bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trust Management for Grid Systems
Authors: Aziz Benjamin , Arenas Alvaro , Martinelli Fabio , Mori Paolo , Petrocchi Marinella
Published: May 2010

Grid computing is a paradigm for distributed computation on shared resources. It uses a large-scale, highly decentralized infrastructure, in which a huge number of participants share heterogeneous resources for a given purpose. Each participant both provides their own resources and exploits others’ resources, combining them to solve their own problems. Trust management is a major issue in the shared Grid environment because Grid participants are usually unknown to each other and usually belong to separate administrative domains, with little or no common trust in the security of opposite infrastructures. The standard security support provided by the most common Grid middleware may be regarded as one means through which such common trust may be established. However, such security solutions are insufficient to exhaustively address all the trust requirements of Grid environments. In this chapter, the authors survey proposals for enhancing trust management in Grid systems.
Integrated Design of eBanking Architecture
Authors: Shan Tony C. , Hua Winnie W.
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes a service-oriented framework for integrated design of eBanking architecture (IDEA) in the financial services industry. A pragmatic approach is developed to help facilitate sustainable design practices in migrating conventional n-tier online systems to a service-oriented computing paradigm, composed of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Integration (SOI), Process (SOP) and Management (SOM). This comprehensive model comprises 5 modules, namely, Hybrid Methodology, Architecture Baseline Model, Service Patterns, Enterprise Service Model, and Domain-specific Model. A hybrid methodology is designed to leverage the benefits of both top-down and bottom-up approaches, in which a converging layer is conceived to incorporate the latest technologies such as portal, mashup, RIA, process orchestration, service aggregations, collaborations, choreography, business rule engine, virtualization, cloud computing, Web 2.0/3.0, and so on. A multi-tier architecture baseline model is constructed to cope with the architecture complexity in a disciplined manner. E-business patterns are applied to categorize diverse banking services, which form the foundation for subsequent selection justifications of appropriate technologies, platforms, products, tools, and infrastructure. Furthermore, common business functionalities are built in the enterprise service model as shared services to be reused across lines of business as well as delivery channels, along with the sharable technical services and infrastructure services. A domain-specific model for the Internet Channel is defined by operationalizing the hybrid methodology in a particular portfolio. In addition, a holistic reusable application platform is introduced to address the key design considerations and concerns in the implementation of service-oriented solutions. Various challenges and best-practice recommendations are also articulated in the context.
Composing and Coordinating Transactional Web Services
Authors: Montagut Frederic , Molva Refik , Golega Silvan Tecumseh
Published: May 2010

Composite applications leveraging the functionalities offered by Web services are today the underpinnings of enterprise computing. However, current Web services composition systems make only use of functional requirements in the selection process of component Web services while transactional consistency is a crucial parameter of most business applications. The transactional challenges raised by the composition of Web services are twofold: integrating relaxed atomicity constraints at both design and composition time and coping with the dynamicity introduced by the service oriented computing paradigm. This chapter proposes a new process to automate the design of transactional composite Web services. This solution for Web services composition does not take into account functional requirements only but also transactional ones based on the Acceptable Termination States model. The resulting composite Web service is compliant with the consistency requirements expressed by business application designers and its execution can easily be coordinated using the coordination rules provided as an outcome of the authors’ approach. An implementation of these theoretical results augmenting an OWL-S matchmaker is further detailed as a proof of concept.
Service-Oriented Architecture for Migrating Legacy Home Appliances to Home Network System
Authors: Nakamura Masahide , Igaki Hiroshi , Tanaka Akihiro , Tamada Haruaki , Matsumoto Ken-ichi
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents a practical framework that adapts the conventional home electric appliances with the infrared remote controls (legacy appliances) to the emerging home network system (HNS). The proposed method extensively uses the concept of service-oriented architecture to improve programmatic interoperability among multi-vendor appliances. The authors first prepare APIs that assist a PC to send infrared signals to the appliances. Then the APIs are aggregated within self-contained service components, so that each of the components achieves a logical feature independent of device/vendor-specific operations. The service components are finally exhibited to the HNS as Web services. As a result, the legacy appliances can be used as distributed components with open interfaces. To demonstrate the effectiveness, the authors implement an actual HNS and integrated services with multi-vendor legacy appliances. The authors also show practical applications implemented on the developed HNS.
Broadening JAIN-SLEE with a Service Description Language and Asynchronous Web Services
Authors: Falcarin Paolo , Venezia Claudio , Mejia Bernal José Felipe
Published: May 2010

