bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Coding and Messaging Systems for Women’s Health Informatics
Authors: Parry David
Published: May 2011

Recording information about symptoms, observations, actions, and outcomes is a key task of health informatics. Standardization of records is vital if data is to be used by different groups, and transferred between organizations. Originally, coding focused on causes of death and other outcomes. Such systems include the international classification of diseases (ICD). However, more recently the need to allow communication between health organizations has encouraged the development of standards such as health level seven (HL7). Further work has focussed on vocabularies such as systematic nomenclature of medical terms (SNOMED), which allow standardised recording of any health-related information. Coded data is necessary to allow computers to assist in decision making and for audit purposes. With the rapid development of computer networks and the Internet, there has been a growing effort to include semantic information with computer data so that the meaning of the data can be bound to the data store. The chapter discusses these standards and the areas that are undergoing rapid development.
Best Practices and Strategies for Broadband Deployment
Authors: Bouras Christos , Gkamas Apostolos , Tsiatsos Thrasyvoulos
Published: May 2011

Broadband deployment is a necessity nowadays. It could help each country, municipality and region to grow and offer better quality of life to the citizens. Today, the emphasis on the development of broadband networks is on fixed Fibre To The Home solutions The lessons learned from countries that are leaders in broadband penetration and Fibre To The Home deployment could be proven very useful for under-served communities, regions and countries where the broadband penetration is low. Therefore, this chapter summarises the lessons learned from implementing (a) country-wide strategies formulated at the national level, and (b) local strategies formulated by the municipalities. Concerning the role of national and local governments, it should be noted that nowadays it is very urgent the involvement of government in the development of broadband infrastructure. Proposed noteworthy remarkable cases are Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Toward Understanding U.S. Rural-Urban Differences in Broadband Internet Adoption and Use
Authors: Stenberg Peter , Morehart Mitchell
Published: May 2011

The Internet has become entrenched in the U.S. economy over the last 15 years;access and use of the Internet has increased for all regions of the United States, most types of households and work places, and all income groups. In this chapter we explore how access technologies may affect household on-line activity patterns and address some of the aspects that differentiate urban and rural household Internet use. Rural households are less likely than urban households in having broadband Internet access but this varies regionally across the country. Study suggests that broadband Internet access is no longer perceived a luxury, but as a necessity and that there is pent-up demand for broadband Internet access in rural areas.
Graphs in Biometrics
Authors: Kisku Dakshina Ranjan , Gupta Phalguni , Sing Jamuna Kanta
Published: May 2011

Biometric systems are considered as human pattern recognition systems that can be used for individual identification and verification. The decision on the authenticity is done with the help of some specific measurable physiological or behavioral characteristics possessed by the individuals. Robust architecture of any biometric system provides very good performance of the system against rotation, translation, scaling effect and deformation of the image on the image plane. Further, there is a need of development of real-time biometric system. There exist many graph matching techniques used to design robust and real-time biometrics systems. This chapter discusses different types of graph matching techniques that have been successfully used in different biometric traits.
On The Design of Secure ATM System
Authors: Mohammed Lawan A.
Published: May 2011

Over the past three decades, consumers have been largely depending on and trust the Automatic Teller Machine, better known as ATM machine to conveniently meet their banking needs. ATM is a data terminal, it has to be connected to, and communicate through, a host processor. The host processor may be owned by a bank or any financial institution, or it may be owned by an independent service provider. Moreover, an ATM can support multiple ATM cards owned by different financial institutions or banks. Most host processors can support leased-line or dial-up machines. However, despite the numerous advantages of ATM system, ATM fraud has recently become more widespread. Recent occurrences of ATM fraud range from techniques such as shoulder surfing and card skimming to highly advanced techniques involving fraudulent mobile alerts, and account takeover via stolen information and call centers, software tampering and/or hardware modifications to divert, or trap the dispensed currency. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive overview of the possible fraudulent activities that may be perpetrated against ATMs and investigates recommended approaches to prevent or deter these types of frauds. In particular we develop a model for the utilization of biometrics equipped ATM to provide security solution against must of the well-known breaches associated with the current ATM system practice.
Neural-Symbolic Processing in Business Applications
Authors: Ryman-Tubb Nick F
Published: May 2011

