bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quand les cercles vicieux deviennent vertueux : une expérience de marché cobweb circulaire
Authors: Sutan Angela , Willinger Marc
Published: February 2013

Les participants à un marché de type cobweb doivent simultanément prendre deux décisions : une décision de production et une prévision du prix de vente de cette production. Dans ce papier nous essayons de neutraliser les comportements stratégiques et l’incohérence entre les décisions de production et les prévisions de prix habituellement observés dans ce type de marchés expérimentaux (Sutan et Willinger, 2002, 2003). À cet effet, nous introduisons dans le design expérimental un opérateur de circularité qui modifie la configuration du marché en cela que chaque producteur i doit anticiper un prix pour lequel il est complètement preneur (ce prix étant déterminé par la mise sur le marché de la production de tous les autres producteurs, i exclu). À travers cette procédure nous éliminons le pouvoir de marché, en générant une situation d’interaction locale asymétrique : dans un marché à N participants, chaque producteur i est preneur de prix sur son marché, alors que les autres N-i producteurs sont faiseurs de prix. Cependant, à un niveau global, tous les participants sont interconnectés, et sont, de ce fait, parfaitement symétriques. Chaque participant i assume deux rôles : il agit en tant que preneur de prix sur son marché, puisque sa propre production n’affecte pas son prix, mais en tant que faiseur de prix sur les marchés des N-i autres participants, puisque sa production est prise en compte dans la détermination de leurs prix. Les connexions circulaires de ce type peuvent être vicieuses, puisqu’un participant qui adopte un comportement à risque (en surproduisant par exemple) entraîne tous les marchés dans lesquels il est impliqué dans la direction de sa prise de risque. Cependant, nous faisons l’hypothèse que cette possibilité contribue à stabiliser les croyances et le type de raisonnement que les participants mettent en place lors de leur prise de décision : la circularité pourrait éliminer les comportements stratégiques et les incohérences décisionnelles (elle devient vertueuse). Cette hypothèse est testée expérimentalement. Nous montrons que : i) les prix sont stationnaires autour de l’équilibre d’anticipations rationnelles ; ii) dès le début de l’expérience, les participants ne révèlent pas de comportements stratégiques ; iii) leurs anticipations sont très proches de l’équilibre ; iv) les séries de prix sur différents marchés sont corrélées ; v) avec le temps, les participants prennent en compte les prix et leur production individuelle lorsqu’ils forment leurs croyances sur les prix, ce qui témoigne de leur capacité de sophistication et de compréhension des interactions de l’économie.
L’émergence d'une chimie doublement verte
Authors: Nieddu Martino , Garnier Estelle , Bliard Christophe
Published: February 2013

On décrit, en s’appuyant sur une démarche narrative, l’émergence de la chimie doublement verte comme le produit d’actions collectives construisant un secteur nouveau, plus que celui d’innovations de ruptures portées par des acteurs individuels. Elle est initiée par les organisations agricoles et agro-industrielles qui cherchent à substituer le pétrole pour trouver des valorisations des produits agricoles. Celles-ci construisent des patrimoines productifs collectifs en assemblant des bases de connaissances et des ressources institutionnelles. Elles s’appuient pour mobiliser leur milieu sur le mythe rationnel du cracking de la plante, qui va se transformer en bioraffinerie afin d’intégrer les principes de chimie verte, et de rendre soutenable le changement technologique.
Ventes liées et concurrence sur les marchés énergétiques
Authors: Podesta Marion
Published: February 2013

Cet article analyse l’impact de l’ouverture à la concurrence sur les stratégies de ventes liées dans les secteurs énergétiques. En situation de monopole, la littérature concernant les ventes liées s’accorde sur la dominance d’une stratégie de ventes liées mixtes. Cependant, en situation concurrentielle les ventes liées peuvent réduire le profit des firmes. À travers un modèle de choix discrets, nous montrons que tarifer l’électricité et le gaz séparément est un équilibre de Nash Pareto dominant pour un duopole. Néanmoins, l’entrée d’une troisième firme sur un des deux marchés rend la stratégie de ventes liées plus efficace. Cette situation engendre toutefois un dilemme du prisonnier pour les firmes en place.
Le « Fordisme financier » ou pourquoi l’industrie automobile a tant souffert de la crise financière
Authors: Broyer Sylvain , Fava Ludovic
Published: February 2013

Cet article explique l’effondrement de l’industrie automobile mondiale en 2008 par les multiples porosités qu’elle entretient à la sphère financière : 1/ les modes, à court terme, de financement du fonds de roulement, du réseau, voire des prêts aux particuliers ; 2/ le rôle double du crédit, dans la mesure où la demande automobile s’appuie sur des financements externes et est stimulée par l’offre de financement ; 3/ la dépendance croissante de la production automobile à la finance avec les délocalisations. Ces porosités caractérisent un paradigme que l’on peut qualifier de « fordisme financier » et dont les principaux traits seraient : 1/maintenir un prix de vente compétitif ; 2/réduire le fonds de roulement lorsque son financement externe devient trop coûteux ; 3/accroître les débouchés par les financements externes, pas par les salaires comme dans le fordisme classique.
Les territoires de l’industrie financière : quelles suites à la crise de 2008-2009 ?
Authors: Crevoisier Olivier , Theurillat Thierry , Araujo Pedro
Published: February 2013

