bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
National Environment and Internet Banking Adoption
Authors: Brown Irwin , Stander Adrie , Hoppe Rudi , Mugera Pauline , Newman Paul
Published: April 2011

The widespread diffusion of the Internet globally has prompted most retail banks to offer Internet banking services. A recent study in Singapore identified attitudinal and perceived behavioral control factors as having an influence on consumer adoption of Internet banking. It is expected that the national environment will also impact this process. The aim of this study, therefore, was to replicate the Singapore study in South Africa, compare the results between the two countries, and explain differences in adoption process in terms of the national environment. The results confirm that attitudinal and perceived behavioral control factors influence adoption in South Africa as in Singapore, but with differences in the number of determinants and the degree of influence of certain determinants. These differences were explained in terms of three environmental dimensions: socio-economic conditions, the state of Internet diffusion, and government information and communication technology (ICT) policies, respectively.
Relationship of Information and Infrastructures and Social Development Among the Visegrad-Four Countries of Central Europe at the Time of EU Accession
Authors: Pook László A. , Pence Norman E.
Published: April 2011

The following is an examination of the developmental status of four of the next candidate countries’ information infrastructures for accession into the European Union (EU). It develops significant relationships between nations’ levels of information infrastructure development and their economic and social developments and applies these relationships to evaluate investment needs for a select group of accession countries called the Visegrad Four. Using cross-country analysis, the candidate countries were compared to other countries and were classified into like groups using cluster analysis while their relative developments were evaluated using regression modeling. Developmental requirements and capital needs to promote growth in their information and communications industries were then identified. It is hoped that the chapter will offer a comparative glimpse of the information and communications infrastructures of some Central and East European countries as compared to other nations.
Dynamic Workflow Restructuring Framework for Long-Running Business Processes
Authors: Liu Ling , Pu Calton , Ruiz Duncan Dubugras
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents a framework for dynamic restructuring of long-running business processes. The framework is composed of the ActivityFlow specification language, a set of workflow restructuring operators, and a dynamic workflow management engine. The ActivityFlow specification language enables the flexible specification, composition, and coordination of workflow activities. There are three unique features of our framework design. First, it supports a collection of specification mechanisms, allowing workflow designers to use a uniform workflow specification interface to describe different types of workflows involved in their organizational processes. A main objective of this characteristic is to help increase the flexibility of workflow processes in accommodating changes. The ActivityFlow language also provides a set of activity modeling facilities, enabling workflow designers to describe the flow of work declaratively and incrementally, and allowing to reason about correctness and security of
Design and Representation of Multidimensional Models with UML and XML Technologies
Authors: Trujillo Juan , Lujan-Mora Sergio , Song Il-Yeol
Published: April 2011

Data warehouses (DW), multidimensional databases (MDB), and OnLine Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications are based on the Multidimensional (MD) modeling. Most of these applications provide their own MD models to represent main MD properties, thereby making the design totally dependent of the target commercial application. In this chapter, we present how the Unified Modeling Language (UML) can be successfully used to abstract the representation of MD properties at the conceptual level. Then, from this conceptual model, we generate its corresponding implementation into any market OLAP tool. In our approach, the structure of the system is specified by means of a UML class diagram that considers main properties of MD modeling. If the system to be modeled is too complex, we describe how to use the package grouping mechanism provided by the UML to simplify the final model. To facilitate the interchange of conceptual MD models, we provide an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Schema which allows us to represent the same MD modeling properties that can be considered by using our approach. From this XML Schema, we can directly generate valid XML documents that represent MD models at the conceptual level. Finally, we provide different presentations of the MD models by means of eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT).
Using a Model Quality Framework for Requirements Specification of an Enterprise Modeling Language
Authors: Krogstie John , Dalberg Vibeke , Jenson Siri Moe
Published: April 2011

As more and more modern modeling tools provide the possibility of developing specialized and new modeling languages (also called meta modeling or method engineering), the need for methodologies and guidelines to perform requirements specification in the development and evolution of these languages increases. Based on work on quality of models and modeling languages, we have defined a methodology to attack this problem, taking as an outset the goals of modeling, modeling tasks, and related roles involved in model development and model interpretation. This chapter presents the application of this methodology for selection and refinement of a modeling language for a process harmonization project in an international organization. The harmonization project uses process models as the basis for developing a support environment for the new harmonized process. The process models were used for many different tasks, and it proved to be very beneficial to structure the modeling language requirements specification process to be able to prioritize what was to be implemented in the specialized language.
Population of a Method for Developing the Semantic Web Using Ontologies
Authors: Lozano-Tello Adolfo , Gomez-Perez Asunción
Published: April 2011

