bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Study of Zero Velocity Update for Both Low- and High-Speed Human Activities
Authors: Zhang R. , Loschonsky M. , Reindl L.M.
Published: October 2011

Previous studies show that inertial sensor-based personal positioning benefited from Zero Velocity Update (ZUPT) method by resetting the foot speed at every foot step. However, only the solution for normal pedestrian movement with small velocity like walking was given. This paper presents a novel ZUPT system which can be used in a wide range of human activities, including walking, running, and stair climbing by using two inertial measurement unit (IMU) modules. One is attached on the centre of the human body for human activities’ classification and recognition. The other one is mounted on the foot for ZUPT algorithm implementation based on the result of activities’ recognition. Test cases include stair climbing by walking and running, walking, fast walking, and running. In all cases, most of the steps are able to be detected and the new ZUPT system can be successfully implemented.
A Comprehensive Overview of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN)
Authors: Bradai Nourchene , Chaari Lamia , Kamoun Lotfi
Published: October 2011

In recent years, the wireless body area network (WBAN) has emerged as a new technology for e-healthcare applications. The WBANs promise to revolutionize health monitoring. However, this technology remains in the first stages and much research is underway. Designers of such systems face a number of challenging tasks, as they need to address conflicting requirements. This includes managing the network, the data, while maximizing the autonomy of each network node. Reducing the consumption of a node, the management of network resources and security insurance are therefore major challenges. This paper presents a survey of body area networks including the WBANs challenges and -architecture, the most important body sensor devices, as well as sensor board hardware and platforms. Further, various applications of WBANs in the medical field are discussed, as well as wireless communications standards and technologies. The newest researches related to WBANs at physical and MAC layers are presented. Finally the paper identifies data security and privacy in WBANs as well as open research issues.
Evaluating the IEEE 802.15.6 2.4GHz WBAN Proposal on Medical Multi-Parameter Monitoring under WiFi/Bluetooth Interference
Authors: Wang Yufei , Wang Qixin
Published: October 2011

Wireless body area networks (WBAN) play a key role in the future of e-Health. In response, IEEE sets up working group 802.15.6 to standardize WBAN schemes. Of all existing standard proposals, the 2.4GHz proposal is the most mature and ready for mass production. However, as e-Health WBAN applications are often mission/life critical, people are concerned with the reliability (particularly, coexistence reliability) of this proposal. This study evaluates the 2.4GHz proposal under WiFi/Bluetooth interference in the context of medical multi-parameter monitoring. The authors conclude that WiFi poses a major threat to such application scenario, while Bluetooth does not.
Expected Communications Technology to Track Avian Influenza and Related the Statement of Appeal by ITU-D SG2 Q14
Authors: Nakajima Isao , Kitano Toshihiko , Katayama Masaaki , Androuchko Leonid
Published: October 2011

This paper points out some problems of telemetry for wild birds and future technical expectations to prevent Avian Influenza. For medium to large migratory birds, the data collection system aboard the NOAA meteorological satellites (the ARGOS system) has been able to map their migratory routes. However, recommended C/No for Doppler shift will be 54dBHz, while calculated required C/No for 400 bps data uplink is 36dBHz. The gap between navigation function and data communication will be almost 18 dB. The bird has to pay this overload. The authors provide a summary of the Statement that was adopted at the Rapporteurs meeting of the ITU-D SG2 Q14 (telecommunications for eHealth) in July 2008 and an account of anticipated developments in telecommunication technologies (satellite and RFID) based on meeting discussions, and strongly recommend the space agency to consider the importance of the advanced data collection satellite to track small birds.
An Analytical Model to Measure IS-Enabled Organizational Effectiveness
Authors: Tang Chun Meng , Marthandan Govindan
Published: October 2011

When business managers are considering whether to invest in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, they ask the question: “What are the returns on investment?” When the ERP system is implemented and in operation, business managers ask another question: “How successful is the system?” To answer these questions, clues can be found by examining organizational effectiveness improvements as a result of ERP system implementation. This paper suggests that being able to identify the dimensions of organizational effectiveness is enabled by ERP systems. Together with positive organizational effectiveness improvements, the business value of ERP systems can be demonstrated. To provide the evidence needed to support the notion, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted. Analyses reveal that the construct of IS-enabled organizational effectiveness can be modeled, at a higher-order abstraction level, as a third-order construct manifested by three second-order constructs and ten first-order constructs.
The Influence of Organisational Size, Internal IT Capabilities, and Competitive and Vendor Pressures on ERP Adoption in SMEs
Authors: Cartman Cliff , Salazar Angel
Published: October 2011