Neural networks are mathematical models, inspired by biological processes in the human brain and are able to give computers more “human-like” abilities. Perhaps by examining the way in which the biological brain operates, at both the large-scale and the lower level anatomical level, approaches can be devised that can embody some of these remarkable abilities for use in real-world business applications. One criticism of the neural network approach by business is that they are “black boxes”; they cannot be easily understood. To open this black box an outline of neural-symbolic rule extraction is described and its application to fraud-detection is given. Current practice is to build a Fraud Management System (FMS) based on rules created by fraud experts which is an expensive and time-consuming task and fails to address the problem where the data and relationships change over time. By using a neural network to learn to detect fraud and then extracting its’ knowledge, a new approach is presented.
Vision Based Hand Posture Recognition
Authors: Wang Kongqiao , Fang Yikai , Chai Xiujuan
Published: May 2011

Vision based gesture recognition is a hot research topic in recent years. Many researchers focus on how to differentiate various hand shapes, e.g. the static hand gesture recognition or hand posture recognition. It is one of the fundamental problems in vision based gesture analysis. In general, most frequently used visual cues human uses to describe hand are appearance and structure information, while the recognition with such information is difficult due to variant hand shapes and subject differences. To have a good representation of hand area, methods based on local features and texture histograms are attempted to represent the hand. And a learning based classification strategy is designed with different descriptors or features. In this chapter, we mainly focus on 2D geometric and appearance models, the design of local texture descriptor and semi-supervised learning strategy with different features for hand posture recognition.
A Survey on Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Marcelín-Jiménez Ricardo , Ruiz-Sánchez Miguel Ángel , López-Villaseñor Mauricio , Ramos-Ramos Victor M. , Moreno-Escobar Carlos E. , Ruiz-Sandoval Manuel E.
Published: May 2011

Localization is a fundamental challenge of wireless sensor networks in many applications because a set of nodes must be aware of individual positions, based only on their own resources, i.e. without the aid of external agents. This problem has been tackled using different approaches that provide good solutions under specific circumstances. Nevertheless, new conditions, including massive node deployment or irregular topologies, call for further study and development.
Low Power Design Techniques for Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Aedo José , Gaviria Natalia , Aguirre Johnny , Múnera Danny
Published: May 2011

WSNs can be applied in several areas for the monitoring and control of variables. In the design process of a WSN, one of the most important design objectives is to minimize the energy required for sensing, signal processing and communication tasks to extend the lifetime of the network. This chapter discusses a broad variety of schemes used to reduce power consumption in WSNs. The design of sensors nodes involves several core aspects, such as supported sensors, the communication interface, applications, the control system and peripherals. Strategies to preserve the energy used by each of these components are discussed. A specific scheme using digital signal processing to reduce power consumption by decreasing the number of transmissions is proposed. The chapter also considers protocol architectures, focusing on link layer, network layer, and cross-layer approaches. Finally, a comparative analysis among the main techniques is presented.
Power Aware Routing in Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Varaprasad G.
Published: May 2011

Wireless mobile ad hoc networks are gaining importance because of their flexibility, mobility, and ability to work with a limited infrastructure. If the battery of a node is drained out, then it cannot communicate with other nodes and the number of dead nodes makes the network partition. In order to overcome the network partition problem, this chapter presents different routing algorithms for wireless mobile ad hoc networks. Different routing algorithms use different metrics, namely transmission power, residual battery capacity and noncritical nodes to forward data packets from the source to destination. Minimum total transmission power routing uses the transmission power as metric to forward the packets but it cannot increase the lifetimes of the node and network. In conditional max-min battery capacity routing, it increases network lifetime and reduces power consumption over the network. Noncritical nodes with more residual battery capacity based routing models will increase the network lifetime and network throughput.
Network Address Management in MANETs Using an Ant Colony Metaphor
Authors: Pachón Alvaro , Madrid Juan M.
Published: May 2011

