bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reducing Network Overhead with Common Junction Methodology
Authors: Bhushan Shashi , Dave M. , Patel R.B.
Published: October 2011

In structured and unstructured Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems, frequent joining and leaving of peer nodes causes topology mismatch between the P2P logical overlay network and the physical underlay network. This topology mismatch problem generates high volumes of redundant traffic in the network. This paper presents Common Junction Methodology (CJM) to reduce network overhead by optimize the overlay traffic at underlay level. CJM finds common junction between available paths, and traffic is only routed through the common junction and not through the conventional identified paths. CJM does not alter overlay topology and performs without affecting the search scope of the network. Simulation results show that CJM resolves the mismatch problem and significantly reduces redundant P2P traffic up to 87% in the best case for the simulated network. CJM can be implemented over structured or unstructured P2P networks, and also reduces the response time by 53% approximately for the network.
Online Authentication Using Smart Card Technology in Mobile Phone Infrastructure
Authors: Mantoro Teddy , Milišic Admir , Ayu Media
Published: October 2011

The widespread of Internet usage has resulted in a greater number and variety of applications involving different types of private information. In order to diminish privacy concerns and strengthen user trust, security improvements in terms of authentication are necessary. The solutions need to be convenient, entailing ease of use and higher mobility. The suggested approach is to make use of the already popular mobile phone and to involve the mobile network, benefiting from Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card’s tamper resistance to become trusted entities guarding personal information and identifying users. Mobile phone’s SIM card is convenient for safely storing security parameters essential for secured communication. It becomes secure entity compulsory for getting access to privacy sensitive Internet applications, like those involving money transfers. Utilizing the NFC interface passes the personal user keys only when needed, giving additional strength to the traditional public key cryptography approach in terms of security and portability.
Authorship Detection and Encoding for eBay Images
Authors: Zhou Liping , Chen Wei-Bang , Zhang Chengcui
Published: October 2011

This paper describes a framework to detect authorship of eBay images. It contains three modules: editing style summarization, classification and multi-account linking detection. For editing style summarization, three approaches, namely the edge-based approach, the color-based approach, and the color probability approach, are proposed to encode the common patterns inside a group of images with similar editing styles into common edge or color models. Prior to the summarization step, an edge-based clustering algorithm is developed. Corresponding to the three summarization approaches, three classification methods are developed accordingly to predict the authorship of an unlabeled test image. For multi-account linking detection, to detect the hidden owner behind multiple eBay seller accounts, two methods to measure the similarity between seller accounts based on similar models are presented.
Hybrid Query Refinement
Authors: Chatterjee Kasturi , Chen Shu-Ching
Published: October 2011

This paper proposes a hybrid query refinement model for distance-based index structures supporting content-based image retrievals. The framework refines a query by considering both the low-level feature space as well as the high-level semantic interpretations separately. Thus, it successfully handles queries where the gap between the feature components and the semantics is large. It refines the low-level feature space, indexed by the distance based index structure, in multiple iterations by introducing the concept of multipoint query in a metric space. It refines the high-level semantic space by dynamically adjusting the constructs of a framework, called the Markov Model Mediator (MMM), utilized to introduce the semantic relationships in the index structure. A k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) algorithm is designed to handle similarity searches that refine a query in multiple iterations utilizing the proposed hybrid query refinement model. Extensive experiments are performed demonstrating an increased relevance of query results in subsequent iterations while incurring a low computational overhead. Further, an evaluation metric, called the Model_Score, is proposed to compare the performance of different retrieval frameworks in terms of both computation overhead and query result relevance. This metric enables the users to choose the retrieval framework appropriate for their requirements.
Evaluating the Visual Demand of In-Vehicle Information Systems
Authors: Irune Ainojie Alexander
Published: October 2011

In-vehicle information systems (IVIS) provide a variety of driver support and infotainment functionality; however, there is a growing concern that the resulting engagement with IVIS could present significant sources of distraction to drivers. This paper summarises the PhD thesis of Dr Ainojie Alexander Irune, which was awarded at the University of Nottingham in December 2009. The primary aims of the research were to develop a framework to aid the selection of an appropriate HF/HCI method, for use at particular stages in the design process, and to develop a novel method (with a focus on glance duration) for assessing the visual demand afforded by IVIS. Five empirical studies are reported in the thesis. In the first study, interviews were conducted with subject experts and the results were combined with the literature to provide guidance regarding the appropriate use of human factors methods. The remaining four studies present an iterative development of a novel method capable of predicting the visual demand imposed by an IVIS.
Classic and Alternative Mobile Search
Authors: Jones Matt
Published: October 2011