This empirical study investigates the influence of organisational size, internal IT capabilities and external factors, such as competitive and vendor pressure, on ERP adoption within SMEs. Existing research on ERP adoption has indentified some of the potential factors affecting SMEs, such as organisation size as one of the most significant ones. Yet none of this previous research has looked at organisational size, internal IT capabilities and external pressures in a unified framework and in context to SMEs. More specifically, this study focuses on the direct and moderating relationships which may affect an SME’s decision to adopt an ERP system. An analysis of a sample of 229 SMEs shows clear direct and moderating relationships amongst the above factors. Concrete recommendations are provided to accelerate the rate and success level of ERP adoption within SMEs.
Beautiful to Me
Authors: Forman Abbe E. , Baker Paul M.A. , Pater Jessica , Smith Kel
Published: October 2011

This paper examines the portrayal of disability, gender, and identity in virtual communities where representation is a matter of convenience, style, or whim. A survey was conducted of groups, identifying themselves as disabled, with a focus on gender, in the virtual space, Second Life. Four distinctive categories were analyzed in this study: groups associated with disabilities or being disabled, race/ethnicity, gender, aging, and sexuality. In the “real world”, the visual cues that activate schemas serve as an explanation for the stigmas and ensuing isolation often felt by people with disabilities. In Second Life, where the visual cues are removed, users with disabilities are associating with others who identify as being disabled. Additionally, gender appears to play a role in the group (i.e. “communities”) found in Second Life. Regardless of binary gender framework, the differences between the groups that are externally classified as having some degree of disability, and those who choose to self identify, or affiliate with disability related groups, have rich import for the sociology of online communities as well as for the design and characteristics of games.
Overcoming the Segregation/Stereotyping Dilemma
Authors: Sappleton Natalie
Published: October 2011

The fastest recent growth in women-owned firms has been in traditionally male industries such as telecommunications and construction. This development has increased the importance of cross-sex networking to women professionals and entrepreneurs. Women business owners (particularly those working in traditionally male sectors) may be hindered in their efforts to build collaborative relations with male ties because of gender stereotyping. As a response, women may elect to join all-female networks, but because women in male-dominated sectors are relatively scarce, this strategy reduces access to resources. This paper suggests that virtual networking via web pages, email, chat rooms, and networking sites can provide a solution for women in male dominated contexts stuck in a ‘segregation/stereotyping bind’. Additionally, virtual communities can provide access to a very large number of diverse others and network maintenance is substantially easier than face-to-face interaction.
Gender, Power, and eDating
Authors: Livermore Celia Romm , Somers Toni M.
Published: October 2011

Following a review of the literature on gender, power, and eDating, this paper introduces the eDating development model and discusses a number of hypotheses that can be derived from it. Findings from a research investigation that explored the hypotheses are presented. The findings supported all the hypotheses, indicating that: (1) male and female eDaters follow different sequence of stages in their eDating development; (2) the behaviors that males and females exhibit as eDaters are different; and (3) the feedback that male and female eDaters receive from the environment is different. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications from this research to more general questions relating to gender, power, and eDating.
Analysis of Monitoring Structures for Network-on-Chip
Authors: Rantala Ville , Lehtonen Teijo , Liljeberg Pasi , Plosila Juha
Published: October 2011

Monitoring services are essential for advanced, reliable NoC systems. They should support traffic management, system reconfiguration and fault detection to enable optimal performance and reliability of the system. The paper presents a thorough description of NoC monitoring structures and studies earlier works. A distributed monitoring structure is proposed and compared against the structures presented in previous works. The proposed distributed network monitoring system does not require centralized control, is fully scalable and does not cause significant traffic overhead to the network. The distributed structure is in line with the scalability and flexibility of the NoC paradigm. The paper studies the monitoring structure features and analyzes traffic overhead, monitoring data diffusion, cost and performance. The advantages of distributed monitoring are found evident and the limitations of the structure are discussed.
Adoption of Model-Based Testing and Abstract Interpretation by a Railway Signalling Manufacturer
Authors: Ferrari Alessio , Magnani Gianluca , Grasso Daniele , Fantechi Alessandro , Tempestini Matteo
Published: October 2011

Introduction of formal model-based practices into the development process of a product in a company implicates changes in the verification and validation activities. A testing process that focuses only on code is not comprehensive in a framework where the building blocks of development are models, and industry is currently heading toward more effective strategies to cope with this new reality. This paper reports the experience of a railway signalling manufacturer in changing its unit level verification process from code-based testing to a two-step approach comprising model-based testing and abstract interpretation. Empirical results on different projects, on which the overall development process was progressively tuned, show that the change paid back in terms of verification cost reduction (about 70%), bug detection, and correction capability.
Design and Implementation of a Firmware Update Protocol for Resource Constrained Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Laukkarinen Teemu , Määttä Lasse , Suhonen Jukka , Hämäläinen Timo D. , Hännikäinen Marko
Published: October 2011

