bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Knowledge Strategy
Authors: Kasten Joseph E.
Published: May 2012

Knowledge strategy is defined as the set of guidelines and philosophies that guide an organization’s knowledge-based activities, such as knowledge gathering, development, storage, and utilization. Much of the early literature describing knowledge strategy suggests that its role in the organization is to drive, and be driven by, organizational structure and the human resources and technology strategies. This paper derives a model that places the firm’s knowledge strategy as a mitigating factor between the decisions made by management and the manner in which they are communicated to the rest of the organization. The present research is an update to a previously published paper and extends the research that first generated the metaphor of the KS as a lens.
Assigning People as Number One Priority
Authors: El Ansari Walid
Published: May 2012

Notions of the “expert patient,” user choices about where care is provided and by whom, and enhanced understanding between patients and healthcare workers for continuity of care all have implications for workforce planning and human resources. Modern health systems and care require a range of patient and community inputs if they are to be relevant for their users. However, partnering with disadvantaged communities for such purposes is not an easy undertaking. Such partnership efforts need to be premised on a participatory approach and face multiple challenges. Given the range of the stakeholders involved, the sharing of turf, risks, and resources that are usually part of such efforts requires careful consideration of all the partners. Further, there is always the possible exhaustion of the communities from being repeatedly over-researched, as well as the frequently encountered initial lack of trust between partners-to-be who have not previously collaborated. In such circumstances, the sharing of assets and a focus on enhancing the mutual capacities for a common purpose needs to be spelled out clearly from the start. Notwithstanding these and other challenges, over the past decade partnerships have become a frequent requirement for government and funding agency assistance. Research partnerships that incorporate community assets and values are among the defining approaches to social problem solving, where partnering has become the fundamental and strategic component of efforts aimed at promoting community health.
An Integrated Methodology to Detect the Evolution of Virtual Organizational Communities
Authors: De Maggio Marco , Grippa Francesca
Published: May 2012

The proposed methodology has the potential to enable the analysis of virtual communities’ overall composition, evolution and social structure, characteristics and organizational behavior of the “project related sub-communities”, informal members’ roles and their contribution to the development of project’s task.
The Financial Related Analysis on Sales Management and Human Resources by Means of BI Type Solutions
Authors: Serbanescu Luminita , Radulescu Magdalena
Published: May 2012

All companies need information in order to make decisions. There is usually too much data spread in the IT systems of the company, but transforming the data into information that can be analyzed in order to make decisions is a difficult process. Considering the demands imposed by the knowledge society, each organization strives to become an intelligent organization and, by the means of new and innovative Business Intelligence(BI) strategy, to gain a market competition advantage. The new BI era integrates information into the decision process through the means of decision services, relates business processes to business rules that may be changed at any time, and integrates BI benefits to capabilities provided by teamwork, cooperation, and business process management. In this article, the authors present a BI solution, implemented through QlikView Application, thanks to which it is possible to analyse the employee expenses and for management sales.
Recruitment and Retention of Healthcare Professionals for the Changing Demographics, Culture, and Access in Canada
Authors: Kabene Stefane M. , Wolfe Melody , Leduc Raymond
Published: May 2012

The Canadian healthcare system strives to serve a population altered by ever-changing demographics, cultural shifts, and diverse societal populations, and to serve those in rural communities with remote access to health care. The following chapter examines Canada’s current healthcare system and the effects on demand for services and the supply of healthcare providers created by the need to service rural populations, by limited access to medical schools, and by the introduction of foreign medical/health professionals. More specifically, the chapter reviews the symptoms of a strained medical system plagued by “brain waste” due to the non-use of qualified immigrant healthcare professionals, long wait times as a result of inadequate staffing and resources, and a school system that hinders the development of aspiring medical care professionals from rural and international areas. If Canada is to face these challenges with efficacy and vigour, effective human resources management techniques and competent human resources professionals are a necessary prologue. Medical knowledge and skill must be valued; healthcare professionals should be utilized more efficiently to improve healthcare access and minimize brain waste.
Promoting Digital Competences through Social Software
Authors: Torres-Coronas Teresa , Vidal-Blasco María Arántzazu
Published: May 2012