As mobile search turns into a mainstream activity, the author reflects on research that provides insights into the impact of current interfaces and pointers to yet unmet needs. Classic text dominated interface and interaction techniques are reviewed, showing how they can enhance the user experience. While today’s interfaces emphasise direct, query-result approaches, serving up discrete chunks of content, the author suggests an alternative set of features for future mobile search. With reference to example systems, the paper argues for indirect, continuous and multimodal approaches. Further, while almost all mobile search research has focused on the ‘developed’ world, the paper outlines challenges and impact of work targeted at ‘developing’ world contexts.
Speech for Content Creation
Authors: Polifroni Joseph , Kiss Imre , Seneff Stephanie
Published: October 2011

This paper proposes a paradigm for using speech to interact with computers, one that complements and extends traditional spoken dialogue systems: speech for content creation. The literature in automatic speech recognition (ASR), natural language processing (NLP), sentiment detection, and opinion mining is surveyed to argue that the time has come to use mobile devices to create content on-the-fly. Recent work in user modelling and recommender systems is examined to support the claim that using speech in this way can result in a useful interface to uniquely personalizable data. A data collection effort recently undertaken to help build a prototype system for spoken restaurant reviews is discussed. This vision critically depends on mobile technology, for enabling the creation of the content and for providing ancillary data to make its processing more relevant to individual users. This type of system can be of use where only limited speech processing is possible.
Human-Centered Design for Development
Authors: Knoche Hendrik , Rao PR Sheshagiri , Huang Jeffrey
Published: October 2011

This paper describes the challenges faced in ICTD by reviewing the lessons learned from a project geared at improving the livelihood of marginal farmers in India through wireless sensor networks. Insufficient user participation, lack of attention to user needs, and a primary focus on technology in the design process led to unconvinced target users who were not interested in the new technology. The authors discuss benefits that ICTD can reap from incorporating human-centered design (HCD) principles such as holistic user involvement and prototypes to get buy-in from target users and foster support from other stakeholders and NGOs. The study’s findings suggest that HCD artifacts can act as boundary objects for the different internal and external actors in development projects.
A Festival-Wide Social Network Using 2D Barcodes, Mobile Phones and Situated Displays
Authors: Larsen Jakob Eg , Stopczynski Arkadiusz
Published: October 2011

This paper reports on the authors’ experiences with an exploratory prototype festival-wide social network. Unique 2D barcodes were applied to wristbands and mobile phones to uniquely identify the festival participants at the CO2PENHAGEN music festival in Denmark. The authors describe experiences from initial use of a set of social network applications involving participant profiles, a microblog and images shared on situated displays, and competitions created for the festival. The pilot study included 73 participants, each creating a unique profile. The novel approach had potential to enable anyone at the festival to participate in the festival-wide social network, as participants did not need any special hardware or mobile client application to be involved. The 2D barcodes was found to be a feasible low-cost approach for unique participant identification and social network interaction. Implications for the design of future systems of this nature are discussed.
Wearable Tactile Display of Landmarks and Direction for Pedestrian Navigation
Authors: Srikulwong Mayuree , O’Neill Eamonn
Published: October 2011

This research investigates representation techniques for spatial and related information in the design of tactile displays for pedestrian navigation systems. The paper reports on a user survey that identified and categorized landmarks used in pedestrian navigation in the urban context. The results show commonalities of landmark use in urban spaces worldwide. The survey results were then used in an experimental study that compared two tactile techniques for landmark representation using one or two actuators. Techniques were compared on 4 measures: distinguishability, learnability, memorability, and user preferences. Results from the lab-based evaluation showed that users performed equally well using either technique to represent just landmarks alone. However, when landmark representations were presented together with directional signals, performance with the one-actuator technique was significantly reduced while performance with the two-actuator approach remained unchanged. The results of this ongoing research programme can be used to help guide design for presenting key landmark information on wearable tactile displays.
Object Tracking by Multiple State Management and Eigenbackground Segmentation
Authors: Martins de Freitas Greice , Tozzi Clésio Luis
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a multiple target tracking system through a fixed video camera, based on approaches found in literature. The proposed system is composed of three steps: foreground identification through background subtraction techniques; object association through color, area and centroid position matching, by using the Kalman filter to estimate the object’s position in the next frame; object classification according to an object management system. The obtained results showed that the proposed tracking system was able to recognize and track objects in movement on videos, as well as dealing with occlusions and separations, while encouraging future studies in its application on real time security systems.
Recognition of Human Silhouette Based on Global Features
Authors: Arantes Milene , Gonzaga Adilson
Published: October 2011

