bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effectiveness of Privacy Policy Statements
Authors: Clarke Roger
Published: July 2010

An expectation exists in the U.S.A. that operators of business-to-consumer (B2C) Web sites will provide public notice of their privacy and security practices in relation to the personal data that they hold. Such documents are referred to in this paper as Privacy Policy Statements (PPS). The use of PPS has become mainstream in many other countries as well. Privacy and security of personal data are important elements in consumer trust, and hence in a consumer‘s decision to make purchases using Internet commerce services. PPS could therefore be expected to play an important role in overcoming the impediments to consumer purchases online. This paper adds to the growing research literature on PPS by developing a research design involving comparison of an organisation’s PPS against a normative template developed on the basis of professional practice and laws, policies, practices, and public expectations around the world. A study of six B2C sites was undertaken, in order to assess the practicability of the design, and provide some initial substantive insight into the contributions that PPS currently make to consumer trust. It appears that many organisations’ PPS may be seriously inadequate, and hence may be more of an impediment to trust than an enabler of Web-commerce adoption.
An Evaluation of User Password Practice
Authors: Campbell John , Bryant Kay
Published: July 2010

Maintaining the security of information systems and associated data resources is vital if an organization is to minimize losses. Access controls are the first line of defense in this process. The primary function of authentication controls is to ensure that only authorized users have access to information systems and electronic resources. Password-based systems remain the predominant means of user authentication despite viable authentication alternatives. Research suggests that password-based systems are often compromised by poor user security practices. This chapter presents the results of a survey of 884 computer users that examines user practice in creating and reusing password keys, and reports the findings on user password composition and security practices for email accounts. Despite a greater awareness of security issues, the results show that many users still select and reuse weak passwords keys that are based on dictionary words and other meaningful information.
Web 2.0 Technologies for Business Solutions
Authors: Miah Shah Jahan
Published: July 2010

Web 2.0 is a new way of using existing Web resources interactively, and has attracted growing interest from the Web community, and more recently from businesses. However, there are emerging issues associated with security with the use of Web 2.0. This chapter provides an overview of Web 2.0 and outlines the security issues with Mashups and other applications within the Web 2.0 environment.
Business Continuity Planning
Authors: Imaz-Mairal Oscar
Published: July 2010

ICT systems are expected to be available 24/7 to internal and external users regardless of the circumstances, but the nature of uncertainty in complex and dynamic environments makes Business Continuity Planning more relevant today than ever before. Organisations providing 24/7 ICT availability become strategic dilemmas for decision makers, hence, to ensure operations, managers must balance the costs involved in providing an almost zero downtime infrastructure for information availability with the trust ICT users have on a given organization. Decision makers need to assess possible disruptions and vulnerabilities that can impact on ICT availability to all users. This chapter argues that approaches, such as virtualisation, can provide cost advantages to organizations by ensuring availability and resilience through flexible system implementation, and to achieve this objective, committed strategic managers must have arguments to defend this view.
Future Trends in Digital Security
Authors: Viney Daniel
Published: July 2010

This chapter discusses ICT trends of the past decade, the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, mobile computing (as distinguished from cloud computing), the pitfalls of social networking, security considerations in the workplace, copyright and Intellectual Property considerations, and how to best control threats and vulnerabilities. We are in a period of aggressive technological growth to which there is no foreseeable end. New technologies, such as Web 2.0 and cloud computing, are emerging at an exponential rate, and as a consequence, security threats, controls, and standards are iteratively evolving. As yet, we do not know the security and privacy implications that such a rapid and wide uptake of cloud computing, and other multi-user virtual environment initiatives, and Web 2.0 technologies, will bring. In no way is this cause to panic, instead it is cause to focus on self-education, employee-education, and awareness. To put it simply, these offer our best defense to security threats. By being educated, aware, and vigilant, the majority of threats are nullified, as they are designed to prey upon those who rely on trust when reading emails, visiting Websites, and accessing site content, when navigating the World Wide Web. For example, there are millions of users who are completely unaware of threats, such as phishing, and other forms of Internet-based fraud. More than ever before, the onus is on the individual, both at home and in the workplace, to be responsible for maintaining best practice techniques, while utilizing digital resources to ensure that information security, individual privacy, and applicable legislation are not breached. This can only be achieved through iterative education processes, general awareness, and vigilance.
Simple Chaotic Electronic Circuits
Authors: Hanias M.P. , Tombras G. S.
Published: July 2010

