bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mediated Action and Network of Actors
Authors: Andrade Antonio Díaz , Ekundayo Samuel
Published: October 2011

Both actor-network theory and activity theory call attention to the coexistence of people and technology. Although both theories provide analytical tools to understand the nature of the reciprocal action-shaping of humans and nonhumans, each puts emphasis on different conceptual elements of human activity. In this paper, the authors examine both activity theory and actor-network theory and present their similarities and differences, limitations, and complementarities. Using the theoretical lenses of both theories, the authors trace the evolution of an ordinary artifact to illustrate how researchers on the sociology of technology and innovations can benefit from these parallel theoretical approaches.
Emerging Standardization
Authors: Cordella Antonio
Published: October 2011

This paper discusses the dynamics associated with the implementation and deployment of an information infrastructure designed to standardize work practices. The analysis is based on a case study conducted in a pharmaceutical R&D organization. The infrastructure in use, comprising a computerized system and surrounding organizational procedures, seems to support work practices not always as originally planned. The paper discusses the role played by local characteristics, contingencies, and practices in shaping a standardization protocol implemented to standardize work practices. Building on actor-network theory, the paper concludes that the standardization of work practices is the result of the dynamic interplay between technology and its users, rather than the consequence of a planned and well-defined design project.
Deconstructing Professionalism
Authors: Tummons Jonathan
Published: October 2011

The problematisation of the professional standards for teachers in the UK lifelong learning sector tends to focus on the discourses that the standards embody: discourses that are posited as being based on a restricted or technicist model of professionalism, that fail sufficiently to recognise the lived experiences of teachers within the sector both in terms of professional knowledge and competences, and professional development. This paper takes a different approach, drawing on a branch of material semiotics – actor-network theory – in order to shift the locus of problematisation away from what the standards might mean, to how the standards are physically assembled or instantiated. The paper concludes by suggesting that a first point of problematisation rests not in the discourses that the standards embody, but in the inherent fragilities of any material artefact that has the intention of carrying meaning across spatial, institutional or temporal boundaries.
Knowledge Conversion Processes in Thai Public Organisations Seen as an Innovation
Authors: Charnkit Puripat , Tatnall Arthur
Published: October 2011

This article uses data collected for a study undertaken in the mid-2000s using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to investigate knowledge conversion processes in a Thai Government Ministry. The authors re-analyse this study making use of the power of actor-network theory. The original TAM study, based on technological innovation, investigated the relationship between technology support and management of the knowledge conversion process in a government ministry in Thailand to increase knowledge sharing. The original study found that a number of external variables impacted on the knowledge conversion process, including personal details, training, tools of persuasion, national background and culture, management and policies, employee behaviour, management, and policies and computing support. This paper briefly outlines the findings of the original study and discusses how an ANT study would have approached this material. An analysis is then made of how an Innovation Translation approach differs fundamentally from one using the Technology Acceptance Model.
Niche Genetic Algorithm Based on Sexual Reproduction and Multimodal Function Optimization Problem
Authors: Tian Yulong , Gao Tao , Zhai Weifang , Hu Yaying , Li Xinfeng
Published: October 2011

In this paper, a genetic algorithm with sexual reproduction and niche selection technology is proposed. Simple genetic algorithm has been successfully applied to many evolutionary optimization problems. But there is a problem of premature convergence for complex multimodal functions. To solve it, the frame and realization of niche genetic algorithm based on sexual reproduction are presented. Age and sexual structures are given to the individuals referring the sexual reproduction and “niche” phenomena, importing the niche selection technology. During age and sexual operators, different evolutionary parameters are given to the individuals with different age and sexual structures. As a result, this genetic algorithm can combat premature convergence and keep the diversity of population. The testing for Rastrigin function and Shubert function proves that the niche genetic algorithm based on sexual reproduction is effective.
A Novel Design of Motion Detector Using Mouse Sensor
Authors: Zhang Boning , Wang Xiangdong , Qian Yueliang , Lin Shouxun
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a novel design using a mouse sensor to construct a system for motion detection in normal vision environment. A mouse sensor is packed under an optical mouse for detecting the motion of mouse on desktop and sending out the data and parameters to a controller or a computer directly. This paper introduces this kind of sensor to vision motion detection field by designing and building a circuit system. The feasibility of the design is demonstrated and degree of reliability is measured by experiments performed on the designed system. Additionally the authors point out the advantages of this design in comparison with other traditional methods or devices in brief.
TB-WPRO
Authors: Chen Qihua , Wang Xiangdong , Qian Yueliang
Published: October 2011

