bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Requirements Management
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: April 2011

Existing literature (Boehm, 1981; Brooks, 1987; Cook, 2002) and empirical studies (Basili & Perricone, 1984; Emam & Madhavji, 1995; Marshall & Rossman, 1989) emphasize the importance of the Requirement Engineering (RE) activities as these activities have a strong and positive correlation with the success of most software projects. Four of the ten main success factors deal with RE: user involvement, clear business objectives, minimized scope, and firm basic requirements. RE can be broadly defined as the process of discovering, identifying, and documenting the actual customer needs (Nuseibeh & Easterbrook, 2000). This chapter focuses on Requirements Management (RM), one of the main activities in the RE process. RM is about organizing the information and requirements gathered during the RE process and managing changes of these requirements (Grehag, 2001).
Maga Vitta
Authors: Axt Margarete , Teresinha Longhi Magalí , Dias Silveira Paloma , Nunes Guimarães Lucas
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents the development of CIVITAS project for the construction of virtual cities, particularly with regards to Maga Vitta, which is an interactive agent ecologically concerned as the collective city develops. CIVITAS project consists of four environments: a creativity environment, an environment for interactive distance communication, study and research environment, and educational game-like environment, in order to give better pedagogical support to both, dialogical processes, and sociocognitive learning processes of students in primary school. The Maga Vitta belongs to the creativity environment of CIVITAS, and is an affective, embodied, conversational agent with an ethical point of view based on respect and solidarity relations amongst the city inhabitants and a regulating ecological pattern. She recognizes the user’s actions and express emotions as it follows the user, offering support, advice, deciding tasks, and memorizing the user’s actions during the construction of the virtual city under development in the CIVITAS pedagogical environment.
Constructing Intelligent Tutoring Systems Based on a Multiagent Architecture
Authors: Bittencourt Ig , de Barros Costa Evandro , Fonseca dos Santos Neto Baldoíno , Guilherme Maia de Menezes João , Santana Melo Jairo Simão , Ferneda Edilson , Bernardi da Silva Ana Paula , Brasil Lourdes Mattos
Published: April 2011

Tools to make the development of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) easier and more efficient are a relevant topic within the artificial intelligence in education community. This chapter presents a set of tools for constructing multiagent-based ITS, and describes a methodology for guiding the development of ITS. The main goal is to make multiagent-based ITS development more efficient and useful for both developers and authors. This has been done to support development of tutors based on Mathema’s environment as a reference model. Basically, in order to create a particular ITS, authors have to consider three main steps concerned with domain, student, and pedagogical models. A case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results of this case study show that this proposal makes the process of building the considered ITS easier and more efficient.
An Architecture for Developing Multiagent Educational Applications for the Web
Authors: Triantis Tasos , Pintelas Panayiotis
Published: April 2011

New applications in training and education are emerging daily trying to meet the requirements of distance learners. Network-based or World Wide Web (WWW)-based intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) are expected to meet most of these requirements. In this context, software agents seem to be a promising distributed software technology that can be used to implement WWW ITSs. In this chapter, we present a multiagent approach for constructing an educational application for distance learning. The proposed architecture exploits the assumption that each teaching subject can be regarded as the synthesis of elementary pieces of knowledge, each of which can be presented by an independent expert. Moreover, in order to better support individualized learning, a mobile agent is placed at the disposal of each distance learner.
Mobile Phone and Visual Tags
Authors: Avvenuti Marco , Vecchio Alessio
Published: April 2011

The growing ubiquity and usability of smart mobile phones can be exploited to develop popular and realistic pervasive computing applications. Adding image processing capabilities to a mobile phone equipped with a built-in camera makes it an easy-to-use device for linking physical objects to a networked computing environment. This chapter describes an extensible and portable programming platform that, using bi-dimensional visual tags, turns mass-market camera-phones into a system able to capture digital information from real objects, use such information to download specific application code, and act as a GUI for interacting with object-dependent computational services. The system includes a module for on-phone extraction of visual coded information and supports the dynamic download of mobile applications.
Device Localization in Ubiquitous Computing Environments
Authors: Huang Rui , Záruba Gergely V. , Das Sajal
Published: April 2011