The aim of this paper is people recognition based on their gait. The authors propose a computer vision approach applied to video sequences extracting global features of human motion. From the skeleton, the authors extract the information about human joints. From the silhouette and the authors get the boundary features of the human body. The binary and gray-level-images contain different aspects about the human motion. This work proposes to recover the global information of the human body based on four segmented image models and applies a fusion model to improve classification. The authors consider frames as elements of distinct classes of video sequences and the sequences themselves as classes in a database. The classification rates obtained separately from four image sequences are then merged together by a fusion technique. The results were then compared with other techniques for gait recognition.
Mapping with Monocular Vision in Two Dimensions
Authors: Werneck Nicolau Leal , Costa Anna Helena Reali
Published: October 2011

This article presents the problem of building bi-dimensional maps of environments when the sensor available is a camera used to detect edges crossing a single line of pixels and motion is restricted to a straight line along the optical axis. The position over time must be provided or assumed. Mapping algorithms for these conditions can be built with the landmark parameters estimated from sets of matched detection from multiple images. This article shows how maps that are correctly up to scale can be built without knowledge of the camera intrinsic parameters or speed during uniform motion, and how performing an inverse parameterization of the image coordinates turns the mapping problem into the fitting of line segments to a group of points. The resulting technique is a simplified form of visual SLAM that can be better suited for applications such as obstacle detection in mobile robots.
Towards Automated Verification of P Systems Using Spin
Authors: Lefticaru Raluca , Tudose Cristina , Ipate Florentin
Published: October 2011

This paper presents an approach to P systems verification using the Spin model checker. The authors have developed a tool which implements the proposed approach and can automatically transform P system specifications from P-Lingua into Promela, the language accepted by the well known model checker Spin. The properties expected for the P system are specified using some patterns, representing high level descriptions of frequently asked questions, formulated in natural language. These properties are automatically translated into LTL specifications for the Promela model and the Spin model checker is run against them. In case a counterexample is received, the Spin trace is decoded and expressed as a P system computation. The tool has been tested on a number of examples and the results obtained are presented in the paper.
Nano-Based Food and Substantial Equivalence
Authors: Woodrow Jenna , Mehta Michael D.
Published: October 2011

In recent years regulators have become sensitized to the fact that advances in nanotechnology challenge current regulatory approaches and capacities. Since many of these issues parallel earlier debates on genetically modified foods, it seems highly likely that similar decision-making tools and approaches will be used for governing nano-based food. A key decision-making tool used by regulators in North America and Europe involves application of the principle of substantial equivalence. In this paper, the authors argue that substantial equivalence is an inapt arbiter of equivalence for nano-based food, and that it incorporates a fundamental flaw in logic known as a category-mistake.
A Formal Model of Universal Algorithmic Assembly and Molecular Computation
Authors: MacLennan Bruce
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the author describes a systematic and general approach to nanostructure synthesis and control through autonomous molecular combinatory computing. Combinatory computing is based on simple network (graph) substitution operations, deriving from combinatory logic (Curry, Feys, & Craig, 1958), which are sufficient for any computation. When these operations are implemented by autonomous molecular processes, they provide a means for computing within supramolecular networks, which may be used to assemble these networks or control their behavior. Further, the Church-Rosser Theorem (Curry, Feys, & Craig, 1958) proves that substitutions may be performed in any order or in parallel without affecting the computational result; this is a very advantageous property for autonomous molecular computation. In addition to the theoretical foundations of molecular combinatory computing, the author discusses possible molecular implementations as well as accomplishments in the (simulated) synthesis of membranes, channels, nanotubes, and other nanostructures.
Unsupervised Segmentation of Bibliographic Elements with Latent Permutations
Authors: Masada Tomonari
Published: October 2011

This paper introduces a new approach for large-scale unsupervised segmentation of bibliographic elements. The problem is segmenting a citation given as an untagged word token sequence into subsequences so that each subsequence corresponds to a different bibliographic element (e.g., authors, paper title, journal name, publication year, etc.). The same bibliographic element should be referred to by contiguous word tokens. This constraint is called contiguity constraint. The authors meet this constraint by using generalized Mallows models, effectively applied to document structure learning by Chen, Branavan, Barzilay, and Karger (2009). However, the method works for this problem only after modification. Therefore, the author proposes strategies to make the method applicable to this problem.
The Paradox of the Health Commons
Authors: Pang Natalie
Published: October 2011

