RAMES – Framework supporting user centred evaluation in research and practice

One way to ensure good user experience of IT systems is to conduct user centred evaluation, aimed to provide feedback to IT professionals on their IT systems from the user perspective. The objective of this paper is to explore a conceptual framework, named RAMES that supports evaluators when planning, comparing and documenting user centred evaluations in a structured way. The framework structures the elements of an evaluation into five categories: Roles, Activities, Materials, Environments, and System. The framework was developed based on a theoretical analysis. Two explorative studies with 92 participants in total show that two thirds of the participants found it easy or rather easy to use the framework, and 33% find it likely that they would use the framework again. The conclusion of the studies is that frameworks such as RAMES enhance the implementation of user centred evaluations.     

The status of National PKIs – A European overview

A series of European Union initiatives and frameworks have been issued during the last years, for the provision of electronic services to individuals, businesses and government organizations. Most of these efforts imply the use of digital certificates for a wide variety of national and transnational transactions. This paper presents the concept of National PKI through a systemic view, compares and contrasts the main inhibitors and enablers, discusses popular use cases, and also examines the European landscape together with open issues.     

Action research through a European perspective—based on Scandinavian and Italian traditions

Historically, the Italian and Scandinavian institutionalisation of action research has developed along different tracks. The question is, if there are any promising prospects to combine different action research experiences and methodologies across European regions? Alternatively, should we conclude that action research is mainly a local activity firmly rooted in a special culture in the different European countries?     

Anticipation – the underlying science of sport. Report on research in progress

Professional sport practitioners intuitively acknowledge anticipation. Sports researchers sometimes discuss it. Still, there is little data-based evidence to characterize the role anticipation plays in human performance. Even less documented is the distinction between reaction and anticipation. This text presents the real-time quantification environment developed as an AnticipationScope?. Based on a very large data harvest from this experimental set-up, hypotheses regarding the role of anticipation in sport are advanced. The conclusion is that while preparation and reaction play an important role in sports performance, in the final analysis anticipation distinguishes the professional from other sport practitioners. Work in progress is presented with the aim of engaging the community of researchers in the design of alternative methods for quantifying anticipation and for processing the data. Generalization from sport to human performance is one of the intended outcomes of this research.     

The Architecture of SAGE – A Meshfree System Based on RFM

. In a meshfree system, a geometric model of a domain neither conforms to, nor is restricted by a spatial discretization. Such systems for engineering analysis offer numerous advantages over the systems that are based on traditional mesh-based methods, but they also require radical approaches to enforcing boundary conditions and novel computational tools for differentiation, integration, and visualization of fields and solutions. We show that all of these challenges can be overcome, and describe SAGE (Semi-Analytic Geometry Engine) – a successful system specifically intended for meshfree engineering analysis. Our approach and individual modules are based on Rvachev’s Function Method (RFM) but the described techniques, algorithms, and software are applicable to all mesh-based and meshfree methods and have broad use beyond solutions of boundary value problems. ID="A1"Correspondance and offprint requests to: Professor V Shapiro, Spatial Automation Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA. E-mail: vshapiro@engr.wisc.edu     

DISPECER-H — A decision supporting system in water resources dispatching

DISPECER-H is a software package designed to assist the operational control of a water system (WS). Based on a model of WS dynamics and also on optimal water resources distribution proposed by the DISPECER-H, the human dispatcher can decide quickly and correctly on water distribution. The paper briefly approaches a WS within a decision support system. The model and the decision-making problem are presented The functions and performances of the system are also described.     

A formal model for access control with supporting spatial context

There is an emerging recognition of the importance of utilizing contextual informa tion in authorization decisions. Controlling access to resources in the field of wireless and mobile networking require the definition of a formal model for access control with supporting spatial context. However, traditional RBAC model does not specify these spatial requirements. In this paper, we extend the existing RBAC model and propose the SC-RBAC model that utilizes spatial and location-based information in security policy definitions. The concept of spatial role is presented, and the role is assigned a logical location domain to specify the spatial boundary. Roles are activated based on the current physical position of the user which obtained from a specific mobile terminal. We then extend SC-RBAC to deal with hierarchies, modeling permission, user and activation inheritance, and prove that the hierarchical spatial roles are capable of constructing a lattice which is a means for articulate multi-level security policy and more suitable to control the information flow security for safety-critical location-aware information systems. Next, constrained SC-RBAC allows express various spatial separations of duty constraints, location-based cardinality and temporal constraints for specify fine-grained spatial semantics that are typical in location-aware systems. Finally, we introduce 9 invariants for the constrained SC-RBAC and its basic security theorem is proven. The constrained SC-RBAC provides the foundation for applications in need of the constrained spatial context aware access control.     

