bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Key Concepts and Definitions of Open Source Communities
Authors: van Wendel de Joode Ruben , Spaeth Sebastian
Published: May 2010

Most open source software is developed in online communities. These communities are typically referred to as “open source software communities” or “OSS communities.” In OSS communities, the source code, which is the human-readable part of software, is treated as something that is open and that should be downloadable and modifiable to anyone who wishes to do so. The availability of the source code has enabled a practice of decentralized software development in which large numbers of people contribute time and effort. Communities like Linux and Apache, for instance, have been able to connect thousands of individual programmers and professional organizations (although most project communities remain relatively small). These people and organizations are not confined to certain geographical places; on the contrary, they come from literally all continents and they interact and collaborate virtually.
Knowledge Blogs in Firm Internal Use
Authors: Kosonen Miia , Henttonen Kaisa , Blomqvist Kirsimarja
Published: May 2010

Knowledge sharing in today’s distributed organizations is a challenge. Hierarchical structures may not support the fast flow of information or the efficient co-creation of knowledge from specialized and tacit individual knowledge bases (see Grant, 1996; Miles et al., 2000; Adler, 2001). There is therefore a need to devise new patterns for leveraging dispersed knowledge within organizations and across organizational borders. In the following we explore internal company weblogs as a potential new channel for sharing knowledge and expertise.
Localization, Culture, and Global Communication
Authors: Chroust Gerhard
Published: May 2010

The ‘native language’ (the mother tongue) is one of the most decisive identity factors of a nation. Besides being of political importance, it carries a high emotional value and is strongly related to culture. Due to technology, particularly the Internet and due to individual ownership of computers people have more opportunities to interact and cooperate with others outside their local community (Nakakoji, 1996). As a consequence, software products must be used in different countries. As early as 1960, the first technological steps were made by IBM (Hensch, 2005) in order to find ways of processing and displaying Japanese characters. Initially, the prime concern was an adequate representation of national characters (including diacritical characters of European languages), typically called national language support. In the meantime, an ever increasing number of people are in need of using software products. Technological progress allows communication via pictures and also via colorful, animated displays showing people in their natural surroundings, resulting in software products becoming a part of their daily environment. Computers today execute more complex tasks in closer imitation of human behavior. As a consequence people expect the computer to adapt to their individual culture.
Meta-Analysis Research on Virtual Team Performance
Authors: Liu Ying-Chieh , Burn Janice , Stoney Susan
Published: May 2010

The results from prior studies on the effectiveness of virtual teams (VTs) are ambiguous and show that few studies have built upon previous findings to build a substantiated body of work. In this article, the authors attempt to remedy this by performing a meta-analysis on VT research. Powell et al.’s (2004) framework of VTs is used as a prototype and twelve variables and their relationships identified as the basis for this study. Twenty empirical studies are identified and used to validate the variables statistically. From this, seven variables are preserved and form the final framework. Future research directions and managerial implications are explained.
Mobile Virtual Communities
Authors: Ferreira Glauber , Almeida Hyggo , Perkusich Angelo , Costa Evandro
Published: May 2010

The establishment of collective relationships is a native characteristic of individuals. Living in a recluse way cannot be considered part of human nature. Individuals have always been organized in communities in which they establish relationships with other individuals, which usually live in one particular area. Proximity among individuals is one of the characteristics that motivate the creation of communities.
Mutual Value in Business Relationships
Authors: Cássia Pereira Rita de , Porto Bellini Carlo Gabriel , Luce Fernando Bins
Published: May 2010

Relationship marketing evolves both in quantity and quality, as we can tell from the continuous incorporation of new constructs, models and technologies, the myriad of applications in different contexts, and the interaction with other marketing and management areas. Concepts and processes in relationship marketing continue to mature significantly with the help of developments made in other research fronts. In this sense, the concept of value as communicated by authors in the field (e.g., Hogan, 2001; Möller & Törrönen, 2003) brought light to the problem of relationship assessment, if we agree that value creation is critical for companies working together in a business relationship (Walter et al., 2001); thus, value creation must be the starting point for companies and customers to assess their relationships.
Online Communication and Social Engagement
Authors: Baker Jason D. , Woods Robert H.
Published: May 2010

