bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
La crise sucrière de 1882-1886 à la Guadeloupe
Authors: Buffon Alain
Published: December 2013

II n'existe pas d'analyses historiques sur les fluctuations cycliques des années 1880 à 1910 dans les Antilles. La présente étude se propose de les étudier dans le détail ; cette première partie ne porte que sur la crise de 1882-86 : son déroulement caractérisé par un effondrement très marqué des prix du fait de la surproduction ; ses incidences budgétaires ; ses répercussions économiques (accélération du processus de démantèlement en système traditionnel de production, procès de concertation au profit du capital métropolitain) ; ses conséquences sociales (baisse des salaires, conflits d'intérêt plus aigus à l'intérieur du groupe des « capitalistes »). Il ne s'agit donc pas d'un simple accident conjoncturel, mais d'une véritable crise structurelle ; rien d'étonnant alors que la réactivation du marché ne puisse constituer une sortie de crise satisfaisante.
Mindanao aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles : les Visayans et les Caragans
Authors: Loyre Ghislaine
Published: December 2013

Le caractère belliqueux et les activités navales de « piraterie » des Caragans et des Visayans n'ont pas empêché ces populations indigènes et immigrées de Mindanao de devenir d'« honnêtes » cultivateurs et commerçants convertis au catholicisme et payant tribut à la Couronne espagnole. De même, les villes de Butuan et de Cagayan préférèrent l'alliance hispanique aux exactions des musulmans philippins, leurs voisins. Ainsi tous ces habitants perdirent-ils leur capacité de défense et devinrent eux-mêmes victimes des raids de « piraterie » perpétrés par les ethnies islamisées.
Controversial legislation at Guadeloupe regarding trade andpiracy, 1797
Authors: Jenkins H. J. K.
Published: December 2013

This article examines the decree of 13 Pluviôse Year V, enacted in the Guadeloupe by its governor, Victor Hugues. This decree enabled the French island authorities to treat as a pirate (and hence condemn to death) any neutral trading with the British-held French colonies, such as Martinique. This led to a quasi state of war with the U.S.A. and to political tension between Paris and its colony, the Directory government being afraid of possible British retaliation. This illustrate the near independance of Hugues-led Guadeloupe, which had turned into a privateering State of its own.
Les colonies devant l'opinion publique française (1919-1939)
Authors: Ageron Charles-Robert
Published: December 2013

L'objet de cet article est une tentative d'étude de l'opinion publique française dans les années de l'entre-deux guerres, à une époque où les sondages n'existaient pas encore. On a cherché à savoir si les Français dans leur ensemble s'intéressaient, ou non, à leurs colonies, s'ils y étaient favorables, hostiles ou indifférents. On a tenté d'apprécier les variations de ce qu'on appelait alors leur « conscience coloniale ». Les premières campagnes du « parti colonial » pour la « mise en valeur » des colonies se heurtèrent d'abord à l'indifférence du public. Puis, de 1927 à 1931, elles remportèrent des succès qu'il importe cependant de ne pas surestimer. En effet, de 1932 à 1935, on a assisté à un recul de l'idée coloniale. Mais, face à la menace allemande, s'impose peu à peu le thème du « salut par l'empire » et l'opinion apparaît désormais majoritairement attachée à la possession de ses colonies ; ce que confirment les premiers sondages réalisés en 1938-1939 : un Français sur deux (53%) considère que « l'empire colonial, c'est la France ».
La politique culturelle de la France à l'égard du Canada entre les deux guerres d'après les archives du Service des œuvres
Authors: Nouailhat Yves-Henri , Beteau Sandrine
Published: December 2013

A partir de 1920, en grande partie grâce à la création du Service des Œuvres françaises à l'étranger, une politique culturelle française est mise en place vis-à-vis du Canada. Il s'agit à la fois de renforcer les liens avec les Canadiens français, parfois méfiants à l'égard de la République laïque, sans négliger les Canadiens anglais qui représentent la grande majorité de la population du pays. Malgré des moyens financiers limités, un effort est entrepris dans le domaine universitaire et scolaire.
Mutations de l'historiographie canadienne
Authors: Fohlen Claude
Published: December 2013

In the last decades, Canadian historiography has undergone sweeping changes which follow those of the society, especially in Québec. French historians have been little interested in Canada, although their influence is being felt through the new methods of social history, historical demography, economic history, history of mentalities. This influence is restricted to French-speaking Canada, as the English-speaking historians lean more toward their English or American colleagues.
L'Inde française en sursis. 1947-1954
Authors: Pitoëff Patrick
Published: December 2013

En 1947, le départ des Anglais invitait les Français à suivre leur exemple sans tarder, en raison de l'insignifiance de leurs possessions. Pourtant la négociation qui s'engage avec l'Inde de Nehru autour de l'idée d'un référendum d'autodétermination est insincère de tous côtés. Sauf à Chandernagor qui vote son rattachement dès 1949, on s'installe dans une situation de blocage que les dirigeants français et les notables franco-indiens des établissements du Sud s'ingénient à faire durer. Le retournement spectaculaire du député Goubert en mars 1954 annonce la fin de partie, tandis que le renforcement du blocus indien condamne désormais toute politique d'esquive. Mendès-France assumera la responsabilité du retrait dans la foulée de sa politique de paix en Indochine. Mais l'accord de cession de facto d'octobre 1954 marque aussi la prise du pouvoir par les forces conservatrices de la société pondichérienne, qui ont joué tour à tour la carte française et la carte indienne pour promouvoir leur propre domination.
Les hommes d'affaires français et le commerce des cauris du XVIIe au XIXe siècle
Authors: Iroko Abiola Félix
Published: December 2013