For cell phone users and blind people using non-visual browsers, browsing Web by common browsers is quite inefficient due to the problem of information overload. This paper presents the TB-WPRO (Title-Block based Web Page Re-Organization) method, which hierarchically segments web pages into blocks using visual and layout information reflecting the web designers’ intent. TB-WPRO segments the web pages with a clear goal to extract self-described title blocks. To reorganize web pages, the segmentation result is transformed to a serial of small web pages that could be easily accessed. Compared to current methods, the proposed approach obtains a promising segmentation result where blocks are visually and semantically consistent with original web pages.
Run-Time Compositional Software Platform for Autonomous NXT Robots
Authors: Gui Ning , De Florio Vincenzo , Blondia Chris
Published: October 2011

Autonomous Robots normally perform tasks in unstructured environments, with little or no continuous human guidance. This calls for context-aware, self-adaptive software systems. This paper aims at providing a flexible adaptive middleware platform to seamlessly integrate multiple adaptation logics during the run-time. To support such an approach, a reconfigurable middleware system “ACCADA” was designed to provide compositional adaptation. During the run-time, context knowledge is used to select the most appropriate adaptation modules so as to compose an adaptive system best-matching the current exogenous and endogenous conditions. Together with a structure modeler, this allows robotic applications’ structure to be autonomously (re)-constructed and (re)-configured. This paper applies this model on a Lego NXT robot system. A remote NXT model is designed to wrap and expose native NXT devices into service components that can be managed during the run-time. A dynamic UI is implemented which can be changed and customized according to system conditions. Results show that the framework changes robot adaptation behavior during the run-time.
Evaluation Framework for Adaptive Multi-Path Inter-Domain Routing Protocols
Authors: Camacho Jose M. , Prieto Lisardo , Valera Francisco
Published: October 2011

The simultaneous usage of multiple paths in communication networks has the potential to generate important benefits like better utilization of available resources and higher resiliency. Routing solutions with poor adaptive performance can benefit from multi-path techniques, since information about alternative paths is gathered beforehand. In particular, this study explores the embracement of multi-path routing by inter-domain routing protocols, which have been proven to have large convergence delay after network changes. Unfortunately, there are not many tools available to evaluate and compare the adaptive properties of different multi-path inter-domain routing proposals. An evaluation framework for those proposals is presented in this paper. The framework is aimed to provide a common ground for their evaluation and comparison. It is conceived based on a Swiss-army-knife approach and has a modular and extensible architecture. For completeness, a case of use is depicted to show the functionality and analyses that can be carried out using this framework.
A Distributed Monitoring Framework for Opportunistic Communication Systems An Experimental Approach
Authors: Carreras Iacopo , Zanardi Andrea , Salvadori Elio , Miorandi Daniele
Published: October 2011

Opportunistic communication systems aim at producing and sharing digital resources by means of localized wireless data exchanges among mobile nodes. The design and evaluation of systems able to exploit this emerging communication paradigm is a challenging problem. This paper presents the authors’ experience in developing U-Hopper, a middleware running over widely diffused mobile handsets and supporting the development of context-aware services based on opportunistic communications. The authors present the design of the platform, and describe the distributed monitoring framework that was set up in order to monitor and dynamically reconfigure it at run time. The paper concludes with an experimental evaluation of the framework, showing its practical utilization when monitoring an operational opportunistic communication system.
Duty Cycle Measurement Techniques for Adaptive and Resilient Autonomic Systems
Authors: Taddia Chiara , Mazzini Gianluca , Rovatti Riccardo
Published: October 2011

When systems are deployed in environments where change is the rule rather than the exception, adaptability and resilience play a crucial role in order to preserve good quality of service. This work analyses methods that can be adopted for the duty cycle measurement of sensor-originated waveforms. These methods start from the assumption that no regular sampling is possible and thus they are naturally thought for an adaptive coexistence with other heterogeneous and variable tasks. Hence, the waveform carrying the information from low-priority sensors can be sampled only at instants that are non-controlled. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes some algorithms for the duty cycle measurement of a digital pulse train signal that is sampled at random instants. The solutions are easy to implement and lightweight so that they can be scheduled in extremely loaded microcontrollers. The results show a fast convergence to the duty cycle value; in particular, a considerable gain with respect to other known solutions is obtained in terms of the average number of samples necessary to evaluate the duty cycle with a desired accuracy is obtained.
Modeling Virtual Footprints
Authors: Kadaba Rajiv , Budalakoti Suratna , DeAngelis David , Barber K. Suzanne
Published: October 2011