Dans une perspective institutionnaliste et territoriale, cet article interroge le couplage entre la finance de marché d’une part et l’économie réelle d’autre part. La crise actuelle est présentée comme le résultat d’une autonomisation progressive de la finance vis-à-vis de l’économie réelle, qui peut être comprise comme la construction d’une géographie spécifique, caractérisée par une extrême concentration dans les principales places financières mondiales et d’un contrôle qui s’exerce à partir de là vers les régions productrices d’une part et vers les sources d’épargne d’autre part. L’économie réelle de son côté est restée organisée de manière plus traditionnelle, la cohérence du marché du travail et de l’accumulation des connaissances résidant toujours pour l’essentiel à l’échelle des régions et des nations. C’est aussi à ces échelles que se posent les préoccupations sociales et environnementales est qu’est donc organisée la reproduction des ressources. Dès lors, les réflexions sur un système financier alternatif nécessiteraient de repenser la manière dont on articule les investisseurs et les entreprises avec les contextes régionaux et nationaux qui leur permettent de développer leur fortune et de développer leurs activités.
Les déterminants de la politique de tarification dynamique sur un marché biface
Authors: Chenavaz Régis , Leloup Benoît
Published: February 2013

Cet article caractérise les déterminants de la politique de tarification d’une firme qui opère sur un marché biface ou two-sided. Le marché d’application est celui des éditeurs de logiciels clients-serveurs Internet. Pour étudier cette question, nous mobilisons certains éléments des littératures relatives à la diffusion de nouveaux produits et aux marchés bifaces. Nous obtenons des résultats analytiques et réalisons des simulations numériques des politiques de tarification. Nous obtenons deux résultats principaux. (1) Pour une classe importante de fonctions de demande, l’impact sur la politique de tarification de l’externalité intermarché est aussi important que celui de l’externalité intramarché. (2) Une politique de tarification alternative pour laquelle le prix du logiciel client est nul ne dégrade que très peu le profit intertemporel.
Organisation of work in Open Source Projects: expended effort and efficiency
Authors: Koch Stefan
Published: February 2013

Nous discutons de l’organisation du travail dans les projets Open source, et de ses implications en termes d’effort et d’efficacité. Le papier repose sur l’examen empirique de plusieurs communautés Open source. Nous analysons les informations fournies par les espaces de dépôt de logiciels (repositories) associés à ces communautés, disponibles publiquement et contenant l’enregistrement d’interactions passées entre les participants d’une part, et entre les participants et l’espace de dépôt lui-même d’autre part. Nous donnons un aperçu général de cette méthodologie et renvoyons aux papiers présentant cette technique plus en détail. Le papier met par suite particulièrement l’accent sur l’analyse des principes d’organisation du travail au sein des projets Open source : on retrouve en particulier dans chacune des études réalisées à ce jour l’idée d’une concentration du contenu essentiel de la communauté sur peu de têtes. L’accent est mis aussi sur l’estimation de l’effort mis en œuvre au sein des projets Open source, assez faible au regard de celui qui est associé au milieu du logiciel commercial. Nous donnons un schéma organisationnel basé sur l’organisation de l’équipe du programmeur en chef, proposé il y a quelques décennies déjà pour réunir et réconcilier ces résultats.
Proprietary or open source software? Winner-takes-all competition, partial adoption and efficiency
Authors: Darmon Eric , Le Texier Thomas , Torre Dominique
Published: February 2013

Nous étudions les conditions réglant la diffusion du logiciel libre, par contraste au logiciel propriétaire. Les deux types de logiciels diffèrent par leurs coûts d’adoption et le type de fonctionnalités qu’ils fournissent. Nous distinguons les utilisateurs de logiciels en fonction de leur capacité à contribuer à la production de solutions Open Source et caractérisons les équilibres de Nash dans un jeu séquentiel au sein duquel les utilisateurs choisissent entre l’adoption du logiciel libre, du logiciel propriétaire ou l’absence d’adoption. Nous trouvons que les scenarios d’adoption dépendent des anticipations des utilisateurs et nous mettons en évidence des exemples pouvant donner lieu, selon l’état des anticipations, à des issues de type winner-takes-all ou de type marché partagé. De tels équilibres multiples étant seulement partiellement contrôlés par l’éditeur du logiciel propriétaire, nous montrons que la stratégie de cet éditeur peut se comprendre comme une sorte d’alternative entre une stratégie prix bas/qualité élevée et une stratégie prix hauts/qualité faible. Une analyse en termes de bien-être donne aussi des résultats nuancés. La seule existence d’une menace crédible provenant de la présence potentielle d’un logiciel libre améliore l’utilité des utilisateurs même quand la solution propriétaire demeure en situation de monopole. La diffusion du logiciel libre peut cependant parfois engendrer parfois des conflits d’intérêt. Dans certains cas, le conflit n’est pas seulement entre les utilisateurs et l’éditeur : une partie des utilisateurs peut avoir intérêt à privilégier solution dans laquelle le logiciel propriétaire s’impose alors que d’autres éprouvent un intérêt au partage du marché ou à une solution d’éviction du logiciel propriétaire.
Médias audiovisuels et concurrence. Le cas de la télévision payante
Authors: Sonnac Nathalie
Published: February 2013