In this chapter, we will study the localization problem in ubiquitous computing environments. In general, localization refers to the problem of obtaining (semi-) accurate physical location of the devices in a dynamic environment in which only a small subset of the devices know their exact location. Using localization techniques, other devices can indirectly derive their own location by means of some measurement data such as distance and angle to their neighbors. Localization is now regarded as an enabling technology for ubiquitous computing environments because it can substantially increase the performance of other fundamental tasks such as routing, energy conservation, and network security. Localization is also a difficult problem because it is computationally intractable. Furthermore, it has to be implemented in a highly dynamic and distributed environment in which measurement data is often subject to noise. In this chapter, we will give an overview of localization in terms of its common applications, its hardware capacities, its algorithms, and its computational complexity.
Enabling Programmable Ubiquitous Computing Environments
Authors: Julien Christine , Kabadayi Sanem
Published: April 2011

Emerging pervasive computing scenarios involve client applications that dynamically collect information directly from the local environment. The sophisticated distribution and dynamics involved in these applications place an increased burden on developers that create applications for these environments. The heightened desire for rapid deployment of a wide variety of pervasive computing applications demands a new approach to application development in which domain experts with minimal programming expertise are empowered to rapidly construct and deploy domainspecific applications. This chapter introduces the DAIS (Declarative Applications in Immersive Sensor networks) middleware that abstracts a heterogeneous and dynamic pervasive computing environment into intuitive and accessible programming constructs. At the programming interface level, this requires exposing some aspects of the physical world to the developer, and DAIS accomplishes this through a suite of novel programming abstractions that enable on-demand access to dynamic local data sources. A fundamental component of the model is a hierarchical view of pervasive computing middleware that allows devices with differing capabilities to support differing amounts of functionality. This chapter reports on our design of the DAIS middleware and highlights the abstractions, the programming interface, and the reification of the middleware on a heterogeneous combination of client devices and resource-constrained sensors.
Determinants of User Acceptance for RFID Ticketing Systems
Authors: Karaiskos Dimitrios C. , Kourouthanassis Panayiotis E.
Published: April 2011

RFID ticketing systems constitute a particular type of pervasive information systems providing spectators of sports events with a transparent mechanism to validate and renew tickets. This study seeks to investigate the factors that influence user acceptance of RFID ticketing systems. The theoretical background of the study was drawn from the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the innovation diffusion theory (IDT), and enhanced with factors related to privacy and switching cost features. The research model was tested with data gathered through a lab experiment (N=71). The participants perceived the system as useful and easy to use, and expressed the willingness to adopt it should it become commercially available. Moreover, the results of ANOVA tests suggest that the age and education of users influence their perception towards the usefulness of the system and its subsequent use.
M-Traffic
Authors: Romão Teresa , Rato Luís , Almada Antão , Dias A. Eduardo
Published: April 2011

Traffic information is crucial in metropolitan areas, where a high concentration of moving vehicles causes traffic congestion and blockage. Appropriate traffic information received at the proper time helps users to avoid unnecessary delays, choosing the fastest route that serves their purposes. This work presents Mobile Traffic (M-Traffic), a multiplatform online traffic information system, which provides real-time traffic information based on image processing, sensor’s data, and traveller behaviour models. This system has a modular architecture that allows it to easily be adapted to new data sources and additional distribution platforms. In order to estimate route delay and feed the optimal routing algorithm, a traffic microscopic simulation model was developed, and simulation results are presented. This mobile information service ubiquitously provides users with traffic information regarding their needs and preferences, according to an alert system, which allows a personalized pre-definition of warning messages.
Towards Ambient Business
Authors: Schmitt Christian , Schoder Detlef , Fischbach Kai , Muhle Steffen
Published: April 2011

Ubiquitous computing enables the development of new innovative applications and services. Particularly influential on future business services will be the connection of the real with the virtual world by embedding computers or smallest processors, memory chips, and sensors into the environment and into physical objects, as well as using natural, multimodal customer interaction. Bearing in mind that ubiquitous computing entails the interaction of mobile smart objects and local smart environments hosted by different service providers, we propose an open approach to encourage the development of new and innovative smart applications and services. Considering the Open Source community, we assert that such an open approach reveals innovation potentials that cannot be achieved in proprietary information system environments. Most research projects, as well as commercial initiatives, however, focus mainly on specific, proprietary applications like smart shopping environments, and do not incorporate further prospects of using an open approach. Therefore, this chapter discusses as a first step the impact of Open Innovation in a world of ubiquitous computing from an economic perspective. Then, the design of an Open Object Information Infrastructure (OOII) that enables Open Innovation in the context of ubiquitous computing is presented. Finally, an innovative smart service called the Federative Library (FedLib), which represents a first instantiation of the OOII, is introduced to demonstrate the feasibility of the design.
Activity-Oriented Computing
Authors: Sousa João Pedro , Schmerl Bradley , Steenkiste Peter , Garlan David
Published: April 2011

