bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A New Multiple Objective Evolutionary Algorithm for Reliability Optimization of Series-Parallel Systems
Authors: Taboada Heidi A. , Coit David W.
Published: May 2012

A new multiple objective evolutionary algorithm is proposed for reliability optimization of series-parallel systems. This algorithm uses a genetic algorithm based on rank selection and elitist reinsertion and a modified constraint handling method. Because genetic algorithms are appropriate for high-dimensional stochastic problems with many nonlinearities or discontinuities, they are suited for solving reliability design problems. The developed algorithm mainly differs from other multiple objective evolutionary algorithms in the crossover operation performed and in the fitness assignment. In the crossover step, several offspring are created through multi-parent recombination. Thus, the mating pool contains a great amount of diverse solutions. The disruptive nature of the proposed type of crossover, called subsystem rotation crossover, encourages the exploration of the search space. The paper presents a multiple objective formulation of the redundancy allocation problem. The three objective functions that are simultaneously optimized are the maximization of system reliability, the minimization of system cost, and the minimization of system weight. The proposed algorithm was thoroughly tested and a performance comparison of the proposed algorithm against one well-known multiple objective evolutionary algorithms that currently exists shows that the algorithm has a better performance when solving multiple objective redundant allocation problems.
RFID
Authors: Permala Antti , Rantasila Karri , Pilli-Sihvola Eetu
Published: May 2012

In many industrial sectors, the use of RFID in closed systems is evolving. To be implemented in global supply chains, all aspects related to RFID need to be standardised. By collecting, processing and distributing information efficiently, organisations should be able to improve the efficiency of their transport logistics processes, lower their operational costs, and improve their portfolio of logistics services. This case study describes the current perspectives, challenges and benefits of RFID applications in manufacturing industry. Automated, remote and wireless identification is a basic element in implementing efficient management systems in the supply chain. The most important identification techniques are barcode and RFID. Barcode is currently the most widely used method for the identification of parcels, but RFID is more suitable for automated identification for many different reasons including better readability and enhanced environmental durability. By reducing manual work and errors, RFID generates cost savings, increased productivity and efficiency of processes. There is a wide range of different RFID technologies that have varying reading ranges, protocols and data contents. There are two different approaches to using RFID tags and numbering the items to be identified. Recent standardisation developments have started to resolve the interoperability problems in the field of RFID identification.
Is it Possible to Manage and Plan Co-Modal Freight Transport Without a Centralised System?
Authors: Zunder Thomas , Westerheim Hans , Jorna Ronald , Pedersen Jan Tore
Published: May 2012

The European Union has looked to develop ICT systems that are open and interoperable. Through the case study of the Freightwise research project a research gap was identified: Is it possible to manage and plan co-modal freight transport without a centralised system? The adoption of software methodology and business process mapping enables the development and the validation of the Freightwise Framework for co-modal freight transport. The Framework divides the freight transport domain into manageable sub-domains and defines the main roles that need to interact as well as the necessary interactions in between these domains. The main roles identified are: the Transport User and the Transport Service Provider, supported by the Transportation Network Manager and the Transport Regulator. The Framework also defines a generic specification of a transport service and a small set of sufficient and necessary information objects that need to be exchanged between the four main roles. This paper explores the goal, context, methodologies utilised, results and validation in multiple business cases. The paper ends with reflections on how the results may be developed and implemented.
Towards an ICT Platform for the European Freight Transport Community
Authors: Karakostas Bill , Katsoulakos Takis , Zorgios Yannis
Published: May 2012

The paper identifies requirements for an Information and Communication (ICT) platform for the European freight transport sector- an e-Freight Platform. The e-Freight Platform can be used to support integrated multimodal transport and improved interoperability between freight transport and administration systems. The authors illustrate the potential of such platform for enhanced Business to Administration interoperability by using a case study of a Common Reporting Schema for freight reporting compliance.
Actor-Network Theory and the Online Investor
Authors: Adamopoulos Arthur , Dick Martin , Davey Bill
Published: May 2012

An actor-network analysis of the way in which online investors use Internet-based services has revealed a phenomenon that is not commonly reported in actor-network theory research. An aspect of the research that emerged from interviews of a wide range of online investors is a peculiar effect of changes in non-human actors on the human actors. In this paper, the authors report on the particular case and postulate that this effect may be found, if looked for, in many other actor-network theory applications.
Assessment of Risk on Information Technology Projects Through Moments of Translation
Authors: Sehlola Petronnell , Iyamu Tiko
Published: May 2012