At present, the Web offers available information to people in diverse ways. With the initiative of Semantic Web, the aim is to make the content of Web pages available in a way that allows people and computers to “understand” this information following frameworks commonly agreed upon by means of ontologies. However, users currently looking for ontologies in order to incorporate them into their systems, just use their experience and intuition. To improve the selection of ontologies, this chapter describes the ONTOMETRIC method which allows the users to measure the suitability of existing ontologies, regarding the requirements of their necessities.
Information Modeling Based on Semantic and Pragmatic Meaning
Authors: Ericksson Owen , Agerfalk Pär J.
Published: April 2011

In traditional modeling approaches, such as entity-relationship modeling, the predominant information modeling problem is how to represent external reality in the system in a true way. In these approaches, semantic aspects of language are in focus. In contrast to this, the main information modeling problem could be to understand how information systems may support a meaningful use of language and information in a social action context. This chapter presents an information modeling approach based on speech act theory that takes both semantic and pragmatic aspects into consideration. With such an approach, it is possible to reconcile traditional information modeling and the pragmatic aspects of language and information use. Such reconciliation is essential to arrive at information systems that support meaningful communication between different actors within a social action context.
Higher-Order Types and Information Modeling
Authors: Halpin Terry
Published: April 2011

While some information modeling approaches (e.g., the Relational Model and Object-Role Modeling) are typically formalized using first-order logic, other approaches to information modeling include support for higher-order types. There appear to be three main reasons for requiring higher-order types: (1) to permit instances of categorization types to be types themselves (e.g., the Unified Modeling Language introduced power types for this purpose); (2) to directly support quantification over sets and general concepts; (3) to specify business rules that cross levels/meta levels (or ignore level distinctions) in the same model. As the move to higher-order logic may add considerable complexity to the task of formalizing and implementing a modeling approach, it is worth investigating whether the same practical modeling objectives can be met while staying within a first-order framework. This chapter examines some key issues involved, suggests techniques for retaining a first-order formalization, and makes some suggestions for adopting a higher-order semantics.
Criteria for Comparing Information Modeling Methods
Authors: Siau Keng
Published: April 2011

Information modeling methods are key to the success of IS development projects. The problem in the software engineering field is not the lack of modeling methods but the proliferation of modeling methods with little theoretical foundation and empirical evidence to support their usefulness. Evaluation techniques are therefore necessary to compare and contrast these modeling methods. In this chapter, we suggest an evaluation approach based on the human information processing paradigm and the theory of equivalence of representations. This evaluation approach proposes that modeling methods can be evaluated and compared using two criteria: informational and computational equivalence.
Quality Analysis Specifications
Authors: Kabeli Judith , Shoval Peretz
Published: April 2011

Functional and Object Oriented Methodology (FOOM) combines two essential software-engineering paradigms: the functional (process-oriented) approach and the object-oriented (OO) approach. The two main products of FOOM’s analysis phase are two models: a data model in the form of an initial class diagram and a functional model in the form of OO-DFDs (a hierarchy of data flow diagrams including data classes). We evaluate the quality of these models by comparing them with the quality of equivalent analysis models products by Object-Process Methodology (OPM), which also combines the functional and object-oriented approaches, using a unified diagrammatic notation. The comparison is based on a controlled experiment which measured the correctness of the analysis models (specifications) produced by the two methodologies. The results reveal that the quality of models produced by FOOM is better than those produced by OPM.
Enabling Information Sharing Across Government Agencies
Authors: Bajaj Akhilesh , Ram Sudha
Published: April 2011

Recently, there has been increased interest in information sharing among government agencies with a view toward improving security, reducing costs, and offering better quality service to users of government services. Previous work has focused largely on the sharing of structured information among heterogeneous data sources, whereas government agencies need to share data with varying degrees of structure ranging from free text documents to relational data. In this work, we complement earlier work by proposing a comprehensive methodology called IAIS (Inter Agency Information Sharing). It uses XML to facilitate the definition of information that needs to be shared, the storage of such information, the access to this information, and finally, the maintenance of shared information. We describe potential conflicts that can occur at the information definition stage across agencies. We also compare IAIS with two alternate methodologies to share information among agencies and analyze the pros and cons of each.
The Effect of End User Development on End User Success
Authors: McGill Tanya
Published: April 2011

