Organizations’ approaches to blockchain: A critical realist perspective

Organizations face manifold implementation barriers in blockchain adoption. Of particular interest is the pre-adoption phase, where knowledge and attitudes guide organizations’ approaches toward a new technology. This paper examines organizations’ approaches to blockchain through a sensemaking lens to identify how blockchain prototype development is guided by perceived business value of and sentiments toward the technology. Taking a critical realist perspective, we examine divergences between organizations’ approaches toward blockchain adoption, i.e., what they do, and why and how they approach blockchain. We differentiate between four types of approaches and provide recommendations how the pre-adoption phase can be considered in academic analyses.     

A novel hybrid requirement’s prioritization approach based on critical software project factors

Cognition, Technology & Work - Requirements prioritization is essential for development of quality software products. Requirements prioritization helps focus on the most important requirements...     

A novel trajectory-based online controller design approach to fault accommodation in NREL’s 5MW wind turbine systems

This paper presents a real-time mechanism to tolerate faults occurring in a wind turbine （WT） system. This system is composed of a FAST coded simulator designed by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The demonstrated mechanism lies under the taxonomy of active fault-tolerant control （FTC） systems, namely online redesign based approach. In the proposed approach, we do not use any a priori information about the model of the turbine in real-time. In fact, we use online measurements generated by the WT. Based on the given control specifications, and the observed measurement an occurred fault is accommodated by reconfiguring the online controller such that the WT generates rated power even under faulty conditions. Second, no explicit fault diagnosis （FD） module is used in this approach. As a result, issues of model uncertainty, false alarms, etc. associated with an integrated FD and controller reconfiguration approach to FTC systems are not experienced here.     

Understanding BitTorrent: A reality check from the ISP’s perspective

During the last decade, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications have been one of the dominant components of Internet traffic. Understanding BitTorrent, by far the most popular P2P protocol for data distribution, is extremely valuable to shed some light on the nature of distributed systems. This paper surveys the existing measurement studies and sets out to verify the acquired corpus of knowledge about BitTorrent by analyzing the largest and most comprehensive data-set so far. We collected BitTorrent traffic at four major European ISPs during 2009 and 2010, a vantage point not yet exploited by previous measurement studies. Our analysis puts into perspective and corroborates several well-known findings, such as that: (1) 20% of the most popular torrents represent more than 95% of the BitTorrent activity, (2) only 1–3% of the BitTorrent traffic stays local, i.e., within an ISP, (3) 4–44% of the BitTorrent traffic could be localized using appropriate locality-awareness techniques, and (4) about 20% of downloads get stalled due to scarcity of content pieces.     

Enterprise social media and cyber-slacking: A Kahn’s model perspective

This study investigates the associations between enterprise social media (ESM) use, psychological conditions, and cyber-slacking in the workplace and examines the mediating role of psychological conditions between ESM use and cyber-slacking. The study utilizes Kahn’s framework to develop a research model and investigate various associations, and it employs a cross-sectional design, testing the developed research model with 277 ESM users from Chinese enterprises. The study results suggest that ESM use stimulates various psychological conditions that discourage cyber-slacking behaviors and significantly mediate the associations between ESM use and cyber-slacking.     

A novel PBL-McRBFN-RFE approach for identification of critical brain regions responsible for Parkinson’s disease

In this paper, we present a novel approach for the identification of critical brain regions responsible for Parkinson’s disease (PD) based on magnetic resonance images (MRI) using meta-cognitive radial basis function network (McRBFN) classifier with Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE). The McRBFN classifier uses voxel based morphometric (VBM) features extracted from MRI and employs a projection based learning (PBL) algorithm. The meta-cognitive learning present in PBL-McRBFN helps in selecting proper samples to learn based on its current knowledge and evolve the architecture automatically. Since, the classifier developed using PBL-McRBFN is efficient, we propose recursive feature elimination approach (called PBL-McRBFN-RFE) to identify most relevant brain regions responsible for PD prediction.The study has been conducted using the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) data set. First, we conducted the study on PD prediction using the PBL-McRBFN classifier on the PPMI data set. We have also compared the results of the PBL-McRBFN classifier with the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The study results clearly show that the PBL-McRBFN classifier produces better generalization performance on PD prediction. Finally, we use RFE approach with PBL-McRBFN to identify the brain regions responsible for PD. The PBL-McRBFN-RFE selected features indicate that the loss of gray matter in the superior temporal gyrus region may be responsible for the onset of PD, and is consistent with the earlier findings from medical research studies.     

A framework to identify factors affecting the performance of third-party B2B e-marketplaces: A seller’s perspective

This study conducted exploratory research to determine factors affecting the performance of third-party B2B e-marketplaces from a seller’s perspective. Building on the relevant literature, ten factors were proposed and mapped into the domain-specific model for e-marketplaces. The performance of e-marketplaces was measured in terms of customer loyalty and trading volume. The proposed model was tested on data from 200 selling companies in Thailand participating in various third-party B2B e-marketplaces. The exploratory factor analysis generated seven factors. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to test the research model. There were three major findings. First, the reputation of e-marketplace and trust in market makers, as well as transaction cost reduction and website usability, had significant effects on customer loyalty. Second, website reliability had a positive impact on trading volume. Finally, the relative advantage and number of buyers had significant effects on both customer loyalty and trading volume. These findings reveal factors previously unreported in the literature on e-marketplaces, and they can be used by practitioners to improve performance.     