In the present landscape of technological change there is increasing awareness of the need to support the acquisition of digital competences. In this chapter, we address how digital competences can be developed through formal learning. We show how to design a web 2.0 learning experience that was undertaken at Universitat Rovira i Virgili1 and which developed both digital competences and management knowledge. In particular, the case presented focuses on the field of gender equality within the framework of labor relations in a non-real company created for this purpose, “Quadratonics SA”. Through Quadratonics’, web 2.0 tools and social software students improve their digital competences and, at the same time, are exposed to the most up-to-date innovations in ICT. Our final reflection is that higher education academics should continue to expand their awareness of web 2.0 applications and the role they can play in optimizing learning and knowledge creation among students, who will be the digital workers of the future.
An Ontological Business Process Modeling Approach for Public Administration
Authors: Savvas Ioannis , Bassiliades Nick , Kravari Kalliopi , Meditskos Georgios
Published: May 2012

In this chapter, an electronic model of Public Administration’s operation using an ontology as a means to a formalized representation of knowledge is presented. According to the proposed model, every public administration procedure is viewed as a service offered to some external entity and is represented as a (Semantic) Web service, semantically annotating its functional parameters, profile, and workflow. The modeling of public administration services/procedures involved the commonly used IOPE (Inputs – Outputs – Preconditions – Effects) model of OWL-S for Semantic Web Service description. This chapter also presents a specific use case about the Human Resource Management department of the Region of Central Macedonia. In order to do so, certain extensions/adaptations of the general methodology were needed. In this chapter the authors fully present and justify these adaptations that were deployed in order to turn the general methodology into a really flexible and re-usable tool to model any public administration procedure. Furthermore, the authors describe the full knowledge engineering cycle for developing the ontology of this department’s business processes.
Developments of e-Government in Sri Lanka
Authors: Karunasena Kanishka , Deng Hepu , Karunasena Anuradha
Published: May 2012

This chapter investigates the status of e-Government development, explores the opportunities created for citizens and government, and identifies the challenges for an effective implementation of e-Government in Sri Lanka. The study reveals that the dissemination of public information online, the provision of call centre services, and the establishment of tele-centres in rural areas have generally improved the wellbeing of citizens. It further shows that the development of information and communication technology infrastructure and the taking of the human resource capacity building initiative in public organizations have had a positive impact on the performance of public organizations. The study, however, reveals that the continuous development of e-Government in Sri Lanka is troubled by the uneven access of rural citizens to e-Government services, the low e-Readiness of citizens, the delay in implementing major e-Government projects, and the insufficient funding for successfully implementing all the e-Government initiatives.
Outsourcing in Knowledge-Based Service Firms
Authors: Edvardsson Ingi Runar , Oskarsson Gudmundur Kristjan
Published: May 2012

This paper reports on empirical work recently conducted on outsourcing among knowledge-based and other service firms in Iceland. The results show that knowledge-based firms outsource on a larger scale and more human resource functions than other service firms. However, they do not have a more strategic vision towards outsourcing, nor do they outsource more low knowledge-based activities than other firms. The study gives support to the resource-based view of the firm, and is in line with former studies of knowledge-based firms. The firms in the survey tend to keep their core competencies and employees in-house, and at the same time they outsource other functions that they consider non-core, such as peripheral and administrative tasks, or IT that requires technical specialization. The more innovative firms rely on outsourcing from best in class suppliers regarding training and counselling. The contribution of this study to the theory of outsourcing is that the non-routine tacit knowledge base related to firms’ core competencies is not limited to knowledge-based firms, but to a large portion of service firms as well.
Transnational Learning and Collaboration in Delivering MBA Programs in Emerging Markets
Authors: Jones Stephanie
Published: May 2012

This case focuses on the challenges of delivering Western-style MBA programs in emerging markets, looking at the experience of the Researcher in teaching and assessing courses within management programs (especially in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management) and in thesis and dissertation research and writing. The case considers: cultural differences, learning style differences, language differences, economic backgrounds of students, classroom behavior and etiquette, involvement in the learning process, teaching methods, the teacher and the students, group work, examining and evaluating, assignments, projects and reports, theses and major pieces of research-based work, life in the classroom, inter-student behavior, and life out of the classroom. The case focuses on MBA course delivery in China, the Arab World, Africa, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, former Russian states such as Kazakhstan, and South America, such as Peru and Suriname. Examples of specific MBA teaching and assessment are provided to give in-depth insights into the issues involved.
Understanding Shared Services
Authors: Miskon Suraya , Bandara Wasana , Fielt Erwin , Gable Guy G.
Published: May 2012

