bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strategic Partners and Strange Bedfellows
Authors: Larson Paul D.
Published: October 2011

This chapter is about relationship building in relief supply chains. Its primary purpose is to present and discuss the author’s actor-based typology of humanitarian relationships. The framework includes relationships among NGOs, as well as between NGOs and UN agencies, military units, and business firms. Examples are used to explore unique issues in the various types of relationships. One particular NGO, Airline Ambassadors International, is offered as an example of an NGO that builds relationships with a wide variety of humanitarian actors. The chapter also examines compatibility and complementarity of organizations across the three phases of humanitarian work: preparation, response, and recovery or development. Research opportunities are discussed in the concluding comments.
Service Level Agreements for Real-Time Service-Oriented Infrastructures
Authors: Kübert Roland , Gallizo Georgina , Polychniatis Theodoros , Varvarigou Theodora , Oliveros Eduardo , Phillips Stephen C. , Oberle Karsten
Published: October 2011

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are nowadays used as a cornerstone for building service-oriented architectures. SLAs have been closely investigated in the scope of distributed and Grid computing and are now gaining uptake in cloud computing as well. However, most solutions have been developed for specific purposes and are not applicable generally, even though the most approaches propose a general usability. Only rarely have SLAs been applied to real-time systems. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze different fields where SLAs are used, examine the proposed solutions, and investigate how these can be improved in order to better support the creation of real-time service-oriented architectures.
Playing “Nice”
Authors: Jacobs Melinda
Published: October 2011

Within the Internet, a range of international and multicultural communities abound, especially within the context of interactive online games known as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). The clashing of cultures in one particular MMORPG, Omerta, has caused many problems within the related online community. These conflicts have led to online instances of culturalism – discrimination based upon cultural-mindset – within this international online community (Jacobs, 2009). This chapter examines the following questions: Do players in international online gaming environments have the right to discriminate based on cultural attitudes and perceptions, or should a player’s right to not be discriminated against dominate in such international contexts? And how can multiculturalism be successfully managed in international online spaces?
Language as Social Practice on the Chinese Internet
Authors: Yuan Elaine J.
Published: October 2011

This chapter presents a discourse analysis of two bulletin board systems (BBS). The analysis was done to identify online linguistic practices within the contextualized parameters of online communities and ongoing sociopolitical development in China. Chinese Internet users employ various discourse strategies to establish community identities, organize online interactions, and defy censorship. These practices demarcate an emergent, public, non-official discourse universe apart from but responsive to the official discourse universe of Chinese political communication.
New Era, New Media, and New Strategies for Cross-Cultural Collaborative Learning
Authors: Wang Chun-Min , Tsao Jinn-Wei , Thomas Gretchen Bourdeau
Published: October 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to share a cross-cultural project between Taiwan and the United States for educational practitioners. Taking advantage of Web 2.0 applications as facilitators, the project served as action research to discover better strategies for conducting online cross-cultural collaboration. Specifically, the authors describe the evolution of the instructional design of the project and the difficulties encountered during the cross-cultural collaboration.
Intelligent Model-Based Feedback
Authors: Ifenthaler Dirk
Published: October 2011

Automated knowledge assessment methodologies provide the technological background for producing instant feedback at all times during the learning process. It is expected that the availability of such individual, dynamic, and timely feedback supports the learner’s self-regulated learning. This chapter provides the theoretical background for an intelligent feedback approach and introduces two automated model-based feedback tools: TASA (Text-Guided Automated Self Assessment) and iGRAF (Instant Graphical Feedback). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the two feedback approaches and future research directions.
E-Learning Tools with Intelligent Assessment and Feedback for Mathematics Study
Authors: Bescherer Christine , Herding Daniel , Kortenkamp Ulrich , Müller Wolfgang , Zimmermann Marc
Published: October 2011

Mathematics students, often among large university classes of several hundreds of students, are easily daunted when solving math problems. Lacking individual feedback, they easily give up. To bolster learning, Computer-Aided Assessment may help students by giving them individual feedback about their progress. This article presents some general requirements for Intelligent Assessment using semi-automatic feedback in mathematics education with a special focus on solution processes. Intelligent Assessment implies the combination of human assessment along with electronic assessment via intelligent software for evaluating a student’s performance in a specific subject. Assessment tools are used to categorize solutions and detect errors as accurately as possible. Unusual and novel solutions and errors that the computer cannot categorize are forwarded to a tutor or teacher for assessment. Several examples demonstrate that semi-automatic and process-oriented Intelligent Assessment can help to improve learning and, ultimately, student self-confidence in mastering problems.
Boosting Semantic Relations for Example Population in Concept Learning
Authors: Liu Ming-Chi , Kinshuk  , Huang Yueh-Min , Wen Dunwei
Published: October 2011