Address management is a critical network process, since any node wishing to join a network must first obtain an address. Network address management in a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a particular challenge due to the unique operating conditions of such networks, their dynamic topology, and the events that take place inside them. This chapter presents a proposal for solving the address management problem in a MANET by applying the self-organization and emergency principles governing the behavior of social insect colonies, particularly ant colonies.
Quality of Service in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks and New Trends
Authors: Routray Sudhir K.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces basic needs of quality of Service (QoS) of RF ad hoc networks (mainly wireless), presents the main metrics of quality of service and the QoS effects on overall performance, and briefly discusses quality of service of wireless systems with respect to the upcoming new technologies like 3GPP LTE and the role of WLAN, while representing network QoS improvement and optimization tools and their successful applications in performance analysis. The chapter focuses on IEEE 802.11e, the main revision of the 802.11 for better QoS provisioning, as well as the coordination between planning and the performance of systems for better QoS. Additionally, it addresses the current and new trends of QoS stuff for different cellular networks and their impact on the QoS of ad-hoc networks. The chapter also explores new trends of QoS of emerging networks like the WiMAX and 4G and looks to the probable hybrid networks of the future and their QoS aspects.
Semantic Social Network Analysis
Authors: Erétéo Guillaume , Limpens Freddy , Gandon Fabien , Corby Olivier , Buffa Michel , Leitzelman Mylène , Sander Peter
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present our approach to analyzing such semantic social networks and capturing collective intelligence from collaborative interactions to challenge requirements of Enterprise 2.0. Our tools and models have been tested on an anonymized dataset from Ipernity.com, one of the biggest French social web sites centered on multimedia sharing. This dataset contains over 60,000 users, around half a million declared relationships of three types, and millions of interactions (messages, comments on resources, etc.). We show that the enriched semantic web framework is particularly well-suited for representing online social networks, for identifying their key features and for predicting their evolution. Organizing huge quantity of socially produced information is necessary for a future acceptance of social applications in corporate contexts.
A Tool to Study the Evolution of the Domain of a Distributed Community of Practice
Authors: Sato Gilson Yukio , Silva de Azevedo Hilton José , Barthès Jean-Paul A.
Published: May 2011

Virtual communities and distributed communities of practice leave traces of their activities that are a valuable source of research material. At the same time, studying this kind of community requires new methods, techniques and tools. In this chapter, we present the Community Agent: a tool to follow the evolution of the domain of a distributed Community of Practice. Such a tool aims at obtaining and presenting graphically some indicators to study the evolution of the domain of a Community of Practice and the participation of its members. We present the implementation of the Community Agent, the results obtained in the preliminary tests and an example of how the agent could be used to study distributed communities.
Online Ethnographic Methods
Authors: Skågeby Jörgen
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the use of online ethnographical methods as a potent way to reach qualitative understanding of virtual communities. The term online ethnography envelopes document collection, online observation and online interviews. The chapter will explain the steps of conducting online ethnography – from defining setting and spelling out your research perspective, to collecting online data, analyzing gathered data, feeding back insights to the studied community and presenting results with ethical awareness. In this process the chapter will compare online ethnography to traditional ethnography and provide illustrative empirical examples and experiences from three recent online ethnographical studies on social information and media sharing (Skågeby, 2007, 2008, 2009a). While multimedial forms of data and data collection are becoming more common (i.e. video and sound recordings), the focus of the chapter lies mainly with text-based data. The chapter concludes by discussing methodological benefits and drawbacks of an online ethnographical process.
Methods for the Measurement and Visualization of Social Networks in Multi-User Virtual Worlds
Authors: Rosen Devan
Published: May 2011

Virtual communities that allow many users to interact in a virtual world, often called multi-user virtual worlds (MUVWs), allow users to explore and navigate the virtual world as well as interact with other users. The communicative interaction within these virtual worlds is often text-based using Internet relay chat (IRC) and related systems. IRC has posed a difficulty for researchers looking to evaluate the interaction by analyzing and interpreting the communication since data is stored in the form of chatlogs. The current chapter explicates methodological procedures for the measurement and visualization of chat-based communicative interaction in MUVWs as social networks. A case study on an educational MUVW, the SciCentr programs sponsored by Cornell University, is used to elaborate methods and related findings.
Digital Museums in 3D Virtual Environment
Authors: Sookhanaphibarn Kingkarn , Thawonmas Ruck
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims to present an overview of the field of digital museums and describes the current framework of content management systems feasibly integrated in the museums in 3D virtual environment for assisting visitors to deal with information overload and providing personalized recommendations, content, and services to them. Digital museums in 3D virtual environment are an intriguing alternative to let visitors experience them compared to thousands of existing digital museums that are similar to digital archiving places published in the Internet. Exemplary characteristics of digital museums in Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Second Life are also reviewed and discussed. Moreover, prior classification of visiting styles essential to personalize the museum context and content is described in this chapter.
ERP Post-implementation Adoption Success Dynamics
Authors: Akabawi M.
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this research is to explore the barriers of adoption and adaptation of Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) systems at the post implementation phase within Developing Countries (DCs) business culture. Human agency-related issues and IT materiality factors specific to the DCs business environment were researched within the framework of post-implementation use of cross-functional information systems in a longitudinal case study. Focus group teams, composed of business units’ end-users, managers and IT specialists (employment cohorts) were mobilized to elicit the causes of failing ERP services. The scope of this research fits within the studies that target the analysis of organizational adoption and use of ERP. Feedback loops analysis method was used for the study and presentation of the complex dynamic socio-technical behavior in enterprises to gain insight of the relationships among the many non-linear variables prevalent in the post implementation stage of the ERP lifecycle. Those variables were arrived at through canvassing stakeholder groups in the case firm, using focus group approach and the Causal Loop Diagramming as the analysis tool. The introduced methodology in this research is meant to highlight a new perspective to the understanding of the success model of ERP use and adoption.
The Adoption of the Internet to Support Arab Academics
Authors: Abdelaal Abdelnasser
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the adoption of Internet applications by an Arab Student Association in North America (ASANA)1. ASANA uses the Internet to integrate its members, promote the Arabic culture, bridge with the American society and transfer knowledge to its native country. It delivers these services through websites, email service, electronic payment systems, online conferencing, file sharing tools and other digital resources. These online services build social capital, accrue intellectual capital, and cement mutual understanding between Arabs and the American society. However, these e-services are not widely adopted due to the lack of awareness of their usefulness, the absence of suitable IT culture, poor service quality, instability of leadership, and inadequate incentive system. Improving the adoption of ASANA e-services requires stable leadership, supportive IT culture, assessing provided services, and providing incentives to members to participate. This chapter provides insights and conceptual details that help Arab academic communities to use the Internet to participate in the overall socioeconomic development of their societies.
Advances of the Location Based Context-Aware Mobile Services in the Transport Sector
Authors: Patris Georgios , Vescoukis Vassilios , Giaoutzi Maria
Published: May 2011

