bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Informed Decision Making With Enterprise Dynamic Systems Control
Authors: Guerreiro Sérgio Luís
Published: June 2017

The information systems are designed, implemented and managed using abstractions layers to cope with the huge organizational complexity that is nowadays posed and also to facilitate the discussion between the different stakeholders of an organization that have diverse perspectives and interpretations of it. Those discussions drive to the classical requirements elicitation stage that aims at identifying the best short-, mid- or long-term models to view, understand and operate the organization and to facilitate the forthcoming IS transformations. This article conceptualizes and identifies open research challenges in the scope of informed decision-making applied to business processes execution environments. Control is used to cope the workarounds that occur while actors operate. A workaround occurs when an actor decide to adapt, improvise, or perform other change to one or more aspects of an existing model. In some situations, a workaround could indicate new, and innovative, ways of actors performing their duties. It is not necessarily harmful for the organization.
A Nature-Inspired Metaheuristic Approach for Generating Alternatives
Authors: Yeomans Julian Scott
Published: June 2017

“Real world” decision-making often involves complex problems that are riddled with incompatible and inconsistent performance objectives. These problems typically possess competing design requirements which are very difficult – if not impossible – to quantify and capture at the time that any supporting decision models are constructed. There are invariably unmodelled design issues, not apparent during the time of model construction, which can greatly impact the acceptability of the model's solutions. Consequently, when solving many practical mathematical programming applications, it is generally preferable to formulate numerous quantifiably good alternatives that provide very different perspectives to the problem. This solution approach is referred to as modelling-to-generate-alternatives (MGA). This study demonstrates how the nature-inspired, Firefly Algorithm can be used to efficiently create multiple solution alternatives that both satisfy required system performance criteria and yet are maximally different in their decision spaces.
Digital Literacy
Authors: Ray Anirban
Published: June 2017

The essay provides a comprehensive overview of digital literacy, looking at the theoretical and ideological construct of the term from functional and critical perspectives. Digital literacy as a heterogeneous concept, its scope and application is claimed by diverse stakeholder disciplines such as education, communication studies, English, media studies, library information studies and computing. The essay underlines the complementary notions of digital literacy couched in both “conceptual” as well as “standardized operational” definitions (Lankshear & Knobel 2008) and sheds light on the shifting implications of global digital literacy. From this perspective, it scans the global landscape to understand the diffusion of digital literacy and to show how the concept is tackled within a disparate contexts of use. The essay also highlights contemporary issues associated with the spread of digital literacy, including challenges of cross-cultural digital literacy and digital divide.
Development of Communication Skills through Auditory Training Software in Special Education
Authors: Contreras Eduardo C. , Contreras Isis I.
Published: June 2017

There have been issues identified regarding the education of children with hearing disorders. Those do not allow the development of communicative-linguistic competence and language, in addition to an efficient oral or written communication. This causes deficits in vocabulary, delay in morph syntactic structure. Education Technologies such as auditory training software have become an educational support for teachers and students. Software was developed to improve communication skills divided into modules with ascending degrees of difficulty they are presented in various environments and semantic fields. After about 4 months of effective use in an eight month period, applied to 45 preschool and elementary school students aged between 4 and 12 years, considering that 11 children present auditory handicap and the rest intellectual handicap, the results obtained were the following: The learning is globally 30% of the vocabulary contained in the application, 30 of 90 words. Word articulation is improved 50%, in attention span the period of attention increased from 3 to about 9 minutes.
Digital Storytelling in Language Classes
Authors: Rahimi Mehrak
Published: June 2017

The aim of the current chapter is introducing an innovative technique of teaching and learning that is the combination of the art of storytelling with the benefits of technology. Digital storytelling is defined as sharing one's story through several medium of voice, imagery, music, text, sound, video and animation. The main underlying theoretical basis of digital storytelling is Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) that focuses on how people learn more deeply from words and graphics than from words alone (Mayer, 2005). The chapter deals with what digital storytelling is, the theoretical framework of digital storytelling, its role in education and how it can be made and used in teaching and learning by teachers and students.
The Infusion of Technology Within the Classroom Facilitates Students' Autonomy in Their Learning
Authors: Mohan Fariel , Soomarah Garry
Published: June 2017