Early studies of online communication examined the predominantly textual nature of online communication (e.g., e-mail, discussion boards, chat rooms) and hypothesized that the reduced number of available message channels would restrict the level of social engagement. In other words, by reducing interpersonal communication to a textual experience, traditional nonverbal cues such as facial expression, eye contact, and gestures are eliminated. As Kiesler, Siegel, and McGuire (1984) stated in an early study of computer-mediated communication, “Once people have electronic access, their states, power, and prestige are communicated neither contextually (the way secretaries and meeting rooms and clothes communicate) nor dynamically (the way gaze, touch, and facial and paralinguistic behavior communicate)” (p. 1125). They questioned whether online communication was inherently depersonalizing, not only because of such reduced cues, but also because it forces communicators to imagine their audience.
Online Tutoring and Mentoring
Authors: Seoane Pardo Antonio Miguel , Garcia Peñalvo Francisco Jose
Published: May 2010

Man is the only animal that learns for his whole life. Therefore, learning is one of the most important activities of human beings. Information and communication technologies, and specifically the Internet, brought us new ways to communicate, share information and learn. E-learning has become a modality whose capabilities, advantages and potentials is indisputable, but many of the difficulties inherent to learning activities, far from being sorted out by this new modality, have been increased. Loneliness and de-motivation of elearning users is probably the first cause of failure of online courses.
Optimizing Paths with Random Parameter Distributions
Authors: Rasteiro D.M.L.D.
Published: May 2010

This research is grounded in the view that organizations are information processing systems. Organizations design their structure, processes, and information technologies for the purpose of processing, exchanging, and distributing the information required for their functions. The volume of information exchanged is not always the same. Thus in order to provide an efficient process of communication we propose an algorithm which determines the path that minimizes the expected value of an utility function over a dynamic probabilistic network with discrete or continuous real random variables (parameters) associated to each emerging arc. To obtain the optimal dynamic path from a source to sink node in the discrete case, we use a generalization of Bellman first-in-first-out labeling correcting algorithm used to determine the shortest path in directed networks with deterministic parameters associated to each arc. In the case where arc parameters are continuous random variables we propose algorithms involving multi-objective optimization. Additionally, some initialization techniques that improve the running times without jeopardizing memory are also considered. The topology of the networks is not known in advance, which means that we only have knowledge of the incoming (outgoing) arcs, and their parameters, of some specific node once we reach it. Thus the optimal path is determined in a dynamic way. We also present computational results for networks with 100 up to 10,000 nodes and densities 2, 5, and 10.
Participatory Geographic Information Systems
Authors: de Sá Dulce Magalhaes , Costa Ana Cristina M.
Published: May 2010

Geographic information systems are largely used in different levels of administration and planning where geo-referenced information is a crucial factor behind analysis and determination of different decision-making scenarios. The potential of these systems is increasingly being perceived as a support to facilitate public participation in planning processes.
The Problem with People and Information Security
Authors: Cerveira Alexandre , Reis Leonilde , Gaivéo José
Published: May 2010

Nowadays, globalization and information and communication technologies are main issues on organizations and societies, changing the way how people and organizations interact. These issues brought new and more challenges to people, organizations and societies, forcing them to change their perceptions of reality and consequently adopting new business solutions. In this context, people, capabilities and knowhow could make the difference between failure and success, particularly when organizations are facing new and emergent markets or changing their business process. It is important to protect business information, an asset whose relevance is increasing, in order to guarantee his confidentiality, integrity and availability. This issue must be coordinated with information systems and information and communication technologies usage to support information activities through the organization. Therefore, to succeed, the focus must be put on people and on their roles in the organizations, in order to obtain their commitment with information security, according organizational needs. In this sense, we pretend to provide the main roles identification on information security issues that people should take in account, and the options they could take to give a huge contribution to organizational performance.
Project Management in Innovation Networks
Authors: Melski Adam , Borchert Jan , Hagenhoff Svenja
Published: May 2010

In times of market globalization, aggravated competition and the shortening of product life cycles, many companies have turned to innovations as elixirs for their continued existence (Little, 1997). Companies cope with increased innovation requirements by increasing their specialization in a certain field. This makes new innovation ideas more probable; however, it also complicates the process from conception to realization. Traditional leadership systems with rigid hierarchical structures are increasingly replaced by more flexible, interdisciplinary work forms, with networks becoming the prevailing form of organization (Man, 2004). Innovation plans are usually carried out in projects, thus the management of innovation projects has become the center of attention. However, the failure of many innovation projects sheds doubt on the usefulness of project management (PM). Studies demand robust process controlling to replace the more delicate PM (Hauschildt 2003). This article examines to what extend PM may be used as a “universal management instrument” (Seibert, 1998, p. 25) in innovation networks. In addition, further concepts and instruments that should be added to PM in innovation networks will be introduced.
ProPlanT as a Multi-Agent Technology for Decision-Making Support
Authors: Marík Vladimir , Pechoucek Michal , Vokrínek Jiri
Published: May 2010