The present chapter focuses on the Location Based Context-aware Mobile Services (LBCAMS) in the context of the most recent technological advances in Decision Support Systems for the transport sector. The chapter demonstrates the rationale for the introduction of the Location Based Context-aware Mobile Services and the state of the art of the location-based services in the field of transport. In addition, a typology of market orientations is developed, including the demand side of context-ware mobile services in the field of transport. The chapter also introduces the theoretical outline of a five-layer model, studying the Location Based Context-aware Mobile Services, in a Decision Support System context, for applications in the transport sector. In order to advance understanding, some indicative applications are presented, on road safety and urban parking management and finally conclusions are drawn and future research orientations are explored.
Mobile Devices
Authors: Paraguai Luisa
Published: May 2011

The chapter is concerned with the mobile technology and its interventions on the perception of the body and the space, demanding new behavioural codes and evoking other communication patterns. This technology enables users to be always connected, creating other practices of sociability and composing the urban landscape and the body space with digital contexts. So, the space occupied by mobile users is no longer physical or virtual, but hybrid. After a brief introduction about hybrid spaces, some theoretical references configure the idea that mobile technology determines specific modes of interaction, emphasising a ritual dimension. The mobile users have started to perform the same body gestures and bounded intimacies in a social context that configure a specific new bodily spatiality. Some artistic projects will be presented pointing out some aspects of significant social mobile uses, transforming users bodily states and spatial domains.
A Brief Cartography of Smart Cameras
Authors: Bruno Fernanda
Published: May 2011

This chapter carries out a brief cartography of the so-called “intelligent” video surveillance systems. These systems are programmed to accomplish real time automated detection of situations considered irregular and/or suspicious in specific environments, in order to predict and prevent undesirable events. Three aspects of the smart cameras are focused in this cartography. First, the author explores its regime of visibility and note how it prioritizes the capture of irregularities in the body’s movements in urban space. Second, the author shows how the type of monitoring and profiling of bodies and behaviors in these systems generally acts at the visible, surface and infra-individual level of human conduct. Finally, he analyzes the temporality of smart cameras, especially in its proactive dimension that intends to foresee and intervene, in real time, in future events. The analysis of these three aspects of the intelligent video surveillance identifies and highlights discourses, processes and operations that are common to the exercising of power and surveillance in contemporary societies – more specifically, those which are included in the realm of control devices.
Recording and Reporting
Authors: Yesil Bilge
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the changing nature of surveillance by way of user-generated images, especially caught-on-tape style photographs and videos captured on mobile phones. Through a discussion of examples from Turkey (as well as from around the world), this chapter discusses the emergent function of the camera phone as a tool of surveillance used to document the misconduct of other individuals or authority figures. Aligned with the complex, decentralized networks of the synoptic paradigm rather than the more static, closed model of the Panopticon, camera phones intensify the visibility of anyone, anytime, anywhere. They facilitate lateral surveillance and sousveillance practices, enabling ordinary individuals to watch social peers or those in power positions, albeit in non-systematic, non-continuous and spontaneous ways. One could assume that camera phones and these new socio-technological practices they permit are empowering the individuals. However, by engaging in sousveillance, individuals become implicit partners in surveillance society.
Notes about Vehicle Monitoring in Brazil and Europe from a Data Protection Perspective
Authors: Doneda Danilo , Cunha Mario
Published: May 2011