Les cauris sont des coquillages marins qui vivent dans l'aire indo-pacifique ; ils ont été utilisés comme monnaie en plusieurs endroits du monde, sauf en Europe. Cependant les relations commerciales des Européens les ont amenés à s'adonner au commerce de ces coquillages nécessaires ou utiles dans la traite négrière ou l'acquisition de l'huile de palme dans le golfe du Bénin. Les Français le firent surtout du XVIIe au XIXe siècle. N'ayant pas au départ accès aux régions productrices de cauris, ils en achetaient auprès d'autres puissances qui en avaient alors le monopole. Ils n'accédèrent à ce dernier, en partie, qu'au XVIIIe siècle et pratiquement sans partage au siècle suivant où ces coquillages seront même à l'origine de la prospérité de négociants français comme les Régis de Marseille.
Un bibliothécaire original : Alexandre Csoma de Kôrôs
Authors: Le Calloc'h Bernard , Batâri Gyula
Published: December 2013

Le savant voyageur hongrois de Transylvanie Alexandre Csoma de Kôrôs est connu du monde savant comme le fondateur des études tibétaines et l'auteur du premier dictionnaire de la langue tibétaine classique. En revanche, il est inconnu comme ayant été pendant trois ans, de 1838 à 1841, le conservateur en chef de la bibliothèque et du musée de la Société asiatique du Bengale, la première et longtemps la plus importante société orientaliste du monde. Bernard Le Calloc'h et Gyula Batâri nous font part ici pour la première fois du résultat de leurs recherches, et remettent en cause beaucoup d'idées erronées colportées jusqu'à présent par tous les biographes de Csoma.
Trente ans après : Réflexions sur les accords d'Évian
Authors: Pervillé Guy
Published: December 2013

Les accords d'Évian sont le résultat d'un long processus par lequel la France a fini par accepter l'essentiel des buts de guerre et des conditions de paix définies par le F.L.N. dès le 31 octobre 1954. Le général de Gaulle croyait avant même son retour au pouvoir que l'Algérie deviendrait un État indépendant, mais il ne voulait pas le livrer au F.L.N. La politique d'autodétermination qu'il définit le 16 septembre 1959 excluait la reconnaissance du G.P.R.A. Mais après les manifestations algériennes de décembre 1960, il se résolut à ouvrir des négociations sans préalable avec les chefs du F.L.N. sur l'avenir de l'Algérie et des rapports franco-algériens, conformément à la doctrine de l'autodétermination définie par la gauche française aux colloques de Royaumont, Aix-en-Provence et Grenoble. Les accords d'Évian ne furent pourtant pas un traité entre deux États, mais un programme commun au gouvernement français et au F.L.N., destiné à transférer par étapes la souveraineté de la France au nouvel État algérien sans reconnaître formellement le G.P.R.A. Ils devraient assurer une décolonisation pacifique et graduelle, et une coopération durable mutuellement avantageuse. Le premier pari fut perdu dès 1962, par la violation massive des garanties aux personnes et aux biens. Il est encore trop tôt pour dire si le second pari sera un jour gagné.
Statistiques des concessions domaniales accordées à Madagascar aux Français, Malgaches et étrangers asiatiques (1899-1960)
Authors: Kœrner Francis
Published: December 2013

Au temps de la colonisation, la Direction des Domaines a dégagé 1 ,5 M de ha de terres pour les Français (grandes sociétés et colons), 242 000 ha pour les Malgaches et 61 000 ha pour les étrangers (Chinois et Indiens principalement). La lutte pour la possession de ces propriétés a été partout très âpre, de sorte que la Colonie a dû créer des réserves pour les indigènes menacés d'expropriation. Par régions, on trouvera les concessions des trois principales circonscriptions de colonisation : Majunga, Diego-Suarez et Tamatave. Madagascar se classe ainsi, avec l'Indochine et l'Algérie, comme le plus grand centre de colonisation de l'Empire colonial.
Trois siècles dans l'île du teck. Les politiques forestières aux Indes néerlandaises (1602-1942)
Authors: Durand Frédéric
Published: December 2013

Among the Western colonial powers, the Netherlands knew one of the longest periods of implantation, extending over more than three centuries. Their territorial control, however, was for a long time limited to Java, « the island of teak », thanks to which the Dutch would be able to develop an important commercial fleet. From the 18th century, over-exploitation and uncontroled clearings caused a severe degradation of the Javanese forests, which, in turn, incited the autorities to begin a scientific program in 1849. Inconstancy in administrative policies, a tendancy toward nepotism and some personal profeteering prevented, however, the establishment of a rational administration. Outside Java, the forest that produced principally non-wood forest products, would long remain the domain of the local inhabitants or the régional sovereigns maintained by the Dutch. Beginning in 1924, the colonial power would attempt to take over these land rigths, but it would face unyielding opposition from the elected representatives of the autochtone populations of the People's Council : the « Volksraad ». In 1942, at the moment of the Japanese invasion which would sound the end of Dutch colonization, the Netherlands would leave behind a certain amount of acquired technical and administrative knowledge concerning the forest. But they would also abandon a complex situation and unresolved questions, especially with regard to land ownership, whose resolution would fall some years later to the Republic of Indonesia.
Les archives de l'histoire coloniale française en Russie
Authors: Oursou Dmitri
Published: December 2013