Production planning and resource allocation is a complex industrial decision-making problem. Sophisticated computational model of a manufacturing domain may support this decision making by simulation of multiple variants of alternative plans and thus help identifying the most suitable one (according to defined conditions). Multi-agent system is an example of such a computational model as it can naturally represent the hierarchical and distributed structure of the manufacturing enterprise that is modelled. This item presents and discusses ProPlanT (Marík, Pechoucek, Štepánková, & Lažanský, 2000), a specific multi-agent technology/methodology for production planning and scheduling in the manufacturing domain. This methodology resulted in a framework for decision making support which was successfully applied in several pioneer applications.
Business Process Reuse and Standardization with P2P Technologies
Authors: Rodrigues Nt José A. , Moreira de Souza Jano , Zimbrão Geraldo , Xexéo Geraldo , Miranda Mutaleci
Published: May 2010

Business Process Management (BPM) brings together the idea of effectively managing organizations and properly using Information Technology to fulfill organizations’ needs. For this purpose, BPM systems are largely used nowadays. However, most process models are started from scratch, not having reuse promoted. Sometimes, large enterprises have the same business process implemented in a variety of ways due to differences in their departmental cultures or environments, even when using a unique integrated system. Additionally, although technology plays an important role in actually improving organizations, the human factor is still fundamental, since any improvement attempt goes through cultural changes. In this chapter, a peer-to-peer (P2P) tool is proposed as a way to cooperatively develop business processes models, minimizing the time needed to develop such models, reducing the differences among similar processes conducted in distinct organizational units, enhancing the quality of models, promoting reuse, and distributing knowledge.
Data Warehousing for Association Mining
Authors: Li Yuefeng
Published: May 2010

With the phenomenal growth of electronic data and information, there are many demands for developments of efficient and effective systems (tools) to address the issue of performing data mining tasks on data warehouses or multidimensional databases. Association rules describe associations between itemsets (i.e., sets of data items) (or granules). Association mining (or called association rule mining) finds interesting or useful association rules in databases, which is the crucial technique for the development of data mining. Association mining can be used in many application areas, for example, the discovery of associations between customers’ locations and shopping behaviours in market basket analysis. Association mining includes two phases. The first phase is called pattern mining that is the discovery of frequent patterns. The second phase is called rule generation that is the discovery of the interesting and useful association rules in the discovered patterns. The first phase, however, often takes a long time to find all frequent patterns that also include much noise as well (Pei and Han, 2002). The second phase is also a time consuming activity (Han and Kamber, 2000) and can generate many redundant rules (Zaki, 2004) (Xu and Li, 2007). To reduce search spaces, user constraintbased techniques attempt to find knowledge that meet some sorts of constraints. There are two interesting concepts that have been used in user constraint-based techniques: meta-rules (Han and Kamber, 2000) and granule mining (Li et al., 2006). The aim of this chapter is to present the latest research results about data warehousing techniques that can be used for improving the performance of association mining. The chapter will introduce two important approaches based on user constraint-based techniques. The first approach requests users to inputs their meta-rules that describe their desires for certain data dimensions. It then creates data cubes based these meta-rules and then provides interesting association rules. The second approach firstly requests users to provide condition and decision attributes that used to describe the antecedent and consequence of rules, respectively. It then finds all possible data granules based condition attributes and decision attributes. It also creates a multi-tier structure to store the associations between granules, and association mappings to provide interesting rules.
Symbiotic Data Miner
Authors: Athappilly Kuriakose
Published: May 2010

Symbiotic data mining is an evolutionary approach to how organizations analyze, interpret, and create new knowledge from large pools of data. Symbiotic data miners are trained business and technical professionals skilled in applying complex data-mining techniques and business intelligence tools to challenges in a dynamic business environment.
Concepts and Dynamics of the Application Service Provider Industry
Authors: Kim Dohoon
Published: May 2010