In this chapter, we discuss the advantages of expansion of learning objects through directed semantic relations (DSRs). We then propose an approach that can automatically construct the DSRs between learning objects and form a DSR graph. This approach addresses the problem to those learners with broad backgrounds. Also, we design two learning activities to show that how this DSR graph can be used to scaffold students’ semantic reasoning. The case study suggests relevant benefit of applying semantic technologies in educational context. This may implicate that this kind of relations can foster systematic thinking and complex domain knowledge inferences by complementing the raw chunks of data with different kinds of meaningful relations (e.g. feeding relation) and semantic associations.
Tracing the Metacognitive Competencies of Online Learners
Authors: Kumar Vive
Published: October 2011

The success of a learning environment can be measured in terms of improvement in learner performances as well as positive learner engagement in metacognitive traits. A large body of educational technology literature establishes a positive correlation between the application of learning technologies and learner performances. In addressing the other aspect of success, this chapter presents a study that lends support to positive learner engagement in the context of metacognitive traits induced through ontology-oriented learning technology. That is, learners are found to benefit from targeted metacognitive activities embedded in online learning environments. To reap this benefit, the educational technology system employed a theory-centric mixed-initiative approach that traces the metacognitive competencies of online learners. This chapter postulates that in addition to providing the metacognitive interface tracing the metacognitive competencies of online learners is critical for the success and sustainability of technology-enhanced learning environments.
Security and Privacy Issues in E-Government
Authors: Palanisamy Ramaraj , Mukerji Bhasker
Published: October 2011

Government is a unique actor as a provider of online public services to its citizens and enterprises. The e-citizens expect that the e-government services are safe and secure, that the privacy of the e-citizen is protected. As security and privacy are primary concerns in e-government, this chapter describes the security and privacy issues faced by the government, the sources and applications of these threats, the ways of protecting security and citizens’ personal information, and the challenges in managing the security threats. The purpose of this chapter is to provide guidelines for the administrators of state-level & federal-level e-government services and IT professionals that they need for continuous improvement of e-government security and privacy.
Conservation of Mobile Data and Usability Constraints
Authors: Mokhtar Rania , Saeed Rashid
Published: October 2011

An important part of ISO/IEC 27002 cyber security standard is the conservation of confidentiality that falls under its computer facility protection part which insures that the computer and its stored information can only be accessed by the authorized users. Securing mobile devices and mobile data to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of both data and security applications requires special consideration to be paid to the typical mobile environment in which a mobile computing device would be utilized. Protecting mobile devices includes multiple security technologies such as the right identification of its particular user, data encryption, physical locking devices, monitoring and tracking software, and alarms. This chapter reviews security-specific hardware and software applied to mobile computing and presents its advantages and drawbacks. Then it considers the concept of usability constraints in context of mobile computing security and introduces the seamless security method for identity proof of a particular user or device.
Application of Cyber Security in Emerging C4ISR Systems
Authors: Malik Ashfaq Ahmad , Mahboob Athar , Khan Adil , Zubairi Junaid
Published: October 2011

C4ISR stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance. C4ISR systems are primarily used by organizations in the defense sector. However, they are also increasingly being used by civil sector organizations such as railways, airports, oil, and gas exploration departments. The C4ISR system is a system of systems and it can also be termed as network of networks and works on similar principles as the Internet. Hence it is vulnerable to similar attacks called cyber attacks and warrants appropriate security measures to save it from these attacks or to recover if the attack succeeds. All of the measures put in place to achieve this are called cyber security of C4ISR systems. This chapter gives an overview of C4ISR systems focusing on the perspective of cyber security warranting information assurance.
Practical Web Application Security Audit Following Industry Standards and Compliance
Authors: Ali Shakeel
Published: October 2011

A rapidly changing face of internet threat landscape has posed remarkable challenges for security professionals to thwart their IT infrastructure by applying advanced defensive techniques, policies, and procedures. Today, nearly 80% of total applications are web-based and externally accessible depending on the organization policies. In many cases, number of security issues discovered not only depends on the system configuration but also the application space. Rationalizing security functions into the application is a common practice but assessing their level of resiliency requires structured and systematic approach to test the application against all possible threats before and after deployment. The application security assessment process and tools presented here are mainly focused and mapped with industry standards and compliance including PCI-DSS, ISO27001, GLBA, FISMA, SOX, and HIPAA, in order to assist the regulatory requirements. Additionally, to retain a defensive architecture, web application firewalls have been discussed and a map between well-established application security standards (WASC, SANS, OWASP) is prepared to represent a broad view of threat classification.
User-Driven Content Creation in Second Life A Source of Innovation?
Authors: Jensen Sisse Siggaard
Published: October 2011