Many of the IT solutions in an organisation are employed through IT projects. Based on the reliance on IT solutions, organisations’ investment in IT projects have increased tremendously in the past two decades. This is informed and triggered by the premise that IT will help yield solutions that will fulfill or exceed expectations, thereby making the organisation realise the required return on investment. Projects are a means to yield solutions through technological artefacts, such as infrastructure (networks included), applications, databases, or a combination of these artefacts. Technological artefacts are associated with foreseen or unforeseen risks. Hence, proper risk identification and management of IT projects is necessary to ensure that the organisation reaches the desired state. Unfortunately, risks are not easy to identify or manage. Using one case, the study employed actor network theory in the analysis of the data to understand the factors which manifest themselves into risks during the deployment of IT projects in the organisation.
Protection through Intelligent and Multimedia Captchas
Authors: Al-Sudani Wesam , Gill Amit , Li Chen , Wang Jidong , Liu Fei
Published: May 2012

The Complete Automatic Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is a modern implementation of the Turing test. A CAPTCHA asks a series of questions which are supposed to be relatively easy for mature human beings but hard for machines to answer. A CAPTCHA, as its name suggests, is generally used as a tool to distinguish human beings from machines when the corresponding party is invisible in a remote site. There are many CAPTCHAs proposed and widely used in many Internet applications, with varied strength and performance. In this article, a review of current CAPTCHAs is presented. Analysis and comparisons are provided for various CAPTCHAs. Two types of new CAPTCHAs, intelligent and multimedia CAPTCHAs, are proposed. Our experiments have shown that the newly proposed CAPTCHAs have stronger protection than most existing CAPTCHAs and they can be applied to various web applications, such as e-commerce.
Management Scheme for Data Collection within Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Habib Sami J. , Marimuthu Paulvanna N.
Published: May 2012

This paper proposes a data management scheme which employs an energy constrained algorithm selecting between direct and multi-hop transmissions autonomously based on the residual energy level of the individual sensors. The proposed data management scheme rules out the selection of hotspot sensors, the sensors located closer to the base stations, as the intermediate sensors to avoid the dying of these sensors. In each data transmission, the scheme selects one of the neighborhood sensors having minimal Euclidean distance and maximum energy-level as the intermediate node from the neighboring set, without repeating the selection. The proposed data management scheme manages the data collection by utilizing two scheduling algorithms; as soon as possible (ASAP) and as late as possible (ALAP). As a measure of performance, the simulation results of the data management scheme have been compared with that of minimum connected dominating set algorithm (MCDS). The simulation results demonstrate that the data management scheme outperforms with respect to consume less energy; moreover, it can be observed that the scheme finishes an overall short waiting time of the selected sensors compared to the direct transmission in transmitting the data to the base station. The robustness of the proposed scheme is tested by varying the network sizes and varying the sensing radii.
CRM Index Development and Validation in Indian Banking Sector
Authors: Agariya Arun Kumar , Singh Deepali
Published: May 2012

This study caters to developing a reliable and valid CRM (customer relationship management) index specifically catering to Indian banking sector. An exhaustive review of literature on CRM was followed by depth interview and questionnaire survey of customers of different banking organizations all across India. Exploratory factor analysis was followed by confirmatory factor analysis which was presented in three forms: the single factor model, covariance model, and the structural model. The covariance model shows CRM in Indian banking sector as a multidimensional construct comprising of factors, namely, organizational structure and customer support, service quality, trust, technology, personalization, and market orientation. The structural model validates the previously extracted factors along with their indicators. The validation of CRM scale is done through a case based method for development of CRM Index along with the customer and service provider weights with the help of questionnaire design and survey conducted. The proposed index can serve as a strategic tool in enhancing the customer responsiveness and overall performance of the banking organizations.
The Practice of Jordanian Banking to Improve Customer Retention
Authors: Alhawari Samer
Published: May 2012

Enterprises have become increasingly reliant on digital information to meet business objectives. Significant amounts of information fuel business processes that involve parties both inside and outside of enterprise network boundaries. In response, many banks have recognized the importance of managing customer retention from the perspective of a process approach to positively impact customer retention. This paper adopts a holistic approach that examines the combined effects of customer processes on customer retention. Drawing on this framework, the paper develops several hypotheses regarding the main and interaction effects of customer processes on customer retention. The paper tests these hypotheses based on a sample of data collected from two hundred respondents, drawn randomly from four Jordanian banks working in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The results show that customer commitment has strong positive effects on customer retention. However, findings that effect of customer knowledge creation and customer acquisition on customer retention is weaker than that of customer commitment. The empirical findings help both researchers and practitioners in future customer process and customer retention research. The value of the paper consists in establishing the need of researching and incorporating customer retention process as an important support to keep organizations competitive within the global business environment.
Cache Replacement in Mobile Adhoc Networks
Authors: Chauhan Naveen , Awasthi Lalit K. , Chand Narottam
Published: May 2012

