bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multilingual Education for International Business
Authors: Díaz Juan Carlos , Aguilar-Barrientos Sara , Schmidt Heiko Marc
Published: September 2018

Education for future international business (IB) practitioners must be linked to a clear multilingual and multicultural approach. In this chapter, the authors present a case of study of the setup, aspects, and implementations of an IB undergraduate program carried out mostly in a foreign language (English). The program here presented also requires students to acquire a third language, and thus has become the first IB program of its kind in Colombia. The consequences, challenges, and opportunities derived from this multilingual approach to business education are then discussed in this chapter. Through data collected from the study program, it is possible to draw attention to the link between linguistic skills and academic performance, which leads to a short overview of the cognitive correlates to multilingualism and the learning process aspects associated with the use of a foreign language in the classroom. Finally, the authors draft some recommendations for educators and professionals designing IB study programs with a multilingual approach.
A Tailor-Made Information Management Maturity Model for the European Central Bank (ECB)
Authors: Garrido Beatriz Garcia , Arias Paloma Beneito
Published: September 2018

In 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB) developed a customized information management maturity model that was subsequently applied to assess the success of the implementation of the organizational policies, processes, and technologies supporting the information management function and to identify and priorities future activities. This chapter provides an overview of the model's objectives, design process, and principles and a comparison of the sources that were used to support its design. In addition, it provides a detailed description of the model's structure, including goals, key process areas and key practices, common features, and maturity levels. Furthermore, the chapter describes the process and the tools that the authors designed to support the maturity assessment and the results obtained during the first two applications of the model.
An Information Governance Policy Is Required for My Institution, What to Do?
Authors: Shabou Basma Makhlouf
Published: September 2018

Effective business management within organizations depends, among other factors, on the availability and proper management of appropriate resources. Information resources are one of those resources. This chapter offers practical answers to the many questions that information professionals in an institution may have about how to ensure performing secure and rational management for corporate informational assets. After a brief presentation and discussion of main concepts, it defines and describes the information governance policy, which is the key tool of an advanced information governance approach. It specifies how and when a maturity model should help to develop and update a corporate information governance policy. In addition, it presents the main practical guidelines including specific recommendations on the structure, content, and format of an information governance policy. A discussion of the development and implementation process is then proposed.
Digital Preservation Capability Maturity Model (DPCMM)
Authors: Ashley Lori J. , Misic Milovan
Published: September 2018

This chapter provides an overview of the genesis and development of the digital preservation capability maturity model (DPCMM) which covers a range of governance, operational, and data management functions associated with the management of long-term (10+ years) and permanent digital assets. The model is organized into three domains: infrastructure, repository, and services. In addition to providing a useful framework for analysis and planning among archivists, content owners and records managers, using a capability maturity model (CMM) to convey the requirements associated with preservation and access to long-term digital assets provides a familiar construct for information technology (IT) architects and system administrators. Each of the 15 DPCMM components has five incremental stages of capability called digital preservation performance metrics.
Assessing the Institutional Readiness for Open Government at the Kenyan Judiciary Using IRMT E-Readiness Tool and Open Government Implementation Model
Authors: Maseh Elsebah
Published: September 2018

Maturity models have existed as a concept for at least two decades. This chapter demonstrates the use of two models to assess the institutional readiness for open government at the Kenyan judiciary. Kenya has gone through a series of constitutional reforms, the latest being the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010 whose key pillar is continuous engagement with citizens, which led to a launch of the Kenya Open Data Initiative in 2011. In response to this initiative, the judiciary launched its transformation framework in 2012 with an aim of inculcating a culture of openness. Against this background, a study was undertaken on records-management readiness for open government in the Kenyan judiciary. This chapter reports some of its findings, specifically the status of open-government readiness at the judiciary, assessed using the IRMT E-Readiness Tool and the open government implementation model (OGIM). The chapter describes the methodology used, discusses the findings, and states a conclusion as well as recommendations.
Impact of Social Media Readiness on Social Media Usage and Competitive Advantage
Authors: Durga Apoorv , Singla M. L.
Published: September 2018