In this chapter, Second Life is conceived as an open space and symbolic world of user-driven co-creation of content. The questions asked concern the ways in which the actors of three case studies design, mediate, and remediate their Second Life projects and how the choices they make contribute to user-driven content creation and possibly to innovative practices. To answer these questions, concepts of innovation, in particular closed and open innovation are introduced and motivations for engaging in co-creation are identified. It is suggested that we understand user-driven innovation in a world like Second Life in terms of symbolic reorganization of conceptual frameworks and meaning-making. Subsequently, the concept of remediation is suggested as a way to conceive of mediation in the cases studied. It is shown how difficult it is for actors to co-create, mediate, and remediate thus to generate user-driven innovative practices in two Danish business projects (Wonder DK and Times) and in one public service project (Literary). To conclude the analysis of the case studies, it is suggested that methods of creative co-creation and innovative practices can build on the concept of remediation borrowed from research on new media and redefined in virtual worlds.
Procedural Virtual Worlds
Authors: Rodrigues Nuno , Magalhães Luís , Moura João Paulo , Chalmers Alan , Santos Filipe , Morgado Leonel
Published: October 2011

With the increasing demand for more complex and larger models in different fields, such as the design of virtual worlds, video games, and computer animated movies, the need to generate them automatically has become more necessary than ever. Manual tools are no longer sufficient to match this rising need, and the impact that automatic tools may have within these fields is essential and may lead to an adoption of virtual worlds in a growing number of applications. Indeed, it is possible to eliminate most of the effort associated with the creation of such environments, by providing tools that may generate “massive” 3D content automatically. In consequence these tools may lead to an exponential growth of virtual environments and represent an important turn into the design of realistic virtual cities, which may have a huge impact on virtual world users. This chapter discusses the very complex issue of where and when procedural modelling may be used and presents some solutions and methods that have been successfully used in the aforementioned fields of application.
Collective Building Projects in Second Life
Authors: Liboriussen Bjarke
Published: October 2011

Users of “Second Life” invest considerable amounts of time, money, and creativity in collective building projects. Informed by a 14-month ethnography, this chapter explains why and how from an architectural perspective. User motivation is explained with recourse to the concept of dwelling, and special attention is given to use of the architectural devices boundary and image. The user strategy employing such devices is summed up as a pop vernacular building strategy characterised by eclecticism but not by irony. Special attention is given to the way in which the avatar allows a sense of place to be bodily grounded in agency. Through its architectural focus on concepts such as place and dwelling, the chapter demonstrates the relevance of “old”, i.e., pre-digital, experiences in virtual worlds.
The Art and Flux of Telepathy 2.0 in Second Life
Authors: Drinkall Jacquelene
Published: October 2011

This chapter looks at contemporary art practice in Virtual Worlds, and the effervescence of new technologically mediated telepathies. Avatar Performance Art by Jeremy Owen Turner and Second Front have explored a variety of Second Life telepathies, and have quickly earnt the title of Virtual Fluxus. Second Front’s links to Western Front, Fluxus, Robert Filliou and the Eternal Network assist the continued internationalised new media and performance collaboration work with telepathy. As the body becomes obsolete, it develops new techlepathy1.
What’s Real?
Authors: Aas Benjamin Gregor
Published: October 2011

To understand virtual realities and the effect on its users, empirical research into a variety of social and psychological domains has to be conducted in online virtual environments. It is argued that presence, the experience of being-in-the-virtual-world, plays a key role in most psychological processes connected with virtual worlds. A short overview of studies addressing personality, identity, emotions, and stereotypes in virtual reality is given, to subsequently offer improved approaches, by using a setup that compares participants on an individual level. Furthermore, potential cohort-differences are discussed; there is reason to believe that people who have grown up with computers, Internet, and virtual worlds experience and use virtual worlds differently than those who haven’t. Finally, it is hypothesized that virtual worlds influence real life in a reciprocal loop, by shaping cognitive, psychological, and social processes of the real world and – seemingly paradoxical – might even trigger experiencing the real as real.
Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication in Second Life
Authors: Pita Sara , Pedro Luís
Published: October 2011