Caching of frequently accessed data in Mobile Adhoc NETwork (MANET) is a technique that can improve data access performance and availability. In the situation of sufficient cache space one may think of keeping all the data items in the cache. However, this has overhead in terms of multiple copies of same data distributed all over the network and there are chances of inconsistency of data among different nodes. The main objective of cooperative caching is the optimum utilization of cache by storing different data items in the cache of each Mobile Node (MN). By doing this, different sets of items are kept in the neighboring MNs. As and when some MN requires a data item which is not available with itself it may ask the neighboring nodes for the same. In this manner cooperative caching environment is created in MANETs. Cache replacement is required when certain items are to be stored in the cache, but MN does not have the sufficient space to store the incoming item. This paper proposes a Profit Based Replacement (PBR) where profit value is calculated for every item in the cache. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the PBR improves the cooperative caching performance in comparison to other conventional techniques.
Architecture Exploration Based on Tasks Partitioning Between Hardware, Software and Locality for a Wireless Vision Sensor Node
Authors: Imran Muhammad , Khursheed Khursheed , Malik Abdul Waheed , Ahmad Naeem , O’Nils Mattias , Lawal Najeem , Thörnberg Benny
Published: May 2012

Wireless Vision Sensor Networks (WVSNs) is an emerging field which consists of a number of Visual Sensor Nodes (VSNs). Compared to traditional sensor networks, WVSNs operates on two dimensional data, which requires high bandwidth and high energy consumption. In order to minimize the energy consumption, the focus is on finding energy efficient and programmable architectures for the VSN by partitioning the vision tasks among hardware (FPGA), software (Micro-controller) and locality (sensor node or server). The energy consumption, cost and design time of different processing strategies is analyzed for the implementation of VSN. Moreover, the processing energy and communication energy consumption of VSN is investigated in order to maximize the lifetime. Results show that by introducing a reconfigurable platform such as FPGA with small static power consumption and by transmitting the compressed images after pixel based tasks from the VSN results in longer battery lifetime for the VSN.
Optimal Placement of the Wind Generators in the Medium Voltage Power Grid
Authors: Jordan Andrzej , Maple Carsten , Szczebiot Ryszard
Published: May 2012

The minimization of power losses in the medium voltage (MV) grid requires adjustment of network of power sources. This problem is particularly important for renewable energy sources, for example for the farms of wind generators. Their placement and nominal power should be selected according to the configuration of the network and the largest loads. The presented problem is solved using a genetic algorithm (GA). The formulation of the GA algorithm and its performance for different numbers of power sources is analyzed. The optimal placements of wind generators were computed for some case problems. The algorithm is validated with a medium sized electrical grid. The formulation of the parallel version of the genetic algorithm is presented. Its properties are verified on the cluster of workstations environment.
Assessing Citizens Acceptance of Mobile Voting System in Developing Countries
Authors: Abdelghaffar Hany , Galal Lina
Published: May 2012

In modern societies, information and communication technology is used to increase citizens’ participation in the democracy process. In developing countries, to enhance the democracy, there is need to utilize the ICT to enhance citizens’ participations in the elections. This created through making the voting easier for eligible voters and grant that their votes will be counted. This research identifies the factors that affect citizens’ intentions of adopting mobile voting systems by introducing a prototype of m-voting system to citizens in Egypt. Findings show that ease of use, usefulness, trust, and mobility have significant impact on citizens’ intention to use m-voting system.
The Validity and Reliability Study of a Revised Motivated Strategy for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) for Assessing Computer Software Learning Strategies
Authors: Chen Catherine , Whitesel Joel
Published: May 2012

Instructional theories have shifted from viewing students as reactive learners in the mid-1980s to the current view of students as proactive learners. Emphasis is no longer placed on the teachers to adapt instruction to meet individual student’s mental ability or social-cultural background. In contrast, students are viewed as active participants in their own learning process. Based on the literature and prior research, the purpose of this study is to revise the learning strategy section of the Motivated Strategy for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to reflect the unique learning strategies involved in learning computer skills. MSLQ is a very widely used instrument to assess students’ motivation and learning strategies. It assumed that learning strategies can be generalized across context, but context affect the learners’ choices and learning strategies available. Although the instrument is effective in assessing strategies used in processing information from texts and lectures, research findings tend to contradict general beliefs when the learning activities involved hands-on, applied learning. With 201 students who participated in the study, this research reports the initial validity and reliability of a revised version of the learning strategies in the MSLQ.
Exploring the Effects of Blog Visit Experience on Relationship Quality
Authors: Lee Su-Fang , Jih Wen-Jang
Published: May 2012