Simple chaotic electronics circuits as diode resonator circuits, Resistor-Inductor-LED optoelectronic chaotic circuits, and Single Transistor chaotic circuits can be used as transmitters and receivers for chaotic cryptosystems. In these circuits we can change and investigate the influence of various circuit parameters to the complexity of the so generated strange attractors. Time series analysis is performed following Grassberger and Procaccia’s method while invariant parameters as correlation, and minimum embedding dimension are respectively calculated. The Kolmogorov entropy is also calculated and the RLT circuits in a critical state are examined.
Chaos Synchronization
Authors: Salarieh Hassan , Shahrokhic Mohammad
Published: July 2010

Chaos synchronization is the central core of various message encryption methods which are developed based on the properties of chaotic systems. This chapter introduces the concept of chaos synchronization and its application in secure communication. Some standard approaches such as complete, lag, phase and generalized synchronization are defined first. Then application of control theory for synchronization of different chaotic systems is discussed. Some synchronization algorithms based on different control techniques are presented. It is shown that how the controlling methods can be modified in a synchronization framework to cope with parameter uncertainties and measurement noise. Several chaotic systems are simulated and synchronized to show the performance of the reported methods.
Importance of Chaos Synchronization on Technology and Science
Authors: Aguilar-López Ricardo , Femat Ricardo , Martínez-Guerra Rafael
Published: July 2010

In this chapter the authors talk about importance of chaos synchronization on technology and science. This chapter is developed in three sections. In the former the authors tackle the subject related with the so-called the synchronized state in the sense of identical synchronization. It is done via robust nonlinear observer design, considering corrupted measurements and model uncertainties, coupling uncertainty estimators with nonlinear state observers. The second part treats the subject related to the applications to chaos communications, that is to say, an application of chaos theory which is aimed to provide security in the transmission of information performed through telecommunications technologies, speaking roughly at the transmitter, a message is added on to a chaotic signal and then, the message is masked in the chaotic signal. As it carries the information, the chaotic signal is also called chaotic carrier. This is done via control theory and is a particular case of chaos synchronization. Finally, in the latter section the authors talk about application to synchronization of biological systems that is to say, the intercellular Ca²+ waves have been seen like a mechanism by means of which a group of cells can communicate with one another and coordinate a multicellular response to a local event. Recently, it has been observed in a variety of systems that calcium signals can also propagate from one cell to another and thereby serve as a means of intercellular communication. The desire to understand the biophysical mechanisms of cellular dynamics has lead to introduce feedback control laws in some biological systems. Departing from the above ideas, this section explores links between feedback control schemes, with an external input, and intracellular calcium functions for coordination and control.
Type-2 Fuzzy Sliding Mode Synchronization
Authors: Lin T. C. , Chen Ming-Che , Roopaei M.
Published: July 2010

This chapter presents an adaptive interval type-2 fuzzy neural network (FNN) controller to synchronize chaotic systems with training data corrupted by noise or rule uncertainties involving external disturbances. Adaptive interval type-2 FNN control scheme and sliding mode approach are incorporated to deal with the synchronization of non-identical chaotic systems. In the meantime, based on the adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control, the Laypunov stability theorem has been used to testify the asymptotic stability of the chaotic systems. The chattering phenomena in the control efforts can be reduced and the stability analysis of the proposed control scheme will be guaranteed in the sense that all the states and signals are uniformly bounded and the external disturbance on the synchronization error can be attenuated. The simulation example is included to confirm validity and performance of the advocated design methodology.
Secure Transmission of Analog Information using Chaos
Authors: Dmitriev A.S. , Efremova E.V. , Kuzmin L.V. , Miliou A.N. , Panas A.I. , Starkov S.O.
Published: July 2010

In this work the authors present a thorough experimental study of a practical realization of a complex analog signal transmission system using dynamic chaos. It is demonstrated that the chaotic synchronous response could be used as a basis for the design of secure communication channels. The results presented in this work confirm the possibility of secure wireless communications in RF band, while they allow the authors to analyze in detail the restrictions and problems connected with the quality of synchronization of the transmitter and the receiver of the wireless communication systems. The effect of the perturbing factors on the transmission quality is investigated theoretically. It is shown that the main reason of the transmission’s quality degradation is the chaotic response desynchronization associated with the phenomenon of “on-off” intermittency. It is found that under the effect of the perturbing factors, the level of information signal fed to the transmitter must be increased in order to obtain qualitative information transmission. However, in order to provide secure communication, one must decrease the information signal level. A compromise on these contradictory requirements provides an improvement of the quality of the synchronous chaotic response in the receiver.
Encryption of Analog and Digital signals through Synchronized Chaotic Systems
Authors: Sun Kehui
Published: July 2010