This chapter introduces a new way of thinking about software systems for supporting the activities of end-users. In this approach, models of user activities are promoted to first class entities, and software systems are assembled and configured dynamically based on activity models. This constitutes a fundamental change of perspective over traditional applications; activities take the main stage and may be long-lived, whereas the agents that carry them out are plentiful and interchangeable. The core of the chapter describes a closed-loop control design that enables activity-oriented systems to become self-aware and self-configurable, and to adapt to dynamic changes both in the requirements of user activities and in the environment resources. The chapter discusses how that design addresses challenges such as user mobility, resolving conflicts in accessing scarce resources, and robustness in the broad sense of responding adequately to user expectations, even in unpredictable situations, such as random failures, erroneous user input, and continuously changing resources. The chapter further summarizes challenges and ongoing work related to managing activities where humans and automated agents collaborate, human-computer interactions for managing activities, and privacy and security aspects.
Privacy Threats in Emerging Ubicomp Applications
Authors: Vildjiounaite Elena , Rantakokko Tapani , Alahuhta Petteri , Ahonen Pasi , Wright David , Friedwwald Michael
Published: April 2011

Realisation of the Ubicomp vision in the real world creates significant threats to personal privacy due to constant information collection by numerous tiny sensors, active information exchange over short and long distances, long-term storage of large quantities of data, and reasoning based on collected and stored data. An analysis of more than 100 Ubicomp scenarios, however, shows that applications are often proposed without considering privacy issues, whereas existing privacyenhancing technologies mainly have been developed for networked applications and, thus, are not always applicable to emerging applications for smart spaces and personal devices, especially because the users and their data are not spatially separated in such applications. A partial solution to the problem of users’ privacy protection could be to allow users to control how their personal data can be used. The authors’ experience with mobile phone data collection, nevertheless, suggests that when users give their consent for the data collection, they don’t fully understand the possible privacy implications. Thus, application developers should pay attention to privacy protection; otherwise, such problems could result in users not accepting Ubicomp applications. This chapter suggests guidelines for estimating threats to privacy, depending on real world application settings and the choice of technology; and guidelines for the choice and development of technological safeguards against privacy threats.
Forward Dendritic Spikes
Authors: Herreras Oscar , Makarova Julia , Ibarz José Manuel
Published: April 2011

Neurons send trains of action potentials to communicate each other. Different messages are issued according to varying inputs, but they can also mix them up in a multiplexed language transmitted through a single cable, the axon. This remarkable property arises from the capability of dendritic domains to work semi autonomously and even decide output. We review the underlying mechanisms and theoretical implications of the role of voltage-dependent dendritic currents on the forward transmission of synaptic inputs, with special emphasis in the initiation, integration and forward conduction of dendritic spikes. When these spikes reach the axon, output decision was made in one of many parallel dendritic substations. When failed, they still serve as an internal language to transfer information between dendritic domains. This notion brakes with the classic view of neurons as the elementary units of the brain and attributes them computational/storage capabilities earlier billed to complex brain circuits.
Recent Methodology in Connectionist Systems
Authors: Porto Pazos Ana B. , Alvarellos González Alberto , Pazos Sierra Alejandro
Published: April 2011

The Artificial NeuroGlial Networks, which try to imitate the neuroglial brain networks, appeared in order to process the information by means of artificial systems based on biological phenomena. They are not only made of artificial neurons, like the artificial neural networks, but also they are made of elements which try to imitate glial cells. An important glial role related with the processing of the brain information has been recently discovered but, as the functioning of the biological neuroglial networks is not exactly known, it is necessary to test several and different possibilities for creating Artificial NeuroGlial Networks. This chapter shows the functioning methodology of the Artificial NeuroGlial Networks and the application of a possible implementation of artificial glia to classification problems.
An Approach to Artificial Concept Learning Based on Human Concept Learning by Using Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: Mérida-Casermeiro Enrique , López-Rodríguez Domingo , Ortiz-de-Lazcano-Lobato J.M.
Published: April 2011

In this chapter, two important issues concerning associative memory by neural networks are studied: a new model of hebbian learning, as well as the effect of the network capacity when retrieving patterns and performing clustering tasks. Particularly, an explanation of the energy function when the capacity is exceeded: the limitation in pattern storage implies that similar patterns are going to be identified by the network, therefore forming different clusters. This ability can be translated as an unsupervised learning of pattern clusters, with one major advantage over most clustering algorithms: the number of data classes is automatically learned, as confirmed by the experiments. Two methods to reinforce learning are proposed to improve the quality of the clustering, by enhancing the learning of patterns relationships. As a related issue, a study on the net capacity, depending on the number of neurons and possible outputs, is presented, and some interesting conclusions are commented.
Computing vs. Genetics
Authors: Barreiro José M. , Pazos Juan
Published: April 2011