This experiment investigated whether the infusion of technology in teaching as a scaffolding tool can improve the pass rate of mathematics at the University of Trinidad & Tobago. The use of technology facilitated the building of a virtual classroom which was based on scaffolding thus aiding students by either peers or the instructor until they are comfortable to move onto a next level. The virtual classroom was used to stimulate discussions on students' knowledge of mathematics ensuring no focus was on the technology nor the instructor. These discussions provide opportunities for the students to discover his/her existing level within the learning community. Within this learning community, everybody was anonymous including the instructor thus motivating the students to comment on the reflective questions. This encouraged students to collaborate and provide prompt feedback. Suggestions obtained from the students into improving the virtual classroom were considered resulting into 4 virtual classrooms.
Mechanisms of Electrical Conductivity in Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene
Authors: Vargas-Bernal Rafael
Published: June 2017

There is enormous interest in carbon nanomaterials, due to their exceptional physical properties, from the perspective of science and engineering of materials applied to the electronics industry. Until now, significant progress has been made towards understanding the mechanisms of electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes and graphene. However, scientists around the world even today continue studying these mechanisms, for exploiting them fully in different electronic applications with a high technological impact. This article discusses the mechanisms of electrical conductivity of both nanomaterials, analyzes the present implications, and projects its importance for future generations of electronic devices. In particular, it is important to note that different mechanisms may be identified when these nanomaterials are used individually, when they are incorporated as fillers in composite materials or hybrid materials, or even when they are doped or functionalized. Finally, other electrical variables with important role in electrical conductivity of these materials are also explored.
E-Commerce Models, Players, and Its Future
Authors: Yu Liguo
Published: June 2017

This chapter describes e-commerce, a trading business built on top of the Internet. Different e-commerce models, such as B2B, B2C, C2C, and their major players are described. E-commerce companies like Amazon and Alibaba, are used to explain the effect of e-commerce on our economy, society, and beyond. GMV, MAU, market capitalization, and other business data are presented and analyzed. Influential factors, such as user retention, government policy, payment method, and logistics are also discussed. Finally, the emerging e-commerce model, emerging e-commerce market, and the future of e-commerce are illustrated.
Online Mediation in E-Commerce Matters
Authors: Pulido Ángela Coello
Published: June 2017

Conflict is not an exceptional fact in human being's life but an ordinary phenomenon in relationships between parties who have different points of view and different positions. Moreover, e-commerce has increased its importance in the last years because of its usefulness in business world. Information and Communications Technology is an unquestionable reality and, because of that, online relationships should be developed in an agile, certain and peaceful way. To that effect, it must be emphasized that an amicable settlement instead of going to court could be appropriate in this field. Therefore, mediation is an useful instrument in order to fulfill that task, because even though the intervention of a mediator, the solution arises from the decision of the parties. The aim of this chapter is to describe why online mediation is an appropriate instrument for conflict solving in e-commerce field and what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of this ODR not only for citizens but also for organizations.
IT Service Management Architectures
Authors: Tambo Torben , Filtenborg Jacob
Published: June 2017

IT service providers tend to view their services as quasi-embedded in the client organisations infrastructure. Therefore, IT service providers lack a full picture of being an organisation with its own enterprise archicture. By systematically developing an enterprise architecture using the unification operating model, IT service providers can much more efficient develop relevant service catalogues with connected reporting services related to SLA's and KPI's based on ITIL and newer frameworks like SIAM.
Chemistry Learning Through Designing Digital Games
Authors: Osman Kamisah , Lay Ah-Nam
Published: June 2017

Students in the 21st century need to become proficient in both chemistry and the 21st century skills. Chemistry is often called the central science Indeed the knowledge of chemistry is the foundation for innovation, scientific literacy and most notably problem solving in connection with sustainable development. Apart from knowledge, innovation and problem solving in the 21st century requires a new range of skills known as 21st century skills. Unfortunately, chemistry is usually considered difficult. Moreover, there are fewer studies that focus simultaneously on enhancing conceptual understanding and developing the 21st century skills. Therefore, we initiated an innovation by designing a new module, known as MyKimDG, to support the acquisition of concepts and provide opportunities for them to apply the 21st century skills. The purpose of this article is to present conceptual framework of MyKimDG and demonstrate a brief lesson in MyKimDG to the teaching and learning of a specific chemistry unit.
The Gender Dimension in Urban Air Quality
Authors: Slini Theodora , Pavlidou Fotini-Niovi
Published: June 2017

In the frame of existing differences between genders regarding the access and control of resources, women and men have also different vulnerability, capacities and reactions to climate change and global warming issues and policies. Women are increasingly recognized as potentially critical actors of successful climate change policies. Thus, gender dimensions and perspectives need to be addressed by both global and local stakeholders and decision makers. The current chapter aims at exploring and highlighting this gap. It identifies the current situation and indicates ways for authorities to integrate the gender dimension of climate change in the various stages of policy-making. The focus is on European countries and Greece. The chapter stands as a starting point which introduces gender-sensitive aspects of climate change to decision-makers and experts and promotes the development of efficient environmental and women-friendly technologies for sustainable development.
Geospatial Influence in Science Mapping
Authors: Granell-Canut Carlos , Aguilar-Moreno Estefanía
Published: June 2017