The enterprise intelligence through e-transformation is one of the cornerstones of the next-generation e-business era where the Internet constitutes the core business resource. Furthermore, the severe competitive landscape of e-business makes firms focus on their core capability and farm out staffing functions such as IT. Under this circumstance, enhancing intelligence and synergy through e-transformation will be accomplished by IT outsourcing via ASPs (application service providers). The ASP industry now provides an essential infrastructure for the Internet-based e-business transactions, thereby accelerating corporate e-transformation. An ASP is generally defined as a third-party service firm that deploys, manages, and/or remotely hosts a software application through centrally located servers in a lease agreement. ASPs started their business by providing online application programs such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) solution packages to corporate customers. The first customers were small companies or local branches of multinational companies where IT outsourcing was the only option to deploy IT resources due to financial or regional constraints. As seen in these cases, the biggest merit of employing ASPs is that corporate customers do not have to own the applications and take responsibilities associated with initial and ongoing support and maintenance. Consequently, ASPs are differentiated from the existing IT services in that ASPs provide IT resources to multiple corporate clients on a oneto- many basis with a standardized service architecture and pricing scheme.
Electronic Marketplace Support for B2B Business Transactions
Authors: Archer Norm
Published: May 2010

Information systems that link businesses for the purpose of inter-organizational transfer of business transaction information (inter-organizational information systems or IOIS) have been in use since the 1970s (Lankford & Riggs, 1996). Early systems relied on private networks using electronic data interchange (EDI) or United Nations EDIFACT standards for format and content of transaction messages. Due to their cost and complexity, the use of these systems was confined primarily to large companies, but low cost Internet commercialization has led to much more widespread adoption of IOIS. Systems using the Internet and the World Wide Web are commonly referred to as B2B (business to business) systems, supporting B2B electronic commerce. Technological innovations have led to several forms of B2B Internet implementations, often in the form of online exchanges or electronic marketplaces (Wang et al., 2005). These are virtual marketplaces where buyers and sellers exchange information about prices, products, and service offerings, and negotiate business transactions. They are major components of the supply chains that they support. In addition to substituting proprietary lines of communication, emerging technologies and public networks have also facilitated new business models and new forms of interaction and collaboration in areas such as collaborative product engineering or joint offerings of complex, modularized products. During the years 1999-2001, a number of online exchanges were introduced, but many of these failed (Gallaugher & Ramanathan, 2002) due mainly to an inability to attract participating business partners, but also because potential participants and their business partners did not perceive enough value added through the significant investment they required. Those that have survived are often owned by companies or consortia that are also exchange customers or suppliers. The objective of this overview is to describe the evolution and the characteristics of B2B Internet implementations, and to discuss management considerations, the evaluation, and adoption of B2B applications, and the technical infrastructure supporting these systems. We also indicate some of the open issues that remain as the technology and its adoption continues to evolve.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Maintenance Metrics for Management
Authors: Ng Celeste See-pui
Published: May 2010

A typical packaged software lifecycle, from the client-organization perspective, is packaged software selection followed by implementation, installation, training, and maintenance (that includes upgrades). Traditional software maintenance has been acknowledged by many researchers as the longest and most costly phase in the software lifecycle. This fact is no exception in the ERP packaged software maintenance context (Moore, 2005; Whiting, 2006). According to Ng, Gable, & Chan (2002, pg. 100) ERP maintenance is defined as “post-implementation activities related to the packaged application software undertaken by the client-organization from the time the system goes live (i.e., successfully implemented and transported to the production environment), until it is retired from an organization’s production system, to keep the system running; adapt to a changed environment in order to operate well; provide helps to the system users in using the system; realize benefits from the system (best business processes, enhanced system integration, cost reduction); and keep the system a supported-version and meet the vendor’s requirements for standard code. These activities include: implementing internal change-requests (initiated by an ERP-using organization’s system users and IT-staff); responding or handling usersupport requests (initiated by an ERP-using organization’s system users); upgrading to new versions/releases (introduced by the vendor); and performing patches (support provided by the vendor).” In order to achieve the abovementioned maintenance objectives of keeping the ERP system running, adapting the system to a new operating environment, and ensuring the system up to the vendor’s requirement for standard code; and realizing benefits such as competitive advantages from the system, the IT department staff has to collect some metrics or relevant data on patches and modifications done to the ERP system so that they can know or can tell the status and the performance of their maintenance activities. The authors in Fenton (1991), Fenton & Pfleeger (1997), and Florac (1992), agree that software maintenance data are useful for planning, assessment, tracking, and predictions on software maintenance. Although, there is a lot of literature on ERP, we find almost no literature on ERP maintenance metrics. Thus, this text is meant to provide some fundamental metrics on ERP patches and modifications which could be useful for ERP maintenance management in order to answer questions on the state of their ERP system, their patch implementation costs, and the ongoing maintenance costs for their previous modification or custom development.
Measuring the Benefits of Enterprise Architecture
Authors: Dyer Alan
Published: May 2010