Usage of social media within organizations' value chains has been increasing rapidly. There are several benefits and savings projected due to usage of social media. As a result, there is also a lot of hype that is typical of any new web phenomenon. On the other hand, saner voices are cautioning against excessive hype and point to high failure rate of social media initiatives. Lack of best practices or frameworks and incomplete understanding of how to make best use of social media are some of the reasons cited for this high failure of social media initiatives. In addition, there are several other aspects related to governance, people, and processes that need to be addressed to improve success rate of these initiatives. Therefore, effective implementation of a social media initiative includes addressing all those aspects that relate to governance, people, and processes. The authors use a construct, “Social Media Readiness,” that encapsulates these aspects. This chapter summarizes research that shows how readiness can impact social media use.
Big Data Time Series Stream Data Segmentation Methods
Authors: Alberg Dima
Published: September 2018

In this chapter, the authors introduce the interval sliding window (ISW) and interval sliding window and bottom up (ISWAB) algorithms, which are applicable to big data numerical time series data streams and use as input the confidence level parameter rather than the maximum error threshold. The proposed algorithms have two advantages: first, they allow performance comparisons across different time series data streams without changing the algorithm settings, and second, they do not require preprocessing the original time series data stream in order to determine heuristically the reasonable error value. These improvements are very efficient and important in context of big data tine series data streams processing. Finally, an empirical evaluation was performed on two types of time series data.
Managing and Visualizing Unstructured Big Data
Authors: Mitra Ananda
Published: September 2018

One of the most common terms that is used in a significant amount of popular and scholarly discussion is big data. As pointed out earlier, the term has a dubious history and different people claim ownership. What remains true of the notion of big data is that it exists. With the increasing rate at which institutions and individuals are digitizing many different kinds of information the amount of data can only go up in volume. Therefore, big data has become an object of analysis for a variety of groups, from academics to marketers, all of whom are interested in understanding how big data could provide highly granular information about people.
Clouds of Quantum Machines
Authors: Serpa Nilo Sylvio
Published: September 2018

This chapter continues previous studies in service-oriented architectures (SOA) on clouds of quantum computers, considering quantum entanglement and quantum teleportation of states of services as resources to deploy high production in IT environments and to guide studies on the implementation of intelligent behavior in server clouds. A way to preserve quantum entanglement is presented. Also, the chapter proposes a metalanguage to organize the topology of orchestration of services. This topology is embedded in the states of services and takes part in the information to be teleported from server to server. The creation of entangled states of information with the aid of the concept of progenitor is reviewed with some details.
Cyberinfrastructure, Cloud Computing, Science Gateways, Visualization, and Cyberinfrastructure Ease of Use
Authors: Stewart Craig A. , Knepper Richard , Link Matthew R. , Pierce Marlon , Wernert Eric , Wilkins-Diehr Nancy
Published: September 2018

Computers accelerate our ability to achieve scientific breakthroughs. As technology evolves and new research needs come to light, the role for cyberinfrastructure as “knowledge” infrastructure continues to expand. In essence, cyberinfrastructure can be thought of as the integration of supercomputers, data resources, visualization, and people that extends the impact and utility of information technology. This chapter discusses cyberinfrastructure, the related topics of science gateways and campus bridging, and identifies future challenges and opportunities in cyberinfrastructure.
Improved Checkpoint Using the Effective Management of I/O in a Cloud Environment
Authors: Meroufel Bakhta , Belalem Ghalem
Published: September 2018

One of the most important points for more effective use in the environment of cloud is undoubtedly the study of reliability and robustness of services related to this environment. In this case, fault tolerance is necessary to ensure that reliability and reduce the SLA violation. Checkpointing is a popular fault tolerance technique in large-scale systems. However, its major disadvantage is the overhead caused by the storage time of checkpointing files, which increases the execution time and minimizes the possibility to meet the desired deadlines. In this chapter, the authors propose a checkpointing strategy with lightweight storage. The storage is provided by creating a virtual topology VRbIO and the use of an intelligent and fault tolerant I/O technique CSDS (collective and selective data sieving). The proposal is executed by active and reactive agents and it solves many problems of checkpointing with standard I/O. To evaluate the approach, the authors compare it with a checkpointing with ROMIO as I/O strategy. Experimental results show the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed approach.
Service Quality and Perceived Value of Cloud Computing-Based Service Encounters
Authors: Egedigwe Eges
Published: September 2018

Cloud computing-based technology is becoming increasingly popular as a way to deliver quality education to community colleges, universities, and other organizations. At the same time, compared with other industries, colleges have been slow on implementing and sustaining cloud computing services on an institutional level because of budget constraints facing many large community colleges, in addition to other obstacles. Faced with this challenge, key stakeholders are increasingly realizing the need to focus on service quality as a measure to improve their competitive position in today's highly competitive environment. Considering the amount of study done with cloud computing in education, very little has been done in examining the needs and the satisfactions of the instructor customer. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the expectations and perceptions of instructors' usage of cloud computing based technology on overall quality of service (QoS) in their respective institutions of higher education.
Understanding Business Models on the Cloud
Authors: Najmaei Arash
Published: September 2018