Meshing up telecommunication and IT resources seems to be the real challenge for supporting the evolution towards the next generation of Web Services. In the telecom world, JAIN-SLEE (JAIN Service Logic Execution Environment) is an emerging standard specification for Java service platforms targeted to host value added services, composed of telecom and IT services. This chapter describes the StarSLEE platform which extends JAIN-SLEE in order to compose JAIN-SLEE services with Web Services and the StarSCE service creation environment which allows exporting value added services as communication Web Services. It analyzes open issues that must be addressed to introduce Web Services in new telecom service platforms.
Grid, P2P and SOA Orchestration
Authors: Pham Tran Vu , Lau Lydia M.S. , Dew Peter M
Published: May 2010

Supporting global scientific collaborations are becoming more important due to the increasing complexity of modern scientific problems as well as the need for sharing specialized expensive instruments and huge amount of data required for solving these problems. The combination of Grid computing and Web-based architecture has been a common technological architecture employed to address the need for an integrated environment for scientific collaborations. However, this approach is subjected to a certain level of centralized administration and control. This has been seen as inflexible and does not scale well with respect to the heterogeneity of distributed user communities. This chapter introduces an orchestration of P2P and Grid computing for supporting distributed scientific collaborations. In the resulted architecture, a P2P collaborative environment is used for heterogeneous users to collaborate and tap into large-scale computational resources and experimental datasets in the Grid computing environment. The service oriented architecture is used as a means of integrating these two environments.
Distributed Indexing Networks for Efficient Large-Scale Group Communication
Authors: Popescu George V.
Published: May 2010

Recently a new category of communication network paradigms has emerged: overlay networks for content distribution and group communication, application level multicast and distributed hash tables for efficient indexing and look-up of network resources, etc. As these ideas mature, new Internet architectures emerge. The authors describe here an autonomic, self-optimizing, network virtualization middleware architecture designed for large scale distributed applications. The proposed architecture uses end-hosts and proxies at the edge of the network as the forwarding nodes for distributing content to multiple receivers using simple point-to-point communication. Routing nodes have the capability to process the content prior to forwarding to meet the heterogeneous requirements of receivers. The proposed architecture builds upon a new network abstraction. Distributed indexing networks (DIN) is a new paradigm of communication networks design that relies on assigning indices to communication entities, communication infrastructure nodes and distributed infrastructure resources to control and disseminate information. DINs are in essence overlay networks whose topology is defined by a set of connectivity rules on indices assigned to network nodes. DINs route data packets using network indices (identifiers) and descriptors contained in the application level routing header; messages are routed hop by hop by querying at each node an application level routing indexing structure. As an application of DINs, the authors present an index-based routing multicast protocol together with its distribution tree optimization algorithm. To support applications involving large dynamic multicast groups, the application level multicast scheme uses hierarchical group membership aggregation and stateless forwarding within clusters of network nodes. The authors define the information space (IS) as the multidimensional space that indexes all information available in the network. The information includes infrastructure information (network nodes addresses, storage nodes location), network measurements data, distributed content descriptors, communication group identifiers, real-time published streams and other application dependent communication semantics, etc. The entity communication interest (ECI) is the vector describing the time-dependent information preferences of a network entity (multicast group client, user, etc.). Communication control architecture partitions the IS into interest cells mapped to multicast communication groups. The proposed control algorithm uses proximity-based clustering of network nodes and hierarchical communication interest aggregation to achieve scalability. The authors show that large-scale group communication in the proposed distributed indexing networks requires low computation overhead with a controlled degradation of the end-to-end data path performance.
Improving Energy-Efficiency of Computational Grids via Scheduling
Authors: Zong Ziliang , Ruan Xiaojun , Manzanares Adam , Bellam Kiranmai , Qin Xiao
Published: May 2010