Entities interacting on the web establish their identity by creating virtual personas. These entities, or agents, can be human users or software-based. This research models identity using the Entity-Persona Model, a semantically annotated social network inferred from the persistent traces of interaction between personas on the web. A Persona Mapping Algorithm is proposed which compares the local views of personas in their social network referred to as their Virtual Signatures, for structural and semantic similarity. The semantics of the Entity-Persona Model are modeled by a vector space model of the text associated with the personas in the network, which allows comparison of their Virtual Signatures. This enables all the publicly accessible personas of an entity to be identified on the scale of the web. This research enables an agent to identify a single entity using multiple personas on different networks, provided that multiple personas exhibit characteristic behavior. The agent is able to increase the trustworthiness of on-line interactions by establishing the identity of entities operating under multiple personas. Consequently, reputation measures based on on-line interactions with multiple personas can be aggregated and resolved to the true singular identity.
History Sensitive Cascade Model
Authors: Zhang Yu , Tsikhanovich Maksim , Smilyanov Georgi
Published: October 2011

Diffusion is a process by which information, viruses, ideas, or new behavior spread over social networks. Traditional diffusion models are history insensitive, i.e. only giving activated nodes a one-time chance to activate each of its neighboring nodes with some probability. But history dependent interactions between people are often observed in the real world. This paper proposes the History Sensitive Cascade Model (HSCM), a model of information cascade through a network over time. The authors consider the “activation” problem of finding the probability of that a particular node receives information given that some nodes are initially informed. In this paper it is also proven that selecting a set of k nodes with greatest expected influence is NP-hard, and results from submodular functions are used to provide a greedy approximation algorithm with a 1–1/e–e lower bound, where e depends polynomially on the precision of the solution to the “activation” problem. Finally, experiments are performed comparing the greedy algorithm to three other approximation algorithms.
Assuring Quality in Online Course Delivery
Authors: Matuga Julia M. , Wooldridge Deborah , Poirier Sandra
Published: October 2011

This paper examines the critical issue of assuring quality online course delivery by examining four key components of online teaching and learning. The topic of course delivery is viewed as a cultural issue that permeates processes from the design of an online course to its evaluation. First, the authors examine and review key components of and tools for designing high impact online courses that support student learning. Second, in this paper, the authors provide suggestions for faculty teaching online courses to assist in creating high quality online courses that supports teaching and, consequently, facilitates opportunities for student learning. Quality online course delivery is also contingent on the support of faculty by administration. Lastly, this paper provides suggestions for conducting course evaluation and feedback loops for the continual improvement of online learning and teaching. These four components are essential elements in assuring quality online courses.
E-Leadership in the New Century
Authors: Wang Viktor
Published: October 2011

This article argues that E-leadership emerged out of technological development among all other major developments in our society. In the virtual environment, leaders are required to lead followers by using different approaches. This is not to say that traditional leadership has no place in the new virtual environment characterized by the constant use of technology. Rather, traditional leadership and leadership style studied and conceptualized by researchers and scholars enhance E-leadership supported by Rogers’ facilitative leadership. Leadership theories are meant to be applied to practice. Further, leadership theories can be applied in part or in whole. They are not ideologies that must be followed to the letter.
Vocational Interests and Needs of Unemployed, Low-Education Adults with Severe Substance Abuse Problems in Anchorage, Alaska
Authors: Johnson Mark E. , Reynolds Grace , Fisher Dennis G. , Harbke Colin R.
Published: October 2011

Vocational assessment data were collected from 94 low-education adults with severe substance abuse problems not currently in treatment. Participants completed the My Vocational Situation (MVS), Self-Directed Search (SDS), and Reading-Free Vocational Interest Inventory (R-FVII). Lower scores than the normative sample were revealed on all MVS scales, with scores for men being significantly lower than the normative sample. These findings indicate that these participants, particularly the men, lack a clear and stable view of their occupational future, need information to clarify their occupational options and goals, and perceive multiple barriers in attaining employment. SDS and R-FVII results provide detailed information about these participants’ occupational interests and vocational likes and dislikes. These findings highlight vocational counseling and guidance as critical needs for individuals with severe substance abuse problems who are unable or unwilling to seek treatment. Providing vocational services to this out-of-treatment population may be an essential pathway for their long-term recovery.
Improving Accessibility for Seniors in a Life-long Learning Network
Authors: Gu Xiaoqing , Ding Rui , Fu Shirong
Published: October 2011

