Information technologies and intuitive expertise: a method for implementing complex organizational change among New York City Transit Authority’s Bus Maintainers

This paper describes an attempt to implement a complex information technology system with the New York City Transit Authority’s (NYCTA) Bus Maintainers intended to help better track and coordinate bus maintenance schedules. IT implementation is notorious for high failure rates among so-called “low level” workers. We believe that many IT implementation efforts make erroneous assumptions about front line worker’s expertise, which creates tension between the IT implementation effort and the “cultures of practice” among the front line workers. We designed an aggressive “learning intervention” to address this issue and called “Operational Simulation”. Rather than requiring the expected 12 months for implementation, the hourly staff reached independence with the new system in 2 weeks and line supervisors (who do more) managed in 6 weeks. Additionally, the NYCTA shifted from a reactive to a proactive maintenance approach, reduced cycle times, and increased the “mean distance between failure”, resulting in a estimated $40 million cost savings. Implications for cognition, expertise, and training are discussed.     

Maßnahmen gegen Social Engineering

Zusammenfassung  Die Verwundbarkeit durch „Social Engineering“ l?sst sich durch klassische Awareness-Ma?nahmen allein nicht ausschalten. Was hilft, ist die Erh?hung der Souver?nit?t des Individuums bei Entscheidungen — und übung. Bettina We?elmann Freie Journalistin mit Spezialgebiet Informationssicherheit     

Time-optimal trajectories of a rod in the plane subject to velocity constraints

We consider the problem of moving a line segment (a “rod” or “ladder”) in the plane between two given placements when subject to the constraint that no point on the line segment may exceed a given velocity bound. Specifically, we consider those trajectories which minimize the total time between given initial and goal placements, and provide a complete characterization of all solution, together with explicit constructions for each of the various cases encountered. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-9207422, and by a grant from the James H. Zumberge Research Innovation Fund. This problem was initially posed in an open problem session of the Second DIMACS Workshop in Computational Geometry, held at Princeton University in October, 1989. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 9th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry [8].     

Extracting semantic concepts from images: a decisive feature pattern mining approach

One major challenge in the content-based image retrieval (CBIR) and computer vision research is to bridge the so-called “semantic gap” between low-level visual features and high-level semantic concepts, that is, extracting semantic concepts from a large database of images effectively. In this paper, we tackle the problem by mining the decisive feature patterns (DFPs). Intuitively, a decisive feature pattern is a combination of low-level feature values that are unique and significant for describing a semantic concept. Interesting algorithms are developed to mine the decisive feature patterns and construct a rule base to automatically recognize semantic concepts in images. A systematic performance study on large image databases containing many semantic concepts shows that our method is more effective than some previously proposed methods. Importantly, our method can be generally applied to any domain of semantic concepts and low-level features. Wei Wang received his Ph.D. degree in Computing Science and Engineering from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo in 2004, under Dr. Aidong Zhang's supervision. He received the B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University, China in 1995 and the M.Eng. in Computer Engineering from National University of Singapore in 2000, respectively. He joined Motorola Inc. in 2004, where he is currently a senior research engineer in Multimedia Research Lab, Motorola Applications Research Center. His research interests can be summarized as developing novel techniques for multimedia data analysis applications. He is particularly interested in multimedia information retrieval, multimedia mining and association, multimedia database systems, multimedia processing and pattern recognition. He has published 15 research papers in refereed journals, conferences, and workshops, has served in the organization committees and the program committees of IADIS International Conference e-Society 2005 and 2006, and has been a reviewer for some leading academic journals and conferences. In 2005, his research prototype of “seamless content consumption” was awarded the “most innovative research concept of the year” from the Motorola Applications Research Center. Dr. Aidong Zhang received her Ph.D. degree in computer science from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1994. She was an assistant professor from 1994 to 1999, an associate professor from 1999 to 2002, and has been a professor since 2002 in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests include bioinformatics, data mining, multimedia systems, content-based image retrieval, and database systems. She has authored over 150 research publications in these areas. Dr. Zhang's research has been funded by NSF, NIH, NIMA, and Xerox. Dr. Zhang serves on the editorial boards of International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications (IJBRA), ACMMultimedia Systems, the International Journal of Multimedia Tools and Applications, and International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Databases. She was the editor for ACM SIGMOD DiSC (Digital Symposium Collection) from 2001 to 2003. She was co-chair of the technical program committee for ACM Multimedia 2001. She has also served on various conference program committees. Dr. Zhang is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and SUNY Chancellor's Research Recognition Award.     

