bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ICT Policies in Africa
Authors: Adomi Esharenana E. , Igun Stella E.
Published: May 2011

During the last 20 years, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have greatly provided a wealth of new technological opportunities, with the rapid deployment of both the Internet and cellular telephony leading the way (Sarkar De, 2005). ICTs can serve as potent agents of change (Yamuah, 2005). These technologies have invaded every country that is willing to accept and adopt them. The most important differentiating factor currently is policy. Policy makes a great difference regarding how countries are able to take advantage of the technological opportunities available to them and exploit them for good. Countries with progressive policies are seeing these technologies spread quickly. However, countries that are yet to formulate and integrate ICT policy have been plagued by slow growth of technology and the consequent lessening of support for economic and social development (Sarkar De, 2005).
Service Offerings for Fixed-Mobile Convergence Scenario
Authors: Harno Jarmo , Kumar K.R. Renjish , Heikkinen Mikko V.J. , Kind Mario , Monath Thomas , Von Hugo Dirk
Published: May 2011

This study demonstrates that an integrated operator can benefit from cost savings, customer retention and prevention of revenue erosion by FMC migration strategy with introduction of advanced service packages. This development is driven by increasing importance of mobile network capabilities and services, as well as the lessening gap between fixed and mobile systems, in terms of technological models and prices, resulting in greater market-pull and commercially feasible FMC offerings. FMC is expected to offer benefits for network and service operators as well as businesses and consumers. We have also analyzed the operator’s dilemma in selecting an appropriate migration strategy to exploit the benefits of cost savings and generating new revenues, while exposing oneself to the risk of substitution effects among its fixed and mobile products. The objective in this article has been to provide quantitative comparison of some strategic scenarios utilizing techno-economic case study methodology in modeling an integrated operator business in the Western European context.
A Distributed Dynamic Channel Allocation Scheme in Cellular Communication Networks
Authors: Al-Bahadili Hussein , Mallouh Arafat Abu
Published: May 2011

This article presents a description and performance evaluation of an efficient distributed dynamic channels allocation (DDCA) scheme, which can be used for channel allocation in cellular communication networks (CCNs), such as the global system for mobile communication (GSM). The scheme utilizes a well-known distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) algorithm, namely, the asynchronous weak-commitment (AWC) algorithm, in which a complete solution is established by extensive communication among a group of neighbouring collaborative cells forming a pattern, where each cell in the pattern uses a unique set of channels. To minimize communication overhead among cells, a token-based mechanism was introduced. The scheme achieved excellent average allocation efficiencies of over 85% for a number of simulations.
Improving Data Quality in Health Care
Authors: Kerr Karolyn , Norris Tony
Published: May 2011

The increasingly information intensive nature of health care demands a proactive and strategic approach to data quality to ensure the right information is available to the right person at the right time in the right format. The approach must also encompass the rights of the patient to have their health data protected and used in an ethical way. This article describes the principles to establish good practice and overcome practical barriers that define and control data quality in health data collections and the mechanisms and frameworks that can be developed to achieve and sustain quality. The experience of a national health data quality project in New Zealand is used to illustrate the issues.
Literature Review in Computational Linguistics Issues in the Developing Field of Consumer Informatics
Authors: Lee Ki Jung
Published: May 2011

With the increased use of Internet, a large number of consumers first consult on line resources for their healthcare decisions. The problem of the existing information structure primarily lies in the fact that the vocabulary used in consumer queries is intrinsically different from the vocabulary represented in medical literature. Consequently, the medical information retrieval often provides poor search results. Since consumers make medical decisions based on the search results, building an effective information retrieval system becomes an essential issue. By reviewing the foundational concepts and application components of medical information retrieval, this paper will contribute to a body of research that seeks appropriate answers to a question like “How can we design a medical information retrieval system that can satisfy consumer’s information needs?”
Telemedicine Barriers
Authors: Crisóstomo-Acevedo María José , Medina-Garrido José Aurelio
Published: May 2011