This chapter will explain how this study was conducted, as well as the results and the conclusions drawn from it. After the data analysis we concluded that avatars rarely use kinesic communication - although there is, in Second Life, an inventory full of gestures - using instead verbal communication. In fact, it was very clear that individuals use written code to express their emotions, thus increasing the number of participations. Non-verbal communication had a small role in interaction, proxemics was influenced by space, and finally, appearance didn’t reveal the true personality of the user.
Virtual Worlds and Reception Studies
Authors: Reinhard CarrieLynn D.
Published: October 2011

Across the various fields, discourse communities, and paradigms studying virtual worlds, there are disagreements about the object of their studies. The nature of what virtual worlds are, and how to study them, are in flux. For some, this flux has benefits. However, the flux is potentially a problem for the study of virtual worlds from the audience and reception studies paradigm. Without knowing what can be labelled as a “virtual world,” it is hard to study how people engage with a virtual world and to discuss what is found as ecologically valid. This chapter argues for research studies focusing on how people make sense of virtual worlds when they engage with them, and to compare these situated sense-making processes amongst “virtual worlds technologies” as well as other types of media products. By mapping out and comparing such engagings, we may have a better understanding about what constitutes a virtual world.
Students’ Perceptions About Delivery of Game-Based Learning for Virtual Patients in Second Life
Authors: Toro-Troconis M. , Roberts NJ , Smith SF , Partridge MR
Published: October 2011

Two groups of undergraduate medical students (Yr 3, n=14) were invited to participate. The research question posed was: “In your opinion what are the advantages and disadvantages of learning in Second Life compared with other methods?” Thirty items were generated in each group, then reduced to 10 items. These were classified into 3 themes 1) learning experience, 2) clinical exposure, and 3) technical experience. Results from the first group focused on the learning experience highlighting its importance for clinical diagnosis and a structure for learning. The second group focused on the clinical exposure although they were ambivalent about the advantages of this type of delivery mode. Results show interesting findings highlighting the virtual patients developed follow a very linear approach which is not challenging enough for medical students at that level.
Virtual Worlds and Behavioral Change
Authors: Boa-Ventura Ana
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses how virtual worlds (VWs) have been and are being used for the prevention and treatment of addictive behaviors related to substance abuse. The substances covered are tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs. By definition, physical health concerns the body but there is an indisputable physiological component to mental health (for example, vitamin D is related to depression). I suggest that embodiment – as a distinctive characteristic of VWs when compared to other virtual spaces (e.g.: chatrooms) - should present great potential for health professionals when considering VWs for the design of prevention or treatment health programs. VWs free users of time and space constraints. This further justifies the use of VWs as alternative or complementing spaces of intervention. The anonymity of these environments reinforces this idea, as addictions that were socially acceptable just a few years ago have become socially stigmatizing (e.g.: smoking). In the case of virtual worlds such as Second Life, anonymity is combined with embodiment, and this compounded effect, which is anything but simple, is particularly important for health professionals and health promotion advocates interested in exploring the use of virtual worlds in the treatment of substance abuse.
Virtual World Professionals and the Interloper Effect in 3D Virtual Worlds
Authors: McArthur Victoria
Published: October 2011

In this chapter we discuss virtual world professionals: real world employees deployed in virtual worlds for the purpose of representing a company or organization there. We investigate the notions of belonging and community in 3D virtual worlds, and identify the ways in which “belonging” and “not belonging” are constructed and perceived, especially in relation to so-called employee avatars. We explore the dimension of social stigma in virtual worlds and discuss the utility of the separate categories of outsiders and interlopers for inhabitant characterization. Our motivation for doing so is to determine the degree to which corporate presence can be mediated through the specific mechanism of employee avatar appearance. In considering the possibility that some employee avatars may be perceived as interlopers, we propose three methods for investigating the effect of their presence in virtual worlds, called the “interloper effect.”
Computational Techniques in Binding Affinity Prediction of Drugs
Authors: Dubey Kshatresh Dutta , Ojha Rajendra Prasad
Published: October 2011

Computational techniques are widely used in the chemoinformatics and bioinformatics. Most of the drugs produce their effect by interacting with the target molecules via different interactions. However, these interactions are tough to be calculated without use of robotics techniques. The potentials of these drugs depend upon their binding affinity. Due to huge number of such drugs, the measurement of their relative potency is a hard task. In present chapter the authors have discussed about some most common techniques which are widely used in bioinformatics and chemoinformatics.
The Didactic Approach to Manage Strategic Inconsistencies in ERP
Authors: Sharma Sangeeta
Published: October 2011