Resource constrained Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) require an automated firmware updating protocol for adding new features or error fixes. Reprogramming nodes manually is often impractical or even impossible. Current update protocols require a large external memory or external WSN transport protocol. This paper presents the design, implementation, and experiments of a Program Image Dissemination Protocol (PIDP) for autonomous WSNs. It is reliable, lightweight and it supports multi-hopping. PIDP does not require external memory, is independent of the WSN implementation, transfers firmware, and reprograms the whole program image. It was implemented on a node platform with an 8-bit microcontroller and a 2.4 GHz radio. Implementation requires 22 bytes of data memory and less than 7 kilobytes of program memory. PIDP updates 178 nodes within 5 hours. One update consumes under 1‰ of the energy of two AA batteries.
Self-Calibrating Source Synchronous Communication for Delay Variation Tolerant GALS Network-on-Chip Design
Authors: Strano Alessandro , Hernández Carles , Silla Federico , Bertozzi Davide
Published: October 2011

Source synchronous links for use in multi-synchronous networks-on-chip (NoCs) are becoming the most vulnerable points for correct network operation and must be safeguarded against intra-link delay variations and signal misalignments. The intricacy of matching link net attributes during placement and routing and the growing role of process parameter variations in nanoscale silicon technologies are the root causes for this. This article addresses the challenge of designing a process variation and layout mismatch tolerant link for synchronizer-based GALS NoCs by implementing a self-calibration mechanism. A variation detector senses the variability-induced misalignment between data lines with themselves and with the transmitter clock routed with data in source synchronous links. A suitable delayed replica of the transmitter clock is then selected for safe sampling of misaligned data. The manuscript proves robustness of the link in isolation with respect to a detector-less link, but also assesses integration issues with the downstream synchronizer and switch architecture, proving the benefits in a realistic experimental setting for cost-effective NoCs.
Checkpointing SystemC-Based Virtual Platforms
Authors: Kraemer Stefan , Leupers Rainer , Petras Dietmar , Philipp Thomas , Hoffmann Andreas
Published: October 2011

The ability to restore a virtual platform from a previously saved simulation state can considerably shorten the typical edit-compile-debug cycle for software developers and therefore enhance productivity. For SystemC based virtual platforms (VP), dedicated checkpoint/restore (C/R) solutions are required, taking into account the specific characteristics of such platforms. Apart from restoring the simulation process from a checkpoint image, the proposed checkpoint solution also takes care of re-attaching debuggers and interactive GUIs to the restored virtual platform. The checkpointing is handled automatically for most of the SystemC modules, only the usage of host OS resources requires user provision. A process checkpointing based C/R has been selected in order to minimize the adaption required for existing VPs at the expense of large checkpoint sizes. This drawback is overcome by introducing an online compression to the checkpoint process. A case study based on the SHAPES Virtual Platform is conducted to investigate the applicability of the proposed framework as well as the impact of checkpoint compression in a realistic system environment.
Architectural Guidelines and Practical Experiences in the Realization of E-Gov Employment Services
Authors: Sánchez-Nielsen Elena , González-Morales Daniel , Peña-Dorta Carlos
Published: October 2011

Today’s Public Administration faces a growing need to share information and collaborate with other agencies and organizations in order to meet their objectives. As agencies and organizations are gradually transforming into “networked organizations,” the interoperability problem becomes the main challenge to make possible the vision of seamless interactions across organizational boundaries. Today, diverse architectural engineering guidelines are used to support interoperability at different levels of abstraction. This paper reviews the main guidelines’ categories which support aspects of architecture practice in order to develop interoperable software services among networked organizations. The architectural guidelines and practical experiences in the domain of e-Gov employment services for the European Union member state Spain are described. The benefits of the proposed solution and the lessons learned are illustrated.
A Framework for Green Computing
Authors: Philipson Graeme
Published: October 2011