Enterprise Architecture is the organising logic for business processes and Information Technology infrastructure, the purpose of which is to create a more effective organisation in the context of the business’s strategy and goals. However, the ability to measure the effectiveness of any activities initiated under the guise of Enterprise Architecture is limited, even more so in those organisations, such as government agencies, that do not recognise financial return on investment. In this chapter the author introduces the concept of Knowledge Management, linked to the strategic outcomes of Enterprise Architecture and proposes a maturity model framework for the measurement of Enterprise Architecture implementation. The aim of this chapter is to provide a basis for discussion of a wider Capability Maturity Profile with architectural frameworks to help develop and measure the benefits of implementing frameworks and architectures.
Enterprise Architecture as Context and Method for Designing and Implementing Information Security and Data Privacy Controls in Government Agencies
Authors: Bernard Scott , Ho Shuyuan Mary
Published: May 2010

Government agencies are committing an increasing amount of resources to information security and data privacy solutions in order to meet legal and mission requirements for protecting agency information in the face of increasingly sophisticated global threats. Enterprise Architecture (EA) provides an agency-wide context and method that includes a security sub-architecture which can be used to design and implement effective controls. EA is scalable, which promotes consistency and alignment in controls at the enterprise, program, and system levels. EA also can help government agencies improve existing security and data privacy programs by enabling them to move beyond a system-level perspective and begin to promote an enterprise-wide view of security and privacy, as well as improve the agility and effectiveness of lifecycle activities for the development, implementation, and operation of related security and privacy controls that will assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the agency’s data and information. This chapter presents the EA3 “Cube” EA methodology and framework, including an integrated security architecture, that is suitable for use by government agencies for the development of risk-adjusted security and privacy controls that are designed into the agency’s work processes, information flows, systems, applications, and network infrastructure.
Static and Dynamic Efficiency in the European Telecommunications Market
Authors: Distaso Walter , Lupi Paolo , Manenti Fabio M.
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors provide evidence of the effectiveness of European National Regulatory Authorities in applying the basic principles of the ladder of investment. The analysis discusses and compares the regulatory approach adopted in 12 European Countries from January 2005 to July 2007. Results are not easy to interpret, given the peculiarities of the different national markets. Nevertheless, they can conclude that the policies adopted by National Regulatory Authorities are broadly consistent with the ladder of investment theory.
Analyzing the Disruptive Potential in the Telecommunications Industry
Authors: Hüsig Stefan
Published: May 2010

This chapter covers an important issue in the area of telecommunications planning and technology management: The ex ante analysis of potential disruptive technologies. Due to the convergence of IT and telecommunications, an ever-growing onslaught of emerging technologies and new entrants with new business models are starting to eat up the incumbent’s revenues, profits, and market shares. The theory of disruptive technology (Christensen, 1997; Christensen & Raynor, 2003) helps managers, policy-makers and analysts to analyze emerging technologies, new business models, and new entrants in order to be prepared in advance, providing appropriate ways to react in a timely fashion to innovation- based opportunities or threats. In this chapter the theory of disruptive technology, the concept of disruptive potential and a method for applying this concept in a telecommunications planning and technology management context is presented. Finally, some examples of potential disruptive technologies in telecommunication which were analyzed ex ante are introduced with specific emphasis placed on the WLAN-technology.
Role of Telecommunications in Precision Agriculture
Authors: McKinion James M.
Published: May 2010

Precision agriculture has been made possible by the confluence of several technologies: geographic positioning systems, geographic information systems, image analysis software, low-cost microcomputer- based variable rate controller/recorders, and precision tractor guidance systems. While these technologies have made precision agriculture possible, there are still major obstacles which must be overcome to make this new technology accepted and usable. Most growers will not do image processing and development of prescription maps themselves but will rely upon commercial sources. There still remains the challenge of storage and retrieval of multi-megabytes of data files for each field, and this problem will only continue to grow year by year. This chapter will discuss the various wireless technologies which are currently being used on three proof-of-concept farms or areas in Mississippi, the various data/information intensive precision agriculture applications which use wireless local area networking and Internet access, and the next generation technologies which can immensely propel precision agriculture to widespread use in all of agriculture.
Implementing Successful Online Learning Communities
Authors: Beck Diane E. , Normann Sven A.
Published: May 2010