Senior citizens are comparatively vulnerable in accessing learning opportunities offered on the Internet due to usability problems in current web design. In an effort to build a senior-friendly learning web as a part of the Life-long Learning Network in Shanghai, usability studies of two websites currently available to Shanghai senior citizens were conducted, with the intention of integrating these websites into a senior learning web as well as promoting accessibility for senior users. Through this study usability problems were identified generating suggested changes for designing websites focused on learning by seniors. This study contributes empirical findings to the field of information system design and its accessibility for seniors.
Online Instructors
Authors: Wang Viktor , Kania-Gosche Beth
Published: October 2011

This study investigates the andragogical and pedagogical teaching philosophies of online instructors at the California State University, Long Beach in the Spring Semester of 2010. Drawing from reflective adult education theory, this article proposes a new model for this reflective adult education theory. It is either the helping relationship (andragogical philosophy) or the directing relationship (pedagogical philosophy) plus the learning environment (the Internet) that leads to adult learners’ critical reflection in Mezirow’s (1991) terms. A researcher-designed survey instrument called Online Philosophy of Adult Education Scale (OPAES) was used to measure instructional preferences of these instructors in the electronic classroom to determine their andragogical or pedagogical teaching philosophies. Data were collected from 37 online instructors regarding their instructional preferences. Nine qualitative questions were designed to parallel the Likert scale OPAES to determine why these online adult education instructors chose their pedagogical or andragogical teaching philosophies. The results of the study demonstrate that these online adult education instructors support both the teacher-centered approach and the student-centered approach to teaching online.
The Scenario of a Learning Society Model Toward Promoting a Positive Paradigm Shift for Communities
Authors: Charungkaittikul Suwithida
Published: October 2011

This study uses a prospective qualitative approach. The Ethnographic Delphi Futures Research (EDFR) technique is used to propose a learning society model. The data include a review of peer-reviewed literature, a field study visit and observation of five best practices communities in Thailand, in-depth interviews to gain experts’ perspectives, mini-Delphi techniques questionnaires, focus group discussions, and model evaluation. Qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed using content-analysis. Policy makers, practitioners from public and private agencies, educational personnel, and community leaders were among the 42 individuals involved in the data collection effort. Results revealed essential elements for development of a learning society including, principles, developmental processes, strategies, and key success factors to enhance a positive paradigm shift for communities. It is anticipated that the findings will (1) add meaningful information and practical guidelines for developing a learning society, (2) contribute to ensuring the quality of citizen participation and ensure balanced and sustainable development of communities and societies, and (3) serve as a basis for further research.
Educational Leadership and Ralph Tyler
Authors: Wang Viktor , Parker Judith
Published: October 2011

This article addresses the traditional instructional leadership (characterized with Tyler’s four questions; teachers prescribe a curriculum; learners assume a submissive role of following instructors) in comparison with the andragogical or innovative instructional leadership. As more and more scholars cast their doubt on this particular instructional mode (traditional instructional leadership), especially when compared with the innovative instructional leadership, this article seeks to draw on traditional instructional leadership that revolves around Ralph Tyler’s model. In doing so, instructors and practitioners will see clearly what the traditional instructional leadership may bring to most education settings and above all, they may rely on a ready-made formula when planning curriculums, instruction, program planning, or evaluation. While traditional instructional leadership may have come under much criticism, there is much to learn from it.
Identifying Predictors of Academic Success for Part-time Students at Polytechnic Institutes in Malaysia
Authors: Ibrahim Norhayati , Freeman Steven A. , Shelley Mack C.
Published: October 2011

A central challenge for higher education today is to understand the diversity and complexity of nontraditional students’ life experiences and how these factors influence their academic success. To better understand these issues, this study explored the role of demographic characteristics and employment variables in predicting the academic success of part-time students at four polytechnic institutes in Malaysia. Demographic characteristics studied included respondent’s age, gender, marital status, number of children, parent’s educational level, and financial resources. Employment variables assessed were number of years working, job relatedness to the program, job satisfaction, and monthly salary. A total of 614 part-time students completed the survey. Results indicated that being an older student, being female, paying for their own education, and having high job satisfaction were statistically significant predictors of part-time students’ academic success. Understanding the effects of demographic characteristics and employment variables on students’ academic success might help administrators and educators to develop teaching and learning processes, support services, and policies to enhance part-time students’ academic success.
Semantic Mobile Applications for Service Process Improvement
Authors: Aleksy Markus , Stieger Bernd , Janke Thomas
Published: October 2011