High performance Grid platforms and parallel computing technologies are experiencing their golden age because of the convergence of four critical momentums: high performance microprocessors, high-speed networks, free middleware tools, and highly increased needs of computing capability. We are witnessing the rapid development of computational Grid technologies. Dozens of exciting Grid infrastructures and projects like Grid-tech, Grid Portals, Grid Fora, and Commercial Grid Initiatives are being built all over the world. However, the fast growing power consumption of data centers has caused serious concerns for building more large-scale supercomputers, clusters, and Grids. Therefore, designing energy-efficient computational Grids to make them economically attractive and environmentally friendly for parallel applications becomes highly desirable. Unfortunately, most previous studies in Grid computing primarily focus on the improvement of performance, security, and reliability, while completely ignoring the energy conservation issue. To address this problem, we propose a general architecture for building energy-efficient computational Grids and discuss the potential possibilities for incorporating power-aware techniques to different layers of the proposed Grid architecture. In this chapter, we first provide necessary background on computational Grids, Grid computing, and parallel scheduling. Next, we illustrate the general Grid architecture and explain the functionality of different layers. Followed by that, we discuss the design and implementation details of applying the energy-efficient job-scheduling technique, which is called Communication Energy Conservation Scheduling (or CECS for short), to computational Grids. Finally, we present extensive simulation results to prove the improvement of energy-efficiency of computational Grids.
Dynamic Overlay Networks for Robust and Scalable Routing
Authors: De Vleeschauwer Bart , De Turck Filip , Dhoedt Bart , Demeester Piet
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the use of peer-to-peer overlay networks to route around failures and congestion points in the Internet. The motivation for this type of overlay network is that often the network layer takes considerable time to react to link failure and is typically not capable of avoiding congestion. For instance, it has been reported that link failure may take the BGP system more than fifteen minutes to react. As a result, the services going over these links suffer from lost connectivity or severe quality degradation in the case of congestion. One technique to solve this problem is to use overlay routing techniques to detect these problems and to route around the problematic link(s). In this chapter we elaborate on the overall architecture of such a system. The concept is introduced and the architecture and implementation of prototype components implementing the behavior is discussed. Subsequently it is described how the overlay topology can be managed dynamically to achieve the same performance as a full mesh topology with a number of overlay edges that scales linearly with the number of nodes in the network.
Maintaining Redundancy in Peer-to-Peer Storage Systems
Authors: Datta Anwitaman , Wu Di , Xin Liu , Wierzbicki Adam
Published: May 2010

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) storage systems leverage the combined storage capacity of a network of storage devices (peers) contributed typically by autonomous end-users as a common pool of storage space to store and share content. A major challenge in such a system comprising of autonomous participants is to guarantee quality of service in terms of persistence and availability of the stored content. This chapter focuses on the different possible design choices for maintaining redundancy in P2P storage systems, including algorithm details of maintenance mechanisms, analytical models to understand system’s dynamics, empirical results from simulation experiments as well as experiences from prototype deployments.
A General Framework for the Modeling and Simulation of Grid and P2P Systems
Authors: Dobre Ciprian
Published: May 2010

The field of modeling and simulation was long seen as a viable alternative to develop new algorithms and technologies and to enable the development of large-scale distributed systems, where analytical validations are prohibited by the nature of the encountered problems. The use of discrete-event simulators in the design and development of large scale distributed systems is appealing due to their efficiency and scalability. In this chapter we focus on the challenge to enable scalable, high-level, online simulation of applications, middleware, resources and networks to support scientific and systematic study of Grid and P2P applications and environments. We describe alternatives to designing and implementing simulators to be used in the validation of distributed systems, particularly Grid and P2Ps.
Trust and Fairness Management in P2P and Grid Systems
Authors: Wierzbicki Adam , Kaszuba Tomasz , Nielek Radoslaw
Published: May 2010

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Grid systems serve whole communities of users, and are thus good examples of information systems that should realize social goals. One of the most important social goals is fairness. For that reason, P2P and Grid systems incorporate many mechanisms, algorithms and methods for providing fairness that are referred to as Fairness Management in this chapter. Information systems that serve communities of users can also apply social concepts to support users. Trust is one such concept that is often applied in P2P and Grid systems that apply Trust Management to support users in making decisions under uncertainty that is due to other users’ behavior. This chapter describes Trust Management and Fairness Management in P2P and Grid systems, showing that the two subjects are connected. Trust Management can be used to improve fairness without centralized control. The chapter includes a demonstration of fairness emergence due to trust management.
Taking Trust Management to the Next Level
Authors: Alnemr Rehab , Quasthoff Matthias , Meinel Christoph
Published: May 2010