Telemedicine implies that there is an exchange of information, without personal contact, between two physicians or between a physician and a patient. Thanks to telecommunications technologies telemedicine enables the provision of healthcare services or the exchange of healthcare information across geographic, temporal, social, and cultural barriers (Chau & Hu, 2004). Through telemedicine, healthcare centers can offer diverse specialty services to other centers, to other physicians, or directly to the patient, such as for example telecardiology, teledermatology, teleendoscopy, telemedicine, telemonitoring, telenursing, telepathology, teleradiology, or telesurgery (Tachakra, 2003). Telemedicine should not be confused with e-health (or teleHealth). Telemedicine only refers to the provision of medical services (Chau & Hu, 2004). E-health, on the other hand, refers both to medical services and to any other type of service, as long as it has something to do with health and employs information technology (Eysenbach, 2001; Rodger & Pendharkar, 2000). In this respect, e-health would also include healthcare educational activities, research in the health sciences, the handling of electronic files in the healthcare system, and any other use of information technologies in the healthcare system. Telemedicine requires a new type of worker: the healthcare teleworker. But unlike in other types of telework, the human factor is much more important for the success of projects in telemedicine. Nevertheless, physicians remain wary of adopting telemedicine. This work examines the sources of the resistance to incorporate telemedicine. It adopts a focus centering on the difficulties that human factors have in accepting the practice of telemedicine.
Process-Based Evaluation of Hospital Information Systems
Authors: Ozkan Sevgi , Baykal Nazife , Sincan Murat
Published: May 2011

Although there is limited research and evidence base, it is reasonable to expect that high quality information technology is an integral factor in the success of today’s healthcare sector. However, the healthcare sector is considered to be low level investor in information technology (IT) when compared to other sectors. There are studies that look at the sums spent on health IT as a basis for determining how effective the IT systems are. We support the idea that the effectiveness of IT systems is not an exact measure and a more systematic approach needs to be taken when evaluating success of an IT system. In this study, we have evaluated an assessment method, process based information systems effectiveness (PRISE), which is based on a novel model of information systems effectiveness in the healthcare domain. The results of our case series provide specific implications concerning the applicability of a general “information systems assessment” approach, in the medical context.
Open Information Management in User-driven Health Care
Authors: Biswas Rakesh , Smith Kevin , Martin Carmel M. , Sturmberg Joachim P. , Joshi Ankur
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the role of open health information management in the the development of a novel, adaptable mixed-platform for supporting health care informational needs. This platform enables clients (patient users) requiring healthcare to enter an unstructured but detailed account of their dayto- day health information requirements that may be structured into a lifetime electronic health record. It illustrates the discussion with an operational model and a pilot project in order to begin to explore the potential of a collaborative network of patient and health professional users to support the provision of health care services, and helping to effectively engage patient users with their own healthcare. Such a solution has the potential to allow both patient and health professional users to produce useful materials, to contribute to improved social health outcomes in terms of health education and primary disease prevention, and to address both pre-treatment and post-treatment phases of illness that are often neglected in the context of overburdened support services.
Integrated Digital Health Systems Design
Authors: Raghupathi Wullianallur , Umar Amjad
Published: May 2011

The application of information technology in healthcare has focused primarily on the implementation of specific systems such as electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), mainly for intra-enterprise use. However, for the integrated health system (IHS) to function effectively in a complex inter-enterprise healthcare delivery environment, designers must focus on approaches such as soft systems methodology (SSM) to enable the design of robust integrated digital health systems (IDHSs). A service-oriented architecture (SOA) offers a flexible framework for IDHSs to become de-centralized, fully functional and modular systems with interoperability. This article identifies the design issues in IDHS and explores the potential of an SSM methodology-based SOA for the development of interoperable IDHSs. In the process we compare and contrast the functionalist socio-technical approach to the interpretive SSM. We also describe a prototype SOA application for an IDHS setting and discuss challenges in the application of SOA to healthcare.
Evaluation Methods to Monitor Success and Failure Factors in Health Information System’s Development
Authors: Brender Jytte
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the extent to which factors known to influence the success and failure of health information systems may be evaluated. More specifically, this is concerned with evaluation of such factors— for screening, diagnostic or preventive purposes—by means of existing evaluation methods designed for users. The author identifies that it is feasible to identify evaluation methods for most success factors and failure criteria. However, there is a need for situational methods engineering as the methods are not dedicated to answering the precise information needs of the project management. Therefore, demands are being placed on the evaluators’ methodical and methodological skills, when evaluating health information systems. The author concludes the chapter by pointing at research needs and opportunities.
Adoption of Mobile Technology by Public Healthcare Doctors
Authors: Banderker Nesaar , Van Belle Jean-Paul
Published: May 2011