When accessibility meets usability

Making a resource or facility “accessible” to persons with disabilities does not necessarily make it “usable” to all such members of the population. The authors present some valuable lessons learned by National Science Foundation researchers and educators striving to make engaging activities and inviting curricula inclusive of all students, regardless of ability. Published online: 9 April 2002     

An approach to efficient business intelligent system for financial prediction

A concept of business intelligent system for financial prediction is considered in this paper. It provides data needed for fast, precise and good business decision support to all levels of management. The aim of the project is the development of a new online analytical processing oriented on case-based reasoning (CBR) where a previous experience for every new problem is taken into account. Methodological aspects have been tested in practice as a part of the management information system development project of “Novi Sad Fair”. A case study of an improved application of CBR in prediction of future payments is discussed in the paper. This paper is originally presented at The International Conference on Hybrid Information Technology 2006, at the special session on “Intelligent Information Systems for Financial Engineering”, November 2006 in Cheju Island, Korea.     

The complexity of mean flow time scheduling problems with release times

We study the problem of preemptive scheduling of n} jobs with given release times on m identical parallel machines. The objective is to minimize the average flow time. In this paper, show that when all jobs have equal processing times then the problem can be solved in polynomial time using linear programming. Our algorithm can also be applied to the open-shop problem with release times and unit processing times. For the general case (when processing times are arbitrary), we show that the problem is unary NP-hard. P. Baptiste and C. Dürr: Supported by the NSF/CNRS grant 17171 and ANR/Alpage. P. Brucker: Supported by INTAS Project 00-217 and by DAAD PROCOPE Project D/0427360. M. Chrobak: Supported by NSF grants CCR-0208856 and INT-0340752. S. A. Kravchenko: Supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.     

Blocks of pseudo-effect algebras with the Riesz interpolation property

 Pseudo-effect algebras are partial algebras (E;+,0,1) with a partially defined sum + which is not necessary commutative only associative and with two complements, left and right ones. They are a generalization of effect algebras and of orthomodular posets as well as of (pseudo) MV-algebras. We define three kinds of compatibilities of elements and we show that if a pseudo-effect algebra satisfies the Riesz interpolation property, and another natural condition, then every maximal set of strongly compatible elements, called a block, is a pseudo MV-subalgebra, and the pseudo-effect algebra can be covered by blocks. Blocks correspond to Boolean subalgebras of orthomodular posets. Dedicated to Prof. Ján Jakubík on the occasion of his 80th birthday The paper has been supported by the grant VEGA 2/3163/23 SAV, Bratislava, Slovakia, and the fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany. The author is thankful the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for organizing his stay at University of Ulm, Ulm, summer 2001, and Prof. G. Kalmbach H.E. for her cordial hospitality and discussions.     

Calculating lower bounds for caching problems

We present a general method for computing lower bounds for various caching problems. We apply the method to two well known problems, companion caching and weighted caching. For weighted caching, we increase the interval of weights where FIFO is known to be optimal. For companion caching, we give much simpler proofs for several known results, and give a new bound for the case of three types without reorganization or bypassing. Research supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.     

Scheduling jobs with equal processing times and time windows on identical parallel machines

We present a linear programming approach to the problem of scheduling equal processing time jobs with release dates and deadlines on identical parallel machines. The known algorithm with complexity O(n ³log log n) of B. Simons schedules all the jobs while minimizing both the maximum completion time and the mean flow time. Our approach permits also to minimize the weighted sum of completion times and total tardiness in polynomial time for the problems without deadlines. The complexity status of these problems was open. Contract/grant sponsor: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.     

Passive-state generation mechanisms and stabilization of dynamic systems

Conclusion In the models of passive-state formation considered above we have assumed for simplicity constant control parameters. In reality, the control parameters are functions of time, environmental factors, and the values of the “active” variables [7, 8]. These functions are “reasonably” constructed: under “bad” conditions the variables shift to a passive state, and when “good” conditions are restored, the variables switch back to active state. It is relevant to develop and analyze the corresponding model circuits. Here we can expect to observe even stronger stabilization effects in the behavior of complex systems. In conclusion, I would like to thank an anonymous referee for useful comments. The study is financed by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research. Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 6, pp. 103–112, November–December, 1995.     