Business often develop proprietary reputation systems for their community, with the side effect of locking users into that service if they wish to maintain their reputation (Bonawitz, Chandrasekhar, & Viana, 2004). Reputation is used in multi-agent models like e-commerce, and distributed computation and reasoning. Currently, virtual communities are using their own reputation values only without exchanging knowledge. Reputation transfer or portability is a controversial subject that is considered either not applicable or of high potentials. Trust is used to carry out decisions in case of uncertainty. In that sense it is used in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to facilitate its interactions. In P2P networks, peers’ willingness to share the content they have and forward the queries plays an important role during the content search process. Using reputation in P2P systems can be an incentive for peers to cooperate. The goal is to have dynamic social networks that work on acquiring, processing, establishing, analyzing, exchanging and evolving of knowledge. In this chapter, the authors are focusing on the use of one of the trust management approaches, namely the reputation-based approach. The connections of trust management to the classic IT security disciplines authorization, trust, and identity management will be laid out. With this background, a generic architecture for context-aware reputation systems, which can interact with identity-related services like identity providers and policy decision or enforcement points, is presented. More specialized architectures for different environments—business- or consumer-oriented—will be derived from the generic architecture.
SIP Protocol for Supporting Grid Computing
Authors: Campi Aldo , Callegati Franco
Published: May 2010

This chapter advocates migrating sufficient functionality into the network as to allow direct support to grid computing services. This approach is realized by making use of session initiation protocol (sip) as the medium to support the signaling among grid applications and network. The authors elaborate on the advantages of this approach, which benefits directly from the session management capabilities of sip and enables application-oriented functions.
From Closed to Open
Authors: Nylén Daniel
Published: May 2010

Most forestry machines being produced today include a PC that monitors and controls the harvester head, and an information system that stores data on every action the driver or the machine performs. ICT thus provides an opportunity to improve efficiency and competitiveness and possibly also opens up for new ways of working for actors in the forestry industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate how ICT can enable the transformation from selling products to selling services in the forestry industry. The author investigates this through performing a case study including a number of actors from the forestry industry in northern Sweden. First, he investigates the barriers for establishing an open innovation system in forestry. Then he describes the main steps to be taken and how the use of ICT can enable the establishment of such a system. The case study shows that the forestry industry is committed to working according to a traditional value chain and is committed to a closed innovation paradigm. He argues that the ICT component in Timbercut’s forestry machines constitutes a latent potential that can be fully captured through changing the business model and setting up a joint venture with Rewire.
Making IT Visible
Authors: Jonsson Katrin
Published: May 2010

As computer devices go embedded into the environment people will be surrounded by ubiquitous computers in their everyday life. These devices can serve as a base in services where data are collected and analyzed to serve the customers. Ubiquitous services are to a great extent invisible as people can neither see the computers nor have to be involved in the data collection or the data analysis. The service provider can be located at a distance and is thus also invisible to the customers. A challenge for the parties involved in the service production is to deal with the invisibility and the distance that emerge in ubiquitous services. The aim of this paper is to address the issues of invisibility and distance in ubiquitous services by exploring the implications of using ubiquitous computing to produce services. To address this question, the paper adopts a practice perspective to analyze data from an empirical case study of a remote diagnostics service provider and one of its customers in the mining industry. The study shows that both human enactment and the technology have implications for the service. They do however, reveal a paradox: the technology is designed to enable invisible services while people’s enactment of the service strives towards making them more visible. For ubiquitous service providers it is important to cope with this paradox, otherwise it might cause unfulfilled expectations and an unsuccessful service delivery.
Interactive Architecture as Digital Texturation
Authors: Wiberg Mikael
Published: May 2010

The notion of a digital transformation of public spaces concerns the way in which the content of the public, ranging from individual information to physical buildings, is changed as an effect of an ongoing digitalization of our surrounding. The notion of this transformation process also indicates that the public space, and digital computational power is two highly intertwined elements situated in a process in which the physical and the digital become fully integrated into one coherent element, typically labeled computational composite as it unfolds across our modern landscape. But how could this texturation process and its resulting intertwined physical/digital element be described? In this chapter, the authors take a point of departure in current research on ubiquitous computing for the purpose of understanding how digital technology drives this development while at the same time opening up for a wider interpretation of the underlying processes driving this process influenced by current research on interactive architecture. They then describe their development of a texturation theory capable of addressing the ways in which architectural elements and digital technologies becomes integrated in the process of designing meaningful environments. As a proof of concept they then present a case study that serves as an illustration of interactive architecture as a texturation of a public place. The chapter ends with a general discussion about the texturing of information technology in relation to physical space, as it normally constitutes the public and elegance as a guiding notion for design of meaningful environments. Finally, the authors discuss the implications of their research for industrial design research in general, and the implications for the area of industrial informatics in particular.
Not Stronger Than the Weakest Link
Authors: Harr Rikard
Published: May 2010