Doctors working in the South African public healthcare sector are faced with the unique resource constraints prevalent in a developing country. Mobile information and communication technologies (ICTs) hold the promise of improving the quality of healthcare, but this potential can only be unlocked if individuals decide to adopt the new technologies. Understanding the factors that influence the doctor’s adoption of a technology is therefore vital. This chapter reports on an investigation into the factors influencing the adoption of mobile devices by doctors in the public healthcare sector in the Western Cape, South Africa. The research methodology was shaped by qualitative enquiry and described through thematic analysis. The authors confirmed the key adoption factors identified in prior research: job relevance, usefulness, perceived user resources and device characteristics. However, some additional adoption factors were uncovered in this research, namely patient influence, support structures from national government and hospital administration, and unease in respect of malpractice legal suits.
Exploring the Technology Adoption Needs of Patients Using E-Health
Authors: Gallant Linda M. , Irizarry Cynthia , Boone Gloria M.
Published: May 2011

An extended version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) is applied to study hospital Web sites, one specific area of e-health. In a review of literature, five significant factors from TAM research are identified that are logically related to e-health sites from the user’s perspective: usefulness, ease of use, trust, privacy, and personalization. All five factors emerged in the data analysis of 30 participants using a hospital Web site. We discuss the implications of this study for guiding development of effective patient-centered e-health.
Technology Enablers for Context-Aware Healthcare Applications
Authors: Meneses Filipe , Moreira Adriano
Published: May 2011

The increasing availability of mobile devices and wireless networks, and the tendency for them to become ubiquitous in our dally lives, creates a favourable technological environment for the emergence of new, simple, and added-value applications for healthcare. This chapter focuses on how context and location can be used in innovative applications and how to use a set of solutions and technologies that enable the development of innovative context and location-aware solutions for healthcare area. It shows how a mobile phone can be used to compute the level of familiarity of the user with the surrounding environment and how the familiarity level can be used in a number of situations.
HealthGrids in Health Informatics
Authors: Naseer Aisha , Stergioulas Lampros K.
Published: May 2011

Healthcare is a vast domain encapsulating not only multiple sub-domains or sub-sectors but also many diverse operations and logistics within each sub-sector. This diversity needs to be handled in a systematic and well-characterized manner in order to maintain consistency of various healthcare tasks. Integration of health information systems within each healthcare sub-sectors is crucial for ubiquitous access and sharing of information. The emerging technology of HealthGrids holds the promise to successfully integrate health information systems and various healthcare entities onto a common, globally shared and easily accessible platform. Many different types of HealthGrids exist but there lacks a taxonomy to classify them into a hierarchical order. This chapter presents a well-characterized taxonomy of different types of HealthGrid and classifies them into four major types, namely BioGrid, MediGrid, PharmaGrid and CareGrid. Each of these HealthGrids possesses dedicated features and functionalities. The proposed taxonomy serves to better understand the realtionship among various HealthGrid types and would lay a basis for future research.
A Software Tool for Biomedical Information Extraction (And Beyond)
Authors: Settles Burr
Published: May 2011

ABNER (A Biomedical Named Entity Recognizer) is an open-source software tool for text mining in the molecular biology literature. It processes unstructured biomedical documents in order to discover and annotate mentions of genes, proteins, cell types, and other entities of interest. This task, known as named entity recognition (NER), is an important first step for many larger information management goals in biomedicine, namely extraction of biochemical relationships, document classification, information retrieval, and the like. To accomplish this task, ABNER uses state-of-the-art machine learning models for sequence labeling called conditional random fields (CRFs). The software distribution comes bundled with two models that are pre-trained on standard evaluation corpora. ABNER can run as a stand-alone application with a graphical user interface, or be accessed as a Java API allowing it to be re-trained with new labeled corpora and incorporated into other, higher-level applications. This chapter describes the software and its features, presents an overview of the underlying technology, and provides a discussion of some of the more advanced natural language processing systems for which ABNER has been used as a component. ABNER is open-source and freely available from http://pages. cs.wisc.edu/~bsettles/abner/
Aurora Health Care
Authors: Ginter Thomas , Root Jane
Published: May 2011

Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin’s largest employer and healthcare provider faces intense competition, consolidation, and reform. Its choice is to view these challenges as opportunities instead of problems. A key component to realizing Aurora’s opportunities is an aggressive knowledge management system. They understand that to maximize their potential, they must get the most out of their knowledge management. The purpose of this chapter is to present to you a case study of knowledge management applications in the healthcare industry through the many lenses of Aurora Health Care. First we will describe the background of this accomplished healthcare provider. We will then look at their business and knowledge management strategies. Next will be a review of the major components: core competencies, knowledge base, culture, implementation, and key success indicators.
Demographic Differences in Telehealth Policy Outcomes
Authors: Schmeida Mary , McNeal Ramona
Published: May 2011