In a competitive environment, companies continuously innovate to offer superior services at lower costs. ‘Shared Services’ have been extensively adopted in practice as a means for improving organizational performance. Shared Services are considered most appropriate for support functions and are widely adopted in human resource management, finance and accounting, and more recently employed as an information systems (IS) function. As computer-based corporate information systems have become de facto and the backbone of administrative systems, the technical impediments to sharing have come down dramatically. As this trend continues, CIOs and IT professionals need a deeper understanding of the Shared Services phenomenon. Yet, analysis of IS academic literature reveals that Shared Services, though mentioned in more than 100 articles, has received little in depth attention. This paper investigates the current status of Shared Services in IS literature. The authors present a detailed review of literature from main IS journals and conferences. The paper concludes with a tentative operational definition, a list of perceived main objectives of Shared Services, and an agenda for related future research.
Strategic and Organizational Considerations Related to an E-Learning Model
Authors: Calvo Nuria , Rungo Paolo , Moreno Ignacio
Published: May 2012

The aim of this chapter is to assess the impact of different organizational factors on the success of e-learning programs, in terms of both self-reported satisfaction and the level of learning. Hence, this study adds to the analysis of the efficacy of e-learning models from an organizational perspective by providing some useful insights, which may help to improve decision-making related to employee’s continuing education and satisfaction. This simulation, using a bivariate ordered probit model, shows that economic and indirect economic incentives play a key role in augmenting the level of both satisfaction and learning. This analysis also considers how efficacy of learning programs may thus improve by linking the human resources development policy with results obtained in e-learning courses.
Human Capital Management and Optimization
Authors: Mühlbacher Jürgen
Published: May 2012

Recent work in human resource development emphasises the fact that individual skills are strongly oriented towards the future. They enable a person to tackle upcoming challenges in a self-organised manner. So both the current requirements and the skills necessary in the future have to be seen as a strategic competitive advantage for the company. This change in perspective makes it possible to use further education as a strategic instrument of management development.
People, Technology and Human Resource Development (HRD) Philosophy
Authors: Hughes Claretha , Gosney Matthew W.
Published: May 2012

Technology and people are present in all organizations. How they are managed and developed is essential to the competitive advantage of organizations. Understanding the dynamics of this relationship is an area that needs to be better understood within the Human Resource Development (HRD) field. This chapter will explore the extent that HRD philosophy addresses the relationship of people and technology. Comparing people and technology has been a debate since the industrial revolution occurred in America (Swanson, 1982; Swanson, & Torraco, 1994). Man and machine are as essential to organizational prosperity as air and water is to living; yet, it is not often researched and published in HRD literature (Githens, Dirani, Gitonga, and Teng, 2008). Could this be why HRD professionals do not have a seat at the proverbial table in corporate America? Are HRD professionals and researchers denying that there is a relationship between people and technology in organizations? Are HRD professionals and researchers limited by their beliefs concerning the comparison of people to technology?
Analysis of Job Responsibilities of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Human Resource Professionals Analysis of Job Responsibilities of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Human Resource Professionals
Authors: Costello Gina R. , Daugherty Alice
Published: May 2012

The purpose of this chapter was to convey the results of an exploratory survey given to human resource professionals working within the 123 institutional members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The objective was to further define the role of human resource professionals in ARL libraries and reveal the nature and extent of human resource support for faculty and staff at ARL libraries. Respondents were recruited through email and asked to characterize their human resource functions by answering 35 open-ended and closed survey questions via an online proprietary survey tool. The response rate was 30% and provided data for the researchers to examine the experience level and education of human resource professionals, the role these individuals play in the day-to-day library operations, and the extent of interaction with the university human resource department.
Understanding Organizational Culture and Group Dynamics
Authors: Rossmann Doralyn
Published: May 2012

The field of library and information science will benefit from a greater understanding of the function of individuals in relation to organizational culture and group dynamics, including how individual experiences underlie the culture of an organization. Understanding how these factors can shape successful human resources management will help today’s information science and management organizations in their recruitment, development, and retention efforts. It is suggested here that, while MLIS curricula and library organizations have traditionally focused on leadership as a function of management, a reorientation towards development of leadership skills at all levels of the organization will have a positive effect on organizational culture and group dynamics. In development of this concept, this chapter provides an overview of traditional approaches to understanding organizational culture and group dynamics and how these are applied in the information and library science literature and curricula; explores an alternate normative orientation towards the understanding of organizational culture and group dynamics as a function of all individuals in an organization and not just management; identifies ways in which information professionals and organizations can use this knowledge to recruit, develop, and retain employees in the information sciences profession; and explores future research directions in these areas.
Toward a Unifying Framework for Defining Internal Human Resource Flexibility
Authors: Martín Inmaculada Beltrán
Published: May 2012