Chaos is characterized by aperiodic, wideband, random-like, and ergodicity. Chaotic secure communication has become one of the hot topics in nonlinear dynamics since the early 1990s exploiting the technique of chaos synchronization. As distinguished by the type of information being carried, chaos-based communication systems can be categorized into analogy and digital, including four popular techniques such as Chaos Masking, Chaos Shift Keying, Chaos Modulation, and Chaos Spreading Spectrum. In this chapter, the principles of these schemes and their modifications are analyzed by theoretical analysis as well as dynamic simulation. In addition, chaos-based cryptography is a new approach to encrypt information. After analyzing the performances of chaotic sequence and designing an effective chaotic sequence generator, the authors briefly presented the principle of two classes of chaotic encryption schemes, chaotic sequence encryption and chaotic data stream encryption.
Digital Information Transmission using Discrete Chaotic Signal
Authors: Anagnostopoulos A.N. , Miliou A.N. , Stavrinides S.G. , Dmitriev A.S. , Efremova E.V.
Published: July 2010

In this work the authors thoroughly investigated a digital information transmission system using discrete chaotic signal over cable. As an example in their work the authors consider the non-autonomous 2nd order non-linear oscillator system presented in Tamaševicious, Cenys, Mycolaitis, and Namajunas (1998) which is particularly suitable for digital communications and present the experimental results regarding synchronization. The effect of noise (internal or external) on the synchronization of the drive-response system (unidirectional coupling between two identical systems) is analyzed and since in every practical implementation of a communication system, the transmitter and receiver circuits (although identical) operate under slightly different conditions the case of the mismatch between the parameters of the transmitter and the receiver is considered. Moreover, there is a study of the robustness of the system with reference to the desired security, proposing a more sophisticated approach, which combines the simplicity in the implementation of a chaotic system with an enhanced encoding scheme that will overall increase security.
Career and Technical Education
Authors: Kacirek Kit , Beck Jules K. , Grover Kenda
Published: July 2010

Educational institutions are increasingly challenged to provide relevant and rigorous programs to students who demand variety in learning venues, delivery platforms, degree options, and quality assurance. Like many evolving fields, career and technical education (CTE) is additionally challenged by its history, the scope of its mission, a perceived lack of a unifying definition and purpose, a complex of funding formulas and allocations, and the blurring of boundaries among educational providers. This chapter discusses myths regarding CTE that obscure its mission, provides evidence of CTE effectiveness, and illustrates how CTE is transforming itself to meet the demands of multiple stakeholders having diverse agenda and varying needs.
Designing Culturally-Sensitive Career and Technical Career Curriculum
Authors: Farmer Lesley
Published: July 2010

The workplace has become more cross-cultural due to labor costs, outsourcing, and international production. Cultural sensitivity accepts cultural similarities and differences without assigning relative values to them. Culture-sensitive curriculum can optimize organization effectiveness with different populations. In order to design effective culture-sensitive curriculum for CTE, basic information about cultures, curricula, learners, and organizations needs to be understood. The curriculum itself should enhance content meaning through cultural context and provide culture-sensitive learning skills in order to help students learn, and to enable them to address cultural factors when dealing with their potential clientele. Culture-sensitive trainer competencies, resources, instructional strategies, assessment issues, and technological trends are detailed. A focus on healthcare training exemplifies culture-sensitive curriculum that results in more effective service.
Teaching Philosophies of Career and Technical Education
Authors: Petty Gregory C.
Published: July 2010

Teaching philosophies as applied to career and technical education are more complex than teaching philosophies studied for a liberal arts teacher. Adult learners present challenges not often encountered by elementary or secondary teachers. Contact with the world of work presents teachers with the paradox of preparing young people directly for work but maintaining a nurturing classroom environment. This challenge often requires unique and innovative solutions to the educational problem presented by adult learners. This chapter presents philosophical approaches the career and technical education teacher can use in the classroom or laboratory.
Workforce Competencies and Career and Technical Education
Authors: Witte Maria Martinez , Witte James E. , Skinner Leane B.
Published: July 2010

The need for workforce ready students can be met through the use of Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Identification of workplace skills that are rewarded and required by employers will foster relationships between CTE programs and workforce employers. These relationships will also impact economic growth, school-to-work efforts, and the global workforce. This chapter addresses the workforce competencies of business and industry and CTE programs as well as addressing shortfalls in these areas. Future trends are also identified in regards to workforce competencies in CTE programs.
Adult Learning and CTE
Authors: Parker Judith
Published: July 2010

While the fields of adult learning and career and technical education began in isolated silos, as the fields emerged, their histories became entwined and technology had a profound influence on their growth and direction. This chapter will begin by exploring the beginnings of adult learning and CTE as two fields developing in parallel paths and serving two different audiences. However, as the fields developed, there is evidence of their entwinement in both the literature and programs within organizations. In addition, from the Gutenberg printing press to today’s Web 2.0, technology has played an important part in the development and direction of both of these fields This chapter will examine this history of silos and connections and continue to explore the role of technology in the future growth and meshing of these fields to generate even more effective and efficient learning.
Wisconsin, USA
Authors: Hart David
Published: July 2010