This chapter is an analysis of demographic variables influencing policy outcomes with online health information searches in the general U.S. public. This study is based on The Internet and American Life Daily Tracking Survey, August 2006 from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Multivariate regression statistical technique is used to explore changes in individual level behavior following the search for online medical information. The data show individuals in most need of healthcare services (poor, less educated, and minority groups) and those with a recent demand for services, are more likely to make changes to improve their health after accessing online medical information.
Active Patient Role in Recording Health Data
Authors: Kern Josipa , Fister Kristina , Polasek Ozren
Published: May 2011

The healing process can be viewed as a partnership between doctors and patients, nurses and physicians or, more generally, a partnership of health professionals and health care users (Anonymous, 2008, Graham, 2007). A patient-centered approach that empowers patients to participate in decisions about their treatment and health care options asks for active participation of patients themselves, specifically, in health information gathering and exchange of this information with their health or medical records (Bachman, 2007; Stolyar, Lober, Drozd, & Sibley, 2005).
Using Stakeholder Analysis to Identify Users in Healthcare Information Systems Research
Authors: McLeod Jr. Alexander J. , Clark Jan Guynes
Published: May 2011

Applying IS research to the healthcare context is an important endeavor. However, IS researchers must be cautious about identifying individual roles, the context of the setting, and postulating generalizability. Much of IS theory is rooted in organizations, their business processes, and stakeholders. It is not a simple matter to generalize healthcare IS research, assuming that it is equivalent to organizational IS research. Hospitals, emergency rooms, and laboratories are different from the “business environment”, and “healthcare sers” vary considerably in their roles. Therefore, IS researchers need to understand the healthcare setting before they can appropriately apply IS theory. Obviously, if we are studying the wrong person, or group of people, we cannot expect to get relevant results. In order to alleviate confusion regarding “who is the user?” in healthcare IS research, we provide examples of healthcare scenarios, perform simplified stakeholder analysis for each scenario, and identify the stakeholders.
A Process Architecture Approach to Manage Health Process Reforms
Authors: Stephenson Christine , Bandara Wasana
Published: May 2011

Business Process Management (BPM) is often perceived as a top priority concern in organisations; both in public and private sectors. This has been clearly noticed in the Australian health care sector, evidenced by the Australian Government’s commitment to pursuing a reform agenda that reflects a new approach to improving health and aged care services. The adoption of a business process management approach can be a key tool to facilitate health reform in the public and private sectors. This approach provides a structured and hence rigorous approach to ensure that health processes are reviewed, improved and implemented consistently throughout the organisation, especially where public health services are provided from multiple service points. Process modeling is an embedded component of most BPM initiatives, yet a resource intensive task. How process models can be derived efficiently (i.e. with less resources and time) and effectively (at a high quality to meet the specific needs) is an integral element of interest to most organisations, however, this area of research is still in its infancy. This paper aims to address this gap by proposing a ‘process-pattern’ based approach to process modeling where models are created and managed within a ‘process architecture’. The process pattern approach is explained with evidence from a large state based health organisation using an integrated risk management process for health care service management as an example. The study employed an action research approach and the chapter unfolds its findings around the main phases of the research method. The contributions from this work are twofold. From the perspective of practice, it offers a validated high level example of a process pattern for an Integrated Risk Management Program for health. From an academic perspective: it presents a validated Risk Management process pattern for delivering health services which can be used as or a benchmark in further research.
Analyzing an ES Implementation in a Health Care Environment
Authors: Boonstra Albert
Published: May 2011

At the present moment, many hospitals are going through a process of change directed at the integrated delivery of health care. Enterprise Systems (ES) are increasingly used to support this process and to manage hospitals on a coherent basis. We also know, however, that ES implementation itself, can be viewed as an organizational change process that affects many stakeholders. For that reason it is relevant to study how ES implementation takes place within hospitals and how it tends to impact the existing organizational arrangements. The purpose of this chapter is therefore to describe and analyze how ES implementation within a hospital affects the interests of stakeholders and which specific problems may arise as a result. This chapter uses the evidence of a case study to reveal some important dimensions of the organizational change issues related to ES implementation within hospitals.
Security-Aware Service Specification for Healthcare Information Systems
Authors: Khan Khaled M.
Published: May 2011