The Brazilian National Traffic Council, in a Resolution adopted in 2006, stated that every vehicle to be sold in the country should have an RFId chip. The nature of the whole project, named SINIAV, is to assemble an infrastructure all over public roads and streets capable of recognizing and identifying vehicles. A surveillance system such as SINIAV, presented as a cutting-edge system capable of bringing security to Brazilian’s streets by reducing car’s theft, has a crucial (and political) aspect which addresses the level of security that should be developed in the IT system for the use of such database, especially in a country which does not have a specific data protection legislation. The regulation of databases of personal information is an unavoidable step to be done, as the real danger to personal liberties in an automatic surveillance system, such as this one, is not based in personal surveillance, but is related to the use of this personal data. It is not by chance that the European Union is currently discussing a new Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe. Taking into account this scenario, the current chapter analyses the SINIAV regulation from a data protection perspective.
Improving PSI-BLAST’s Fold Recognition Performance through Combining Consensus Sequences and Support Vector Machine
Authors: Yan Ren-Xiang , Liu Jing , Tao Yi-Min
Published: May 2011

Profile-profile alignment may be the most sensitive and useful computational resource for identifying remote homologies and recognizing protein folds. However, profile-profile alignment is usually much more complex and slower than sequence-sequence or profile-sequence alignment. The profile or PSSM (position-specific scoring matrix) can be used to represent the mutational variability at each sequence position of a protein by using a vector of amino acid substitution frequencies and it is a much richer encoding of a protein sequence. Consensus sequence, which can be considered as a simplified profile, was used to improve sequence alignment accuracy in the early time. Recently, several studies were carried out to improve PSI-BLAST’s fold recognition performance by using consensus sequence information. There are several ways to compute a consensus sequence. Based on these considerations, we propose a method that combines the information of different types of consensus sequences with the assistance of support vector machine learning in this chapter. Benchmark results suggest that our method can further improve PSI-BLAST’s fold recognition performance.
Topological Analysis of Axon Guidance Network for Homo Sapiens
Authors: Chen Xuning , Zhu Weiping
Published: May 2011

Axonal outgrowth is usually guided by a variety of guidance factors, such as netrins, ephrins, slits and semaphorins, and is one of the critical steps for the proper formation of neural networks. However, how the signal molecules function and why some of these play more important roles than others in guiding the axonal directional outgrowth has not been fully understood. In this study, we try to solve the problem by using the complex network analysis method. The signal molecules and interactions are treated as the nodes and edges to construct the axon guidance network model for Homo sapiens. The data of the model are taken from the KEGG database, and an analysis workbench named Integrative Visual Analysis Tool for Biological Networks and Pathways (VisANT) is employed to analyze the topological properties, including the degree distribution and the top co-expressed genes of the axon guidance network. This study has just opened a window into understanding the mechanism of axon guidance.
Repetitive Firing and Bursting due to Different Bifurcation Mechanism in Unmyelinated Fibre
Authors: Zhang Junran , Han Yongguo , Xiao Guangcan , Hu Sanjue
Published: May 2011

In neural science, different action potential (AP) firing patterns are typically considered to be dominated by different dynamical mechanisms. Different AP firing patterns in unmyelinated fibres can contribute to pain and sensory information transmission. Experiments in rabbit unmyelinated nerve (axon) show some interesting phenomena, mainly concerned with the AP firing patterns that changed regularly. Investigating the dynamical mechanism of unmyelinated fibre during various kinds of AP firing patterns is useful to understand the neural information processing in axon and pain information transmission. Here, we reproduced these phenomena by constructing a mathematical model, where the discharge of the Hodgkin-Huxley (H-H) neuron under square wave stimulation was studied by simulation. It is shown that square wave can induce bursting firing, especially with long time-course duration. This is different from the popular theory that explained repetitive and bursting firing due to stimulus intensity and instantaneous fluctuation. Through dynamical analysis, we found that the mechanism of the action potential pattern changed according to Hopf bifurcation, a dynamical behavior that emergence and stability of limit cycles of bifurcating from a stable equilibrium. The finding may support the neural information coding hypothesis in unmyelinated axon.
Seasonal Trade-Off between Water- and Nitrogen-Use Efficiency of Constructive Plants in Desert Riparian Forest in Hyperarid Region of China
Authors: Cao Shengkui , Feng Qi , Si Jianhua , Su Yonghong , Chang Zongqiang , Xi Haiyang
Published: May 2011