A flexible workforce is emerging as a critical success factor to counteract certain organizational rigidities and to guarantee organizational competitiveness in challenging environments .This chapter provides a review of the relevant definitions and classifications of human resource (HR) flexibility that have appeared during recent years. Furthermore, the chapter presents a definition of internal HR flexibility based on the resource-based view approach. From this perspective, HR flexibility is defined as a multidimensional concept. Specifically, this chapter assumes that employees are flexible when they show intrinsic flexibility (i.e. they can easily move between tasks and roles), modification flexibility (i.e. they alter their skills and/or behaviors to adapt to new circumstances), and relational flexibility (i.e. they participate in collaborative activities).
Intelligent Management of Sepsis in the Intensive Care Unit
Authors: Ribas Vicent J. , Ruiz-Rodríguez Juan Carlos , Vellido Alfredo
Published: May 2012

Sepsis is a transversal pathology and one of the main causes of death in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It has in fact become the tenth most common cause of death in western societies. Its mortality rates can reach up to 60% for Septic Shock, its most acute manifestation. For these reasons, the prediction of the mortality caused by Sepsis is an open and relevant medical research challenge. This problem requires prediction methods that are robust and accurate, but also readily interpretable. This is paramount if they are to be used in the demanding context of real-time decision making at the ICU. In this brief contribution, three different methods are presented. One is based on a variant of the well-known support vector machine (SVM) model and provides and automated ranking of relevance of the mortality predictors while the other two are based on logistic-regression and logistic regression over latent Factors. The reported results show that the methods presented outperform in terms of accuracy alternative techniques currently in use in clinical settings, while simultaneously assessing the relative impact of individual pathology indicators.
Statistical Pattern Recognition Techniques for Early Diagnosis of Diabetic Neuropathy by Posturographic Data
Authors: Diamantini Claudia , Fioretti Sandro , Potena Domenico
Published: May 2012

The goal of this chapter is to describe the use of statistical pattern recognition techniques in order to build a classification model for the early diagnosis of peripheral diabetic neuropathy. In particular, the authors present two experimental methodologies, based on linear discriminant analysis and Bayes vector quantizer algorithms respectively. The former algorithm has demonstrated the best performance in distinguish between non-neuropathic and neuropathic patients, while the latter is able to build models that recognize the severity of the neuropathy.
Real-Time Robust Heart Rate Estimation Based on Bayesian Framework and Grid Filters
Authors: Bortel Radoslav , Sovka Pavel
Published: May 2012

In this chapter, the authors discuss derivation, implementation, and testing of a robust real-time algorithm for the estimation of heart rate (HR) from electrocardiograms recorded on subjects performing vigorous physical activity. They formulate the problem of HR estimation as a problem of inference in a Bayesian network, which utilizes prior information about the probability distribution of HR changes. From this formulation they derive an inference procedure, which can be implemented as a grid filter. The resulting algorithm can then follow even a rapidly changing HR, whilst withstanding a series of missed or false QRS detections. Also, the HR estimate is complete with confidence intervals to allow the identification of the moments, where the precision of HR estimation is lowered. Additionally, the computational complexity of this algorithm is acceptable for battery powered portable devices.
Pattern Mining for Outbreak Discovery Preparedness
Authors: Long Zalizah Awang , Hamdan Abdul Razak , Abu Bakar Azuraliza , Sahani Mazrura
Published: May 2012

Today, the objective of public health surveillance system is to reduce the impact of outbreaks by enabling appropriate intervention. Commonly used techniques are based on the changes or aberration in health events when compared with normal history to detect an outbreak. The main problem encountered in outbreaks is high rates of false alarm. High false alarm rates can lead to unnecessary interventions, and falsely detected outbreaks will lead to costly investigation. In this chapter, the authors review data mining techniques focusing on frequent and outlier mining to develop generic outbreak detection process model, named as “Frequent-outlier” model. The process model was tested against the real dengue dataset obtained from FSK, UKM, and also tested on the synthetic respiratory dataset obtained from AUTON LAB. The ROC was run to analyze the overall performance of “frequent-outlier” with CUSUM and Moving Average (MA). The results were promising and were evaluated using detection rate, false positive rate, and overall performance. An important outcome of this study is the knowledge rules derived from the notification of the outbreak cases to be used in counter measure assessment for outbreak preparedness.
Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning Techniques Help Achieve a Better Medical Practice
Authors: Frunza Oana , Inkpen Diana
Published: May 2012