A review of e-commerce literature on India and research agenda for the future

Firms across the globe have adopted e-commerce (EC) in their operations and have reaped benefits thereof. While firms in technologically developed countries like US and UK has deployed EC to its advantage, whereas firms in developing countries like India failed to follow the suit. Though it has been widely acknowledged by the researchers that the adoption of EC by businesses in developing countries is an important economic indicator of growth; many firms in India still have not realized the potential benefits of EC. This study examines the existing status of EC in India and reviews the available literature on E-commerce adoption in India and puts forth opportunities for future research. The study might serve as a starting point for further research in e-commerce in India.     

What does existing NeuroIS research focus on?

NeuroIS is a research field in which neuroscience theories and tools are used to better understand information systems phenomena. At present, NeuroIS is still an emerging field in information systems, and the number of available studies is limited. Because researchers who plan or execute NeuroIS research need to understand the status of the existing empirical research published in relevant journals, we have analyzed 78 empirical articles and put forward an integrative framework for understanding what existing NeuroIS research focuses on. Our framework is built upon stimulus–organism–response theory, which explains that stimulus factors can affect users’ psychological processes, which further lead to their responses. Then, we review the collected articles and summarize their findings to give more details of NeuroIS studies. Through this literature review, we identify several opportunities for future NeuroIS research in terms of influencing factors, measurement instruments, and subjects. We believe that our work will provide some meaningful insight for future NeuroIS research.     

Self-optimizing control – A survey

Self-optimizing control is a strategy for selecting controlled variables. It is distinguished by the fact that an economic objective function is adopted as a selection criterion. The aim is to systematically select the controlled variables such that by controlling them at constant setpoints, the impact of uncertain and varying disturbances on the economic optimality is minimized. If a selection leads to an acceptable economic loss compared to perfectly optimal operation then the chosen control structure is referred to as “self-optimizing”. In this comprehensive survey on methods for finding self-optimizing controlled variables we summarize the progress made during the last fifteen years. In particular, we present brute-force methods, local methods based on linearization, data and regression based methods, and methods for finding nonlinear controlled variables for polynomial systems. We also discuss important related topics such as handling changing active constraints. Finally, we point out open problems and directions for future research.     

Methodologies for supervision of Hybrid Energy Sources based on Storage Systems – A survey

Hybrid Energy Sources based on Storage Systems (HES) are increasingly used to improve the grid integration of renewable energy generators, or to improve the energy efficiency and the reliability of transport systems. This paper proposes a survey on the methodologies to design fuzzy logic based supervision strategies of this new kind of energy generating systems. Different ways to manage energy storage system are particularly discussed.A graphical modeling tool is used to facilitate the analysis and the determination of fuzzy control algorithms adapted to complex hybrid systems. The methodology is divided in different steps covering the design of a supervisor from the system work specifications to an optimized implementation of the control.An Experimental Design Methodology (EDM) combined with optimization algorithms is used to tune a set of parameters suitable for a fuzzy supervisor in order to optimize power, energy, efficiency, voltage quality, economic or environmental indicators.The application of this methodology to the supervision of different topologies of HES, based on renewable energy in a grid or in building applications or dedicated to transport systems, illustrates the performance and the systematic dimension of the approach.     

ELRA – European Language Resources Association-Background,Recent Developments and Future Perspectives

The European Language Resources Association (ELRA) was founded in 1995 with the mission of providing language resources (LR) to European research institutions and companies. In this paper we describe the background, the mission and the major activities since then.     

A Survey on Transit Map Layout – from Design,Machine, and Human Perspectives

Transit maps are designed to present information for using public transportation systems, such as urban railways. Creating a transit map is a time-consuming process, which requires iterative information selection, layout design, and usability validation, and thus maps cannot easily be customised or updated frequently. To improve this, scientists investigate fully- or semi-automatic techniques in order to produce high quality transit maps using computers and further examine their corresponding usability. Nonetheless, the quality gap between manually-drawn maps and machine-generated maps is still large. To elaborate the current research status, this state-of-the-art report provides an overview of the transit map generation process, primarily from Design, Machine, and Human perspectives. A systematic categorisation is introduced to describe the design pipeline, and an extensive analysis of perspectives is conducted to support the proposed taxonomy. We conclude this survey with a discussion on the current research status, open challenges, and future directions.