Simply stated, a coastal web atlas (CWA) is a means of organizing, presenting, and sharing spatial data for the coast. Once in place, a CWA can function as a coastal spatial data infrastructure and a platform for developing coastal management decision support tools. While Wisconsin has been actively applying geospatial technologies to coastal issues since 1994, development of a CWA is in its infancy. Wisconsin Sea Grant has learned much about key components of a CWA during the past decade through its role leading four coastal spatial data integration projects. Several technical and institutional issues surfaced as the projects moved from discovery, acquisition, and integration of spatial data from multiple sources to analyze regional coastal issues to the development of interoperable web mapping services and spatial data catalogs. These issues are associated with the following research topics: web portal design and evaluation, choosing appropriate web mapping technologies, GIS cartography, domain spatial data infrastructures, geospatial data archives, and spatial ontologies. Building the Wisconsin Coastal Atlas will provide insight on these important research topics.
Supporting a Successful Atlas
Authors: Longhorn Roger , Wright Dawn J. , Belpaeme Kathy
Published: July 2010

The content and technical features of coastal web atlases (CWA) were presented in the introductory chapters of the book and the previous two chapters visited user-oriented issues involved in creating and improving a usable atlas, including user requirements, audience definition, learning from use of the atlas, etc. However, in the absence of confirmed long-term resources or a guaranteed income stream to fund the on-going development and maintenance of an atlas, how do you secure the long-term viability and success of a CWA where the intention is that the atlas is not just a one-off “display,” but can develop organically? Several issues arise, including governance, institutional support, partnerships, funding and continued promotion. Ideally, these issues should be resolved prior to the web atlas being created, especially funding and institutional support (human and technical resources), if the atlas is to be successful in the long run, and not just another short-term ‘project’ that disappears from view when support dwindles. Also, over time, as atlas projects mature into on-going, demand-driven, sustainable information services, institutional and funding arrangements evolve as well. This chapter looks at some of the issues involved in attaining and maintaining long-term support for a successful online atlas.
The Socio-technical Balanced Scorecard for Assessing a Public University
Authors: Singh Ramanjit , Wood-Harper Trevor
Published: July 2010

The socio-technical theory is concerned with humanistic welfare paradigm. The socio-technical principles aim to improve redundant jobs and thereby benefit human work lives. Hence, jobs are enriched using flexible work methods, empowerment strategies and new technologies. Balanced scorecard is a framework that measures whether the firm is meeting its objectives in terms of vision and strategy. It assesses four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes and innovation & learning. Even though the balanced scorecard has proven to be beneficial in the for-profit organizations of the past, most non-profit organizations were unable to utilize the balanced scorecard. The original configuration of balanced scorecard placed financial goals on the top of the hierarchy and since maximizing shareholder wealth is not the main objective for most non-profit organizations, it was not widely applied by these organizations. Since non-profit organizations usually operate to maximize the well-being of the society, socio-technical work design principles may receive a greater acceptance in these organizations than in for-profit organizations. Thus, a socio-technical balanced scorecard for the non-profit organizations will be formulated with an emphasis on employee perspective and a public university wide assessment will be proposed.
Strategic Framework for Developing a Process Model for Maximising the Potential of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology Integration in Hospitals
Authors: Unnithan Chandana , Fraunholz Bardo
Published: July 2010

Radio Frequency Identification is a radical technology that is being experimented in hospitals commonly for tracking high value equipment, in order to maximize the efficiency of processes. RFID deployment and integration is mostly vendor and business driven, and hence its potential is not maximized. In this chapter, we propose a strategic framework to develop a process model, that will assist in maximizing the potential of RFID in hospitals.
Client Sever System for E-Services Access in Business Environment
Authors: Pop Eugen
Published: July 2010

E-services is a term which generally means the provisioning of services via the Internet. The prefix “e” stands for electronic. E-services access is a good opportunity for business developing and offer increased financial benefits for various economic agents. By the support of the Internet, the products or services can be efficiently offered to a large number of clients. Besides, the mobile communications networks give to the clients the advantage to access the informational services from anywhere and anytime. This will facilitate an increasing convergence of technological and financial interests of mobile operators, client server software developers, mobile terminals producers and e-content providers, along with a high level of integration of IT&C resources. This is a good basis and a challenging opportunity for value added services developing, in order to be delivered through the mobile communications networks. Client server architectures with mobile users are suitable for e-services providing, using mobile communications networks. Such a system is presented in this chapter, suitable for business environment access using mobile applications installed on Smartphones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).
Supporting Electronic Collaboration in Conceptual Modeling
Authors: Rittgen Peter
Published: July 2010