This book chapter presents several natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques that can help achieve a better medical practice by means of extracting relevant medical information from the wealth of textual data. The chapter describes three major tasks: building intelligent tools that can help in the clinical decision making, tools that can automatically identify relevant medical information from the life-science literature, and tools that can extract semantic relations between medical concepts. Besides introducing and describing these tasks, methodological settings accompanied by representative results obtained on real-life data sets are presented.
An Activity Theoretical Approach to Examining Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning via Social Networks
Authors: Terantino Joseph M.
Published: May 2012

This chapter discusses the adoption of activity theory (Engeström, 1987, 2001; Leont’ev, 1978, 1981) as a conceptual framework for analyzing learning processes related to professional development and informal learning via social network environments. The discussion includes an overview of professional development and informal learning via social networks, which highlights the need for a related analytical framework. Activity theory is then described and applied to an example of professional development. This operationalization of activity theory demonstrates the ability of the framework to enable viewing and analyzing learning via social networks such as Facebook communities, wiki and blog spaces, listservs, and discussion forums. The chapter ends with several key points related to implementing activity theory as a solution to investigating behaviors in social networks and potential directions for future research.
Use of Social Network Analysis to Create and Foster Interdisciplinary Research, Projects, and Grants among Faculty
Authors: Christensen Kyle , Saltiel Iris M.
Published: May 2012

This chapter describes one university-based social network created for peer mentoring, knowledge brokering, and resource sharing for faculty and students to collaborate to increase research and scholarship. First, the case study describes the process utilized to survey interests of faculty as the basis for an affiliation network of faculty research interests. The benefits of social network analysis and its applications are discussed and utilized. Next, a conversation is presented about the use of social network analysis to foster faculty collaboration through targeted programming. Finally, recommendations for practice are presented.
An Analysis of Teacher Knowledge and Emotional Sharing in a Teacher Blog Community
Authors: Hur Jung Won , Brush Thomas , Bonk Curt
Published: May 2012

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the findings of a research study analyzing knowledge and emotional sharing in a self-generated online teacher community. Although active informal learning occurs in online communities of teachers, scant information is available about the knowledge and emotions teachers share in these communities. The authors conducted a content analysis of 1,709 entries in a self-generated blog community and examined the types of activities teachers were engaged in. The data revealed that over 29% of entries were related to lesson plans or teaching resources. In addition, over 17% of the postings addressed teachers’ positive or negative emotions. The authors argue that teacher participation in online communities should be promoted and encouraged since online communities help teachers with informal learning and emotional sharing.
Twitter-Based Knowledge Sharing in Professional Networks
Authors: Dennen Vanessa Paz , Jiang Wenting
Published: May 2012

Social media provides professional organizations with a new means of distributing information and perhaps even facilitating learning among their members. This study compares Twitter use in two populations, academics and corporate professionals, and in two interaction contexts, conference and non-conference, looking at how knowledge is shared by organizations. Organizations in three fields—nursing, information technology, and educational technology—were included in the study. A content analysis showed that both types of organizations focused more on supplying original content than providing links or retweets. Conferences generated the greatest activity levels and industry organizations were more savvy with Twitter use, although on the whole hashtags were underutilized and much room remains to maximize use of social media. Nonetheless, a wealth of knowledge sharing that can support information learning and professional development is taking place in these online networks.
A Bees Life Algorithm for Cloud Computing Services Selection
Authors: Bitam Salim , Batouche Mohamed , Talbi El-Ghazali
Published: May 2012

In recent years, the scientific community has begun to model and solve complex optimization problems using bio-inspired methods. Such problems cannot be solved exactly by traditional methods within a reasonable complexity in terms of computer capacities or computational times. However, bio-inspired methods provide near optimal solutions in realist conditions such as cost, capacity, and computational time. In this chapter, the authors propose a new population-based algorithm called the Bees Life Algorithm (BLA). It is applied to solve the cloud computing services selection with quality of service (QoS) requirements. It is considered as swarm-based algorithm, which closely imitates the life of the bee colony. It follows the two important behaviors in the nature of bees, reproduction and food foraging. Bees life algorithm can be applied to the combinatorial optimization problems as well as to the functional optimization problems. An experimental study has been conducted in order to demonstrate the performance and the efficiency of the proposal and its robustness. After comparisons with genetic algorithm (GA) as referential algorithm in this field, the obtained results showed the BLA performance and effectiveness. Finally, promising future research directions are examined to show the BLA usefulness for research in the cloud computing and computational intelligence areas.
Cloud-Based Intelligent DSS Design for Emergency Professionals
Authors: Miah Shah J.
Published: May 2012