The chapter aims at drawing attention to the possibilities that geospatial technologies can bring to science mapping. In what follows, the chapter briefly distinguishes the notion of mapping between the Geospatial Information Science (GIScience) and Librarianship and Information Science (LIS). Afterwards, an overview about recent initiatives and research work relative to (geospatial) mapping of science is presented. Based on these examples, opportunities and challenges of applying geospatial technology to science mapping are discussed. Finally, based on relevant while evolving geospatial technologies, next steps for increasing up the influence of geospatial technology in science mapping are pointed out.
Parallel Development of Three Major Space Technology Systems and Human Side of Information Reference Services as an Essential Complementary Method
Authors: Maphanyane Joyce Gosata
Published: June 2017

The first human footprints dated more than 1, 9 million years ago; the Homo erectus Era; ‘upright man'; marks the beginning of man socio-economic-Historical Development. It culminated to Bronze Age, Iron Age, Industrial Revolution and currently Information Age. The current Era has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society. Individuals are able to transfer information freely, with instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult/ impossible previously. This chapter elaborates upon GIS/Remote Sensing; the highest echelon in ICT world. It compares and contrasts the four globally used GIS systems of GOES: the Geosynchronous Orbiting Environmental Satellite; LANDSAT, SPOT: Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre and the WorldView. Their temporal resolution; spatial resolution (Figure 6 – WorldView3); spectral resolution (Figure7 Landsat8); radiometric resolution (Figure8 WorldView3) and their DEM characteristics (Figure9 SPOT DEM) are reviewed. The human side of information reference services in the form of TEK is alluded to.
The Adoption and Transformation of Capability Maturity Models in Government
Authors: Buss Terry F.
Published: June 2017

Capability maturity models (CMM), an out growth of the decades old quality movement, and originally developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute for the US Defense Department in the 1980s as a way to improve software engineering, has become the inspiration for similar models addressing every aspect of public management by governments around the world. CMM posits several evolutionary stages that organizations must pass through to achieve increasingly higher levels of capability in achieving quality. Stages are determined by research evidence, expert opinion, best practices and evaluations. While CMM has produced some impressive gains, it has drawn criticism for lacking a theoretical underpinning, exorbitant costs, being somewhat subjective and lack of success in many organizations. The field has no universal agreed upon standards, so it may be necessary to create an organization to study and vet various CMM applications. The field as it matures presents an excellent opportunity to study public management in the context of organizations employing CMM.
E-Activism Development and Growth
Authors: McNutt John G. , Goldkind Lauri
Published: June 2017

The use of sophisticated technology to promote social change has developed over the past three decades from tentative beginnings to an expected part of the arsenal of movement organizations and advocacy groups. The development of practical politics throughout the world has made greater use of ever more sophisticated technologies. This article will discuss the nature of e-activism, the development of electronic social change activities, the organizational and practice issues, the research base and the potential future developments in the field.
The Optimal Workforce Staffing Solutions With Random Patient Demand in Healthcare Settings
Authors: Kolker Alexander
Published: June 2017

Staffing planning is paramount for cost-efficient workforce management. An accurate assessment of the required staffing level for the specific time period is an integral part of the hospital budgeting and planning process. Daily fluctuations of patient census create staffing planning challenges to many organizations. There is a growing trend for hospitals to use data analytics for determining the optimal staffing solutions. The dynamic nature of the staffing process creates two types of issues: (1) overstaffing vs. the planned budgeted level, which hurts operations margins; or (2) understaffing, which requires costly overtime and/or premium pay that also hurts margins and causes substandard quality of care. The goal of this chapter is providing an overview and examples of application of the methodology called the “newsvendor” framework. This methodology helps developing the optimal nursing and other skill mix staffing solutions that minimize the total cost of over- and understaffing occurrences within the specified time period for the units with random patient census fluctuations.
Technology Policies and Practices in Higher Education
Authors: McKenna Kelly
Published: June 2017