Advances in participatory technologies have created both benefits and challenges for consumers of public health information. Health information is more available than before, as well as diverse in terms of sources and information providers. The playing field of information creation and use is level: both medical professionals and the lay person can equally contribute and gain open access to health information via the Web. However, this also creates significant challenges. Information can be used in inappropriate contexts, the user can wrongly diagnose his or her ailments, and reading about ailments can negatively impact hypochondriacs. Contemporary discourse has argued for the benefits of such co-created health information as a health commons, yet more work is required to anticipate and elucidate its related challenges. The paper deepens understanding about the structural layers governing health information, as well as highlights the risks involved. As people use health information at a greater frequency and depth, and use participatory technologies to contribute health information, the discourse on the challenges ahead is imminent.
Textual and Informational Characteristics of Drug-Related Content on Three Kinds of Websites
Authors: Goeuriot Lorraine , Na Jin-Cheon , Kyaing Wai Yan Min , Khoo Christopher S.G. , Theng Yin-Leng , Chang Yun-Ke , Foo Schubert
Published: October 2011

This paper develops techniques to mine medical and health-related social media content for information and opinions about diseases and treatments. This would allow users to benefit from the numerous postings of people’s experiences scattered all over the Web. This paper reports the results of a textual analysis of user-generated content on drug-related online sites. The aim is to determine what kinds of content can be expected on these sites, from linguistic and information points-of-view. User postings were harvested from two websites carrying different kinds of user-generated content and compared to information on the same drugs from a hospital information portal. The corpus was analyzed to identify what kinds of drugs were often reviewed, the vocabulary and medical concepts used, and the textual characteristics such as length of postings, sentence length, and part-of-speech distribution. Although drug-related user-generated content is very different from editorial content, the results of this project show that it provides useful information on many drugs. From a linguistic point-of-view, user-generated content is simpler in language and more informal in style than editorial content, but still contains useful health information that tends to be patient-oriented.
Expert and Novice End-User Spreadsheet Debugging
Authors: Bishop Brian , McDaid Kevin
Published: October 2011

The reliability of end-user developed spreadsheets is poor. Research studies find that 94% of ‘real-world’ spreadsheets contain errors. Although some research has been conducted in the area of spreadsheet testing, little is known about the behaviour or processes of individuals during the debugging task. In this paper, the authors investigate the performance and behaviour of expert and novice end-users in the debugging of an experimental spreadsheet. To achieve this aim, a spreadsheet debugging experiment was conducted, with professional and student participants requested to debug a spreadsheet seeded with errors. The work utilises a novel approach for acquiring experimental data through the unobtrusive recording of participants’ actions using a custom built VBA tool. Based on findings from the experiment, a debugging tool is developed, and its effects on debugging performance are investigated.
Sensitivity Analysis on Linear Programming Problems with Trapezoidal Fuzzy Variables
Authors: Nasseri Seyed Hadi , Ebrahimnejad Ali
Published: October 2011

In the real word, there are many problems which have linear programming models and sometimes it is necessary to formulate these models with parameters of uncertainty. Many numbers from these problems are linear programming problems with fuzzy variables. Some authors considered these problems and have developed various methods for solving these problems. Recently, Mahdavi-Amiri and Nasseri (2007) considered linear programming problems with trapezoidal fuzzy data and/or variables and stated a fuzzy simplex algorithm to solve these problems. Moreover, they developed the duality results in fuzzy environment and presented a dual simplex algorithm for solving linear programming problems with trapezoidal fuzzy variables. Here, the authors show that this presented dual simplex algorithm directly using the primal simplex tableau algorithm tenders the capability for sensitivity (or post optimality) analysis using primal simplex tableaus.
Multi Depot Probabilistic Vehicle Routing Problems with a Time Window
Authors: Samanta Sutapa , Jha Manoj K.
Published: October 2011

Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) are prevalent in all large pick up and delivery logistics systems and are critical to city logistics operations. Of notable significance are three key extensions to classical VRPs: (1) multi-depot scenario; (2) probabilistic demand; and (3) time-window constraints, which are considered simultaneously with VRPs in this paper. The issue then becomes a Multi Depot Probabilistic Vehicle Routing Problem with a Time Window (MDPVRPTW). The underlying complexities of MDPVRPTW are analyzed and a heuristic approach is presented to solve the problem. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are found to be capable of providing an efficient solution to the so-called MDPVRPTW. Within the GAs, two modification operators namely, crossover and mutation, are designed specially to solve the MDPVRPTW. Three numerical examples with 14, 25, and 51 nodes are presented to test the efficiency of the algorithm as the problem size grows. The proposed algorithms perform satisfactorily and the limiting case solutions are in agreement with the constraints. Additional work is needed to test the robustness and efficiency of the algorithms as the problem size grows.
Portfolio Selection Models and Their Discrimination
Authors: Ghosh Satadal , Majumdar Sujit Kumar
Published: October 2011

