Electronic interaction research 1988 – 2012 through the lens of the Bled eConference

Electronic interaction (EI) depends on technological capabilities that have only become available during the last quarter-century. The Bled eConference has straddled this period. A review of the conference’s successive themes, and of the corpus of over 1,000 papers presented at the 25 events to date, reveals three major Eras, referred to in this paper as the EDI, eCommerce and eInteraction Eras. A trace of the developments in the diverse array of EI technologies and EI-technologies-in-use shows that researchers have focussed very heavily on economic concerns, and until recent years did so almost to the exclusion of social concerns. The paper proposes that EI research needs to seek better balances between organisational and human needs. In addition, because of the instability of bleeding-edge phenomena, empirical research is being published too late to deliver much value to practitioners. The prevailing expectations of journals that rigour be pursued at all costs means that the relevance of research to the real world has become a quite secondary concern to many academics. The EI literature is accordingly at risk of following the IS literature more generally into a closed enclave, in which academics talk to one another and no-one else. Key precepts for an alternative research philosophy are proposed.     

Or models for energy planning

This paper discusses how OR models and methods have been used, or could be used, to aid in energy planning. The three specific areas discussed are energy system equilibrium analyses, energy R & D planning models, and models for stockpiling petroleum and allocating it in emergencies. A number of open methodological and model building research questions are presented.     

Operationalizing emotional intelligence for team performance

This study explores the gaps in research on the link between emotional intelligence (EI) and team performance with respect to operationalizations (i.e., mean, standard deviation, maximum, minimum, and proportion). The concept of EI is not new, nor revolutionary for predicting job performance. Studies use disparate psychometric measurements and environments that obscure relationships between metrics and team performance. Student engineers (n = 294) were combined into 185 teams in a reoccurring course and analyzed using an exhaustive best subset regression technique that yields equations pertaining to the EI scales and their operationalizations to team performance. Operationalizations of EI matter towards an effective understanding of its relationship to team performance. All aggregation methods related to team performance for one or more EI main scales, excluding Interpersonal Skills and General Mood. Differences were noted between operationalizations and direction of significant EI main scales, suggesting that further exploration is required. Future researchers should consider (1) expanding operationalizations of EI to include standard deviations, maximums, minimums, and proportions to relate to team performance; (2) separating and exploring EI analyses based on task types; and (3) that the potential for EI predicting team performance exists but with limitations in an engineering context.Relevance to IndustryThis research can aid managers on the relative importance of emotional intelligence in team performance. Although relationships are complex from various EI scales to predicting team performance, such information can assist the managerial and human systems communities by clarifying previously undefined nuances present in other psychometric literature.     

The information systems research cycle

What distinguishes information systems from closely aligned disciplines such as computer science, organizational science, management science, economics, or systems engineering? How does IS research balance the demands of relevance and rigor to make effective contributions to both theory and practice? As senior researchers in IS, the authors have engaged in many debates on these questions and have come to some conclusions about what makes this burgeoning field unique and how to properly plan, execute, and evaluate IS research as well as transition it into practice.     

What were we thinking? A scoping review of crisis management pandemic literature (1984–2019)

Pandemics are now the focus of research attention in the fields of preparedness and crisis management. As pandemics are some of the largest crises to occur, an important question becomes ‘what were the field of crisis management thinking about pandemic management’. This paper investigates how the field of crisis management have incorporated the body of knowledge arising from pandemics into its science (from 1984 to 2019). We performed a scoping review of 4 journals on crisis management and what they have written about pandemics (230 papers). The findings are summarized in eight different categories. The main result is that the field of crisis management have shown sparse interest in pandemics. We attribute this to factors such as fragmentation of academic sciences when the problem-solving needs integration, perceived incommensurability and the organization of attention. We argue that the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic can provide a basis for posing new questions in research on, and the political debate around, societal vulnerability at large and not only restricted to recent experiences of particular crises. Finally, we argue that this will need a stronger integration of research strands and communities, which in turn require the ability to ‘connect the dots’ between different sources of knowledge.     

多Agent系统的排队模型研究（2）——模型理论

多Agent系统是人工智能、软件领域等研完的热点问题，在这个问题的研究中，人们普遍关注的问题是如何组织协调Agent之间的关系，让各个Agent充分发挥作用，使系统处于最佳状态，本文抓住多Agent之间的这个关键问题。给出了多Agent系统的排队模型的基本概念，为进一步研完多Agent系统奠定了理论基础。     

Exploring the effects of emotional design and emotional intelligence in multimedia-based learning: an engineering educational perspective

ABSTRACT

Emotions are an important aspect in learning and with the current boom in instructional technology, researchers are exploring methods to investigate how emotions may be manipulated to positively influence online learning. One such method is by adapting the theory of emotional design through multimedia elements. This theory emphasises on individuality and metacognition in exploring these learning outcomes and by this we choose to explore the effects of emotional intelligence (EI). We replicated the methodology used in previous research studies in emotional design in multimedia learning by further exploring the gaps from those studies especially the effects of negative design, EI and a new sample that primarily focusses on engineering undergraduates in Malaysia. This study was designed as a quantitative quasi-experimental using a 3?×?2 factorial design. Based on the findings, it was found that emotional design is a better predictor of cognitive outcomes, whereas EI was a better predictor of emotional outcomes such as motivation and satisfaction for multimedia-based learning. It was also found that positive and negative designs have similar effects on students’ learning outcomes, while EI affected perceived satisfaction in each design.     