L'article passe en revue plusieurs Centres d'archives de Russie qui ouvrent de larges possibilités pour l'étude de l'histoire coloniale française des XIXe et XXe siècles. Les plus importants sont les matériaux d'origine française qui se trouvent au Centre de conservation des collections historiques, avec ceux d'autres pays européens occupés par les Allemands et transférés à Moscou en 1945.
La place de l'Algérie dans le projet antijuif de Vichy (octobre 1940-novembre 1942)
Authors: Aouate Yves C.
Published: December 2013

During the Second World War, in Algeria, the antisemitic policy of the French authorities was not inspired nor dictated by the German occupants. It aimed to rally the Muslim people. It was sometimes harsher than in France, for instance the Jewish children were expelled from the schools.
Modalités et outils de « pacification » en pays moaaga (1897-1919)
Authors: Mathias Nana
Published: December 2013

L'étude sur les modalités et outils de « pacification » en pays Moaaga a pour objectif la mise en relief du degré, des formes d'insoumission des Moose et de leurs causes. Elle couvre la période 1897-1919 et la réflexion repose sur quelques exemples pris parmi les Moose du Centre (Kombissiri), du Centre-Ouest (Koudougou), du Nord (Yako) et enfin du Centre-Est (Boussouma). L'analyse a permis de savoir que la victoire par les armes sur le pouvoir central de Ouagadougou a été relativement facile. Elle s'est illustrée par la prise de Ouagadougou le 1er septembre 1896 et par l'échec rapide de l'offensive de Naba-Wobgo ; cependant la « pacification » des îlots de révoltes ne l'a pas été. Le comportement de certains dimdamba vis-à-vis de l'autorité coloniale française prouva que tout le Mogho n'était pas soumis malgré la rigidité des traditions qui exigent entière soumission de tous les sujets. La précarité de la « pacification » est éclairée par l'étude des deux formes de résistance à l'influence française. La résistance fut passive, mais devint active quand les circonstances le permirent. La contestation a eu pour origine la remise en cause d'un équilibre et d'une indépendance séculaire par l'installation du pouvoir colonial. Cette perte d'indépendance fut aggravée par le recouvrement impitoyable de l'impôt de capitation. Répression militaire, utilisation des structures traditionnelles et de tribunaux indigènes semblent être les moyens les plus commodes imaginés par les Français pour tenter de ramener la « paix » en pays Moaaga.
Les crises de l'année 1952 dans les Établissements français de l'Océanie
Authors: Regnault Jean-Marc
Published: December 2013

A partir de 1945, le gouvernement français dote, par décrets, les Établissements français de l'Océanie (E.F.O.) d'une assemblée élue au suffrage universel qui dispose de pouvoirs limités pour gérer les affaires du Territoire. Comme pour l'ensemble des territoires d'outre-mer, il s'agit en 1952, de transformer ces décrets en lois. Mais les E.F.O. ne sont pas semblables aux territoires d'Afrique et il faut une loi spécifique. Le débat qui précède celle-ci, au parlement français et localement, révèle des tensions très vives. Élu en 1949, le député Pouvanaa à Oopa et son parti, le Rassemblement démocratique des populations tahitiennes (R.D.P.T.), veulent une loi électorale qui leur soit favorable et un statut qui leur donnerait davantage de pouvoir face à l'administration française. Pendant toute l'année 1952, le R.D.P.T. affronte ses adversaires (rattachés aux formations métropolitaines de l'U.D.S.R. ou du R.P.F.) qui dénoncent un «péril rouge» à Tahiti. Finalement, un compromis est trouvé et L. S. Senghor, rapporteur du projet de loi, peut conclure : « la bataille de Tahiti n'aura pas lieu, même à coups de fleurs ».
Adsorption of the ionic liquid [BMP][TFSA] on Au(111) and Ag(111): substrate effects on the structure formation investigated by STM
Authors: Uhl Benedikt , Buchner Florian , Alwast Dorothea , Wagner Nadja , Behm R Jürgen
Published: December 2013

In order to resolve substrate effects on the adlayer structure and structure formation and on the substrate–adsorbate and adsorbate–adsorbate interactions, we investigated the adsorption of thin films of the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium-bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [BMP][TFSA] on the close-packed Ag(111) and Au(111) surfaces by scanning tunneling microscopy, under ultra high vacuum (UHV) conditions in the temperature range between about 100 K and 293 K. At room temperature, highly mobile 2D liquid adsorbate phases were observed on both surfaces. At low temperatures, around 100 K, different adsorbed IL phases were found to coexist on these surfaces, both on silver and gold: a long-range ordered (‘2D crystalline’) phase and a short-range ordered (‘2D glass’) phase. Both phases exhibit different characteristics on the two surfaces. On Au(111), the surface reconstruction plays a major role in the structure formation of the 2D crystalline phase. In combination with recent density functional theory calculations, the sub-molecularly resolved STM images allow to clearly discriminate between the [BMP]+ cation and [TFSA]− anion.
Charge-transfer interaction mediated organogels from 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid appended pyrene
Authors: Hu Jun , Wu Jindan , Wang Qian , Ju Yong
Published: December 2013