The stochastic nature of financial markets is a barrier for successful portfolio management. Besides traditional Markowitz’s model, many other portfolio selection models in Bayesian and Non-Bayesian frameworks have been developed. Starting with the basic Markowitz model, several cardinal models are used to find optimum portfolios with select stock set. Having developed the regression model of the return of each stock with the market return, the unsystematic part of the uncertainty was used to find the optimum portfolio and efficient risk–return frontier within each portfolio selection model. The average stock return as estimated from its historical data and the forecasted stock return were used for maximizing return with quadratic programming formulation in Markowitz model. In the models involving Fuzzy probability and possibility distributions, the future return was estimated using the similarity grade of past returns. In the interval coefficient models, future return was estimated as interval variable. The optimum portfolios of different models were widely divergent and DEA was used to identify the model giving the best portfolio with higher appraisal, both overall and by peers, and least Maverick behavior. Use of Signal to Noise ratio proved equally efficient for model discrimination and yielded identical results.
Optimizing Series Repairable Systems with Imperfect Repair
Authors: Hajeeh Mohammed
Published: October 2011

Repairable systems are either repaired perfectly to a state of as good as new or imperfectly. In this work, a system which undergoes imperfect repair is investigated. A nonlinear mathematical model is formulated for a system with the objective of finding the optimum failure and repair rate with the minimum costs subject to attaining a pre-specified performance level. Two imperfect repair models are examined. In the first model, the system is replaced by a new one after several failures. In the second model, the system is either replaced with a specific probability (1-p) or is imperfectly repaired after each failure with probability p. The optimal solution is presented in a closed form expression.
A Heuristic Algorithm for the Inner-City Multi-Drop
Authors: Pan Li , Chu Sydney C. K. , Han Guangyue , Huang Joshua Zhexue
Published: October 2011

Economic globalization, increasing fuel cost, and environmental problems provide a strong stimulation for inner-city container carriers to utilize container space more efficiently in transporting goods for multiple clients during a single round trip. A wall-building heuristic algorithm based on the binary tree data structure is proposed to solve the container loading problem with multi-drop constraints. A dynamic space decomposition approach, together with a repacking and space amalgamation strategy, permits an efficient and effective loading plan to pack containers, illustrated by numerical experiments.
Highway Alignment Optimization Using Cost-Benefit Analysis Under User Equilibrium
Authors: Maji Avijit , Jha Manoj K.
Published: October 2011

Usually, selection of a highway alignment depends on an economical route that minimizes alignment sensitive costs, such as construction cost, user cost, right-of-way cost, and earthwork cost. Most of the available highway alignment optimization algorithms do not consider traffic assignment and distribution of traffic as a result of the new road network consisting of the new alignment as well as other pre-existing alignments. Constructing a new highway will ease the traffic in the existing road network. Based on Wardrop’s principle, the users will choose a route that will minimize their travel-time. Users will unilaterally shift to the available routes for their benefit and thus, traffic flow will attain equilibrium. Theoretically, the equilibrium of traffic flow between the existing highway and the newly designed highway alternative can be achieved by a user equilibrium model. A new methodology is developed in this paper to optimize a new three-dimensional highway alignment based on the existing highway alignment system information using a cost-benefit analysis approach. The results are quite promising for new road design and bypass construction since benefit maximization and cost minimization is performed simultaneously while attaining user equilibrium.
Measuring the Effect of the Rules and Regulations on Global Malmquist Index
Authors: Alirezaee Mohammadreza , Afsharian Mohsen
Published: October 2011

The circle-type or global Malmquist index, which is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models, is an important index that is widely used for measuring the relative productivity change of decision-making units (DMUs) in multiple time periods. This index, similar to the standard approach of measuring the productivity change using the standard Malmquist index, breaks down into various components, which can then be used to measure the impact of the efficiency, technology, and scale on productivity changes over time. However, empirical studies show that there are some rules and regulations that can affect the result of the productivity changes. Therefore, this paper presents new insight into the global Malmquist index for measuring the effect of the rules and regulations on productivity changes that come from imposing some trade-offs to the production possibility set of the problem and provides a new decomposition of this index.
An Empirical Study of Open Source Software Usability
Authors: Raza Arif , Capretz Luiz Fernando , Ahmed Faheem
Published: October 2011