The relationship between business models and cloud-based systems has not been explicitly discussed in the literature. In this chapter, the authors posit that the intersection between business models and cloud computing creates two distinctive technological paradigms: cloud computing as a business model which can be seen as the development of cloud computing driven business models' (hereafter CCBM) and cloud computing-enhanced or enabled business models which can be broadly thought of as improved business modelling with the help of cloud computing (hereafter BMCC). The former refers to a technological model or system that commercializes value solely created by cloud-based systems in public and private sectors whereas the latter refers to various ways that cloud-based systems are integrated into existing business models to enhance, improve, or enable creation and commercialization of new value. An explicit acknowledgement of these two trajectories and their underling architecture are remarkably absent in the literature. This chapter addresses this deficiency.
Data Mining to Identify Project Management Strategies in Learning Environments
Authors: González-Marcos Ana , Ordieres-Meré Joaquín , Alba-Elías Fernando
Published: September 2018

Projects have become a key strategic working form. It is agreed that project performance must achieve its objective and be aligned with criteria that the project stakeholders establish. The usual metrics that are considered are cost, schedule, and quality. Configuration for the management of projects is a matter of decision that influences the project's evolution. There also are factors like virtual teamwork and team building processes that are relevant to that evolution. Effectiveness in managing projects depends on these factors and is investigated in this work by means of educational data mining as they can help to build more effective learning and operating procedures. The conclusions from this study can help higher education course designers as well as teachers and students by making apparent the influence of smarter strategies in the learning process. In fact, the same benefits will help practitioners too, as they can improve their continuous learning procedures and adjust their project management policies and strategies.
Ensemble Clustering Data Mining and Databases
Authors: Wierzchon Slawomir T.
Published: September 2018

Standard clustering algorithms employ fixed assumptions about data structure. For instance, the k-means algorithm is applicable for spherical and linearly separable data clouds. When the data come from multidimensional normal distribution, so-called EM algorithm can be applied. But in practice, the assumptions underlying given set of observations are too complex to fit into a single assumption. We can split these assumptions into manageable hypothesis justifying the use of particular clustering algorithms. Then we must aggregate partial results into a meaningful description of our data. The consensus clustering does this task. In this chapter, the authors clarify the idea of consensus clustering, and they present conceptual frames for such a compound analysis. Next, the basic approaches to implement consensus procedure are given. Finally, some new directions in this field are mentioned.
Graph-Based Concept Discovery
Authors: Mutlu Alev , Karagoz Pinar , Kavurucu Yusuf
Published: September 2018

Multi-relational data mining (MRDM) is concerned with discovering hidden patterns from multiple tables in a relational database. One of the most commonly addressed tasks in MRDM is concept discovery in which the problem is inducing logical definitions of a specific relation, called target relation, in terms of other relations, called background knowledge. Inductive logic programming-based and graph-based approaches are two main competitors in this research. In this chapter, the authors aim to introduce concept discovery problem and compare state-of-the-art methods in graph-based concept discovery by means of data representation, search method, and concept descriptor evaluation mechanism.
Query Languages for Graph Databases
Authors: Rabuzin Kornelije
Published: September 2018

In the past few years, many NoSQL databases have emerged, including graph databases. NoSQL databases have certain advantages and they can be used in certain domains as an alternative to relational databases. In order to use graph databases, one needs to be familiar with specific languages like Cypher Query Language (CQL) or Gremlin. However, some statements in CQL can be considered too complex for end users as it is shown later on. Because of that, the main idea of this chapter is to explore two other languages for graph databases. One of them is new and it is used to pose queries visually. Since CQL does not support recursion, views, etc., the other language is used to show how to use recursion and views on a graph database.
Schema Evolution in Conventional and Emerging Databases
Authors: Brahmia Zouhaier , Grandi Fabio , Oliboni Barbara , Bouaziz Rafik
Published: September 2018