This chapter first presents the interrelations between computing and genetics, which both are based on information and, particularly, self-reproducing artificial systems. It goes on to examine genetic code from a computational viewpoint. This raises a number of important questions about genetic code. These questions are stated in the form of an as yet unpublished working hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that many genetic alterations are caused by the last base of certain codons. If this conclusive hypothesis were to be confirmed through experiementation if would be a significant advance for treating many genetic diseases.
Artificial Mind for Virtual Characters
Authors: Moema Oberg Vilela Iara
Published: April 2011

This chapter discusses guidelines and models of Mind from Cognitive Sciences in order to generate an integrated architecture for an artificial mind that allows various behavior aspects to be simulated in a coherent and harmonious way, showing believability and computational processing viability. Motivations are considered the quantitative, driving forces of the action selection mechanism that guides behavior. The proposed architecture is based on a multi-agent structure, where reactive agents represent motivations (Motivation Agents) or actions (Execution Agents), and cognitive agents (Cognition Agents) embody knowledge-based attention, goal-oriented perception and decision-making processes. Motivation Agents compete for priority, and only winners can activate their corresponding Cognition Agents, thus filtering knowledge processing. Active Cognition Agents negotiate with each other to trigger a specific Execution Agent, which then may change internal and external states, displaying the corresponding animation. If no motivation satisfaction occurs, frustration is expressed by a discharge procedure. Motivations intensities are then accordingly decreased.
Evaluating a Bio-Inspired Approach for the Design of a Grid Information System
Authors: Forestiero Agostino , Mastroianni Carlo , Pupo Fausto , Spezzano Giandomenico
Published: April 2011

This chapter proposes a bio-inspired approach for the construction of a self-organizing Grid information system. A dissemination protocol exploits the activity of ant-inspired mobile agents to replicate and reorganize metadata information on the basis of the characteristics of the related Grid resources. Resource reorganization emerges from simple operations of a large number of agents, in a “swarm intelligence” fashion. Moreover, a discovery protocol allows Grid clients to locate useful resources on the Grid through a semi-informed approach. This chapter also describes the SO-Grid Portal, a simulation portal through which registered users can simulate and analyze the ant-based protocols. This portal can be used by researchers to perform “parameter sweep” studies, as it allows for the graphical comparison of results obtained in previous sessions. We believe that the deployment of the SO-Grid portal, along with the definition and discussion of the protocols presented in this chapter, can foster the understandi ng and use of swarm intelligence, multi-agent and bio-inspired paradigms in the field of distributed computing.
Graph Based Evolutionary Algorithms
Authors: Corns Steven M. , Ashlock Daniel A. , Bryden Kenneth Mark
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents Graph Based Evolutionary Algorithms. Graph Based Evolutionary Algorithms are a generic enhancement and diversity management technique for evolutionary algorithms. These geographically inspired algorithms are different from other methods of diversity control in that they not only control the rate of diversity loss at low runtime cost but also allow for a means to classify evolutionary computation problems. This classification system enables users to select an algorithm a priori that finds a satisfactory solution to their optimization problem in a relatively small number of fitness evaluations. In addition, using the information gathered by evaluating several problems on a collection of graphs, it becomes possible to design test suites of problems which effectively compare a new algorithm or technique to existing methods.
A Genetic Algorithm-Artificial Neural Network Method for the Prediction of Longitudinal Dispersion Coefficient in Rivers
Authors: Yang Jianhua , Hines Evor L. , Guymer Ian , Iliescu Daciana D. , Leeson Mark S. , King Gregory P. , Li XuQuin
Published: April 2011

In this chapter a novel method, the Genetic Neural Mathematical Method (GNMM), for the prediction of longitudinal dispersion coefficient is presented. This hybrid method utilizes Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to identify variables that are being input into a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Artificial Neural Network (ANN), which simplifies the neural network structure and makes the training process more efficient. Once input variables are determined, GNMM processes the data using an MLP with the back-propagation algorithm. The MLP is presented with a series of training examples and the internal weights are adjusted in an attempt to model the input/output relationship. GNMM is able to extract regression rules from the trained neural network. The effectiveness of GNMM is demonstrated by means of case study data, which has previously been explored by other authors using various methods. By comparing the results generated by GNMM to those presented in the literature, the effectiveness of this methodology is demonstrated.
The Exposition of Fuzzy Decision Trees and Their Application in Biology
Authors: Beynon Malcolm J. , Park Kirsty
Published: April 2011