With the rapid advancement of Web-based technologies, healthcare information systems are becoming increasingly heterogeneous in terms of their architecture, composition, and runtime characteristics. A healthcare system can be composed of several stand-alone service components, such as Web services available from various distributed sources for runtime execution. We use the terms Web services and service interchangeably in this chapter to refer to the same concept. A healthcare application system can be composed of multiple autonomous geographically dispersed software services. A healthcare software service is autonomous as it has its own executable code and uses its own data or files. The composition of a healthcare system can be dynamic or static, depending on how services are connected to each other to provide the services. Some of the services are downloaded directly from the Internet and executed dynamically with the application system. The use of independent services in the healthcare information system is appealing because it supports reusability of code and far efficient utilization of network resources, and it might be cost efficient.
Analysing Clinical Notes for Translation Research
Authors: Patrick Jon , Asgari Pooyan
Published: May 2011

There have been few studies of large corpora of narrative notes collected from the health clinicians working at the point of care. This chapter describes the principle issues in analysing a corpus of 44 million words of clinical notes drawn from the Intensive Care Service of a Sydney hospital. The study identifies many of the processing difficulties in dealing with written materials that have a high degree of informality, written in circumstances where the authors are under significant time pressures, and containing a large technical lexicon, in contrast to formally published material. Recommendations on the processing tasks needed to turn such materials into a more usable form are provided. The chapter argues that these problems require a return to issues of 30 years ago that have been mostly solved for computational linguists but need to be revisited for this entirely new genre of materials. In returning to the past and studying the contents of these materials in retrospective studies we can plan to go forward to a future that provides technologies that better support clinicians. They need to produce both lexically and grammatically higher quality texts that can then be leveraged successfully for advanced translational research thereby bolstering its momentum.
Support for Medication Safety and Compliance in Smart Home Environments
Authors: Reyes Álamo José M. , Yang Hen-I , Babbitt Ryan , Wong Johnny
Published: May 2011

The rapid pace of new medications introduced to the market and the trend of modern healthcare towards specialization complicates doctors’ prescribing process and patients’ management of medications, resulting in an increase in the likelihood of unsafe prescriptions. The severity of this problem is magnified when patients require multiple medications or have cognitive impairments. The Medicine Information Support System (MISS) is designed to integrate related information systems from doctor offices, pharmacies and patients’ smart homes with a universal database of medication conflicts to enable safety checks for adverse reactions among prescribed medications. MISS enhances the quality of patients’ healthcare by monitoring and promoting the compliance of patients’ medication intake. It also ensures patients’ medical records remain private by following the privacy guidelines and regulations such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) law in the United States.
The Effectiveness of Government Policies in Broadband Deployment
Authors: Fife Elizabeth , Pereira Francis
Published: May 2011

While the potential economic and social benefits of broadband internet use are significant, adoption levels vary greatly among countries around the world. Many governments, particularly those in Southeast Asia, have adopted aggressive policies to deploy broadband networks and to encourage the use of applications. Governments are motivated to promote broadband adoption in order to realize both economic and social benefits. This paper argues that the generally higher levels of broadband adoption rates witnessed in many Asian economies, is attributable in part to the aggressive policies pursued by these governments. There is some evidence to suggest that these governmental policies have been successful in achieving their stated goals.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Rural Women’s Life in Bangladeshi Villages
Authors: Ashraf Md. Mahfuz , Grunfeld Helena , Afza Syeda , Malik Bushra Tahseen
Published: May 2011

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has the potential to contribute to development, especially in rural areas of developing countries. But the mechanisms through which ICT can be combined with development agendas and an understanding of the actual development process and impacts of ICT are less well understood or properly defined in the academic literature. This research is an attempt to contribute to understanding this process by analysing the impact of two ICT initiatives in Bangladesh, aimed at improving the lives of rural women. An interpretive approach in the qualitative research tradition was adopted to identify emergent themes in this study. Our findings indicate that these ICT projects have significantly improved the socio-economic opportunities of many women. This paper will be useful for those academics, practitioners and policymakers who wish to enhance their understanding of ICT projects in rural areas of developing countries.
ICT and Web 2.0 Technologies as a Determinant of Business Performance
Authors: Arh Tanja , Dimovski Vlado , Blažic Borka Jerman
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims at presenting the results of an empirical study, linking the fields of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), Web 2.0 technologies and organizational learning, and their impact on the financial and non-financial business performance. The chapter focuses on the presentation of the conceptualization of a structural model that was developed to test the impact of technology-enhanced learning and Web 2.0 technologies on the organizational learning and business performance of companies with more than 50 employees. The paper provides detailed definitions of technology-enhanced learning, Web 2.0 technologies and technical terms related to it, its scope and the process of organisational learning, as well as a method for business performance assessment. Special attention is given to the findings related to the observed correlations between the aforementioned constructs. The results of the study indicate a strong impact of ICT and technology-enhanced learning on organizational learning and the non-financial business performance.
Key Health Information Systems Outsourcing Issues from Six Hospital Cases
Authors: Lin Chad , Huang Yu-An , Li Chien-Fa , Jalleh Geoffrey
Published: May 2011