Instructional support for enhancing students’ information problem solving ability

This special issue discusses European research on instructional support to foster students’ ability to solve information-based problems. In this introduction, the concept of information problem solving (IPS) and research in this field of interest will be placed in the broader perspective, which is called information behavior. The focus of this special issue is an educational one and the papers all go into a specific kind of instructional support. The main research questions, findings and conclusions of the six contributions will be outlined. It is concluded that the most important directions for future research deal with how instructional support for different aspect of the process, like for instance how to regulated the process, best can be designed in order to make the instruction adaptive and fit to the learners needs.     

Identity in Flexible Organizations: Experiences in Dutch Organizations

In the information economy, flexible organizations have evolved. Work and labour relations have become more flexible than in industrial organizations. This has consequences for the identity of organizations. Organizations tend to become opportunity coalitions when the identity is too fragmented or neglected. The key questions this article adresses is what is identity in a flexible organization and to what extent is it possible to ‘manage’ the construction of identity in flexible organizations? This key question was split up into three sub‐questions. We were interested in how (1) organizations organize their talent management, (2) how organizations manage their labour relations and (3) how organizations manage identity. These three subjects come forward in recent publications in the field of organizational development and HRM as being critical of management of a flexible and innovative organization. In the article, the characteristics of flexible organizations are defined. These characteristics are translated into the relationship between these organization and individual: the way flexible organizations manage their work, labour relations and identity is studied in 20 Dutch organizations. Striving for an optimum in flexible work and flexible labour relations, combined with managing a specific organizational identity seems to be the HR‐strategy Dutch organizations implement to reach flexibility and innovation.     

基于模型预测控制的含多微电网的能源互联网分布式协同优化

研究了预测不确定性条件下含多个微电网的能源互联网分布式协同调度策略.各微电网都拥有多种智能负荷,如功率可调负荷、可调度负荷和关键负荷;部分微电网含有分布式电源,如微型燃气轮机、风电机组、光伏发电系统等;且部分微电网还拥有储能设备,如电池储能系统.每个微电网都可当做一个独立的实体,拥有自己的运行目标,这些运行目标可表示成混合整数规划模型.提出了基于并行分布式优化的博弈模型以较小的信息通信量协调各微电网带有竞争性的运行目标.在此基础上,引入模型预测控制（MPC）机制以降低能源互联网中风、光等可再生能源输出、负荷需求及电价波动的不确定性产生的不利影响.算例证明了本文所提方法的可行性和有效性.     

Problem solving techniques in cognitive science

For many years, researchers have tried to discover how humans solve problems. This research has answered many questions, but still many of them remain unanswered. However, knowledge gained in this field has greatly enhanced our understanding and has enabled us to design human-like intelligent systems. In the 1920s the Gestalt psychologists introduced a new field to cognitive science. They discovered that when presented with certain problems we use insight to reach a solution. In the 1950s Newell & Simon then brought the field of problem solving into the information age. They experimented with the idea of problem solving as a search for a solution in a state space. This technique is today utilized in the field of computing and Artificial Intelligence. This paper reviews techniques and looks at how we use previous experience gained by solving problems to solve new similar problems, making analogies between them. Experts’ performance during problem solving is compared to that of novices.     

Leveraging parallel computing in multibody dynamics

At a time when sequential computing is limited to marginal year-to-year gains in speed, multi- and many-core architectures provide teraflop-grade performance to cost-conscious users. The ongoing shift to parallel computing spurs new research into solution methods that emphasize algorithmic concurrency. It also provides an opportunity to revisit complex real-life applications whose solutions have been until recently infeasible due to prohibitively heavy computational burdens. This paper concentrates on the use of commodity parallel computing in the field of multibody dynamics by illustrating how many-body frictional-contact dynamics, fluid–solid interaction analysis, and proximity computation have benefited from parallel computing. Preliminary results are encouraging and show one to two orders of magnitude reductions in simulation times. A set of open questions and final remarks round up the contribution.     