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the use of open source projects by common novice users; Open Source Software (OSS) is thus no longer a reserved arena for software developers and computer gurus. Although user-centered designs are gaining popularity in OSS, usability is still not considered one of the prime objectives in many design scenarios. This paper analyzes industry users’ perception of usability factors, including understandability, learnability, operability, and attractiveness on OSS usability. The research model of this empirical study establishes the relationship between the key usability factors and OSS usability from industrial perspective. In order to conduct the study, a data set of 105 industry users is included. The results of the empirical investigation indicate the significance of the key factors for OSS usability.
Factors Affecting the Development of Absorptive Capacity in the Adoption of Open Source Software
Authors: Ven Kris , De Bruyn Peter
Published: October 2011

Previous research has shown that the knowledge that is available to an organization is an important factor influencing the adoption of open source software (OSS). Hence, it is important that organizations develop their absorptive capacity in order to successfully adopt OSS. Absorptive capacity refers to the ability of an organization to acquire, assimilate, and exploit new knowledge. However, no study has specifically investigated how organizations can develop their absorptive capacity by acquiring knowledge about OSS. This paper addresses this gap in research by investigating the organizational knowledge assimilation process within the context of the adoption of OSS. Based on a case study conducted at the Flemish government, a framework that is grounded in literature and that illustrates which contextual factors influence the development of absorptive capacity in the context of the adoption of OSS was developed.
A Decision Support Architecture for Maritime Operations Exploiting Multiple METOC Centres and Uncertainty
Authors: Grasso Raffaele , Cococcioni Marco , Rixen Michel , Baldacci Alberto
Published: October 2011

Maritime operations are affected significantly by meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) conditions. The availability of multiple METOC centres able to deliver more accurate forecasts in the near future (2/3 days) is a promising resource toward better operational planning. However, how a specific maritime operation can benefit from such forecasts is not straightforward. A decision support architecture is required to combine METOC forecasts and human knowledge and select the best action from a set of pre-defined actions for the maritime operation. This paper describes a decision support architecture developed at the NATO Undersea Research Centre that is an improvement over a previous version in two ways: i) it exploits forecasts coming from more than one METOC centre, and ii) it exploits uncertainty associated with METOC forecasts. The former allows for the exploitation of different abilities of METOC centres at different conditions. The latter allows for the propagation of input uncertainty on output products (the risks related to each action), thus allowing operators to assess if risks related to different actions are statistically different. Both features increase the robustness of the previous decision support architecture. The effectiveness of the new architecture is demonstrated on an underwater glider surfacing experiment carried out on data collected during a cruise in the Adriatic Sea in 2006.
Effectiveness of Inter-Organizational Systems in Global Manufacturing
Authors: Leu Jun-Der , Huang Yu-Tsung , Huang Li-Ting
Published: October 2011

Enterprise Information Systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, have been applied to integrate business processes within a global manufacturing enterprise. Recently, the inter-organizational systems are applied to assist in business data sharing and collaboration among enterprises based on the ERP application. However, their resource requirements and failure rates are high, and many enterprises are concerned about the Business-to-Business (B2B) effectiveness. In this research, the authors study global manufacturing enterprises, which developed their B2B systems with Taiwanese government sponsorship successfully. B2B effectiveness is evaluated through operational efficiency and profitability, while the business scale, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) induced supplier numbers, and application scope are considered influencing factors. After the evidence of multiple regression models and non-parametric statistic testing, the results show that only the application scope has a significant impact on profitability. The authors discuss these results from the perspective of enterprise integration as well as the system application scope and give suggestions to global manufacturing enterprises that want to apply inter-organizational systems.
Mapping the Critical Links between Supply Chain Evaluation System and Supply Chain Integration Sustainability
Authors: Radhakrishnan Abirami , David Dessa , Hales Douglas , Sridharan V. Sri
Published: October 2011

Supply Chain Integration is widely advocated as an important factor to attain superior supply chain performance. While firms are able to achieve integration, they find it hard to sustain integration. In this paper, the authors argue that to sustain integration partner firms must establish a formal system to evaluate supply chain-wide performance. The authors draw on theories from a number of management disciplines to map the critical links between supply chain evaluation capability and supply chain integration sustainability. The authors develop and test the research model by conducting an empirical study involving 102 firms. The results of the study show that supply chains can sustain integration by establishing a supply chain wide evaluation system.
Cost Framework for Evaluation of Information Technology Alternatives in Supply Chain
Authors: Pathak Jagdish , Vidyarthi Navneet
Published: October 2011

Organizations are often facing the problem of determining the degree of investment in building information links with their suppliers and buyers to reduce costs, lead times, and quality problems, improve timely customized delivery, increase asset utilization, and improve corporate profitability. One of the critical enablers for an efficient and effective supply chain is timely planning and information processing across the entire value-added chain. This paper presents an analytical model for selecting the right mix of analytical software and hardware alternatives at various planning and execution levels of an organization to remain competitive in a supply chain. Factors such as quality, reliability, flexibility, timeliness and organizational compatibility have been quantified into cost components that form the weighted cost function. The weights of the various cost components of software and hardware are derived from pair-wise comparison. These weights account for the relative importance of alternative supply chain strategies for an organization. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework and exhibit the efficacy of the procedures and algorithms.
Searching for Pareto-Optimal Settlements in Negotiations
Authors: Neves Joao S. , Nakhai Behnam
Published: October 2011