We describe herein the two-component charge-transfer (CT) interaction induced organogel formation with 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid appended pyrene (GA-pyrene, 3) as the donor, and 2,4,7-trinitrofluorenone (TNF, 4) as the acceptor. The use of TNF (4) as a versatile electron acceptor in the formation of CT gels is demonstrated through the formation of gels in a variety of solvents. Thermal stability, stoichiometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical micrographs, and circular dichroism (CD) are performed on these CT gels to investigate their thermal and assembly properties. UV–vis, fluorescence, mass spectrometric as well as variable-temperature 1H NMR experiments on these gels suggest that the CT interaction is one of the major driving forces for the formation of these organogels.
COMPARISON OF AIR DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS IN ICE RINK ARENA VENTILATION
Authors: Stobiecka Agnieszka , Lipska Barbara , Koper Piotr
Published: December 2013

The paper presents the requirements and functions of ventilation in ice rink arenas and discusses difficulties and problems of ventilation in such objects. Particular attention has been paid to two types of inside used air distribution systems – traditional-integrated and modern-separated where the functions of tribune ventilation and dehumidification of the air over the ice surface were separated. The flow of humid air and heat in the designed hall was modelled numerically using the ANSYS CFX code based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. Air distribution systems in the ice rink arena were compared based on the results of numerical calculations.
La introducción del psicoanálisis en la literatura española a través de su representación
Authors: Druet Anne Cécile
Published: December 2013

En este trabajo se estudia la introducción del psicoanálisis en la literatura española desde la perspectiva de su representación. La introducción del psicoanálisis en España, en las primeras décadas del siglo XX, supuso la aparición de una nueva temática en algunas obras de ficción en las que se hacen referencias explícitas a las teorías psicoanalíticas. El personaje del psicoanalista aparece en el teatro y en la novela, convirtiéndose en portavoz de las ideas freudianas que son expuestas y a veces discutidas en esas obras. Este trabajo se centra en el análisis de esta novedad literaria que constituye un aspecto poco estudiado de la recepción del psicoanálisis en España. Se aborda en primer lugar la cuestión de esos primeros psicoanalistas ficticios. A continuación, se estudian la representación del método terapéutico psicoanalítico y el papel que el psicoanálisis desempeña en las obras analizadas, prestando especial atención a los distintos aspectos de las teorías freudianas que mayor interés parecen haber despertado entre los autores y a las relaciones que guarda este fenómeno con el proceso de introducción del psicoanálisis en el ámbito científico español.
El apócrifo, prototipo de una subjetividad en crisis
Authors: Oleza Joan
Published: December 2013

En su introducción este trabajo pasa revista a la concepción del Sujeto que, con origen en la Antigüedad Clásica, se desarrolla en la cultura occidental hasta llegar a la Ilustración y el Romanticismo, añadiendo nuevos aspectos pero sin poner en cuestión su fundamento en un Sujeto substancial. La primera gran puesta en crisis de este fundamento, y de la herencia recibida, se manifiesta en el primer cuarto del siglo XX, tras la lectura y asimilación de la obra de Marx, de Freud o de Nietzsche, que sientan las bases para la crítica del Sujeto. Una manifestación de primer orden de la crisis que se deriva es la proliferación de la escritura apócrifa, que alcanza modelos alternativos en la obra de Fernando Pessoa y en la de Antonio Machado. Entre ambas se extiende el horizonte de referencia de la intensa y extensa colección de apócrifos de Max Aub. Este trabajo explora la significación de sus apócrifos fundamentales: Luis Álvarez Petreña y Jusep Torres Campalans, y frente a ellos el caso limítrofe de Luis Buñuel, tratado por Max Aub como un apócrifo de signo contrario.
El sí-mismo comprometido: la disección de la subjetividad en la Autobiografía psíquica de Hermann Broch
Authors: González de Pablo Ángel
Published: December 2013

Hermann Broch fue un firme convencido de la veracidad del psicoanálisis y estuvo varias veces en tratamiento psicoanalítico con conocidos analistas: Hedwig Hoffer-Schaxel, desde 1927 a 1935; Gustav Bychowski, entre 1939 y 1940 y Paul Federn, desde 1943 hasta al menos 1946. En 1942/43, mientras perfilaba La muerte de Virgilio, escribió también la Autobiografía psíquica y su Apéndice. Dichos escritos, no destinados a ser publicados, fueron pensados como una especie de autoanálisis para intentar clarificar, dentro de un marco conceptual freudiano, dos problemas: la tensión entre sexualidad y producción y la repercusión de la figura materna. Pero en el abordaje de ambas cuestiones se fue además elaborando transversalmente un conocimiento del sí-mismo y de la forma de aprestarlo para la acción, de incrementar su implicación y, en suma, de recrearlo estética y éticamente. Tras contextualizarlo dentro de la figura antropológica del «sujeto psicológico» y de la relación de Broch con el psicoanálisis, el presente trabajo rastrea en la Autobiografía psíquica este sí-mismo comprometido, esa sutil mezcolanza de análisis psicológico, teoría estética y filosofía moral en la que se abasteció la subjetividad de Broch.
Antoni de Martí i Franquès, la generación espontánea y la transformación de los organismos
Authors: Camós Agustí
Published: December 2013