End user development of applications forms a significant part of organizational systems development. This study investigates the role that developing an application plays in the eventual success of the application for the user developer. The results of this study suggest that the process of developing an application not only predisposes an end user developer to be more satisfied with the application than they would be if it were developed by another end user, but also leads them to perform better with it. Thus, the results of the study highlight the contribution of the process of application development to user developed application success.
Testing the Technology-to-Performance Chain Model
Authors: Staples D. Sandy , Seddon Peter B.
Published: April 2011

Goodhue and Thompson (1995) proposed the Technology-to-Performance Chain (TPC) model in 1995 to help end-users and organizations understand and make more effective use of information technology. The TPC model combines insights from research on user attitudes as predictors of utilization and insights from research on task-technology fit as a predictor of performance. In this chapter, the TPC model was tested in two settings—voluntary use and mandatory use. In both settings, strong support was found for the impact of task-technology fit on performance as well as on attitudes and beliefs about use. Social norms also had a significant impact on utilization in the mandatory use setting. Beliefs about use only had a significant impact on utilization in the voluntary use setting. Overall, the results found support for the predictive power of the TPC model; however, the results show that the relationships among the constructs in the model will vary, depending on whether or not the users have a choice to use the system.
Success Factors in the Implementation of a Collaborative Technology and Resulting Productivity Improvements in a Small Business
Authors: Jones Nory B. , Kochtanek Thomas R.
Published: April 2011

Practitioners and academics often assume that investments in technology will lead to productivity improvements. While the literature provides many examples of performance improvements resulting from adoption of different technologies, there is little evidence demonstrating specific, generalizable factors that contribute to these improvements. Furthermore, investment in technology does not guarantee effective implementation. This qualitative study examined the relationship between four classes of potential success factors on the adoption of a collaborative technology and whether they were related to performance improvements in a small service company. Users of a newly adopted collaborative technology were interviewed to explore which factors contributed to their initial adoption and subsequent effective use of this technology. The results show that several factors were strongly related to adoption and effective implementation. The impact on performance improvements was further explored. Results showed a qualitative link to several performance improvements including timesavings and improved decision-making. These results are discussed in terms of generalizability as well as suggestions for future research.
Responsibility for Information Assurance and Privacy
Authors: Stahl Bernd Carsten
Published: April 2011

Decisions regarding information assurance and IT security can affect individuals’ rights and obligations and thereby acquire a moral quality. The same can be said for questions of privacy. This chapter starts by showing how and why information assurance and privacy can become problems worthy of ethical consideration. It demonstrates that there is no simple and linear relationship between ethics and information assurance or between ethics and privacy. Many decisions in the area of IT, however, affect not only one, but both of these subjects. The ethical evaluation of decisions and actions in the area of privacy and security, therefore, is highly complex. This chapter explores the question whether individual responsibility is a useful construct to address ethical issues of this complexity. After introducing a theory of responsibility, this chapter discusses the conditions that a subject of responsibility typically is assumed to fulfill. This chapter will argue that individual human beings lack some of the essential preconditions necessary to be ascribed responsibility. Individuals have neither the power, the knowledge, nor the intellectual capacities to deal successfully with the ethical challenges in the tension of privacy and information assurance. This chapter ends by suggesting that the concept of responsibility, nevertheless, may be useful in this setting, but it would have to be expanded to allow collective entities as subjects.
Computer Security and Risky Computing Practices
Authors: Aytes Kregg , Connolly Terry
Published: April 2011

Despite rapid technological advances in computer hardware and software, insecure behavior by individual computer users continues to be a significant source of direct cost and productivity loss. Why do individuals, many of whom are aware of the possible grave consequences of low-level insecure behaviors such as failure to backup work and disclosing passwords, continue to engage in unsafe computing practices? In this chapter we propose a conceptual model of this behavior as the outcome of a boundedly rational choice process. We explore this model in a survey of undergraduate students (N = 167) at two large public universities. We asked about the frequency with which they engaged in five commonplace but unsafe computing practices, and probed their decision processes with regard to these practices. Although our respondents saw themselves as knowledgeable, competent users and were broadly aware that serious consequences were quite likely to result, they reported frequent unsafe computing behaviors. We discuss the implications of these findings both for further research on risky computing practices and for training and enforcement policies that will be needed in the organizations that these students will be entering shortly.
A Blended Approach Learning Strategy for Teacher Development
Authors: Chatterjea Kalyani
Published: April 2011