In information systems, changing the database schema is a common but often troublesome task in database administration that is needed for many reasons such as changes in user requirements, compliance to new regulations, addition of new functionalities, or correction of deficiencies in the current schema. For most database applications, changing the schema of the database without loss of existing data is a significant challenge: it is usually a time-consuming and error-prone task which must be done carefully. In the literature, schema evolution has been defined as the modality for the management of schema changes which relieves database programmers and administrators from this burden, by automatically recovering extant data and possibly adapting them to the new schema. The main goal of this chapter is to present the recent research proposals that deal with schema evolution in traditional and emerging databases and to discuss the recent advances on schema evolution support in mainstream DBMSs.
Twitter Data Mining for Situational Awareness
Authors: Vernier Marco , Farinosi Manuela , Foresti Gian Luca
Published: September 2018

The most recent catastrophic events, from the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the devastating 2013 Colorado floods, have shown a strong adoption of social media platforms by ordinary people. The data and metadata produced by the users during and after the extraordinary situations could have enormous potentialities if integrated with the traditional systems for emergency management and used for hyperlocal situational awareness. The great majority of the current literature is focused on Twitter for several reasons strictly linked to the architectures and practices of use of the platform itself. It is possible to classify the existing systems based on the analysis of Twitter data at least in three different categories: 1) semantic systems, 2) metadata systems, and 3) smart self-learning systems. In this chapter, a review of the most significant and important tools used to analyze Twitter data will be presented and an innovative and smart solution will be proposed for future development.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), Mobile Technology Providers, and Its Impacts on Business/Education and Workplace/Learning Applications
Authors: Smith-Ditizio Amber A. , Smith Alan D.
Published: September 2018

Outside the traditional business institutions and learning models, a number of organizations and academic institutions are looking to add bring your own device (BYOD) policies. Businesses and K-12 schools are supplying teachers with devices that can be an aid in working/learning; universities are increasingly allowing students to bring their own devices to add to the enrichment of the programs. BYOD-based technology and its applications have numerous benefits, but they can be difficult to implement. They usually result in lower costs for the business, but they often require the organization to adapt. Since there are so many constraints and situations that could inhibit the security of the business, some businesses are hesitant to use BYOD in their business.
Consumer Adoption of PC-Based/Mobile-Based Electronic Word-of-Mouth
Authors: Ono Akinori , Kikumori Mai
Published: September 2018

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on products and services is getting more important in consumer behavior as well as marketing communication. Regarding the issue, marketing and consumer scholars have conducted research on eWOM message senders and recipients. Focusing on eWOM receiving behavior, this chapter presents academic knowledge regarding how recipients evaluate mobile e-WOM messages and how he/she behaves as a consequence. There are two kinds of eWOM (i.e., PC-based eWOM and mobile-based eWOM [mWOM]). Moreover, two types of messages can be identified in each kind of eWOM—viral messages from marketers via friends and relatives, and eWOM reviews on products and services from anonymous senders. Prior studies on viral marketing can be further divided into two research streams; research that have constructed and tested causal models explaining why consumers participate in viral marketing, and research that have focused on illustrating comprehensively a multi-stage cognitive and behavioral customer journey towards receiving, using, and forwarding viral marketing messages.
Context-Aware Personalization for Mobile Services
Authors: Otebolaku Abayomi Moradeyo , Andrade Maria Teresa
Published: September 2018

Audiovisual content consumption on mobile platforms is rising exponentially, and this trend will continue in the next years as mobile devices become more sophisticated. Thus, smartphones are gradually replacing our desktops as they increasingly become cheaper and more powerful with excellent multimedia processing support. As mobile users go about their routines, they continuously browse the web, seeking interesting content to consume, and also uploading personal content. However, users encounter huge volume of content that does not match their preferences, resulting in mobile information overload. Context-aware media personalization (CAMP) was proposed as a solution to this problem. CAMP assists users to select relevant content among alternatives considering users' preferences and contexts. This solution, however, are limited to static contexts. The contribution is mobile context-aware media personalization (MobCAMP), which is a special kind of personalization that utilizes users' contexts and activities to suggest media content according to the user's tastes and contextual situations.
Exploring the Growth of Wireless Communications Systems and Challenges Facing 4G Networks
Authors: Smith-Ditizio Amber A. , Smith Alan D.
Published: September 2018

Mobile communication and its many applications have been fueling the rapid growth and adoption of wireless communications for years. This growth has been marked by significant network development and advanced techniques evolving in all the fields of mobile and wireless communications. The transition from 3G communications to 4G communications has extremely boosted the way and speed at which companies and their customer are able to operate in the global economy. The purpose of this chapter is to describe some of the significant impacts of 4G wireless communication systems on the telecommunications industry. Topics describing 4G to include a brief history of mobile communications, what are the major characteristics of 4G networks and its users, advantages of 4G, challenges that 4G faces, wireless in the field/IT component, future directions of 4G, and some of the potential plans for growth.
Flying Adhoc Networks Concept and Challenges
Authors: Singh Kuldeep , Verma Anil Kumar
Published: September 2018