In the last decade, the number of courses using online learning has increased significantly and based on student demand; continued growth is projected. Although distance learning is well accepted, when compared to traditional classroom learning, lower student satisfaction, higher student attrition, and concerns about quality have been reported (Rovai, 2002a; Rovai, 2002b). The absence of “community” has been associated with each of these issues and this has stimulated research about how to successfully build a community in a virtual environment, to overcome these challenges. Successful online learning communities are also important for most blended learning courses (Rovai & Jordan, 2004). Discussion boards and other tools are being increasingly used to supplement instruction during traditional classroom courses. Therefore, across most courses in higher education today it is imperative that faculty members know how to establish and sustain successful online learning communities. The goals of this article are to a) define “online learning community” and delineate the factors that contribute to a successful learning community, b) review the evidence supporting the importance of a learning community in distance and online learning, and c) recommend strategies to promote achievement of a successful learning community.
Instructor Presence in Online Distance Classes
Authors: Lear Janet
Published: May 2010

Instructor presence are words that call to mind a professor at the front of a classroom lecturing to a room full of students. Today the image associated with instructor presence is quite different. The vision is one of an individual engaged with the student, leading, and mentoring students, and facilitating classes either visibly in the classroom or invisibly in the online environment. Instructor presence is a broad phrase that refers to the instructor’s jobs of structuring and presenting the materials as well as providing feedback and engaging with the student academically through e-mail, by telephone, or by instant messaging either text or video. The roles are different but the outcome is the same, student learning. Gone are the days where the instructor was the center of the class, lecturing and passing along knowledge to students. Because today’s learner is actively involved in the building of new knowledge, learning is more student-focused. As the environment changes, the instructor assumes a variety of roles from designer to facilitator to mentor. The new roles are the same for both instructors in the face-to-face classroom and instructors in the online environment. Instructors for classes in the online environment cannot just compile a site for the class with materials available to the students. Instructors need to have an online presence as they facilitate the class mentoring students, providing activities, encouraging students, and communicating with student on a regular basis.
Leadership Competency in Virtual Teams
Authors: Petska Deborah , Berge Zane
Published: May 2010

As organizations race to increase their global market share, traditional face-to-face teams are evolving into virtual teams. Aided by swift advances in communication technology, virtual teams allow organizations to pool the intellectual resources of geographically dispersed experts from multiple fields to achieve organizational goals and advance the corporate mission. Virtual teams benefit organizations by saving travel costs and time lost away from work. Although similar to traditional teams in many ways, the virtual team’s dispersed nature necessitates different leadership competencies, the use of multiple communication media, and more structure and guidelines (Stone & Thach, 1999). With a growing number of organizations now relying on virtual teams to perform work, there is also increased recognition that strong leadership is critical to the successful functioning of virtual teams. However, the additional component of technology used by virtual teams is sometimes overlooked when organizations develop their core competency models.
Student Support Services
Authors: Howell Scott L. , Wilcken Wendi
Published: May 2010

Success secret number one for a successful online learning program, according to Jeffrey Feldberg, chairman and CEO of Embanet Corp. and who has launched several successful online programs, is “live technical support” (Feldberg, 2001, p. 1). Many student support services, like technical support, are critical to the successful learning experience of all students, but especially for students who are engaged in online learning at a distance. One director of student support services for an online learning program said it this way: “If they’re having trouble with the technology, it’s like showing up at class and the door’s locked and they can’t get in” (Kelly, 2001, p.5). And, just as trouble with technology may keep the class door locked for one student, so can any other unmet student need for another student.
The Use of Public Health Surveillance Data for Preventive Control of Diseases That Depend On Individual Risky Behavior
Authors: Ghotbi N. , Claster W.
Published: May 2010

E-health systems can be used to communicate the risk of significant infectious diseases such as HIV infection to individuals who contemplate taking the risk of the personal behavioral choices they make. Access to an on-line system which communicates this data in a user-friendly format, can help avoid high-risk behavior by informed individuals who live in different areas with various levels of risk. We present the case of HIV infection in Japan where many individuals have voluntarily continued a high-risk behavior because apparently they consider the overall risk of infection too low to forgo the personal benefits of risky behavior such as more pleasure, less inconvenience, etc. We discuss how a user friendly e-health system can provide geographical risk data that are extracted from HIV epidemiological surveillance. This can provide individuals with a rational incentive for behavior change in high-risk areas. It is hoped that such a system helps with the control of not only HIV, but also other agents of disease in situations where individual choices play a significant role in the risk of exposure/disease.
Mental Health Management in New Zealand
Authors: Cooper G. J.
Published: May 2010