Les médias sont confrontés à une révolution technologique disruptive. Les nouvelles modalités d’accès couplées à l’arrivée de nouveaux entrants, tels les fournisseurs d’accès à Internet (FAI) et les opérateurs des Télécom, bouleversent l’économie de l’audiovisuel payant. Sur ce marché, où la question des exclusivités est centrale, nous cherchons à comprendre et à analyser l’impact de ces principaux changements, en termes d’analyse concurrentielle, sur le modèle de fonctionnement de la télévision payante. Nous montrons notamment comment le changement de structure de marché modifie les modalités de rémunération des chaînes payantes et in fine, la nature des contenus offerts.
Gestion des risques et performance des institutions de microfinance
Authors: Tchuigoua Hubert Tchakoute , Nekhili Mehdi
Published: February 2013

L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser la relation entre la gestion des risques et la performance financière des institutions de microfinance. Les dispositifs analysés relèvent des choix des contrats de crédit et de la régulation prudentielle. La performance est appréhendée sous trois dimensions. Elle renvoie à la rentabilité économique, à la performance opérationnelle et à la qualité du portefeuille. Sur la base d’un échantillon de 148 institutions de microfinance durant la période 2001-2006, notre étude montre que la spécialisation sur un type de contrat améliore la qualité du portefeuille. Plus précisément, les contrats de crédit de groupe améliorent la qualité du portefeuille et influencent négativement la rentabilité économique et la performance opérationnelle, indiquant que le choix des contrats de crédit de groupe conduit les institutions de microfinance à arbitrer entre la rentabilité et la qualité du portefeuille. Enfin, la régulation n’influence en aucune mesure les trois dimensions de la performance susmentionnées.
Ethical Considerations When Using Mobile Technology in the Pre-Service Teacher Practicum
Authors: Cameron Leanne , Campbell Chris
Published: February 2013

In this paper, the authors revisit the pre-service teacher practicum experience and propose that mobile technology, with its ability to provide instant communication and immediate access to resources, could minimise the “disconnect” between theory and the school classroom and improve the experience for all parties involved. However, before this project began, the wide-ranging ethical considerations surrounding the use of mobile technologies had to be addressed. This paper outlines a range of issues that should be considered whenever mobile technologies are to be employed when researching in schools.
Teachers’ Certification on Basic Computer Skills
Authors: Christakoudis Christos X. , Androulakis George S. , Zagouras Charalampos
Published: February 2013

Teachers need to acquire technology and digital skills in order to be able to follow the rapid changes in society. Since 2003, a national project has been carried out in Greece concerning the certification of teachers in basic computer skills. During this project (2003-2009) many teachers participated and certified through a Computer Based Assessment system (CBA) that has been developed by the Computer Technology Institute & Press - Diophantus. In this paper a brief view of (a) syllabus, (b) item bank, and (c) tools that are used for preparing and delivering examinations for teachers’ certification on basic computer skills is given. Moreover, the participants profile based on teachers’ responses is explored.
Adapted Approach for Fruit Disease Identification using Images
Authors: Dubey Shiv Ram , Jalal Anand Singh
Published: February 2013

Diseases in fruit cause devastating problem in economic losses and production in agricultural industry worldwide. In this paper, an adaptive approach for the identification of fruit diseases is proposed and experimentally validated. The image processing based proposed approach is composed of the following main steps; in the first step K-Means clustering technique is used for the defect segmentation, in the second step some state of the art features are extracted from the segmented image, and finally images are classified into one of the classes by using a Multi-class Support Vector Machine. The authors have considered diseases of apple as a test case and evaluated their approach for three types of apple diseases namely apple scab, apple blotch, and apple rot. Their experimental results express that the proposed solution can significantly support accurate detection and automatic identification of fruit diseases. The classification accuracy for the proposed solution is achieved up to 93%.
Dynamic Performance Evaluation of a Parallel Manipulator with Non Axial Symmetrical Characteristics by Computing the Respective Actuating Joint Capability
Authors: Zhao Yongjie , Tian Yanling
Published: February 2013