A trust model for online peer-to-peer lending: a lender’s perspective

Online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a new but essential financing method for small and micro enterprises that is conducted on the Internet and excludes the involvement of collateral and financial institutions. To tackle the inherent risk of this new financing method, trust must be cultivated. Based on trust theories, the present study develops an integrated trust model specifically for the online P2P lending context, to better understand the critical factors that drive lenders’ trust. The model is empirically tested using surveyed data from 785 online lenders of PPDai, the first and largest online P2P platform in China. The results show that both trust in borrowers and trust in intermediaries are significant factors influencing lenders’ lending intention. However, trust in borrowers is more critical, and not only directly nurtures lenders’ lending intention more efficiently than trust in intermediaries, but also carries the impact of trust in intermediaries on lenders’ lending intention. To develop lenders’ trust, borrowers should provide high-quality information for their loan requests and intermediaries should provide high-quality services and sufficient security protection. The findings provide valuable insights for both borrowers and intermediaries.     

An approach to determining Shor’s dual quadratic estimates

For a general quadratic problem, an analog is formulated as a homogeneous quadratic problem. The estimates ψ* constructed based on Shor’s dual quadratic estimates for these problems are proved to be equal. It is shown that, for the case of a homogeneous quadratic problem, finding ψ* is reduced to an unconstraint minimization problem for a convex function. The study was partially sponsored by the grant UKM2-2812-KV-06 (CRDF Cooperative Grants Program). __________ Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 2, pp. 89–99, March–April 2008.     

A novel neuro-estimator and it’s application to parameter estimation in a remotely piloted vehicle

The paper presents a novel neuro-computing approach to the problem of state estimation by means of a hybrid combination of a Hopfield neural network and a feedforward multilayer neural net capable to solve certain optimization problems. This neuro-estimator is very appropriate for the real-time implementation of nonlinear state estimators, especially when the modeling of uncertainty is considered in the problem. The proposed estimator is applied to estimate the aerodynamic parameters of a remotely piloted vehicle. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

ICT for socio-economic development: A citizens’ perspective

There is a widespread belief that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play a significant role in the socio-economic development of a developing country. ICT has the potential to affect many aspects of economic and societal activities such as GDP growth, employment, productivity, poverty alleviation, quality of life, education, and healthcare. While the literature provides a myriad of definitions and elements of socio-economic development, the focus tends to be on theoretical conceptualizations from various disciplines and impacts from isolated individual projects. In particular, the impact of ICT on socio-economic development has not been carefully examined from the viewpoint of the ultimate stakeholder, the citizens of a country, who are the final consumers of the technology. This study fills this gap by focusing on the citizens’ view in describing ICT-driven socio-economic development in a developing country. A theoretical framework influenced by the “capabilities approach” was developed to guide this research, and the interpretive stance was used to conduct the study. More specifically, the narrative research method, which is seldom used in IS research but is appropriate for this study, was used. Narratives allow deeper and profound insights into social representations and participants' beliefs about the role of ICT in socio-economic development. Using this methodology, a model of the impact dimensions of socio-economic development is presented.     

Gates towards evolutionary large-scale optimization: A software-oriented approach to genetic algorithms—I. General perspective

Genetic algorithms comprise a novel methodology that has proven to be powerful in approaching complex, large-scale optimization problems in a wide variety of sciences, recently including computational chemistry. However, as it turns out, up to now the exploitation of this power is not at all a straightforward matter for many potential practitioners, among which are computational chemists. Both parts of this paper provide keys to this group of scientists that should enable them to open gates towards genetic algorithm applications on computers. After a general introduction, Part I presents a taxonomy for genetic algorithm software. The Discussion highlights important properties of different kinds of genetic algorithm software, and proposes a strategy to the applied scientist who needs an executable application without first having to become an expert in genetic algorithm science. The material presented is largely based on our past experience, which includes the insights that we gained during the development and use of our software library GATES. Applications built with GATES are spread across various fields of computational chemistry. GATES is described in Part II, the accompanying paper.     

A novel approach to visualize web anomaly attacks in pervasive computing environment

These days, a pervasive computing environment is a rapidly changing trend towards increasingly always-on connected computing devices in the convergence environment. In a pervasive computing environment, there are various multimedia web services and communications for various devices in order to provide interesting and invaluable information to users. Meanwhile, providing a wide variety of the web-based multimedia services and communications may cause various security threats and abnormal behaviors. In this paper, a multimedia visualization approach for pervasive computing environment is proposed which analyzes HTTP request and response header information to detect and visualize multimedia web attacks based on the Bayesian method. We conducted a few cases’ experiment for the verification of the proposed approach in a real environment. The experimental results such as web attack detection visualization, scanning and password attack visualization, and attacker’s position tracking visualization verify the usability of the proposed approach.     