This chapter reports a field study of coordination work in an industrial warehouse. The warehousing process relies upon a chain-like structure of interdependent links for feeding the production line with components, a weak link jeopardizes the whole process as well as those that follow. The purpose of the study was to explore how an organization in the process industry structures their warehousing process for achieving a smooth and efficient flow of components, but also to identify factors that might jeopardize the process and how these were managed by the organization. The chapter provides a rich and detailed description of an intended coordination process, the involved actors, links, and dependence on IT. The chapter adds to the current body of research within coordination work and CSCW by offering a rich description of a case in which informal- as well as formal procedures are crucial for achieving a smooth and efficient process.
The Crux of Integration
Authors: Rönnbäck Lars
Published: May 2010

The purpose of this chapter is to identify and explore critical challenges for the process industry in IT infrastructure integration and adaptation. The authors identify four critical challenges in the integration and adaption of IT infrastructure in the process industry: integration as an ongoing process; maintaining stability in the installed base; locking the right stuff in; and balancing user value, continuity of production and compatibility. Given the centrality of IT infrastructure in today’s process industries the importance of dealing with these challenges must be emphasized. The four challenges identified in this study are of such a complexity they can only lend themselves to the evolutionary strategy. Such a strategy is in concert with the sensibility towards risk the authors find in the paper industry.
Living on the Edge
Authors: Augustsson Nils-Petter , Holmström Jonny
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes the efforts in ensuring research relevance by means of an industrial PhD project. The project is aiming at strengthening the relevance of research and development by educating scientists with an insight into the practical aspects of research and development and by developing networks in which knowledge can be effectively disseminated between industry and university. The project is taking its stand with an empirical and industrial centre with a technical solution called Dynamo, which is delivered by the company Logica. Dynamo, an intelligent portal that seamlessly connects systems, user information, roles and rule sets, and its context will provide a rich and useful empirical source from which to launch the action research process. The project contains two distinct stakeholders–industry and academy–jointly guiding the project and making sure that both worlds get a result that is in line with and contributes to their business. To this end two key stakeholders that have taken on the role as gatekeepers of rigor and relevance respectively. Taking position in the middle of the action is the PhD student who, by living the life of both researcher and consultant, will take on the role of balancing rigor and relevance. The chosen research approach together with the complex implementation context makes it crucial to take on an open minded selection.
From Systems and Tools to Networks and Infrastructures-from Design to Cultivation
Authors: Hanseth Ole
Published: May 2010

The author argues in this chapter that the kind of IT solutions we are developing today and in the years to come, which are integrating numbers of systems across organizational and geographical borders, in many respects are significantly different from and more complex than information systems of yesterday. To succeed with the establishment of such solutions new understandings and development approaches are needed. Such new understandings, and approaches should be based on a perspective seeing such solutions as information infrastructures–not information systems. Infrastructures evolve over long periods of time. New ones are designed as extensions and improvements of existing ones–not from scratch. Therefore the new elements have to fit into the old regime. In this process the existing infrastructure, the installed base, influences heavily how the new elements can be designed. As the installed base grows its development and further growth become self-reinforcing. Successful development of infrastructures requires, first, the creation of such a self-reinforcing process, second, managing its direction. Strategies for creating and managing such processes are here called cultivation. Gateways are important tools used in such cultivation processes.
Privacy and Trust Management Schemes of Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Shaikh Riaz Ahmed , dAuriol Brian J. , Lee Heejo , Lee Sungyoung
Published: May 2010

Until recently, researchers have focused on the cryptographic-based security issues more intensively than the privacy and trust issues. However, without the incorporation of trust and privacy features, cryptographic-based security mechanisms are not capable of singlehandedly providing robustness, reliability and completeness in a security solution. In this chapter, we present generic and flexible taxonomies of privacy and trust. We also give detailed critical analyses of the state-of-the-art research, in the field of privacy and trust that is currently not available in the literature. This chapter also highlights the challenging issues and problems.
Description and Analysis of an Indoor Positioning System That Uses Wireless ZigBee Technology
Authors: Vazquez Roberto A. , Herrero Javier , Herrero Daniel , Gómez Jaime
Published: May 2010

Along this chapter, an indoor positioning system that uses wireless ZigBee technology is presented and evaluated. In this system, mobile wireless devices measure the level of the received signal from reference nodes, which are placed in well-known positions. With this information, the position is estimated and presented to the user in a graphical way. A precision study is presented, being this study done in function of positions and numbers of reference nodes. It is also analyzed the presence of obstacles in the system, and a study of maximum distance inter nodes that allow positioning with a minimum of quality in the results is done.
Monitoring and Controlling Large Scale Systems
Authors: Cristea Valentin , Dobre Ciprian , Stratan Corina , Pop Florin
Published: May 2010