Antoni de Martí i Franquès fue un naturalista y científico catalán nacido en 1750 y muerto en 1832, cuyos trabajos más conocidos han sido sus estudios sobre la composición del aire y sobre la reproducción de los vegetales, donde tuvo un cierto reconocimiento internacional. Sin embargo, buena parte de su trabajo experimental que no publicó, lo dedicó al estudio de la fisiología vegetal y de la generación espontánea. Estaba seguro que era capaz de producir experimentalmente organismos vegetales muy simples a partir de restos de seres vivos, agua y luz. Analizaremos los datos que disponemos sobre estos trabajos experimentales, sus resultados, el contexto en que se realizaron y las posibles influencias. También estudiaremos sus ideas acerca de la transformación de los organismos, la influencia de Lamarck, así como los planteamientos que compartía con la teoría evolucionista del naturalista francés.
Dictamen de Mariano de la Paz Graells sobre la obra herpetológica de Eduardo Boscá: análisis de una evaluación científica del siglo XIX
Authors: Martín Albaladejo Carolina , Gómez Prieto Rosa María , Sanchiz Borja
Published: December 2013

Se analiza y da a conocer una evaluación científica solicitada por el naturalista Eduardo Boscá a la Dirección General de Instrucción Pública en 1891 en la que pide le sean valoradas sus publicaciones sobre zoología de anfibios y reptiles, aparecidas entre 1877 y 1883. La evaluación la realiza Mariano de la Paz Graells en 1893 por encargo de la Real Academia de Ciencias mediante un extenso y crítico Dictamen inédito. A través de las críticas del informe podemos conocer los estándares reales de calidad entonces exigibles en taxonomía y faunística, no fácilmente deducibles de publicaciones ni de correspondencia epistolar. El Dictamen se encuadra en la historia biográfica de los científicos implicados, y en el desarrollo de la herpetología y la biodiversidad ibero-balear.
A Stakeholder Perspective of Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Authors: Aboelmaged Mohamed Gamal
Published: December 2013

Industrialization leaves no doubt that our planet is suffering from global warming, depletion of natural resources, pollution, waste, and other environmental concerns. Consequently, businesses, communities, and governments have been environmentally conscious and shown growing concern for sustainable development, particularly following the establishment of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). This chapter provides further insights into sustainability and supply chain research through adopting a stakeholder perspective to understand drivers and consequences of supply chain sustainability in the United Arab Emirates. The results indicate that pressures enforced by champions and customers are positively related to supply chain sustainability. However, the relationship between government pressures and supply chain sustainability is insignificant. Moreover, the findings provide evidence that the impact of supply chain sustainability on the organizational sustainable performance is significantly positive. Supply managers can learn from these results in developing sustainable initiatives earlier along their supply chain through selecting and evaluating suppliers based on sustainability-related standards. In addition, environmental collaboration with customers and suppliers based on knowledge sharing and application may identify and reduce the total environmental impact.
Hybrid Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Das Kedar Nath
Published: December 2013

Real coded Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are the most effective and popular techniques for solving continuous optimization problems. In the recent past, researchers used the Laplace Crossover (LX) and Power Mutation (PM) in the GA cycle (namely LX-PM) efficiently for solving both constrained and unconstrained optimization problems. In this chapter, a local search technique, namely Quadratic Approximation (QA) is discussed. QA is hybridized with LX-PM in order to improve its efficiency and efficacy. The generated hybrid system is named H-LX-PM. The supremacy of H-LX-PM over LX-PM is validated through a test bed of 22 unconstrained and 15 constrained typical benchmark problems. In the later part of this chapter, a few applications of GA in networking optimization are highlighted as the scope for future research.
Diagram Drawing Using Braille Text
Authors: Mukherjee Anirban , Garain Utpal , Biswas Arindam
Published: December 2013

This chapter presents a novel system for drawing geometric diagrams on the Braille medium in order to make the diagrams tactile and accessible by blind people. The computer graphics algorithms for drawing digital shapes have been suitably modified to make them work for the Braille environment. The goodness of the diagrams is measured by quantifying approximation errors in these diagrams. This chapter further demonstrates how computational intelligence can be embedded in the system to develop an intelligent teaching-learning aid for the blind, especially for teaching them figure-based subjects like geometry, physics, engineering, drawing, etc.
Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Web Interface in the Field of E-Government
Authors: Kalidien Sandra , van Witzenburg Richard , Choenni Sunil
Published: December 2013

For the purpose of good and trustworthy management of information for the government, responsible for the justice domain, the research institute was requested to build a monitor that makes it possible to periodically monitor data flows within as well as between organizations of the justice domain. The aim of this monitor is to get insight into the performance and possible bottlenecks in the criminal justice domain. An important component of the monitor is a Web interface. The Web interface should be user friendly and, more importantly, facilitate policy makers to interpret the data flows in the justice domain. To meet with this facilitation, the authors created a fixed set of variables for the interface that minimizes misinterpretation of the data. In this chapter, they describe how they managed to develop and implement the Web interface. Additionally, the authors illustrate how the Web interface works in practice and describe how they managed to evaluate the Web interface on usefulness and satisfaction.
Usability and Accessibility of E-Health Websites
Authors: Coursaris Constantinos K. , Swierenga Sarah J. , Whitten Pamela
Published: December 2013