Foliar d13C values are often used to denote the long-term water use efficiency (WUE) of plants whereas long-term nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) are usually estimated by the ratio of C to N in the leaves. Seasonal variations of d13C values, foliar nitrogen concentration and C/N ratios of Populus euphratica and Tamarix ramosissima grown under five different microhabitats of Ejina desert riparian oasis of northwestern arid regions in China were studied. The results indicated that T. ramosissima had higher d13C value compared with that of P. euphratica. The N concentration and C/N ratios of two species were not significantly different. The seasonal pattern of three indexes in two species was different. The d13C values and N concentration decreased during the plant’s growth period. However, the change of C/N ratios was increased. Among microhabitats, there were higher d13C values and N concentration as well as lower C/N ratios in the Dune and Gobi habitats. Foliar d13C values significantly and positively correlated with N concentration in P. euphratica and T. ramosissima, whereas a significantly negative correlation between d13C values and C/N ratios was found for P. euphratica. This relation in T. ramosissima was weak, but there was a significant quadratic curve relationship between d13C values and C/N ratios, which revealed that there was a trade-off between WUE and NUE for P. euphratica and in natural condition, P. euphratica could not improve WUE and NUE simultaneously. T. ramosissima could simultaneously enhance WUE and NUE. The above characters of WUE and NUE in two plants reflected the different adaptations of desert species to environmental condition.
The Fuzzy Integrated Energy Prior-warning Model Based on Entropy Weight
Authors: He Yaqun , Wei Hua , Zuo Weiran , Wu Xiaobing , Ge Xin , Wu Shan , Wen Baofeng
Published: May 2011

Based on the analysis of five factors affecting energy risks, including supply and demand, economy, environment, transport, and disaster, this chapter establishes the prior-warning index system of the energy risk by covering 3 sub-systems and 37 indexes. The three sub-systems are the coal sub-system, the petroleum and natural gas sub-system, and the integrated factors sub-system. Fuzzy synthesis evaluation was applied to confirm the internal estimated index weight of the sub-systems. Moreover, the risk prior-warning model of the energy sub-systems was established by the method. The weights of the three sub-systems were determined through the concept of entropy weight, and the prior-warning indexes of energy risk were applied to evaluate the total energy security of the three sub-systems. Finally, the prior-warning model of energy risk in China was established. The entire situation of energy safety of China was summarized via empirical analysis.
Mobile Marketing
Authors: Giuffrida Giovanni , Reforgiato Diego , Sismeiro Catarina , Tribulato Giuseppe
Published: May 2011

In most developed countries competition among mobile phone operators is now focused on switching customers away from competitors with extremely discounted telephony rates. This fierce competitive environment is the result of a saturated market with small or inexistent growth and has caused operators to rely increasingly on Value-Added Services (VAS) for revenue growth. Though mobile phone operators have thousands of different services available to offer to their customers, the contact opportunities to offer these services are limited. In this context, statistical methods and data mining tools can play an important role to optimize content delivery. In this chapter the authors describe novel methods now available to mobile phone operators to optimize targeting and improve profitability from VAS offers.
Marketing and Promoting Online Adult Education
Authors: Wang Victor X.
Published: May 2011

To serve a significant portion of the student population, adult learners, in the academy in the 21st century, this chapter argues that online education (e.g., e-learning) has the potential to open wider the door to greater access and advancement for learners across their life spans than the traditional, four walled classroom teaching. Some of the major issues revolving around online education and adult learners such as policy, access, completion, and equity have been addressed in this chapter. The purpose of this chapter is to show it’s possible to rely on practice and research to harness the great, yet untapped potential of online education to market and promote online education programs, especially among adult learners. Marketing and promoting online education programs are equally as important as helping adult learners learn.
Marketing of Virtual Healthcare Communities as Being Distance and Open Learning (DOL) Environments
Authors: Argan Mehpare Tokay , Argan Metin
Published: May 2011