This chapter employs the fuzzy decision tree classification technique in a series of biological based application problems. With its employment in a fuzzy environment, the results, in the form of fuzzy ‘if .. then ..’ decision rules, bring with them readability and subsequent interpretability. The two contrasting applications considered concern, the age of abalones and the lengths of torpor bouts of hibernating Greater Horseshoe bats. Emphasis is on the visual results presented, including the series of membership functions used to construct the linguistic variables representing the considered attributes and the final fuzzy decision trees constructed. Technical details presented further offer the opportunity to readers to future employ the technique in other biological applications.
A Methodology for Government Transformation with Enterprise Architecture
Authors: Saha Pallab
Published: April 2011

Countries across the world are pushing their frontiers in governance in the move to information economy, and governments play a pivotal role in this transformation. These governments employ modern information and communication technologies to serve the citizens and businesses better. Raising the effectiveness and quality of government services is not only a matter of leading edge technologies; it also involves visionary leadership, clear objectives and sound execution mechanism. The role of Enterprise Architecture in shaping E-Government programmes cannot be overstated. Within the context of Singapore’s e-government initiative, this chapter describes the Methodology for AGency ENTerprise Architecture (MAGENTA), a rigorous, disciplined and structured methodology for development of agency enterprise architectures that enables agencies to align to and fully support the government’s transformation objectives and outcomes. Mechanisms for agencies to align to the overall Government Enterprise Architecture are detailed. The chapter concludes with a set of recommendations for future enhancements and research.
Design Integrity and Enterprise Architecture Governance
Authors: Aitken Chris
Published: April 2011

This chapter describes a design integrity framework for developing models of any entity of interest at various levels of abstraction. The design integrity framework presented describes and defines contextual, conceptual, logical and physical model types. The framework also defines a set of alignment attributes for each model type and explains how these are to be used to demonstrate alignment from initial concept and requirements through to actual physical implementation. These concepts are then applied in an organisational context to identify the roles necessary to support an EA governance framework and strong alignment from idea to implementation.
Policy Mapping
Authors: Toavs Dwight V.
Published: April 2011

Few government executives can explain the enterprise architecture of his or her agency, and it is rare to find a political executive who is able to explain how their political objectives are furthered by a government- wide enterprise architecture (Holmes, 2007). This low level of awareness translates to enterprise architecture efforts that are often undervalued and under funded because the budget priorities of political and functional executives rarely include enterprise architecture. Unsurprisingly, many points of tension exist as the CIOs and architects work to translate political goals into resources and architectural plans supporting the agency’s programs. This tension, between the rational orientation of enterprise architecture advocated by the CIO and the political nature of policy goals sought by executives, often puts a CIO at odds with his or her organization’s political and functional executives. This chapter discusses that tension, and advocates that CIOs and enterprise architects develop a “Policy Map” to bridge the gap between the political and the rational perspectives. A policy map provides the “Purpose Reference Model” missing from present architecture models and policies, and visually portrays and communicates key relationships between policy goals and functional programs on the one hand, and the enterprise architecture and its implementing IT initiatives on the other hand. A well-crafted Policy Map is a visual reference for aligning resources, effort, architecture, and the policy goals of political executives.
Enterprise Architecture Management and its Role in IT Governance and IT Investment Planning
Authors: Niemann Klaus D.
Published: April 2011

A comprehensive enterprise architecture management has strategic and operative aspects. Strategic tasks cover the identification of appropriate fields of activity for information technology (IT) investments in accordance with business strategy and portfolio management. Enterprise architecture management is cross-linked with other IT management processes and delivers the necessary information for a sustainable governance. The continuous analysis of the IT landscape, the deduction of measures for optimization and its controlling also belong to the tasks of architecture management. Standards for development and infrastructures are made, e.g. reference architectures and a “book of standards”, whose implementation is overseen by solution architects throughout the operative architecture management.
The GEA
Authors: Peristeras Vassilios , Tarabanis Konstantinos
Published: April 2011