This chapter describes a multi-group research study of the usability evaluation and consequent results from participants’ experiences with the MyPryamidTracker.gov Website application. The authors report on a study of a sample consisting of 25 low-income participants with varied levels of vision (i.e., sighted, low vision, and blind Internet users). Usability was assessed via both objective and subjective measures. Overall, participants had significant difficulty understanding how to use the MyPyramidTracker.gov Website. The chapter concludes with major recommendations pertaining to the implementation of Website design elements including pathway/navigation, search, links, text chunking, and frames layout. An extensive set of actionable Website design recommendations and a usability questionnaire are also provided that can be used by researchers in their future evaluations of Websites and Web services.
A Computer Aided Diagnostic Tool for the Detection of Uterine Fibroids
Authors: Sriraam N. , Vinodashri L.
Published: December 2013

The integration of information technology with biomedicine has provided viable diagnostic tools to the medical community. Such computer aided procedures fastens the clinical decision process without any hurdle. Among different medical imaging modalities, Ultrasonic Imaging plays a vital role in detecting gynecological pathologies. Of importance, Uterine fibroid detection requires significant attention where symptoms such as, infertility and miscarriage can be predicted. This paper suggests an automated computer aided diagnostic tool for the detection of uterine fibroid. Gabor wavelets are applied for texture segmentation and statistical features such as mean, variance, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, Eigen values, GLCM contrast and energy are extracted from the user defined region of interest (ROI). The qualitative procedure is examined using the morphological operations and gray level intensity variations. Two neural network models, multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP) and probabilistic neural network (PNN) are applied to classify the normal and fibroid uterus image. It is found from the experimental computer simulation, a classification accuracy of 97.25% is obtained using combinational statistical features, mean and standard deviation with PNN classifier. It can be concluded that the proposed tool can applied as an efficient Medical Expert System for diagnosing the Ultrasonic Uterus images.
Reliability Modeling of Embedded Nodes in Real Time Wireless Systems
Authors: Sarkar Anandita , Chowdhury Chandreyee , Neogy Sarmistha
Published: December 2013

Nowadays there is an increasing trend of applying wireless technologies in industrial automation. However, the industrial control environment is harsher and noisier posing more stringent requirements on real-time communication. The variation in wireless signal strength with time and location, and power limitation due to battery usage make the problem even worse. Accordingly, availability and reliability of such system should be seriously analyzed before deployment. Modeling the reliability of these distributed real-time systems with nodes having embedded software has become an integral part of the design process. The time constraints that real-time systems must meet directly affect the reliability measure itself irrespective of the nature of the measure. A metric for calculating system reliability is proposed in this paper and a Monte Carlo simulation based algorithm for calculating the same is presented here. The results show that system reliability stabilizes with time even with increasing network size.
A Parallel Software Architecture for the LTE Protocol on a Multi-Core Mobile Modem
Authors: Showk Anas , Bilgic Attila
Published: December 2013

Coming wireless communication standards like Long Term Evolution (LTE) promise to bring a drastic increase in data rate for the end user. To facilitate this evolution, sophisticated technology for the mobile equipment is required. Most research focuses on the signal processing in the physical layer whereas the computational capabilities for protocol processing are neglected. This paper describes novel software architecture and load balancing for the LTE protocol stack that allows concurrent execution on a multi-core processor and thus allows for exploiting all the advantages like higher performance through parallelism at low power consumption. The layered protocol is developed using Specification and Description Language (SDL). In addition, the LTE protocol stack is parallelized and executed on a multi-core processor, by employing the SDL processes concurrency. Moreover, the LTE system is scheduled on multi-core by customizing the SDL scheduler to implement a data pipeline scheduler. Furthermore, a new load balancer scheme is proposed by moving the load balancer to the modem subsystem’s layer and using the SDL process migration concept. The performance of the LTE protocol implementation using the new scheme beats the classic thread migration scheme by more than 50% on single as well as multi-core platforms. The data throughput using the new scheme increases on two, three, or four cores, compared to single core, by about 195%, 290%, and 360%, respectively, and thus shows an excellent scalability for up to three cores and still giving reasonably good results for four cores.
A Reconfigurable Wireless Environment for ECG Monitoring and Encryption
Authors: Amira Abbes , Saghir Mazen A. R. , Ramzan Naeem , Grecos Christos , Scherb Florian
Published: December 2013