The problem of electronic argument: a humanist’s perspective

This article attempts to explain the absence of a new rhetoric, as repurposed for electronic media. Such a rhetoric would provide, among other things, a blueprint for electronic arguments conducted in hypermedia form. Without an electronic rhetoric, the artifacts generated in new media inevitably fall into a narrow range: e-commerce and edutainment. One role of the humanist in this technological age, whose mother tongue is the conceptual language of the technologist, is to speak in an alternative language out of which an electronic rhetoric could emerge. The hallmark of the humanist’s alternative language or vocabulary is that it does not find technological innovation synonymous with rhetorical invention.     

A novel super-resolution image and video reconstruction approach based on Newton-Thiele’s rational kernel in sparse principal component analysis

In this paper, we propose a new image and video sequences reconstruction approach, where the Newton-Thiele’s vector valued rational interpolation is combined with the sparse principal component analysis. Through observation of the degraded model, the reconstruction scheme is performed by two steps. Firstly, the sparse principal component analysis and the linear minimum mean square-error estimation method are used to remove the noise from the degraded image. And then, the Newton-Thiele’s vector valued rational interpolation is used to magnify the denoising result, by which the details and texture regions of image can be well preserved. By using this novel reconstruction model by Newton-Thiele’s rational kernel in sparse principal component analysis, the final reconstructed results not only have good visual effect, but also have rich texture details. In order to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method, we have done plenty of experiments on images and video sequences, and the experimental results show that the proposed method can produce better high-quality resolution results, as compared with the state-of-the-art methods.     

Rating prediction by exploring user’s preference and sentiment

With the development of e-commerce, shopping on-line is becoming more and more popular. The explosion of reviews have led to a serious problem, information overloading. How to mine user interest from these reviews and understand users’ preference is crucial for us. Traditional recommender systems mainly use structured data to mine user interest preference, such as product category, user’s tag, and the other social factors. In this paper, we firstly use LDA+Word2vec model to mine user interest. Then, we propose a social user sentimental measurement approach. At last, three factors, including user topic, user sentiment and interpersonal influence, are fused into a recommender system (RS) based on probabilistic matrix factorization. We conduct a series of experiments on Yelp dataset, and experimental results show the proposed approach outperforms the existing approaches.     

Aligning principal and agent’s incentives: A principal–agent perspective of social networking sites

The viability of networked communities depends on the creation and disclosure of user-generated content and the frequency of user visitation (Facebook 10-K Annual Report, 2012). However, little is known about how to align the interests of user and social networking sites. In this study, we draw upon the principal-agent perspective to extend Pavlou et al.’s uncertainty mitigation model of online exchange relationships (2007) and propose an empirically tested model for aligning the incentives of the principal (user) and the agent (service provider). As suggested by Pavlou et al., we incorporated a multi-dimensional measure of trust: trust of provider and trust of members. The proposed model is empirically tested with survey data from 305 adults aged 20-55. The results support our model, delineating how real individuals with bounded rationality actually make decision about information disclosure under uncertainty in the social networking site context. There is show little to no relationship between online privacy concerns and information disclosure on online social network sites. Perceived benefits provide the linkage between the incentives of principal (user) and agent (provider) while usage intensity demonstrated the most significant impact on information disclosure. We argue that the phenomenon may be explained through Communication Privacy Management Theory. The present study enhances our understanding of agency theory and human judgment theory in the context of social media. Practical implications for understanding and facilitating online social exchange relationships are also discussed.     

A novel time-marching scheme using numerical Green’s functions: A comparative study for the scalar wave equation

The present paper presents the formulation of a novel time-marching method based on the Explicit Green’s Approach (ExGA) to solve scalar wave propagation problems. By means of the weighted residual method in both time and space, the time integral expression concerning the ExGA is readily established. The arising ExGA time integral expression is spatially discretized in a finite element sense and a recursive scheme that employs time-domain numerical Green’s function matrices is adopted to evaluate the displacement and the velocity vectors. These Green’s matrices are computed by the time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method only at the first time step. The system of coupled equations originated from the time discontinuous Galerkin method is then solved by an iterative predictor–multicorrector algorithm. Once the Green’s matrices are computed, no iterative process is required to obtain the displacement and the velocity vectors at any time level. At the end of the paper, numerical examples are presented in order to compare the proposed approach with other approaches.     

Students’ attitudes towards science: A long‐term perspective

Abstract

In this study the attitudes of 4 students, 2 boys and 2 girls, towards science were followed over the course of 6 years. Data were obtained in two ways: First, and principally, the students were interviewed annually in their homes from the ages of 11 to 16 years, and again at the age of 17, one year after the ending of their compulsory schooling; and secondly, the students were observed during their science lessons in an English state (non‐fee‐paying) school, from 1994 to 1999. Each student's attitudes towards science and her/his experiences of her/his school science education are described by means of quotations and episodic biographical vignettes. These allow us to track the ways in which the students’ attitudes about science developed over the course of the study. The findings help to shed light on the reasons why many students lose interest in science during the course of their secondary science education.