Many organizations attempt to implement Green ICT. Some adopt a deliberate and holistic policy, but most approach it piecemeal. The formal definition and approach to implementing Green ICT remains elusive, because most organizations are unable to properly identify what areas to address. A comprehensive and practical Green ICT framework helps overcome this problem. Measurement is important because it enables benchmarking and comparisons by quantifying the degree of implementation of Green ICT. User organizations can then be compared to each other, or to themselves over time, to determine the extent and effectiveness of their Green ICT strategies. This paper outlines a research-based yet highly practical Green Computing framework. It is based on a 4 x 5 matrix with four vertical “pillars”: Lifecycle, End User IT, Enterprise and Data Center IT, and IT as a Low-Carbon Enabler. Applied against each pillar is a five-level Capability Maturity Model metric which can be based on a detailed survey of the organization’s policies and practices in each area. The five horizontal dimensions, or “actions” are applied across the four pillars: Attitude, Policies, Practices, Technologies and Metrics.
Developing Environmentally Responsible Business Strategies
Authors: Trivedi Bharti
Published: October 2011

This paper reports on a 3 year-long PhD level research study carried out by the author in the development of Environmentally Responsible Business Strategies (ERBS). Although ERBS has taken a long time to develop, it is maturing into an approach used by many organizations in practice. This paper reports on the major elements that form part of ERBS: the business architecture, Green policies, processes that create waste and emissions, enablement of efficient use of resources, metrics for monitoring the greening of the organization, and implementation of environmental strategies. The ERBS is made up of five phases: 1) Green Business architecture, 2) Green Process mapping, 3) Creation of organization specific ERBS, 4) Implement reengineered processes and employ ERBS, and 5) Improve continuously to monetize emissions. This paper further provides a review of environmental challenges and understanding of the contribution of computing to the environmental strategies of a business and its sustainable management.
Issues and Concerns of K-12 Educators on 3-D Multi-User Virtual Environments in Formal Classroom Settings
Authors: Jones Greg , Warren Scott J.
Published: October 2011

This study is a naturalistic inquiry conducted between 2007 and 2009 that presents emergent themes from interviews with fourteen K-12 educators and administrators regarding their issues and concerns about implementing 3-D multi-user virtual environments in formal K-12 classrooms. The major issues and concerns emerging from interviews included instructional effectiveness, security, bandwidth, and technology. The majority of the participants at the end of the study could not overcome one or more of these issues or concerns to use virtual environments in their classrooms.
Strategies to Teach Game Development Across Age Groups
Authors: Prayaga Lakshmi , Coffey James W. , Rasmussen Karen
Published: October 2011

The process of game development can be used as a highly motivating learning experience geared to the teaching and learning of a variety of skills in students of varying ages. This article presents a description of a conceptual framework for teaching and learning based on game creation, including pedagogical foundations, a model of instruction for game development, age-related issues relative to learning tasks, and the basic aspects of game development. The authors compare the expectations for types of concepts and technologies employed with middle and high school students versus those employed with college-level students in game development. Projects that illustrate these differences are then presented, and the article closes with a summary and conclusions.
Negotiating Students’ Conceptions of ‘Cheating’ in Video Games and in School
Authors: Hamlen Karla R. , Gage Holly E.
Published: October 2011

Technology use, and video game play in particular, occupies a large amount of time in a typical teenager’s life. Methods of learning and playing video games differ from that of traditional learning settings in that it is common to collaborate and use alternative methods known as “cheats” in the gaming world, strategies that might be considered unethical in the traditional classroom setting. This study took a phenomenological approach to developing an understanding of student views of cheating in these two different settings, and investigating their motivations for engaging in cheating behaviors. Researchers explore the narratives of three teenage males as they described their experiences in gaming and in school, and their views of ethics, honesty, and acceptable forms of information gathering in the two contexts. Analyses reveal three themes relating to students’ conceptions of cheating. Implications are discussed, particularly as they relate to setting and maintaining ethical standards in the school setting.
Force Polygon and Seismic Active Earth Pressure on the Back of a Retaining Wall Supporting c-F Backfill
Authors: Ghosh Sima , Sharma Richi Prasad
Published: October 2011

The study presents a rational graphical approach to discover the dynamic active earth pressure on the back of a battered face retaining wall having inclined c-F backfill with surcharge load over the top of backfill. Considering the seismic forces as time independent inertia forces acting at the c.g. of the wedge soil, the law of force polygon is applied in the evaluation of seismic active earth pressure. A depth of tension crack in case of c-F backfill is also considered. A detailed parametric study has been made for the variation of seismic active earth pressure coefficients with respect to c, ca, F, d, kh, kv.
Drain Groups in Liquefiable Soil
Authors: Brennan A. J. , Madabhushi S. P. G.
Published: October 2011