This chapter outlines the approach to mental health care developed and currently being implemented by Pathways New Zealand for reducing disease risk factors in patients treated for mental health problems. Pathways New Zealand was formed in 1989 following the closure of the major mental service facility for the Waikato-Hauraki Region of New Zealand, Tokonui Hospital. Since that time Pathways has grown to a national level service offering services to its clients ranging from 24-hour supported accommodation, through healthy lifestyles programs, to outcomes based services including patient access to and involvement in the management of their medical and personal history data (ICAN). Gavin Cooper, Pathways Housing Management Coordinator for the Waikato-Hauraki Region, in conjunction with the Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC) has developed a holistic system for the treatment of environmentally induced mental illness that includes chemical treatment, exercise programs, self-help training and community support. The results of a two year program of research into the impact of this program are reported on in this chapter, and its suitability for wider adoption discussed. These comments are partly based on research statistics provided by the Centre for Sports Exercise Science (WINTEC) and Mike Dove, Team Leader Residential, Pathways.
An Exploratory Study to Understand the Drivers and Inhibitors for the Successful Adoption of Wireless Technology in Australian Healthcare Systems
Authors: Hafeez-Baig Abdul , Gururajan Raj
Published: May 2010

According to the Australian Department of Health and Aging (n.d.) the adoption of new technologies is crucial in addressing health issues. Currently, wireless technology is used in Australian healthcare with limited scope, addressing specific aspects of quality of service offered to various stakeholders. While prior studies agree that wireless applications have the potential to address the endemic problems of healthcare, very limited information can be found about the determinants of such applications. Therefore, there is a need to identify factors that may assist in the adoption of wireless applications in healthcare and the factors acting as barriers in the uptake of such applications. This chapter reports on a study designed to elicit these factors using a semi structured interview approach and surveys. The study is structured in two specific phases. The first phase involved a semi structured interview with selected healthcare professionals to understand various factors involved in the adoption of wireless applications as applicable to Australian healthcare. The second phase involved administering a survey to generalize the findings of phase one and to capture the views of the wider population.
TACMIS
Authors: Cassim M.
Published: May 2010

TACMIS is an inclusive solution to the management of health care and medical information and its design is based on a detailed process analysis of patient journeys and the pathways of clinical care of stroke patients as they progress from acute care, through rehabilitation to discharge and independent living, often with a residual disability. The findings are the work of a team based in the Discovery Research Laboratory at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. The clinical analysis was conducted at King’s College Hospital in London and in several care institutions for the disabled and the aged in Japan.
Human-Inspired Granular Computing
Authors: Yao Yiyu
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, I explore a view of granular computing as a paradigm of human-inspired problem solving and information processing, covering human-oriented studies and machine-oriented studies. By exploring the notion of multiple levels of granularity, one can identify, examine and formalize a special family of principles, strategies, heuristics, and methods that are commonly used by humans in daily problem solving. The results may then be used for human and machine problem solving, as well as for implementing human-inspired approaches in machines and systems. The triarchic theory of granular computing unifies both types of studies from three perspectives, namely, a philosophy of structured thinking, a methodology of structured problem solving, and a computation paradigm of structured information processing. The stress on multilevel, hierarchical structures makes granular computing a human-inspired and structured approach to problem solving.
On Characterization of Relation Based Rough Set Algebras
Authors: Wu Wei-Zhi , Zhang Wen-Xiu
Published: May 2010

Rough set theory is one of the most advanced areas popularizing GrC. The basic notions in rough set theory are the lower and upper approximation operators. A rough set algebra is a set algebra with two additional lower and upper approximation operators. In this chapter, we analyze relation based rough set algebras in both crisp and fuzzy environments. We first review the constructive definitions of generalized crisp rough approximation operators, rough fuzzy approximation operators, and fuzzy rough approximation operators. We then present the essential properties of the corresponding lower and upper approximation operators. We also characterize the approximation operators by using the axiomatic approach. Finally, the connection between fuzzy rough set algebras and fuzzy topological spaces is established.
Rule Extraction and Rule Evaluation Based on Granular Computing
Authors: Liang Jiye , Qian Yuhua , Li Deyu
Published: May 2010

In rough set theory, rule extraction and rule evaluation are two important issues. In this chapter, the concepts of positive approximation and converse approximation are first introduced, which can be seen as dynamic approximations of target concepts based on a granulation order. Then, two algorithms for rule extraction called MABPA and REBCA are designed and applied to hierarchically generate decision rules from a decision table. Furthermore, to evaluate the whole performance of a decision rule set, three kinds of measures are proposed for evaluating the certainty, consistency and support of a decision-rule set extracted from a decision table, respectively. The experimental analyses on several decision tables show that these three new measures are adequate for evaluating the decision performance of a decision-rule set extracted from a decision table in rough set theory. The measures may be helpful for determining which rule extraction technique should be chosen in a practical decision problem.
Granular Computing in Formal Concept
Authors: Ma Yuan , Liu Zhangang , Zhang Xuedong
Published: May 2010