Computational Intelligence (CI) has become a well-established research field of computer science in which multi-disciplinary problems are studied to design an effective computing solution. As a known computer-based CI approach, decision support systems (DSS) has gained popularity as a computing solution to structured and unstructured problems in organizations’ managerial improvement. DSS design needs to meet the domain-specific demands of emergency professionals on both an on-site and a real-time basis using the support of the most up-to-date technological provisioning platform. The advantages of cloud computing may offer promising support (e.g. Internet or web-based provisioning) for DSS services to meet the emergency professionals’ decision needs. This chapter introduces requirements of a cloud-based CI approach for domain-specific decision support through the functionalities on an anywhere and anytime basis. The chapter highlights the context of intelligent DSS design in terms of support in determining the priorities of taking action, both for medical emergency professionals and natural disasters workers, as potential application areas identified in this study.
Application of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms to Antenna and Microwave Design Problems
Authors: Goudos Sotirios K.
Published: May 2012

Antenna and microwave design problems are, in general, multi-objective. Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) are suitable optimization techniques for solving such problems. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Differential Evolution (DE) have received increased interest from the electromagnetics community. The fact that both algorithms can efficiently handle arbitrary optimization problems has made them popular for solving antenna and microwave design problems. This chapter presents three different state-of-the-art MOEAs based on PSO and DE, namely: the Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO), the Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization with fitness sharing (MOPSO-fs), and the Generalized Differential Evolution (GDE3). Their applications to different design cases from antenna and microwave problems are reported. These include microwave absorber, microwave filters and Yagi-uda antenna design. The algorithms are compared and evaluated against other evolutionary multi-objective algorithms like Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II). The results show the advantages of using each algorithm.
Bangla Music Genre Classification
Authors: Rahman Ashfaqur
Published: May 2012

Bangladesh is very rich in its musical history. Music documented the lives of the people from the ancient times. This chapter provides a guideline for classifying Bangla songs into different genres using a machine learning approach. Four different genres, namely Rabindrasangit, Folk song, Adhunik song, and Pop music, were used in the experiments. A set of second order features are used for representing the trend of change of primary features computed over the timeline of the song. The features are incorporated into a number of classification algorithms and a classification framework is developed. The uniqueness of the genres is clearly revealed by high classification accuracies achieved by the different classifiers.
Automatic Recognition and Localization of Saudi License Plates
Authors: Hamandi Lama , Almustafa Khaled M. , Zantout Rached N. , Obeid Hasan R.
Published: May 2012

In this chapter, localizing Saudi license plates in images and recognizing characters automatically in those plates are described. Three algorithms to recognize English and Arabic characters in Saudi license plates are presented. The three algorithms rely on processing information from lines strategically drawn vertically and horizontally through a character. In most of the cases, all letters and numbers were able to be recognized. Furthermore, two approaches for localization, “object adjacency” and “character recognition,” are described in this chapter. The algorithms were successfully applied to images containing Saudi License plates as shown through the results presented. A hybrid approach is also presented in which vertical alignment was used to aid the recognition phase in correctly recognizing characters. The hybrid method is only applicable to new Saudi license plates since they contain redundant information in both Arabic and English sections.
Improving the Efficiency of Large-Scale Agent-Based Models Using Compression Techniques
Authors: Welch Mitchell , Kwan Paul , Sajeev A.S.M. , Garner Graeme
Published: May 2012

Agent-based modelling is becoming a widely used approach for simulating complex phenomena. By making use of emergent behaviour, agent based models can simulate systems right down to the most minute interactions that affect a system’s behaviour. In order to capture the level of detail desired by users, many agent based models now contain hundreds of thousands and even millions of interacting agents. The scale of these models makes them computationally expensive to operate in terms of memory and CPU time, limiting their practicality and use. This chapter details the techniques for applying Dynamic Hierarchical Agent Compression to agent based modelling systems, with the aim of reducing the amount of memory and number of CPU cycles required to manage a set of agents within a model. The scheme outlined extracts the state data stored within a model’s agents and takes advantage of redundancy in this data to reduce the memory required to represent this information. The techniques show how a hierarchical data structure can be used to achieve compression of this data and the techniques for implementing this type of structure within an existing modelling system. The chapter includes a case study that outlines the practical considerations related to the application of this scheme to Australia’s National Model for Emerging Livestock Disease Threats that is currently being developed.
Embedded System for Heart Disease Recognition using Fuzzy Clustering and Correlation
Authors: Júnior Helton Hugo de Carvalho , Moreno Robson Luiz , Pimenta Tales Cleber
Published: May 2012

