modeling Technique, then the analyzed knowledge was organized into an application ontology and represented in the Knowledge Modeling System. Since ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization that provides a comprehensive foundation specification of knowledge in a domain, it provides semantic clarifications for autonomous software agents that process information on the Internet.
Content-Based Image Retrieval
Authors: Zhang Ming , Alhajj Reda
Published: May 2011

Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) aims to search images that are perceptually similar to the querybased on visual content of the images without the help of annotations. The current CBIR systems use global features (e.g., color, texture, and shape) as image descriptors, or usefeatures extracted from segmented regions (called region-based descriptors). In the former case, descriptors are not discriminative enough at the object level and are sensitive to object occlusion or background clutter, thus fail to give satisfactory result. In the latter case, the features are sensitive to the image segmentation, which is a difficult task in its own right. In addition, the region-based descriptors are still not invariant to varying imaging conditions. In this chapter, we look at the CBIR from the object detection/recognition point of view and introduce the local feature-based image representation methods recently developed in object detection/recognition area. These local descriptors are highly distinctive and robust to imaging condition change. In addition to image representation, we also introduce the other two key issues of CBIR: similarity measurement for image descriptor comparison and the index structure for similarity search.
Construction of Knowledge-Intensive organizations in Higher Education
Authors: Kettunen Juha
Published: May 2011

The aims of knowledge management are to create knowledge and stimulate innovation. Knowledge management allows the knowledge of an organization to be located, shared, formalized, enhanced and developed. The challenges of knowledge management lie in creating environments that support knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and innovativeness. This chapter examines challenges faced by Higher education institutions (HEI) in producing innovations and increasing their external impact on their regions. The most valuable assets of HEIs are the knowledge and skills embodied in human capital. The challenges of innovative HEIs can be derived from their customers’ needs, which usually cannot be met within a single discipline. This chapter explores the multidisciplinary development projects at HEIs and presents implications for the organizational structure supporting innovation and engagement of the institution with its region.
Sorting the Relationship of Tacit Knowledge to Story and Narrative Knowing
Authors: Tyler Jo A. , Boje David M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter fits the theme, the interplay between creativity and control in organizations. Story is often claimed to be a way to elicit tacit knowledge from people and their organization. The authors would like to suggest that this is impossibility. To story something is to shape it intuitively and willfully. Story shapes events into experience and into memory. Without story experience is just reenactment. To reenact is to relive the events, to feel the pain, fear, and terror.
Knowledge Management
Authors: Tran Ben
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines knowledge and innovation as invaluable factors affecting the longevity of large organizations. It presents the history and evolution of the concepts of knowledge and learning within organizations to provide grounds for establishing crucial factors affecting the development and maintenance of competitive advantage for large contemporary organizations. Thus the purpose of this chapter is to address the evolution of knowledge management, the meaning and purpose of knowledge management, and the organizational structure that supports such knowledge.
Comb-Based Filters for Sampling Rate Conversion
Authors: Milic Ljiljana
Published: May 2011

Comb filters are developed from the structures based on the moving average (boxcar) filter. The combbased filter has unity-valued coefficients and, therefore, can be implemented without multipliers. This filter class can operate at high frequencies and is suitable for a single-chip VLSI implementation. The main applications are in communication systems such as software radio and satellite communications. In this chapter, we introduce first the concept of the basic comb filter and discuss its properties. Then, we present the structures of the comb-based decimators and interpolators, discuss the corresponding frequency responses, and demonstrate the overall two-stage decimator constructed as the cascade of a comb decimator and an FIR decimator. In the next section, we expose the application of the polyphase implementation structure, which is aimed to reduce the power dissipation. We consider techniques for sharpening the original comb filter magnitude response and emphasize an approach that modifies the filter transfer function in a manner to provide a sharpened filter operating at the lowest possible sampling rate. Finally, we give a brief presentation of the modified comb filter based on the zero-rotation approach. Chapter concludes with several MATLAB Exercises for the individual study. The reference list at the end of the chapter includes the topics of interest for further research.
Resource-Aware Load Balancing of Parallel Applications
Authors: Aubanel Eric
Published: May 2011