The architectural shift presented in the previous chapters towards high performance computers assembled from large numbers of commodity resources raises numerous design issues and assumptions pertaining to traceability, fault tolerance and scalability. Hence, one of the key challenges faced by high performance distributed systems is scalable monitoring of system state. The aim of this chapter is to realize a survey study of existing work and trends in distributed systems monitoring by introducing the involved concepts and requirements, techniques, models and related standardization activities. Monitoring can be defined as the process of dynamic collection, interpretation and presentation of information concerning the characteristics and status of resources of interest. It is needed for various purposes such as debugging, testing, program visualization and animation. It may also be used for general management activities, which have a more permanent and continuous nature (performance management, configuration management, fault management, security management, etc.). In this case the behavior of the system is observed and monitoring information is gathered. This information is used to make management decisions and perform the appropriate control actions on the system. Unlike monitoring which is generally a passive process, control actively changes the behavior of the managed system and it has to be considered and modeled separately. Monitoring proves to be an essential process to observe and improve the reliability and the performance of large-scale distributed systems.
Designing a Distance Language Learning Environment
Authors: Bertin Jean-Claude , Gravé Patrick
Published: May 2010

The principles introduced in chapter 8 represent a number of guidelines to operate the didactic ergonomics model in specific contexts, which the present chapter will now develop. The didactic ergonomics model outlines the complexity of the (distance) computer-mediated language learning situation affecting the three dimensions of mediation (pedagogic, technological, distance). This complexity makes it even more necessary to organize the reflection on the design and implementation of such environments. A methodology based on engineering seems to us the most appropriate one to operate our model. The first part of this chapter will introduce the four main phases of the engineering approach. It is sometimes perceived as too procedural and disincarnate. To alleviate this criticism, in the second part focusing on its implementation, we will suggest a complementary action-research-training program which can offer a reasoned and operational means to support the introduction of innovation in
Why The Already Difficult Task of Identifying Sources of Growth Has Become Even More Challenging?
Authors: Singh Rup
Published: May 2010

This chapter is a brief account of what we now observe in the growth literature in light of the developments in the voluminous empirical works on economic growth. It is argued that while the empirical knowledge has advanced adequately, little progress has been made in the growth theory since the classic works of Solow. Therefore it can be said that growth economist and policy makers are still confused on how to raise the steady state growth rate of output and some of these confusions are due to our own experiments.
Some Philosophical Reflections on Foundations of Sustainable Social Development
Authors: Gundogdu Hakan
Published: May 2010

Sustainable social development cannot be fully understood apart from its cultural, moral, political, and educational foundations; and philosophy helps us to see it as a whole and to clearly comprehend its foundations. The main assumption behind that claim is that we can know what to do for realizing sustainable development if we actually know about specific or internal reasons for the fall of the societies and civilizations. This chapter begins with such an assumption and asserts that there must be four integrated foundations for any sustainable social development by benefiting from the views of Max Weber, Ibn Khaldun, Aristotle, John Dewey and some Ottoman Turkish philosophers: among those foundations are (1) effective working mentality grounded on culture, (2) strong ethical perspective including the virtues of moderation, friendship and sympathy, (3) flexible but stable social stratification which is based on middle class and positive competition, (4) effective state composed of solidarity, democracy and education of critical thinking. All those can, the author thinks, can be seen as parts of a sort of social liberalism rather than classical or neo-liberalism.
Sustainable Development and the Digital Divide Among OIC Countries
Authors: Siwar Chamhuri , Abdulai Abdul-Mumin
Published: May 2010

Undoubtedly, digital technology (DT) has revolutionalised information and communications technology (ICT) base of the global economy, which has impacted tremendously the socio-economic, political, cultural and scientific development in the majority of the world’s economies. The chapter examines “digital divide” in a broader perspective of information and communications technologies (ICTs) that encompass not only computers, but also telephone (line and cellular), television (TV), radio etc. It is an open secret that ICTs have played and will continue to play a pivotal role in sustaining economic development in the developed countries. Through ICTs, creating, storing and sharing enormous volume of information with relative ease in almost all the spheres of human endeavour have been made possible. The power inherent in ICT that can break up barriers and boundaries holding countries, continents and businesses miles apart can never be over-emphasized. Despite the attendant benefits of ICTs, there are still deep-seated ICT inequalities both within and among the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries. This chapter investigates the depth of the existing digital divide among the OIC member countries and to unearth the possible obstacles. Finally, some policy recommendations have been offered towards the end of the chapter.
Robust Adaptive Control Using Higher Order Neural Networks and Projection
Authors: Yu Wen
Published: May 2010