Decision-making analysts are generally familiar with the maximin and minimax criteria used in the selection of alternative courses of action when payoffs depend on different states of nature. This paper applies these criteria to the collaborative negotiation problem in which two parties negotiate the resolution of several issues each with defined payoffs, and where the alternative choices for each party are qualitative attributes or non-differentiable variables. The proposed method assumes that the negotiators do not know each other’s payoffs and are generally unwilling to disclose information about their preferences. The search procedure for Pareto-optimal settlements and the role of the mediator in assisting the parties to achieve an improved negotiated agreement are analyzed and illustrated through an example.
Two-Facility Location Problem with Infinite Retrial Queue
Authors: Teimoury Ebrahim , Yazdi Mohammad Modarres , Khondabi Iman Ghaleh , Fathi Mahdi
Published: October 2011

This paper analyzes a two-facility location problem under demand uncertainty. The maximum server for the ith facility is . It is assumed that primary service demand arrivals for the ith facility follow a Poisson process. Each customer chooses one of the facilities with a probability which depends on his or her distance to each facility. The service times are assumed to be exponential and there is no vacation or failure in the system. Both facilities are assumed to be substitutable which means that if a facility has no free server, the other facility is used to fulfill the demand. When there is no idle server in both facilities, each arriving primary demand goes into an orbit of unlimited size. The orbiting demands retry to get service following an exponential distribution. In this paper, the authors give a stability condition of the demand satisfying process, and then obtain the steady-state distribution by applying matrix geometric method in order to calculation of some key performance indexes. By considering the fixed cost of opening a facility and the steady state service costs, the best locations for two facilities are derived. The result is illustrated by a numerical example.
Why Do I Feel Like This?
Authors: Arellano Diana , Varona Javier , Perales Francisco J.
Published: October 2011

One of the milestones in creation of virtual characters is the achievement of believability, which can be done through the representation of emotions using behaviours, voice, or facial expressions. To know which emotions to elicit in a variety of situations it is necessary to have a framework for reasoning, which is why context representation is important when creating synthetic emotions. It provides a description of what is occurring around the character, eliciting different emotions in the same situation or the same emotions in different situations. The novelty of this work is the representation of context, not only as events in the world, but also as the internal characteristics of the character, which when related with the events, give believable emotional responses.
The Idea of a Green New Deal in a Quintuple Helix Model of Knowledge, Know-How and Innovation
Authors: Barth Thorsten D.
Published: October 2011

The climate change and the financial and economical crises are posing new challenges to the quality of democracies. This article is about the discussion of a correlation between a potential Green New Deal project and the scientific innovation model of a Quintuple Helix in advanced democracies to demonstrate that the sought for knowledge, sustainability, and green development can imply an excess in quality of democracies. Conclusion of the discussion is that the social and scientific subsystems of a democracy must, as part of a new deal, take over new tasks. At the same time, a new scientific cooperation and exchange system between advanced democracies should be implemented on an international level.
Reflections on Mode 3, the Co-Evolution of Knowledge and Innovation Systems and How It Relates to Sustainable Development
Authors: Vadrot Alice B. M.
Published: October 2011

This paper is interested in raising the question to which extent the epistemological implications of the Mode 3 concept coincide with the respective knowledge understanding. The argumentation focuses on the article from David F. J. Campbell and Elias G. “Mode 3” and “Quadruple Helix”: Toward a 21st Century Fractal Innovation Ecosystem (2009) and aims to illuminate it from a theoretical perspective. The starting point is the elaborated basic understanding of knowledge as well as the interpretation of knowledge production.
Ecotourism for Community Development
Authors: Bansal S. P. , Kumar Jaswinder
Published: October 2011