Traditionally, little attention has been paid by hospitals to the key issues in the health information systems (HIS) outsourcing decision-making process. This is important given that the HIS outsourcing can play a key role in assisting hospitals in achieving its business objectives. However, the decision-making process of HIS outsourcing in hospitals is under-studied, especially in the management of their HIS outsourcing contracts. Therefore, the main objectives of this book chapter are to: (1) examine key issues surrounding the management and implementation of HIS outsourcing in Taiwanese hospitals; and (2) identify issues that are crucial in managing and implementing HIS outsourcing in hospitals. Four key issues and problems were identified in the HIS outsourcing process: lack of implementation in IS investment evaluation process, problems in managing HIS outsourcing contracts, lack of user involvement and participation in HIS outsourcing process, and failure to retain critical HIS contract management skills and project management capabilities in-house. Solutions and recommendations are provided to deal with key issues that are critical in the management and implementation of HIS outsourcing in hospitals.
Biometric Identity Based Encryption
Authors: Sarier Neyire Deniz
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we evaluate the security properties and different applications of Identity Based Encryption (IBE) systems. Particularly, we consider biometric identities for IBE, which is a new encryption system defined as fuzzy IBE. Next, we analyze the security aspects of fuzzy IBE in terms of the security notions it must achieve and the prevention of collusion attacks, which is an attack scenario specific to fuzzy IBE. In this context, we present a new method that avoids the collusion attacks and describe the currently most efficient biometric IBE scheme that implements this new method. Also, we investigate implementation challenges for biometric IBE systems, where fuzzy IBE could be a potential cryptographic primitive for biometric smartcards. Due to the limited computational power of these devices, a different solution for biometric IBE is considered, which is the encryption analogue of the biometric identity based signature system of Burnett et al. (2007). Finally, we state the future trends for biometric IBE systems and conclude our results.
Spontaneous Facial Expression Analysis and Synthesis for Interactive Facial Animation
Authors: Zhang Yongmian , Chen Jixu , Tong Yan , Ji Qiang
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a probabilistic framework for faithful reproduction of spontaneous facial expressions on a synthetic face model in a real time interactive application. The framework consists of a coupled Bayesian network (BN) to unify the facial expression analysis and synthesis into one coherent structure. At the analysis end, we cast the facial action coding system (FACS) into a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) to capture relationships between facial expressions and the facial motions as well as their uncertainties and dynamics. The observations fed into the DBN facial expression model are measurements of facial action units (AUs) generated by an AU model. Also implemented by a DBN, the AU model captures the rigid head movements and nonrigid facial muscular movements of a spontaneous facial expression. At the synthesizer, a static BN reconstructs the Facial Animation Parameters (FAPs) and their intensity through the top-down inference according to the current state of facial expression and pose information output by the analysis end. The two BNs are connected statically through a data stream link. The novelty of using the coupled BN brings about several benefits. First, a facial expression is inferred through both spatial and temporal inference so that the perceptual quality of animation is less affected by the misdetection of facial features. Second, more realistic looking facial expressions can be reproduced by modeling the dynamics of human expressions in facial expression analysis. Third, very low bitrate (9 bytes per frame) in data transmission can be achieved.
Event Detection in Sports Video Based on Generative-Discriminative Models
Authors: Fan Guoliang , Ding Yi
Published: May 2011

Semantic event detection is an active and interesting research topic in the field of video mining. The major challenge is the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level semantics. In this chapter, we will advance a new sports video mining framework where a hybrid generative-discriminative approach is used for event detection. Specifically, we propose a three-layer semantic space by which event detection is converted into two inter-related statistical inference procedures that involve semantic analysis at different levels. The first is to infer the mid-level semantic structures from the low-level visual features via generative models, which can serve as building blocks of high-level semantic analysis. The second is to detect high-level semantics from mid-level semantic structures using discriminative models, which are of direct interests to users. In this framework we can explicitly represent and detect semantics at different levels. The use of generative and discriminative approaches in two different stages is proved to be effective and appropriate for event detection in sports video. The experimental results from a set of American football video data demonstrate that the proposed framework offers promising results compared with traditional approaches.
Content-Based Video Scene Clustering and Segmentation
Authors: Lu Hong , Xue Xiangyang
Published: May 2011