This chapter presents the viability analysis and the development of heart disease identification embedded system. It offers a time reduction on electrocardiogram – ECG signal processing by reducing the amount of data samples without any significant loss. The goal of the developed system is the analysis of heart signals. The ECG signals are applied into the system that performs an initial filtering, and then uses a Gustafson-Kessel fuzzy clustering algorithm for the signal classification and correlation. The classification indicates common heart diseases such as angina, myocardial infarction and coronary artery diseases. The system uses the European electrocardiogram ST-T Database – EDB as a reference for tests and evaluation. The results prove the system can perform the heart disease detection on a data set reduced from 213 to just 20 samples, thus providing a reduction to just 9.4% of the original set, while maintaining the same effectiveness. This system is validated in a Xilinx Spartan®-3A FPGA. The FPGA implemented a Xilinx Microblaze® Soft-Core Processor running at a 50 MHz clock rate.
Group Processes in the Virtual Work Environment
Authors: Sattlethight Andrea Roofe , Armagan Sungu
Published: May 2012

This chapter explores an alternative approach to group processes in the virtual environment as a system of alliances, encompassing leader, member, and group. The purpose of this research is to determine if a system of alliances encompassing leader, member, and team exists in the virtual environment. The authors explore the applicability of alliances to a 21st century management environment by testing a conceptual model using 20,000 bootstrapped samples of 96 employed professionals and students studying in an online environment. They find evidence that group processes in a technology-mediated environment can be defined by a three-way-system of alliances in which the leader plays a less dominant role than in traditional groups. The authors find that the individual’s relationship with the group may be built through a trust relationship with other members rather than a direct relationship with the leader. Directions for future research and implications for management practice are also discussed.
Organizational Characteristics of Middle Managers’ Deterioration as Sources of Organizational Decline
Authors: Karube Masaru , Kato Toshihiko , Numagami Tsuyoshi
Published: May 2012

This chapter explores the mechanism of how structural and behavioral organizational characteristics lead to organizational deterioration as a source of organizational decline. First, using an original construct of organizational deterioration named “organizational deadweight” that is defined as ineffectual managerial load at the middle management level, the authors explore the relationships between the organizational characteristics and organizational deadweight. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey in 2006 involving more than 942 respondents from 128 business units of 16 large Japanese firms. The results suggest that reference to formal strategic planning, participation in the planning process, and vertical communication improve deterioration, whereas organizational size and layered hierarchical structure aggravate it. Finally, the authors discuss the roles of vertical communication and formal planning to safeguard against deterioration.
ICT Enabling More Energy Efficient Processes, Including e-Invoicing as a Case
Authors: Bomhof Freek , van Hoorik Paula , Hoeve Maarten
Published: May 2012

ICT has the potential to enable a low carbon economy, as pointed out by many studies. One example of the energy (and CO2) saving potential of ICT is illustrated in this chapter: how much energy (and emissions) can be saved if the invoicing process is redesigned? Although there is a net positive effect, the way the actual process is implemented can make a large difference. This led to the question of how to evaluate different projects or different designs, when it comes to the net sustainability effects. Then a framework is introduced to compare the combined sustainability effects of all the steps in a work process compared to alternative processes. The authors then describe existing indicators and metrics that can be used to fill the framework.
Information and Communication Technology Revolution and Global Warming
Authors: Somavat Pavel , Namboodiri Vinod
Published: May 2012

Although the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution is hardly 20 years old, it is already directly influencing the lives of more than two thirds of the global population and has played a prominent role in socio-politico-economical development across the societies. However, over the time the ICT segment has become a major consumer of energy, and therefore, it is rapidly becoming a significant source of greenhouse emissions. All the indicators point towards continued growth in ICT. In this chapter, the authors account for the approximate annual energy consumption and resultant CO2 emissions of this sector. They also account for the indirect environmental effects of rapid proliferation of ICT technologies. This work, therefore, highlights potential areas where increased energy efficient measures are urgently required to ensure sustainable development. The authors also discuss the positive contribution and potential of ICT in curtailing carbon emissions. Towards the end, they summarize various initiatives by the scientific community to ensure energy efficiency and sustainable development. This chapter gives an overview of the extent of the problem, accounts for energy consumption of various ICT sub-segments, and looks into some of the solutions and future directions proposed by researchers to counter this threat.
Multidimensional Analysis of Supply Chain Environmental Performance
Authors: Sirkka Antti , Junkkari Marko
Published: May 2012