In-service upgrading has been an accepted avenue for retraining practicing teachers in Singapore to keep abreast of changing curriculum requirements as well as infusion of information technology (IT) in teaching and learning. To cope with the teachers’ busy work schedules and many school commitments, upgrading courses were offered to the teachers primarily asynchronously, using the Internet platform with some integrated synchronous sessions. This chapter analyzes the rationale for the development of such a Web-based teacher-upgrading program and discusses the main issues of professional upgrading addressed in the development. Issues of adult learning in a learner-controlled adaptive learning environment and lifelong learning were addressed through an IT-infused asynchronous mode, providing the much-needed freedom in time management for the course participants. The development also includes delivery of high definition graphics through a customized hybrid system of CD-ROM and Web that addresses image-downloading bottleneck and thereby overcomes a basic problem of distance learning in geospatial education. Finally, reflections on the attending adult learners’ responses to such an upgrading program are discussed.
Agent-Oriented Methodologies
Authors: Giorgini Paolo , Henderson-Sellers Brian
Published: April 2011

As an introduction to agent-oriented (AO) methodologies, we first describe the characteristics of both agents and multi-agent systems (MASs). This leads to a discussion of what makes an AO methodology that can be used to build an MAS. Finally, we briefly introduce the ten methodologies that are described in the remaining chapters in this book.
Tropos
Authors: Giorgini Paolo , Kolp Manuel , Mylopoulos John , Castro Jaelson
Published: April 2011

Software systems of the future will have to perform well within ever-changing organizational environments. Unfortunately, existing software development methodologies have traditionally been inspired by programming concepts rather than organizational ones, leading to a semantic gap between the system and its operational environment. To reduce this gap, we propose a software development methodology named Tropos that is founded on the i* organizational modeling framework. i* offers the notions of actor, goal, and (actor) dependency. Tropos uses these concepts as a basis to model early and late requirements, architectural design, and detailed design for a software system. The chapter outlines Tropos phases through an e-business example. The methodology is a good complement to proposals for agent-oriented programming platforms.
From Requirements to Code with PASSI Methodology
Authors: Cossentino Massimo
Published: April 2011

A Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation (PASSI) is a step-by-step requirement-to-code methodology for designing and developing multi-agent societies, integrating design models and concepts from both object-oriented (OO) software engineering and artificial intelligence approaches using the UML notation. The models and phases of PASSI encompass representation of system requirements, social viewpoint, solution architecture, code production and reuse, and deployment configuration supporting mobility of agents. The methodology is illustrated by the well-known Bookstore case study.
Multi-Agent Systems as Computational Organizations
Authors: Zambonelli Franco , Jennings Nicholas R. , Wooldridge Michael
Published: April 2011

The multi-agent system paradigm introduces a number of new design/development issues when compared with more traditional approaches to software development and calls for the adoption of new software engineering abstractions. To this end, in this chapter, we elaborate on the potential of analyzing and architecting complex multi-agent systems in terms of computational organizations. Specifically, we identify the appropriate organizational abstractions that are central to the analysis and design of such systems, discuss their role and importance, and show how such abstractions are exploited in the context of the Gaia methodology for multi-agent systems development.
The MESSAGE Methodology for Agent-Oriented Analysis and Design
Authors: Garijo Francisco J. , Gomez-Sanz Jorge J. , Massonet Philippe
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents the MESSAGE agent-oriented software engineering methodology and illustrates it in an analysis and design case study. The methodology covers MAS analysis and design and is intended for use in mainstream software engineering departments. MESSAGE integrates into a coherent AOSE methodology basic agent-related concepts (such as organisation, role, goal, interaction, and task) that have so far been studied largely in isolation. The MESSAGE notation extends the UML with agent knowledge-level concepts and diagrams with notations for viewing them. The proposed diagrams extend UML class and activity diagrams. TheMESSAGE analysis and design process is based on the Rational Unified Process (RUP). The methodology distinguishes high-level from detailed design. An organisation-driven approach is presented for detailed design, where the global architecture of the MAS is derived from the structure and behaviour of the organisations that interact. Experimentation with the methodology shows that it supports the analysis and design of multi-agent systems that are flexible and adapt to specific kind of changes in a heterogeneous and dynamic environment.
Creating a Comprehensive Agent-Oriented Methodology
Authors: Henderson-Sellers Brian
Published: April 2011