Connected health is the convergence of medical devices, security devices, and communication technologies. It enables patients to be monitored and treated remotely from their home or primary care facility rather than attend outpatient clinics or be admitted to hospital. Patients’ data and medical records within a connected health system should be securely transmitted and saved for further analysis and diagnosis. This paper presents a reconfigurable wireless system for electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring which can be deployed in a connected health environment. Efficient field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation for the ECG encryption block has been carried out on the RC10 prototyping board using the advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm. Results presented have shown that the proposed AES implementation outperforms the existing FPGA-based systems in different key performance metrics and that ECG signals acquired using the VitalSens device can be encrypted/decrypted in real-time. A software based evaluation approach has been also performed to validate the proposed hardware implementation. The proposed solution can be deployed for electronic archiving of health records information systems and health monitoring technologies in personalized medicine.
Supporting Crisis Management via Detection of Sub-Events in Social Networks
Authors: Pohl Daniela , Bouchachia Abdelhamid , Hellwagner Hermann
Published: December 2013

Social networks provide the opportunity to gather and share knowledge about a situation of relevance. User-generated content is getting increasingly important during crisis management. It facilitates the collaboration with citizens or involved parties from the very beginning of the crisis. The information captured in the form of images, text or videos is a valuable source of identifying sub-events of a crisis. In this study, the authors use metadata of images and videos collected from Flickr and YouTube to extract crisis sub-events. The authors investigate the suitability of clustering techniques to detect sub-events. In particular two algorithms are evaluated on several data sets related to crisis situations. The results show the high potential of the proposed approach. In addition, the authors validate the idea of sub-event detection for the authors’ future research based on a survey conducted among practitioners. Their responses show the potential of using social media in combination with sub-event detection during emergency management.
An Empirical Study of Impulse Buying Behavior in Online Bookstores
Authors: Muruganantham G. , Bhakat Ravi Shankar
Published: December 2013

Online shopping is gradually becoming popular in the developing countries like India. The online bookstores have emerged as a new destination which attracts millions of shoppers every day. The impulse buying in the offline stores has been a major area of interest for the researchers. But with the boom in online shopping, there is a scope to study the different aspects of impulse buying in online stores. This paper presents the study of various aspects of online impulse buying viz. hedonic shopping, website quality, trust, situational factors and variety seeking in Indian context. With the data collected from the online survey method the different antecedents of impulse buying have been analysed and reported on the basis of their significance. The hedonic shopping was found to be the major factor influencing impulse buying in online bookstores. This study also discusses about the managerial issues, suggestions and implications for the future researchers. The understanding of the behavior of the online shoppers in terms of their impulsive behavior would be helpful for the marketers and academicians.
The Role of Information Technology in the Advancement of Multinational Corporations’ Intellectual Capital
Authors: Mohamed Mona A.
Published: December 2013

The article provides a systematic multidisciplinary framework that defines the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in leveraging Intellectual Capital (IC) across borders and between headquarters and subsidiaries of Multinational Companies (MNCs). In reaching this goal, this article investigates the strategic importance and value of ICT in the management of IC within MNC ecosystem. More importantly, the paper addresses the transubstantiation of MNC into boundaryless Global Knowledge-Based Organization (GKB-MNC) which ultimately propagates into Learning MNC (LMNC). The latter is a proposed MNC type that sustains competitive advantage through systemic adoption of “Knowledge Iterative Supply Network (KISN)” model proposed by the author. Furthermore, the article suggests a new multinational ICT/IC governance strategy that handles the emerging complexities associated with the modern intangible assets reuse, synthesis and synergy. In effect, these complexities originate from the introduction of functionalities such as just-in-time knowledge supply, elicitation of tacit knowledge, and leveraging of the core competencies for the creation and maintenance of geographically distributed value proposition.
Representations of Artifact-Centric Business Processes
Authors: Bruno Giorgio
Published: December 2013

Current approaches to the representation of business processes can be divided into two major categories, referred to as activity-centric and artifact-centric. The former underline the tasks as the basic units of work, and the latter stress the importance of the life cycles of the artifacts (i.e., the business entities). This paper analyzes the major issues that characterize the artifact-centric approach, i.e., structure, dynamics and coordination. These issues can be dealt with in various ways, ranging from separate models to holistic ones. The pros and cons of separate models and compact ones are analyzed on the basis of how they cope with three relevant aspects, i.e., aggregation, synchronization and matching. A number of motivating examples are presented along with the notation used to define them. This notation, named ARTS (ARtifacts and TAsks), considers both artifacts and tasks as first-class citizens of business process models.
Health Expenditures in Latin America 1995-2010
Authors: Salgado-Vega Jesus , Salgado-Naime Fatima Y.
Published: December 2013

The authors examine the trajectory of health expenditures in Latin American countries. The authors apply standard fixed effects and dynamic models to explore the factors associated with the growth of total health expenditures as well as its main components namely, government health expenditures and out-of-pocket payments. Their results suggest that, after taking other factors into consideration, health expenditures in general do not grow faster than the Gross National Product (GNP). The authors confirm the existence of fungibility, where external aid for health reduces government health spending and out-of-pocket expenses from domestic sources. The study also finds that government health expenditure and out-of-pocket payments follow the same paths in time but vary for countries at different levels of economic development; the same is true for health expenditure growth.
Using Network Analysis to Improve Decision Making for Partner Selection in Inter-Organizational Networks
Authors: Ponisio Laura , van Eck Pascal , Riemens Lourens
Published: December 2013