A blog was created to help cardiac illness patients and their families cope with the anxiety caused by their health problems and the subsequent treatment process. An empirical study reveals that the customer relationship management practices of the blog site affect visitors’ visit experience, their relationship learning, and how these latter two variables in turn have a significant impact on the quality of patient relationship with the physician. The study confirms the value of Web 2.0 applications in knowledge-intensive domains such as cardiac surgery.
User Interface Design and E-Commerce Security Perception
Authors: Kamoun Faouzi , Halaweh Mohanad
Published: May 2012

In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between human computer interface design and users’ security perception. The authors hypothesize that effective human computer interface design has a positive impact on security perception. To test this hypothesis, they use the seven design elements of the customer interface (7Cs) as a basis of the reference framework for effective interface design. Hypothesis testing was examined through an empirical study involving 247 subjects. Research reveals that human computer interface design significantly affects the perceived security of e-commerce portals. Further analysis of the results highlights that the top HCI factors that influence security perception are permanent working links, demos and online help tools, information accuracy, and easy website navigation. Therefore, this study suggests that applying good user interface design guidelines at the storefront can be an effective technique for enhancing user security perception and increasing trust and purchase intention.
SMEs Performance
Authors: Marimuthu Malliga , Omar Azizah , Ramayah T. , Mohamad Osman
Published: May 2012

The importance of the Internet in supporting business applications and attaining competitive advantage through the electronic business (e-business) process is widely acknowledged. However, many SMEs have been slow in adopting the Internet and even those SMEs that have adopted the technology have not fully utilized it to support their business applications. The reason behind this scenario could be the lack of awareness concerning the necessity and possibility of adopting e-business for specific functions along the value chain. Thus, the aims of this study are to investigate the extent of Internet marketing practices to support business applications among SMEs in Malaysia as well as the outcome of Internet marketing implementations on the business performance of SMEs. The results indicate that the usage of Internet varies across the marketing practices and is likely to influence business performance.
A Proposed Speech Discrimination Assessment Methodology Based on Event-Related Potentials to Visual Stimuli
Authors: Morikawa Koji , Kozuka Kazuki , Adachi Shinobu
Published: May 2012

Objective and quantitative assessment methods are needed for the fitting of hearing aid parameters. This paper proposes a novel speech discrimination assessment method using electroencephalograms (EEGs). The method utilizes event-related potentials (ERPs) to visual stimuli instead of the conventionally used auditory stimuli. A spoken letter is played through a speaker as an initial auditory stimulus. The same letter can then be visually displayed on a screen as a match condition, or a different letter is displayed (mismatch condition). The participant determines whether the two stimuli represent the same letter or not. The P3 component or late positive potential (LPP) component are elicited when a participant detects either a match or mismatch between the auditory and visual stimuli, respectively. The hearing ability of each participant can be estimated objectively via analysis of these ERP components.
An Integrated Project Management System for Facilitating Knowledge Learning
Authors: Chen Toly , Wang Yu-Cheng
Published: May 2012

Numerous difficulties and problems are associated with learning in a project. To tackle these problems, in this paper, an integrated project management model is constructed for facilitating knowledge learning. First, the depth of a professional or management skill is defined and evaluated using the analytic hierarchical procedure. A project cannot start until the depth of every necessary skill reaches a certain level. There is also stepwise increase in the scores of successive projects. A systematic procedure composed of fifteen steps is then embedded in the system to facilitate project learning. The proposed methodology is applied to the development of an e-commerce application system.
Survey of Self-Adaptive NoCs with Energy-Efficiency and Dependability
Authors: Guang Liang , Nigussie Ethiopia , Plosila Juha , Isoaho Jouni , Tenhunen Hannu
Published: May 2012