One of the major concerns for engineers in seismically active regions is the prevention of damage caused by earthquake-induced soil liquefaction. Vertical drains can aid dissipation of excess pore pressures both during and after earthquakes. Drain systems are designed using standard design charts based around the concept of a unit cell, assuming each drain is surrounded by more drains. It is unclear how predictable drain performance is outside that unit cell concept, for example, drains at the edge of a group. Centrifuge testing is a logical method of performing controlled experiments to establish the efficacy of vertical drains. Centrifuge testing is used to identify the effect of drains dealing with very different catchment areas. The importance of this is further highlighted by the results of a test where the same drains have been modified so that each should behave as a unit cell. It is shown that drains with large catchment areas perform more poorly than unit cells, and also have a knock-on detrimental effect on other drains.
Pseudo-Dynamic Evolution of Seismic Passive Earth Force and Pressure Behind Retaining Wall
Authors: Ghosh Sima
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a detailed study on the seismic passive earth pressure behind a non-vertical cantilever retaining wall supporting inclined backfill, using pseudo-dynamic method. In addition to the consideration of wall and backfill surface inclination, the soil friction angle, wall friction angle, and both horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients are taken into account. From the obtained results, a non-linear variation of passive earth pressure along the height of the wall is observed. The results compare well with the existing values in research.
Effect of Non-Plastic Fines on Liquefaction Resistance and Pore Pressure Behavior of Fine Sand
Authors: Hanumantharao C. , Ramana G. V.
Published: October 2011

The liquefaction behavior of sand-silt mixtures is highly debatable. Various conflicting opinions are prevalent in literature, as no unique test parameter exists that can be used to express the effect of non-plastic fines on liquefaction resistance of sand. Thus, the present study critically reviews and summarizes the effect of non-plastic fines on liquefaction resistance of sand along with the test parameter and the range of fines contents used to arrive at the given conclusion. In addition, several stress controlled cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on fine Yamuna sand with varying percentages of non-plastic silt. In the current study, relative density has been adopted as the standard test parameter, as it can be directly correlated to the standard penetration value in the field. Results shows that if non-plastic fines are added to sand, liquefaction resistance increases below the limiting silt content and then liquefaction resistance decreases as further addition of fines when relative density is constant. As long as the fines are non-plastic, the pore pressure behavior is similar to that of sands and can be represented with the simple models.
Performance Analysis of Sequential and Parallel Neural Network Algorithm for Stock Price Forecasting
Authors: Rahman Rashedur M. , Thulasiram Ruppa K. , Thulasiraman Parimala
Published: October 2011

The neural network is popular and used in many areas within the financial field, such as credit authorization screenings, regularities in security price movements, simulations of market behaviour, and so forth. In this research, the authors use a neural network technique for stock price forecasting of Great West Life, an insurance company based in Winnipeg, Canada. The Backpropagation algorithm is a popular algorithm to train a neural network. However, one drawback of traditional Backpropagation algorithm is that it takes a substantial amount of training time. To expedite the training process, the authors design and develop different parallel and multithreaded neural network algorithms. The authors implement parallel neural network algorithms on both shared memory architecture using OpenMP and distributed memory architecture using MPI and analyze the performance of those algorithms. They also compare the results with traditional auto-regression model to establish accuracy.
An Algorithm for Task Scheduling in Heterogeneous Distributed Systems Using Task Duplication
Authors: Agrawal Amrit , Chaudhuri Pranay
Published: October 2011

Task scheduling in heterogeneous parallel and distributed computing environment is a challenging problem. Applications identified by parallel tasks can be represented by directed-acyclic graphs (DAGs). Scheduling refers to the assignment of these parallel tasks on a set of bounded heterogeneous processors connected by high speed networks. Since task assignment is an NP-complete problem, instead of finding an exact solution, scheduling algorithms are developed based on heuristics, with the primary goal of minimizing the overall execution time of the application or schedule length. In this paper, the overall execution time (schedule length) of the tasks is reduced using task duplication on top of the Critical-Path-On-a-Processor (CPOP) algorithm.
Dynamic Dependent Tasks Assignment for Grid Computing
Authors: Meddeber Meriem , Yagoubi Belabbas
Published: October 2011

A computational grid is a widespread computing environment that provides huge computational power for large-scale distributed applications. One of the most important issues in such an environment is resource management. Task assignment as a part of resource management has a considerable effect on the grid middleware performance. In grid computing, task execution time is dependent on the machine to which it is assigned, and task precedence constraints are represented by a directed acyclic graph. This paper proposes a hybrid assignment strategy of dependent tasks in Grids which integrate static and dynamic assignment technologies. Grid computing is considered a set of clusters formed by a set of computing elements and a cluster manager. The main objective is to arrive at a method of task assignment that could achieve minimum response time and reduce the transfer cost, inducing by the tasks transfer respecting the dependency constraints.
Energy Efficient Packet Data Service in Wireless Sensor Network in Presence of Rayleigh Fading
Authors: Nandi Arnab , Kundu Sumit
Published: October 2011