The ongoing evolution of industrial field service is mainly driven by demographical changes, increasing complexity of products, and tremendous amounts of product information from enterprise information systems as well as from the emerging Internet of Things. To cope with these challenges, a combined approach utilizing semantic and mobile technologies fosters the provision of the right information, at the right time, in the right place, and to the right people. This paper investigates the exploitation potential of semantic mobile applications to support industrial service processes. Based on identified application scenarios, the authors developed concepts for process improvement and, thus, derived requirements. The necessary semantic data federations are considered in the presented architecture, which enables an integrated approach for tailored information retrieval from heterogeneous information sources.
Acquiring the Gist of Social Network Service Threads via Comparison with Wikipedia
Authors: Nadamoto Akiyo , Aramaki Eiji , Abekawa Takeshi , Murakami Yohei
Published: October 2011

Internet-based social network services (SNSs) have grown increasingly popular and are producing a great amount of content. Multiple users freely post their comments in SNS threads, and extracting the gist of these comments can be difficult due to their complicated dialog. In this paper, the authors propose a system that explores this concept of the gist of an SNS thread by comparing it with Wikipedia. The granularity of information in an SNS thread differs from that in Wikipedia articles, which implies that the information in a thread may be related to different articles on Wikipedia. The authors extract target articles on Wikipedia based on its link graph. When an SNS thread is compared with Wikipedia, the focus is on the table of contents (TOC) of the relevant Wikipedia articles. The system uses a proposed coverage degree to compare the comments in a thread with the information in the TOC. If the coverage degree is higher, the Wikipedia paragraph becomes the gist of the thread.
Micro Context-Awareness for Autonomic Pervasive Computing
Authors: Abdulrazak Bessam , Roy Patrice , Gouin-Vallerand Charles , Belala Yacine , Giroux Sylvain
Published: October 2011

Context-aware software provides adapted services to users or other software components. On the other hand, Autonomic Pervasive Computing uses context to reduce the complexity of pervasive system utilization, management and maintenance. This paper describes two context-awareness models, the macro and micro approaches, that define and integrate contextual views of individual pervasive components (micro level) and global knowledge of the system (macro level), and provides a more detailed overview of a micro Context-aware programming model for open smart space problems. These models are presented and compared with respect to their ability to meet the requirements of the Autonomic Pervasive Computing concept of the four selves.
How Evolving Network Access and Network Management Technologies are Redefining the Competitive Wireless Markets
Authors: Beltrán Fernando , Gutiérrez Jairo A. , Melús José Luis
Published: October 2011

This paper examines some of the key problems users encounter when accessing current generation wireless networks. Using a case study of a hypothetical user, the authors explore the emerging services and the new broadband wireless network technologies necessary to carry them out. This paper analyses the issues associated with an observed trend in the industry that exposes potential changes to the long-term, rigid commercial relation between wireless providers and users: as a result of a range of evolved broadband wireless access standards and technologies, autonomic communications and policy-based management, and new pricing schemes, consumers will likely face new opportunities to enter short-term and spot contracts with the new wireless providers. This new landscape also allow multiple competing Access Providers (APs) to dynamically assign prices, and poses new and interesting challenges to the regulatory function. The paper also discusses a framework for the integration of heterogeneous technologies and management policies based on the network context that make up this emerging, hybrid wireless landscape, and describes the economic characteristics of new markets likely to arise.
Mitigating Risk
Authors: Lozito Ken
Published: October 2011

Business Intelligence (BI) has often been described as the tools and systems that play an essential role in the strategic planning process of a corporation. The application of BI is most commonly associated with the analysis of sales and stock trends, pricing and customer behavior to inform business decision-making. There is a growing trend in utilizing the tools and processes used in the analysis of data and applying them to security event management. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) has emerged within the last 10 years providing a centralized source to enable both real-time and deep level analysis of historical event data to drive security standards and align IT resources in a more efficient manner.
Discovering Business Intelligence from the Subjective Web Data
Authors: Bose Ranjit
Published: October 2011

The online word-of-mouth behavior that exists today in the Web represents new and measurable sources of information. The automated discovery or mining of consumer opinions from these sources is of great importance for marketing intelligence and product benchmarking. Techniques are now being developed to effectively and easily mine the consumer opinions from the Web data and to timely deliver them to companies and individual consumers. This study investigates this emerging field named ‘opinion mining’ in terms of what it is, what it can do, and how it could be used effectively for business intelligence (BI). A rigorous review of the research literature on opinion mining is conducted to explore its current state, issues and challenges for its use in developing business applications for competitive advantage. The study aims to assist business managers to better understand the current opportunities and challenges in using opinion mining for deriving BI. Future research directions for further development of the field are also identified.
Performance Management Through Societal Performance Indicators
Authors: White Joe
Published: October 2011