The self-adaptive Network-on-Chip (NoC) is a promising communication architecture for massively parallel embedded systems. With constant technology scaling and the consequent stronger influence of process variations, the necessity of run-time monitoring and adaptive reconfiguration becomes widely acknowledged. This article presents a survey of existing techniques and methods, in particular for energy efficiency and dependability. The article firstly examines the motivation of self-adaptive computing in parallel embedded systems. A self-adaptive system model is abstracted, which is composed of goals, monitoring interface, and self-adaptation. Based on the model, the authors extensively survey previous works addressing adaptive NoCs with different monitoring techniques and reconfiguration methods, for power/energy optimization and dependability enhancement. Several design examples are elaborated which serve proper guiding purposes. The authors also identify important issues which are often overlooked or deserve more attention. The article provides review and insight for future design on this topic.
A Survey of FPGA Dynamic Reconfiguration Design Methodology and Applications
Authors: Liu Ming , Lu Zhonghai , Kuehn Wolfgang , Jantsch Axel
Published: May 2012

FPGA Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR or PR) technology has emerged and become gradually mature in the recent years. It provides the Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) capability in utilizing on-chip resources and leads to significant benefits in comparison with conventional static designs. However, the partially reconfigurable design process features additional complexity and technical requirements to the FPGA developers. Hence, PR design approaches are being widely explored and investigated to systematize the development methodology and ease the designers. In this paper, the authors collect several research and engineering projects in this area and present a survey of the design methodology and applications of PR. Research aspects are discussed in various hardware/software layers.
On Self-Aware Mixed-Signal Systems Based on S-Δ ADC
Authors: Strle Drago , Trontelj Janez
Published: May 2012

In this paper the authors discuss the issues related to the self-awareness of high-resolution, mixed-signal circuits and systems, based on S-? ADC, which is the most important and sensitive module and the key element for analogue to digital conversion. The basic methodology and framework for improving the self-awareness of such systems are presented. The methodology is based on efficient real-time measurements of a high-resolution, mixed-signal system using pseudo random signal source, real-time calculation of a distance between responses, the possibility to adapt measured circuit to minimize the distance, and changing the parameters of a reference system according to learning rules. The use of pseudo-random noise as a signal source leads to efficient and cost-effective measurements that run in parallel to the main signal processing. The calculation of the distance between the system and its reference are theoretically analysed and verified using Matlab model. The response of a system together with the response of high precision analogue to digital converter (ADC) is compared to the response of a bit-true model of a reference digital circuit. The differences are calculated using simple area-efficient cross-correlation algorithm. Together with adaptation strategy and tuning circuitry it forms the basis for self-awareness of mixed-signal circuits.
Self-Adaptive Economic-Based Resource Allocation in Ad-Hoc Grids
Authors: Pourebrahimi Behnaz , Bertels Koen
Published: May 2012

Resource allocation is the process of discovering and allocating resources to requested tasks in a way that satisfy both user jobs and resource administrators. In ad-hoc Grids, resource allocation is a challenging undertaking as tasks and resources are distributed, heterogeneous in nature, owned by different individuals or organizations and they may arise spontaneously at any time with various requirements and availabilities. In this paper, the authors address an economic-based framework for resource allocation in ad-hoc Grids to deal with the dynamic nature of such networks. Within the economic framework, self-interested nodes in ad-hoc Grids are considered as consumers (buyers) and producers (sellers) of resources. Consumers and producers of resources are autonomous agents that cooperate through a simple, single metric namely the price that summarizes the global state of a network in a number. Adaptation is achieved by individual nodes through adopting a bidding strategy that adjusts the price according to the current state of the network in order to optimize the local utility of the node.
Design Guidelines for Location-Based and Contextual Learning Supported by Mobile Devices
Authors: Eliasson Johan , Ramberg Robert
Published: May 2012

In location-based and contextual mobile learning, students are continually mobile in the virtual, social, and physical environment. A common problem in this view of mobile learning is that students spend time focusing on the mobile devices at the expense of interacting with other students or exploring the physical environment. The authors approach this problem from an interaction design perspective, where they design and analyse geometry-learning activities in two iterations. Based on video data from groups of students participating in the learning activities, the authors analyse when mobile devices are in the foreground and background of their interaction. The authors present six guidelines for designing location-based and contextual mobile learning activities, where mobile devices support rather than distract students from contents and contexts relevant to the learning goals. Finally, the guidelines are evaluated using a model of interaction, which represents mobile device interaction as one of four different modes of human interaction with technology.
An mLearning Journey
Authors: Cochrane Thomas
Published: May 2012

This paper discusses six critical success factors for mobile Web 2.0 implementation identified throughout fifteen mLearning action research projects (cycles) carried out and evaluated between 2006 and 2009. The paper briefly outlines the implications of each of the five learning contexts involved in the projects in light of these critical success factors. The resultant developments of strategies for future mLearning projects in 2010 and beyond are also briefly discussed.
Advanced Mobile Lecture Viewing
Authors: Rivera Ernesto , Nishihara Akinori
Published: May 2012