Energy level performances of three packet delivery schemes in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are evaluated in presence of Rayleigh fading. Three different information delivery mechanisms are investigated using regenerative relays with or without error correction capability. Energy consumption for successful delivery of a data packet for each mechanism is evaluated and compared under several conditions of node density, bit rate, transmit power, and channel fading. Energy efficiencies of different retransmission schemes are also evaluated. Further, an optimal packet length based on energy efficiency is derived. Impact of optimal packet size on average number of retransmission and total energy expenditure is analyzed for each delivery scheme.
Performance Evaluation of Reactive Routing in Mobile Grid Environment
Authors: Shrivastava L. , Tomar G. S. , Bhadauria S. S.
Published: October 2011

Grid computing came into existence as a manner of sharing heavy computational loads among multiple computers to be able to compute highly complex mathematical problems. The grid topology is highly flexible and easily scalable, allowing users to join and leave the grid without the hassle of time and resource-hungry identification procedures, having to adjust their devices or install additional software. The goal of grid computing is described as “to provide flexible, secure and coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions and resources”. AODV is an on-demand (reactive) algorithm capable of both unicast and multicast routing. In this paper, AODV has been modified by varying some of the configuration parameters used in this algorithm to improve its performance. This modified protocol i.e. A-AODV (advanced ad hoc on demand distance vector) has been compared with AODV in grid environment. The simulations have shown that A-AODV is able to achieve high throughput and packet delivery ratio and average end-to-end delay is reduced.
Using Machine Learning Techniques for Performance Prediction on Multi-Cores
Authors: Rai Jitendra Kumar , Negi Atul , Wankar Rajeev
Published: October 2011

Sharing of resources by the cores of multi-core processors brings performance issues for the system. Majority of the shared resources belong to memory hierarchy sub-system of the processors such as last level caches, prefetchers and memory buses. Programs co-running on the cores of a multi-core processor may interfere with each other due to usage of such shared resources. Such interference causes co-running programs to suffer with performance degradation. Previous research works include efforts to characterize and classify the memory behaviors of programs to predict the performance. Such knowledge could be useful to create workloads to perform performance studies on multi-core processors. It could also be utilized to form policies at system level to mitigate the interference between co-running programs due to use of shared resources. In this work, machine learning techniques are used to predict the performance on multi-core processors. The main contribution of the study is enumeration of solo-run program attributes, which can be used to predict concurrent-run performance despite change in the number of co-running programs sharing the resources. The concurrent-run involves the interference between co-running programs due to use of shared resources.
Contextual Factors, Knowledge Processes and Performance in Global Sourcing of IT Services
Authors: Du Rong , Ai Shizhong , Abbott Pamela , Zheng Yingqin
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors explore the influences of two major contextual factors—supplier team members’ cultural understanding and trust relationship—on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services. The authors discuss a joint investigation conducted by a cross-cultural research team in China. Cultural understanding is measured by individualism with guanxi and mianzi, two Chinese cultural concepts, and trust relationship is measured by adjusting trust, a notion reflecting the uniqueness of the Chinese people. Knowledge processes are characterized by knowledge sharing. Performance is measured by the outcomes of global sourcing, which is represented by product success and personal satisfaction. Data are collected in 13 companies in Xi’an Software Park, with 200 structured questionnaires distributed to knowledge workers. The results of quantitative data analysis indicate that cultural understanding influences trust relationship greatly, as well as knowledge sharing and performance in global sourcing of IT services. Trust relationship significantly impacts knowledge sharing, whereas trust relationship and knowledge sharing have no impact on performance. This study suggests that special aspects of the Chinese context have significant direct impacts on knowledge processes while no direct and immediate impacts on performance in global sourcing of IT services.
Influence of Knowledge Management Infrastructure on Innovative Business Processes and Market-Interrelationship Performance
Authors: Lee Wen-Ting , Hung Shin-Yuan , Chau Patrick Y.K.
Published: October 2011