Adding intelligent agents to existing EI frameworks

The global marketplace and the Internet have served as catalysts for enterprise integration (EI), both within a company and between a company and its suppliers and partners. EI software architectures, or frameworks, are often built on top of standard middleware and typically lack the ability to function in dynamic environments where flexibility, adaptability, and knowledge management are crucial. Furthermore, they do not scale well to wide-area enterprises that extend across organizational boundaries. These frameworks nevertheless offer a cost-effective basis for resource management, user coordination, knowledge exchange, and information extraction in a virtual enterprise. The paper considers how, by incorporating agents with their inherently distributed characteristics of autonomy, reasoning or intelligence, and goal-driven behavior, existing EI frameworks can be enhanced to support adaptive virtual enterprises     

Information transfer in B2B procurement: an empirical analysis and measurement

Inter-organizational relationships employing IT may be the most important technological breakthrough in B2B partnerships, since it is likely to alter the competitive landscape of industries radically. Electronic integration (EI) may be defined as the integration of business processes of two or more independent organizations through the exploitation of the capabilities of computer and communication technologies. Prior research has primarily used the adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) as a surrogate measure for EI. While researchers have called for the assessment of the degree of EI instead of presence/absence of EDI between two firms, a measure was still to be developed. Conceptualizing EI as a multi-dimensional construct, our research focused on developing a measure for a crucial component: electronic information transfer (EIT). Four dimensions of it (decision and operation integration (DOI), mutual investment in relationship-specific assets (MIRSA), information sharing (IS), and monitoring and control (MAC)) were analyzed and an instrument for EIT measurement was developed. Data collected from two major corporations in the U.S. were used to verify the instrument's ability to measure EIT effectively.     

面向学科题目的文本分析方法与应用研究综述

分析学科题目含义、模拟人类解决问题,是当前“人工智能+教育”融合研究的重要方向之一。近年来,智能教育系统的快速发展积累了大量学科题目资源,为相关研究提供了数据支撑。为此,利用大数据分析与自然语言处理相关的技术,研究者提出了大量面向学科题目的文本分析方法,开展了许多重要的智能应用任务,对探索人类知识学习等认知能力具有重要意义。该文围绕智能教育与自然语言处理交叉领域,介绍了若干代表性研究任务,包括题目质量分析、机器阅读理解、数学题问答、文章自主评分等,并对相应研究进展进行阐述和总结;此外,对相关数据集和开源工具包进行了总结和介绍;最后,展望了多个未来研究方向。     

Domain-Specific Languages: A Systematic Mapping Study

Context: In this study we report on a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) for Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs), based on an automatic search including primary studies from journals, conferences, and workshops during the period from 2006 until 2012.Objective: The main objective of the described work was to perform an SMS on DSLs to better understand the DSL research field, identify research trends, and any possible open issues. The set of research questions was inspired by a DSL survey paper published in 2005.Method: We conducted a SMS over 5 stages: defining research questions, conducting the search, screening, classifying, and data extraction. Our SMS included 1153 candidate primary studies from the ISI Web of Science and ACM Digital Library, 390 primary studies were classified after screening.Results: This SMS discusses two main research questions: research space and trends/demographics of the literature within the field of DSLs. Both research questions are further subdivided into several research sub-questions. The results from the first research question clearly show that the DSL community focuses more on the development of new techniques/methods rather than investigating the integrations of DSLs with other software engineering processes or measuring the effectiveness of DSL approaches. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of evaluation research. Amongst different DSL development phases more attention is needed in regard to domain analysis, validation, and maintenance. The second research question revealed that the number of publications remains stable, and has not increased over the years. Top cited papers and venues are mentioned, as well as identifying the more active institutions carrying DSL research.Conclusion: The statistical findings regarding research questions paint an interesting picture about the mainstreams of the DSL community, as well as open issues where researchers can improve their research in their future work.     

Qualitative methods in empirical studies of software engineering

While empirical studies in software engineering are beginning to gain recognition in the research community, this subarea is also entering a new level of maturity by beginning to address the human aspects of software development. This added focus has added a new layer of complexity to an already challenging area of research. Along with new research questions, new research methods are needed to study nontechnical aspects of software engineering. In many other disciplines, qualitative research methods have been developed and are commonly used to handle the complexity of issues involving human behaviour. The paper presents several qualitative methods for data collection and analysis and describes them in terms of how they might be incorporated into empirical studies of software engineering, in particular how they might be combined with quantitative methods. To illustrate this use of qualitative methods, examples from real software engineering studies are used throughout     

非平衡数据集分类问题研究进展

非平衡数据集广泛存在于现实世界中,其分类问题已经成为目前数据挖掘领域中的一个研究热点.文章综述了非平衡数据集分类问题的评价方法及其常用分类算法,分析了目前存在的主要困难,并指出需进一步解决的几个问题.     

PMI中访问控制策略和实现机制的改进

授权管理基础设施PMI是目前网络安全领域中的研究热点，如何提高PMI的系统效率以及如何标准化授权策略是当前遇到的主要问题。该文提出了一种基于条件的访问控制策略，结合XACML和J2EE的相关技术对策略的实现机制进行了改进，实现了一个基于该策略模型的PMI系统。该系统可有效地解决上述问题，给用户提供了更方便的权限管理和更细粒度的访问控制。