The problem of load balancing parallel applications is particularly challenging on computational grids, since the characteristics of both the application and the platform must be taken into account. This chapter reviews the wide range of solutions that have been proposed. It considers tightly coupled parallel applications that can be described by an undirected graph representing concurrent execution of tasks and communication of tasks, executing on computational grids with static and dynamic network and processor performance. While a rich set of solution techniques have been proposed, there has not been of yet any performance comparisons between them. Such comparisons will require parallel benchmarks and computational grid emulators and simulators.
A Distributed Storage System for Archiving Broadcast Media Content
Authors: Cherry Dominic , Li Maozhen , Qi Man
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents MediaGrid, a distributed storage system for archiving broadcast media contents. MediaGrid utilizes storage resources donated by computing nodes running in a distributed computing environment. A genetic algorithm for resource selection is built in MediaGrid with the aim to optimize the utilization of resources available for archiving media files with various sizes. Evaluation results show the effectiveness of MediaGrid in archiving broadcast media contents, and the performance of the genetic algorithm in resource utilization optimization.
Grid Enabled Surrogate Modeling
Authors: Gorissen Dirk , Dhaene Tom , Demeester Piet , Broeckhove Jan
Published: May 2011

The simulation and optimization of complex systems is a very time consuming and computationally intensive task. Therefore, global surrogate modeling methods are often used for the efficient exploration of the design space, as they reduce the number of simulations needed. However, constructing such surrogate models (or metamodels) is often done in a straightforward, sequential fashion. In contrast, this chapter presents a framework that can leverage the use of compute clusters and grids in order to decrease the model generation time by efficiently running simulations in parallel. The authors describe the integration between surrogate modeling and grid computing on three levels: resource level, scheduling level and service level. This approach is illustrated with a simple example from aerodynamics.
GIS Grids and the Business Use of GIS Data
Authors: Skogster Patrik
Published: May 2011

Grid computing is becoming as essential part of different business analysis. In traditional business computing infrastructures data transfer occurs to and from computing resources at the network edges. On the other hand, most business activities are bound to space and location. The aim of this chapter is to describe the business use of geographic data (business intelligence) and Geographic Information System (GIS) grids. As conclusion business intelligence helps to improve productivity by giving users information they need when they need it most at the point of decision. Organizations that effectively use geographic information elements analyzing their risk portfolio and compliance activities can reduce costs and increase the clarity of their operations. Grid computing is an answer to the needs of efficient GIS aided analysis. When geographic data, grid computing and business information are combined, they create new possibilities to enhance and broaden the standpoints of already existing data within organizations.
Lip Feature Extraction and Feature Evaluation in the Context of Speech and Speaker Recognition
Authors: Aleksic Petar S. , Katsaggelos Aggelos K.
Published: May 2011

There has been significant work on investigating the relationship between articulatory movements and vocal tract shape and speech acoustics (Fant, 1960; Flanagan, 1965; Narayanan & Alwan, 2000; Schroeter & Sondhi, 1994). It has been shown that there exists a strong correlation between face motion, and vocal tract shape and speech acoustics (Grant & Braida, 1991; Massaro & Stork, 1998; Summerfield, 1979, 1987, 1992; Williams & Katsaggelos, 2002; Yehia, Rubin, & Vatikiotis-Bateson, 1998). In particular, dynamic lip information conveys not only correlated but also complimentary information to the acoustic speech information. Its integration into an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system, resulting in an audio-visual (AV) system, can potentially increase the system’s performance. Although visual speech information is usually used together with acoustic information, there are applications where visual-only (V-only) ASR systems can be employed achieving high recognition rates. Such include small vocabulary ASR (digits, small number of commands, etc.) and ASR in the presence of adverse acoustic conditions. The choice and accurate extraction of visual features strongly affect the performance of AV and V-only ASR systems. The establishment of lip features for speech recognition is a relatively new research topic. Although a number of approaches can be used for extracting and representing visual lip information, unfortunately, limited work exists in the literature in comparing the relative performance of different features. In this chapter, the authors describe various approaches for extracting and representing important visual features, review existing systems, evaluate their relative performance in terms of speech and speaker recognition rates, and discuss future research and development directions in this area.