The authors study collaborative modeling by analyzing conversations and loud thinking during modeling sessions and the resulting models themselves. They identify the basic activities of the modeling teams on the social, pragmatic, semantic and syntactic levels and derive a schema for the pragmatic level. The authors’ main conclusion is that team-based modeling is largely a negotiation process. Drawing on these results the authors derive an architecture of a system that supports the distributed development of conceptual models.
Towards An Elastic Risk Management Methodology By Using Business to Software Unified Process (BSUP)
Authors: Dehkordi Pooya Khosraviyan , Kyoomarsi Farshad
Published: July 2010

Riskit is a now a world-wide risk management methodology deployed by a number of expert software engineering communities since its first rollout by (Kontio et. al, 1994,1995,1996,1997 and 1996). Business to Software Unified Process (BSUP) has been the proprietary Business to software modeling approach introduced for the first time in 2003 (Nasiri et. al, 2004 and 2007). In this paper the goal is apply the capabilities inherent in BSUP to optimize Riskit process model. BSUP, UML 2.0 and Fuzzy Logic Concepts are widely used when ever the model is to be made.
How to Use Information Technology Effectively to Achieve Business Objectives
Authors: Gonçalves António , Serra Natália , Serra José , Sousa Pedro
Published: July 2010

In this chapter the authors show, by using a case study, how it is possible to achieve the alignment between business and Information Technology (IT). It describes several phases of project development, from planning strategy, enterprise architecture, development of businesses supporting tools and keeping dynamic alignment between the business and the IT. The authors propose a framework, framed under an enterprise architecture that guarantees a high level of response to the applications development or configuration as improves its alignment to business by solving some limitations of traditional software development solutions namely: difficulty in gathering clients requirements, which should be supported by the applications; difficulty to connect the organisation processes used to answer the client, which must also be integrated in the applications and the difficulty to develop the applications that can follow the business cycle. To test the approach, this was applied to a real case study consisting in the configuration of an application that manages the relationship with the clients.
Governance and Management of Information Technology
Authors: Molinaro Luis Fernando Ramos , Ramos Karoll Haussler Carneiro , Abdalla Jr. Humberto , da Silva João Mello , de Deusx Flávio Elias , Neto Annibal Affonso
Published: July 2010

This chapter aims to present a proposal for a model that supports organizational governance through the alignment of business with Information Technology - IT. Firstly, it was observed that there are some paradigms which limit the use of enterprise architectures and hinder governance functions. Secondly, it focuses on the IT unit, where IT systems and subsystems are interrelated and the performance levels of the organization are aggregated, creating a macro-structure system capable of supporting corporate governance and IT. Finally, the IBM`s Component Business Model - CBM® was applied to represent relationships of the IT unit with the organization, through decomposing the organization into business components that supply and demand services to facilitate their governance and management.
Perceived Moderating Ability of Relational Interaction versus Reciprocal Investments in Pursuing Exploitation versus Exploration in RFID Supply Chains
Authors: Angeles Rebecca
Published: July 2010

This study looks at the perceived ability of two variables, reciprocal investments and relational interaction, to moderate the relationship between the independent variables, components of IT infrastructure integration and supply chain process integration, and two dependent radio frequency identification (RFID) system variables, exploitation and exploration. Using the moderated regression procedure, this study seeks to test the ability of both reciprocal investments and relational interaction to moderate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables using data gathered from 87 firms using an online survey. Results show that relational interaction is an effective moderator between the dependent variable, exploitation, and the following independent variables: data consistency, cross-functional application integration, financial flow integration, physical flow integration, and information flow integration (Table 1). Neither reciprocal investments nor relational interaction effectively moderated the independent variables, IT infrastructure integration and supply chain process integration and the other dependent variable, exploration.
Representing Organizational Conservation of Information
Authors: Stachura Max E. , Wood Joseph , Angjellari-Dajci Fjorentina , Grayson James M. , Astapova Elena V. , Tung Hui-Lien , Sofge Donald A. , Lawless William F.
Published: July 2010

In chapter nine, the authors review a model of the conservation of information (COI) applied to organizations. Following this review, the chapter includes a brief review of the mathematics in support of this model and its implications for the development of theory. Then the model is applied to a review of the status of telemedicine and e-health in Georgia, which the authors had begun to study last year. After the reviews, they discuss future steps and draw conclusions about the model and its benefit to organizational attention and decision-making.
An Exploratory Analysis for ERPS Value Creation
Authors: de Pablos Heredero Carmen , de Pablos Heredero Mónica
Published: July 2010