Unlike the traditional Gough-Stewart platform with axial symmetrical structure, a parallel manipulator consists of non axial symmetrical structure has non axial symmetrical characteristic in the whole reachable workspace. This paper presents the joint capability evaluation of a parallel manipulator with non axial symmetrical characteristics. A series of velocity, torque and power indices are presented. The torque indices combining the acceleration, velocity, and gravity components of the dynamic model are used to evaluate the respective joint torque capability. The power indices corresponding to the torque indices are also adopted to evaluate the respective joint power capability. The joint capability evaluation of the parallel manipulator is carried out through computational analysis and simulation with the velocity, torque and power indices. It is shown that the respective actuating joint capabilities of the parallel manipulator are not uniform due to the non axial symmetrical structure. Thus the performance evaluation of this type of parallel manipulator must be performed by analyzing the respective joint capability. By means of these indices with obvious physical meanings, it is possible to control the respective joint capability of the parallel manipulator. The indices are general and can be used for the other types of parallel manipulators.
Mathematical Model of a CNC Rotary Table Driven by a Worm Gear
Authors: Sato Ryuta
Published: February 2013

This paper proposes a mathematical model of a CNC rotary table driven by a worm gear. The CNC rotary tables are generally utilized as rotary axes of 5-axis machining centres. In this study, a mathematical model which can simulate dynamic behaviours of rotary table is proposed. The model consists of inertia of motor, spur and worm gears, and table. Axial displacement of the worm is also considered into the model. Various motions are measured and simulated to confirm effectiveness of the model. As the results show, the proposed model can simulate step response, rotational fluctuations, and influence of unbalanced mass.
Modeling and Adaptive Tracking Control of a Quadrotor UAV
Authors: Mohammadi Mostafa , Shahri Alireza Mohammad , Boroujeni Zahra
Published: February 2013

The dynamics of UAV’s have special features that can complicate the process of designing a trajectory tracking controller. In this paper, after modelling the quadrotor as a VTOL UAV, a nonlinear adaptive controller is designed to solve trajectory tracking problem in the presence of parametric and nonparametric uncertainties. This controller doesn’t need knowing any physical parameters of the quadrotor, and there isn’t need to retune the controller for various payloads. In this approach, the control of a quadrotor is performed by using decentralized adaptive controllers in the inner (attitude control) and outer (translational movement control) loops. The outer loop generates the instantaneous desired angles for inner loop. The inner loop stabilizes the orientation of the vehicle. Inverse kinematic of robot is used to convert outputs of the outer loop to inputs of the inner loop. The controller needs some unknown physical parameter to generate control signals. A robust parameter identifier estimates the required parameters for the outer control loops. Simulations are carried out to illustrate the robustness and tracking performance of the controllers.
Fuzzy COTS Selection for Modular Software Systems Based on Cohesion and Coupling under Multiple Applications Environment
Authors: Gupta Pankaj , Verma Shilpi , Mehlawat Mukesh Kumar
Published: February 2013

Due to the rapid growth of development of component based software systems, the selection of optimal commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components has become the key of optimization techniques used for the purpose. In this paper, the authors use fuzzy mathematical programming (FMP) for developing bi-objective fuzzy optimization models that aims to select the best-fit COTS components for a modular software system under multiple applications development task. The proposed models maximize the functional performance and minimize the total cost of the software system satisfying the constraints of minimum threshold on intra-modular coupling density and reusability of COTS components. The efficiency of the models is illustrated using a real-world scenario of developing two financial applications for two small-scale industries.
Pypette
Authors: Lempereur Brett , Merabti Madjid , Shi Qi
Published: February 2013

Live digital forensics presents unique challenges with respect to maintaining forensic soundness, but also offers the ability to examine information that is unavailable to quiescent analysis. Any perturbation of a live operating system by a forensic examiner will have far-reaching effects on the state of the system being analysed. Numerous approaches to live digital forensic evidence acquisition have been proposed in the literature, but relatively little attention has been paid to the problem of identifying how the effects of these approaches, and their improvements over other techniques, can be evaluated and quantified. In this paper, the authors present Pypette, a novel platform enabling the automated, repeatable analysis of live digital forensic acquisition techniques.
A Model for Hybrid Evidence Investigation
Authors: Vlachopoulos Konstantinos , Magkos Emmanouil , Chrissikopoulos Vassileios
Published: February 2013

With the advent of Information and Communication Technologies, the means of committing a crime and the crime itself are constantly evolved. In addition, the boundaries between traditional crime and cybercrime are vague: a crime may not have a defined traditional or digital form since digital and physical evidence may coexist in a crime scene. Furthermore, various items found in a crime scene may worth be examined as both physical and digital evidence, which the authors consider as hybrid evidence. In this paper, a model for investigating such crime scenes with hybrid evidence is proposed. Their model unifies the procedures related to digital and physical evidence collection and examination, taking into consideration the unique characteristics of each form of evidence. The authors’ model can also be implemented in cases where only digital or physical evidence exist in a crime scene.
Utility of a Technology Allocation Matrix for Optimizing Telehealth Services
Authors: Babu Ajit N. , Ramkumar P. S. , Stahl James E.
Published: February 2013