While individual agent-oriented methodologies are useful for restricted situations, a more flexible approach can be found in the use of situational method engineering. Using an underpinning metamodel, a repository of method fragments can be built up and, from this, a selected number of fragments can be abstracted to form an organization-specific or project-specific methodology. As an example, we demonstrate the use of the OPEN metamodel and repository, as extended to support agent-oriented conceptual thinking. Re-creation of existing methodologies, such as Prometheus, is demonstrated with further enhancements from other methodologies such as Tropos and Gaia.
Version Control of Software Models
Authors: Alanen Marcus , Porres Ivan
Published: April 2011

We review the main concepts and algorithms behind a software repository with version control capabilities for UML and other MOF-based models. We discuss why text- and XML-based repositories cannot be used to manage models and present alternative solutions to build a model repository that takes into account specific details of MOF-based modeling languages.
Developing Requirements Using Use Case Modeling and the Volere Template
Authors: Crowther Paul
Published: April 2011

A major contributor to the development of a quality final product is a complete, consistent, and detailed requirement specification (Pressman, 2000). No matter how good the specification and its translation into an initial system, it will evolve once it is released to users as the requirements and the environment change and the users develop. The aim of this chapter is to provide a method of establishing the baseline in terms of the requirements of a system from which evolution metrics can be effectively applied. UML (Rumbaugh, Jacobson, & Booch, 1999) provides a series of models that can be used to develop a specification which will provide the basis of the baseline system. This can then be used as a datum from which measurements can be made. One of the starting points for modeling is use case analysis. Other models can then be developed based on these initial models. One of the difficulties with this approach is that once the initial models have been agreed upon, they are not maintained as the later more detailed models evolve. The methods described in this chapter show how this can be achieved and measured.
Visualising COBOL Legacy Systems with UML
Authors: McRobb Steve , Millham Richard , Pu Jianjun , Yang Hongji
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents a report of an experimental approach that uses WSL as an intermediate language for the visualisation of COBOL legacy systems in UML. Key UML techniques are identified that can be used for visualisation. Many cases were studied, and one is presented in detail. The report concludes by demonstrating how this approach can be used to build a software tool that automates the visualisation task. Furthermore, understanding a system is of critical importance to a developer who must be able to understand the business processes being modeled by the system along with the system’s functionality, structure, events, and interactions with external entities. Such an understanding is of even more importance in reverse engineering. Although developers have the advantage of having the source code available, system documentation is often missing or incomplete, and the original users, whose requirements were used to design the system, are often long gone.
XML-Based Analysis of UML Models for Critical Systems Development
Authors: Jurjens Jan , Shabalin Pasha
Published: April 2011

High-quality development of critical systems poses serious challenges. Formal methods have been proposed to address them, but their use in industry is not as widespread as originally hoped. This chapter proposes to use the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the de-facto industry standard specification language, as a notation together with a formally based tool-support for critical systems development. The authors extend the UML notation with new constructs for describing criticality requirements and relevant system properties, and introduce their formalization in the context of the UML executable semantics. Furthermore tool-support concepts for this approach are presented, which facilitate transfer of the methodology to industrial applications.
Variability Expression within the Context of UML
Authors: Tessier Patrick , Gerard Sébastien , Terrier François , Geib Jean-Marc
Published: April 2011

Time-to-market is one of the most severe constraints imposed on today’s software engineers. The increasing complexity of systems has also shortened the time available for designing them. Several solutions have therefore been proposed to decrease the time and cost of producing applications. This chapter presents the product line paradigm as an effective solution for managing both the variability of products and their evolutions. The product line approach calls for designing a generic and parameterized model that specifies a family of products. It is then possible to instantiate a member of that family by specializing the “parent” model or “framework.” In describing the latter, designers need to explicitly model variability and commonality points among applications. The following discussion explains in detail how UML models express these different requirements. We then describe specific extensions of UML profiles and the way they are used in various product line methodologies.
Semantic Web Support for Customer Services
Authors: Tho Quan Thanh , Cheung Hui Siu , Fong A. C.M.
Published: April 2011

This chapter discusses Semantic Web support for customer services. Customer service support is an important operation for most multinational manufacturing companies. It provides installation, inspection, and maintenance support for their worldwide customers. However, knowledge integrated in customer service support systems is typically closed in terms of exchanging information. Therefore, the systems do not easily share, reuse, or exchange knowledge. It causes difficulty when customers seek service support for products produced by various companies. In this chapter, we propose to incorporate Semantic Web services into customer service systems to solve such problems. In our system, KSOM neural network is first used to mine knowledge from reported cases. Then, ontology is used as a semantic representation for knowledge discovered and Semantic Web services are used to make constructed ontology accessible from different systems. As a result, users can use semantic knowledge distributed across various sources on the Internet to solve their problems. Performance evaluation on the system is also present in the chapter.
A Tutorial on RDF with Jena
Authors: Wong Wan-Yeung , Lau Tak-Pang , King Irwin , Lyu Michael R.
Published: April 2011