With the amount of video data increasing rapidly, automatic methods are needed to deal with large-scale video data sets in various applications. In content-based video analysis, a common and fundamental preprocess for these applications is video segmentation. Based on the segmentation results, video has a hierarchical representation structure of frames, shots, and scenes from the low level to high level. Due to the huge amount of video frames, it is not appropriate to represent video contents using frames. In the levels of video structure, shot is defined as an unbroken sequence of frames from one camera; however, the contents in shots are trivial and can hardly convey valuable semantic information. On the other hand, scene is a group of consecutive shots that focuses on an object or objects of interest. And a scene can represent a semantic unit for further processing such as story extraction, video summarization, etc. In this chapter, we will survey the methods on video scene segmentation. Specifically, there are two kinds of scenes. One kind of scene is to just consider the visual similarity of video shots and clustering methods are used for scene clustering. Another kind of scene is to consider both the visual similarity and temporal constraints of video shots, i.e., shots with similar contents and not lying too far in temporal order. Also, we will present our proposed methods on scene clustering and scene segmentation by using Gaussian mixture model, graph theory, sequential change detection, and spectral methods.
Detecting Image Forgeries using Geometric Cues
Authors: Wu Lin , Wang Yang
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a framework for detecting fake regions by using various methods including watermarking technique and blind approaches. In particular, we describe current categories on blind approaches which can be divided into five: pixel-based techniques, format-based techniques, camera-based techniques, physically-based techniques and geometric-based techniques. Then we take a second look on the geometric-based techniques and further categorize them in detail. In the following section, the state-of-the-art methods involved in the geometric technique are elaborated.
M-Health
Authors: Hipólito Juan Ivan Nieto , Briseño Mabel Vázquez , Cervantes de Ávila Humberto , Rosas Miguel Enrique Martínez , Sergiyenko Oleg Yu
Published: May 2011

mHealth is a very attractive field for mobile applications developers, but it also involves new challenges that developers of programs intended for standard desktops do not usually face. Hence, the first part of this chapter is devoted to survey the development platforms and languages utilized to develop the associated applications of the mHealth system. mHealth is a communications system that consists of mobile devices for collecting and delivering clinical health data to practitioners, researchers and patients. It is also a tool used in the real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and direct provision of care. Therefore, the second part of this chapter will focuses on the survey of wireless technologies envisioned for use in the mHealth system.
Connectivity and Topology Organization in Ad-Hoc Networks for Service Delivery
Authors: Vargas-Rosales Cesar , Barrientos Sergio , Munoz David , Rodriguez Jose R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the concept of connectivity and robustness of a mobile ad-hoc network as a function of the node density and coverage radius. It presents an elementary analytical model based on the spatial Poisson process to formulate the connectivity problem as the computation of the existence of wireless links forming paths obtained by Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm. It also introduces a simple clustering strategy that starts forming groups based on one-hop distance and then adjust the coverage radius of the nodes in order to decrease the interference, processing load and isolated nodes in the network. It includes results of scenarios with different robustness of origin-destination pairs and number of clusters and shows the benefits of using the introduced policies.
Emerging Challenges of the Digital Information
Authors: Kapidakis Sarantos
Published: May 2011

The digital era has brought a change to the information world. Digital information is collected in repositories, is described with metadata and is disseminated through digital libraries. But many issues are in debate, even what in fact constitutes a digital object, how to create, store and handle complex digital objects and how to preserve the digital information in the long run. Digital objects are used more extensively than traditional ones, which affect their cost and pricing. The enforcing of the copyright is more imperative, while at the same time copies have to be created for technical reasons alone. It is difficult to distinguish and prevent unauthorized copying and plagiarism, there are many more parties that may be responsible for bad use and the fair use appears in different ways. There are unusually many orphan works and many digital objects have unclear terms of usage or are often offered under open access, such as Creative Commons licenses. Libraries have a new role in this context, which involves using, creating and sharing digital libraries.
Intellectual Property Issues for Digital Libraries at the Intersection of Law, Technology, and the Public Interest
Authors: Kallinikou Dionysia , Papadopoulos Marinos , Kaponi Alexandra , Strakantouna Vassiliki
Published: May 2011