Flying adhoc networks (FANETs) are getting popular among the research community due to their wide area of applications in civilians and tactical areas. FANETs are the new family member of the mobile adhoc networks (MANETs) class. Situations such as flooding, war zone, and rescue operations where traditional MANETs cannot be deploy because they used ground moving nodes. FANETs can play significant role in those situations because they employ a swarm of UAVs to form adhoc network. In this chapter, FANET concept along with its applications and challenges is discussed. Future research directions in the area of FANETs are discussed.
The Impact of Mobile Phones on Plastic Surgery and Burn Management
Authors: Giaquinto-Cilliers Maria , Potgieter Tertius N. , Steyn Gert
Published: September 2018

Mobile phones have progressively become an inseparable partner to plastic surgeons in their clinical practice. From using the mobile phone camera to take pictures of injuries and sending those for instant advice to searching for the best evidence articles in peer reviewed journals, mobile phones have changed the plastic surgeons' approach on the best way to manage their patients. The availability of information in mobile technology has allowed a growing market for education tools for plastic surgeons and patients, and the use of social media for marketing purposes. With the increased availability of smartphone applications, these devices have become an invaluable tool for the modern plastic surgeon.
Methods for Simultaneous Improvement of Comb Pass Band and Folding Bands
Authors: Dolecek Gordana Jovanovic
Published: September 2018

This decimation introduces the replicas of the main signal spectrum. If the signal is not properly filtered, the overlapping of the repeated replicas of the original spectrum, called aliasing, may occur. The aliasing may destroy the useful information of the decimated signal and must be eliminated by the filter which precedes the decimation, called decimation filter. The most popular decimation filter is a comb filter, usually used in the first stage of decimation. However, its magnitude characteristic is not flat in the pass band of interest and there is not enough attenuation in the folding bands. Different methods are proposed to improve comb magnitude characteristic. This chapter presents an overview of methods for simultaneous improvement of comb magnitude characteristic in both: pass band and folding bands. The methods are divided into three main groups: sharpening-based methods, corrector-based methods, and methods based on the combination of alias rejection and compensator design methods.
Micro to Macro Social Connectedness Through Mobile Phone Engagement
Authors: Mentor Dominic
Published: September 2018

The literature on social connectedness through mobile phone engagement reveals positive tacit opportunities. Mobile phone engagement hosts micro and macro opportunities to start and maintain a sense of social connectedness. Increasing a sense of social connectedness encourages healthier emotional wellbeing among people, reducing potential feelings of isolation and chances of faster recovery from illness. Mobile social media access, participation, and messaging, be it face-to-face, peer-to-peer, group, or virtual, through intentional and unintentional social connectedness, may aid the improvement and performance among workers, students, and campaigns. Mobile engagement also offers possible improvement in performance and enhanced perceptions of emotional wellbeing. Engagement through social media networks, mostly accessed via mobile, including mobile gaming, or health monitoring, commenting or posting photos or short texts, increases the production and value of successful maintenance of reciprocal interpersonal relationships.
Resource Management for Multimedia Services in Long Term Evaluation Networks
Authors: Mishra Vinod Kumar , Pathak Tanuja
Published: September 2018

Long-term evolution (LTE) is one of the quickest developing technologies that support a variety of applications like video conferencing, video streaming, VoIP, file transfer, and web browsing. Radio resource management (RRM) procedure is one of the key configuration parts for enhancing the system performance. The admission control is one of the resource management mechanisms. The task of admission control is to admit or reject the establishment request for the new session. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the resource management and analyze the media degradation path (MDP) and non-MDP-based admission control algorithms in the LTE network and compare the session establishment success. This chapter also enables for reader to know the current and future trend of research on resource management of multimedia services in LTE networks.
Assessing Computer-Aided Design Skills
Authors: Wong Yi Lin , Siu Kin Wai Michael
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses the difficulties of CAD assessment through examining and reviewing existing CAD examination questions in Hong Kong. Based on the review, limitations of the current assessment are highlighted. It is argued that the existing method is inconsistent with the problem-solving nature of the software and is unable to assess students with high ability and advanced drawing skills. Recommendation and improvement directions are suggested in the chapter to optimize the quality of assessment. Other subjects which also involve assessment of computer skills and design may also benefit from the recommendations.
The Challenges of Teaching and Learning Software Programming to Novice Students
Authors: Shahamiri Seyed Reza
Published: September 2018