In this work, the authors present a fully automated recorded lecture summarization tool and an innovative mobile iPad visualization tool. Summarization works for blackboard-based lectures by robustly extracting blackboard edits with great accuracy and high performance. Analysis output is then presented with overview and visual timelines along the original video to allow discovering lecture passages based on time. A second option allows students navigating contents in space by allowing revisiting blackboard elements directly by touching regions in the video. Proposed summarization, temporal and spatial navigation along with interactive visual annotations bring to recorded lectures the benefits that other digital learning material has long enjoyed and entice a younger generation of learners.
Examining Heterogeneous Patterns of Electronic Health Records Use
Authors: Dobrzykowski David D.
Published: May 2012

The basic use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and the progression toward advanced EHR applications are key concerns facing leaders interested in integrating the healthcare delivery supply chain. Currently, substantial heterogeneity exists among hospitals in terms of EHR use and the progression toward advanced EHR applications. Understanding this heterogeneity is important as hospitals face pressure to adopt and achieve meaningful use of the technology. Contingency theory is tested herein to suggest that a hospital’s structural constraints may explain the heterogeneity among hospitals in terms of their EHR use. Data collected from 297 acute care hospitals in 47 states reveals that critical access hospitals may be slow to use EHR, even in basic applications. Conversely, major teaching hospitals appear to be early adopters, achieving advanced EHR use. These findings are important for hospital executives, Health Information Technology managers, and policymakers concerned with directing resources with an aim toward EHR integration.
The RCQ Model
Authors: Dohan Michael , Xenodemetropoulos Ted , Tan Joseph
Published: May 2012

As society moves into the age of active knowledge management and sharing, inter-clinician relationships and communities of practice can be directed to support quality improvement efforts within healthcare organizations. It is argued that successful adoption of the processes that are critical to quality improvement is necessary for durable improvements in quality. Knowledge sharing is necessary for supporting the skills in performing activities associated with practice audit, change management and use of the associated technology. This paper introduces the Relationships, Communities, Quality (RCQ) model, which provides a framework for the purpose of conceptualizing how quality improvement in healthcare can be sustained. A variance model is proposed for the evaluation of communities of practice for their value in quality improvement in healthcare.
Exitus
Authors: Manley Matthew , Kim Yong Seog
Published: May 2012

Emergency evacuation of critical infrastructure assets such as sports arenas is an important consideration given the continuing threat of terrorist attacks which inordinately affect them. In this paper, the authors present an agent-based evacuation model which may be used to support private sector organizations with capabilities-based planning efforts surrounding likely terrorist attack scenarios. The model is distinguished by its explicit consideration of individuals with disabilities in respect to the characteristics influencing their ability to negotiate surroundings. The results of an experiment simulating the truck bombing of an intermountain west sports arena reveal special areas of concern for arena managers and identify those who are most at risk or individuals with lower stamina. Ultimately, the model can be used to inform policymakers of more effective, evidence-based evacuation planning methods based on a better understanding of the behavior of heterogeneous populations during emergency situations.
Fostering Networked Business Operations
Authors: Pflügler Christoph
Published: May 2012

Long being seen as commercially unsuccessful after the dot-com era, interest in web-based B2B electronic intermediaries is again increasing in the light of globalization and cost-pressure on procurement departments of enterprises. Driven by increased profitability, these systems are getting more sophisticated. Based on a thorough literature-driven requirements analysis, this paper presents a state-of-the-art service-oriented reference architecture for B2B electronic intermediaries and provides scientifically grounded recommendations for developing such systems. The framework supports practitioners to create and further develop B2B electronic intermediary systems. It also serves as a basis for future design-oriented research endeavors in the field. The value of the presented artifacts is demonstrated by means of two use cases.
Mining Interesting Association Rules of Students Suffering Study Anxieties Using SLP-Growth Algorithm
Authors: Herawan Tutut , Vitasari Prima , Abdullah Zailani
Published: May 2012

One of the most popular techniques used in data mining applications is association rules mining. The purpose of this study is to apply an enhanced association rules mining method, called SLP-Growth (Significant Least Pattern Growth) for capturing interesting rules from students suffering mathematics and examination anxieties datasets. The datasets were taken from a survey exploring study anxieties among engineering students in Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). The results of this research provide useful information for educators to make decisions on their students more accurately and adapt their teaching strategies accordingly. It also can assist students in handling their fear of mathematics and examination and increase the quality of learning.
An Adoption Model for E-Learning and Knowledge Management Systems
Authors: Islam Shiful , Kunifuji Susumu , Hayama Tessai , Miura Motoki
Published: May 2012