Alles bloß Werbung? Virenwarnungen,Security-Reports und Marketing

Zusammenfassung  „Verbraucher?ngste treiben Kosten für Online-Sicherheit in die H?he“ — so überschrieb Yahoo Finance am 7. Juni 2007 einen Beitrag zur Akzeptanz von Online-Banking und-Handel. Tenor: Zwar gehe die Zahl der Opfer, die aufgrund gestohlener Konto-und Kreditkarteninformationen gro?e finanzielle Verluste erlitten, seit l?ngerem konstant zurück. Gleichzeitig sei jedoch das Kundenvertrauen auf einem Tiefpunkt angelangt mit der Folge, dass zumindest in den USA immer weniger Verbraucher das Web für Eink?ufe oder überweisungen nutzten. Der Artikel sorgte für einige Aufregung — wenngleich nicht so, wie man sich das bei Yahoo gewünscht haben mag. Zum Autor: Thomas B?cker ist freier IT-Fachjournalist und seit 2005 Leitender Redakteur von IT-Sicherheit & Datenschutz.     

Artificial life based on the programmed self-decomposition model, SIVA

To examine the effect and significance of the phenomenon of death, we have developed an artificial life simulator, SIVA-III (simulator for individuals of virtual automata III), based on a “programmed self-decomposition model”. The architecture of this simulator consists of a “finite heterogeneous habitation environment” and “artificial life with programmed individual death and concurrent self-decomposition”. We conducted experiments under various settings to comparare and contrast mortal life and immortal life. The results clearly demonstrated the validity of a self-decomposing, programmed individual death, and the limitations inherent in immortal life, suggesting a striking superiority of mortal life over immortal life. This work was presented in part at the Fifth International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 26–28, 2000     

On balanced versus unbalanced computation trees

A great number of complexity classes between P and PSPACE can be defined via leaf languages for computation trees of nondeterministic polynomial-time machines. Jenner, McKenzie, and Thérien (Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Structure in Complexity Theory, 1994) raised the issue of whether considering balanced or unbalanced trees makes any difference. For a number of leaf-language classes, coincidence of both models was shown, but for the very prominent example of leaf-language classes from the alternating logarithmic-time hierarchy the question was left open. It was only proved that in the balanced case these classes exactly characterize the classes from the polynomial-time hierarchy. Here, we show that balanced trees apparently make a difference: In the unbalanced case, a class from the logarithmic-time hierarchy characterizes the corresponding class from the polynomial-time hierarchy with a PP-oracle. Along the way, we get an interesting normal form for PP computations. The first and third authors were supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant No. Wa 847/1-1, “k-wertige Schaltkreise.” The second author was supported in part by an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship.     

Dual dynamics: Designing behavior systems for autonomous robots

This paper describes the “dual dynamics” (DD) design scheme for robotic behavior control systems. Behaviors are formally specified as dynamical systems using differential equations. A key idea for the DD scheme is that a robotic agent can work in different “modes,” which lead to qualitatively different behavioral patterns. Mathematically, transitions between modes are bifurcations in the control system. This work was presented, in part, at the Second International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 18–20, 1997     

Datenschutzkontrolle durch Open-Source

Die Free Software Foundation macht in ihrer Definition des Begriffes „Freie Software“ den Zugang zum Quellcode zu einer Grundbedingung. Ziel ist, die Software eigenen Bedürfnissen anzupassen. Dieser Aufsatz beleuchtet eine andere Qualit?t von Open-Source-Software: die Durchschaubarkeit von Prozessen.     

Standardization in information security management

The paper describes the state of the art in the standardization in information security management. The requirements to the standards being developed, the types of standards, and the principles to adhere to are discussed. The study is based on the documents adopted within the subcommittee 27 “IT Security techniques” of the joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 “Information technology”.     

ISO/IEC standardization of identity management and privacy technologies

To cover projects in the area of identity management, privacy, and biometrics ISO/IEC JTC 1/ SC 27 “IT Security techniques” in 2006 established Working Group 5 “Identity Management and Privacy Technologies”. This text describes the reasoning to have this Working Group within SC 27 and introduces WG 5 and its projects.     

Some results on the Collatz problem

The paper refers to the Collatz's conjecture. In the first part, we present some equivalent forms of this conjecture and a slight generalization of a former result from [1]. Then, we present the notion of “chain subtrees” in Collatz's tree followed by a characterization theorem and some subclass of numbers which are labels for some chain subtrees. Next, we define the notion of “fixed points” and using this, we give another conjecture similar to Collatz's conjecture. Some new infinite sets of numbers for which the Collatz's conjecture holds are given. Finally, we present some interesting results related to the number of “even” and “odd” branches in the Collatz's tree. Received: 15 September 1999 / 2 June 2000