A great number of firms worldwide have invested a lot in the application of ERP systems to modify their business model and be able to offer better processes. When firms implement ERP systems they try to integrate and optimize their processes in what they consider their key areas. The present chapter tries to offer a view centered on the main reasons why Spanish firms have implemented ERP systems in the last ten years and what have been their main critical success factors and their main failure factors too. For that, the authors apply a model that they have previously developed based in 5 main groups of variables. The authors ask firms about their perceptions and final results provided by the variables affecting their change processes in the ERP implementation. The authors try to offer a realistic view of what has been taking place in the Spanish market.
Production Information Systems Usability in Jordan
Authors: Abu-Shanab Emad , Al-Tarawneh Heyam
Published: July 2010

Enterprise systems are becoming more important as they support the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and reduce cost. In this chapter we explored the literature related to production information systems (PIS), enterprise systems, and other applications and their influence in an industrial zone in Jordan. Constructs from the Innovation Diffusion Theory were used, where results indicated that the adoption rate is acceptable and all variables have high means with respect to their evaluation by managers, but only two variable significantly predicted intention to use. In a second study that explored the status of IT usage in manufacturing firms using a different sample, results indicated that accounting information systems were widely used and distribution systems and manufacturing aiding systems were the least used. Other findings, conclusions and future work are stated at the end of the chapter.
Measuring Utilization of ERP Systems Usage in SMEs
Authors: Jonas Hedman , Björn Johansson
Published: July 2010

Since deployment of Enterprise Systems (ES) such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) within enterprises, both Large Enterprises (LEs) as well as Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have increased and continue to increase, making it increasingly desirable to measure the degree of utilization of ERP systems in enterprises. One reason for this interest is that no benefits are realized if the systems are not used; since ERPs are massive investments, they need to show benefits, or at least be able to measure the benefits. However, to be able to do so, there is a need to explain ERP systems utilization and the factors that influence ERP utilization. This chapter provides an explanation of factors influencing ERP systems utilization by testing a research model building on four dimensions: volume, breadth, diversity, and depth. The contributions of the research are: First, it provides support for the notion of diffusion found in the theory of network externalities where a critical mass is necessary to achieve benefits. This can be used to better understand failures in ERP projects. Second, the use of volume, breadth and depth provide insights for use as a construct and the need to treat it more rigorously. Third, the study contributes to our understanding of the many aspects of use of IT, such as ERPs, and potentially contributes to value and firm performance from ERP utilization.
INMATE-Innovation Management Technique
Authors: Cavalcanti José Carlos
Published: July 2010

The main objective of this chapter is to present an innovative tool for innovation management with emphasis to the information technology-IT management called INMATE- InnovationManagementTechnique. In order to arrive at this tool an analysis on the current market tools was conducted. This analysis observed that none of the existent tools gives the due importance to the role of information technology-IT for the innovation process. In this way, the chapter presents a brief discussion of two of these market tools: an international, called TEMAGUIDE, and a Brazilian, called NUGIN. Then the chapter introduces the INMATE tool with its main dimensions. Next, the chapter gives a detailed account on how the IT management is dealt inside INMATE, which is done via the concept of Enterprise Architecture, a concept from the Computing Science and Engineering. From this concept the chapter presents a methodology, in an analogy to the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm (that is traditionally used on the empirical market analysis), which identifies the firm according to three linear connected approaches: its architecture, its governance, and its growth strategy.
Analysis of IT Governance on Spanish Organizations
Authors: Arroyo Alberto J. , Verdún José D. Carrillo
Published: July 2010

Corporate governance is a key element today in organizations and companies. IT Governance, as a part of corporate governance, plays its role in aligning IT with the business and obtaining the maximum value, minimizing the risks. Several frameworks and guidelines have been published in order to set the basis for this discipline. The recent release of the ISO 38500 (ISO 2008) ads an effort to standardize the different elements of IT governance. Despite these efforts, none of the different frameworks or guidelines is focused on the specific characteristics of small and medium companies (SMOs), although the authors consider that their conclusions are universal. Furthermore, there is no research so far that analyzed the status of IT governance in Spanish organizations. The aim of this work is to do a research to identify the state of the art of IT governance in the Spanish small and medium organizations.
Extracellular Matrix of Glioblastoma Inhibits Polarization and Transmigration of T Cells: The Role of Tenascin-C in Immune Suppression
Authors: Huang Jyun-Yuan , Cheng Yu-Jung , Lin Yu-Ping , Lin Huan-Ching , Su Chung-Chen , Juliano Rudy , Yang Bei-Chang
Published: July 2010