Departing from the lack of coherent and ready-to-use models and domain descriptions for public administration, we present here our effort to build a set of generic models that serves as a top-level, generic and thus reusable Enterprise Architecture for the overall public administration domain. We have called this set of models Governance Enterprise Architecture (GEA). GEA has deliberately remained technology independent and following the Model Driven Architecture approach, GEA constitutes a computationally independent model for the domain. GEA has been derived from multi-disciplinary influences and insights and identifies two broad modeling areas, called governance mega-processes: Public Policy Formulation and Service Provision. These two, together with the object versus process perspective, form a four-cell matrix that defines four modeling areas for the GEA models. To populate these cells with models we use a challenging metaphor: we model the society - public administration interaction as a discourse to identify important elements and functions of the governance system. Until now, a large number of services has been modeled using GEA and more recently, an extended modeling effort has started with GEA being chosen for use by a national EU-country project. GEA can be also used as a knowledge infrastructure for applying semantic technologies. In this line, it has been used for creating a public administration specialization of a formal Semantic Web Service ontology, namely WSMO.
Enterprise Architecture and Governance Challenges for Orchestrating Public-Private Cooperation
Authors: Klievink Bram , Derks Wijnand , Janssen Marijn
Published: April 2011

The ambition of the Dutch government is to create a demand-driven government by means of effective use of information and communication technology. This requires not only public, but also private parties to interact with each other. This is a complex endeavour as private and public organizations have their own goals, systems and architectures that need to be coordinated. Within this setting, a new architecture should be created for managing and orchestrating the interactions among governmental and private organizations. In this chapter we present an architecture aimed at supporting the coordination of public and private parties for creating a one stop shop and the main challenges therein. We found that a publicprivate service network poses higher requirements on the architecture of a service network, whereas the variety in systems of the various organizations and different aims make it more difficult to develop such an architecture. Furthermore, it is difficult to isolate architectural challenges from governance aspects, as many architectural issues need to be complemented by governance mechanisms. Architecture and governance cannot be considered in isolation.
Using Enterprise Architecture to Transform Service Delivery
Authors: Biggert Timothy
Published: April 2011

This chapter provides a case study on how the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has led the establishment of the Human Resources Line of Business (HR LOB). It explains how the HR LOB program has used enterprise architecture to drive transformation to a new Human Resources service delivery model across the United States Federal government. The authors propose that the common view and vocabulary that EA artifacts provide, along with the collaborative governance that took place to create the artifacts, has produced a solid business foundation for this extensive business transformation effort.
Collaborative Enterprise Architecture for Municipal Environments
Authors: Anthopoulos Leonidas G.
Published: April 2011

E-government evolves according to strategic plans with the coordination of central Governments. This top-down procedure succeeds in slow but sufficient transformation of public services into e-Government ones. However, public agencies adapt to e-Government with difficulty, requiring holistic guidance and a detailed legal framework provided by the Government. The setting up of common Enterprise Architecture for all public agencies requires careful analysis. Moreover, common Enterprise Architecture could fail to cover the special needs of small or municipal agencies. The chapter uses data from various major e-Government strategies, together with their enterprise architectures, in order to introduce a development model of municipal Enterprise Architecture. The model is based on the experience collected from the Digital City of Trikala, central Greece, and results in “Collaborative Enterprise Architecture”.
Context-Aware Service Provisioning in Next-Generation Networks
Authors: Podobnik Vedran , Trzec Krunoslav , Jezic Gordan
Published: April 2011

This paper presents an application of multi-agent system in ubiquitous computing scenarios characteristic of next-generation networks. Next-generation networks will create environments populated with a vast number of consumers, which will possess diverse types of context-aware devices. In such environments the consumer should be able to access all the available services anytime, from any place, and by using any of its communication-enabled devices. Consequently, next-generation networks will require efficient mechanisms which can match consumers’ demands (requested services) to network-operators’ supplies (available services). The authors propose an agent approach for enabling autonomous coordination between all the entities across the telecom value chain, thus enabling automated context-aware service provisioning for the consumers. Furthermore, the authors hope that the proposed service discovery model will not only be interesting from a scientific point of view, but also amenable to real-world applications.
A Mobile, Intelligent Agent-Based Architecture for E-Business
Authors: Weng Zhiyong , Tran Thomas
Published: April 2011

This paper proposes a mobile, intelligent agent-based e-business architecture that allows buyers and sellers to perform business at remote locations. An e-business participant can generate a mobile, intelligent agent via some mobile devices (such as a personal digital assistant or mobile phone) and dispatch the agent to the Internet to do business on her behalf. This proposed architecture promises a number of benefits: First, it provides great convenience for traders as business can be conducted anytime and anywhere. Secondly, since the task of finding and negotiating with appropriate traders is handled by a mobile, intelligent agent, the user is freed from this time-consuming task. Thirdly, this architecture addresses the problem of limited and expensive connection time for mobile devices: A trader can disconnect her mobile device from its server after generating and launching a mobile, intelligent agent. Later on, she can reconnect and call back the agent for results, therefore minimizing the connection time. Finally, by complying with the standardization body FIPA, this flexible architecture increases the interoperability between agent systems and provides high scalability design for swiftly moving across the network.
A Multiagent Approach for Configuring and Explaining Workflow of Semantic Web Services
Authors: Furtado Vasco , Ayres Leonardo , Fernandes Gustavo
Published: April 2011