The authors built an electronic learning (EL) and knowledge management (KM) adoption model for sharing, updating, and adopting the essences of EL and KM based on the existing literature, as well as data and information from face-to-face interviews of 17 EL and KM researchers worldwide. In this paper, the authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the model and offer some suggestions for practical improvement of EL and KM systems. The authors used qualitative research and inductive reasoning approaches for this study. Findings show that the proposed model directly impacts EL and KM academics, as well as practitioners, through the adoption of EL and KM systems, and Knowledge Science is enriched by nurturing new concepts and facilitating more opportunities to enhance collaborative, innovative, open, and distributed knowledge sharing and knowledge-adopting culture.
Consumer Purchase Decisions Under Asymmetrical Rates of Technological Advance and Price Decline
Authors: Boone Derrick S.
Published: May 2012

Prior research has shown that when making high tech purchase decisions, consumers consider not only the relative advantage afforded by currently available products, but also the relative advantage expected from future generation products. Additionally, empirical evidence suggests that prices for high tech products often decline faster than the technology advances. This research takes both these findings into account and investigates consumer purchase decisions for high and low tech products under asymmetrical rates of technological advance and price decline. Although consumers generally prefer the latest technological generation of a product, level of technological sophistication (high vs. low tech), rate of technological change and price decline, and expectations regarding future product introductions were found to moderate the effect of technological generation on preference.
Manufacturing Complexity Analysis with Fuzzy AHP
Authors: Jenab Kouroush , Khoury Sam , Sarfaraz Ahmad R.
Published: May 2012

Budgeting, resource allocation, and planning in manufacturing systems are important issues that can be managed by complexity measures. Manufacturing processes have several primary areas of complexity that may not be measured precisely due to uncertain situations. Therefore, this study reports a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) model for evaluating the process complexity that takes into account uncertain situations and manufacturing process technology. The model can rank manufacturing processes based on their relative complexities. An illustrative example for several processes is demonstrated to present the application of the model.
Inventory Policy with Stock, Price and Credit-Linked Demand
Authors: Guchhait Partha , Giri Pravash Kumar , Maiti Manas Kumar , Maiti Manoranjan
Published: May 2012

An inventory control problem under two-level trade-credit policy with fuzzy inventory costs is proposed where supplier provides not only a credit-period for settling account but also a cash discount to the retailers. Due to this advantage the retailer also offers a fixed credit period to all its customers to boost the demand. Demand also depends on stock and selling price. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) with chromosome’s life-time dependent varying population size is used to solve the model where, at the time of generation of initial population, diversity in the population is maintained using information entropy theory. In the algorithm crossover probability of a pair of parents is a function of their age-type (young, middle-aged, old, etc.) and is obtained using a fuzzy rule base and possibility theory. A fuzzy possibility/necessity based evolution process is proposed to deal with fuzzy objective function.
A Reflection on the Notion of Cohabitation within and Beyond the Walls of Life Sciences
Authors: Pauwels Eleonore
Published: May 2012

Synthetic biology is at the front edge of a wave the National Research Council has termed the “New Biology” which involves bio, info, nano, and cognitive sciences. A lot of innovation will occur in the interstitial or “white” spaces between these disciplines, but this emerging multi-disciplinary science will provide challenges in term of social governance: there will likely be new challenges in managing ethical, social, and legal issues at the boundaries between disciplines. As an attempt to reflect on these challenges, a major workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (SES-0925449) and organized in May 2010 by the Wilson Center and the University of Virginia, gathered experts from three emergent, boundary-crossing translational and transnational fields: STS, sustainability science and synthetic biology. Among other inputs, the workshop’s participants reached a significant and key conclusion. In the future, scientists will need effective, symmetric and balanced interdisciplinary collaborations about sustainable governance of emerging technologies that respond to environmental, societal and technological challenges in a comprehensive way. This requires a serious rethinking and re-organization of life sciences (bio-engineering) education.
An Empirical Investigation of Capability Factors Affecting Strategic Information System Planning Success
Authors: Khani Naser , Nor Khalil Md , Samani Mojgan Bahrami , Hakimpoor Hossein
Published: May 2012