The findings indicate that members of the reviewed website used forums heavily as a means of interactivity and gathering of health related and social based information.
Considerations for Marketing Distance Education Courses in Health Education
Authors: Stellefson Michael
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses considerations for marketing select distance education courses in health education. Five questions and answers are provided regarding: (a) implementing feasibility analyses for course development; (b) course augmentation strategies using distance education offerings; and (c) identifying important developmental aspects of proposed course offerings. Creating an inimitable process for effectively marketing prospective distance education courses enhances a health educator’s ability to appropriately use educational technology within both pre-existing and emergent course offerings. In addition, various health education courses especially conducive to distance education will be discussed based on current trends. Marketing concepts such as: demand, course management, course visibility, and branding will be discussed within the context of higher education courses in health education. The importance of relationship marketing between various stakeholders in the course development process will be discussed to enable positive experiences in course enrollment and create mutually beneficial experiences for students, faculty, and administrative personnel. Finally, distance education quality indicators will be suggested for future course evaluation protocols.
Marketing E-Learning and the Challenges Facing Distance Education in Africa
Authors: Ojo Bamidele A.
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the marketing of e-learning and challenges facing distance education in Africa. While discussing the growing trend in distance education, this chapter also examines the socio-political and economic factors limiting its effectiveness on the continent. The conclusion of this chapter is that the crisis within the African state constitutes a hindrance to effective marketing and implementation of e-learning and distance education.
The Marketing Strategies and Applications of English Language Teaching (ELT) Programs via Distance Education
Authors: Usun Salih , Komur Sevki
Published: May 2011

The main aim of this descriptive study is to review the marketing strategies and applications of English Language Teaching (ELT) programs via distance education. The study, firstly, introduces the role of English as a global language in the 21st century and the importance of marketing of English Language Teaching (ELT) programs, examines using ways of distance education and distance teacher training in ELT, and finally, presents the some sample of websites on marketing ELT programs and products via e-Learning.
The Metaplastic Virtual World Theory
Authors: Mura Gianluca
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces a methodology of metaplastic discipline for the realization of new virtual world. It explains the theoretical and artistic background of metaplastic virtual worlds evolutions, from their archetypes to their definition. The union between the plastic elements and the fuzzy logic systems, found its expression with new metaplastic aesthetic values. The virtual media acquire form and meaning through its process of conceptual interpretation. The metaphor of the artistic machine finds its new realization where the machine itself becomes aesthetic expression of the virtuality. The following paragraphs use metaplastic definitions within Art and Sciences application fields. In the conclusion of this chapter, two practical examples will be introduced.
The Tangiality of Digital Media
Authors: Catanese Paul , Truckenbrod Joan
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the concept of Tangiality, a defining characteristic of digital studio practice. It proceeds by illustrating how Tangiality is present in the work of contemporary interdisciplinary, hybrid media and multi-modal artists by providing several case studies regarding how Tangiality manifests in artworks. We conclude this chapter with a detailed discussion of how the emergence of Tangiality demonstrates that artists engage with post-digital materiality.
A Behavior Model Based on Personality and Emotional Intelligence for Virtual Humans
Authors: Orozco Héctor , Ramos Félix , Thalmann Daniel , Fernández Victor , Gutiérrez Octavio
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present a three-layered model based on the Triune Brain Model to simulate human brain functioning and human beings’ behavior in realistic virtual humans. In order to implement this model, we use the ten personality scales defined by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Emotional Competence Framework defined in the Emotional Intelligence Model to endow virtual humans with a real personality and emotional intelligence. In this model, we apply a set of fuzzy rules to change and regulate virtual humans’ affective state according to their personality, emotional and mood history, and events they perceive from the environment. We also implement an EBDI-based intention selection using the Event Calculus formalism. This intention selection mechanism allows virtual humans performing actions based on their current affective state, beliefs, desires and intentions. Thus, these intentions define virtual humans’ behavior for each situation they experience in the environment.
MAgICS
Authors: Stonedahl Forrest , Wilkerson-Jerde Michelle , Wilensky Uri
Published: May 2011

The authors present a preliminary version of the MAgICS (Multi-Agent Introduction to Computer Science) framework, which is a new approach for revitalizing introductory undergraduate or high school computer science curricula through the deep integration of agent-based modeling (ABM) and multi-agent systems (MAS) perspectives. The authors discuss the merits of using multi-agent systems as a lens for conceptual understanding across disciplines, compare multi-agent approaches to traditional serial ones, and explore how this approach can bring together disparate topics in computer science through the common focus on emergent systems to promote a broader view of the field as a whole. To exemplify this approach, they have developed a suite of curricular models for topics spanning from searching and sorting to machine learning and networks and security. By introducing these topics with a focus on parallel, distributed, and stochastic methods, they can make traditionally upper-level topics both motivating and accessible to introductory-level students. The authors review findings from a short implementation of several elements of MAgICS in an introductory computer science classroom with regard to student motivation and evidence of learning of distributed design strategies.
A Multiagent Approach to Teaching Complex Systems Development
Authors: Lynch Simon C. , Rajendran Keerthi
Published: May 2011