This study investigated the personal technology policies practiced and modeled in teacher preparation courses at a teaching intensive university in the Rocky Mountain region. Both explicit and implicit classroom policies were revealed for teacher preparation classes to determine support for the allowance of technology by preservice teachers during their coursework. These teacher preparation classrooms are filled with digital learners who are mandated to integrate technology into their future teaching. But, how is personal technology assimilation being demonstrated to preservice teachers? Syllabi from all teacher preparation classes were reviewed, revealing that 45% contained an explicitly stated technology policy. Teacher education instructors were then surveyed with primarily open-ended questions to further investigate technology policies and use in the classroom. Overall integration of smart devices is not being modeled in teacher preparation classrooms at this teaching intensive university.
Computer-Assisted Indian Matrimonial Services
Authors: Fisher Robert Leslie
Published: June 2017

The focus of the present paper is on the way the computer has been harnessed to assist both an ancient custom of arranged marriage and its practitioners (known as matchmakers) rather than on the internet usage of people looking for love in the Internet era. The principal argument is that the computer assisted matchmaking, because it offers the opportunity for fine grained analysis, is beneficial to the couple and thus improves the chances that the marriage will be durable and happy for both the man and his wife.
Screen Culture
Authors: Melro Ana , Oliveira Lídia
Published: June 2017

For several years now, technology usage cannot be separated from screens. Examples such as television, computer, smartphone, mobile phone, tablet, e-book reader, multimedia player (music and / or audio), camera and camcorder, watch, digital advertising public panels, virtual reality glasses. In fact, if the goal is to understand what can be considered as a screen, the examples will not cease to increase. The major goal of the article is to explore the screen definition and the way in which it has emerged in society, in a cross way, almost without being noticed, but ubiquitously, even becoming inseparable from most of the necessary activities.
Technology Assessment of Information and Communication Technologies
Authors: Grunwald Armin , Orwat Carsten
Published: June 2017

Technology Assessment (TA) has taken up the field of Information Science and Technology (IST) as a subject of study from the 1970s on. Nowadays, this field is of central relevance to TA in a triple respect: (a) as research field per se, e.g. with regard to impact dimensions such as privacy, data protection, increasing use of autonomous agents, safety and security, sustainable development, intellectual property rights, regulation, societal vulnerability, et cetera. It is (b) also of major and even increasing importance by entering and influencing other fields of technology, e.g. energy supply, military, robotics, logistics, nanotechnology, cognitive science, neuroscience, et cetera. Finally (c), several new services made available by IST developments are of high utility in TA practice of scientific projects and policy advice, e.g. in the fields of e-participation. This article provides an overview of TA with respect to its origin, its development, and its current situation in general, followed by a more specific consideration of TA themes and activities in the IST field.
Cuckoo Search Algorithm for Solving Real Industrial Multi-Objective Scheduling Problems
Authors: Marichelvam Mariappan Kadarkarainadar , Geetha Mariappan
Published: June 2017

A multistage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem is considered in this chapper with the objective of minimizing the makespan and mean flow time. Since the problem is NP-hard in nature, many heuristics and meta-heuristics were developed by the researchers. cuckoo search algorithm is one of the recently developed meta–heuristic algorithms inspired by the social behavior of cuckoos. The cuckoo search algorithm is presented in this paper to solve the hybrid flow shop scheduling problems. To illustrate the proposed algorithm, data sets from a steel furniture manufacturing company are used. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm is better than many other algorithms.
Computer Information Library Clusters
Authors: Yuhua Fu
Published: June 2017

Based on creating generalized and hybrid set and library with neutrosophy and quad-stage method, this paper presents the concept of “computer information library clusters” (CILC). There are various ways and means to form CILC. For example, CILC can be considered as the “total-library”, and consists of several “sub-libraries”. As another example, in CILC, a “total-library” can be set up, and a number of “sub-libraries” are side by side with the “total-library”. Specially, for CILC, the operation functions can be added; for example, according to “natural science computer information library clusters” (natural science CILC), and applying “variation principle of library (or sub-library)”, “partial and temporary unified theory of natural science so far” with different degrees can be established. Referring to the concept of “natural science CILC”, the concepts of “social science CILC”, “natural science and social science CILC”, and the like, can be presented. While, referreing to the concept of “computer information library clusters”, the concepts of “computer and non-computer information library clusters”, “earth information library clusters”, “solar system information library clusters”, “Milky Way galaxy information library clusters”, “universe information library clusters”, and the like, can be presented.
Cognitive Mapping in Support of Intelligent Information Systems
Authors: Esfahanipour Akbar , Montazemi Ali Reza
Published: June 2017