This chapter addresses the fundamental question of how the didactic approach can help in managing the impediments and fallouts in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of ERP especially for the societal progress. Further the role of e-initiative is inbuilt in its advocacy for effective delivery. The building blocks of any institution are individuals who must have training in ethics and morality. This is a normative and idealistic analysis but predestined due to continually changing socio-economic dynamics of complex society in modern times. It proposes ERP III with moral epicentre assuming that humanity can be attained if individuals are trained in the moralistic values which eventually redefine the entrepreneurial goals such that it adopts befitting approach in pursuing the specific targets. It includes three sub-areas first focusing on conceptual prologue of ERP, introductory note about didactic approach to see how it directly affects the existing schemes of individuals in the organization; second the major strategic inconsistencies along with finding out the reasons for these irregular variations; and third deals with the e-solutions managing these inconsistencies by designing and planning for institutions in a prudent manner. Precisely, this chapter highlights concept, strategic paradoxes, rebuilding through didactic approach by e-initiative and prognostic strategy for ERP III.
Coordinating Nomadic Evaluation Practices by Supporting the Emergence of Virtual Communities
Authors: Laurent Marianne
Published: October 2011

The research and development on spoken dialog systems embraces technical, user-centered and business-related perspectives. It brings together stakeholders belonging to distinct job families, therefore prone to different traditions and practices. When assessing their contributions, as well as the final solution, they conduct very nomadic evaluation protocols. As a result, the field is eager to set up norms for evaluation. Contributions abound in this way. However, despite standardization exercises, we believe that the absence of common conceptual foundations and dedicated “knowledge creation spaces” frustrates the effort of convergence. The chapter therefore presents an application framework meant to rationalize the design of evaluation protocols inside and across project teams. This Multi Point Of VieW Evaluation Refine Studio (MPOWERS) enforces common models for the design of evaluation protocols. It aims at facilitating, on the one hand, the individual evaluator-users task and, on the second hand, the emergence of (first virtual, then maybe real) communities of practice and multidisciplinary communities of interest. It illustrates how implementing shared knowledge frameworks and vocabulary for non-ambiguous asynchronous discussions can support the emergence of such virtual communities.
An Integrated Methodology to Detect the Evolution of Virtual Organizational Communities
Authors: De Maggio Marco , Grippa Francesca
Published: October 2011

The proposed methodology has the potential to enable the analysis of virtual communities’ overall composition, evolution and social structure, characteristics and organizational behavior of the “project related sub-communities”, informal members’ roles and their contribution to the development of project’s task.
How e-Learning Experience Enhances the Social Presence in Community of Practice
Authors: Bodea Constanta-Nicoleta , Mogos Radu , Dascalu Maria-Iuliana
Published: October 2011

The chapter presents a study made in order to find out how the e-learning experience enhances the social presence in the community of practice. The study was carried out for the online master degree programme in project management, delivered by the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest. The main research method was a survey and the research instrument was a questionnaire. Statistics and data mining were applied. Statistics was applied to check hypothesis and quantify the correlation significance. Due to the large number of the variables and the indirect relationships, the analysis paths become very complex and it would be extremely difficult to manage the analysis workflow. So, the data mining approach was chosen. As a theoretical framework and analytical perspective for this research, Wenger’s theories of learning in Community of practice (CoP), and the social presence model of Garisson et al., are applied. The study revealed that the characteristics of the online social presence in learning environments enhanced the students’ interest for CoPs. Another finding of this study is that for project management area there is not a significant correlation between the learning domain and that of the CoPs chosen to get involved. The reason is that most of the project personnel hold a first degree in an area other than project management.
A Blended Learning Approach in Mathematics
Authors: Abramovitz B. , Berezina M. , Berman A. , Shvartsman L.
Published: October 2011

In this chapter we present our work aimed at interweaving e-learning and face-to-face learning in Calculus courses for undergraduate engineering students. This type of blended learning (BL) contains the best properties of e-learning and face-to-face learning and helps overcome many obstacles in traditional teaching. We use our approach in order to improve students’ conceptual understanding of theorems. We describe online assignments specifically designed to help students better understand the meaning of a theorem. These assignments are given to students in addition to traditional lectures and tutorials with the objective that they can learn to learn on their own. Students “discover” the theorem and study it independently, by using a “bank” of examples and a lot of theoretical exercises we supply. The assignments are built in such a way that students receive feedback and instructions in response to their Web-based activity.
Best Practices for Hybrid Mathematics Courses
Authors: Perdue Diana S.
Published: October 2011