Teaching practical development of multi-agent systems (MAS) presents various difficulties. This is also the case for application areas, like multimodal dialog systems (MMD), which rely on agent technologies to provide their systems infrastructure. These areas are challenging for novices and require significant pre-requisite knowledge from both learners and educators. The authors aim to reduce these difficulties, targeting teaching towards undergraduate and postgraduate computing students from increasingly diverse educational backgrounds. The authors specify an adaptable multi-agent architecture and provide a set of general purpose agents to handle essential multimodal tasks like speech input/output, fusion and semantic analysis. They outline the design of this system and describe how it provides a framework for students to assemble complex systems and experiment with agent-level design patterns. They evaluate the usability of the resulting software and tools using the Cognitive Dimensions Framework and by examining students’ experience of using this approach in computing courses and project work.
A Comparative Study of Platforms for Multi-User Virtual Environments
Authors: Tezcan Arda , Richards Debbie
Published: May 2011

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) have been found to be engaging and provide an environment in which the elements of discovery, exploration and concept testing, fundamental to the field of science, can be experienced. Furthermore, MUVEs accommodate lifelike experiences with the benefit of the situated and distributed nature of cognition; they also provide virtual worlds to simulate the conditions that are not doable or practicable under real world circumstances making them very relevant to many other fields of study such as history, geography and foreign language learning. However, constructing MUVEs can be expensive and time consuming depending on the platform considered. Therefore, providing the most appropriate platform that requires minimal effort, cost and time will make MUVE deployment in the classroom faster and more viable. In this chapter, the authors provide a comparative study of prominent existing platforms for MUVEs that can be used to identify the right balance of functionality, flexibility, effort and cost for a given educational and technical context. A number of metrics are identified, described and used to enable the comparison. Platform assessment was done in four main metric groups: communication and interaction, characters, features and education. Communication and interaction metrics are used to assess how the communication and interaction is done within the examined platform. Character metrics are employed to measure avatar and agent affordances. Features metrics are defined to compare what the platform offers in terms of technology. Lastly, education metrics are used to identify the value of the associated platform for educational purposes.
Computers Can Feel Too
Authors: Chatzara K. , Karagiannidis C. , Stamatis D.
Published: May 2011

The introduction of emotional reactions to e-Learning environments might offer a more efficient and effective communication between the user and the machine; a more natural and realistic computer interface. Embodied Intelligent Emotional Agents (IEAs) which are highly expressive and show empathy for the users may help learners overcome academic difficulties and may contribute positively to the pedagogical procedure by making it more efficient and enjoyable. IEAs can be programmed to “show” the correct social behaviour and through them a channel of communication might open to serve for better interaction among learners. This could contribute to increase student’s self esteem, help them recover from negative emotions as well as encourage learners to overcome academic problems. In this chapter the authors review existing systems that use emotional agents and analyze their specific characteristics, their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, based on this analysis they enumerate specific requirements for efficient communication between agents and users and we use them to propose a general architecture model upon which the development of future IEAs could be based.
Autonomy, Abortion and Pain Criteria
Authors: Güngör Hasan Atilla
Published: May 2011

Pro-life and pro-choice groups are the main actors in the current abortion debate. On the one hand, the defenders of women’s rights consider the issue as a matter of freedom and argue against bans on abortion practice. On the other hand, the fetal rights defenders are absolutely against abortion in any case and consider abortion a method of killing an innocent human being. Both sides use the scientific developments to influence public opinion. The core of this semi-scientific debate today depends on the question “When does human life begin?” Participants aspire to shape the law concerning abortion according to their answer to this question. Yet, this approach leads to deadlocks in theory and practice, because it is impossible to accept the legal personality of the fetus or to remove all the bans on abortion. However, it may be possible to find a solution within the legal system itself by using scientific knowledge, but without establishing it on a human “rights” base. This paper argues that using pain as a criterion may be a promising point of compromise.
Ambient Intelligence
Authors: Monteleone Shara
Published: May 2011

Unprecedented advances of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and their involvement in most of private and public activities are revolutionizing daily life and our relationship to our environments. If, on the one hand, the new developments promise to make people’s lives more comfortable or more secure, on the other hand, they raise complex social and legal issues in terms of fundamental rights and freedoms. The objective of this paper is to envisage some of the main legal challenges posed by the new Ambient Intelligence technologies (AmI), in particular for the fundamental rights of privacy and data protection, while trying to sketch some possible solutions. After analyzing the possible applications of AmI technologies and the evolution of the concept of privacy, the chapter considers the adequacy of the current legal regulation models to respond to these new challenges. Attention will be paid to the possible use of these new technologies for security purposes, and therefore to the issue of balancing opposed interests and rights according to the principles appropriate for a democratic society.