As software applications play a vital role in our daily lives, there is a need to have more skilled programmers to create such software products. There are various emerging disciplines like internet of things, driver-less cars, data science, software-defined networks, etc. that demand more programmers in the near future; hence, a more promising carrier for software developers is expected. Nevertheless, we have seen a low success rate in programming classes where some students lose interest in learning the required skills as they find programming a software a very challenging task; it has been reported that the fail rate of first programming papers in university computer science programs can be up to 60%. This chapter looks at some of the issues in regards to teaching and learning software programming and the nature of programming that may negatively influence the students' attention. Remedies to tackle the issues are also provided emphasizing on blended delivery using the technologies to facilitate the learning.
Dynamic Situational Adaptation of a Requirements Engineering Process
Authors: Hadad Graciela Dora Susana , Doorn Jorge Horacio , Ledesma Viviana Alejandra
Published: September 2018

Literature shows that the elicitation techniques used in a requirements engineering process are often chosen based on the particular characteristics of the application context, mainly related to the involved human sources of information. However, these particularities, usually called situational factors, are seldom taken into account in other activities of the requirements process. Most situational factors, when considered in software projects, have a high influence on the requirements process. Therefore, the different situations that may attempt against or may favor a successful requirements process should be identified at the beginning of the project. Additionally, some factors may evolve along with software development life cycle; this may imply re-planning the requirements process at later strategic milestones. In this chapter, a process for constructing and dynamically adapting a requirements process is proposed. The process uses different combinations of situational factors at specific variation points and manages a repository of process blocks to perform the tailoring.
The Past, Present, and Future of UML
Authors: Platt Rebecca , Thompson Nik
Published: September 2018

Since its inception, the unified modeling language (UML) has risen to relative ubiquity in the IT community. However, despite its status as an ISO industry standard, the UML is still evolving to accommodate the changing needs of industry. This development aims to ensure that UML remains effective and relevant to the most current developments in software engineering techniques. This chapter charts the progress of this arguably indispensable standard and discusses the ongoing evolution in three sections: the past, the present, and the future.
Secure Software Development of Cyber-Physical and IoT Systems
Authors: Ramachandran Muthu
Published: September 2018

This real-world case study has been used to demonstrate the best practices on business process modelling and component-based design for developing cloud services with build security in (BSI). BSI techniques, strategies, and processes presented in this chapter are general systems security principles and are applicable for both a cloud environment and traditional environment (non-cloud environment). The significant contribution of this research is to illustrate the application of the extended system security method known as SysSQUARE to elicit security requirements, identify security threats of data, as well as integrating build-in security techniques by modelling and simulating business processes upfront in the systems development life cycle.
Software Process Improvement for Web-Based Projects Comparative View
Authors: Al-Rousan Thamer
Published: September 2018

Software process improvement has been the main target of many web application development organizations. Despite the importance of software process improvement, there is enough evidence that the majority of web-based software organizations are reluctant to adapt existing software process improvement models and standards as they perceive them as being oriented towards traditional software organizations. It has been observed that improvement efforts web-based software development organizations based on process improvement frameworks which are designed for traditional software organizations fail most of the time. This chapter attempts to make a review of different software process improvement models and check the suitability of these models to meet the special characteristics and requirements for the web-based projects. The findings of this study can be helpful for the web-based software development organizations in assessing and improving software processes.
A Study of Contemporary System Performance Testing Framework
Authors: Ng Alex , Chen Shiping
Published: September 2018

Performance testing is one of the vital activities spanning the whole life cycle of software engineering. As a result, there are a considerable number of performance testing products and open source tools available. It has been observed that most of the existing performance testing products and tools are either too expensive and complicated for small projects or too specific and simple for diverse performance tests. In this chapter, the authors present an overview of existing performance test products/tools, provide a summary of some of the contemporary system performance testing frameworks, and capture the key requirements for a general-purpose performance testing framework. Based on previous works, the authors propose a system performance testing framework that is suitable for both simple and small as well as complicated and large-scale performance testing projects. The core of the framework contains an abstraction to facilitate performance testing by separating the application logic from the common performance testing functionality and a general-purpose data model.
Understanding User Experience
Authors: Dickson-Deane Camille , Chen Hsin-Liang (Oliver)
Published: September 2018