Strategic information systems planning (SISP) is more difficult in today’s world of rapid change and uncertainty. The dynamic changes in the environment require a fit between SISP and internal resources of the firm. A need exists to study SISP success based on a broad set of organizational attributes of firm. In this regard, a resource-based view (RBV) has gained increasing dominance in the strategic management field and views organization as a bundle of resources. Reviewing SISP literature reveals little on what the essential Information Systems’ formulation (IS) capabilities for SISP are and how they affect success. In this study, the relationship between capability factors and SISP success are explored. Capability factors were compiled through literature review and validated by using interviews. Hypotheses were developed and tested utilizing responses collected from 167 medium to large Iranian organizations. Using PLS for data analysis, the results show the important role of capability factors in SISP success that could be beneficial for both practice and research.
Information Technology Process Improvement Decision-Making
Authors: Lamp Sandy A. , Hargiss Kathleen M. , Howard Caroline
Published: May 2012

This article is derived from a qualitative multicase study with two settings that explored the way decisions are made in two IT organizations regarding process improvement initiatives by using face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 20 IT process owners and managers. The two participating organizations are a healthcare insurance company and a manufacturer of electronic interconnects. The study sought to uncover (a) how IT process improvements are prioritized and how approvals are attained, (b) how senior leadership is involved in decision making, (c) how security and risk are considered, (d) if and how formal process improvement methodologies are used, (e) if and how estimated and actual cost benefit analysis are conducted associated with decisions, and (f) how alignment with organizational goals is attained. The topic of IT governance was narrowed to explore the perspective of IT process owners and process managers, and their approaches and methodologies used with IT process improvement initiatives. The study found that pre-decision stages take place in IT investment decision making, and that process owners and process managers, participants other than senior leadership, and executive level decision makers are involved in these pre-decision stages and may be involved in the final decision stages.
The Interplay of Offshoring of Professional Services, Law, Intellectual Property, and International Organizations
Authors: Gupta Amar , Gantz David A. , Sreecharana Devin , Kreyling Jeremy
Published: May 2012

This paper covers four issues essential to understanding the interplay between law, the offshoring of professional services, intellectual property, and international organizations. First, this paper examines the extent to which evolving international conventions restrict the ability of countries, especially developed countries, to inhibit offshoring with the objective of protecting jobs at home. Second, it looks at statistics from independent sources to see if the U.S. ultimately benefits or loses when outsourcing occurs—i.e., whether offshoring exceeds insourcing, or vice versa, in the case of the U.S. Third, it cites specific examples to predict future legal trends in outsourcing. Fourth, it looks at the intellectual property aspects of outsourcing, and suggests equitable protection of intellectual property in an economy with increased offshoring.
Comparing Misuse Case and Mal-Activity Diagrams for Modelling Social Engineering Attacks
Authors: Karpati Peter , Sindre Guttorm , Matulevicius Raimundas
Published: May 2012

Understanding the social engineering threat is important in requirements engineering for security-critical information systems. Mal-activity diagrams have been proposed as being better than misuse cases for this purpose, but without any empirical testing. The research question in this study is whether mal-activity diagrams would be more efficient than misuse cases for understanding social engineering attacks and finding prevention measures. After a conceptual comparison of the modelling techniques, a controlled experiment is presented, comparing the efficiency of using the two techniques together with textual descriptions of social engineering attacks. The results were fairly equal, the only significant difference being a slight advantage for mal-activity diagrams concerning perceived ease of use. The study gives new insights into the relative merits of the two techniques, and suggests that the advantage of mal-activity diagrams is smaller than previously assumed. However, more empirical investigations are needed to make detailed conclusions.
RETRACTED: Menselijke vrijheid en het Christelijk geloof
Authors: Doomen Jasper
Published: May 2012

Human freedom and the Christian faith. In this article, it is examined whether there is room for human freedom in a Christian perspective. Augustine’s and Luther’s views are illuminating in order to clarify this matter. The way they deal with the idea of predestination is an important issue. According to Augustine, man is, to a certain degree, able to grasp the way in which God governs man; this idea is not present in Luther’s thoughts. Their notions of ‘freedom’ differ considerably as well; here, too, Augustine has more confidence in human reason than Luther does. However, it is difficult for both Luther and Augustine to defend a notion of human freedom and at the same time maintain God’s foreknowledge. Still, even irrespective of that, human freedom is something which cannot easily be demonstrated. For both Christians and non-believers, the issue of human freedom remains an unresolved problem.*This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief.Reason: ‘The article has been retracted to straighten the academic record. It has come to light that this article has significant overlap with an article that had already appeared in Informción Filosófica, Volume 1 (2004), num. 2, pp. 251–265, entitled ‘De onverenigbaarheid van menselijke vrijheid met het christelijk geloof’. Apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process’.The full-text of the original article (2004) is here: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/17816