This article provides a review of the recent applications and trends on cognitive mapping techniques in support of the design and development of intelligent information systems. Cognitive maps are inference networks, using cyclic directed graphs for knowledge representation and reasoning. Cognitive mapping techniques are widely used to analyze causal systems such as industrial marketing planning, risk management, and product planning. Four knowledge management categories are adopted in this paper to portray different applications of cognitive mapping techniques in the design and development of intelligent information systems. These four categories are knowledge creation, knowledge storage/retrieval, Knowledge transfer, and Knowledge application.
Decimal Hardware Multiplier
Authors: Vestias Mário Pereira
Published: June 2017

IEEE-754 2008 has extended the standard with decimal floating point arithmetic. Human-centric applications, like financial and commercial, depend on decimal arithmetic since the results must match exactly those obtained by human calculations without being subject to errors caused by decimal to binary conversions. Decimal Multiplication is a fundamental operation utilized in many algorithms and it is referred in the standard IEEE-754 2008. Decimal multiplication has an inherent difficulty associated with the representation of decimal numbers using a binary number system. Both bit and digit carries, as well as invalid results, must be considered in decimal multiplication in order to produce the correct result. This article focuses on algorithms for hardware implementation of decimal multiplication. Both decimal fixed-point and floating-point multiplication are described, including iterative and parallel solutions.
Eight Tips for the Theme, “Data and Forecasts”
Authors: Drivet Alessio
Published: June 2017

Paul was a common octopus living in a public aquarium in Germany. It became internationally known during the World Cup in 2010 when it was used to “predict” the results of football games. Paul correctly predicted all the outcomes. What animal best of octopus, with its eight tentacles-tips, lends itself to introduce non-deterministic phenomena? In the text, teachers who want to develop the theme “Data and forecasts” will find eight ideas. These ideas are supported by the use of artifacts, digital tools and Web resources.
iSchools Promoting “Information Science and Technology” (IST) Domain Towards Community, Business, and Society With Contemporary Worldwide Trend and Emerging Potentialities in India
Authors: Paul P. K. , Chatterjee D.
Published: June 2017

iSchool or I-School or Information School is one of the important names in the present age. It is treated as oxygen for several organizations, Institutions and sectors such as Health, Government, Academia, business and commerce for solid and sophisticated Information and Technological Solution. Owing to the extreme importance of information, several academic units around the world have established Information Schools (I-Schools) on the line of IT schools or B- schools. I-Schools are academic units which work for professional and academic solution of Information and Technologies. Information Schools are responsible for providing manpower in the field of Information and Technologies and Computing with the focus of Information. Information Schools are abbreviated as I-School and many schools and departments are make a consortium and designated as Information School.
Utilizing Information Science and Technology in Franchise Organizations
Authors: Chen Ye-Sho
Published: June 2017

Franchising involves with grating and receiving business rights. In addition to the popular growth strategy for many businesses, franchising has emerged over the years as a pathway to wealth creation for entrepreneurs. In this paper we first discuss the information science of franchising, including franchisor/franchisee relationship and the essential indicators needed to pertain and flourish the good relationship; and the inevitability of collaborative learning and innovation, which leads us to the discussion of the working knowledge development among the franchisor and the fellow franchisees. Second, we discuss that an attention-based IT infrastructure that will enable the knowledge sharing and dissemination between the franchisor and the franchisee.
Intrusion Tolerance Techniques
Authors: Zhao Wenbing
Published: June 2017

We believe that the research and development of intrusion tolerant systems will gain more momentum as more and more services are offered online. The expectation of such services is high, considering their essential roles in everyday operations of businesses and individuals as well. The impact of service unavailability and security breaches will only be more serious. In this chapter, we will survey the state of the art techniques for building intrusion tolerant systems. We will also illustrate a few most urgent open issues for future research. Finally, we point out that to build secure and dependable systems, we need a concerted effort in intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, and intrusion tolerance.
Steganography Using Biometrics
Authors: Kalita Manashee , Majumder Swanirbhar
Published: June 2017

In this smart age, smart gadgets with internet connectivity have become necessity of modern life. While enjoying these facilities one must count the security of their private or confidential information. With due time, a lot of cryptographic methods have been developed for enforcing security. On the other hand, with the advancement of technologies the intruders and hackers have also developed their skills and tools. Therefore, many times we fail to protect our information. To get rid of this situation, the developers have to focus on some other method besides cryptography. Steganography can be considered as the solution to overcome this problem, as it is the technique which conceal the existence of any secret information in a usual media file. Moreover, inclusion of biometric with steganography enhances the security level, as biometric systems are dominating the field of authentication nowadays. Here, various techniques of steganography, biometric and steganography using biometrics will be discussed. Finally present scenario of steganography using Biometrics will be demonstrated.
Theory and Practice of Online Knowledge Sharing
Authors: Ma Will W. K.
Published: June 2017