Information exchange in telehealth ultimately comprises basic activities such as measurement, storage, analysis, distribution, presentation and monitoring of relevant text/image/audio/video data. A systematic technology mapping matrix is a sensible and cost-effective approach to enable the scientifically sound deployment of appropriate telehealth technologies. This paper takes the example of congestive heart failure (CHF) telemonitoring and applies elements of the matrix to illustrate its utility. Though CHF is a global problem with grave implications for public health and society, morbidity and mortality remains high. Despite clinical similarities that may exist among patients in different parts of the world, telemonitoring may not be feasible everywhere; and even when it is, significant modifications in approach would be needed to accommodate available infrastructure, funding mechanisms and patient/clinician preferences. For the success of any telehealth program, in addition to incorporating appropriate technology there must be focus on end-user needs and incorporating viable sustainability models.
Discrete Event Simulation and Real Time Locating Systems
Authors: Day T. Eugene , Babu Ajit N. , Kymes Steven M. , Ravi Nathan
Published: February 2013

The Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, forming the arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that delivers medical services. From a troubled past, the VHA today is regarded as a model for healthcare transformation. The VA has evaluated and adopted a variety of cutting-edge approaches to foster greater efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare delivery as part of their systems redesign initiative. This paper discusses the integration of two health care analysis platforms: Discrete Event Simulation (DES), and Real Time Locating systems (RTLS) presenting examples of work done at the St. Louis VA Medical Center. Use of RTLS data for generation and validation of DES models is detailed, with prescriptive discussion of methodologies. The authors recommend the careful consideration of these relatively new approaches which show promise in assisting systems redesign initiatives across the health care spectrum.
Implementing Scanned Medical Record Systems in Australia
Authors: McAuley Elise , Unnithan Chandana , Karamzalis Sofie
Published: February 2013

In recent years, influenced by the pervasive power of technology, standards and mandates, Australian hospitals have begun exploring digital forms of keeping this record. The main rationale is the ease of accessing different data sources at the same time by varied staff members. The initial step in this transition was implementation of scanned medical record systems, which converts the paper based records to digitised form, which required process flow redesign and changes to existing modes of work. For maximising the benefits of scanning implementation and to better prepare for the changes, Austin Hospital in the State of Victoria commissioned this research focused on elective admissions area. This structured case study redesigned existing processes that constituted the flow of external patient forms and recommended a set of best practices at the same time highlighting the significance of user participation in maximising the potential benefits anticipated. In the absence of published academic studies focused on Victorian hospitals, this study has become a conduit for other departments in the hospital as well as other hospitals in the incursion.
An ICT Enabled Conceptual Framework for Determining Epidemic Susceptibility and Acute Type Response
Authors: R. Poornima Narayan , Unnitha Chandana
Published: February 2013

In a developing nation such as India, the national government is pursuing the pathway of ICT supported decentralized programs, to combat endemics, in the social contexts of each State. The State of Kerala, which has been an exemplar for development, has become susceptible to endemics, brought in by urbanization and non-resident Indian population and compounded by environmental disasters. In this paper, the authors contend that the psyche of the community which has changed from social amity to self-interest need to be re-awakened with the power of ICTs and Internet, so as to efficiently combat endemics. The authors also propose a preliminary framework for emergency responses based on existing ICT systems, recommended by the national government, to fit the context.
Are ICT/Web 2.0 Tools Influencing Civic Engagement in Modern Democracies?
Authors: Nair Indu , Fraunholz Bardo , Unnithan Chandana
Published: February 2013

Web 2.0 tools, while mobilising citizens to make informed choices, may also manipulated public opinion. This hypothesis forms the central theme of this research investigation through the historiography lens. Based on concurrent research from decade, the authors take a closer look at citizen-to-citizen engagement, so as to trace the role of web 2.0 tools, in perhaps manipulating public opinion or enabling democratic governance through reversal of some existing defects in the Indian context. Specifically, they raise these questions: Has ICT enabled civic engagement manipulated public opinion in this developing democracy? Has it succeeded in reversing apparent defects in the electoral system, which is regarded pivotal in democracies? Focusing on the elections, the authors present a synopsis of the use of web 2.0 tools which were seemingly efficiently and prolifically used during the elections albeit to reach out to the large population base in this country.
Future Development of e-Customs
Authors: Hintsa Juha , Männistö Toni , Urciuoli Luca , Granqvist Mikael
Published: February 2013

By means of a survey, this paper explores the current state of play regarding cross-border trade and logistics operations in Switzerland and thereafter it highlights possible future developments and potential benefits. In particular, the survey aims: (1) To identify how customs declarations are filed, (2) To understand the companies’ knowledge about compliance costs, (3) To understand future developments expected by companies, and (4) To determine the potential benefits of e-Customs platforms. This study will ultimately bring to light concrete functionalities to be included in future e-Customs platforms. The results unveil the importance of interactive and user friendly e-Customs services. In addition, design and implementation of e-Customs services need to be driven by tangible benefits for the private sector, including facilitating export procedures, improving flexibility, reducing the need to re-enter any customs data during the declaration processes, and enabling a seamless flow of data between the parties involved.
E-Government Controls in Service-Oriented Auditing Perspective
Authors: Bukhsh Faiza Allah , Weigand Hans
Published: February 2013