Dense accumulations of T cells are often found in peritumoral areas, which reduce the efficiency of contact-dependent lysis of tumor cells. We demonstrate in this study that the extracellular matrix (ECM) produced by tumors can directly regulate T cell migration. The transmigration rate of several T cells including peripheral blood primary T cell, Jurkat, and Molt-4 measured for glioma cells or glioma ECM was consistently low. Jurkat cells showed reduced amoeba-like shape formation and delayed ERK activation when they were in contact with monolayers or ECM of glioma cells as compared with those in contact with HepG2 and MCF-7 cells. Phospho-ERK was located at the leading edge of migrating Jurkat cells. Glioma cells, but not MCF-7 and HepG2 cells, expressed tenascin-C. Knocking down the tenascin-C gene using the short hairpin RNA strategy converted glioma cells to a transmigration-permissive phenotype for Jurkat cells regarding ERK activation, transmigration, and amoeba-like shape formation. In addition, exogenous tenascin-C protein reduced the amoeba-like shape formation and transmigration of Jurkat cells through MCF-7 and HepG2 cell monolayers. A high level of tenascin-C was visualized immunohistochemically in glioma tumor tissues. CD3+ T cells were detected in the boundary tumor area and stained strongly positive for tenascin-C. In summary, glioma cells can actively paralyze T cell migration by the expression of tenascin-C, representing a novel immune suppressive mechanism achieved through tumor ECM.
Absence of P-Selectin in Recipients of Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation Ameliorates Experimental Graft-versus-Host Disease
Authors: Lu Sydney X. , Holland Amanda M. , Na Il-Kang , Terwey Theis H. , Alpdogan Onder , Bautista Jhoanne L. , Smith Odette M. , Suh David , King Christopher , Kochman Adam , Hubbard Vanessa M. , Rao Uttam K. , Yim Nury , Liu Chen , Laga Alvaro C. , Murphy George , Jenq Robert R. , Zakrzewski Johannes L. , Penack Olaf , Dykstra Lindsay , Bampoe Kevin , Perez Lia , Furie Bruce , Furie Barbara , van den Brink Marcel R. M.
Published: July 2010

Alloreactive T cells are crucial for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) pathophysiology, and modulating their trafficking patterns has been efficacious in ameliorating experimental disease. We report in this paper that P-selectin, a glycoprotein found on resting and inflamed endothelium, is important for donor alloreactive T cells trafficking into GVHD target organs, such as the intestines and skin. Compared with wild-type (WT) recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, P-selectin−/− recipients exhibit decreased GVHD mortality and decreased GVHD of the skin, liver, and small bowels. This was associated with diminished infiltration of alloactivated T cells into the Peyer’s patches and small bowels, coupled with increased numbers of donor T cells in the spleen and secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs). Surprisingly, however, donor T cells deficient for P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1, the most well described P-selectin ligand, mediated GVHD similar to WT T cells and accumulated in SLO and target organs in similar numbers as WT T cells. This suggests that P-selectin may be required for trafficking into inflamed tissues but not SLO and that donor T cells may use multiple P-selectin ligands apart from P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1 to interact with P-selectin and traffic into inflamed tissues during GVHD. We conclude that targeting P-selectin may be a viable strategy for GVHD prophylaxis or treatment.
The Early Generation of a Heterogeneous CD4+ T Cell Response to Leishmania major
Authors: Colpitts Sara L. , Scott Phillip
Published: July 2010

CD4+ T cells are an essential component of both the primary and secondary immune response against the intracellular protozoan parasite Leishmania major. Our laboratory has previously shown that CD62Lhigh IL-7Rhigh central memory T (TCM) cells mediate protective immunity following secondary challenge. To determine when TCM cells develop, we examined the phenotype of Leishmania-specific CD4+ T cells in the first 2 wk following infection. As expected, we identified a population of CD4+ T cells present in the draining lymph node with the characteristics of effector T cells. However, in addition, a second population phenotypically resembling TCM cells emerged coincident with the effector population. These T cells, expressing CD62L, CCR7, and IL-7R, failed to produce IFN-γ, but had the capacity to give rise to IFN-γ–producing effector cells. Our studies also demonstrated that the degree of proliferation and the timing of lymph node entry impact TCM cell development. The early generation of TCM cells following L. major infection indicates that TCM cells may not only control secondary infections, but may also contribute to the control of the primary infection.
A Comparative Study of the Impact of G‐Stack Probes on Various Affymetrix GeneChips of Mammalia
Authors: Memon Farhat Naureen , Upton Graham J. G. , Harrison Andrew P.
Published: July 2010