Knowledge management (KM) infrastructure is the foundation for managing and embodying valuable knowledge in firms. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) and process level analysis, this study investigates how KM infrastructure influences market interrelationship performance through innovative business processes. The study collected a sample of 126 hospitals in the Taiwanese healthcare industry. The results suggest that technological capability and cultural capability positively affect market interrelationships via innovative business processes. Cultural capability is associated with market interrelationship performance whereas structural capability is unrelated to innovative business processes. The findings advance understanding of the influence of KM infrastructure on market interrelationship performance as well as provide managerial insights on the influence of innovative business processes on market interrelationships performance.
Persistent Barriers to E-commerce in Developing Countries
Authors: Wresch William , Fraser Simon
Published: October 2011

Studies summarized by the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development show that companies in developing countries face problems executing e-commerce strategies. To determine which barriers might be transitional and which might be persistent, a longitudinal study was conducted of companies in five Caribbean countries. Interviews were conducted with 23 companies in 2004. Interviews were repeated in 2008 with those companies that were still in operation. Some improvements were found in general telecommunications support, but persistent barriers were found in logistics services, and new problems were identified in increased competition and increased shipping costs. As a result of these changes, the general focus of managers shifted from establishing web sites and making them visible to more general managerial tasks connected to finding a place in an increasingly competitive environment. The results of this study suggest improved strategies for companies in developing countries seeking to use e-commerce to expand their markets.
An Exploratory Cross-National Study of Information Sharing and Human Resource Information Systems
Authors: Chae Bongsug , Prince J. Bruce , Katz Jeffrey , Kabst Rüdiger
Published: October 2011

Information sharing has recently received considerable academic interest because of the importance knowledge management plays in the creation of sustained competitive advantage for global firms. The interest is attributed to the need for achieving higher levels of worker empowerment and effectiveness. However, the existing research in the area lacks an examination of how national differences impact information sharing activities. This study responds to this need by presenting a structured yet exploratory inquiry into factors impacting information sharing and the adoption of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) by examining key national differences. Assessing national differences is extended beyond the examination of national culture by including institutional contexts in the study. Using a 22-country sample from the CRANET database, the study suggests there is a significant and predictable variation in the level of information sharing and HRIS adoption in firms from different countries, and that national differences, including cultural and institutional contexts, have an impact on information sharing. The study also indicates that the level of HRIS adoption is positively associated with information sharing. The authors discuss these findings, their implications for research and practice, and address limitations along with opportunities for future research.
Leading Techies
Authors: Westlund Steven
Published: October 2011

The leadership behavior of the immediate supervisor is found to contribute to subordinate job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The purpose of this study is to assess leadership styles that are significantly correlated with software developer job satisfaction. The participants were software developers from 24 organizations in higher education, consulting, defense contracting, and local government. Correlations were assessed through multiple linear regressions. The results indicate a significant predicting relationship between project manager leadership styles and software developer job satisfaction. Contingent-reward, active management-by-exception, and laissez-faire leadership styles are found to be significantly related to overall job satisfaction when controlling the effects of the other independent variables. Implications of these findings are discussed along with recommendations for IT professionals and researchers.
Knowledge Base Development in Virtual Enterprise Network as Support for Workplace Risk Assessment
Authors: Dragoi George , Draghici Anca , Rosu Sebastian Marius , Radovici Alexandru , Cotet Costel Emil
Published: October 2011

The article presents research results based on the concept of collaborative infrastructure (as the virtual enterprise network PREMINV e-platform from “Politehnica” University of Bucharest, Romania), in order to unify existing standards for supply chain management and to provide support in various decision making processes in manufacturing supply networks. The intent is to facilitate and enhance the required knowledge management processes linked with the business process management. The virtual enterprise network expects to reduce small and medium-sized enterprises involvement in networking efforts, enable better and faster decision processes and promote the development of the business services. In addition, the new product development paradigm requires software tools for risk estimation and assessment. For this purpose, the authors describe a knowledge bases method build and use for the professional risk assessment as part of risk management process. The risk level is established based on the probability and severity of its consequences.
The Effect of Music Listening, Personality, and Prior Knowledge on Mood and Work Performance of Systems Analysts
Authors: Lesiuk Teresa , Polak Peter , Stutz Joel , Hummer Margot
Published: October 2011

This research examined the effect of music use, personality and prior knowledge on mood and work performance of 62 Systems Analysts. Although the quality of the data modeling task did not appear to be affected by the experimental treatment of 10 minutes of music listening, the level of extraversion, modeling proficiency, and theoretical knowledge related to modeling showed significant effects. Nevertheless, the effects of music were demonstrated on several mood measures. The effect of music on negative and positive affect, along with their subscales, are presented. Finally, changes in the mood of participants who listened to the music are examined in the light of various demographic and personality variables.
Ontology-Based Personal Annotation Management on Semantic Peer Network to Facilitating Collaborations in e-Learning
Authors: Yeh Ching-Long , Chang Chun-Fu , Lin Po-Shen
Published: October 2011