User experience determines the quality of an interaction being used by an actor in order to achieve a specific outcome. The actor can have varying roles and evolving needs, thus reviewing and predicting experiences are important. As an actor uses and gains feedback, the feedback guides individual and group behavior, thus becoming pertinent to how interactions occur. This chapter questions how artefacts are designed to promote such interactions and what processes should be incorporated to ensure successful interpretation, use, (physical) reaction, and conation. This chapter discusses the effects of user experiences today based on societal needs and expectations. It shows how the field is delineated into numerous sub-topics, all of which can stand on their own yet still draw from each other. The discussions will include fields such as cognitive science, human-computer interaction, learning sciences, and even ergonomics to show how design and subsequently interactions can assist in having successful user experiences.
Efficient Optimization Using Metaheuristics
Authors: Nesmachnow Sergio
Published: September 2018

This chapter provides an insight into the main concepts, theoretical advances, and experimental results in the field of metaheuristics, when applied for efficiently solving real-world optimization problems. A general view of the most well-known metaheuristic methods is presented. After that, relevant applications of metaheuristics in nowadays real-world problems from several domains are described, highlighting their capabilities to solve complex problems with high efficiency. Finally, the main current and future research lines in the field are also summarized and commented on.
Sleptsov Net Computing
Authors: Zaitsev Dmitry A.
Published: September 2018

Motivation for new models of hyper-computations was presented. Sleptsov net was introduced compared to Petri and Salwicki nets. A concept of universal Sleptsov net, as a prototype of a processor in Sleptsov net computing, was discussed. Small universal Sleptsov net that runs in polynomial time was constructed; it consists of 15 places and 29 transitions. Principles of programming in Sleptsov nets, as composition of reverse control flow and data, have been developed. Standard control flow patterns include sequence, branching, loop, and parallel execution. Basic modules, which implement efficiently copying, logic, and arithmetic operations, have been developed. Special dashed arcs were introduced for brief specification of input and output data of modules (subnets). Ways of hierarchical composition of a program via substitution of a transition by a module were discussed. Examples of Sleptsov net programs for data encryption, fuzzy logic, and partial differential equations have been presented. Enterprise implementation of Sleptsov net programming promises ultra-performance.
Discussion Processes in Online Forums
Authors: Chen Gaowei , Chiu Ming M
Published: September 2018

Online discussion's information transparency, communication flexibility, and opportunities for reflection can enhance information processing, higher order thinking, and learning. Many group processes influence online discussants' creation of correct, new ideas (micro-creativity) and use of social cues. New ideas, justifications, disagreements, and questions in recent messages facilitate micro-creativity. Moreover, new ideas and justifications tend to reduce both positive and negative social cues during online discussions. While agreements elicit positive social cues, disagreements invite negative ones. Meanwhile, participants with more past posts than others often show more micro-creativity. Together, these mechanisms show how sequences of online messages create a local context that influences participants' correct outcomes and social relationships. By understanding these discussion processes, designers can improve online forum interfaces, and educators can help students participate, cooperate, and learn in online forums more effectively.
Toward Trustworthy Web Services Coordination
Authors: Zhao Wenbing
Published: September 2018

In this chapter, the authors present an overview of recent works on enhancing the trustworthiness of web services coordination for business activities and transactions. The approach is based on what they call application-aware Byzantine fault tolerance. They argue that it is impractical to apply general-purpose Byzantine fault tolerance algorithms for such systems in a straightforward manner. Instead, by exploiting the application semantics, much lighter weight solutions can be designed to enhance intrusion tolerance and, hence, the trustworthiness of systems that require web services coordination.
Data Journalism
Authors: Veglis Andreas A. , Bratsas Charalampos P.
Published: September 2018

The introduction of information communication technologies (ICTs) has transformed the journalism profession through the digitalization of the work process as well as the introduction of the internet along with its services. Many new types of journalism have emerged, among which is data journalism, which requires journalists to have special ICT skills. Data journalism is a new form of journalism that has appeared gradually during the previous years, driven by the availability of data in digital form. This chapter studies the issue of data journalism. Specifically, the chapter include a definition of data journalism as well as a discussion on the necessary ICT skills that journalists should have in order to cope with this new type of journalism. These skills are closely associated with the stages of the development of a data journalism project. Also, the relation between data journalism and open data will be presented due the importance of the latter in the development of data journalism.
Negotiating Local Norms in Online Communication
Authors: White Jonathan R.
Published: September 2018