Performance management is tied to external forces and stakeholders whose assessment of performance is more focused on societal outcomes than purely financial outcomes. Government, corporate, and even personal performance measurement should take into account societal indicators that link these disparate yet intertwined spheres of influence. New initiatives in both government and commercial sectors are bringing greater understanding of how societal indicators can measure performance. This paper highlights how societal indicators are used to measure performance in corporate and government sectors. Corporate societal indicators are explored primarily though literary research. Government societal indicators are explored through an examination of the EPA and Superfund program. The paper demonstrates that there is synergy between corporate, government, and personal government performance measures and how business intelligence tools are making these relationships more transparent.
Materials of the Data Map
Authors: Evans Brian
Published: October 2011

Data mapping is the essence of being human. This report follows the process of data mapping; the transmission of a structured utterance from one domain to another. It starts with signals in the world and moves through experience and engagement with the world through those signals. The paper develops descriptions of the materials and mechanisms of data mapping. The descriptions are aids and conveniences in the effort to understand the systemic workings of the process of communication. From a systems perspective one might find points of leverage in their own involvement with the processes of communication and data mapping. Recognizing these leverage points can help in activities of art making, information design and in simply living.
Creative Interfaces
Authors: Armiano Ioana
Published: October 2011

Recent developments in process interaction solutions are helping companies and educational institutions to reduce training costs, enhance visualization, and increase communication. Service personnel can make more informed decisions by allowing a broad range of employees to access data instantly. New 3D interactive technologies incorporated into training applications and learning environments together with the introduction of the one projector 3D solution is rapidly changing the landscape for education. Over the last 10 years, virtual reality applications have been applied in various industries; medical, aircraft computer modeling, training simulations for offshore drilling platforms, product configuration, and 3D visualization solutions for education and R&D. This paper examines emergent visualization technologies, their influence on market growth and on new perceptions of learning and teaching. It describes the interrelationship between technology development, technology providers, product launches, R&D, and the motivation to learn and teach new skills. The paper incorporates social, technological, and global markets growth drives, describing the pull and drag synergy between these forces.
On Not Being Able to Draw a Mousetrap
Authors: Walker James Faure
Published: October 2011

A hundred years ago officers entering the Royal Navy took an exam where they had to draw a mouse-trap. At the time there was much discussion, and some despair, about competence, and about teaching. For amateurs, drawing manuals provided instructions on how to render a still life in 3D, or draw a running figure, tasks that would now be effortless given current software. Today much debate about drawing, its purpose, and about ‘digital drawing’, and de-skilling. Graphics programs are designed for ‘realism’. But contemporary drawing looks in the opposite direction: into the processes of drawing; the expressive mark; and the structure and character of the line. Those who deal with the evolving gadgetry of digital drawing have had to contend both with unhelpful software, and with an art world that has yet to realise the scope of this new visual universe.
Towards the Synergy of Cognitive Informatics, Neural Informatics, Brain Informatics, and Cognitive Computing
Authors: Wang Yingxu
Published: October 2011

The contemporary wonder of sciences and engineering recently refocused on the starting point: how the brain processes internal and external information autonomously rather than imperatively as those of conventional computers? This paper explores the interplay and synergy of cognitive informatics, neural informatics, abstract intelligence, denotational mathematics, brain informatics, and computational intelligence. A key notion recognized in recent studies in cognitive informatics is that the root and profound objective in natural, abstract, and artificial intelligence, and in cognitive informatics and cognitive computing, is to seek suitable mathematical means for their special needs. A layered reference model of the brain and a set of cognitive processes of the mind are systematically developed towards the exploration of the theoretical framework of cognitive informatics. A wide range of applications of cognitive informatics and denotational mathematics are recognized in the development of highly intelligent systems such as cognitive computers, cognitive knowledge search engines, autonomous learning machines, and cognitive robots.
Cognitive MIMO Radio
Authors: Li Mingming , Lin Jiaru , Liu Fazhong , Wang Dongxu , Guo Li
Published: October 2011

The authors consider a cognitive radio network in which a set of cognitive users make opportunistic spectrum access to one primary channel by time-division multiplexing technologies. Multiple Input Multiple Output techniques (MIMO) are similarly considered to enhance the stable throughput for cognitive links while they should guarantee co-channel interference constraints to the primary link. Here, two different cases are considered: one is that cognitive radio network is distributed; the other is centrally-controlled that cognitive radio network has a cognitive base station. In the first case, how to choose one fixed cognitive user and power control for each transmission antenna at the cognitive base station are considered to maximize the cognitive link’s stable throughput. In the second case, a scheme to choose a group of cognitive users and a Zero-Forcing method to pre-white co-channel interference to the primary user, are also proposed in order to maximize cognitive base station’s sum-rate. The algorithm can be employed to realize opportunistic spectrum transmission over the wireless fading channels.
Does the Introduction of RFID Technology Improve Livestock Subsidy Management?
Authors: Rouibah Kamel , Al Ateeqi Abdulaziz , Rouibah Samia
Published: October 2011