The concept of knowledge sharing finds historical support in theories on the acquisition and creation of knowledge. While the key to knowledge sharing depends on frequent and regular social interaction, the recent rapid development of the Internet has enhanced much of the social interaction taking place among individuals at any time, at any place, and with any person. Through a review of the literature, this chapter defines online knowledge sharing, discusses the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors in explaining online knowledge behavior, explores the various forms of knowledge sharing in different online learning environments, and reviews the measurement of online knowledge sharing. The chapter also discusses online knowledge-sharing issues that should be addressed in future.
Missing Part of Halal Supply Chain Management
Authors: Hendayani Ratih , Fernando Yudi
Published: June 2017

The increasing Halal product demand in the world made the Halal product industry should make sure all companies operation especially companies supply chain could guarantee product Halalness, so companies supply chain should comply Shariah or Islamic law. Some research about Halal supply chain already publish and give various perspectives about this topic. But unfortunately, there are one important thing that not discuss in previous research about Halal supply chain, the one important things is Islamic financial system that actually can support operation of Halal supply chain because based on the Islamic financial concept, the Halal supply chain can be not Halal or barakah if the supply chain financing not also comply with the Islamic law. For the integrated Halal supply chain, need included the Islamic Financial system, and this chapter will discuss Islamic financial that include in the Halal supply chain such as a Halal fund for the supply chain cost and Halal Financial flow. And bring a new perspective and definition of Halal supply chain management.
Empirical Verification of the Performance Measurement System
Authors: Janeš Aleksander
Published: June 2017

In their endeavor to increase profits, companies usually become aware that this is predominantly the result of employee competence and satisfaction, processes excellence and customer's satisfaction. Based on that assertion, companies integrate different managerial tools in the performance measurement system (PMS) and therefore in their management system. One of the most dominant managerial tools is the Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard (BSC). In this research, the approach that represents the basis for further work in the field of research in PMSs of companies, with the use of econometric tools, was empirically tested and developed.
Shaping Mega-Science Projects and Practical Steps for Success
Authors: Crosby Phil
Published: June 2017

Too many large engineering/science projects fail in terms of budget overruns, schedule slippage, or under-performance, and this has profound implications not only for the construction and commissioning organisations, but also for the funders (public or private), and the clients or users. Successful design and delivery is therefore not only a commercial necessity but also a societal imperative. Success in complex mega-projects is not easily achieved and is interpreted differently by various stakeholders, moreover there is growing recognition of the importance of front-end shaping. In this chapter, the author addresses the inception, planning and feasibility phases of complex mega-projects in some depth, based on extant and updated research of large scale high-technology science projects. Five key success drivers are explained, and when addressed together, are shown to be especially potent. This chapter draws out subtle aspects of mega-project management shown to be crucial at the preliminary, or start-up, phase.
Staying Ahead in Business Through Innovation
Authors: Rao N. Raghavendra
Published: June 2017

Globalization has created new trends such as market consolidation, vertical market strategies and mergers in the business world. These trends have forced many business enterprises to adapt themselves to these new phenomena. Now it has become a necessity for many business enterprises to look for “New Approach” which can help them to face new realities in business. The most talked about and discussed about “New Approach” in the business world is “Innovation Management”. Some enterprises have started declaring innovation as their objective, but they do not seem to follow it up with any concrete action or support of their objective, some of them being under the impression that somehow someone will find an idea that would help their enterprise to improve their revenues and reduce their costs. This approach clearly indicates the lack of clarity on innovation management. This paper explains the various forms of innovation and discusses a case illustration in respect of innovative approach followed by a textile mill in India.
Are Social Marketing Investments Used as a Tool for Voluntary Reporting or Disclosure?
Authors: Uysal Tugba Ucma , Kurt Ganite , Karabulut Ali Naci
Published: June 2017

The need to respond to a number of issues that are experienced due to increasing population at the global level and volume of production have resulted with the development of new corporate behavioral patterns of enterprises. It is possible to say that the process of change in question constitutes new milestones both in terms of reporting and marketing. The study on hand emphasizes a social marketing and sustainability reporting that includes social sanctions per se which is based on voluntariness and which is being applied by enterprises to express themselves within the scope of daily business practices, and exemplifying cases are being presented regarding the utilization of social marketing investments of organizations in terms of voluntary reporting and disclosure.
Marketing and Marketing Plan for Information Services
Authors: Maravilhas Sérgio
Published: June 2017