This chapter investigates norms of English usage in a community of novice students on a net-based MA program. They communicated in academic seminars using textchat. They were found to develop their own norms for using reduced forms to speed up communication. Their teachers, who in the Vietnamese and Bangladeshi native cultures of the students should have been given great respect, did not have much influence on the norm-setting process, and even were addressed very informally in the discussions. The author argues that this is an affordance of net-based education that the discourse community sets its own norms of English usage, despite the members' lack of experience.
Learning With Games and Digital Stories in Visual Programming
Authors: Lau Wilfred W. F.
Published: September 2018

This chapter traces the recent development and the use of games and digital stories for engaging students in learning in visual programming environments. It reports on the application of game development-based learning and educational digital storytelling to engage students in learning in visual programming environments. The empirical findings support the positive effects of these two learning approaches on a range of student learning outcomes. Because many available visual programming tools are free of charge and provide a low-floor, high-ceiling learning environment, teachers should encourage students to venture into the programming world with these tools. Such practice is beneficial to student learning both within the computer science discipline and across disciplines.
Adaptive Hypermedia Systems
Authors: Klock Ana Carolina Tomé , Gasparini Isabela , Pimenta Marcelo Soares , de Oliveira José Palazzo M.
Published: September 2018

Adaptive hypermedia systems are systems that modify the different visible aspects based on the user profile. To provide this adaptation, the system is modeled according to a user model, which stores the information about each user. This information can include knowledge, interests, goals and tasks, background and skills, behavior, interaction preferences, individual traits, and context of the user. This chapter's goal is to introduce adaptive hypermedia systems fundamentals and trends. In this context, this chapter identifies some methods and techniques used to adapt the content, the presentation, and the navigation of the system. In the end, some applications (ELM-ART, Interbook, AHA!, AdaptWeb®) and trends (standardization, data mining, social web, device adaptation, and gamification) are exposed. As a result, this chapter highlights the importance of the improvement and the use of adaptive systems.
Metadata Standards in Digital Audio
Authors: Szeto Kimmy
Published: September 2018

Audio metadata is an essential tool that supports control and management of systems that create, transmit, describe, manage, and store digital audio. Technical and structural metadata enable audio in devices and software applications; descriptive metadata provide context. Metadata also relate and incorporate audio in a multimedia environment resulting in profound effects on conception, reception, and consumption. This chapter explores metadata standards in digital audio.
Adolescents' Food Communication in Social Media
Authors: Holmberg Christopher
Published: September 2018

Social media is ubiquitous in the lives of adolescents. Social media permits users to upload and share contents pertinent to health such as food and nutrition communications. Studies show that the dissemination and sharing of food content is prevalent in these channels. Not only do messages of food serve a symbolic purpose in these online platforms, but this communication might also affect adolescents in both positive and negative ways in regards to health. Visual food messages can affect brain areas associated with appetite and influence dietary behaviors among adolescents similar to advertisements. The objective with this chapter is to elucidate the complex and interwoven relationship between food and nutrition, social media, and adolescents from a health communication perspective. The chapter draws upon empirical studies and results, as well as related conceptual literature. Methodological and theoretical explanations are discussed as well as practical implications. Future research directions are also outlined.
Communication Privacy Management and Mediated Communication
Authors: Worthington Debra L. , Fitch-Hauser Margaret
Published: September 2018

Communication privacy management theory (CPM) was originally developed to explain how individuals control and reveal private information in traditional social interactions. It has since been extended to a number of contexts, most recently to evolving communication technologies and social networking sites. CPM provides a set of theoretical tools to explore the intersection of technology and individual privacy in relationship management. This chapter introduces CPM; privacy is defined, the three primary components and eight axioms of CPM are reviewed, and their application to mediated communication contexts are outlined. Areas for future research are presented.
The Dual Nature of Participatory Web and How Misinformation Seemingly Travels
Authors: Kumar Sameer
Published: September 2018

Web 2.0 is an internet technology that facilitates collaboration on the world wide web (WWW). As a direct product of people's freedom of expression, Web 2.0 technology has given birth to a new media – the social media that is redefining the way people collaborate and express themselves. By studying surveys in three specific aspects of its impact—social service, politics, and as a vehicle of misinformation and through content analysis of some online comments—the author argues that social media is capable of transmitting both good and bad information. In the chapter, an illustration of how misinformation through video seemingly travels is also presented.