While the expected benefits and challenges of RFID technology have been well studied in the manufacturing and service sectors at the private organization level, little understanding exists of these two issues when exploring RFID adoption in the agricultural field and at the public organizational level. Previous tracking programs in Kuwait have been unsuccessful in reducing illegal activities that lead to fraud and the wasting of public money in animal feed programs. To alleviate these problems, an RFID program, supported by information systems, was designed to help monitor and control feed distribution and animal tracking. Unlike previous studies, this case describes the application of RFID for the tracking and monitoring of livestock by the Kuwait Public Authority of Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources. It reviewed the subsidy process before and after RFID adoption and found a large reduction in the actual number of animals claimed after RFID adoption, which reduced fraud and increased animal accountability.
A Crisis at Hafford Furniture
Authors: Levine Keith , White Bruce A.
Published: October 2011

This case presents a cloud computing technology solution that gives promise to a company devastated by a natural disaster. After a hurricane, the company recovered because of a solid disaster recovery plan, although it was financially strapped. The Vice President of Information Technology suggested using cloud computing to cut internal information technology costs. With a cloud computing solution, the IT department would go from twelve people to six. IT infrastructure (servers, hardware, programs, processing) would be done by a vendor (“the cloud”), although responsibility for information technology would be retained by the company. The case presents a background in cloud computing and cloudonomics. As the case unfolds, the authors find that proper oversight was neglected; rash decisions were made; and a crisis developed. The president took matters into his own hands, and without following proper protocols, selected a vendor that later went bankrupt and forced the company into dire circumstances.
Agile Knowledge-Based E-Government Supported By Sake System
Authors: Ko Andrea , Kovács Barna , Gábor András
Published: October 2011

The evolution of e-Government services is fast. There is a limited time for adaptation to the new environment in terms of legislation, society, and economy. Maintaining reliable services and a secure IT environment is even more difficult with perpetual changes like mergers and acquisitions, supply chain activity, staff turnover, and regulatory variation. Nature of the changes has become discontinuous; however, the existing approaches and IT solutions are inadequate for highly dynamic and volatile processes. The management of these challenges requires harmonized change management and knowledge management strategy. In this paper, the selected change management strategy and the corresponding knowledge management strategy and their IT support is analysed from the public administration point of view. SAKE project (FP6 IST-2005-027128 funded by the European Commission) approach and IT solution are detailed to demonstrate the strategic view and to solve the knowledge management and change management related problems and challenges in public administration. The current situation of economic downturn and political change forces public administration to follow the reconfiguration of existing resources strategy, which is appropriate on the short run, moreover the combined application of personalization and codification strategy can result in long-term success.
The FBI Sentinel Project
Authors: Olszewski Leah , Wingreen Stephen C.
Published: October 2011

In 2000, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated its Trilogy program in order to upgrade FBI infrastructure technologies, address national security concerns, and provide agents and analysts greater investigative abilities through creation of an FBI-wide network and improved user applications. Lacking an appropriate enterprise architecture foundation, IT expertise, and management skills, the FBI cancelled further development of Trilogy Phase 3, Virtual Case File (VCF), with prime contractor SAIC after numerous delays and increasing costs. The FBI began development of Sentinel in 2006 through Lockheed Martin. Unlike in the case of Trilogy, the FBI decided to implement a service-oriented architecture (SOA) provided in part by commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, clarify contracts and requirements, increase its use of metrics and oversight through the life of the project, and employ IT personnel differently in order to meet Sentinel objectives. Although Lockheed Martin was eventually released from their role in the project due to inadequate performance, the project is still moving forward on account of the use of best practices. The case highlights key events in both VCF and Sentinel development and demonstrates the FBI’s IT transformation over the past four years.
Optimization Model and Algorithm Help to Screen and Treat Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Authors: Zhao Kun , Chen Guantao , Gift Thomas , Tao Guoyu
Published: October 2011