This chapter is designed for the mathematics teacher, experienced or not, who is interested in incorporating Web-based content and activities into her face-to-face (F2F) classroom (i.e. creating “blended” or “hybrid” classes). It is not a “technical manual” nor is it meant to be exhaustive; rather, the intent is that of describing, colleague to colleague, things that work in an online environment. I will discuss, as if we are sitting in the teacher’s lounge with a laptop in front of us, how I use Web-based content in my mathematics instruction and how my students benefit from it in their mathematics learning. I will attempt to present some specific examples for clarity; be aware that these are just guides for you and not strict demarcations. For ease of discussion I will choose common tools / programs (e.g. Microsoft Word, GoogleDocs, Adobe Acrobat, etc.) and for cost effectiveness I will choose Open Source items whenever possible.
An Overview of Inclusive Education in the United States
Authors: Hossain Mokter
Published: October 2011

Being a country of diversity, the United States has had a long tradition of research and practices in special education in the form of inclusion. Since passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975, now referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004, a free appropriate public education has been available to all children with disabilities. However, inclusion of students with disabilities into general education classrooms has taken decades to be considered appropriate practice. Controversies, research, and legislation have shaped a collaborative relationship between general and special education. A wide range of political, epistemological, and institutional factors have facilitated a more child-centered public education. This chapter presents an overview of current issues and practices in the inclusion of students with disabilities in the U.S. The topics include: historical background; public laws that led to successful inclusion; categories and prevalence, and identification strategies; and inclusion practices for students with mild-to-moderate and selective significant disabilities for providing them equal and appropriate educational experiences in the mainstream classrooms.
Understanding Students with Special Needs Self-disclosure in Internet Chat Rooms
Authors: Punyanunt-Carter Narissra Maria , Carter Stacy L.
Published: October 2011

This book chapter proposes a research agenda for determining, describing, and depicting special needs students’ self-disclosure behaviors via the Internet in regards to the Communication Privacy Management Theory (formerly known as the Communication Boundary Management Theory). Internet, computer-mediated communication, chat rooms, self-disclosure, and the Privacy Management Theory are all identified and summarized. The theory is presented for its usefulness and its significance to studying self-disclosure in Internet chat rooms among individuals with disabilities. In addition, future research directions using each theory to study individuals with special needs’ self-disclosure in Internet chat rooms are presented. Research presented in this chapter should be able to assist parents, teachers, and others who interact with individuals with disabilities, with an overview of the impact of self-disclosure on the Internet.
The Student with Complex Education Needs
Authors: Farrell Helen J.
Published: October 2011

Like special education settings and classroom groupings of students with complex educational needs are observed within and across education systems of many sovereign states. However, from an Australian perspective, findings and conclusions suggest future directions in the application of assistive and augmentative information and communication technology for students with complex educational needs.
Design and Optimization of Defense Hole System for Hybrid Loaded Laminates
Authors: Akour Salih N. , Al-Husban Mohammad , Nayfeh Jamal F.
Published: October 2011

Stress concentration associated with circular holes in hybrid loading (i.e., tension-compression ratios of 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75) achieved maximum reduction of 31.7%. This reduction is obtained by introducing elliptical defense holes along the principal stress direction. Finite element analysis is used to optimize the size and location for defense hole system. The effect of the stacking sequence, the fiber orientation, and the stiffness of both the fiber and the matrix are investigated.
A Semantic Approach for News Recommendation
Authors: Frasincar Flavius , IJntema Wouter , Goossen Frank , Hogenboom Frederik
Published: October 2011