The trend of services on the web is making use of resources on the web collaborative. Semantic Web technology is used to build an integrated infrastructure for the new services. This paper develops a distributed knowledge based system using the RDF/OWL technology on peer-to-peer networks to provide the basis of building personal social collaboration services for e-Learning. This paper extends the current tools accompanied with lecture content to become annotation sharable using the distributed knowledge base.
Tool-Supported User-Centred Prototyping of Mobile Applications
Authors: Leichtenstern Karin , André Elisabeth , Rehm Matthias
Published: October 2011

There is evidence that user-centred development increases the user-friendliness of resulting products and thus the distinguishing features compared to products of competitors. However, the user-centred development requires comprehensive software and usability engineering skills to keep the process both cost-effective and time-effective. This paper covers that problem and provides insights in so-called user-centred prototyping (UCP) tools which support the production of prototypes as well as their evaluation with end-users. In particular, UCP tool called MoPeDT (Pervasive Interface Development Toolkit for Mobile Phones) is introduced. It provides assistance to interface developers of applications where mobile phones are used as interaction devices to a user’s everyday pervasive environment. Based on found tool features for UCP tools, a feature study is described between related tools and MoPeDT as well as a comparative user study between this tool and a traditional approach. A further focus of the paper is the tool-supported execution of empiric evaluations.
A Framework for the Quality Evaluation of B2C M-Commerce Services
Authors: Garofalakis John , Stefani Antonia , Stefanis Vassilios
Published: October 2011

Business to consumer m-commerce services are here to stay. Their specifics, as software artifacts, indicate that they are primarily and most importantly user-driven; as such user perceived quality assessment should be an integral part of their design process. Mobile design processes still lack a formal and systematic quality control method. This paper explores m-commerce quality attributes using the external quality characteristics of the ISO9126 software quality standard. The goal is to provide a quality map of a B2C m-commerce system in order to facilitate more accurate and detailed quality evaluation. The result is a new evaluation framework based on decomposition of m-commerce services to three distinct user-software interaction patterns and mapping to ISO9126 quality characteristics.
Mobile E-Health Information System
Authors: Tsai Flora S.
Published: October 2011

A mobile e-Health information system (MEHIS) aims to speed up the operations of health care in medical centers and hospitals. However, the proper implementation of MEHIS involves integrating many subsystems for MEHIS to be properly executed. A typical MEHIS can consist of many components and subsystems, such as appointments and scheduling; admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT); prescription order entry; dietary planning; and smart card sign-on. This paper describes the development of a MEHIS with open-source Eclipse, using currently available health care standards. The author discusses the issues of building a mobile e-Health information system which can help achieve the goal of ubiquitous and mobile applications for the personalization of e-Health.
Transforming and Computerizing Professional Artifacts
Authors: Beckerman Carina
Published: October 2011

Improving the artifacts a knowledge worker uses and how he or she exercises his or her knowledge is part of being professional in a knowledge society. In a knowledge society there is a continuous structuring and re-structuring, construction and re-construction and learning and re-learning occurring due to implementing new information and communication technology. But many of these projects fail in spite of management spending large amounts of money on them. This paper creates an awareness of how an artefact, such as a new knowledge management system, becomes a driving force behind expanding the knowledge of an anesthesist and has implications for continuous learning among a group of employees at the anesthesia and intensive care unit. In addition, implementing new technology is an underestimated opportunity for learning. This paper suggests that a significant educational effort is taking place in society channelled through IT-projects, even if they fail.
Integration of Business and Healthcare Delivery Processes
Authors: Rosiek Anna Beata
Published: October 2011

Demand for performance improvement drives many healthcare organizations to learn as much as possible about continuous quality improvement. This case study examines the implementation of new ideas in Polish Healthcare systems, such as problem solving procedures, data collection, provision of patients satisfaction reports, employee satisfaction surveys, and management of various processes, with the use of clinical algorithms. The author examines monitoring and improvement of healthcare quality, emphasizing problem identification, development of standards, data collection, data analyses and evaluation, implementation of quality improvement in public healthcare with cost saving, and at the same time, improve the quality of patient care. Traditional forums for measuring performance have two aspects: i) Organization and ii) Patient. Organizations must measure three aspects: balance score, value-based cost management and Baldrige criteria, which lead to improvement of organizational performance and, in consequence, delivery of constantly improving value for patients—the anticipated outcome for improved healthcare quality. The method used in this article is intertwined with balance score and value based cost management in public healthcare within Poland.