By using dynamic higher order neural networks, we present a novel robust adaptive approach for a class of unknown nonlinear systems. Firstly, the neural networks are designed to identify the nonlinear systems. Dead-zone and projection techniques are applied to weights training, in order to avoid singular cases. Secondly, a linearization controller is proposed based on the neuro identifier. Since the approximation capability of the neural networks is limited, four types of compensators are addressed. We also proposed a robust neuro-observer, which has an extended Luenberger structure. Its weights are learned on-line by a new adaptive gradient-like technique. The control scheme is based on the proposed neuro-observer. The final structure is composed by two parts: the neuro-observer and the tracking controller. The simulations of a two-link robot show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
The Design and Development of Educational Immersive Environments
Authors: Price Collin B. , Moore Miss J.S.
Published: May 2010

Computer game technology is poised to make a significant impact on the way our youngsters will learn. Our youngsters are ‘Digital Natives’, immersed in digital technologies, especially computer games. They expect to utilize these technologies in learning contexts. This expectation, and our response as educators, may change classroom practice and inform curriculum developments. This chapter approaches these issues ‘head on’. Starting from a review of the current educational issues, an evaluation of educational theory and instructional design principles, a new theoretical approach to the construction of “Educational Immersive Environments” (EIEs) is proposed. Elements of this approach are applied to development of an EIE to support Literacy Education in UK Primary Schools. An evaluation of a trial within a UK Primary School is discussed. Conclusions from both the theoretical development and the evaluation suggest how future teacher-practitioners may embrace both the technology and our approach to develop their own learning resources.
Intelligent Tutoring and Games (ITaG)
Authors: McNamara Danielle S. , Jackson G. Tanner , Graesser Art
Published: May 2010

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have been producing consistent learning gains for decades. The authors describe here a conceptual framework that provides a guide to how adding game-based features and components may improve the effectiveness of ITS learning environments by improving students’ motivation to engage with the system. A problem consistently faced by ITS researchers is the gap between liking and learning. ITSs effectively produce learning gains, but students often dislike interacting with the system. A potential solution to this problem lies in games. ITS researchers have begun to incorporate game-based elements within learning systems. This chapter aims to describe some of those elements, categorize them within functional groups, and provide insight into how elements within each category may affect various types of motivation.
ClassSim
Authors: Ferry Brian , Kervin Lisa , Carrington Lisa
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents one approach to educator development through games and simulations. The goal of the authors’ project was to enhance pre-service teachers’ ability to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of teaching. Some criteria that the authors regarded as indicators of success were the facilitation a professional dialogue, an emerging understanding of content delivery and the articulation of workplace culture in the teaching profession. The chapter describes the theory underpinning of the design and the research approaches used. In particular, the authors explain how cognitive load theory was applied to the design of the key features of this virtual learning environment. They also summarize six years of research that has consistently found that the virtual learning environment of ClassSim provides an effective way of introducing pre-service teachers to their future work in classrooms.
Virtual Gaming A Platform for Multi-Skills and Multi-Literacies for Gamers
Authors: Chaka Chaka
Published: May 2010

This chapter explores how virtual gaming (VGaming) serves as an ideal platform for harnessing multi-skills and multi-literacies. It argues that VGaming provides the opportunity for gamers (learners) to engage not only in social learning, situated learning and problem based learning, but also in meta-gaming, meta-literacies, and multi-tasking. It demonstrates all this through the use of five case studies involving five virtual games: Everquest Online Adventures; NUCLEO; Homicide; Mad City Mystery; and Lineage. Most importantly, it maintains that VGaming exposes gamers to 21st century skills. Against this background, the chapter provides, first, an overview of VGaming. Second, it presents five case studies showcasing how virtual games (VGs) help leverage multi-skills and multi-literacies for gamers. In addition, it illustrates how VGs enable gamers to engage in social learning, situated learning and problem based learning on the one hand, and in meta-gaming, meta-literacies, and multi-tasking, on the other hand. Third, it argues that VGaming exposes gamers to 21st century skills. Fourth and last, the chapter outlines future trends for VGaming.
Designing Game-Based Learning Activities in Virtual Worlds
Authors: Toro-Troconis Maria , Partridge Martyn R.
Published: May 2010