Whereas e-government used to be focused mainly on digitalizing documents, the attention is currently shifting to the question how the main governmental functions service, care and control can be realized in the best way in an information age. In this respect, e-customs is a case in point. Worldwide Customs is transforming from the labor intensive paper work it used to be for ages to “e-customs,” where international trade is facilitated by fully exploiting the current global digital infrastructure. As a consequence, a shift in the distribution of responsibilities can be observed (so-called horizontal supervision). The authors show how this shift can be leveraged by further technical developments grouped under the label of Service-Oriented Auditing (innovative auditing services based on the Service-Oriented Architecture). A particular challenge is coordination. There is a need for better coordination of the numerous governmental and supply chain controls. They explore different coordination mechanisms to support this development.
Literature Synthesis on Evaluative Measures in Healthcare Simulation
Authors: Meyers Timothy W.
Published: February 2013

Whereas most educators have a good grasp on the history of simulation in healthcare, the current state and types of modalities related to simulation in healthcare education, and the future direction of healthcare simulation, many educators do not have an in-depth understanding of the metrics available to assess the use of simulation. The purpose of this literature synthesis is to build a repository of the metrics being used to evaluate nursing and healthcare provider simulation. Additionally, the level of fidelity and desired learning domains that the matrices purport to evaluate is examined. A secondary purpose of the literature synthesis is to determine if a suitable metric is available that can be used universally to evaluate nursing and healthcare related simulations. Finally, conceptual frameworks suitable for serving as the bases of instrument development related to nursing and health care simulation are explored. Primary studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews that discussed or evaluated metrics used to measure outcomes of simulation were analyzed. Recent articles, published within the last five years, which discussed the evaluation of nursing and or healthcare simulation, were eligible for inclusion. Additionally, descriptive, inferential, qualitative, and quantitative studies were eligible for inclusion.
Virtual Restorative Environments
Authors: Knight James F. , Stone Robert J. , Qian Cheng
Published: February 2013

Previous restorative environment (RE) research suggests that exposure of individuals to natural settings can reduce stress, improve feelings of well-being, and help individuals to recover from fatigue following intensive mental activities. This paper focuses on possible future opportunities for exploring Virtual Environments (VE) in the pursuit of restorative and rehabilitative therapies. The paper presents early work in developing such a Virtual Restorative Environment (VRE) and includes results from two preliminary studies. The first study compared two VEs (an urban city scene and a rural coastal scene) and showed the effect of ambient sounds on ratings of anxiety and relaxation. The second study explored the opportunity of incorporating odours into a VE using a novel olfactory display system and evaluated methods for measuring their effect on the user. Throughout, the paper discusses human factors and usability issues for VRE technologies and future research opportunities.
Exploring the Design of Game Enjoyment Through the Perspectives of Novice Game Developers
Authors: Ke Fengfeng , Yildirim Nilay , Enfield Jacob
Published: February 2013

In this collaborative research, the authors explored the ways in which novice game designers utilize strategies and methods to promote player enjoyment. Adopting the GameFlow model and an exploratory survey, this study examined the perceptions of the 2011 Global Game Jammers at three different sites in regards to designing games that result in player enjoyment. The results of the study were consistent with the findings of the current literature on game enjoyment, and insinuated the notion of interconnected relationships between each GameFlow element. The study also suggested the existence of five latent groups of novice game designers who differed in their preference or perceived importance of game enjoyment elements. Lastly, there appeared to be an association between individual characteristics and perceptions of game flow design elements among novice game designers.
A Quantitative Analysis of the English Lexicon in Wiktionaries and WordNet
Authors: Krizhanovsky Andrew
Published: February 2013

A quantitative analysis of the English lexicon was done in the paper. The three electronic dictionaries are under examination: the English Wiktionary, WordNet, and the Russian Wiktionary. It was calculated the quantity of English words and meanings (senses) in these dictionaries. The distribution of words for each part of speech, the quantity of monosemous and polysemous words and the distribution of words by number of meanings were calculated and compared across these dictionaries. The analysis shows that the average polysemy, the number and the distribution of word senses follow similar patterns in both expert and collaborative resources with relatively minor differences.
Optimal Strategy for the Smartphone Industry in Taiwan
Authors: Chen Yi-Fen , Chen Bi-Chu , Chen Wen-Yu , Tsai Chia-Wen , Lin Wei-Hung
Published: February 2013