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) are two common sexually transmitted diseases among women in the United States. Publicly funded programs usually do not have enough money to screen and treat all patients. Therefore, the authors propose a new resource allocation model to assist clinical managers to make decisions on identifying at-risk population groups, as well as selecting a screening and treatment strategy for CT and GC patients under a fixed budget. At the same time, the authors also develop a two-step branch-and-bound algorithm tailor-made for our model. Running on real-life data, the algorithm calculates the optimal solution within a very short time. The new algorithm also improves the accuracy of an approximate solution obtained by Excel Solver. This study has shown that a resource allocation model and algorithm might have a significant impact on real clinical issues.
Relevance of Mesh Dimension Optimization, Geometry Simplification and Discretization Accuracy in the Study of Mechanical Behaviour of Bare Metal Stents
Authors: Gagliardi Mariacristina
Published: October 2011

In this paper, a set of analyses on the deployment of coronary stents by using a nonlinear finite element method is proposed. The author proposes a convergence test able to select the appropriate mesh dimension and a methodology to perform the simplification of structures composed of cyclically repeated units to reduce the number of degree of freedom and the analysis run time. A systematic study, based on the analysis of seven meshes for each model, is performed, gradually reducing the element dimension. In addition, geometric models are simplified considering symmetries; adequate boundary conditions are applied and verified based on the results obtained from analysis of the whole model.
Home Blood Pressure Measurement
Authors: Kaur Gurmanik , Arora Ajat Shatru , Jain Vijender Kumar
Published: October 2011

Hypertension, the leading global risk factor for early mortality, cannot be detected or treated without accurate and practical methods of blood pressure (BP) measurement. Although home BP measurement has considerable popularity among patients, the lack of evidence needed to assure its place in modern clinical practice has hindered its widespread acceptance among physicians. This paper demonstrates that home BP measurement is more accurate than conventional clinic and ambulatory monitoring BP measurement and can be used effectively in clinical practice. On the basis of the data from different studies, it can be concluded that home BP measurement is an improvement over conventional clinic BP measurement. Home monitoring of BP is a convenient, accurate, and widely available option and may become the method of choice when diagnosing and treating hypertension. A paradigm shift is needed in BP measurement as evidence-based medicine suggests that clinic BP measurement should only be used for screening purposes.
Information Therapy (Ix) Service and Patients’ Preference
Authors: Gavgani Vahideh Zarea
Published: October 2011

To establish, encourage and support a successful Information Therapy service in a developing country, it is essential to identify the preferences of patients, their information needs and attitudes toward CHI and Ix. In this paper, the author examines the attitudes of patients receiving health information and information prescription in Iran. An exploratory survey with an open interview and structured questionnaire was conducted to gather data from patients of educational hospitals and clinics in Tabriz, Iran. Tabriz’s diverse dialects and literacy levels mimic a developing nation, ensuring that the findings are transferable to other developing countries. The study reveals that patients’ information needs are generally related to basic issues of health. The level of literacy impacts neither the demand for health information nor the patients’ preferred channel to receive CHI and information prescription. A localized approach, considering the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of a developing country like Iran and its limitation in using applications of information and communication technology, would make the Information Therapy and Consumer Health Information Services successful.
Do Attitudes Toward Careers in Sales Differ Based on Country of Origin?
Authors: Pettijohn Charlie , Pettijohn Linda
Published: October 2011

Personal selling is a profession that has been described as requiring skilled and professional employees. Although employers have looked toward colleges and universities as sources of potential new sales employees in the past, the complexity and professionalism required in sales has led employers to recruit graduate students to fill the sales role. This research evaluates the exposure of students pursuing their MBA degrees to sales and their attitudes toward sales to identify how these attitudes might affect the recruiting process. Further, given the prevalence of international business operations, the study identifies sales attitudes and sales exposure in a comparative fashion by assessing the responses of MBA students in the US and in UK The results provide insights into differences in attitudes and sales knowledge between students enrolled in MBA courses in the two countries. Based on these findings, conclusions and suggestions for employers and educational institutions are developed.
An Approach for Hand Vein Representation and Indexing
Authors: Guru D S , Nagasundara K B , Manjunath S , Dinesh R
Published: October 2011

This paper proposes a model for representing and indexing of hand vein images. The proposed representation model identifies the junction points and perceives the spatial relationships existing among all junction points in hand vein images by the use of triangular spatial relationship (TSR). The model preserves the TSR among the junction points in a symbolic hand vein image by the use of quadruples and for each quadruple, a unique TSR key is generated. A novel methodology to label the junction points based on graph properties of junction points is also proposed. A Symbolic Hand Vein Image Database (SHVID) is created through the construction of B-tree, an efficient multilevel indexing structure. A methodology to retrieve similar symbolic hand vein images for a given query image is also presented. The proposed methodology has shown promising results.