Professionals in decision making roles are often faced with the problem of choosing partners for closer cooperation, for instance, to start new joint IT development projects or for harvesting best practices. The large amounts of information involved in these decision processes obscure possibilities, and therefore choices are made ad hoc. In this article, the authors present an approach that uses concrete data and network analysis to support decision makers in processing and understanding this information. Central in the authors’ approach are questionnaires capturing aspired and current development levels of the processes of the cooperating organizations and graphs generated using network analysis techniques. The advantage of the authors’ approach, which they validated via expert interviews, is that results are semi-automatically translated to visualizations; which in turn offer an overall view of the current and aspired situation in the network without losing the ability to pinpoint particular, individual processes of interest. This, in turn, enables IT professionals to make better decisions.
IT Governance and Human Resources Management: A Framework for SMEs
Authors: Garbarino-Alberti Helena
Published: December 2013

Information Technology (IT) plays an important role in organizations, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These firms have a simple structure with less specialized tasks and tight human, financial and material resources, so it is particularly important to use an appropriate IT governance framework (ITG) to such enterprises. This paper shows the results of applying an ITG framework designed for SMEs in a case study focused on IT Human Resources (IT HR) and the lessons learned. Conclusions highlight the importance of the quality of IT HR along with the key role played by related enterprise policies.
A Tool for Discourse Analysis and Visualization
Authors: Chiru Costin-Gabriel , Trausan-Matu Stefan
Published: December 2013

In this paper the authors present a system that combines the cognitive and socio-cultural paradigms in the field of discourse analysis in order to analyze both texts written by only one author (for example narrations) and those written collaboratively (chat conversations, blogs, wikis, forums). The novelty of their approach is that the majority of the existing applications are oriented on analyzing only one of these two types, an adaptation being necessary for the analysis of the other type. Another advantage of the presented system is that since it is centered on a dialogistic polyphonic model considering topics as inter-animated voices, it could show the difference between coarse- and fine-grained coherence in discourse, therefore allowing the analysis of a text from two different viewpoints: a) its intrinsic structure and cohesion and b) how well this text fits in a stream of texts (whether it is or not cohesive with the texts before and after it). The dialogistic polyphonic model was used as a starting point for a method for analyzing collaboration and social construction of knowledge in groups and communities using textual interactions, and for several implemented systems for providing computerized support to the analysis method through visualizations and feedback generation.
Trechus montiscrystalli Casale, 1979 (=Trechus pecoudi Jeannel, 1937 nec T. brucki pecoudi Colas & Gaudin, 1935), nuovo sinonimo di Trechus italicus K. Daniel & J. Daniel, 1898 (=T. samnis Jeannel, 1921) (Coleoptera: Carabidae)
Authors: Casale Achille , Magrini Paolo
Published: December 2013

A seguito dell’esame delle caratteristiche esterne e genitali di un paratipo maschio, Trechus montiscrystalli Casale, 1979 (nome nuovo proposto per Trechus pecoudi Jeannel, 1937, nec T. brucki pecoudi Colas & Gaudin, 1935), descritto delle Alpi orientali (dolomiti, Monte Cristallo), è riconosciuto come sinonimo junior di Trechus italicus K. Daniel & J. Daniel, 1898 (=T. samnis Jeannel, 1921), specie localizzata in alcuni massicci montuosi dell’Appennino centrale (Abruzzo, italia). La sinonimia è spiegabile per la località errata riportata nel materiale tipico del taxon suddetto, e tale ipotesi è confermata dalla presenza, in Collezione Pécoud (MNHN), di esemplari di Carabidi raccolti da Pécoud stesso in Abruzzo (Gran sasso d’italia) nelle stesse date riportate per Trechus pecoudi Jeannel.
Description of eight new Dasyvalgus and notes on other Valgina
Authors: Ricchiardi Enrico
Published: December 2013

The study of Valgina needs, before a general revision, of many nomenclatural acts to resolve the many inconsistencies that result from the accumulation for more than a century of descriptions of new species. In this context, those representing the Oriental genre Dasyvalgus Kolbe creates special problems for the poor morphological variability and the continuing discovery of additional new species currently (122 taxon so far - including these eight new - and many more to be described). This study is meant to help to clarify the situation with the description of eight new Dasyvalgus, defining two new junior synonyms, one nomen novum and with the redefinition od the distribution of one species.Lo studio dei Valgina necessita, prima di una revisione generale, di tutta una serie di atti nomenclatori per risolvere le molte incongrunze che derivano dall’accumularsi in più di un secolo di descrizioni di nuove specie. In questo contesto quelle rappresentanti il genere Orientale Dasyvalgus Kolbe presenta particolari problemi per la scarsa variabilità morfologica e per il continuo rinvenimento di ulteriori nuove specie (attualmente 122 taxon – inclusi questi nuovi otto – e molte altre da descrivere). Questo studio vuol contribuire a chiarire la situazione con la descrizione di otto nuovi Dasyvalgus, la definizione di due nuovi sinonimi juniori, di un nomen novum e con la ridefinizione della distribuzione di una specie.
Pristaulacus barbeyi (Ferrière, 1933), new to Iberian Peninsula (Hymenoptera Aulacidae)
Authors: Turrisi Giuseppe Fabrizio
Published: December 2013

The occurrence of Pristaulacus barbeyi (Ferrière, 1933) in Iberian Peninsula is reported for the first time on the basis of one female specimen collected in North Spain (Asturias, Castanedo del Monte), stored in the Natural History Museum, London.