Smartphone development has opened the door to many future business opportunities. Many smartphone manufacturers in Taiwan have received orders from large international companies (mainly as OEMs or ODMs), while only few manufacturers have developed their own brands. If the authors can provide these enterprises with an effective decision-making strategy, they will be able to make the best decisions in time. The purpose of this paper is to take critical success factors (CSFs) and the existing internal capabilities of an enterprise in an external environment into account to build an operational model guide that enterprise in its decision making process. This study combined the Delphi method and the analytic network process (ANP) model to construct a decision model, calculate the weighting of every criterion and sub-criterion, and determine the optimal decision-making strategy in the smartphone industry. Then, the authors chose the HTC Corporation as a case study. The results showed that the development trend of the smartphone industry was the integration of mobile phones. The strategy of excellent functions strategy is the optimal strategy for the implementation of the alternatives.
Revealing the Socio-Technical Design of Global E-Businesses
Authors: Kampf Constance E.
Published: February 2013

Global e-businesses such as Google, Amazon and E-bay affect both users and society. How can society begin to understand this duality in the socio-technical affordances of e-business? This paper examines a digital art performance as an example of the tensions between capitalist businesses and the public commons. Using notions of transparency and knowledge as a form of Knowledge Management rooted in Nonaka’s SECI Model, it examines ways in which knowledge about how Google uses the Internet are made explicit through the digital art performance. It discusses the implications for both defining a macro level of socio-technical design and using dimensions of transparency to understand technology based Internet business, positing global Internet business as having two levels of socio-technical design—1) the micro level, dealing with user interaction, and 2) the macro level, dealing with the social design and implications for society inherent in pervasive technology based businesses. The Macro level of design is operationalized through a combination of knowledge management theory and dimensions of transparency.
A Practical Framework for Policy Composition and Conflict Resolution
Authors: Dia Ousmane Amadou , Farkas Csilla
Published: February 2013

In collaborative environments where resources must be shared across multiple sites, the access control policies of the participants must be combined in order to define a coherent policy. The relevant challenge in composing access policies is to deal with inconsistencies or modality conflicts. This difficulty exacerbates when the policies to compose are specified independently by different entities with no global power to decide in case of conflicts which entity must take precedence. This paper presents a semi-automated framework called Policy Composition and Conflict Resolution framework (P2CR) to address this issue. They focus on access control policies expressed as XACML statements. The authors propose a three-level conflicts resolution strategy: i) by using metadata added to the policies, ii) by using a defeasible logic theory, and iii) by providing recommendations to the entities owners of the resources. First, they provide a mechanism to add metadata to XACML. Second, they combine the access policies without prioritizing any of the entities involved in the composition. Given the context of the authors’ work, they consider this approach to be more suitable than the current approaches that are mainly negotiation-oriented or assign priorities to the policies. Finally, the resulting composite policy appears flexible and easily adjustable to runtime conflicts.
Pre-Service Teachers Designing Virtual World Learning Environments
Authors: Jacka Lisa , Booth Kate
Published: February 2013

Integrating Information Technology Communications in the classroom has been an important part of pre-service teacher education for over a decade. The advent of virtual worlds provides the pre-service teacher with an opportunity to study teaching and learning in a highly immersive 3D computer based environment. Virtual worlds also provide a place in which pre-service teachers can design teaching and learning environments for their future students. The virtual world teaching and learning environments that pre-service teachers design can, in turn, inform established educators about how virtual world spaces can be well designed and contribute to research in the field of education in virtual worlds. The voice of one pre-service teacher and her tutor is presented as they discuss the design of a virtual world maths teaching and learning environment.
Using a Classification of Psychological Experience in Social-Networking Sites as a Virtual Learning Environment
Authors: Onibokun Joseph , van Schaik Paul
Published: February 2013

With over 800 million users worldwide, the global importance of Facebook as a social-networking platform is beyond doubt. This popularity, particularly among university-students, has encouraged research to explore ways in which social networking can be adapted into virtual learning environments. In particular, this study uses the think-aloud technique to explore university-students’ use of and interaction with Facebook. Twenty-six Teesside University students who were also Facebook users took part in a think-aloud study. Seven major categories of experience emerged during the coding and categorisation process of the think-aloud data. Further analysis revealed that six fundamental psychological needs were each related to particular themes of user-experience. Overall, the results demonstrate that psychological needs are particular qualities of students’ experience that are important in online social networking. Future research should investigate psychological needs in the context of virtual learning environments and ways in which these needs can be best supported for learning.
Effect of Recurrent Otitis Media on Language Profile in Children with Fragile X Syndrome
Authors: Badran Hatem Soliman , Abulnasr Khairy M. , Nasser Sherien Abd El Hameed
Published: February 2013

Objective

Language is almost always affected in fragile X syndrome (FXS), and a delay in language acquisition is one of the first characteristics. The aim of this work was to study the effect of recurrent middle ear infections on the language profile in boys with FXS. Study design: Prospective case series.

Setting

Academic Medical Center.

Subjects and Methods

The present study was conducted on 30 males, ranging in age from 4–10 years. They were diagnosed as having a full mutation of DNA. The males were divided into two groups: Group A included 15 children with a history of recurrent middle ear infections more than four times per year during the first 4 years of life, and Group B did not have a history of recurrent middle ear infections during the first 4 years of life. Language assessments were done for all participants using the Standardized Arabic Language test.