News items play an increasingly important role in the current business decision processes. Due to the large amount of news published every day it is difficult to find the new items of one’s interest. One solution to this problem is based on employing recommender systems. Traditionally, these recommenders use term extraction methods like TF-IDF combined with the cosine similarity measure. In this chapter, we explore semantic approaches for recommending news items by employing several semantic similarity measures. We have used existing semantic similarities as well as proposed new solutions for computing semantic similarities. Both traditional and semantic recommender approaches, some new, have been implemented in Athena, an extension of the Hermes news personalization framework. Based on the performed evaluation, we conclude that semantic recommender systems in general outperform traditional recommenders systems with respect to accuracy, precision, and recall, and that the new semantic recommenders have a better F-measure than existing semantic recommenders.
Semantic Web Technologies for Business Intelligence
Authors: Berlanga Rafael , Romero Oscar , Simitsis Alkis , Nebot Victoria , Pedersen Torben Bach , Abelló Alberto , Aramburu María José
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes the convergence of two of the most influential technologies in the last decade, namely business intelligence (BI) and the Semantic Web (SW). Business intelligence is used by almost any enterprise to derive important business-critical knowledge from both internal and (increasingly) external data. When using external data, most often found on the Web, the most important issue is knowing the precise semantics of the data. Without this, the results cannot be trusted. Here, Semantic Web technologies come to the rescue, as they allow semantics ranging from very simple to very complex to be specified for any web-available resource. SW technologies do not only support capturing the “passive” semantics, but also support active inference and reasoning on the data. The chapter first presents a motivating running example, followed by an introduction to the relevant SW foundation concepts. The chapter then goes on to survey the use of SW technologies for data integration, including semantic data annotation and semantics-aware extract, transform, and load processes (ETL). Next, the chapter describes the relationship of multidimensional (MD) models and SW technologies, including the relationship between MD models and SW formalisms, and the use of advanced SW reasoning functionality on MD models. Finally, the chapter describes in detail a number of directions for future research, including SW support for intelligent BI querying, using SW technologies for providing context to data warehouses, and scalability issues. The overall conclusion is that SW technologies are very relevant for the future of BI, but that several new developments are needed to reach the full potential.
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
Authors: Baporikar Neeta
Published: October 2011

Tourism industry is the largest industry world wide and is the main source of economic development of countries like Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai. It is also the main source of income generation for countries like Mauritius, Spain etc. Oman being the second largest country in the Middle East possessing wealth of natural resources has everything to offer to the tourists. It has a long coastline with pristine beaches, beautiful mountains, and world’s best deserts with rolling sand dunes. With breath taking Khareef festival of Salalah, Musundam in the Khasab region which is referred to as Norway of Arabia and Bhala with its forts and castles being listed in the UNESCO world heritage monuments, Oman is one among the best ten countries of the world for tourists to travel (International Travel Magazine). This chapter attempts to review the strategic approach adopted for tourism development, gives the SWOT analysis for the tourism industry and discusses the emerging trends of tourism and related sectors like hospitality, travel and aviation, training and education with special reference to Sultanate of Oman.
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
Authors: Karanasios Stan , Burgess Stephen , Sellitto Carmine
Published: October 2011

This chapter introduces mobile technology and discusses its emergence in the tourism industry. As has been the case with other Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), tourism has manifested as one of the most well suited sectors to mobile technology and mobile applications. In contrast to other ICTs in the tourism domain however, mobile applications are capable of enhancing the tourist experience at the destination, creating a paradigm shift in how information is accessed and digested, and transactions performed. Nonetheless, little is known concerning how mobile technologies are changing the landscape of tourism and tourist behaviour and the content offered by tourism applications. In order to address the scarcity of research in this emergent area this paper focuses on mobile applications in the tourism industry and based on a literature survey proposes a framework for evaluating mobile tourism applications.
Agile Approach to Business Intelligence as a Way to Success
Authors: Fernández J. , Mayol E. , Pastor J.A.
Published: October 2011

In this chapter we present an overview of several methodological approaches used in business intelligence (BI) projects, as well as data warehouse projects. This study reveals that some of them reveal weaknesses, since they are not specifically defined for BI projects, and thus they do not fit specific BI project characteristics or user requirements. These may be the main cause explaining that there is not a broadly accepted BI methodology by practitioners. Even though the goal to find the “best BI methodology” is difficult (or impossible) to meet, we think that any best-class BI methodology may follow an agile approach to better fit BI project characteristics and practitioners’ requirements. In this sense, we have analysed BI project characteristics as well as agile principles defined in the Agile Manifesto, and we have identified a strong relationship between these two sources. In this chapter, we show this strong relationship between the so-called critical success factors for BI projects and the Agile principles. Therefore, based on our analysis, we consider that successful BI methodologies must follow an agile approach.
Suggested Model for Business Intelligence in Higher Education
Authors: Alzoabi Zaidoun , Diko Faek , Hanna Saiid
Published: October 2011