This chapter gives a tutorial on resource description framework (RDF), its XML representation, and Jena, a set of Java-based API designed and implemented to further simplify the manipulation of RDF documents. RDF is a W3C standard which provides a common framework for describing resources in the World Wide Web and other applications. Under this standard framework with the Jena, different resources can be manipulated and exchanged easily, which leads to cost reduction and better efficiency in business applications. In this tutorial, we present some basic concepts and applications of RDF and Jena. In particular, we use a television object to illustrate the usage of RDF in describing various resources being used, the XML syntax in representing the RDF, and the ways Jena manipulate various RDF documents. Furthermore, complete programming codes with detailed explanations are also presented to give readers a better understanding of Jena. References are given at the end for readers’ further investigation.
Using Semantic Web to Facilitate Agent-to-Agent Argumentation for e-Commerce
Authors: Huang Shiu-li , Lin Fu-ren
Published: April 2011

This chapter designs a multi-agent argumentation system for e-commerce. This system applies Semantic Web technology to facilitate agents to share ontologies and describe their own mental states and arguments. All arguments are connected by attacking relations and can be proved or defeated via a dialectical game. In this system, buyer and seller agents can understand arguments and argue over product attributes. This system can help buyers to delegate their buyer agents to search products that exactly match their needs, and help sellers to delegate seller agents to present products and persuade buyer agents into believing that the products can satisfy the buyers’ needs.
An Intelligent Metasearch Engine with Link Prediction and Page Clipping Generation Capabilities
Authors: Luh Cheng-Jye , Chen Lin-Chih
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents an intelligent metasearch engine that can recommend a user’s next hyperlink access and relevant paragraphs extracted from metasearch results. The proposed design is based on the primacy effect of browsing behavior, that users prefer top ranking items in search results. Three search methods were implemented in this engine. First, the search engine vector voting (SVV) method rearranges search results gathered from six well-known search engines according to their weights obtained from user behavior function. The hyperlink prediction (HLP) method then arranges the most likely accessed hyperlinks from the URLs in SVV search results. Finally, the page clipping synthesis (PCS) method extracts relevant paragraphs from the HLP search results. A user study indicated that users are more satisfied with the proposed search methods than with general search engines. Moreover, performance measure results confirmed that the proposed search methods outperform other metasearch and search engines.
Semantics and the Medical Web
Authors: Spink Amanda , Wolfe Robert M. , Jansen Bernard J.
Published: April 2011

This chapter discusses issues related to semantics and the medical Web. Much health information is available on the Web, but not always effectively found by users. Studies examining various aspects of medical Web searching show that searchers’ do not always use correct medical terminology. This chapter reports results from a longitudinal study of medical/health related searches using commercial Web search engine query data from 1997 to 2004.
Web Mining for Protein-to-Protein Interaction Information
Authors: Lee Hsi-Chieh , Huang Szu-Wei , Li Eldon Y.
Published: April 2011

This study proposes a mining system for finding protein-to-protein interaction literatures from the databases on the Internet. In this system, we search for discriminating words for protein-to-protein interaction by way of statistics and the results from literatures. A threshold is also evaluated to check if a given literature is related to protein-to-protein interactions. In addition, a keypage-based search mechanism is used to find related papers for protein-to-protein interactions from a given document. To expand the search space and ensure better performance of the system, mechanisms for protein name identification and databases for protein names are also developed. The system is designed with a web-based user interface and a job-dispatching kernel. Experiments are conducted and the results have been checked by a biomedical expert. The experimental results indicate that by using the proposed mining system, it is helpful for researchers to find protein-to-protein literatures from the overwhelming pieces of information available on the biomedical databases over the Internet.
Gender Differences and Hypermedia Navigation
Authors: Fan Jing P. , Macredie Robert D.
Published: April 2011