The development of Digital libraries and repositories, a worldwide vision with enormous political and ideological importance for humanity, in an effort to approach cultures and preserve plurality and diversity, is directly affected by the provisions of Intellectual Property Law and is subject to the consideration of innovation through legislation. Legal issues such as these related to software use, database protection, the collection, digitization, archiving, and distribution of protected works are of outmost importance for the operation and viability of Digital libraries and repositories. In this chapter, the authors focus upon some of these legal issues and consider an alternative proposal in respect of Intellectual Property law for open access to creative works furnished to the public through Digital libraries and repositories. The alternative proposal pertains to the use of the Creative Commons licenses as a legal means to enhance Openness for Digital libraries.
Using Social Network Analysis to Guide Theoretical Sampling in an Ethnographic Study of a Virtual Community
Authors: Murillo Enrique
Published: May 2011

Social Network Analysis (SNA) provides a range of models particularly well suited for mapping bonds between participants in online communities and thus reveal prominent members or subgroups. This can yield valuable insights for selecting a theoretical sample of participants or participant interactions in qualitative studies of communities. This chapter describes a procedure for collecting data from Usenet newsgroups, deriving the social network created by participant interaction, and importing this relational data into SNA software, where various cohesion models can be applied. The technique is exemplified by performing a longitudinal core periphery analysis of a specific newsgroup, which identified core members and provided clear evidence of a stable online community. Discussions dominated by core members are identified next, to guide theoretical sampling of text-based interactions in an ongoing ethnography of the community.
Conversation Analysis as a Tool to Understand Online Social Encounters
Authors: Tan Aik-Ling , Tan Seng-Chee
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the application of Conversation Analysis (CA) as a tool to understand online social encounters. Complementing current analytic methods like content analysis and social network analysis, analytic tools like Discussion Analysis Tool (DAT) (Jeong, 2003) and Transcript Analysis Tool (TAT) (Fahy, Crawford, & Ally, 2001) have been developed to study both the content of online discussions as well as the interactions that take place among the participants. While these new tools have devoted certain attention to the development of social interactions, insights into how online participants form alliances among themselves and mechanisms for repairing a conversation when it breaks down remains lacking. Knowledge of online social order (or the lack of), both its genesis as well as maintenance, is essential as it affects the processes and intended learning outcomes in an online community. We argue that using CA, while not popularly applied for the analysis of online discussions, gives the much needed focus on the minute details of online interactions that are important to understanding social orderliness of conversations in a virtual community. In this chapter, we illustrate how CA can be applied in analysis of online discussion by applying Freebody’s (2003) six analytic passes and suggest that CA may be used as an alternative analytic tool in a virtual environment where conversations are generally asynchronous. These six analytic passes are: (1) turn taking, (2) building exchanges, (3) parties, alliances and talk, (4) trouble and repair, (5) preferences and accountability, and (6) institutional categories and the question of identity.
Development of Cellular Phone Software to Prompt Learners to Monitor and Reorganize Division of Labor in Project-Based Learning
Authors: Mochizuki Toshio , Yaegashi Kazaru , Kato Hiroshi , Nishimori Toshihisa , Nagamori Yusuke , Fujita Shinobu
Published: May 2011

The authors have developed a cellular phone application called ProBoPortable that displays information regarding the progress and achievement of tasks and division of labor in project-based learning (PBL) for higher education. ProBoPortable works as wallpaper on the screen of the learner’s cellular phone, and it cooperates with Web-based groupware. When a learner activates his/her phone, ProBoPortable immediately retrieves the current status of the appropriate project from the groupware database and displays it on the screen. A classroom evaluation was performed in an undergraduate course; the evaluation confirmed that ProBoPortable enhanced mutual awareness of the division of labor among learners, who modified their own tasks by monitoring the overall status of the PBL. Using ProBoPortable increasingly fostered the sense of a learning community among the subjects. Moreover, social facilitation encouraged the learners to proceed with their own task due to the presence of others who are mutually aware of each member’s status.
Methodological Considerations for Quantitative Content Analysis of Online Interactions
Authors: Tan Seng-Chee , So Hyo-Jeong , Chai Ching-Sing
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on quantitative content analysis of online interactions, in particular, asynchronous online discussion. It clarifies the definitions of quantitative content analysis and provides a summary of 23 existing coding schemes, broadly categorized by the theoretical constructs under investigation: (1) (Meta) cognition, (2) knowledge construction, and (3) presence. To help interested researchers harvest the rich source of data in online communities, guidelines for using quantitative content analysis of online interactions were provided. In addition, important methodological considerations and issues were discussed, including the issues of validity, reliability, choice of unit of analysis, and latent versus manifested content.