BI is playing a major role in achieving competitive advantage in almost every sector of the market, and the higher education sector is no exception. Universities, in general, maintain huge databases comprising data of students, human resources, researches, facilities, and others. Data in these databases may contain decisive information for decision making. In this chapter we will describe a data mining approach as one of the business intelligence methodologies for possible use in higher education. The importance of the model arises from the reality that it starts from a system approach to university management, looking at the university as input, processing, output, and feedback, and then applies different business intelligence tools and methods to every part of the system in order to enhance the business decision making process. The chapter also shows an application of the suggested model on a real case study at the Arab International University.
Web Engineering and Business Intelligence
Authors: Altarawneh Haroon , Alamaro Sattam , El Sheikh Asim
Published: October 2011

Agile BI is as much about how BI applications are used and what they enable businesses to do, as it is about how the applications themselves are built.
G-Hash
Authors: Wang Xiaohong , Huan Jun , Smalter Aaron , Lushington Gerald H.
Published: October 2011

Our objective in this chapter is to enable fast similarity search in large graph databases with graph kernel functions. In particular, we propose (i) a novel kernel-based similarity measurement and (ii) an efficient indexing structure for graph data management. In our method, we use a hash table to support efficient storage and fast search of the extracted local features from graph data. Using the hash table, we have developed a graph kernel function to capture the intrinsic similarity of graphs and for fast similarity query processing. We have demonstrated the utility of the proposed methods using large chemical structure graph databases.
Applications of Pattern Discovery Using Sequential Data Mining
Authors: Gupta Manish , Han Jiawei
Published: October 2011

Sequential pattern mining methods have been found to be applicable in a large number of domains. Sequential data is omnipresent. Sequential pattern mining methods have been used to analyze this data and identify patterns. Such patterns have been used to implement efficient systems that can recommend based on previously observed patterns, help in making predictions, improve usability of systems, detect events, and in general help in making strategic product decisions. In this chapter, we discuss the applications of sequential data mining in a variety of domains like healthcare, education, Web usage mining, text mining, bioinformatics, telecommunications, intrusion detection, et cetera. We conclude with a summary of the work.
Quantization based Sequence Generation and Subsequence Pruning for Data Mining Applications
Authors: Babu T. Ravindra , Murty M. Narasimha , Subrahmanya S. V.
Published: October 2011

Data Mining deals with efficient algorithms for dealing with large data. When such algorithms are combined with data compaction, they would lead to superior performance. Approaches to deal with large data include working with representatives of data instead of entire data. The representatives should preferably be generated with minimal data scans. In the current chapter we discuss working with methods of lossy and non-lossy data compression methods combined with clustering and classification of large datasets. We demonstrate the working of such schemes on two large data sets.
Technology Integration and Graduate Health Management Education
Authors: Reynolds Grace , Freshman Brenda
Published: October 2011

The Commission on the Accreditation of Management Health Education (CAHME) is the accrediting body for graduate programs in Health Care Administration (HCA) in the U.S. CAHME accredited programs must adopt one of several competency models as the foundation for their HCA curriculum. This article looks at problems and opportunities associated with the implementation of EMRs in health care. We then use force field analysis to illustrate how graduate competency models can work in training graduate healthcare administration students to address technology challenges. Integrating both cognitive and affective domains into graduate curricula has proven to be challenging, however, competency areas such as leadership, professionalism, business skills, communication and relationship management, and knowledge of the health care environment are directly relevant to management challenges faced by administrators in implementing EMRs.
Assessment Methods for Self-Development Goals of Executives
Authors: Schneider Käthe
Published: October 2011

There is a complex relationship between self-development and self-awareness. The individual needs to develop an awareness of herself and her self-development goals before being able to identify circumstances consistent with these goals and to make decisions that will bring about personal development. There are different approaches and methods for assessing these goals. The types of self-development goals range from images of the self to personal projects. This article examines methods for exploring the self-development goals of executives, because this is of particular relevance today. The findings suggest an instrument for exploring self-development goals for executives.
Assuring Quality in Online Course Delivery
Authors: Matuga Julia M. , Wooldridge Deborah , Poirier Sandra
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses upon the critical issue of assuring quality online course delivery by examining four key components of online teaching and learning. The topic of course delivery within this article is viewed as a cultural issue that permeates processes from the design of an online course to the evaluation of an online course. First, this chapter will examine and review key components of, and tools for designing high impact online courses that support student learning. Second, this chapter will provide suggestions for faculty teaching online courses to assist in creating high quality online courses that supports teaching and, consequently, facilitates opportunities for student learning. Quality online course delivery is also contingent upon the support of faculty by administration. Lastly, this chapter will provide suggestions for conducting course evaluation and a feedback loops the for continual improvement of the online learning and teaching. These four components are essential elements in assuring quality online courses.