In view of the current interest taking place in the area of education and virtual worlds, such as Second Life®, many educationalists have began to explore the benefits of applying game-based learning in these environments. In this chapter, the authors attempt to explore the elements associated with game-based learning in virtual worlds, focusing on the design process and how effective game-based learning activities can be achieved following pedagogic frameworks. The authors view learning in games as a form of driving learners’ motivations and this is reflected in the design and development of the virtual respiratory ward at Imperial College virtual hospital explained in this chapter.
Enhanced Interactivity in Secondary Mathematics
Authors: Miller Dave , Glover Derek
Published: May 2010

This chapter outlines the background to the development of changed pedagogy by mathematics teachers within a secondary school in England. It relates this development to the enhanced understanding of the use of interactive whiteboards, initially as a presentational and motivational support but then as the basis of more effective conceptual and cognitive learning by students. The experience of teachers within the school and members of a research group points to the importance of the integration of interactive whiteboards, desk work and thinking in the planning of mathematics lessons. It also discusses emerging evidence that effective whiteboard use requires an understanding of the role of individual learning style, gesture, and artifact use in reflective and stepped teaching and learning situations.
Interactive Whiteboards and Student Achievement
Authors: Swan Karen , Kratcoski Annette , Schenker Jason , van‘t Hooft Mark
Published: May 2010

This study explored the effects of teachers’ use of interactive whiteboards on students’ reading/language arts and mathematics performance. Reading/language arts and mathematics achievement test scores of all students in the third through eighth grades in a small urban school district in northern Ohio, United States, were compared between students whose teachers used interactive whiteboards for instruction and those whose teachers did not. A statistically significant but not meaningful positive main effect of whiteboard use on mathematics achievement was found. A statistically significant main effect on reading achievement was not found, although the reading/language arts scores of students whose teachers used whiteboards were slightly higher than those of students whose teachers did not use them. In addition, statistically significant and meaningful interactions between whiteboard use and grade levels were found, leading to a more careful look at differences in the ways teachers employed whiteboards in their instruction. A within-group comparison of such usage between teachers whose students scored above the mean on standardized tests and those whose students scored at or below the mean revealed that teachers of high-scoring students used interactive whiteboards more frequently and in more creative and constructivist ways than did teachers whose students performed at or below the mean. The results suggest that the use of interactive whiteboards can enhance student learning of mathematics and reading/language arts when teachers use them in a manner that takes advantage of their unique capabilities.
A Model of Pedagogical Change for the Evaluation of Interactive Whiteboard Practice
Authors: Cogill Julie
Published: May 2010

This chapter explores how whiteboard pedagogy is constructed from both a theoretical pedagogical perspective and empirical evidence based on interactive whiteboard practice. A brief discussion on what is meant by the terms Pedagogy, Pedagogical Knowledge, Content Knowledge, Curriculum Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1987) is followed by the utilization of established theoretical models of teacher knowledge to form a model of teachers’ general pedagogy. An evaluation of IWB practice of 11 teachers in two primary UK schools, over one year, is then presented. Evidence emerging from whiteboard practice is subsequently blended with the model of general pedagogy to construct a theoretical model of pedagogical change subsequent to whiteboard use. Particular whiteboard teaching behaviors are proposed which facilitate greater efficiency and which may extend teachers’ existing pedagogical practice or help to transform their teaching. Finally, in the concluding section implications for teachers’ professional development in whiteboard practice and future research directions are put forward.
Video Games Revisited
Authors: Greenfield Patricia M.
Published: May 2010

When Greenfield wrote her chapter on video games in her 1994 landmark book Mind and Media, video games were played primarily in arcades, and popular opinion held that they were at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous technology sure to lead to increased aggression. As a cognitive psychologist and media scholar, she was interested in what was really going on in these games and brought the theoretical rigor and research tools of her discipline to bear on games and their cognitive effects on game players. Part anthropologist and part stranger in a strange land, she studied games and game players and played games herself. Her conclusions at the time were both surprising and prescient; research failed to support the common sense connection of games and violent behavior, and games in fact appeared to have cognitive benefits unseen by those who did not play them. Her conclusions both provided a glimpse of then-current research and laid the foundation for a rigorous empirical study of games and cognition. What is shocking upon rereading this chapter today is how relevant it remains and how many of the research possibilities remain largely unexplored. Her chapter is reprinted here along with her current analysis and thoughts about her original ideas, 25 years later. Its placement as the first chapter in a book dedicated to cognitive perspectives on games is appropriate, both as a reminder of where we come from and how far we have yet to go.