Monitoring the environmental performance of a product is recognized to be increasingly important. The most common method of measuring the environmental performance is the international standards of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Typically, measuring is based on estimations and average values at product category level. In this chapter, the authors present a framework for measuring environmental impact at the item level. Using Traceability Graph emissions and resources, it can be monitored from the data management perspective. The model can be mapped to any precision level of physical tracing. At the most precise level, even a single physical object and its components can be analyzed. This, of course, demands that the related objects and their components are identified and mapped to the database. From the opposite perspective, the authors’ model also supports rough level analysis of products and their histories. In terms of the Traceability Cube, multidimensional analysis can be applied for traceability data.
Power Management Strategies based on Multi-Agent Systems for Portable Devices Equipped with Renewable Power Sources
Authors: Valdivieso-Sarabia Rafael J. , Garcia-Chamizo Juan M.
Published: May 2012

Electronic portable devices present some technological challenges like battery life, providing services, and integration of renewable power supplies. These challenges can be improved using power management based solutions. Power management systems for electronic portable devices are ad-hoc solutions for each device, so solutions are not general enough to be applied to others. A model driven architecture approach is defined. It allows defining a general power management systems solution for portable devices. The general solution is based on agent modelling, which is parameterized, so it allows automatic retrieval of the power management multi-agent system for a particular device giving values to the model’s parameters. Distributed management strategies are based on giving priority to renewable power sources and reducing power spikes when there is not enough power. A laptop equipped with a photovoltaic charger is introduced for simulating power demand and supply in order to discuss power management strategies for reducing electrical consumption.
Display Energy Management based on Eye Tracking
Authors: Moshnyaga Vasily G.
Published: May 2012

With the explosive use of personal computers or PCs, reducing computer energy consumption is paramount for sustainability. The display is the largest energy consumer in a personal computer. Current display energy management technologies ignore the attention of the PC user and therefore may either switch the display off when the user looks at the screen or lose energy by keeping the display on when nobody looks at it. This chapter discusses a new display energy management technology and outlines its implementation in a personal computer system. Unlike existing technologies, which “sense” a PC user through keyboard and/or mouse or the other sensors, this technology “watches” the user through a single camera or CMOS vision sensor. The technology tracks the user’s eyes, keeping display active only if the user looks at its screen. Otherwise, it dims the display down or even switches it off to save energy. The authors implemented the technology in software and hardware and present the results of their experimental evaluation.
Energy-Aware Intelligence in Smart Spaces
Authors: Park Sangho , Kautz Henry
Published: May 2012

The improvement of energy efficiency in our society has become an urgent issue for sustainability under global warming. The authors present research issues on sensor-based smart environments for energy-aware intelligence, and showcase a study of algorithms for monitoring human activities that provides the context awareness to the smart environments. In order to build energy-aware environments, it is desirable to embed intelligence into the environment itself so that the environment can interpret human behavior in order to adjust itself to human activities occurring in the environment. This is achievable by integrating the environment and the intelligent computing facilities. The computing facility embedded in the environment is equipped with intelligent algorithms that can monitor salient features indicative of the events and learn and recognize changes in the environment. Recent developments in sensor-based intelligent systems can provide suitable algorithms and facilities for building such energy-aware smart environments. The authors present a framework for monitoring human activities in daily living toward the energy-aware intelligence that can detect and learn inhabitants’ behavior patterns in the smart environment.
Towards a More Naturalistic CALL
Authors: Benson Phil , Chik Alice
Published: May 2012

Recent social and technological developments are placing independent access to the Internet within the reach of more and more foreign language learners, who are increasingly using this access to pursue interests online through the languages they are learning. Conceptualized in this paper as “naturalistic CALL”, this phenomenon is described as a logical step in the evolution of CALL and, in particular, of its ‘communicative’ and ‘network-based’ phases. Following a brief review of early studies in this area, a framework for research is described based on dimensions of location, formality, pedagogy, and locus of control. Potential issues for future research within this framework are also identified with reference to data from a study of multilingual video-gaming practices among young people in Hong Kong.