Granular computing has permeated through the field of formal concept; it is another new and rapid developmental aspect of formal concept. In this chapter, we’ll regard supremum semisublattice, infimum semisublattice and sublattice as “granule”. When a set of granules covers the lattice, “granular space” is called on the concept lattice. We study mainly granular spaces generated by ideal-filter congruence relations and tolerance relations. We emphasize properties of these granular spaces and generating methods of these granular spaces. By our viewpoint to study granular computing in formal concept, we find out that it shows profound relation and essence of various sublattices.
Granular Synthesis of Rule-Based Models and Function Approximation Using Rough Sets
Authors: Pinheiro Carlos , Gomide Fernando , Carpinteiro Otávio , Lima Isaías
Published: May 2010

This chapter suggests a new method to develop rule-based models using concepts about rough sets. The rules encapsulate relations among variables and give a mechanism to link granular descriptions of the models with their computational procedures. An estimation procedure is suggested to compute values from granular representations encoded by rule sets. The method is useful to develop granular models of static and dynamic nonlinear systems and processes. Numerical examples illustrate the main features and the usefulness of the method.
A Genetic Fuzzy Semantic Web Search Agent Using Granular Semantic Trees for Ambiguous Queries
Authors: Chen Yan , Zhang Yan-Qing
Published: May 2010

For most Web searching applications, queries are commonly ambiguous because words or phrases have different linguistic meanings for different Web users. The conventional keyword-based search engines cannot disambiguate queries to provide relevant results matching Web users’ intents. Traditional Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) methods use statistic models or ontology-based knowledge systems to measure associations among words. The contexts of queries are used for disambiguation in these methods. However, due to the fact that numerous combinations of words may appear in queries and documents, it is difficult to extract concepts’ relations for all possible combinations. Moreover, queries are usually short, so contexts in queries do not always provide enough information to disambiguate queries. Therefore, the traditional WSD methods are not sufficient to provide accurate search results for ambiguous queries. In this chapter, a new model, Granular Semantic Tree (GST), is introduced for more conveniently representing associations among concepts than the traditional WSD methods. Additionally, users’ preferences are used to provide personalized search results that better adapt to users’ unique intents. Fuzzy logic is used to determine the most appropriate concepts related to queries based on contexts and users’ preferences. Finally, Web pages are analyzed by the GST model. The concepts of pages for the queries are evaluated, and the pages are re-ranked according to similarities of concepts between pages and queries.
Security Implications for Management from the Onset of Information Terrorism
Authors: Webb Ken
Published: May 2010

This chapter results from a qualitative research study finding that a heightened risk for management has emerged from a new security environment that is increasingly spawning asymmetric forms of Information Warfare. In particular, there is evidence that after recent terrorist events there has been a lift in security across the world and identification of terrorists now able to conduct Information Warfare. Also concerning is that, over the years, there have been many interpretations of what constitutes this threat. Therefore, after extensively reviewing literature mainly on Information Warfare and Terrorism, this chapter defines for readers what the threat of Information Terrorism is and the new dynamic security environment that it has created. Security implications for management have subsequently evolved, as they are now required to think about the philosophical considerations emerging from this increasing threat, and these are outlined and form the basis for future thinking.
"eSME Slovenia"
Authors: Pucihar Andreja , Lenart Gregor
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces e-strategies, initiatives and action planes in the European Union intended for the successful implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, according to which Europe should become the most competitive and dynamic society based on knowledge by 2010. These strategies are the baseline for the national policies, strategies and initiatives in every European Union country. The chapter presents policies, legislation environment and initiatives being adopted in Slovenia. Moreover, data about e-business development in Slovenia is also presented. As in other EU countries, it is evident that SMEs are generally lagging behind large organizations as far as the adoption and usage of e-commerce is concerned. The situation was a background for the preparation of the eSMEs Slovenia initiative and action plan to accelerate e-business introduction and adoption in SMEs. The initiative and action plan consist of 12 actions, which are elaborated in this chapter. The initiative was supported by the ministers of the Ministry of Higher Education and Technology, the Ministry of Public Administration, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Development and other involved institutions. Thus, the initiative presents an important framework for the further uptake of e-business adoption by SMEs. The chapter is concluded by a summary of the chapter’s main contributions.