Marketing is a social and economic process through which individuals and groups meet their needs and desires by creating and exchanging products among themselves. Initially, marketing was practiced by companies in selling sectors of products and services and did not seem to fit the non commercial side. In recent decades almost all types of organizations adopted the methods and practices of marketing, including information services. It is necessary to develop a program to properly plan all the actions and resources needed to achieve these objectives, and effectively control the deviations relative to them, allowing correcting the actions that do not get the expected results in order to constantly improve the system implemented. For this it is necessary to devise a marketing plan that focuses on the planning of all activities and objectives we want to achieve and the means necessary to do so. The Marketing Plan is a strategic document that will serve to identify the position occupied in the market. set goals and how they will be achieved, and expected results.
A Validation Study of Rehabilitation Exercise Monitoring Using Kinect
Authors: Zhao Wenbing , Espy Deborah D. , Reinthal Ann
Published: June 2017

In this article, we present our work on a validation study of using Microsoft Kinect to monitor rehabilitation exercises. Differing from other validation efforts, we focus on a system-level assessment instead of the joint-level comparison with reference motion capture systems. We assess the feasibility of using Kinect by examining the enforceability of a set of correctness rules defined for each exercise, which are invariances of each exercise and hence independent from the coordinate system used. This method is more advantageous in that (1) it does not require coordinate system transformation between those of the reference motion capture system and of the Kinect based system, (2) it does not require an exact match of the Kinect joints and the corresponding external marker placements or derived joint centers often used in reference motion capture systems, and (3) the correctness rules and their mapping for Kinect motion data analysis developed in this study are readily implementable for a real motion monitoring system for physical therapy.
Cell Phone Conversation and Relative Crash Risk Update
Authors: Young Richard A.
Published: June 2017

This chapter reviews key findings since 2014 that are relevant to estimating the relative crash risk of conversing via a cell phone during real-world and naturalistic driving in passenger vehicles. It updates chapter 102 in the previous edition of this Encyclopedia (Young, 2015a). The objective is to determine if recent data confirms the conclusion in Young (2015a) that engaging in a cell phone conversation does not increase crash risk beyond that of driving without engaging in a cell phone conversation. In particular, a recent estimate is presented of the relative crash risk for cell phone conversation in the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) naturalistic driving study data. This estimate is compared with five other estimates in a meta-analysis, which shows that cell phone conversation reduces crash risk (i.e., has a protective effect). A recent experimental study will also be discussed, which supports the hypothesis that driver self-regulation gives rise to the protective effect by compensating for the slight delays in event response times during cell phone conversation.
Context-Aware Personalization for Mobile Services
Authors: Otebolaku Abayomi Moradeyo , Andrade Maria Teresa
Published: June 2017

Audiovisual content consumption on mobile platforms is rising exponentially and this trend will continue in the next years as mobile devices become more sophisticated. Thus, smartphones are gradually replacing our desktops as they increasingly become cheaper and more powerful with excellent multimedia processing support. As mobile users go about their routines, they continuously browse the Web, seeking interesting content to consume, and also uploading personal content. However, users encounter huge volume of content, that does not match their preferences, resulting in mobile information overload. Context-aware media personalization (CAMP) was proposed as a solution to this problem. CAMP assists users to select relevant content among alternatives considering users' preferences and contexts. This solution, however, are limited to static contexts. Our contribution is Mobile Context-Aware Media Personalization(MobCAMP), which is a special kind of personalization that utilizes user's contexts and activities to suggest media content according to the user's tastes and contextual situations.
Exploring the Growth of Wireless Communications Systems and Challenges Facing 4G Networks
Authors: Smith-Ditizio Amber A. , Smith Alan D.
Published: June 2017

Mobile communication and its many applications have been fueling the rapid growth and adoption of wireless communications for years. With this growth has been marked by significant network development and advanced techniques evolving in all the fields of mobile and wireless communications. The transition from 3G communications to 4G communications has extremely boosted the way and speed at which companies and their customer are able to operate in the global economy. The purpose of this chapter is to describe some of the significant impacts of 4G wireless communication systems on the telecommunications industry. Topics describing 4G to include a brief history of mobile communications, what are the major characteristics of 4G networks and its users, advantages of 4G?, challenges that 4G faces, wireless in the field/IT component, future directions of 4G, and some of the potential plans for growth.
Mobile Apps Threats
Authors: Loon Donovan Peter Chan Wai , Kumar Sameer
Published: June 2017