Results

Results showed significant delays in language development in children with FXS. Relative strengths in semantics compared to syntax and pragmatics were observed in all boys. The recurrent ear infections of the boys played an important role in the language development delay. The mean of receptive, expressive, and total language age was better and higher among boys without a history of recurrent middle ear infections compared to boys with recurrent middle ear infections.

Conclusion

Recurrent otitis media in boys with FXS exacerbates the language problems that exist in this syndrome.
Implications of Systemic Dysfunction for the Etiology of Malignancy
Authors: Knox Sarah S. , Ochs Michael F.
Published: February 2013

The current approach to treatment in oncology is to replace the generally cytotoxic chemotherapies with pharmaceutical treatment which inactivates specific molecular targets associated with cancer development and progression. The goal is to limit cellular damage to pathways perceived to be directly responsible for the malignancy. Its underlying assumptions are twofold: (1) that individual pathways are the cause of malignancy; and (2) that the treatment objective should be destruction–-either of the tumor or the dysfunctional pathway. However, the extent to which data actually support these assumptions has not been directly addressed. Accumulating evidence suggests that systemic dysfunction precedes the disruption of specific genetic/molecular pathways in most adult cancers and that targeted treatments such as kinase inhibitors may successfully treat one pathway while generating unintended changes to other, non-targeted pathways. This article discusses (1) the systemic basis of malignancy; (2) better profiling of pre-cancerous biomarkers associated with elevated risk so that preventive lifestyle modifications can be instituted early to revert high-risk epigenetic changes before tumors develop; (3) a treatment emphasis in early stage tumors that would target the restoration of systemic balance by strengthening the body's innate defense mechanisms; and (4) establishing better quantitative models of systems to capture adequate complexity for predictability at all stages of tumor progression.
Safety and Efficacy of Gadobutrol-enhanced Mri in Patients Aged under 2 Years–-a Single-center, Observational Study
Authors: Bhargava Ravi , Noga Michelle
Published: February 2013

Gadobutrol is a 1-molar gadolinium-based contrast agent with well-characterized safety and efficacy for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in adults and children ≥ 2 years old. This observational study assessed gadobutrol-enhanced MRI in children < 2 years of age. Sixty infants (mean age 11.1 months) underwent MRI using gadobutrol at standard dose of 0.1 mL/kg (0.1 mmol/kg) body weight. MRI examinations included brain, spine, and neck (n = 24), subcutaneous soft tissues (n = 14), chest, abdomen, and pelvis (n = 12), musculoskeletal system (n = 7) and vascular system (n = 3). No patients experienced adverse events related to gadobutrol injection. In 57 patients with confirmed diagnoses, gadobutrol-enhanced MRI provided findings consistent with confirmed pathologies. This study indicates that gadobutrol at a standard dose for MRI is safe in patients aged < 2 years and provides diagnostic information for multiple pathologies.
Intrathecal Activation as a Typical Immune Response within the Central Nervous System in Angiostrongyliasis
Authors: Padilla-Docal Barbara , Iglesias-González Ivonne , Bu-Coifiu-Fanego Raisa , Socarrás-Hernández Carmen Aleida , Dorta-Contreras Alberto Juan
Published: February 2013

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a zoonotic pathogen that occasionally causes human angiostrongyliasis; its main clinical manifestation is eosinophilic meningitis. This report defines the concept of intrathecal activation of complement as evidence of intrathecal synthesis of major immunoglobulins during this disease. Details are presented of the activation of complement system components in cerebrospinal fluid, and their application to our understanding of this tropical disease, which is emerging in the Western hemisphere. Intrathecal synthesis of at least one of the major immunoglobulins and a wide spectrum of patterns may be observed. Although intrathecal synthesis of C3c is always present, C4 intrathecal synthesis does not occur in every patient. The diversity of intrathecal synthesis and activation of the different complement pathways enables their division into three variant groups (A, B, and C). Variant group A includes the classical and/or lectin pathway and involves two or more major immunoglobulins with C3 and C4 intrathecal synthesis. Variant group B involves C4 in cerebrospinal fluid that comes from blood in the intrathecal activation of the classical pathway. Variant group C includes the alternative pathway.
Governmental Strategies towards Poorly-Performing Municipalities: From Narrow Perceptions to Ineffective Policies
Authors: Beeri Itai
Published: February 2013

This study explores the relationship between central government perceptions towards local failure and public policy aimed at the recovery of poor-performing local authorities. Faced with falling resources, some local authorities have experienced during the 1990s and 2000s organizational crisis, creating growing gaps between excellent and poor performers. The central issue addressed by the article is the inability of policy to accelerate recovery processes in local governments under crisis. Accordingly, the paper first suggests a typology of public organizational failure. Then, it theorizes about how perceptions of local failure influence the effectiveness of strategies with the aim of recovering poor-performing municipalities.