In this paper, we describe a multiagent approach that configures semantic Web services following a design problem solving method. For that, a propose-and-revise strategy was modeled and implemented in OWL-S. The other contribution of the approach is the extension of OWL-S for recording the service execution flow followed by the agent. The trace of the agent’s reasoning is stored in node sets represented in a proof markup language which make up a framework for explanations on the Web. The proposed approach is shown to be useful in the context of e-business where the workflow definition of services is automatically performed by the agents in order to configure a computer from a customer order.
A Subspace Clustering Framework for Research Group Collaboration
Authors: Agarwal Nitin , Haque Ehtesham , Liu Huan , Parsons Lance
Published: April 2011

Researchers spend considerable time searching for relevant papers on the topic in which they are currently interested. Often, despite having similar interests, researchers in the same lab do not find it convenient to share results of bibliographic searches and thus conduct independent time-consuming searches. Research paper recommender systems can help the researcher avoid such time-consuming searches by allowing each researcher to automatically take advantage of previous searches performed by others in the lab. Existing recommender systems were developed for commercial domains to assist users by focusing towards products of their interests. Unlike those domains, the research paper domain has relatively few users when compared with the huge number of research papers. In this paper we present a novel system to recommend relevant research papers to a user based on the user’s recent querying and browsing habits. The core of the system is a scalable subspace clustering algorithm, SCuBA (Subspace ClUstering Based Analysis) that performs well on the sparse, high-dimensional data collected in this domain. Both synthetic and benchmark datasets are used to evaluate the recommendation system and to demonstrate that it performs better than the traditional collaborative filtering approaches when recommending research papers.
A Deterministic Approach to XML Query Processing with Efficient Support for Pure and Negated Containments
Authors: Che Dunren
Published: April 2011

This article reports the result of the author’s recent work on XML query processing/optimization, which is a very important issue in XML data management. In this work, in order to more effectively and efficiently handle XML queries involving pure and/or negated containments, a previously proposed deterministic optimization approach is largely adapted. This approach resorts to heuristic-based deterministic transformations on algebraic query expressions in order to achieve the best possible optimization efficiency. Specialized transformation rules are thus developed, and efficient implementation algorithms for pure and negated containments are presented as well. Experimental study confirms the validity and effectiveness of the presented approach and algorithms in processing of XML queries involving pure and/or negated containments.
Text Summarization Based on Conceptual Data Classification
Authors: ALJa’am Jihad M. , Jaoua Ali M. , Hasnah Ahmad M. , Hassan F. , Mohamed H. , Mosaid T. , Saleh H. , Abdullah F.
Published: April 2011

In this paper, we present an original approach for text summarization using conceptual data classification. We show how a given text can be summarized without losing meaningful knowledge and without using any semantic or grammatical concepts. In fact, concept date classification is used to extract the most interacting sentences from the main text and ignoring the other meaningless sentences in order to generate the text summary. The approach is tested on Arabic and English texts with different sizes and different topics and the obtained results are satisfactory. The system may be incorporated with the indexers of search engines over the Internet in order to find key words and other pertinent information of the new deployed Web pages that would be stored in databases for quick search.
Studying and Analysis of a Vertical Web Page Classifier Based on Continuous Learning Naïve Bayes (CLNB) Algorithm
Authors: Ali H. A. , El Desouky Ali I. , Saleh Ahmed I.
Published: April 2011

Web page classification is considered one of the most challenging research areas. Where the Web has a huge volume of unstructured and distributed documents that are related to a variety of domains; so, considering one base for the classification tasks will be extremely difficult. In addition, the Web is full of noise that will certainly harm the classifier performance especially if it is found in the classifier training data. Generally, it will be more valued to build domain-oriented classifiers (vertical classifi- ers) to classify pages related to a specific domain and compensate those classifiers with novel learning techniques to achieve better performance. The contribution of this paper is three edged; firstly, a novel learning technique called .Continuous Learning. is introduced. Secondly, the paper presents a new trend for Web page classification by presenting the domain-oriented classifiers (vertical classifiers). A new way of applying Bayes and K-Nearest Neighbor algorithms is introduced in order to build Domain Oriented Naïve Bayes (DONB) and Domain Oriented K-Nearest Neighbor (DOKNN) classifiers. The third contribution is combining both disciplines by introducing a novel classification strategy. Such strategy adds the continuous learning ability to Bayes theorem to build a Continuous learning domain oriented Naïve Bayes (CLNB) classifier. Where the overfitting problem has a great impact on most Web page classification techniques, continuous learning can be considered as a proposed solution. It allows the classifier to adapt itself continuously for achieving better performance. The proposed classifiers are tested; experimental results have shown that CLNB demonstrates significant performance improvement over both DONB and DOKNN where its accuracy goes beyond 94.1% after testing 1000 pages.
Web Site Performance Analysis Success Assessment of Information Driven Web Site on User Traces
Authors: Stolz Carsten , Barth Michael
Published: April 2011