From adults to children, beginners to experts, and in numerous countries around the world, there is a diverse user base for mobile devices. However, the extensive use of mobile devices have also led to the proliferation and attacks of various mobile malware. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of mobile malware. Subsequently, the paper highlights the current trends and challenges posed by malicious mobile applications. The authors look into Android and iOS mobile platforms and discuss current research to detect malicious applications. Remedy for poor risk communications on Android-based devices are also suggested.
Mobile Technologies Impact on Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Crossan Adam , McKelvey Nigel , Curran Kevin
Published: June 2017

Mobile technology today is increasingly being used to help improve under developed and developing areas such as sub Saharan Africa. With the statistics showing the number of adults in Africa owning mobile devices steadily increasing, mobile technology has been a popular area of interest to use to help improve areas such as healthcare and education throughout African cities and rural areas. The purpose of this study was to examine the different ways mobile technology was being used to help the residents of sub-Saharan Africa in the sectors of health care and education, and examine the possible ethical effects these technologies could be having. The study concludes that while the mobile technology can be implemented to help better the standard of health and education, it is mainly focused on urban areas and contributing to a poverty imbalance between urban and rural Africa.
Resource Management for Multimedia Services in Long Term Evaluation Networks
Authors: Mishra Vinod Kumar , Pathak Tanuja
Published: June 2017

Wireless multimedia networks are becoming progressively popular, that provide the mobile phone users to accommodate the access of information and services at any time, any place with different configurations that user's desire. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is one of the quickest developing technology which support a variety of applications like video conferencing, video streaming, VoIP, file transfer, web browsing etc. Radio Resource Management (RRM) procedure is one of the key configuration part for enhancing the system performance. The admission control is one of the Resource management mechanisms, the task of admission control is to admit or reject the establishment request for the new session. In this chapter, we will provide an overview of the resource management and analyze the Media Degradation Path (MDP) and non MDP based admission control algorithms in the LTE network and compare the session establishment success. This chapter also enables for reader to know the current and future trend of research on resource management of multimedia services in LTE networks.
Viterbi Decoder in Hardware
Authors: Véstias Mário Pereira
Published: June 2017

Trellis decoding is used to recover encoded information that was corrupted during transmission over a noisy channel. The Viterbi algorithm is the most well known trellis-based maximum likelihood decoding algorithm. The Viterbi algorithm is executed by a Viterbi decoder. Different hardware solutions may be considered to implement a Viterbi decoder with different design requirements in terms of area, performance, power consumption, among others. The most appropriate solution depends on the metric requirements of the application as well as on the target technology. Properties of the Viterbi algorithm are used to simplify and improve the architecture of the Viterbi decoder. In particular, statistical properties of the Viterbi algorithm are used to design parallel Viterbi decoders with very high data decoding rates. The article focuses on the implementation of a Viterbi decoder in hardware, including optimizations to improve the area and performance.
Autonomic Cooperative Communications
Authors: Wodczak Michal
Published: June 2017

When perceived from the perspective of Physical Layer upwards, as it capitalises on signal processing in both the spatial and temporal domains, the concept of Link Layer inherent Distributed Cooperative Relaying based on Virtual Antenna Arrays aims to improve the reliability of wireless communications through the exploitation of radio diversity provided by Relay Nodes. Given such a context, the inclusion of Network Layer routines of relevance may only further facilitate the orchestration of networked devices in terms of arranging for their pre-selection into cooperative groups. However, as the system becomes more and more complex, it appears of necessity to incorporate overlay elements of self-management driven Generic Autonomic Network Architecture to allow simultaneous formation of numerous cooperative and non-cooperative set-ups. This is where the substantial role of autonomic system design comes into the global picture as the umbrella under which the concept of Autonomic Cooperative Communications may be realised.
Visible Light Communication Numerous Applications
Authors: Khalifeh Ala' Fathi , Farahneh Hasan , Mekhiel Christopher , Fernando Xavier
Published: June 2017

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a promising research topic that aims at utilizing the visible light spectrum for data communication, which in turns off-loads the heavily utilized wireless radio spectrum. VLC can take advantage of the increased use of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) for lighting purposes in different fields, such as automotive headlights, traffic signals, advertising, aviation and general lightening. Utilizing solid state lights LEDs for lighting purposes not only saves energy but also can be used for data communication since LEDs can be easily modulated by switching the light ON and Off in frequencies above the human eye perception. This data can be transmitted in addition to the main lightening functionality of these devices. VLC is relatively easy to implement, and safe, as it does not have potential side effects like the radio signals. As such, this new technology has a great potential for adoption in several applications. This book chapter will briefly introduce the technology and discuss some potential indoors and outdoors applications.