We have previously discovered that probes containing runs of four or more contiguous guanines are not reliable
for measuring gene expression in the Human HG_U133A Affymetrix GeneChip data. These probes are not correlated with other members of their probe set, but they are correlated with each other. We now extend our analysis to different 3′ GeneChip designs of mouse, rat, and human. We find that, in all these chip designs, the G‐stack probes (probes with
a run of exactly four consecutive guanines) are correlated highly with each other, indicating that such probes are not
reliable measures of gene expression in mammalian studies. Furthermore, there is no specific position of G‐stack
where the correlation is highest in all the chips. We also find that the latest designs of rat and mouse chips have
significantly fewer G‐stack probes compared to their predecessors, whereas there has not been a similar reduction
in G‐stack density across the changes in human chips. Moreover, we find significant changes in RMA values (after
removing G‐stack probes) as the number of G‐stack probes increases.
An audit of transport conditions and arrival status of slaughter cattle shipped by road at an Ontario processor
Authors: Warren L A , Mandell I B , Bateman K G
Published: July 2010

This is an observational study to investigate slaughter cattle transportation conditions in Canada. Data collected include: length of time in transit; temperature variation; season; weather transport conditions; cattle weight; sex and whether sexes were separated on mixed loads; number of lots and whether lots were separated; cattle unloading speed; cattle handling score; trucker training and experience hauling cattle; ventilation; and condition of cattle at arrival. Information was collected on approximately 50 000 animals transported by 1363 trucks. All but 0.2% of trucks arrived within the 52 h allowable transport time before unloading required for rest, feed, and water. Most trucks (85.7%) were from within 8 h of the plant. Trucks surveyed were at or above the recommended space allowance 49% of the time. There were five non-ambulatory (unable to walk off the truck with or without assistance) or dead, 79 lame, and four animals that needed assistance of the 49 959 animals observed (0.4, 4.8 and 0.2%, respectively, of the trucks surveyed). However, these concerns were not necessarily a result of transportation, as animal health at loading was unknown. There were very few visible animal welfare concerns associated with the transportation of slaughter cattle in the population sampled. Key words: Cattle, transport, welfare, beef
Effects of processing a new low acid-detergent lignin hull, high oil groat oat cultivar (CDC SO-I) on performance of growing cattle
Authors: McKinnon J J , Walker A M , Rossnagel B G , Jefferson P G , Lardner H A , Wildeman B.
Published: July 2010

A new oat cultivar, CDC SO-I, with a low lignin hull and high oil groat was evaluated in backgrounding diets for steer calves, with an emphasis on the requirement for processing. Average daily gain was not different (P > 0.05) between calves fed rolled barley, rolled oat, or whole oat diets. Dry matter intake of cattle fed the rolled oat diet was greater (P = 0.04) than that of cattle fed the rolled barley or whole oat diets. Feed:gain was not affected (P = 0.13) by treatment. Results indicate the CDC SO-I oat does not require processing (i.e., rolling), and can replace barley in backgrounding diets with no negative effect on animal performance. Key words: Oat, growing cattle, feedlot, high oil, low lignin
Medication Safety Improves after Implementation of Positive Patient Identification
Authors: Heelon M. , Siano B. , Douglass L. , Liebro P. , Spath B. , Kudler N. , Kerr G. , Higgins T.
Published: July 2010

Objective: To report the incidence and severity of medication safety events before and after initiation of barcode scanning for positive patient identification (PPID) in a large teaching hospital.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from an existing safety reporting system with anonymous and non-punitive self-reporting. Medication safety events were categorized as “near-miss” (unsafe conditions or caught before reaching the patient) or reaching the patient, with requisite additional monitoring or treatment. Baseline and post-PPID implementation data on events per 1,000,000 drug administrations were compared by chi-square with p<0.05 considered significant.

Results: An average of 510,541 doses were dispensed each month in 2008. Total self-reported medication errors initially increased from 20 per million doses dispensed pre-barcoding (first quarter 2008) to 38 per million doses dispensed immediately post-intervention (last quarter 2008), but errors reaching the patient decreased from 3.26 per million to 0.8 per million despite the increase in “near-misses”. A number of process issues were identified and improved, including additional training and equipment, instituting ParX scanning when filling Pyxis machines, and lobbying for a manufacturing change in how bar codes were printed on bags of intravenous solutions to reduce scanning failures.

Conclusion: Introduction of barcoding of medications and patient wristbands reduced serious medication dispensing errors reaching the patient, but temporarily increased the number of “near-miss” situations reported. Overall patient safety improved with the barcoding and positive patient identification initiative. These results have been sustained during the 18 months following full implementation.
The evolution of landmark legislation
Authors: Parker Roy
Published: July 2010

The origins and surrounding politics of the three Children Acts of 1908, 1948 and 1989 are examined in order to see why and how they evolved when they did and to consider what, if any, generalisations emerge.