Adaptive hypermedia learning systems can be developed to adapt to a diversity of individual differences. Many studies have been conducted to design systems to adapt to learners’ individual characteristics, such as learning style and cognitive style to facilitate student learning. However, no research has been done specifically regarding the adaptation of hypermedia learning system to gender differences. This chapter therefore attempts to fill this gap by examining the published findings from experimental studies of interaction between gender differences and hypermedia learning. Analysis of findings of the empirical studies leads to a set of principles being proposed to guide adaptive hypermedia learning system design onthe basis of gender differences in relation to (i) adaptive presentation and (ii) adaptive navigation support.
Modeling Learner's Cognitive Abilities in the Context of a Web-Based Learning Environment
Authors: Souto Maria A.M. , Verdin Regina
Published: April 2011

Our study is concerned with making the instruction suitable to the individual learner’s characteristics. This chapter describes the methodology used to investigate how to model the learner’s Cognitive Ability Level (CAL) based on the observation and analysis of his/her behaviour in a Web-learning environment. In our study, the CAL represents the learner’s cognitive stage development according to Bloom’s taxonomy. The methodology encompasses two phases: (i) the generation of the CAL classes for the target population and (ii) the study of learning trajectories of CAL classes in an experimental learning module. As a result, we have identified the CAL classes’ parametersvalues that best discriminate these classes from the observation and analysis of their learning trajectory on the Web. The entire knowledge obtained from this investigation will make possible to automate the learners’ CAL diagnostic. It will also give us the background to develop Web-learning environment contents.
Dominant Meanings Approach Towards Individualized Web Search for Learning Environments
Authors: Razek Mohammed A. , Frasson Claude , Kaltenbach Marc
Published: April 2011

This chapter describes how we can use dominant meaning to improve a Web-based learning environment. For sound adaptive hypermedia systems, we need updated knowledge bases from many kinds of resource (alternative explanations, examples, exercises, images, applets, etc.). The large amount of information available on the Web can play a prominent role in building these knowledge bases. Using the Internet without search engines to find specific information is like wandering aimlessly in the ocean and trying to catch a specific fish. It is obvious, however, that search engines are not intended to adapt to individual performance. Our new technique, based on dominant meaning, is used to individualize a query and search result. By dominant meaning, we refer to a set of keywords that best fits an intended meaning of the target word. Our experiments show that the dominant meanings approach greatly improves retrieval effectiveness.
An Adaptive Predictive Model for Student Modeling
Authors: Castillo Gladys , Gama João , Breda Ana M.
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents an adaptive predictive model for a student modeling prediction task in the context of an adaptive educational hypermedia system (AEHS). The task, that consists in determining what kind of learning resources are more appropriate to a particular learning style, presents two issues that are critical. The first is related to the uncertainty of the information about the student’s learning style acquired by psychometric instruments. The second is related to the changes over time of the student’s preferences (concept drift). To approach this task, we propose a probabilistic adaptive predictive model that includes a method to handle concept drift based on statistical quality control. We claim that our approach is able to adapt quickly to changes in the student’s preferences and that it should be successfully used in similar user modeling prediction tasks, where uncertainty and concept drift are presented.
Building an Instructional Framework to Support Learner Control in Adaptive Educational Systems
Authors: Papanikolaou Kyparisia A. , Grigoriadou Maria
Published: April 2011

Recently there has been a growing appreciation concerning learner control over the learning/instructional process, leading to the development of mixed-initiative systems where learners are allowed to take varying levels of control. The design of Adaptive Educational Systems (AES) that provide such learner control opportunities through their adaptive and adaptable dimensions, is a challenging research goal that requires a certain understanding of the learning and instructional processes. To this aim, in this chapter we focus on the educational background that should underlie the design of adaptation and learner-system interaction in the context of AES used for Web-based education. We propose an instructional framework that supports a variety of instructional approaches and provides guidelines that unify several processes underlying adaptation such as structuring the domain knowledge, developing the content, and planning individualised support—assessment—learner control opportunities. This framework incorporates a variety of approaches over instruction and assessment, in order to accommodate the diversity of learners’ needs and preferences, and enable them to choose when, what, and how to learn. The theoretical background underlying the design of the framework and the implications for Web-based AES design are also discussed.
Bridging the Gap with MAID
Authors: Armani Jacopo , Botturi Luca
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents MAID, a complete design method for adaptive courseware tailored for non-technical people. Adaptive hypermedia systems represent a great potential for e-learning. Nevertheless, instructors and designers find it difficult to develop adaptive applications in real educational environments, mainly because no structured design method is available. The main principle upon which the method relies is that the basis for the exploitation of adaptive features in education is the definition and implementation of an instructional strategy. The MAID approach provides guidelines and tools that foster and enhance the communication between the technical staff in charge of managing the hypermedia system and the instructor by adopting her/his instructional strategy as the pivotal point for the communication.
An Adaptive Feedback Framework to Support Reflection, Guiding and Tutoring
Authors: Gouli Evangelia , Gogoulou Agoritsa , Papanikolaou Kyparisia A. , Grigoriadou Maria
Published: April 2011