With growing importance of the internet, Web sites have to be continuously improved. Web metrics help to identify improvement potentials. Particularly success metrics for e-commerce sites based on transaction analysis are commonly available and well understood. In contrast to transaction based sites, the success of Web sites geared toward information delivery is harder to quantify since there is no direct feedback of the user. We propose a generic success measure for information driven Web sites. The idea of the measure is based on the observation of user behaviour in context of the Web site semantics. In particular we observe users on their way through the Web site and assign positive and negative scores to their actions. The value of the score depends on the transitions between page types and their contribution to the Web site’s objectives. To derive a generic view on the metric construction, we introduce a formal meta environment deriving success measures upon the relations and dependencies of usage, content and structure of a Web site. In a case study we got aware that in single cases unsatisfied users had been evaluated positively. This divergence could be explained by not having considered the user’s intentions. We propose in this approach to integrate search queries carried within referrer information as freely available information about the user’s intentions. We integrate this new source of information into our meta model of Web site structure, content and author intention. Hence we apply well understood techniques such as PLSA. Based on the latent semantic we construct a new indicator evaluating the Web site with respect to the user intention. In a case study we can show that this indicator evaluates the quality and usability of a Web site more accurately by taking the user’s goals under consideration. We can also show, that the initially mentioned diverging user sessions, can now be assessed according to the user’s perception.
Case Study of a Patient Data Management System
Authors: Mitev Nathalie , Kerkham Sharon
Published: April 2011

Since the National Health Service reforms were introduced, the NHS has moved towards a greater emphasis on accountability and efficiency of healthcare. These changes rely on the swift delivery of IT systems, implemented into the NHS because of the urgency to collect data to support these measures. The case study details the events surrounding the introduction of a patient data management system into an intensive care unit in a UK hospital. It shows that its implementation was complex and involved organizational issues related to the costing of healthcare, legal and purchasing requirements, systems integration, training and staff expertise, and relationships with suppliers. It is suggested that the NHS is providing an R&D environment which others are benefiting from. The NHS is supporting software development activities that are not recognized, and the true costs of this task are difficult to estimate. It is also argued that introducing PDMS crystallizes many different expectations making them unmanageably complex. This could also be due to PDMS being a higher order innovation that attempts to integrate information systems products and services with the core business.
Nursing Staff Requirements for Telemedicine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Authors: Qavi Tara , Corley Lisa , Kay Steve
Published: April 2011

This research gauged nursing staff acceptance of a videoconferencing system within a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and identified a set of recommendations to be integrated into system design to maximize usability of the system by nursing end users. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected through interview and questionnaire methods, designed to elicit system requirements from the nursing staff perspective. It is argued that videoconferencing should not substitute the physical tradition in which neonatal infants are monitored, nor be seen as a replacement for face-to-face communication. However, videoconferencing may provide a workable alternative when face-to-face communication is not possible. In particular, clinical and medical staff should maintain control over the operation of video links at all times.
End-User Directed Requirements - A Case in Medication Ordering
Authors: Chan Stephen L.
Published: April 2011

This paper presents a physician ordering entry system in the ward (for medication prescriptions) by using scanning and image processing. Important design and operational issues that need to be considered by developers of similar end-user computer systems are presented. Then the scanning and imaging processing system (SIPS) is described. SIPS was developed for the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital (HKBH), Kowloon, Hong Kong and has been in successful operation for over three years in the hospital. The development of SIPS was based on end-user directed requirements. SIPS makes use of and integrates different information technologies, including scanning, bar code and other marks recognition, intelligent image capturing, server database access and retrieval, and network communication and printing. We observe that the end-user context has directed the design and development of the system. On the other hand, the use of SIPS led to the implementation of new operational procedures, resulting in improved quality healthcare delivery in the ward and increased productivity of the medical personel.