Ecotourism is sustainable tourism, which is based on the ecological principle and sustainable development theory. There is emergent need of capacity building for local people for ecotourism in the villages of Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP). Ecotourism involves local community for the conservation of the area’s ecology and biodiversity, in return, provides economic incentives to the community. This paper studies the ecotourism perspective from the point of view of major stakeholders of ecotourism, i.e., local communities, tourists, ecotourism operators, and government officials in Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh. This study determines the various issues related to ecotourism and these stakeholders’ opinions about these issues. A lack of knowledge and awareness exists in the local community about ecotourism and its benefits, while the other stakeholders have strong opinions for various ecotourism statements. An ANOVA test is conducted followed by a Scheffe test to the different groups of stakeholders. The paper gives some suggestions to increase ecotourism awareness, capacity building for ecotourism for the local community, and community participation for the development of ecotourism in GHNP.
Option Value Embedded on the Brazilian Flex and Sustainable Vehicles
Authors: Camargo Alceu S. , Yu Abraham S. O. , Nascimento Paulo Tromboni de S. , Belinetti Jose Vidal , Marques José J. , Morilhas Leandro J.
Published: October 2011

The Brazilian auto industry has changed significantly since 2003 by the introduction of the flexible fuel vehicles that can run with any mix of gasoline or sugarcane ethanol. Sugarcane ethanol is a well-known renewable fuel and an efficient alternative to fossil fuel due to its high energy yield and its great sustainable potential for fixing carbon dioxide. Consumers see great opportunity in acquiring a flex fuel vehicle, because car owners can select the fuel by considering its relative price and sustainable profile. This study applies the real options methodology to capture the worth of owning and operating a Brazilian flex fuel vehicle, regarding the relative prices of the two fuels. The more uncertain the relative prices of fuels the more valuable the option value embedded in Brazilian flex fuel vehicles becomes. The authors develop sensitivity analyses regarding different scenarios on Brazilian fuel markets and discuss their impacts.
A Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimizer for Constrained Optimization
Authors: Yen Gary G. , Leong Wen-Fung
Published: October 2011

Constraint handling techniques are mainly designed for evolutionary algorithms to solve constrained multiobjective optimization problems (CMOPs). Most multiojective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) designs adopt these existing constraint handling techniques to deal with CMOPs. In the proposed constrained MOPSO, information related to particles’ infeasibility and feasibility status is utilized effectively to guide the particles to search for feasible solutions and improve the quality of the optimal solution. This information is incorporated into the four main procedures of a standard MOPSO algorithm. The involved procedures include the updating of personal best archive based on the particles’ Pareto ranks and their constraint violation values; the adoption of infeasible global best archives to store infeasible nondominated solutions; the adjustment of acceleration constants that depend on the personal bests’ and selected global best’s infeasibility and feasibility status; and the integration of personal bests’ feasibility status to estimate the mutation rate in the mutation procedure. Simulation to investigate the proposed constrained MOPSO in solving the selected benchmark problems is conducted. The simulation results indicate that the proposed constrained MOPSO is highly competitive in solving most of the selected benchmark problems.
Design of Robust Approach for Failure Detection in Dynamic Control Systems
Authors: El-Far Gomaa Zaki
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a robust instrument fault detection (IFD) scheme based on modified immune mechanism based evolutionary algorithm (MIMEA) that determines on line the optimal control actions, detects faults quickly in the control process, and reconfigures the controller structure. To ensure the capability of the proposed MIMEA, repeating cycles of crossover, mutation, and clonally selection are included through the sampling time. This increases the ability of the proposed algorithm to reach the global optimum performance and optimize the controller parameters through a few generations. A fault diagnosis logic system is created based on the proposed algorithm, nonlinear decision functions, and its derivatives with respect to time. Threshold limits are implied to improve the system dynamics and sensitivity of the IFD scheme to the faults. The proposed algorithm is able to reconfigure the control law safely in all the situations. The presented false alarm rates are also clearly indicated. To illustrate the performance of the proposed MIMEA, it is applied successfully to tune and optimize the controller parameters of the nonlinear nuclear power reactor such that a robust behavior is obtained. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed IFD scheme based MIMEA in detecting and isolating the dynamic system faults.
Scatter Search and Path Relinking
Authors: Martí Rafael , Pantrigo Juan-José , Duarte Abraham , Campos Vicente , Glover Fred
Published: October 2011

Scatter search (SS) and path relinking (PR) are evolutionary methods that have been successfully applied to a wide range of hard optimization problems. The fundamental concepts and principles of the methods were first proposed in the 1970s and 1980s, and were based on formulations, dating back to the 1960s, for combining decision rules and problem constraints. The methods use strategies for search diversification and intensification that have proved effective in a variety of optimization problems and that have sometimes been embedded in other evolutionary methods to yield improved performance. This paper examines the scatter search and path relinking methodologies from both conceptual and practical points of view, and identifies certain connections between their strategies and those adopted more recently by particle swarm optimization. The authors describe key elements of the SS & PR approaches and apply them to a hard combinatorial optimization problem: the minimum linear arrangement problem, which has been used in applications of structural engineering, VLSI and software testing.