In this chapter, an adaptive feedback framework (AFF) is proposed for the provision of personalized feedback accommodating learners’ individual characteristics and needs in the context of computer-based learning environments. Multiple informative, tutoring, and reflective feedback components (ITRFC) are incorporated into the framework, aiming to stimulate learners to reflect on their beliefs, to guide and tutor them towards the achievement of specific learning outcomes and to inform them about their performance. The proposed framework adopts a scheme for the categorization of learners’ answer, introduces a multi-layer structure and a stepwise presentation of the ITRFC and supports adaptation of the provided feedback both in the dimensions of adaptivity and adaptability. The adaptivity of the AFF is based on the gradual provision of the ITRFC and on the adaptive presentation of the ITRFC according to the learner’s knowledge level, preferences and interaction behaviour. The adaptability of the AFF enables learners to have control over the feedback presentation in order to guide the adaptive dimension of the framework. In the context of the Web-based concept map assessment tool referred to as COMPASS, the proposed framework has been adopted for the provision of personalized feedback in concept mapping tasks. A preliminary evaluation of the framework in the context of COMPASS showed that the AFF led the majority of the learners in reviewing their maps, reconsidering their beliefs and accomplishing successfully the underlying concept mapping task.
Authoring of Adaptive Hypermedia
Authors: Cristea A. , Stewart Craig
Published: April 2011

This chapter focuses on the aspect of Authoring in Adaptive Hypermedia from some of its different perspectives. It starts by showing the necessity of research in this area, then describes a new framework model for authoring of Adaptive Hypermedia, LAOS. Within LAOS, the adaptation model, which is the main aspect of adaptive hypermedia, is detailed into a separate model, LAG. The flexibility offered by the LAOS framework is analyzed and estimated. To illustrate the theory, the chapter describes an implementation of this framework, MOT, and test results. The chapter ends with conclusions and discussion on future trends.
TEXT-COL
Authors: Broberg Anders
Published: April 2011

Traditionally, much of the efforts to develop computer-based tools has been concentrated on developing production or authoring tools, such as word processors, drawing programs, and so on, and not so many consumption or reading tools have been developed except Web browsers and different kinds of media players. Authoring plays an important role in the learning process, and good tools are needed, but reading—especially active reading—and exploring are is at least as important. Traditionally, computer-mediated texts have little support for an active way of reading. This means that reading computer-mediated texts, as on the WWW, tends to be a very passive form of reading. The development of Text-Col addresses this problem. Text-Col is a tool designed to support readers in deep processing of texts by letting the readers change appearance of the text based on different strategies for categorizing words. Text-Col is a reading tool and exploring tool aimed to make the reading process more active.
An Overview of Image and Video Segmentation in the Last 40 Years
Authors: Zhang Yu-Jin
Published: April 2011

The history of segmentation of digital images using computers could be traced back 40 years. Since then, this field has evolved very quickly and has undergone great change. In this chapter, the position of image segmentation in the general scope of image techniques is first introduced; the formal definition and extension of image segmentation as well as three layers of research on image segmentation are then explained. Based on the introduction and explanations, statistics for a number of developed algorithms is provided, the scheme for classifying different segmentation algorithms is discussed and a summary of existing survey papers for image segmentation is presented. These discussions provide a general rendering of research and development of image segmentation in the last 40 years.
Variational Problems in Image Segmentation and I-Convergance Methods
Authors: Bellettini Giovanni , Riccardo Riccardo
Published: April 2011

Variational models for image segmentation aim to recover a piecewise smooth approximation of a given input image together with a discontinuity set which represents the boundaries of the segmentation. In particular, the variational method introduced by Mumford and Shah includes the length of the discontinuity boundaries in the energy. Because of the presence of such a geometric term, the minimization of the corresponding functional is a difficult numerical problem. We consider a mathematical framework for the Mumford-Shah functional and we discuss the computational issue. We suggest the use of the G-convergence theory to approximate the functional by elliptic functionals which are convenient for the purpose of numerical computation. We then discuss the design of an iterative numerical scheme for image segmentation based on the G-convergent approximation. The relation between the Mumford-Shah model and the