ICEIS 2004 Abstracts

Area 1 - Databases and Information Systems Integration
Full Papers Short Papers Rejecteds
Area 2 - Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 3 - Information Systems Analysis and Specification
Full Papers Short Papers Rejecteds
Area 4 - Software Agents and Internet Computing
Full Papers Short Papers Rejecteds
Area 5 - Human-Computer Interaction
Full Papers Short Papers
Rejecteds
Paper Nr: 907
Title:

STRATEGIES FOR THE DIGITAL ENTREPREUNERSHIP - How to survive in the actual dotcom reallity
Authors:

Felipe Zurita Quadros, Hugo Hoeschl, Andre Bortolon and Francisco da Silva
Abstract: This article approaches the importance of business plans development for Information technology companies, wrapped up into an extremely fast and dynamic reality of the globalized world transformations. A recent approach was given about the mistakes made mainly by the companies based on the Internet, well known as dotcoms, before the crash of NASDAQ in 2000. It was searched to trace a parallel among the mistakes made by these companies thanks to inefficiency of its business plans, also identifying their flaws, suggesting a reflection for entrepreneurs and futures managers, who see in the Business Plan development a way to enlarge its business and attract investors, as weel through electronic means as for conventional means.
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Area 1 - Databases and Information Systems Integration

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 29
Title:

CONNECTIVITY OF ERP SYSTEM
Authors:

Vatcharaporn Esichaikul and Piyanan Nuankhieo
Abstract: The study is an attempt to propose the criteria for determining the appropriate connectivity of ERP systems. The result of this study provides a framework assisting ERP adopters in selecting integration approach which are appropriate to their needs. A survey was conducted to obtain information from ERP users to learn about their opinions on factors and criteria affecting connectivity of ERP systems. Findings from the study revealed that data oriented approach and application integration oriented approach are the most preferred integration methodologies. Opinions on criteria for evaluating ERP connectivity are nature of business process of organization, availability of technologies and service supports, nature of information system of organization, system flexibility, degree of integration, transaction volume, implementation cost, ease of maintenance, implementation time, security, and budget. Finally, the study proposes a framework to determine appropriate connectivity of ERP systems.
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Paper Nr: 48
Title:

ASSESSING EFFORT PREDICTION MODELS FOR CORRECTIVE SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE - An empirical study
Authors:

Andrea De Lucia, Eugenio Pompella and Silvio Stefanucci
Abstract: We present an assessment of an empirical study aiming at building effort estimation models for corrective maintenance projects. We show results from the application of the prediction models to a new corrective maintenance project within the same enterprise and the same type of software systems used in a previous study. The data available for the new project are finer grained according to the indications devised in the first study. This allowed to improve the confidence in our previous empirical analysis by confirming most of the hypotheses made and to provide other useful indications to better understand the maintenance process of the company in a quantitative way.
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Paper Nr: 80
Title:

ORGANIZATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS BEHAVIOR ALONG THE ERP IMPLEMENTATION PHASES
Authors:

Jose Esteves and Joan Pastor
Abstract: This paper analyzes the evolution of organizational and technological critical success factors along the ERP implementation phases. The identification of factors leading to success or failure of ERP systems is an issue of increasing importance, since the number of organizations choosing the ERP path keeps growing. Our findings suggest that while both good organizational and technological perspectives are essential for a successful ERP implementation project, their importance shifts as the project moves through its lifecycle.
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Paper Nr: 81
Title:

ACME-DB: AN ADAPTIVE CACHING MECHANISM USING MULTIPLE EXPERTS FOR DATABASE BUFFERS
Authors:

Faizal Riaz-Ud-din and Markus Kirchberg
Abstract: An adaptive caching algorithm, known as Adaptive Caching with Multiple Experts (ACME), has recently been presented in the field of web-caching. We explore the migration of ACME to the database caching environment. By integrating recently proposed database replacement policies into ACME’s existing policy pool, an attempt is made to gauge ACME’s ability to utilise newer methods of database caching. The results suggest that ACME is indeed well-suited to the database environment and performs as well as the best currently caching policy within its policy pool at any particular moment in its request stream. Although execution time increases by integrating more policies into ACME, the overall processing time improves drastically with erratic patterns of access, when compared to static policies.
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Paper Nr: 212
Title:

TOWARDS CONCEPTUAL MEDIATION - A semantic architecture for dynamic integration of heterogeneous databases
Authors:

Ismael Navas D. and José F. Aldana M.
Abstract: Mediators are usually developed as monolithic systems which envelope the data source’s semantics as well as its location. Furthermore, its architecture based on wrappers involves a high coupling degree among the mediator’s components. This coupling does not allow sharing services with other organizations or the dynamic integration of new data sources. Therefore, wrappers must be re-designed and manually added for each mediation system. We propose an architecture for conceptual mediation in which the sources’ query capabilities are published as web services. These services can be registered in one or more resource directories (Semantic Directories), which are the core of this architecture because they provide the needed flexibility and scalability for dynamic integration. Finally, we show an application in a bioinformatics context to validate our approach.
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Paper Nr: 249
Title:

THE CONCEPT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MARKET PLACE E-UTILITIES•COM
Authors:

Jamil Dimassi, Carine Souveyet and Colette Rolland
Abstract: In order to remain competitive in a deregulated environment, a group of European Utilities developed a prototype of a single Marketplace called e-utilities•com whose mandate is a clear customer centric orientation in the European environment for a successful mid-term multi-utility business via the Web. This paper highlights the concept of e-utilities•com and its implementation in a Web portal.
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Paper Nr: 261
Title:

ACCESS MODEL IN COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Preserving local autonomy with a global integration process
Authors:

Eric Disson and Danielle Boulanger
Abstract: This research focuses on access security in cooperating information systems. The offered modeling has to treat the interoperation of open and evolutive information systems and, moreover, has to guarantee the respect of various local security policies. The coexistence of heterogeneous information sources within an information systems framework involves homogenization problems between local security policies. We distinguish two types of heterogeneity: heterogeneity of the local access policies and semantic heterogeneity between object or subject instances of the local access schemas. To solve this twofold difficulty, we propose an original role model allowing a unified representation of local access schemas. This model preserves the flow control properties in the three main access policies (discretionary, role-based model and multilevel models). The described access schemas are enriched to establish intra-system access authorizations.
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Paper Nr: 261
Title:

ACCESS MODEL IN COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Preserving local autonomy with a global integration process
Authors:

Eric Disson and Danielle Boulanger
Abstract: This research focuses on access security in cooperating information systems. The offered modeling has to treat the interoperation of open and evolutive information systems and, moreover, has to guarantee the respect of various local security policies. The coexistence of heterogeneous information sources within an information systems framework involves homogenization problems between local security policies. We distinguish two types of heterogeneity: heterogeneity of the local access policies and semantic heterogeneity between object or subject instances of the local access schemas. To solve this twofold difficulty, we propose an original role model allowing a unified representation of local access schemas. This model preserves the flow control properties in the three main access policies (discretionary, role-based model and multilevel models). The described access schemas are enriched to establish intra-system access authorizations.
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Paper Nr: 261
Title:

ACCESS MODEL IN COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Preserving local autonomy with a global integration process
Authors:

Eric Disson and Danielle Boulanger
Abstract: This research focuses on access security in cooperating information systems. The offered modeling has to treat the interoperation of open and evolutive information systems and, moreover, has to guarantee the respect of various local security policies. The coexistence of heterogeneous information sources within an information systems framework involves homogenization problems between local security policies. We distinguish two types of heterogeneity: heterogeneity of the local access policies and semantic heterogeneity between object or subject instances of the local access schemas. To solve this twofold difficulty, we propose an original role model allowing a unified representation of local access schemas. This model preserves the flow control properties in the three main access policies (discretionary, role-based model and multilevel models). The described access schemas are enriched to establish intra-system access authorizations.
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Paper Nr: 261
Title:

ACCESS MODEL IN COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Preserving local autonomy with a global integration process
Authors:

Eric Disson and Danielle Boulanger
Abstract: This research focuses on access security in cooperating information systems. The offered modeling has to treat the interoperation of open and evolutive information systems and, moreover, has to guarantee the respect of various local security policies. The coexistence of heterogeneous information sources within an information systems framework involves homogenization problems between local security policies. We distinguish two types of heterogeneity: heterogeneity of the local access policies and semantic heterogeneity between object or subject instances of the local access schemas. To solve this twofold difficulty, we propose an original role model allowing a unified representation of local access schemas. This model preserves the flow control properties in the three main access policies (discretionary, role-based model and multilevel models). The described access schemas are enriched to establish intra-system access authorizations.
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Paper Nr: 272
Title:

BUSINESS MODELLING THROUGH ROADMAPS
Authors:

Judith B. Albornoz and Jonás Arturo Montilva Calderón
Abstract: Business modelling is a central activity to many different areas, including Business Process Reengineering, Organisational Development, Enterprise Modelling & Integration, Business Process Management and Enterprise Application Integration. It is well known that the business domain is not easy to understand neither to represent even for specialised people. The success of most of the contemporary methods for modelling Business Organisations is strongly associated with the level of understanding that the modelling team can attain about the specific situation being modelled. This understanding is directly related with the degree of modelling experience that the team has, as well as their ability to work with the techniques and tools prescribed by a specific method. Nowadays, most of the existing business modelling methods is concentrated in what the business concepts are and how to represent them. But, they lack of process guidance, which is needed to help the team through the modelling process. We elaborated the method BMM for modelling business application domains that provides working guidelines for the modelling team. This method, based on method engineering concepts helps teams to, not only, get a comprehensive knowledge about the business domain being modelled, but also, about the process of modelling the domain itself. This paper concerns with the representation of the process of modelling a business by using decision oriented process model formalism. The main contribution of our work is a set of roadmaps that contains the knowledge associated with team member’s modelling experience in business modelling and EIS development. This knowledge arises from several case studies.
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Paper Nr: 334
Title:

A TRANSACTION MODEL FOR LONG RUNNING BUSINESS PROCESSES
Authors:

Jinling Wang, Beihong Jin and Jing Li
Abstract: Many business processes in the enterprise applications are both long running and transactional in nature, but currently no transaction model can provide full transaction support for such long running business processes. In this paper, we proposed a new transaction model — PP/T model. It can provide full transaction support for the long running business processes, so that application developers can focus on the business logic, with the underlying platform providing the required transactional semantics. Simulation results show that the model has good performance in processing the long running business processes.
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Paper Nr: 410
Title:

CORRELATING EVENTS FOR MONITORING BUSINESS PROCESSES
Authors:

Josef Schiefer and Carolyn Mcgregor
Abstract: With the increasing demand for real-time information on critical performance indicators of business processes, the capturing, transformation and correlation of real-world events with minimal latency are a prerequisite for improving the speed and effectiveness of an organization's business operations. Events often include key business information about their relationship to other events that can be utilized to collect relevant event data for the calculation of business performance indicators. In this paper we introduce an approach for correlating events of business processes that uses correlation sessions to represent correlation knowledge. Correlation sessions facilitate the processing of data across multiple events and thereby enable a calculating of business metrics in near real-time. The benefit over existing approaches is that it is tailored to instrument business processes and business applications that may operate in a heterogeneous software environment. We propose a Java-based, container-managed environment which provides a distributed, scalable, near-real time processing of events and which includes a correlation service that effectively manages correlation sessions. We also show a complete example that illustrates how correlation sessions can be utilized for computing the cycle time of business processes.
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Paper Nr: 422
Title:

AN EVENT PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR RULE-BASED COMPONENT INTEGRATION
Authors:

Susan Urban, Sunitha Kambhampati, Suzanne Dietrich, Ying Jin and Amy Sundermier
Abstract: The Integration Rules (IRules) project has developed an environment in which active rules, known as integration rules, are used together with transactions to provide an event-driven, rule-based approach to the integration of black-box components. This paper presents the event processing system that supports the use of integration rules over components. The event processing system is composed of the language framework for the specification of different types of events, an event generation system for generating event instances, and an event handler for communicating the occurrence of events to the integration rule processor. The language framework supports the enhancement of EJB components with events that are generated before and after the execution of methods on components. Since integration rules support an immediate coupling mode and execute in the context of nested transactions, a synchronization algorithm has been developed to coordinate the execution of immediate integration rules with the execution of methods on components. The synchronization algorithm makes it possible to suspend and resume distributed application transactions to accommodate the nested execution of integration rules with an immediate coupling mode.
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Paper Nr: 452
Title:

IMPROVING VIEW SELECTION IN QUERY REWRITING USING DOMAIN SEMANTICS
Authors:

Qingyuan Bai, Jun Hong and Michael F. Mctear
Abstract: Query rewriting using views is an important issue in data integration. Several algorithms have been proposed, such as the bucket algorithm, the inverse rules algorithm, the SVB algorithm, and the MiniCon algorithm. These algorithms can be divided into two categories. The algorithms of the first category are based on use of buckets while the ones of the second category are based on use of inverse rules. The bucket-based algorithms have not considered the effects of integrity constraints, such as domain semantics, functional and inclusion dependencies. As a result, they might miss query rewritings or generate redundant query rewritings in the presence of these constraints. A bucket-based algorithm consists of two steps. The first step is called view selection that selects views relevant to a given query and puts the views into the corresponding buckets. The second step is to generate all the possible query rewritings by combining a view from each bucket. In this paper, we consider an improvement of view selection in the bucket-based algorithms using domain semantics. We use the resolution method to generate a pseudo residue for each view given a set of domain semantics. Given a query, the pseudo residue of each view is compared with it and any conflict that exists can be found. As a result, irrelevant views can be removed even before a bucket-based algorithm is used.
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Paper Nr: 511
Title:

EFFICIENT QUERYING OF TRANSFORMED XML DOCUMENTS
Authors:

Sven Groppe, Stefan Böttcher and Georg Birkenheuer
Abstract: An application using XML for data representation requires the transformation of XML data if the application accesses XML data of other applications, or of a global database using another XML format. The common approach transforms entire XML documents from one format into another e.g. by using an XSLT stylesheet. The application can then work locally on a copy of the original document transformed in the application-specific format. Different from the common approach, we use an XSLT stylesheet in order to transform a given XPath query such that we retrieve and transform only that part of the XML document which is sufficient to answer the given query. Among other things, our approach avoids problems of replication, saves processing time and in distributed scenarios, transportation costs. Experimental results of a prototype prove that our approach is scalable and efficient.
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Paper Nr: 524
Title:

RELATIONAL SAMPLING FOR DATA QUALITY AUDITING AND DECISION SUPPORT
Authors:

Bruno Cortes and José Nuno Oliveira
Abstract: This paper presents a strategy for applying sampling techniques to relational databases, in the context of data quality auditing or decision support processes. Fuzzy cluster sampling is used to survey sets of records for correctness of business rules. Relational algebra estimators are presented as a data quality-auditing tool.
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Paper Nr: 594
Title:

IMPROVING QUERY PERFORMANCE ON OLAP-DATA USING ENHANCED MULTIDIMENSIONAL INDICES
Authors:

Yaokai Feng, Akifumi Makinouchi and Hiroshi Ryu
Abstract: Multidimensional indices are efficient to improve the query performance on OLAP data. As one multi-dimensional index structure,R*-tree is popular and successful, which is a member of the famous R-tree family. We enhance the R*-tree to improve the performance of range queries on OLAP data.First, the following observations are presented. (1) The clustering pattern of the tuples (of the OLAP data) among the R*-tree leaf nodes is a decisive factor on range search performance and it is controllable. (2) There often exist many slender nodes when the R*-tree is used to index OLAP data, which causes some problems both with the R*-tree construction and with queries. And then,we propose an approach to control the clustering pattern of tuples and propose an approach to solve the problems of slender nodes, where slender nodes refer to those having a very narrow side (even the side length is zero) in some dimension. Our proposals are examined by experiments using synthetic data and TPC-H benchmark data.
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Paper Nr: 601
Title:

ADVANTAGES OF UML FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODELING
Authors:

Sergio Luján-mora, Juan Trujillo and Panos Vassiliadis
Abstract: In the last few years, various approaches for the multidimensional (MD) modeling have been presented. However, none of them has been widely accepted as a standard. In this paper, we summarize the advantages of using object orientation for MD modeling. Furthermore, we use the UML, a standard visual modeling language, for modeling every aspect of MD systems. We show how our approach resolves elegantly some important problems of the MD modeling, such as multistar models, shared hierarchy levels, and heterogeneous dimensions. We believe that our approach, based on the popular UML, can be successfully used for MD modeling and can represent most of frequent MD modeling problems at the conceptual level.
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Paper Nr: 633
Title:

TRANSACTION CONCEPTS FOR SUPPORTING CHANGES IN DATA WAREHOUSES
Authors:

Bartosz Bebel, Zbyszko Królikowski, Tadeusz Morzy and Robert Wrembel
Abstract: A data warehouse (DW) provides information from external data sources for analytical processing, decision-making, and data mining tools. External data sources are autonomous, i.e. they change over time, independently of a DW. Therefore, the structure and content of a DW has to be periodically synchronized with its external data sources. This synchronization concerns DW data as well as schema. Concurrent work of synchronizing processes and user queries may result in various anomalies. In order to tackle this problem we propose to apply a multiversion data warehouse and an advanced transaction mechanism to a DW synchronization.
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Paper Nr: 633
Title:

TRANSACTION CONCEPTS FOR SUPPORTING CHANGES IN DATA WAREHOUSES
Authors:

Bartosz Bebel, Zbyszko Królikowski, Tadeusz Morzy and Robert Wrembel
Abstract: A data warehouse (DW) provides information from external data sources for analytical processing, decision-making, and data mining tools. External data sources are autonomous, i.e. they change over time, independently of a DW. Therefore, the structure and content of a DW has to be periodically synchronized with its external data sources. This synchronization concerns DW data as well as schema. Concurrent work of synchronizing processes and user queries may result in various anomalies. In order to tackle this problem we propose to apply a multiversion data warehouse and an advanced transaction mechanism to a DW synchronization.
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Paper Nr: 670
Title:

F2/XML: MANAGING XML DOCUMENT SCHEMA EVOLUTION
Authors:

Lina Al-Jadir and Fatmé El-Moukaddem
Abstract: XML has become an emerging standard for data representation and data exchange on the Web. Although XML data is self-describing, most application domains tend to use document schemas. Over a period of time, these schemas need to be modified to reflect a change in the real-world, a change in the user’s requirements, mistakes or missing information in the initial design. Most of the current XML management systems do not support schema changes. In this paper, we propose the F2/XML method to manage XML document schema evolution. We consider XML documents associated with DTDs. Our method consists in three steps. First, the DTD and XML documents are stored as a database schema and a database instance respectively. Second, DTD changes are applied as schema changes on the database. Third, the updated DTD and XML documents are retrieved from the database. Our method supports a complete set of DTD changes. The semantics of each DTD change is defined by preconditions and postactions, such that the new DTD is valid, existing XML documents conform to the new DTD, and data is not lost if possible. We implemented our method in the F2 object-oriented database system.
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Paper Nr: 693
Title:

PROPOSAL FOR AUTOMATING THE GENERATION PROCESS OF QUESTIONNAIRES TO MEASURE THE SATISFACTION LEVEL OF SOFTWARE USERS
Authors:

Mauro Paparo, Sergio Zapata and María I. Lund
Abstract: The most recent concepts on software quality take into account the factors of product quality, process quality and the satisfaction level of users. Therefore, when putting forth a plan for improving a software product, special attention should be paid as to incorporate the level of users’ satisfaction into the development premises. On this latter respect, well-designed surveys have proven to be a valuable tool to obtain and measure satisfaction variables. The survey-based strategies, however, present a drawback on the fact that the tasks involved in questionnaire generation are difficult to automate, which renders the entire approach almost impracticable. This work presents a proposal for automating the various stages defined in questionnaire generation, with the aim at making the measurement method be both applicable and more practical.
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Paper Nr: 739
Title:

MEMORY MANAGEMENT FOR LARGE SCALE DATA STREAM RECORDERS
Authors:

Kun Fu and Roger Zimmermann
Abstract: Presently, digital continuous media (CM) are well established as an integral part of many applications. In recent years, a considerable amount of research has focused on the efficient retrieval of such media. Scant attention has been paid to servers that can record such streams in real time. However, more and more devices produce direct digital output streams. Hence, the need arises to capture and store these streams with an efficient data stream recorder that can handle both recording and playback of many streams simultaneously and provide a central repository for all data. In this report we investigate memory management in the context of large scale data stream recorders. We are especially interested in finding the minimal buffer space needed that still provides adequate resources with varying workloads. We show that computing the minimal memory is an NP -complete problem and will require further study to discover efficient heuristics.
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Paper Nr: 739
Title:

MEMORY MANAGEMENT FOR LARGE SCALE DATA STREAM RECORDERS
Authors:

Kun Fu and Roger Zimmermann
Abstract: Presently, digital continuous media (CM) are well established as an integral part of many applications. In recent years, a considerable amount of research has focused on the efficient retrieval of such media. Scant attention has been paid to servers that can record such streams in real time. However, more and more devices produce direct digital output streams. Hence, the need arises to capture and store these streams with an efficient data stream recorder that can handle both recording and playback of many streams simultaneously and provide a central repository for all data. In this report we investigate memory management in the context of large scale data stream recorders. We are especially interested in finding the minimal buffer space needed that still provides adequate resources with varying workloads. We show that computing the minimal memory is an NP -complete problem and will require further study to discover efficient heuristics.
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Paper Nr: 761
Title:

DURATIVE EVENTS IN ACTIVE DATABASES
Authors:

Rodolfo Gomez and Juan C. Augusto
Abstract: Active databases are DBMS which are able to detect certain events in the environment and trigger actions in consequence. Event detection has been subject of much research, and a number of different event specification languages is extant. However, this is far from being a trivial or accomplished task. Most of these languages handle just instantaneous events, but it has been noticed that a number of situations arise where it would be interesting or even necessary to handle durative events. We elaborate on a given specification language which combines instantaneous and durative events, revealing some issues which must be taken into account when the semantics of event composition is defined.
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Paper Nr: 852
Title:

WEB-BASED TRAINING SYSTEM FOR FOREST FIRE OFFICE STAFF
Authors:

Agustín Yagüe, Pedro P. Alarcón, Juan Garbajosa, Alexei Lisounkin and Gerhard Schreck
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to present an approach for a web-based training system for Forest fire offices. The development of a modelling and simulation technology for systems with a network-like architecture is growing day by day. Forest fire offices represent an appropriate application such approach. It is based on an XML languages family defined in a research project and is applied to a number of systems that have been modelled and simulated. This paper introduces two different related issues: the system architecture; and the XML-based language and its use for simulation.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 55
Title:

SUPPORTING KNOWLEDGE REUSE DURING THE SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE PROCESS THROUGH AGENTS
Authors:

Aurora Vizcaino, Juan Pablo Soto and Mario Piattini
Abstract: Knowledge management has become an important topic as organisations wish to take advantage of the information that they produce and that can be brought to bear on important decisions. This work describes a system to manage and reuse the information (and knowledge) generated during the software maintenance process, which consumes a large part of the software lifecycle costs. The architecture of the system is formed of a set of agent communities. Each community manages different types of knowledge. The communities’ agents have the goal of encouraging the reuse of good solutions and taking advantage of information obtained from previous experience. In consequence, the software maintenance is made easier and there are less costs and effort. To achieve this goal, agents use several reasoning techniques such as case based reasoning or decision tree based algorithms which allow them to generate new knowledge from the information that they manage.
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Paper Nr: 62
Title:

IMPORTANT FACTORS IN ERP SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATIONS - Result of the research in Polish enterprises
Authors:

Piotr Soja
Abstract: In the article the problem of success factors in ERP systems implementations has been discussed. The review of the literature concerning success factors has been discussed and the collection of potential ERP implementation success factors was identified. Next, the result of research has been presented, where respondents have been asked about their opinion about the importance of subsequent factors for the implementation success. There were two groups of respondents: the first consisted of people from Polish enterprises implementing ERP systems and the second comprised experts working in ERP systems suppliers. On the basis of the research, the most important and necessary factors in the respondents’ opinions have been identified, as well as the least important ones.
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Paper Nr: 72
Title:

IDENTIFYING CLONES IN DYNAMIC WEB SITES USING SIMILARITY THRESHOLDS
Authors:

Andrea De Lucia, Giuseppe Scanniello and Genny Tortora
Abstract: We propose an approach to automatically detect duplicated pages in dynamic Web sites and on the analysis of both the page structure, implemented by specific sequences of HTML tags, and the displayed content. In addition, for each pair of dynamic pages we also consider the similarity degree of their scripting code. The similarity degree of two pages is computed using different similarity metrics for the different parts of a web page based on the Levenshtein string edit distance. We have implemented a prototype to automate the clone detection process on web applications developed using JSP technology and used it to validate our approach in a case study.
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Paper Nr: 78
Title:

ERP BASED BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING IN A HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT: A CASE STUDY APPROACH
Authors:

Konstantinos Chertouras and Theodora Chatzikallia
Abstract: Modern organizations are constantly facing new challenges regarding the reengineering of their business departments and processes. By the term Business Process we mean the profile of specific methods that can be employed to perform specific business tasks. In general, each Business Process is uniquely tailored to the organization it applies. Therefore, the resolution of a Business Process related problem is typically carried out with custom methods developed within organizations. In this paper we propose the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), as the basis for reengineering a business department and effectively the Business Process that it carries through. We discuss the application of ERP in the reengineering of the Business Process of a real world organization department (a Human Resources (HR) Department), which lead to a significant productivity enhancement.
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Paper Nr: 114
Title:

TRANSACTION DESIGN FOR DATABASES WITH HIGH PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY
Authors:

Lars Frank
Abstract: When many concurrent transactions like ERP and E-commerce orders want to update the same stock records, long duration locking may reduce the availability of the locked data. Therefore, transactions are often designed without analyzing the consequences of loosing the traditional ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) properties. In this paper, we will analyze how low isolation levels, optimistic concurrency control, short duration locks, and countermeasures against isolation anomalies can be used to design transactions for databases with high performance and availability. Long duration locks are defined as locks that are held until a transaction has been committed, i.e. the data of a record is locked from the first read to the last update of any data used by the transaction. This will decrease the availability of locked data for concurrent transactions, and, therefore, optimistic concurrency control and low isolation levels are often used. However, in systems with relatively many updates like ERP-systems and E-commerce systems, low isolation levels cannot solve the availability problem as all update locks must be exclusive. In such situations, we will recommend the use of short duration locks. Short duration locks are local locks that are released as soon as possible, i.e. data will for example not be locked across a dialog with the user. Normally, databases where only short duration locks are used do not have the traditional ACID properties as at least the isolation property is missing when locks are not hold across a dialog with the user. The problems caused by the missing ACID properties may be managed by using approximated ACID properties, i.e. from an application point of view the system should function as if all the traditional ACID properties had been implemented.
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Paper Nr: 163
Title:

A MIDDLEWARE FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF LARGE UTILITIES PLANTS
Authors:

Salvatore Cavalieri, Fabrizio D'urso, Carmelo Floridia and A. Rossettini
Abstract: The paper presents the main features of the European project Mobicossum IST 1999-57455, still running. The project is a CRAFT one approved inside the Fifth Framework Programme. It aims to define a middleware offering services for the management of large plants, in the field of gas and water distribution and wastewater treatment systems. In the paper, the main features of the project will be explained, focusing on the description of the implementation of the core of the middleware, called Generalised Interface.
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Paper Nr: 174
Title:

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR FORECASTING ERP IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS - A first step towards the creation of an implementation support tool
Authors:

Johan Magnusson, Andreas Nilsson and Fredrik Carlsson
Abstract: The continuing soar in popularity when it comes to standardized information systems sold en masse under the labelling of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems is somewhat kept under control by the ever flowing stream of reports from the industry of implementations gone bad. According to some researchers it is possible to assume that as many as 90% of all initiated ERP implementation projects can be regarded as failures as a result of changes in scope, prolongation of the project time or simply budget overruns. With the implementation of an ERP system being a very costly and risky endeavour, organizations considering “getting on the bandwagon” stand much to gain from pre-emptively forecasting the probability of success for an ERP implementation in their enterprise. Given this, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a possible conceptual framework for forecasting ERP implementation success and discuss the role of such a framework in a software based tool. This was achieved through an initial in-depth literary review aimed at finding factors affecting the outcome of the ERP implementation projects. These results were then communicated to an industrial support group comprised of possible ERP implementation stakeholders. After lengthy discussions concerning the usability, validity and reliability of the proposed list of factors, a conceptual framework was agreed upon for forecasting ERP implementation success. The framework was then tested against a number of possible stakeholders outside the industrial support group. As the results show we have been able to create a conceptual framework for forecasting ERP implementation success that is currently in the second wave of testing. The usability, validity and reliability of the framework is discussed and elaborated upon, and this paper concludes that the perceived usability and hence also value of the conceptual framework is substantial, whereas the validity and reliability remain to be tested.
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Paper Nr: 178
Title:

DELEGATING AUTHORITY IN A DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Authors:

Kareem Aggour, Barbara Vivier and Janet Barnett
Abstract: The need to manage large information repositories in a secure, distributed environment increases with the growth of the Internet. To address this need, a system capable of managing the contents of an LDAP directory over the Web has been designed and developed. This system allows for the directory’s data to be divided into communities and supports the delegation of administrative authority over those communities to a distributed set of administrators. The communities may be subdivided recursively into subgroups, and rights over those subgroups also may be restricted. Thus, system administrators can dynamically delegate subsets of their permissions over a subset of their managed data, allowing for the flexible and effective control of permissions over the data within distributed organizations. The system solves the delegated administration problem for managing the contents of an LDAP directory in a distributed environment. Today, it supports the administration of over 20 production directories by well over 2000 distributed administrators.
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Paper Nr: 241
Title:

FUZZY MULTIPLE-LEVEL SEQUENTIAL PATTERNS DISCOVERY FROM CUSTOMER TRANSACTION DATABASES
Authors:

An Chen and Huilin Ye
Abstract: Sequential pattern discovery is a very important research topic in data mining and knowledge discovery and has been widely applied in business analysis. Previous works were focused on mining sequential patterns at a single concept level based on definite and accurate concept which may not be concise and meaningful enough for human experts to easily obtain nontrivial knowledge from the rules discovered. In this paper, we introduce concept hierarchies firstly, and then discuss a mining algorithm F-MLSPDA for discovering multiple-level sequential patterns with quantitative attribute based on fuzzy partitions.
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Paper Nr: 273
Title:

AUTOMATIC DISCOVERY OF SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCHEMA ELEMENTS
Authors:

Nikos Rizopoulos
Abstract: The identification of semantic relationships between schema elements, or schema matching, is the initial step in the integration of data sources. Existing approaches in automatic schema matching have mainly been concerned with discovering equivalence relationships between elements. In this paper, we present an approach to automatically discover richer and more expressive semantic relationships based on a bidirectional comparison of the elements data and metadata. The experiments that we have performed on real-world data sources from several domains show promising results, considering the fact that we do not rely on any user or external knowledge.
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Paper Nr: 276
Title:

MANAGING INFORMATION FLOW DYNAMICS WITH AGILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURES
Authors:

Nancy Alexopoulou, Panagiotis Kanellis and Drakoulis Martakos
Abstract: New organization forms and ways of conducting business require architectures for enterprise systems that can support and not hinder entrepreneurial activities. Primarily this means that the information flow between both internal as well as cross-enterprise processes must be managed by underlying systems that offer a high level of automation as well as being highly flexible and integrated. In this respect, we present an agile architecture that offers a coherent and high level conceptualisation of the above properties that enterprise information systems should display, consider a number of technologies as potential implementation candidates and demonstrate how the architecture addresses node density, velocity, viscosity and volatility as parameters for managing and controlling the dynamics of information flows.
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Paper Nr: 277
Title:

A TRANSACTIONAL MULTIMODE MODEL TO HANDLE OVERLOAD IN DISTRIBUTED RTDBSs
Authors:

Samia Bouzefrane and Sofiane Bourenane
Abstract: Current applications, such as Web-based services, electronic commerce, mobile telecommunication systems, etc. are distributed in nature and manipulate time-critical databases. In order to enhance the performance and the availability of such applications, the major issue is to develop efficient protocols that cooperate with the scheduler to manage the overload of the distributed system. In order to help real-time database management systems (RTDBS) to maintain data logical consistency while attempting to enhance concurrency execution of transactions, we introduce a transactional multimode model to let the application transactions adapt their behavior to the overload consequences. In this paper, we propose for each transaction several execution modes and we derive an overload controller suitable for the proposed multimode model.
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Paper Nr: 279
Title:

A FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING DIFFICULTIES IN ERP IMPLEMENTATION
Authors:

Luis I. Ferrario and Jorge Marcelo Montagna
Abstract: Various sources point out very high percentages of failures to implement ERP systems. In this work, the main difficulties for this task are analyzed and a systematic classification of fundamental reasons is intended. By considering the reasons that lead to failure, a simple and effective mechanism is generated to evaluate in advance complications the project might present. In this way, the tools to be used can be adjusted to the specific characteristics of the project. Somehow, it is intended to solve the problem presented by general methodologies, which are used for any kind of enterprise, without previously considering its conditions and state to face this type of projects.
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Paper Nr: 279
Title:

A FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING DIFFICULTIES IN ERP IMPLEMENTATION
Authors:

Luis I. Ferrario and Jorge Marcelo Montagna
Abstract: Various sources point out very high percentages of failures to implement ERP systems. In this work, the main difficulties for this task are analyzed and a systematic classification of fundamental reasons is intended. By considering the reasons that lead to failure, a simple and effective mechanism is generated to evaluate in advance complications the project might present. In this way, the tools to be used can be adjusted to the specific characteristics of the project. Somehow, it is intended to solve the problem presented by general methodologies, which are used for any kind of enterprise, without previously considering its conditions and state to face this type of projects.
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Paper Nr: 287
Title:

STUDY OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE INTEGRATION OF SPATIAL XML WEB RESOURCES
Authors:

José E. Córcoles and Pascual Gonzalez
Abstract: The research community has begun to investigate foundations for the next stage of the Web, called Semantic Web. Current efforts include the Extensible Markup Language XML, the Resource description Framework, Topic Maps and the DARPA Agent Markup Language DAML+OIL. A rich domain that requires special attention is the Geospatial Semantic Web. However, in order to approach the Geospatial Semantic Web, it is necessary to solve the problem of developing an integration system for querying spatial resources stored in different sources. In this paper, we study two different approaches to integrating spatial and non-spatial information represented in the Geographical Markup Language (GML). The approaches studied follow LAV (Local as View) integration. With this study we obtain the best approach to developing a real system for querying GML resources stored in different sources.
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Paper Nr: 317
Title:

AN EFFICIENT B+-TREE IMPLEMENTATION IN C++ USING THE STL STYLE
Authors:

Jingxue Zhou, Bin Nie and Gregory Butler
Abstract: Database indexes are the search engines for database management systems. The B+-tree is one of the most widely used data structures and provides an efficient index. An efficient implementation is crucial for a B+- tree index. Our B+-tree index is designed to be a container in the style of the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) and implemented efficiently using design patterns and generic programming techniques.
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Paper Nr: 323
Title:

XRM: AN XML-BASED LANGUAGE FOR RULE MINING SYSTEMS
Authors:

B. Bouchou, Ahmed Cheriat, Mirian Halfeld-ferrari , T. Jen and D. Laurent
Abstract: We present XRM, an XML-based language capable of promoting the collaboration among data mining systems. XRM is a general framework to express any system results and/or data as logic formulas. In this way, XRM offers flexibility to represent data, constraints and patterns, and allows mining systems to present their results in an exchangeable format. In this work, we concentrate on the use of XRM to represent different forms of association rules. XRM is built on XML Schema.
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Paper Nr: 328
Title:

ENHANCING THE SUCCESS RATIO OF DISTRIBUTED REAL-TIME NESTED TRANSACTIONS
Authors:

Majed Abdouli, Bruno Sadeg, Laurent Amanton and A. Berred
Abstract: The traditional transaction models are not suited to real-time database systems (RTDBSs). Indeed, many current applications managed by these systems necessitate a kind of transactions where some of the ACID2 properties must be ignored or adapted. In this paper, we propose a real-time concurrency control protocol and an adaptation of the Two-Phase Commit Protocol based on the nested transaction model where a nested transaction is viewed as a collection of both essential and non-essential subtransactions: the essential subtransaction has a firm3 deadline, and the non-essential one has a soft4 deadline. We show through simulation results, how our protocol based on this assumption, allows better concurrency between transactions and between subtransactions of the same transaction, enhancing then the success ratio5 and the RTDBS performances, i.e., more transactions may meet their deadlines.
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Paper Nr: 331
Title:

RAPID XML DATABASE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
Authors:

Albrecht Schmidt and Kjetil Norvag
Abstract: This paper proposes a rapid prototyping framework for XML database application development. By splitting up the development process into several refinement steps while keeping the application programming interface stable, the framework aims at rapid implementation of a prototype with a well-defined interface and a subsequent implementation of more advanced concepts like business rules in several steps. The refinement process takes the form of incrementally adding domain-specific information to the application. This is achieved by transgressing from general-purpose XML tools that do not support the definition and enforcement of constraints to frameworks that support domain-specific models and constraints such as E/R modeling. We have employed this method in the development of an example application, and we give performance numbers that illustrate the incremental improvements of each step.
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Paper Nr: 405
Title:

AN APPROACH FOR SCHEMA EVOLUTION IN ODMG DATABASES
Authors:

Cecilia Delgado Negrete, José Samos and Manuel Torres

Abstract: Schema evolution is the process of applying changes to a schema in a consistent way and propagating these changes to the instances while the database is in operation. However, when a database is shared by many users, updates to the database schema are always difficult. To overcome this problem, in this paper we propose a version mechanism for schema evolution in ODMG databases that preserves old schemas for continued support of existing programs running on the shared database when schema changes are produced. Our approach uses external schema definition techniques and is based on the fact that if a schema change is requested on an external schema, rather than modifying the schema, a new schema, which reflects the semantics of the schema change, is defined.
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Paper Nr: 412
Title:

TRANSFORMATION-ORIENTED MIDDLEWARE FOR LEGACY SYSTEM INTEGRATION
Authors:

Guido Menkhaus and Urs Frei
Abstract: Most established companies have acquired legacy systems through mergers and acquisitions. The systems were developed independently of each other and very often they do not align with the evolving IT infrastructure. Still, they drive day-to-day business processes. Replacing the legacy application with new solutions might not be feasible, practical or cost a considerable amount of time. However, immediate integration might be a requirement for a strategic project, such as supply chain management or e-business. This article presents a transformation system for legacy system integration that allows flexible and effective transformation of data between heterogeneous systems. Sequences of transformations are described using a grammar based approach.
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Paper Nr: 421
Title:

SCHEMA EVOLUTION FOR STARS AND SNOWFLAKES
Authors:

Christian Kaas, Torben Bach Pedersen and Bjørn Rasmussen
Abstract: The most common implementation platform for multidimensional data warehouses is RDBMSs storing data in relational star and snowflake schemas. DW schemas evolve over time, which may invalidate existing analysis queries used for reporting purposes. However, the evolution properties of star and snowflake schemas have not previously been investigated systematically. This paper systematically investigates the evolution properties of star and snowflake schemas. Eight evolution operations are considered, covering insertion and deletion of dimensions, levels, dimension attributes, and measure attributes. For each operation, the formal semantics of the changes for star and snowflake schemas are given, and instance adaption and impact on existing queries are described. Finally, we compare the evolution properties of star and snowflake schemas, concluding that the star schema is considerably more robust towards schema changes than the snowflake schema.
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Paper Nr: 423
Title:

CONV2XML: RELATIONAL SCHEMA CONVERSION TO XML NESTED-BASED SCHEMA
Authors:

Angela Duta, Ken Barker and Reda Alhajj
Abstract: Conversion of relational data to XML is a critical topic in the database area. This approach translates the rigid tabular structures of relational databases into hierarchical XML structures. Logical connections between bits of data depicted by relationships are represented more naturally by tree-like structures. Conv2XML and ConvRel are two algorithms for converting relational schema to XML Schema focusing on preserving the source relationships and their structural constraints. ConvRel translates each relationship individually into a nested XML structure. Conv2XML identifies complex nested structures capable of modelling all relationships existent in a relational database.
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Paper Nr: 426
Title:

APPLYING CROSS-TOPIC RELATIONSHIPS TO INCREMENTAL RELEVANCE FEEDBACK
Authors:

Terry H. Lai, Stephen Chan and Korris L. Chung
Abstract: General purpose search engines like Google and Yahoo define search topics for the purpose of document organization, yet their hierarchical structures cover only a portion of topic relationships. Search effectiveness can be improved by using search topic networks, in which topics are linked through semantic relations. In our search model, is-child and is-neighbor relations are defined as relations among search topics, which in turn can serve as search techniques; the is-child relation allows searching from general concepts, while the is-neighbor relation provides fresh information that can help users to identify search areas. This search model uses the Bayesian Networks and the incremental relevance feedback. Our experiments show that search models using the Bayesian Networks and the incremental relevance feedback improve search effectiveness.
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Paper Nr: 435
Title:

INFORMATION INVASION IN ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS - Modelling, simulating and analysing system-level information propagation
Authors:

Peter Henderson, Stephen Crouch and Robert Walters
Abstract: With the proliferation of internet-based technologies within and between organisations, large-scale enterprise systems are becoming more interconnected than ever before. A significant problem facing these organisations is how their information systems will cope with inconsistency being introduced from external data sources. Major problems arise when low quality information enters an authoritative enterprise system from these external sources, and in so doing gains credibility. This problem is compounded by the propagation of this information to other systems and other enterprises, potentially 'invading' an inter-enterprise network. In this paper we will introduce and examine this behaviour, which we term 'information invasion'. Characterisation of systems that are most vulnerable from such an occurrence is provided, and details of an experiment are given which simulates information invasion on an example network topology.
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Paper Nr: 438
Title:

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER TO AND AMONG END-USERS IN PRE-PACKAGED ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION: - An Exploratory Study of the Roles of Communities of Practice
Authors:

Jimmy Tanamal
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the roles of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in knowledge transfer during the implementation of a particular IT artefact, i.e. the Pre-packaged Enterprise Application Software (PEAS) or also known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Using an in-depth longitudinal case-study across different stages of a Financial PEAS implementation in a large Australian university, we assess the effectiveness and applicability of the practices of CoPs for transferring the PEAS knowledge to and among end-users. The key finding of this paper is that CoPs can be utilized to enhance knowledge transfer for a better PEAS implementation result. Our findings also indicate that CoPs can be assigned to steward this dynamic PEAS knowledge in its most updated version among the very people who are its owners.
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Paper Nr: 449
Title:

INTEGRATION, FLEXIBILITY AND TRANSVERSALITY: ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ERP SYSTEMS
Authors:

Sylvestre Uwizeyemungu and Louis Raymond
Abstract: The interest of firms in ERP systems has been echoed in both the scientific and professional literature. It is worth noting however that while this literature has become increasingly abundant, there does not yet exist an operational definition of the ERP concept that is, if not unanimously, at least widely accepted. This constitutes a handicap for both the research and practice communities. The present study outlines what could be considered as an ERP by first determining the essentially required characteristics of such a system : integration, flexibility and transversality. Indicators are then provided in order to operationalise these three characteristics. The study concludes by proposing a research framework on the impact of an ERP’s key characteristics upon the performance of the system in a given organisational setting.
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Paper Nr: 451
Title:

SEMANTIC INTEGRATION OF DISPARATE DATA SOURCES IN THE COG PROJECT
Authors:

Jos De Bruijn
Abstract: We present a novel approach to the integration of structured information sources in enterprises, based on Semantic Web technology. The semantic information integration approach presented in this paper was applied in the COG project. We describe Unicorn’s Semantic Information Management along with the Unicorn Workbench tool, which is a component part of the Unicorn System, and how they were applied in the project to solve the information integration problem. We used the Semantic Information Management Methodology and the Unicorn Workbench tool to create an Information Model (an ontology) based on data schemas taken from the automotive industry. We map these data schemas to the Information Model in order to make the meaning of the concepts in the data schemas explicit and relate them to each other, thereby creating an information architecture that provides a unified view of the data sources in the organization.
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Paper Nr: 454
Title:

THE ABORTION RATE OF LAZY REPLICATION PROTOCOLS FOR DISTRIBUTED DATABASES
Authors:

Luis Irún-Briz, Francesc D. Muñoz-Escoí and Josep M. Bernabéu-Aubán
Abstract: Lazy update protocols have proven to have an undesirable behavior due to their high abortion rate in scenarios with high degree of access conflicts. In this paper, we present the problem of the abortion rate in such protocols from an statistical point of view, in order to provide an expression that predicts the probability of an object to be out of date during the execution of a transaction. It is also suggested a pseudo-optimistic technique that makes use of this expression to reduce the abortion rate caused by accesses to out of date objects. The proposal is validated by means of simulations of the behavior of the expression. Finally, the application of the presented results to improve lazy update protocols is discussed, providing a technique to theoretically determine the boundaries of the improvement.
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Paper Nr: 486
Title:

AN EXCHANGE SERVICE FOR FINANCIAL MARKETS
Authors:

Hairong Yu, Fethi Rabhi and Feras Dabous
Abstract: The critical business requirements and compelling nature of the competitive landscape are pushing Information Technology systems away from the traditional centrally controlled corporate-wide architectures towards dynamic, loosely coupled, self-defining and service-based solutions. Web services are regarded as a key technology for addressing the need for connecting extended applications and providing standards and flexibility for enterprise legacy systems integration. This paper reports our experiences when integrating a financial market trading system. This integration process starts from analysing the trading system’s architecture, then identifying system functionality and finally realising the design and implementation of a Web service. Performance and security and the trade-offs involved are the major focus points throughout this process. Comprehensive benchmarking is conducted with and without Web service and security considerations.
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Paper Nr: 509
Title:

DYNAMIC CHANGE OF SERVER ASSIGNMENTS IN DISTRIBUTED WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Authors:

Thomas Bauer and Manfred Reichert
Abstract: Workflow management systems (WfMS) offer a promising approach for realizing process-oriented information systems. Central WfMS, with a single server controlling all workflow (WF) instances, however, may become overloaded very soon. In the literature, therefore, many approaches suggest using a multi-server WfMS with distributed WF control. In such a distributed WfMS, the concrete WF server for the control of a particular WF activity is usually defined by an associated server assignment. Following such a partitioning approach, problems may occur if components (WF servers, subnets, or gateways) become overloaded or break down. As we know from other fields of computer science, a favorable approach to handle such cases may be to dynamically change hardware assignment. This corresponds to the dynamic change of server assignments in WfMS. This paper analyses to what extend this approach is reasonable in such situations.
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Paper Nr: 510
Title:

A/D CASE: A NEW HEART FOR FD3
Authors:

A. Mora, M. Enciso, P. Cordero, I. Pérez de Guzmán and J. Guerrero
Abstract: In (Enciso and Mora, 2002) we introduce the Functional Dependencies Data Dictionary (F D3) as an architecture to facilitate the integration of database Systems. We propose the use of logics based on the notion of Functional Dependencies (FD) to allows formal specification of the objects of a data model and to conceive future automated treatment. The existence of a FD logic provides a formal language suitable to carry out integration tasks and eases the design of an automatic integration process based in the axiomatic system of the FD logic. Besides that, F D3, provides a High Level Functional Dependencies (HLFD) Data Model which is used in a similar way as the Entity/Relationship Model. In this paper, we develop a CASE tool named A/D CASE (Attribute/Dependence CASE) that illustrates the practical benefits of the F D3 architecture. In the development of A/D CASE we have taken into account other theoretical results which improve our original F D3 proposal (Enciso and Mora, 2002). Particularly: • A new functional dependencies logic named SLF D for removing redundancy in a database sub-model that we present in (Mora, 2002; Cordero et al., 2002a). The use of SLF D add formalization to software engineering process. • An efficient preprocessing transformation based on the substitution paradigm that we present in (Mora et al., 2003). Unlike A/D CASE is independent from the Relational Model, it can be integrated into different database systems and it is compatible with relational DBMSs.
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Paper Nr: 516
Title:

ATTENUATING THE EFFECT OF DATA ABNORMALITIES ON DATA WAREHOUSES
Authors:

Anália Lourenço and Orlando Belo
Abstract: Today’s informational entanglement makes it crucial to enforce adequate management systems. Data warehousing systems appeared with the specific mission of providing adequate contents for data analysis, ensuring gathering, processing and maintenance of all data elements thought valuable. Data analysis in general, data mining and on-line analytical processing facilities, in particular, can achieve better, sharper results, because data quality is finally taken into account. The available elements must be submitted to an intensive processing before being able to integrate them into the data warehouse. Each data warehousing system embraces extraction, transformation and loading processes which are in charge of all the processing concerning the data preparation towards its integration into the data warehouse. Usually, data is scoped at several stages, inspecting data and schema issues and filtering all those elements that do not comply with the established rules. This paper proposes an agent-based platform, which not only ensures the traditional data flow, but also tries to recover the filtered data when an data error occurs. It is intended to perform the process of error monitoring and control automatically. Bad data is processed and eventually repaired by the agents, integrating it again into the data warehouse’s regular flow. All data processing efforts are registered and afterwards mined in order to establish data error patterns. The obtained results will enrich the wrappers knowledge about abnormal situations’ resolution. Eventually, this evolving will enhance the data warehouse population process, enlarging the integrated volume of data and enriching its actual quality and consistency.
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Paper Nr: 615
Title:

FACILITATING BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT WITH HARMONIZED MESSAGING
Authors:

Shazia Sadiq, Maria Orlowska, Wasim Sadiq and Karsten Schulz
Abstract: Process communication is characterized by complex interactions between heterogeneous and autonomous systems within the enterprise and often between trading partners. An overwhelming number of initiatives and proposals are underway to provide solutions for process specification and communication. However, the focus is often on defining APIs and interfaces rather than the semantics of the underlying message exchange. We see a great potential in the enhancement of current messaging infrastructure, in its new role in facilitating complex, long running interactions for dynamic and collaborative processes operating in decentralized environments like the web. In this paper, we primarily present a vision for a technology aimed at providing a level of harmonization to multiple messages to form a single custom definable backbone. We will provide the foundation framework for the harmonized messaging technology and identify fundamental issues for the specification of such complex interactions.
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Paper Nr: 640
Title:

AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO BUILDING WEB-APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Oleg Rostanin
Abstract: Nowadays in J2EE-world there is a lot of blueprints, articles and books that propose some recommendations, recipes and patterns for producing web-applications in right way. There are also ready decisions like Jakarta Struts or JavaServer Faces that can be taken as a base of a new project development. While developing the DaMiT e-learning system we tried to collect, analyse and implement many of the architectural features being proposed as well as to invent some new mechanisms such as supporting multiple kinds of client software or introducing XML-based interfaces between application tiers.
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Paper Nr: 674
Title:

A RESPONSIBILITY-DRIVEN ARCHITECTURE FOR MOBILE ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Qusay Mahmoud
Abstract: This paper deals with wireless applications that get downloaded, over the air, on handheld wireless devices (or mobile devices) and get executed there. Once running, they may need to interact with applications residing on remote wired servers. The motivation for this work is provided in part by the characteristics of the wireless computing environment. There are several implications of these characteristics that require a software architecture that reduces the load on the wireless link and supports disconnected operations. We present a responsibility-driven architecture that enables mobile thin-clients to interact with enterprise servers. We extend this architecture with mobile agents to reduce the load on the wireless link and support disconnected operations. The architecture is simple and easy to implement, but also effective, scalable, and capable of supporting multiple devices.
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Paper Nr: 690
Title:

DESIGN AND REPRESENTATION OF THE TIME DIMENSION IN ENTERPRISE DATA WAREHOUSES - A Business Related Practical Approach
Authors:

Ahmed Hezzah and A. M. Tjoa
Abstract: A data warehouse provides a consistent view of business data over time. In order to do that data is represented in logical dimensions, with time being one of the most important dimensions. Representing time, however, is not always straightforward due to the complex nature of time issues and the strong dependence of the time dimension on the type of business. This paper addresses the specific issues encountered during the design of the time dimension for multidimensional data warehouses. It introduces design and modeling techniques for representing time in the data warehouse by the use of one or multiple time dimensions or database timestamps. It also discusses generic problems linked to the design and implementation of the time dimension which have to be considered for (global) business processes, such as representing holidays and fiscal periods, increasing the granularity of business facts, considering the observation of daylight saving time and handling different time zones. These problems seem to have wide application, and yet, more in-depth investigations need to be conducted in this field for real-world time-based analysis in enterprise-wide data warehouses.
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Paper Nr: 702
Title:

REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY MODEL FOR XML DATA INTEGRATED FROM HETEROGENEOUS DATABASES SYSTEMS - Using the power of XML for consistent data integration
Authors:

Mauri Ferrandin and Murilo De Camargo
Abstract: This article presents a proposal for maintenance of the referential integrity in data integrated from relational heterogeneous databases stored in XML materialized views. The central idea is the creation of a repository of rules that will have to be observed to if carrying through any operation of update in the mediating layer of a system for integration of heterogeneous relational sources of data to guarantee that the updates carried through in the data stored in this layer can be propagated to the relational databases that are part of the system integrated without causing problem of referential integrity in the same ones. This proposal has as main objective to specify a mechanism capable to guarantee that the data after exported from the relational heterogeneous databases in a mediating layer continue respecting the same integrity which these were submitted in the origin databases.
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Paper Nr: 775
Title:

CONTEXTS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Authors:

Salvador Abreu and Daniel Diaz
Abstract: In this article we sustain that Contextual Constraint Logic Programming (CxCLP for short) is a useful paradigm in which to specify and implement Organizational Information Systems, particularly when integrated with the ISCO mediator framework. We briefly introduce the language and its underlying paradigm, appraising it from the angle of both of its ancestries: Logic and Object-Oriented Programming. An initial implementation has been developed and is being actively used in a real-world setting – Universidade de vora’s Academic Information System. We briefly describe both the prototype implementation and its first large-scale application. We conclude that the risk taken in adopting a developing technology such as the one presented herein for a mission-critical system has paid off, in terms of both development ease and flexibility as well as in maintenance requirements.
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Paper Nr: 860
Title:

ARCO: MOVING DIGITAL LIBRARY STORAGE TO GRID COMPUTING
Authors:

Han -fei, Nuno Almeida, Miguel Loureno, Paulo Trezentos, José Borbinha and Joo Neves
Abstract: Storage has been extensively studied during the past few decades (Foster et al., 1997; Jos Guimares, 2001). However, the emerging trends on distributed computing bring new solutions for existent problems. Grid computing proposes a distributed approach for data storing. In this paper, we introduce a Grid-based system (ARCO) developed for multimedia storage of large ammounts of data. The system is being developed for Biblioteca Nacional, the National Library of Portugal. Using Grid informational system and resources management, we propose a transparent system where TeraBytes of data are stored in a beowulf cluster built of commodity components with backup solution and error recover mechanisms.
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Paper Nr: 1010
Title:

DEVELOPING A CORPORATE INFORMATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE: THE CASE OF EUROSTAT
Authors:

Georges Pongas and François Vernadat
Abstract: The paper presents the vision being deployed at the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) about a rationalised IT infrastructure for integrated operations of its various statistical production systems. The new architecture being implemented isolates physical data from applications and users, uses database federation mechanisms, strongly relies on the use of meta-data about storage systems, application systems and data life cycles, emphasises the use of thematic and support servers and will use a message-oriented middleware as its backbone for data exchange. Portal technology will provide the unique gateway both for internal and external users to have public or restricted access to information produced by over 130 statistical production systems working in the back-office. Architectural principles and solutions are discussed.
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Paper Nr: 3
Title:

A RECONFIGURATION ALGORITHM FOR DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER NETWORKS
Authors:

Chanan Glezer and Moshe Zviran
Abstract: This article presents an algorithmic reconfiguration model, combining mechanisms of load balancing and fault tolerance in order to increase utilization of computer resources in a distributed multi-server, multi-tasking environment. The model has been empirically tested in a network of computers controlling telecommunication hubs and is compared to previous efforts to address this challenge.
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Paper Nr: 3
Title:

A RECONFIGURATION ALGORITHM FOR DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER NETWORKS
Authors:

Chanan Glezer and Moshe Zviran
Abstract: This article presents an algorithmic reconfiguration model, combining mechanisms of load balancing and fault tolerance in order to increase utilization of computer resources in a distributed multi-server, multi-tasking environment. The model has been empirically tested in a network of computers controlling telecommunication hubs and is compared to previous efforts to address this challenge.
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Paper Nr: 3
Title:

A RECONFIGURATION ALGORITHM FOR DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER NETWORKS
Authors:

Chanan Glezer and Moshe Zviran
Abstract: This article presents an algorithmic reconfiguration model, combining mechanisms of load balancing and fault tolerance in order to increase utilization of computer resources in a distributed multi-server, multi-tasking environment. The model has been empirically tested in a network of computers controlling telecommunication hubs and is compared to previous efforts to address this challenge.
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Paper Nr: 23
Title:

BVA+ - A BIT VECTORS ALGORITHM FOR ACCELERATING QUERIES IN MULTILEVEL SECURE DATABASES
Authors:

Ramzi Haraty and Arda Zeitunlian
Abstract: Much research has been done in the area of multilevel database systems, especially in the security area and accelerating queries. In this paper, we present BVA+, which is based on bit vectors to accelerate queries in multilevel secure database systems. As its predecessor (BVA), the BVA+ algorithm follows the classic Sea View Model, but it recovers query output from single-level relations in a faster and more space-efficient manner than the previous works performed on this subject. In addition, the BVA+ algorithm does not produce spurious or extra tuples, which have always been a major problem in the area of multilevel secure database systems.
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Paper Nr: 56
Title:

RETRO-DYNAMICS AND E-BUSINESS MODEL APPLICATION FOR DISTRIBUTED DATA MINING USING MOBILE AGENTS
Authors:

Ezendu Ariwa, Mohamed B. Senousy and Mohamed M. Medhat
Abstract: Distributed data mining (DDM) is the semi-automatic pattern extraction of distributed data sources. The next generation of the data mining studies will be distributed data mining for many reasons. First of all, most of the current used data mining techniques require all data to be resident in memory, i.e., the mining process must be done at the data source site. This is not feasible for the exponential growth of the data stored in organization(s) databases. Another important reason is that data is inherently distributed for fault tolerance purposes. DDM requires two main decisions about the DDM implementations: A distributed computation paradigm (message passing, RPC, mobile agents), and the used integration techniques (Knowledge probing, CDM) in order to aggregate and integrate the results of the various distributed data miners. Recently, the new distributed computation paradigm, which has been evolved as mobile agent is widely used. Mobile agent is a thread of control that can trigger the transfer of arbitrary code to a remote computer. Mobile agents paradigm has several advantages: Conserving bandwidth and reducing latencies. Also, complex, efficient and robust behaviours can be realized with surprisingly little code. Mobile agents can be used to support weak clients, allow robust remote interaction, and provide scalability. In this paper, we propose a new model that can benefit from the mobile agent paradigm to build an efficient DDM model. Since the size of the data to be migrated in the DDM process is huge, our model will overcome the communication bottleneck by using mobile agents paradigm. Our model divides the DDM process into several stages that can be done in parallel on different data sources: Preparation stage, data mining stage and knowledge integration stage. We also include a special section on how current e-business models can use our model to reinforce the decision support in the organization. A cost analysis in terms of time consumed by each minor process (communication or processing) is given to illustrate the overheads of this model and the other models.
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Paper Nr: 135
Title:

INCREMENTAL DATA QUALITY IN THE DATA WAREHOUSE
Authors:

Karsten B. Rasmussen
Abstract: The data warehouse is the cornerstone for the production of business knowledge in the organization. The foundation of the quality of the business knowledge is the quality of the data in the data warehouse. Determination of dimensions of data quality in the data warehouse has been obtained through the intuitive, the empirical and the ontological approaches. The first point of this working paper is that data quality is not a static measure and that awareness of the data quality dimensions is a prerequisite to improve the data quality. The second point is that selection is the cornerstone of data quality in the data warehouse in relation to the quality dimensions. Thirdly, that post-load improvement of the data quality is obtainable. Metadata can be added incrementally containing information on the use of data – including the users' selections within the data warehouse.
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Paper Nr: 170
Title:

ACQUIRING AND INTEGRATING EXTERNAL DATA INTO DATA WAREHOUSES - Are You Familiar With the Most Common Process?
Authors:

Mattias Strand, Benkt Wangler and Carl-Fredrik Lauren
Abstract: Data warehouses (DWs) has become one of the major IT-investments during the last decades and in order to fully exploit the potential of data warehouses, more and more organizations are acquiring and integrating external data into their star-schemas. However, the literature covering external data acquisition and integration is limited. Therefore, in this paper the results of an interview study conducted among banking organizations are presented. The study aimed at identifying different approaches for acquiring and integrating external data into DWs. The results show that there are many different approaches for the acquisition and integration, depending on the purpose and structure of the data being acquired. In addition, the most common external data acquisition and integration process is presented and discussed.
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Paper Nr: 173
Title:

VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS AND DATABASE ACCESS – A CASE STUDY
Authors:

Mikko Pitkanen, Marko Niinimaki, John White and Tapio Niemi
Abstract: This paper presents a case study of using virtual organization technologies in database access. A virtual organization (VO) is a collection of people in the same administrative domain. A user can belong to many virtual organizations and have a different role (user, client, administrator,..) in each of them. An authorization of a user to different services within a VO is based on the user’s identity and a service called a Virtual Organization Membership Service (VOMS) that maps these identities with roles. The user’s identity can be established in two ways. If the user communicates with the service using his web browser, the user’s certificate must be included in the browser. Another possibility is to use a proxy certificate. There, in the proxy creation process, the program that writes the proxy adds the user’s proxy certificate information about his participation in different VO’s and his role in each of them. In order to demonstrate using these VO proxy certificates, we have extended the functionality of Spitfire, a relational database front end. This involves assigning the user a database role (read/write/update) based on the VO information in his certificate. There is also a graphical user interface for creating the mappings between VO roles and database access roles.
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Paper Nr: 176
Title:

REASONS FOR ERP ACQUISITION
Authors:

Petri Hallikainen, Sanna Laukkanen and Sami Sarpola
Abstract: Numerous reasons for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system acquisitions in organizations have been proposed in the prior research. In this paper these different reasons for ERP system acquisitions are synthesized and categorized into technological and business reasons. Further, the prevalence of the different reasons is explored with an empirical data concerning the ERP acquisition in 41 Finnish companies.
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Paper Nr: 176
Title:

REASONS FOR ERP ACQUISITION
Authors:

Petri Hallikainen, Sanna Laukkanen and Sami Sarpola
Abstract: Numerous reasons for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system acquisitions in organizations have been proposed in the prior research. In this paper these different reasons for ERP system acquisitions are synthesized and categorized into technological and business reasons. Further, the prevalence of the different reasons is explored with an empirical data concerning the ERP acquisition in 41 Finnish companies.
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Paper Nr: 193
Title:

A DATA WAREHOUSE ARCHITECTURE FOR BRAZILIAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT
Authors:

André Luís Andrade Menolli and Maria Dias
Abstract: Science and technology in Brazil are areas that have few available resources and many times these scarce resources are badly used. The data warehouse is a tool that can make possible a better distribution of these resources. In this article are considered some issues in the development of a data warehouse for Science & Technology management. The paper describes the necessity of a supporting system to the decision taking regarding the distribution of the resources destined to Science & Technology in Brazil, and also shows a data warehouse architecture that is being developed to support this system. data modeling characteristics defined for the proposed data warehouse architecture are presented too.
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Paper Nr: 208
Title:

OBTAINING E-R DIAGRAMS SEMI-AUTOMATICALLY FROM NATURAL LANGUAGE SPECIFICATIONS
Authors:

Farid Meziane and Sunil Vadera
Abstract: Since their inception, entity relationship models have played a central role in systems specification, analysis and development. They have become an important part of several development methodologies and standards such as SSADM. Obtaining entity relationship models, can however, be a lengthy and time consuming task for all but the very smallest of specifications. This paper describes a semi-automatic approach for obtaining entity relationship models from natural language specifications. The approach begins by using natural language analysis techniques to translate sentences to a meaning representation language called logical form language. The logical forms of the sentences are used as a basis for identifying the entities and relationships. Heuristics are then used to suggest suitable degrees for the identified relationships. This paper describes and illustrates the main phases of the approach and presents a summary of the results obtained when it is applied to a case study.
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Paper Nr: 324
Title:

AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVE WITH MPEG-7 VIDEO DESCRIPTION AND XML DATABASE
Authors:

Pedro Almeida, Joaquim A. Martins, Joaquim Pinto and Helder T. Zagalo
Abstract: This article presents the development of an audiovisual archive that uses the MPEG-7 standard to describe video content and a XML database to store the video descriptions. It presents the model adopted to describe the video content, the framework of the audiovisual archive information system, a video indexing tool developed to allow the creation and manipulation of XML documents with the video descriptions and an interface to visualize the videos over the Web.
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Paper Nr: 329
Title:

USING IUCLID FOR WORLDWIDE EXCHANGE OF CHEMICAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION
Authors:

Stefan Scheer and Remi Allanou
Abstract: A database management tool (IUCLID) has been created in order to provide with administering chemical and toxicological data sent in structured form due to existing EU legislation. This tool also offers – beyond the normal dataset administration functionality – mechanisms for data fusion, data reproduction and data deployment. Thus IUCLID is used not only by who has to receive submissions of that kind but also who has to produce such submissions. Hence this product is used by whoever is involved as stakeholder in the current legislative process, and even beyond that it has been recognized successfully. Consequently it was the worldwide acceptance that helped in promoting this software product ahead of its original purpose and to establish a network of exchange.
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Paper Nr: 340
Title:

CACHING ESTRATEGIES FOR MOBILE DATABASES
Authors:

Heloise Manica and Murilo De Camargo
Abstract: Caching remote data in local storage of a mobile client has been considered an effective solution to improve system performance for data management in mobile computing applications. In this paper, we propose a taxonomy for cache management in mobile database systems. The aim is to provide a unifying framework for the problem of caching in mobile computing, then a comparative review of the work done in this area up to now. Such a framework, with the associated analysis of the existing approaches, provides a basis for identifying strengths and weaknesses of individual methodologies, as well as general guidelines for future improvements and extensions.
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Paper Nr: 393
Title:

A DATA WAREHOUSE FOR WEATHER INFORMATION - A Pattern recognition solution for climatic conditions in México
Authors:

José T. Jímenez and Jesús Flores Gómez
Abstract: Data warehouse related technologies, allows to extract, group and analyze historical data in order to identify information valuable to decision making processes. In this paper the implementation of a weather data warehouse (WDW) to store Mexico’s weather variables is presented. The weather variables data were provided by the Mexican Institute for Water Technologies (IMTA), the IMTA does research, development, adaptation, human resource formation and technology transfer to improve the Mexico’s water management, and in this way contribute to the sustainable development of Mexico. The implemented WDW contains two dimension tables (one time dimension table and, one geographical dimension table) and one fact table (that stores the data values for weather variables). The time dimension table spans over ten years from 1980 to 1990. The geographical dimension table involves many Mexico’s hydrological zones and comes from 5551 measuring stations. The WDW enables (through the dimensions navigation) the identification of weather patterns that would be useful for: a) agriculture politics definition; b) climatic change research; and c) contingency plans over weather extreme conditions. Even it is well known, but it is important to mention, that the data warehouse paradigm (in many cases) is better to derivate knowledge from the data in comparison to the database paradigm, a fact that was confirmed through the WDW exploitation.
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Paper Nr: 409
Title:

COMPARISON OF APPROACHES IN DATA WAREHOUSE DEVELOPMENT IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Authors:

Janis Benefelds and Laila Niedrite
Abstract: When a decision to develop a Data Warehouse is made, some sensitive factors should be evaluated to understand the tasks and prioritize them. In this paper we assume that there are common characteristics for companies of similar business activities and different for those with opposite activities. This article looks at the interpretation of the same criteria of two Data Warehouse projects in for-profit (banking) and not-for-profit (higher education ) areas. We have used the criteria from (List et al. 2002) to compare the results of the two projects. Each section of the paper describes this set of criteria and development methodology for each of the two areas. An evaluation matrix is provided in Conclusion.
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Paper Nr: 430
Title:

AN OBJECT ORIENTED APPROACH FOR DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Authors:

Souheil Khaddaj
Abstract: It is already widely accepted that the use of data abstraction in object oriented modelling enables real world objects to be well represented in information systems. In this work we are particularly interested with the use of object oriented techniques for document management. Object orientation is well suited for such systems, which require the ability to handle multiple types content. However, the matter of how to deal with the reuse and management of existing documents over time remains a major issue. This paper aims to investigate a conceptual model, based on object versioning techniques, that will represent the semantics in order to allow the continuity and pattern of changes of documents to be determined over time.
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Paper Nr: 530
Title:

TURNING INFORMATION INTO ACTIONS - From Data to Business Processes through Web Services
Authors:

Youcef Baghdadi
Abstract: Sharing Web services across the enterprise and to support B2B integration becomes more intensive and critical for businesses. This paper proposes a process to generate Web services from the attributes describing the business objects and the coordination artefacts as described in the highest abstraction level of a business model i.e. the universe of discourse where the elements are unique. The process is based on a new concept we introduce and call factual dependency. Factual dependency is a mechanism used to aggregate attributes that are concerned by the same DB CRUD operations with respect to the time and the space. Factual dependencies are then validated with regard to the possible business events to keep only the relevant ones. Each distinct and valid factual dependency is specified in terms of input/output parameters to generate a lowest level of granularity Web services. These Web services are then registered to be discovered and (re)used at request by business processes in their reengineering or composition.
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Paper Nr: 581
Title:

MINING CLICKSTREAM-BASED DATA CUBES
Authors:

Ronnie Alves and Orlando Belo
Abstract: Clickstream analysis can reveal usage patterns on company’s web sites giving highly improved understanding of customer behaviour. This can be used to improve customer satisfaction with the website and the company in general, yielding a great business advantage. Such information has to be extracted from very large collections of clickstreams in web sites. This is challenging data mining, both in terms of the magnitude of data involved, and the need to incrementally adapt the mined patterns and rules as new data is collected. In this paper, we present some guidelines for implementing on-line analytical mining engines which means an integration of on-line analytical processing and mining techniques for exploring multidimensional data cube structures. Additionally, we describe a data cube alternative for analyzing clickstreams. Besides, we discussed implementations that we consider efficient approaches on exploring multidimensional data cube structures, such as DBMiner, WebLobMiner, and OLAP-based Web Access Engine.
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Paper Nr: 598
Title:

MANAGING WEB-BASED INFORMATION
Authors:

Marco Scotto, Tullio Vernazza, Alberto Sillitti and Giancarlo Succi
Abstract: The heterogeneity and the lack of structure of World Wide Web make automated discovery, organization, and management of Web-based information a non-trivial task. Traditional search and indexing tools provide some comfort to users, but they generally provide neither structured information nor categorize, filter, or interpret documents in an automated way. In recent years, these factors have prompted the need for developing data mining techniques applied to the web, giving rise to the term “Web Mining”. This paper introduces the problem of web data extraction and gives a brief analysis of the various techniques to address it. Then, News Miner, a tool for Web Content Mining applied to the news retrieval is presented.
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Paper Nr: 605
Title:

SEMI-STRUCTURED INFORMATION WAREHOUSES - Requirements and Definition
Authors:

Juan Manuel Pérez Martínez, Rafael Berlanga Llavori and Maria J. Aramburu Cabo
Abstract: During the last decade, data warehouse and OLAP techniques have helped companies to gather, organize and analyze the structured data they produce. Simultaneously, digital libraries have applied Information Retrieval mechanisms to query their repositories of unstructured documents. In this context, the emergence of XML means the convergence of these two approaches, making possible the development of warehouses for semi-structured information. Although there exist several extensions of traditional data warehouse technology to manage semi-structured information, none of them are based on an underlying document model able to exploit this kind of information. Along this paper we expose our vision of what a semi-structured information warehouse should be, by identifying a set of requirements throughout an example scenario.
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Paper Nr: 642
Title:

RJDBC: A SIMPLE DATABASE REPLICATION ENGINE
Authors:

Javier Esparza Peidro, Francesc D. Muñoz-Escoí, Luis Irún-briz and Josep M. Bernabéu-Aubán
Abstract: Providing fault tolerant services is a key question among many services manufacturers. Thus, enterprises usually acquire complex and expensive replication engines. This paper offers an interesting choice to organizations which can not afford such costs. RJDBC stands for a simple, easy to install middleware, placed between the application and the database management system, intercepting all database operations and forwarding them among all the replicas of the system. However, from the point of view of the application, the database management system is accessed directly, so that RJDBC is able to supply replication capabilities in a transparent way. Such solution provides acceptable results in clustered configurations. This paper describes the architecture of the solution and some significant results.
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Paper Nr: 662
Title:

SOLVING INTEROPERABILITY PROBLEMS ON A FEDERATION OF SOFTWARE PROCESS SYSTEMS
Authors:

Mohamed Ahmed-nacer and Mohamed-amine Mostefai
Abstract: Software process components that share information and that cooperate for common tasks lead to multiple problems of interoperability. Some based-interoperability approaches have been proposed. However, more problems remain to be solved to enable the heterogeneous process components interoperability at execution level. This paper presents a process-based approach (architecture) for the federation of software process systems. Based on this approach, we focus on its implementation problems for the process execution interoperability. We show how we solve these problems and we discuss their implementation through the main development techniques of distributed applications.
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Paper Nr: 662
Title:

SOLVING INTEROPERABILITY PROBLEMS ON A FEDERATION OF SOFTWARE PROCESS SYSTEMS
Authors:

Mohamed Ahmed-nacer and Mohamed-amine Mostefai
Abstract: Software process components that share information and that cooperate for common tasks lead to multiple problems of interoperability. Some based-interoperability approaches have been proposed. However, more problems remain to be solved to enable the heterogeneous process components interoperability at execution level. This paper presents a process-based approach (architecture) for the federation of software process systems. Based on this approach, we focus on its implementation problems for the process execution interoperability. We show how we solve these problems and we discuss their implementation through the main development techniques of distributed applications.
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Paper Nr: 704
Title:

MODEL BASED MIDDLEWARE INTEGRATION
Authors:

Frédérick Seyler and Philippe Aniorté
Abstract: In this paper, we describe a process and a meta model that we are defining for the reuse of legacy based systems. This aims at filing the gap between design level bridges and the implementation of interoperability. Our proposal is a component based integration process, a metamodel based on welle known component research results and a reuse architecture allowing an operational integration of legacy applications. The metamodel, called Ugatze is composed by a set of UML packages covering multiple Viewpoints of the reuse activity. Ugatze is the Basque name for the Bearded Vulture, it reuses bones of death animals to eat, and its re-integration in Basque Country seems to be difficult, but it is a challenge.
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Paper Nr: 730
Title:

REAL-TIME DATABASES FOR SENSOR NETWORKS
Authors:

Pedro R. Neto, Maria B. Perkusich and Angelo Perkusich
Abstract: In the last years, the demand of embedded systems has been increased. Also, due to the increasing competition among different kind of companies, such as cellular phone, automobiles and industrial automation, the requirements for such systems are getting more complex. However, the data storage and processing techniques, for these environments, are insufficient for the new requirements. In this paper, we develop a model for the integration of real-time database technology with an embedded sensor network systems, to tackle such deficiencies. Coloured Petri nets are the mathematical framework used for the modelling and analysis.
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Paper Nr: 864
Title:

DATA EXTRACTION AND TRANSFORMATION WITH FLAT FILE FOR BUSINESS INTEGRATION
Authors:

Sheng Ye, Wei Sun and Zhong Tian
Abstract: With the development of e-business, the capability of exchanging data in different formats is necessary for integrating heterogeneous enterprise applications. Though XML is becoming the standard communication protocol over the Internet, most enterprise applications today can only process a specific format text data, mostly in a flat file. This paper introduces a round trip transformation technology between flat file and XML, Flat File Adapter. This technology employs a systematic data extraction and formatting method to support the processing of complex format flat file. By using Flat File Adapter, developer can quickly design templates containing the data transformation rules. It can be easily updated when requirements change later. In this paper, we introduce the system architecture, detailed components, and particular data extraction and transformation method. Finally, a sample application in B2B e-procurement solution is also described.
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Paper Nr: 897
Title:

A FRAMEWORK FOR ON-DEMAND INTEGRATION OF ENTERPRISE DATA SOURCES
Authors:

Matti Heikkurinen, Tapio Niemi, Marko Niinimaki and Vesa Sivunen
Abstract: Deploying a data warehouse system in a company is usually an expensive and risky investement. Constructing a data warehouse is a large project that can take very long time and a company cannot know in advance exactly what benefits a data warehouse will offer. Thus, in many cases, data warehousing projects have either been abandoned or been shown to be at least partial failures. We propose a new method by providing a platform to implement business intelligence systems on. The basic idea is to construct the analysis database (i.e. an OLAP cube) on demand and only include the data that is needed for the analysis at hand from the operational databases. In this way the data is always up-to-date, suitable for the current analysis, and some of the biggest risks associated with data warehouse systems can be avoided. In addition, external data can be included in the analysis. The computational costs related to the cube construction are likely to remain at acceptable level, since only the relevant part of the data for the current analysis is needed from operational databases. We outline the use of Grid techologies in the implementation to offer a cost-effective way to harness enough computing power used on parallel processing and sufficient security infrastructure (GSI). To deal with heterogenous data sources the XML language with XSL transformations is applied.
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Paper Nr: 901
Title:

MEASURING THE IMPACT OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS ON BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Authors:

Donald Chand, George Hachey, James Hunton, Vincent Owhoso and Sri Vasudevan
Abstract: Our team is engaged in a study seeking to develop a holistic framework for measuring the success of ERP systems The rationale for our project is based on (1) the belief that “nobody invests in ERP systems solely for the sake of improving business processes,” but to achieve better business results and (2) our finding that there is a lack of consensus and clarity in the literature about how to define the success of ERP systems. As part of this study, we analyzed an SAP implementation by a major international aircraft engine manufacturing and service organization, and it revealed that ERP systems impact the business objectives of the firm and the balanced scorecard approach can be adapted to build a holistic framework for identifying success measures that link to company’s goals and strategies. This research-in-progress paper reports our findings on balanced scorecard applicability for assessing the business contributions of ERP systems.
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Paper Nr: 904
Title:

INFOFLEX: FLEXIBLE AND DISTRIBUTED CONTENT MANAGEMENT - USING WEB SERVICES AND SEMANTIC WEB TO MANAGE CONTENT
Authors:

Jesús Villamor Lugo, Norberto Fernández-García, Luis Sánchez Fernández, Jesús Arias Fisteus, Tomás Nogales-Flores, Antonio Hernández-Pérez and David Rodríguez-Mateos
Abstract: The development of information and communication technologies and the expansion of the Internet means that nowadays there are huge amounts of information available via these emergent media. The need to manage such information, which was in the past stored on paper media, has become apparent in different fields. A number of content management systems have appeared which aim to achieve this task. Most of these systems are oriented towards Web publishing on a central site, and they do not support collaboration among several, distributed sources of managed content. In this paper we present a proposal for an architecture for the efficient and flexible management of distributed content.
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Paper Nr: 910
Title:

INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR SUPPORTING THE INCLUSION OF JOB SEEKERS TO THE LABOUR MARKET
Authors:

Paraskeuas P. Chatzidiakos, Christos Skourlas and Theodoros Alevizos
Abstract: In this paper, the interconnection and integration problem of disparate Information sources including multilingual information related to the Unemployed and Business is analyzed. A possible solution based on the use of the European curriculum vitae and the creation of Data Marts is briefly described. The approach is also influenced by well-known Cross-Lingual Information Retrieval (CLIR) techniques. We also focus on the creation of a pilot Information System for the Institute of Labour (INE) of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE). Eventually, our experience and a first evaluation of the system are discussed.
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Paper Nr: 911
Title:

COMPONENT BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM RE-ENGINEERING APPROACH
Authors:

Abdelaziz Khadraoui and Michel Léonard
Abstract: This paper presents a concept called Component based Information Systems Re-Engineering (CISRE), which lays down the foundation of a new re-engineering approach. CISRE covers all the facets of Information Systems (IS) at three levels: system, collaboration and organization. This approach contains two main phases respectively: the comprehension phase and the renovation phase, which are not disjointed. The main goal of this approach is to converge into a new IS, within a rapid evolving environment. Thus, the new IS will be achieved on stable concepts based on invariants.
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Paper Nr: 985
Title:

ADDING SPATIAL COMPONENTS TO SCIENTIFIC DATA WAREHOUSES
Authors:

Kevin Deeb, Susan Molina and Pam Luckett
Abstract: Data warehousing architecture should generally protect the confidentiality of data before it can be published, provide sufficient granularity to enable scientists to variously manipulate data, support robust metadata services, and define standardized spatial components. Data can then be transformed into information that would make them readily available in a common format that is easily accessible, fast, and bridges the islands of dispersed information. The benefits of the warehouse can be further enhanced by adding a spatial component so that the data can be brought to life, overlapping layers of information in a format that is easily grasped by management, enabling them to tease out trends in their areas of expertise.
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Rejecteds
Paper Nr: 857
Title:

A multi-stage approach to asymmetric legacy information integration
Authors:

Yue Tang, Jing Bing Zhang, Chak Huah Tan, Ming Mao Wong and Li Qun Zhuang
Abstract: Ensuring data integrity in the process of integration with heterogeneous legacy systems has proven to be a very challenging task because of the "asymmetric" nature of the integration, due to the differences in technology, platform and time of system deployment. This paper identifies and describes the major issues in the integration process. A generic five-stage integration approach is proposed to address the issues in a systematic manner. The proposed data manipulation and infusion methodologies together with the schemata help isolate the heterogeneity of the integrated systems and provide high transparency to the applications. Event-driven active mechanisms are then applied to ensure a high level of integrity, flexibility, availability and reliability for the asymmetric integration. An industrial case study is also presented in this paper, where the proposed framework and techniques have been applied to a real-life industrial application involving the integration of several legacy information systems, including a realtime control system for manufacturing material handling and inventory management.

Area 2 - Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 113
Title:

COMPREHENSIBLE CREDIT-SCORING KNOWLEDGE VISUALIZATION USING DECISION TABLES AND DIAGRAMS
Authors:

Christophe Mues, Johan Huysmans, Jan Vanthienen and Bart Baesens
Abstract: One of the key decision activities in financial institutions is to assess the credit-worthiness of an applicant for a loan, and thereupon decide whether or not to grant the loan. Many classification methods have been suggested in the credit-scoring literature to distinguish good payers from bad payers. Especially neural networks have received a lot of attention. However, a major drawback is their lack of transparency. While they can achieve a high predictive accuracy rate, the reasoning behind how they reach their decisions is not readily available, which hinders their acceptance by practitioners. Therefore, we have, in earlier work, proposed a two-step process to open the neural network black box which involves: (1) extracting rules from the network; (2) visualizing this rule set using an intuitive graphical representation. In this paper, we will focus on the second step and further investigate the use of two types of representations: decision tables and diagrams. The former are a well-known representation originally used as a programming technique. The latter are a generalization of decision trees taking on the form of a rooted, acyclic digraph instead of a tree, and have mainly been studied and applied by the hardware design community. We will compare both representations in terms of their ability to compactly represent the decision knowledge extracted from two real-life credit-scoring data sets.
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Paper Nr: 172
Title:

CONSOLIDATED TREE CONSTRUCTION ALGORITHM: STRUCTURALLY STEADY TREES
Authors:

Jesús M. Perez De La Fuente, J. Muguerza, Olatz Arbelaitz Gallego and I. Gurrutxaga
Abstract: This paper presents a new methodology for building decision trees or classification trees (Consolidated Trees Construction algorithm) that faces up the problem of unsteadiness appearing in the paradigm when small variations in the training set happen. As a consequence, the understanding of the made classification is not lost, making this technique different from techniques such as bagging and boosting where the explanatory feature of the classification disappears. The presented methodology consists on a new meta-algorithm for building structurally more steady and less complex trees (consolidated trees), so that they maintain the explaining capacity and they are faster, but, without losing the discriminating capacity. The meta-algorithm uses C4.5 as base classifier. Besides the meta-algorithm, we propose a measure of the structural diversity used to analyse the stability of the structural component. This measure gives an estimation of the heterogeneity in a set of trees from the structural point of view. The obtained results have been compared with the ones get with C4.5 in some UCI Repository databases and a real application of customer fidelisation from a company of electrical appliances.
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Paper Nr: 201
Title:

ANALYSIS OF THE ITERATED PROBABILISTIC WEIGHTED K NEAREST NEIGHBOR METHOD, A NEW DISTANCE-BASED ALGORITHM
Authors:

José M. Martínez-Otzeta and Basilio Sierra
Abstract: The k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) classification method assigns to an unclassified point the class of the nearest of a set of previously classified points. A problem that arises when aplying this technique is that each labeled sample is given equal importance in deciding the class membership of the pattern to be classified, regardless of the typicalness of each neighbor. We report on the application of a new hybrid version named Iterated Probabilistic Weighted k Nearest Neighbor algorithm (IPW-k-NN) which classifies new cases based on the probability distribution each case has to belong to each class. These probabilities are computed for each case in the training database according to the k Nearest Neighbors it has in this database; this is a new way to measure the typicalness of a given case with regard to every class. Experiments have been carried out using UCI Machine Learning Repository well-known databases and performing 10-fold cross-validation to validate the results obtained in each of them. Three different distances (Euclidean, Camberra and Chebychev) are used in the comparison done.
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Paper Nr: 214
Title:

AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM FOR DATABASE TRANSACTION PROCESSING
Authors:

Steve Barker and Paul Douglas
Abstract: We describe an intelligent tutoring system that may be used to assist university-level students to learn key aspects of database transaction processing. The tutorial aid is based on a well defined theory of learning, and is implemented using PROLOG and Java. Some results of the evaluation of the learning tool are presented to demonstrate its effectiveness as a tutorial aid in an e-learning environment.
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Paper Nr: 239
Title:

DYNAMIC MULTI-AGENT BASED VARIETY FORMATION AND STEERING IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION
Authors:

Thorsten Blecker, Nizar Abdelkafi, Gerold Kreutler and Gerhard Friedrich
Abstract: Large product variety in mass customization involves a high internal complexity level inside a company’s operations, as well as a high external complexity level from a customer’s perspective. To cope with both complexity problems, an information system based on agent technology is able to be identified as a suitable solution approach. The mass customized products are assumed to be based on a modular architecture and each module variant is associated with an autonomous rational agent. Agents have to compete with each other in order to join coalitions representing salable product variants which suit real customers’ requirements. The negotiation process is based on a market mechanism supported by the target costing concept and a Dutch auction. Furthermore, in order to integrate the multi-agent system in the existing information system landscape of the mass customizer, a technical architecture is proposed and a scenario depicting the main communication steps is specified.
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Paper Nr: 254
Title:

MULTI-AGENT APPROACH BASED ON TABU SEARCH FOR THE FLEXIBLE JOB SHOP SCHEDULING PROBLEM
Authors:

Meriem Ennigrou and Khaled Ghédira
Abstract: This paper proposes a Multi-agent approach based on a tabu search method for solving the flexible Job Shop scheduling problem. The characteristic of the latter problem is that one or several machines can process one operation so that its processing time depends on the machine used. Such a generalization of the classical problem makes it more and more difficult to solve. The objective is to minimize the makespan or the total duration of the schedule. The proposed model is composed of three classes of agents: Job agents and Resource agents which are responsible for the satisfaction of the constraints under their jurisdiction, and an Interface agent containing the tabu search core. Different experimentations have been performed on different benchmarks and results have been presented.
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Paper Nr: 322
Title:

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE ENVIRONMENT A DSS FOR ASSESSING TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENTS
Authors:

Giovanni Camponovo, Samuel Bendahan and Yves Pigneur
Abstract: Assessing the external environment is an important component of organizations' survival and success. Unfortunately, a huge amount of information must be collected and processed in order to obtain a thorough and comprehensive representation of the environment. A decision support system can be very useful in helping decision makers to organize and analyze this information efficiently and effectively. This paper outlines a conceptual proposition helping to design such a system by presenting an ontology of the relevant information elements (actors, issues and needs) and a set of tools to analyze them. This paper also illustrates a prototype version of one of these tools which supports the analysis of the actors and issues perspectives.
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Paper Nr: 326
Title:

WEB USAGE MINING WITH TIME CONSTRAINED ASSOCIATION RULES
Authors:

Johan Huysmans, Christophe Mues, Jan Vanthienen and Bart Baesens
Abstract: Association rules are typically used to describe what items are frequently bought together. One could also use them in web usage mining to describe the pages that are often visited together. In this paper, we propose an extension to association rules by the introduction of timing constraints. Subsequently, the introduced concepts are used in an experiment to pre-process logfiles for web usage mining. We also describe how the method could be useful for market basket analysis and give an overview of related research. The paper is concluded by some suggestions for future research.
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Paper Nr: 341
Title:

DATA MINING OF CRM KNOWLEDGE BASES FOR EFFECTIVE MARKET SEGMENTATION - A Conceptual Framework
Authors:

Jounghae Bang, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Lutz Hamel and Ruby Dholakia
Abstract: This paper illustrates the linkages between CRM systems, data mining techniques, and the strategic notions of market segmentation and relationship marketing. Using the hypothetical example of a consumer bank, the data in a relationship based marketing environment are illustrated and guidelines for knowledge discovery, data management and strategic marketing are developed.
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Paper Nr: 417
Title:

DYNAMIC DIAGNOSIS OF ACTIVE SYSTEMS WITH FRAGMENTED OBSERVATIONS
Authors:

Gianfranco Lamperti and Marina Zanella
Abstract: Diagnosis of discrete-event systems (DESs) is a complex and challenging task. Typical application domains include telecommunication networks, power networks, and digital-hardware networks. Recent blackouts in northern America and southern Europe offer evidence for the claim that automated diagnosis of large-scale DESs is a major requirement for the reliability of this sort of critical systems. The paper is meant as a little step toward this direction. A technique for the dynamic diagnosis of active systems with uncertain observations is presented. The essential contribution of the method lies in its ability to cope with uncertainty conditions while monitoring the systems, by generating diagnostic information at the occurrence of each newly-received fragment of observation. Uncertainty stems, on the one hand, from the complexity and distribution of the systems, where noise may affect the communication channels between the system and the control rooms, on the other, from the multiplicity of such channels, which is bound to relax the absolute temporal ordering of the observable events generated by the system during operation. The solution of these diagnostic problems requires nonmonotonic reasoning, where estimates of the system state and the relevant candidate diagnoses may not survive the occurrence of new observation fragments.
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Paper Nr: 459
Title:

MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE DIAGNOSIS USING ADVERSE EVENTS AND NEURAL NETWORKS
Authors:

Álvaro Silva, Paulo Cortez, Manuel F. Santos, Lopes Gomes and José Neves
Abstract: In the past years, the Clinical Data Mining arena has suffered a remarkable development, where intelligent data analysis tools, such as Neural Networks, have been successfully applied in the design of medical systems. In this work, Neural Networks are applied to the prediction of organ dysfunction in Intensive Care Units. The novelty of this approach comes from the use of adverse events, which are triggered from four bedside alarms, being achieved an overall predictive accuracy of 70%.
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Paper Nr: 496
Title:

AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE NEURAL NETWORK FOR AUTO-LANDING SYSTEM OF AN AIRCRAFT
Authors:

Sreenatha Anavatti, Choi J. Young and Francois Pischery
Abstract: Generalization by the Neural Networks is an added advantage that can provide very good robustness and disturbance rejection properties. By providing a sufficient number of training samples (inputs and their corresponding outputs), a network can deal with some inputs it has never seen before. This ability makes them very interesting for control applications because not only they can learn complicated control functions but they are able to respond to changing or unexpected environments. Aircraft landing system provides one such scenario wherein the flight conditions change quite dramatically over the path of descent. The present work discusses the training of a neural network to imitate a robust controller for auto-landing of an aircraft. The comparisons with the robust controller indicate the additional advantages of the neural network
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Paper Nr: 580
Title:

NEW ENERGETIC SELECTION PRINCIPLE IN DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION
Authors:

Vitaliy Feoktistov and Stefan Janaqi
Abstract: The Differential Evolution algorithm goes back to the class of Evolutionary Algorithms and inherits its philosophy and concept. Possessing only three control parameters (size of population, differentiation and recombination constants) Differential Evolution has promising characteristics of robustness and convergence. In this paper we introduce a new principle of Energetic Selection. It consists in both decreasing the population size and the computation efforts according to an energetic barrier function which depends on the number of generation. The value of this function acts as an energetic filter, through which can pass only individuals with lower fitness. Furthermore, this approach allows us to initialize the population of a sufficient (large) size. This method leads us to an improvement of algorithm convergence.
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Paper Nr: 607
Title:

INFORMATION ACCESS VIA TOPIC HIERARCHIES AND THEMATIC ANNOTATIONS FROM DOCUMENT COLLECTIONS
Authors:

Hermine N. Fotzo and Patrick Gallinari
Abstract: With the development and the availability of large textual corpora, there is a need for enriching and organizing these corpora so as to make easier the research and navigation among the documents. The Semantic Web research focuses on augmenting ordinary Web pages with semantics. Indeed, wealth of information exists today in electronic form, they cannot be easily processed by computers due to lack of external semantics. Furthermore, the semantic addition is an help for user to locate, process information and compare documents contents. For now, Semantic Web research has been focused on the standardization, internal structuring of pages, and sharing of ontologies in a variety of domains. Concerning external structuring, hypertext and information retrieval communities propose to indicate relations between documents via hyperlinks or by organizing documents into concepts hierarchies, both being manually developed. We consider here the problem of automatically structuring and organizing corpora in a way that reflects semantic relations between documents. We propose an algorithm for automatically inferring concepts hierarchies from a corpus. We then show how this method may be used to create specialization/generalization links between documents leading to document hierarchies. As a byproduct, documents are annotated with keywords giving the main concepts present in the documents. We also introduce numerical criteria for measuring the relevance of the automatically generated hierarchies and describe some experiments performed on data from the LookSmart and New Scientist web sites.
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Paper Nr: 631
Title:

MODEL-BASED COLLABORATIVE FILTERING FOR TEAM BUILDING SUPPORT
Authors:

Miguel Veloso, Alípio Jorge and Paulo Azevedo
Abstract: In this paper we describe an application of recommender systems to team building in a company or organization. The recommender system uses a collaborative filtering model based approach. Recommender models are sets of association rules extracted from the activity log of employees assigned to projects or tasks. Recommendation is performed at two levels: first by recommending a single team element given a partially built team; and second by recommending changes to a completed team. The methodology is applied to a case study with real data. The results are evaluated through experimental tests and one survey to potential users.
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Paper Nr: 660
Title:

ROBUST, GENERALIZED, QUICK AND EFFICIENT AGGLOMERATIVE CLUSTERING
Authors:

Manolis Wallace and Stefanos Kollias
Abstract: Hierarchical approaches, which are dominated by the generic agglomerative clustering algorithm, are suitable for cases in which the count of distinct clusters in the data is not known a priori; this is not a rare case in real data. On the other hand, important problems are related to their application, such as susceptibility to errors in the initial steps that propagate all the way to the final output and high complexity. Finally, similarly to all other clustering techniques, their efficiency decreases as the dimensionality of their input increases. In this paper we propose a robust, generalized, quick and efficient extension to the generic agglomerative clustering process. Robust refers to the proposed approach’s ability to overcome the classic algorithm’s susceptibility to errors in the initial steps, generalized to its ability to simultaneously consider multiple distance metrics, quick to its suitability for application to larger datasets via the application of the computationally expensive components to only a subset of the available data samples and efficient to its ability to produce results that are comparable to those of trained classifiers, largely outperforming the generic agglomerative process.
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Paper Nr: 661
Title:

TOWARDS VISUAL DATA MINING
Authors:

Francois Poulet
Abstract: In this paper, we present our work in a new data mining approach called Visual Data Mining (VDM). This new approach tries to involve the user (being the data expert not a data mining or analysis specialist) more intensively in the data mining process and to increase the part of the visualisation in this process. The visualisation part can be increased with cooperative tools: the visualisation is used as a pre- or post-processing step of usual (automatic) data mining algorithms, or the visualisation tools can be used instead of the usual automatic algorithms. All these topics are addressed in this paper with an evaluation of the algorithms presented and a discussion of the interactive algorithms compared with automatic ones. All this work must be improved in order to allow the data specialists to efficiently use these kinds of algorithms to solve their problems.
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Paper Nr: 878
Title:

AN EXPERIENCE IN MANAGEMENT OF IMPRECISE SOIL DATABASES BY MEANS OF FUZZY ASSOCIATION RULES AND FUZZY APPROXIMATE DEPENDENCIES
Authors:

J. Calero, G. Delgado, M. Sánchez-marañón, Daniel Sánchez, M. A. Vila and Jose-maria Serrano
Abstract: In this work, we start from a database built with soil information from heterogeneous scientific sources (Local Soil Databases, LSDB). We call this an Aggregated Soil Database (ASDB). We are interested in determining if knowledge obtained by means of fuzzy association rules or fuzzy approximate dependencies can represent adequately expert knowledge for a soil scientific, familiarized with the study zone. A master relation between two soil attributes was selected and studied by the expert, in both ASDB and LSDB. Obtained results reveal that knowledge extracted by means of fuzzy data mining tools is significatively better than crisp one. Moreover, it is highly satisfactory from the soil scientific expert’s point of view, since it manages with more flexibility imprecision factors (IFASDB) commonly related to this type of information.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 51
Title:

LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION OF PATTERNS FROM MINED IMAGES
Authors:

Hema Nair and Ian Chai
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to propose an approach to describe patterns in remote-sensed images utilising fuzzy logic. The general form of a linguistically quantified proposition is “QY’s are F” where Q is a fuzzy linguistic quantifier, Y is a class of objects and F is a summary that applies to that class. The truth of such a proposition can be determined for each object characterised by a tuple in the database. Fuzzy descriptions of linguistic summaries help to evaluate the degree to which a summary describes an object or pattern in the image. A genetic algorithm technique is used to obtain optimal solutions that describe all the objects or patterns in the database. Image mining is used to extract unusual patterns from multi-dated satellite images of a geographic area.
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Paper Nr: 77
Title:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REPRESENTATIONS OF MULTI-MODEL BASED CONTROLLERS
Authors:

Asier Ibeas and Manuel De La Sen
Abstract: This paper develops a representation of multi-model based controllers by using artificial intelligence typical structures. These structures will be neural networks, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. The interpretation of multimodel controllers in an artificial intelligence frame will allow the application of each specific technique to the design of multimodel based controllers. A method for synthesizing multimodel based neural network controllers from already designed single model based ones is presented. Some applications of the genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic to multimodel controller design are also proposed.
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Paper Nr: 121
Title:

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PROPORTIONAL KEEN APPROXIMATOR AND THE NEURAL NETWORKS LEARNING METHODS
Authors:

Peyman Kabiri
Abstract: The Proportional Keen Approximation method is a young learning method using the linear approximation to learn hypothesis. In the paper this methodology will be compared with another well-established learning method i.e. the Artificial Neural Networks. The aim of this comparison is to learn about the strengths and the weaknesses of these learning methods regarding different properties of their learning process. The comparison is made using two different comparison methods. In the first method the algorithm and the known behavioural model of these methods are analysed. Later, using this analysis, these methods are compared. In the second approach, a reference dataset that contains some of the most problematic features in the learning process is selected. Using the selected dataset the differences between two learning methods are numerically analysed and a comparison is made.
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Paper Nr: 175
Title:

ProMAIS: A MULTI-AGENT MODEL FOR PRODUCTION INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Authors:

Lobna Hsairi, Khaled Ghédira and Faiez Gargouri
Abstract: In the age of information proliferation and communication advances, Cooperative Information System (CIS) technology becomes a vital factor for production system design in every modern enterprise. In fact, current production system must hold to new strategic, economic and organizational structures in order to face new challenges. Consequently, intelligent software based on agent technology emerges to improve system design on the one hand, and to increase production profitability and enterprise competitive position on the other hand. This paper starts with an analytical description of logical and physical flows dealt with manufacturing, then proposes a Production Multi-Agent Information System (ProMAIS). ProMAIS is a collection of stationary and intelligent agent-agencies with specialized expertises, interacting to carry out the shared objectives: cost-effective production in promised delay and adaptability to the changes. In order to bring ProMAIS’s dynamic aspect out, interaction protocols are specially zoomed out by cooperation, negotiation and Contract Net protocols.
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Paper Nr: 184
Title:

COGNITIVE REASONING IN INTELLIGENT MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Visual Data Perception Algorithms in Medical Decision Support Systems
Authors:

Marek Ogiela, Ryszard Tadeusiewicz and Lidia Ogiela
Abstract: This paper presents new approach in application of picture languages for cognitive analysis and reasoning of selected medical visualization. It will be shown new opportunities for applying these methods to undertake tasks of the automatic understanding of image semantics in intelligent medical information or computer-aided diagnosis systems. These systems are applied in various tasks supporting decisions taken in the wide area of health care and medical imaging. The possibility of obtaining the information about semantic content of the medical images may contribute considerably to the creation of new intelligent cognitive medical systems. This article shows that structural techniques of artificial intelligence may be applied in the case of tasks related to automatic classification and machine perception of semantic pattern content in order to determine the medical meaning of the images. In the paper, we describe some examples presenting ways of applying such techniques in the creation of cognitive vision systems for selected classes of medical images.
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Paper Nr: 186
Title:

A HYBRID DECISION SUPPORT TOOL - Using ensemble of classifiers
Authors:

Sotiris Kotsiantis and Panayotis Pintelas
Abstract: In decision support systems a classification problem can be solved by employing one of several methods such as different types of artificial neural networks, decision trees, bayesian classifiers, etc. However, it may happen that certain parts of instances’ space are better predicting by one method than the others. Thus, the decision of which particular method to choose is a complicated problem. A good alternative to choosing only one method is to create a hybrid forecasting system incorporating a number of possible solution methods as components (an ensemble of classifiers). For this purpose, we have implemented a hybrid decision support system that combines a neural net, a decision tree and a bayesian algorithm using a stacking variant methodology. The presented system can be trained with any data, but in the current implementation is mainly used by tutors of Hellenic Open University to identify drop-out prone students. However, a comparison with other ensembles using the same classifiers as base learner on several standard benchmark datasets showed that this tool gives better accuracy in most cases.
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Paper Nr: 186
Title:

A HYBRID DECISION SUPPORT TOOL - Using ensemble of classifiers
Authors:

Sotiris Kotsiantis and Panayotis Pintelas
Abstract: In decision support systems a classification problem can be solved by employing one of several methods such as different types of artificial neural networks, decision trees, bayesian classifiers, etc. However, it may happen that certain parts of instances’ space are better predicting by one method than the others. Thus, the decision of which particular method to choose is a complicated problem. A good alternative to choosing only one method is to create a hybrid forecasting system incorporating a number of possible solution methods as components (an ensemble of classifiers). For this purpose, we have implemented a hybrid decision support system that combines a neural net, a decision tree and a bayesian algorithm using a stacking variant methodology. The presented system can be trained with any data, but in the current implementation is mainly used by tutors of Hellenic Open University to identify drop-out prone students. However, a comparison with other ensembles using the same classifiers as base learner on several standard benchmark datasets showed that this tool gives better accuracy in most cases.
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Paper Nr: 207
Title:

OPTIMIZATION OF NEURAL NETWORK’S TRAINING SETS VIA CLUSTERING: APPLICATION IN SOLAR COLLECTOR REPRESENTATION
Authors:

Luis E. Zárate, Elizabeth Marques Duarte Pereira, Daniel Alencar Soares, João Lucas da Silva, Renato Vimieiro and Antonia Sonia Cardoso Diniz
Abstract: Due to the necessity of new ways of energy producing, solar collector systems have been widely used around the world. There are mathematical models that calculate the efficiency of those systems; however these models involve several parameters that may lead to nonlinear equations of the process. Artificial Neural Networks have been proposed in this work as an alternative of those models. However, a better modeling of the process by means of ANN depends on a representative training set; thus, in order to better define the training set, the clustering technique called k-means has been used in this work.
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Paper Nr: 210
Title:

ONTOLOGY-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR DOCUMENT INDEXING
Authors:

Djida Bahloul, Youssef Amghar and Pierre Maret
Abstract: The work presented in this paper addresses a project of the Computer Centre CIRTIL who supported it. This company wants to save and capitalize its knowledge and its know-how about the production activities, especially concerning the technical incidents relating to software applications encountered during the exploitation time. Indeed using a well accessing documents base, actors will be able to better solve problems. Our purpose is to focus on ontology-based framework for indexing documents. The domain ontology OntoCIRTIL has a structure which supports a semantic model based on semantic links and inference mechanisms. In this paper, we present a new model called S3 which permits to model knowledge in upstream and index documents (or formalized knowledge) in downstream. To illustrate partial results, this model is then applied to OntoCIRTIL.
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Paper Nr: 236
Title:

A XML-BASED BOOTSTRAPPING METHOD FOR PATTERN ACQUISITION
Authors:

Xingjie Zeng, Fang Li, Dongmo Zhang and Athina Vakali
Abstract: Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been widely used as a middleware because of its flexibility. Fixed domain is one of the bottlenecks of Information Extraction (IE) technologies. In this paper we present a XML-based domain-adaptable bootstrapping method of pattern acquisition, which focuses on minimizing the cost of domain migration. The approach starts from a seed corpus with some seed patterns; extends the corpus based on the seed corpus through the Internet and acquires the new patterns from extended corpus. Positive and negative examples classified from training corpus are used to evaluate the patterns acquired. The result shows our method is a practical way in pattern acquisitions.
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Paper Nr: 255
Title:

MONTHLY FLOW ESTIMATION USING ELMAN NEURAL NETWORKS
Authors:

Luiz Biondi Neto, Pedro G. Coelho, Maria L. Velloso, João Soares De Mello and Lidia Angulo Meza
Abstract: This paper investigates the application of partially recurrent artificial neural networks (ANN) in the flow estimation for São Francisco River that feeds the hydroelectric power plant of Sobradinho. An Elman neural network was used suitably arranged to receive samples of the flow time series data available for São Francisco River shifted by one month. For that, the neural network input had a delay loop that included several sets of inputs separated in periods of five years monthly shifted. The considered neural network had three hidden layers. There is a feedback between the output and the input of the first hidden layer that enables the neural network to present temporal capabilities useful in tracking time variations. The data used in the application concern to the measured São Francisco river flow time series from 1931 to 1996, in a total of 65 years from what 60 were used for training and 5 for testing. The obtained results indicate that the Elman neural network is suitable to estimate the river flow for 5 year periods monthly. The average estimation error was less than 0.2 %.
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Paper Nr: 257
Title:

FACE PATTERN DETECTION - An approach using neural networks
Authors:

Adriano Moutinho, Antonio Carlos Gay Thomé, Luiz Biondi Neto and Pedro G. Coelho
Abstract: Security systems based on face recognition often have to deal with the problem of finding and segmenting the region of the face, containing nose, mouth and eyes, from the rest of the objects in the image. Finding the right position of a face is a part of any automatic identity recognition system, and it is, by itself, a very complex problem to solve, normally being handled separately. This paper describes an approach, using artificial neural networks (ANN), to find the correct position and separate the face from the background. In order to accomplish this goal, a windowing method was created and combined with several image pre-processing steps, from histogram equalization to illumination correction, as an attempt to improve neural network recognition capability. This paper also proposes methods to segment facial features such as mouth, nose and eyes. Finally, the system is tested using 400 images and the performance of face and facial features segmentation is presented.
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Paper Nr: 339
Title:

MODEL P: AN APPROACH OF THE ADAPTABILITY OF CASE-BASED REASONING SYSTEMS
Authors:

Mathilde Billy, François-xavier Magaud, Claude Petit and Laurent Combasson
Abstract: This paper summarizes a new approach of the Cased-based Reasoning. The cases are not stored. The problem case solution is built as a puzzle. The puzzle obtained corresponds to the required solution. Each part is carrying information and has an associative behaviour. A piece seeks the piece which can be associated in width and in depth method. This associative behaviour is determined by several mechanisms: engine of expert system to binary rules, model of multicriterion choice of ordinal outclassing, search for close indices. A puzzle can thus have a complex mode of reasoning; each piece has a specific behaviour. The tool was tested on two applications of decision-making aid: identification of malaria facies and assistance to the specification of habitats. These applications made it possible to check the interest of this original framework. In particular it brings an elegant solution to the phase of adaptation in CBR technique.
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Paper Nr: 343
Title:

A QUALITATIVE MODEL OF THE INDEBTEDNESS FOR THE SPANISH AUTONOMOUS REGIONS
Authors:

Luis Jiménez Linares, Juan Moreno García, José Jesus Castro-Schez, Victor R. Lopez and Jose Baños
Abstract: This work shows a fuzzy model of the indebtedness for the Spanish autonomous regions that is obtained using approximate reasoning and induction methods. So, the algorithm ADRI (M. Delgado, 2001; Jimenez, 1997) is used to induce a linguistic model composed by a set of fuzzy rules. The quality of this linguistic model will be checked and its interpretation will be shown.
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Paper Nr: 400
Title:

BDI AGENTS WITH FUZZY ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY FOR VESSEL BERTHING IN CONTAINER PORTS
Authors:

Prasanna Lokuge, Damminda Alahakoon and Parakrama Dissanayake
Abstract: Faster turnaround time of the vessels in berths has direct impact on the improvement of terminals productivity. The need for an intelligent system that dynamically adapts to the changing environment is apparent, as there is limited number of berths and resources available in container terminals for delivering services to vessels. BDI (Beliefs, Desires and Intentions) agents are being proposed in a complex collaborative environment in the vessel scheduling assuring better management and control in the terminal. BDI agents to deal with many criteria and different goals with uncertain beliefs, it is proposed that fuzzy associative memory to use in the planning process of the BDI architecture facilitating better decision making in the whole process. In this paper we propose hybrid BDI architecture with fuzzy associative memory in handling uncertainty issues of the vessel berthing in container terminals. Execution of Plans in a collaborative multi agent environment would be strengthened with the introduction of fuzzy associative memory in BDI agents.
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Paper Nr: 436
Title:

REDUCING REWORK IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS THROUGH THE COMPONENTS OF DECISIONS
Authors:

Andy Salter, Hanifa Shah and Bernadette Sharp
Abstract: The failure of information systems has been partially the result of incorrect or inefficient rework in the development of the systems. If greater transparency can be made in the decision making process then the number of examples of incorrect or inefficient rework could be reduced. Transparency in the process of development can be achieved through identifying and tracking the components of the decisions made during the development of the information system. This paper presents a theoretical framework for facilitating this tracking by comparing the components of the decisions in the development of the information system with those of an organisation and considering how the ‘needs’ of agents and the actions taken to fulfil those needs are related.
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Paper Nr: 439
Title:

MINING SEQUENTIAL PATTERNS WITH REGULAR EXPRESSION CONSTRAINTS USING SEQUENTIAL PATTERN TREE
Authors:

Meer Hamza, Khaled Mahar and Mohamed Younis
Abstract: The significant growth of sequence database sizes in recent years increase the importance of developing new techniques for data organization and query processing. Discovering sequential patterns is an important problem in data mining with a host of application domains. For effectiveness and efficiency consideration, constraints are essential for many sequential applications. In this paper, we give a brief review of different sequential pattern mining algorithms, and then introduce a new algorithm (termed NewSPIRIT) for mining frequent sequential patterns that satisfy user specified regular expression constraints. The general idea of our algorithm is to use a finite state automata to represent the regular expression constraints and build a sequential pattern tree that represents all sequences of data which satisfy this constraints by scanning the database of sequences only once. Experimental results shows that our NewSPIRIT is much more efficient than existing algorithms.
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Paper Nr: 441
Title:

WAREHOUSING AND MINING OF HIGHER EDUCATION DATA BY MEANS OF STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL
Authors:

Liezl Van Dyk and Pieter Conradie
Abstract: Data warehouses are constructed at higher education institutions (HEI) using data from transactional systems such as the student information system (SIS), the learning management system (LMS), the learning content management system (LCMS) as well as certain enterprise resource planning (ERP) modules. The most common HEI data mining applications are directed towards customer relationship management (CRM) and quality management. When students are viewed as material in manufacturing process, instead of the customer, different meaningful correlations, patterns and trends can be discovered which otherwise would have remained unexploited. As example statistical process control (SPC) - as data mining tool - is applied to student result data. This may eliminate the need to gather student-customer feedback for quality control purposes.
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Paper Nr: 461
Title:

MINING SCIENTIFIC RESULTS THROUGH THE COMBINED USE OF CLUSTERING AND LINEAR PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
Authors:

Andrea Tagarelli, Irina Trubitsyna and Sergio Greco
Abstract: The paper proposes a technique based on a combined approach of data mining algorithms and linear programming methods for classifying organizational units, such as research centers. We exploit clustering algorithms for grouping information concerning the scientific activity of research centers. We also show that the replacement of an expensive efficiency measurement, based on the solution of linear programs, with a simple formula allows clusters of very good quality to be computed efficiently. Some initial experimental results, obtained from an analysis of research centers in the agro-food sector, show the effectiveness of our approach, both from an efficiency and a quality-of-results point of view.
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Paper Nr: 464
Title:

HIERARCHICAL MODEL-BASED CLUSTERING FOR RELATIONAL DATA
Authors:

Jianzhong Chen, Mary Shapcott, Sally McClean and Kenny Adamson
Abstract: Relational data mining deals with datasets containing multiple types of objects and relationships that are presented in relational formats, e.g. relational databases that have multiple tables. This paper proposes a propositional hierarchical model-based method for clustering relational data. We first define an object-relational star schema to model composite objects, and present a method of flattening composite objects into aggregate objects by introducing a new type of aggregates – frequency aggregate, which can be used to record not only the observed values but also the distribution of the values of an attribute. A hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm with log-likelihood distance is then applied to cluster the aggregated data tentatively. After stopping at a coarse estimate of the number of clusters, a mixture model-based method with the EM algorithm is developed to perform a further relocation clustering, in which Bayes Information Criterion is used to determine the optimal number of clusters. Finally we evaluate our approach on a real-world dataset.
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Paper Nr: 471
Title:

BUILDING PROVEN CAUSAL MODEL BASES FOR STRATEGIC DECISION SUPPORT
Authors:

Christian Hillbrand
Abstract: Since many Decision Support Systems (DSS) in the area of causal strategy planning methods incorporate techniques to draw conclusions from an underlying model but fail to prove the implicitly assumed hypotheses within the latter, this paper focuses on the improvement of the model base quality. Therefore, this approach employs Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to infer the underlying causal functions from empirical time series. As a prerequisite for this, an automated proof of causality for nomothetic cause-and-effect hypotheses has to be developed.
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Paper Nr: 472
Title:

A SEMI-AUTOMATIC BAYESIAN ALGORITHM FOR ONTOLOGY LEARNING
Authors:

Francesco Colace, Massimo De Santo, Mario Vento and Pasquale Foggia
Abstract: The dynamism of the new society forces the professional man to be abreast of technical progress. It is essential to introduce new didactic methodologies based on continuous long-life learning. A good solution can be E-learning. Although distance education environments are able to provide trainees and instructors with cooperative learning atmosphere, where students can share their experiences and teachers guide them in their learning, some problems must be still solved. One of the most important problem to solve is the correct definition of the domain of knowledge (i.e. ontology) related to the various courses. Often teachers are not able to easily formalize in correct way the reference ontology. On the other hand if we want realize some intelligent tutoring system that can help students and teachers during the learning process starting point is the ontology. In addition, the choice of best contents and information for students is closely connect to the ontology. In this paper, we propose a method for learning ontologies used to model a domain in the field of intelligent e-learning systems. This method is based on the use of the formalism of Bayesian networks for representing ontologies, as well as on the use of a learning algorithm that obtains the corresponding probabilistic model starting from the results of the evaluation tests associated with the didactic contents under examination. Finally, we will present an experimental evaluation of the method using data coming from real courses.
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Paper Nr: 494
Title:

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM FOR ISO 9001 QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Authors:

Li-Yen Shue, Sheng-tun Li and Hsun-cheng Hu
Abstract: Many researchers in knowledge management point out that the first step toward knowledge management is the management of documents. However, the complexity imbedded in some documents could present great difficulty for most methodologies to deal with. The knowledge content for building an excellent quality management system that complies with ISO 9001 falls into this category; this knowledge is characterized by multi-dimensionality and knowledge embedment through various procedures and forms. We applied Ontology, which is a new approach in AI for better presenting knowledge structure of a domain, to develop a system structure that will facilitate the development of a knowledge-based ISO 9001 quality management system. We use the real case of a Taiwanese chemical company that has a total of 175 ISO manuals to refer to when needed. This system is built with Protégé 2000 as the knowledge platform, and we follow the development process recommended by Ontology Engineering of Toronto Virtual Enterprise. One main feature of the system is its capability of understanding the semantic of documents, which is a vital part of the inference mechanism in answering user’s queries.
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Paper Nr: 502
Title:

APPLYING DATA MINING TO SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY
Authors:

Jacinto Mata Vázquez, José Luis Álvarez, José Cristóbal Riquelme and Isabel Ramos
Abstract: One of the main challenges that the project managers have during the building process of a software development project (SDP) is to optimise the values of the parameters that measure the viability of the final process. The accomplishment of this task, something that was not easy at the beginning, was helped with the appearance of dynamic models and simulation environments. The application of data mining techniques to the managing of Software Development Projects (SDP) is not an uncommon phenomenon, as in any other productive process that generates information in the way of input data and output variables. In this paper, we present and analyze the results obtained from a tool, developed by the authors, based on a Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) technique. One of the most important contributions of these techniques to the software engineering field is the possibility of improving the management process of an SDP. The purpose is to provide accurate decision rules in order to help the project manager to take decisions during the development.
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Paper Nr: 523
Title:

DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR DETECTING INCIPIENT FAULT IN TRANSFORMER BY DISSOLVED GAS ANALYSIS
Authors:

N. K. Dhote, D. M.Holey and M. R.Ramteke
Abstract: Power transformer is a vital component of power system, which has no substitute for its major role. They are quite expensive also. It is therefore, very important to closely monitor it’s in – service behavior to avoid costly outages and loss of production. Many devices have evolved to monitor the serviceability of power transformers. These devices such as Buchholz relay or differential relay respond only to a severe power failure requiring immediate removal of transformer from service, in which case, outages are inevitable. Thus, preventive techniques for early detection of faults to avoid outages would be valuable. A prototype of an expert system based on Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) technique for diagnosis of suspected transformers faults and their maintenance action are developed. The synthetic method is proposed to assist the popular gas ratio methods. This expert system is implemented into PC by using “Turbo Prolog” with rule based knowledge representations. The designed expert system has been tested for N.T.P.C., Talcher (India) transformer’s gas ratio records to show its effectiveness in transformer diagnosis.
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Paper Nr: 590
Title:

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF KDD TECHNIQUES TO AN INDUSTRIAL PROCESS
Authors:

Victoria Pachón Álvarez, Jacinto Mata Vázquez, Francisco Roche, José Vicente Canto do Santos and Jose María Tejera
Abstract: In the process of smelting copper mineral a large amount of sulphuric dioxide (SO2) is produced. This compound would be highly pollutant if it was emitted to the atmosphere. By means of an acid plant it is possible to transform it into sulphuric acid, using for this a set of chemical and physical processes. In this way we dispose of a marketable product and, at the same time, the environment is protected. However, there are certain situations in which the gases escape to the atmosphere, creating pollutant situations. This would be avoidable if we exactly knew under which circumstances this problem is produced. In this paper we present a practical application of KDD techniques to the chemical industry. By means of the obtained results we show the viability of using automatic classifiers to improve a productive process, with an increase of the production and a decrease of the environmental pollution.
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Paper Nr: 591
Title:

DATABASES REDUCTION
Authors:

Roberto Ruiz Sánchez, José Cristóbal Riquelme and Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz
Abstract: Progress in digital data acquisition and storage technology has resulted in the growth of huge databases. Nevertheless, these techniques often have high computational cost. Then, it is advisable to apply a preprocessing phase to reduce the time complexity. These preprocessing techniques are fundamentally oriented to either of the next goals: horizontal reduction of the databases or feature selection; and vertical reduction or editing. In this paper we present a new proposal to reduce databases applying sequentially vertical and horizontal reduction technics. They are based in our original works, and they use a projection concept as a method to choose examples and representative features. Results are very satisfactory, because the reduced database offers the same intrinsic performance for the later application of classification techniques with low computational resources.
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Paper Nr: 593
Title:

DATA MINING APPLICATION TO OBTAIN PROFILES OF PATIENTS WITH NEPHROLITHIASIS
Authors:

Luis E. Zárate, Paulo Alvarenga, Romero Paoliello and Thiago Ribeiro
Abstract: Nephrolithiasis is a disease that is unknown yet a clinical treatment that determines its cure. In the adult population is esteemed an incidence around 5 to 12%, being a little lesser in the pediatric band. The renal colic, caused by nephrolithiasis, is the main disease symptom in the adults and it is observed in 14% of the pediatric patients. The disease symptoms in the pediatric patient don't follow a pattern, and this makes difficult the disease diagnosis. The main objective of this work is discovery the patters of the disease symptoms and identifies the population apt to acquire it. With this objective, is applied KDD methodology determining discriminant rules for the patterns of the symptoms, and with this, select the groups of patients with those sets of symptoms. Finally, the results and the conclusions of the work are presented.
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Paper Nr: 603
Title:

OBJECTMINER: A NEW APPROACH FOR MINING COMPLEX OBJECTS
Authors:

Roxana Danger, José Ruíz-Shulcloper and Rafael Berlanga
Abstract: Since their introduction in 1993, association rules have been successfully applied to the description and summarization of discovered relations between attributes in a large collection of objects. However, most of the research works in this area have focused on mining simple objects, usually represented as a set of binary variables. The proposed work presents a framework for mining complex objects, whose attributes can be of any data type (single and multi-valued). The mining process is guided by the semantics associated to each object feature, which is stated by users by providing both a comparison criterion and a similarity function over the object subdescriptions. Experimental results show the usefulness of the proposal.
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Paper Nr: 658
Title:

CBR-BPR: A CASE-BASED REASONING TOOL FOR BUISNESS PROCESS REDESIGN
Authors:

Farhi Marir and Selma L. Mansar
Abstract: This paper presents a new approach for business processes redesign (BPR). The approach uses case-based reasoning techniques to model past business redesign into a case or stories based on a developed BPR framework and best practices rules. The resulting case base of past failing or successful experiences will be used to support business process designer and practitioner in redesigning or improving existing business processes. This work came to address the limitation of most methodologies developed to support the application of BPR principles in providing clear guidance on deriving a process design threatening the success of BPR.
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Paper Nr: 659
Title:

TOWARDS HIGH DIMENSIONAL DATA MINING WITH BOOSTING OF PSVM AND VISUALIZATION TOOLS
Authors:

Thanh-nghi Do and Francois Poulet
Abstract: We present a new supervised classification algorithm using boosting with support vector machines (SVM) and able to deal with very large data sets. Training a SVM usually needs a quadratic programming, so that the learning task for large data sets requires large memory capacity and a long time. Proximal SVM proposed by Fung and Mangasarian is another SVM formulation very fast to train because it requires only the solution of a linear system. We have used the Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula to adapt the PSVM to process data sets with a very large number of attributes. We have extended this idea by applying boosting to PSVM for mining massive data sets with simultaneously very large number of datapoints and attributes. We have evaluated its performance on several large data sets. We also propose a new graphical tool for trying to interpret the results of the new algorithm by displaying the separating frontier between classes of the data set. This can help the user to deeply understand how the new algorithm can work.
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Paper Nr: 678
Title:

A CONNEXIONIST APPROACH FOR CASE BASED REASONING
Authors:

Antonio B. Bailón, Miguel Delgado, Eva Gibaja and José María de la Torre
Abstract: Case Based Learning is an approach to automatic learning and reasoning based on the use of the knowledge gained in past experiences to solve new problems. To suggest a solution for a new problem it is necessary to search for similar problems in the base of problems for which we know their solutions. After selecting one or more similar problems their solutions are used to elaborate a suggested solution for the new problem. Associative memories recover patterns based on their similarity with a new input pattern. This behaviour made them useful to store the base of cases of a Case Based Reasoning system. In this paper we analyze the use of a special model of associative memory named CCLAM (Bailón et al., 2002) with this objective. To test the potentiality of the tool we will discuss its use in a particular application: the detection of the “health” of a company.
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Paper Nr: 684
Title:

INTELLIGENT VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR TRAINING IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
Authors:

Gonzalo Mendez, Pilar Herrero and Angélica de Antonio
Abstract: Educational Virtual Environments are gaining popularity as tools to enhance student learning. These environments are often used to allow students to experience situations that would be difficult, costly, or impossible in the physical world. At the Technical University of Madrid we have developed several applications to explore the use of intelligent tutors in VR. In this paper we present two of these applications which have been used for training in radiological protection in Nuclear Power Plants (NPP). These applications are inhabited by avatars and/or agents which are continuously monitoring the state of the environment and manipulating it periodically through virtual motor actions. Our applications help students learn to perform physical, procedural tasks in some different risky areas of NPP.
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Paper Nr: 691
Title:

G.R.E.E.N. - An Expert System to identify Gymnosperms
Authors:

Antonio B. Bailón, Eva Gibaja, Ramón Pérez Pérez and Carmen Quesada
Abstract: The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to the problem of botanical identification is not particularly widespread even less so on Internet. There are several interactive identification systems but they usually deal with raw knowledge so it appears that “research and development of web-based expert systems are still in their early stage” (Li et al., 2002). In this paper we present the G.R.E.E.N. (Gymnosperms Remote Expert Executed over Network) system as an expert system for the identification of Iberian Gymnosperms which allows on-line uncertainty queries to be made. The system is operative and it can be consulted in http://drimys.ugr.es/experto/index.html.
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Paper Nr: 691
Title:

G.R.E.E.N. - An Expert System to identify Gymnosperms
Authors:

Antonio B. Bailón, Eva Gibaja, Ramón Pérez Pérez and Carmen Quesada
Abstract: The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to the problem of botanical identification is not particularly widespread even less so on Internet. There are several interactive identification systems but they usually deal with raw knowledge so it appears that “research and development of web-based expert systems are still in their early stage” (Li et al., 2002). In this paper we present the G.R.E.E.N. (Gymnosperms Remote Expert Executed over Network) system as an expert system for the identification of Iberian Gymnosperms which allows on-line uncertainty queries to be made. The system is operative and it can be consulted in http://drimys.ugr.es/experto/index.html.
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Paper Nr: 734
Title:

OLIMPO SYSTEM WEB-TECNOLOGY FOR ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT AND WORLD PEACE
Authors:

Hugo Hoeschl, Tania Bueno, Vania Ferreira, Andre Bortolon and Eduardo Mattos
Abstract: The paper describes the Olimpo System, a knowledge-based system that enables the user to access textual files and to retrieve information that is similar to the search context described by the user in natural language. The paper is focused on the innovation recently implemented on the system and its new features. A detailed description is presented about the search level and the similarity metrics used by the system. The methodology applied to the Olimpo system emphasises the use of information retrieval methods combined with the Artificial Intelligence technique named SCS (Structured Contextual Search).
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Paper Nr: 744
Title:

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A SCALABLE FUZZY CASE-BASED MATCHING ENGINE
Authors:

Rami Hansenne, Jonas Van Poucke, Veerle Van Der Sluys and Bartel Van De Walle
Abstract: We discuss the design and the implementation of a flexible and scalable fuzzy case-based matching engine. The engine’s flexible design is illustrated for two of its core components: the internal representation of cases by means of a variety of crisp and fuzzy data types, and the fuzzy operations to execute the ensuing case matching process. We investigate the scalability of the matching engine by a series of benchmark tests of increasing complexity, and find that the matching engine can manage an increasingly heavy load. This indicates that the engine can be used for demanding matching processes. We conclude by pointing at several applications in experimental electronic markets for which the matching engine currently is being put to use, and indicate avenues for future research.
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Paper Nr: 853
Title:

DYNAMIC INTEREST PROFILES - Tracking User Interests Using Personal Information
Authors:

Justin Lessler, Stefan Edlund, Joann Ruvolo and Vikas Krishna
Abstract: When building applications it is usually the case that developers are forced to focus on “one size fits all” solutions. Customization is often burdensome for the user, or so complex that it would be unrealistic to ask an end user to undertake this task. In the areas of personal information management and collaboration there is no reason to accept this limitation, as there is a body of information about the user that reflects their interests: namely their personal documents. The Dynamic Interest Profile (DIP) is a system intended to track user interests, allowing for the creation of more intelligent applications. In this paper we discuss our approach to implementing the DIP, challenges that this implementation presents, as well as the security and privacy concerns that the existence of such an application raises.
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Paper Nr: 856
Title:

DYNAMIC NEGOTIATION FOR REAL-TIME MANUFACTURING EXECUTION
Authors:

Li Q. Zhuang, J. B. Zhang, Bryan Tsong Jye Ng, Yue Tang and Y. Z. Zhao
Abstract: This paper presents a dynamic negotiation framework for real-time execution in self-organised manufacturing environments. The negotiation strategies in this framework bridge the gap between distributed negotiation of self-interested agents and cooperative negotiation among agent groups. In particular, the proposed framework is based on the model of Performance and Cost for Manufacturing Execution (PCME). By forming the dynamic organisation called agent consortium, individual agents negotiate over the PCME in order to optimise the resource allocation under time constraints and uncertainty of job execution, and resolve the conflicts to fulfil the goal of the overall system. The ultimate goal of the framework is to reduce the negotiation time, make effective use of resources, adapt to the changes in execution and increase the throughput of the entire system. Experimental work based on PCME has been carried out to demonstrate the high performance of this approach despite unanticipated and dynamic changes in the manufacturing execution environments.
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Paper Nr: 858
Title:

VISUALIZING SOFTWARE PROJECT ANALOGIES TO SUPPORT COST ESTIMATION
Authors:

Martin Auer, Bernhard Graser and Stefan Biffl
Abstract: Software cost estimation is a crucial task in software project portfolio decisions like start scheduling, resource allocation, or bidding. A variety of estimation methods have been proposed to support estimators. Especially the analogy-based approach—based on a project’s similarities with past projects—has been reported as both efficient and relatively transparent. However, its performance was typically measured automatically and the effect of human estimators’ sanity checks was neglected. Thus, this paper proposes the visualization of high-dimensional software project portfolio data using multidimensional scaling (MDS). We (i) propose data preparation steps for an MDS visualization of software portfolio data, (ii) visualize several real-world industry project portfolio data sets and quantify the achieved approximation quality to assess the feasibility, and (iii) outline the expected benefits referring to the visualized portfolios’ properties. This approach offers several promising benefits by enhancing portfolio data understanding and by providing intuitive means for estimators to assess an estimate’s plausibility.
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Paper Nr: 876
Title:

ORDER PLANNING DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR CUSTOMER DRIVEN MANUFACTURING: OVERVIEW OF MAIN SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Authors:

Henrique Proença and Américo Azevedo
Abstract: An important goal in schedule production orders through a manufacturing facility is to assure that the work is completed as close as possible to its due date. Work that is late creates downstream delays, while early completion can be detrimental if storage space is limited. Production planning and control manufacturing is becoming more difficult as family products increase and quantity decreases. This paper presents an ongoing information system development that aims the production planning of special test tables equipment for automobile components manufacturers. The simulated based information system will be used to support planning and schedule activities; to compare and analyze the impact of planning rescheduling; to forecast the production completion date; to detect bottlenecks and to evaluate machines performance.
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Paper Nr: 884
Title:

DECISION FOLLOW-UP SUPPORT MECHANISM BASED ON ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION
Authors:

Carla Valle and Wolfgang Prinz
Abstract: Decision management and decision support systems are themes under investigation for several decades, and both research areas provided contributions for the quality of decision making processes. However, little work has been done in the aerea of decision follow-up, especially regarding decisions made during meetings. In this paper we analyse the concepts related to this problem and we propose a solution based on mechanisms supported by computer to assist the formalization of meeting outcomes, and to provide decision follow-up.
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Paper Nr: 898
Title:

MAJORITY VOTING IN STABLE MARRIAGE PROBLEM WITH COUPLES - Using a monotone systems based tournament approach
Authors:

Tarmo Veskioja and Leo Võhandu
Abstract: Providing centralised matching services can be viewed as a group decision support system (GDSS) for the participants to reach a stable matching solution. In the original stable marriage problem all the participants have to rank all members of the opposite party. Two variations for this problem allow for incomplete preference lists and ties in preferences. If members from one side are allowed to form couples and submit combined preferences, then the set of stable matchings may be empty (Roth et al., 1990). In that case it is necessary to use majority voting between matchings in a tournament. We propose a majority voting tournament method based on monotone systems and a value function for it. The proposed algorithm should minimize transitivity faults in tournament ranking.
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Paper Nr: 913
Title:

MULTI-AGENT PROPOSITIONS TO MANAGE ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE - Position paper concerning a three-dimensional research project
Authors:

Jorge Louçã, César Melo Rosa, Francisco Guimarães and Valmir Meneses
Abstract: This paper presents the work in progress in a three-dimensional project, including the theoretical foundations and main goals of the lines of research incorporating our project: user modeling in a distributed cooperative system, interactive cooperation in a multi-agent structure, and knowledge representation in a cognitive agent architecture. These lines of research are complementary and share a main goal, to make propositions regarding the use of multi-agent systems in organizations, namely in what concerns support to decision making processes and, in a general way, knowledge management within organizations.
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Paper Nr: 228
Title:

IMAGE CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO THE DOMINANT COLOUR
Authors:

Amine A. Younes, Isis Truck, Herman Akdag and Yannick Remion
Abstract: The aim of this work is to develop a user-friendly software allowing him to classify images according to their dominant colour expressed through linguistic expressions. With this aim in view, images are processed and stored in a database. The processing consists in assigning a profile to each image. To do this, we consider the pixels of the images in the colorimetric space HLS and then a restricted number of colours classes are built. These classes depend on the hue (H). For each colour class a certain number of subclasses depending on the lightness (L) and the Saturation (S) are defined. Finally the profile is drawn using the pixels membership of the classes and subclasses. Thus starting from a linguistic expression of a colour, the user can extract images from the database.
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Paper Nr: 450
Title:

DATA MINING: PATTERN MINING AS A CLIQUE EXTRACTING TASK
Authors:

Rein Kuusik, G L and Leo Võhandu
Abstract: One of the important tasks in solving data mining problems is finding frequent patterns in a given dataset. It allows to handle several tasks such as pattern mining, discovering association rules, clustering etc. There are several algorithms to solve this problem. In this paper we describe our task and results: a method for reordering a data matrix to give it a more informative form, problems of large datasets, (frequent) pattern finding task. Finally we show how to treat a data matrix as a graph, a pattern as a clique and pattern mining process as a clique extracting task. We present also a fast diclique extracting algorithm for pattern mining.
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Paper Nr: 463
Title:

APPLICATION OF UNCERTAIN VARIABLES TO STABILITY ANALYSIS AND STABILIZATION FOR ATM ABR CONGESTION CONTROL SYSTEMS
Authors:

Magdalena Turowska
Abstract: The paper presents the application of uncertain variables to stabilization for ATM ABR congestion control systems. The time-varying system with unknown parameters is considered. The unknown parameter is assumed to be a value of uncertain variable described by the certainty distribution given by an expert. The estimation of the certainty index that the system is stable is presented. The estimation consists in the determination of the lower and upper bounds for the certainty index via the determination of sufficient and necessary stability conditions. A specific stabilization problem is considered.
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Paper Nr: 473
Title:

BAYESIAN NETWORK STRUCTURAL LEARNING FROM DATA: AN ALGORITHMS COMPARISON
Authors:

Francesco Colace, Massimo De Santo, Mario Vento and Pasquale Foggia
Abstract: The manual determination of Bayesian Network structure or, more in general, of the probabilistic models, in particular in the case of remarkable dimensions domains, can be complex, time consuming and imprecise. Therefore, in the last years the interest of the scientific community in learning bayesian network structure from data is considerably increased. In fact, many techniques or disciplines, as data mining, text categorization, ontology description, can take advantages from this type of processes. In this paper we will describe some possible approaches to the structural learning of bayesian networks and introduce in detail some algorithms deriving from these ones. We will aim to compare results obtained using the main algorithms on databases normally used in literature. With this aim, we have selected and implemented five algorithms more used in literature. We will estimate the algorithms performances both considering the network topological reconstruction both the correct orientation of the obtained arcs.
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Paper Nr: 506
Title:

AN ADAPTABLE TIME-DELAY NEURAL NETWORK TO PREDICT THE SPANISH ECONOMIC INDEBTEDNESS
Authors:

M. P. Cuellar, W. Fajardo, M. C. Pegalajar, Ramón Pérez Pérez and M.A. Navarro
Abstract: In this paper, we study and predict the economic indebtedness for the autonomic of Spain. In turn, we use model of neural network. In this study, we assess the feasibility of the Time-Delay neural network as an alternative to these classical forecasting models. This neural network permits accumulate more values of pass and a best prediction of the future. We show the MSE assignment to check the good forecasting of indebtedness economic.
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Paper Nr: 512
Title:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS FOR TRAINING ELMAN RECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS TO PREDICT AUTONOMOUS INDEBTEDNESS
Authors:

Cuéllar M.P., Navarro A., M. Carmen Pegalajar and Pérez-Pérez R.
Abstract: This paper presents a training model for Elman recurrent neural networks, based on evolutionary algorithms. The proposed evolutionary algorithms are classic genetic algorithms, the multimodal clearing algorithm and the CHC algorithm. These training algorithms are compared in order to assess the effectiveness of each training model when predicting Spanish autonomous indebtedness.
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Paper Nr: 664
Title:

Hybrid Expert System for the Selection of Rapid Prototyping Processes
Authors:

Farhi Marir
Abstract: A wide variety of rapid prototyping processes are available, each with different and unique features. Selecting the most suitable process for a given prototype can be difficult and costly if a mistake is made. In this paper, the design of a knowledge-based system to support the selection of a rapid prototyping process is presented. The method utilises a hybrid expert system, which is formulated to interrogate the acquired data streams from a rapid prototyping model simulator for the purpose of comparative studies with the knowledge base.
Paper Nr: 732
Title:

ADAPTATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR THE HUMAN FACES DETECTION
Authors:

João F. Marar, Danilo Nogueira Costa, Olympio J. Pinheiro and Edson Carvalho
Abstract: This paper presents results from an efficient approach to an automatic detection and extraction of human faces from images with any color, texture or objects in background, that consist in find isosceles triangles formed by the eyes and mouth.
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Paper Nr: 751
Title:

INFORMED k-MEANS: A CLUSTERING PROCESS BIASED BY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE - A case study in the dactyloscopic domain
Authors:

Wagner F. Castilho, Hércules A. do Prado and Marcelo Ladeira
Abstract: Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) is the process by which unknown and useful knowledge and information are extracted, by automatic or semi-automatic methods, from large amounts of data. Along the evolution of Information Technology and the rapid growth in the number and size of databases, the development of methodologies, techniques, and tools for data mining has become a major concern for researchers, and has led, in turn, to the development of applications in a variety of areas of human activity. About 1997, the processes and techniques associated with cluster analysis had begun to be researched with increasing intensity by the KDD community. Within the context of a model intended to support decisions based on cluster analysis, prior knowledge about the data structure and the application domain can be used as important constraints that lead to better results in the clusters’ configurations. This paper presents an application of cluster analysis in the area of public safety using a schema that takes into account the burden of prior knowledge acquired from statistical analysis on the data. Such an information was used as a bias for the k-means algorithm that was applied to identify the dactyloscopic (fingerprint) profile of criminals in the Brazilian capital, also known as Federal District. These results was then compared with a similar analysis that disregarded the prior knowledge. It is possible to observe that the analysis using prior knowledge generated clusters that are more coherent with the expert knowledge.
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Paper Nr: 751
Title:

INFORMED k-MEANS: A CLUSTERING PROCESS BIASED BY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE - A case study in the dactyloscopic domain
Authors:

Wagner F. Castilho, Hércules A. do Prado and Marcelo Ladeira
Abstract: Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) is the process by which unknown and useful knowledge and information are extracted, by automatic or semi-automatic methods, from large amounts of data. Along the evolution of Information Technology and the rapid growth in the number and size of databases, the development of methodologies, techniques, and tools for data mining has become a major concern for researchers, and has led, in turn, to the development of applications in a variety of areas of human activity. About 1997, the processes and techniques associated with cluster analysis had begun to be researched with increasing intensity by the KDD community. Within the context of a model intended to support decisions based on cluster analysis, prior knowledge about the data structure and the application domain can be used as important constraints that lead to better results in the clusters’ configurations. This paper presents an application of cluster analysis in the area of public safety using a schema that takes into account the burden of prior knowledge acquired from statistical analysis on the data. Such an information was used as a bias for the k-means algorithm that was applied to identify the dactyloscopic (fingerprint) profile of criminals in the Brazilian capital, also known as Federal District. These results was then compared with a similar analysis that disregarded the prior knowledge. It is possible to observe that the analysis using prior knowledge generated clusters that are more coherent with the expert knowledge.
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Paper Nr: 894
Title:

THE ORM MODEL AS A KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION FOR E-TUTORIAL SYSTEMS
Authors:

Tanaporn Leelawattananon and Suphamit Chittayasothorn
Abstract: At present information technology plays important roles in teaching and learning activities. E-learning systems have the potential to reduce operating costs and train more people. Teachers and students do not have to be in the same place at the same time and the students have the opportunity to perform self-studies and self-evaluation using e-tutorial systems. E-learning systems could be considered expert systems in the sense that they provide expert advice in particular subjects of studies to students. The exploitation of knowledge base and knowledge representation techniques is therefore vital to the development of e-learning systems. This paper presents the development of a knowledge-based e-tutorial system that uses the Object Role Model (ORM) as its knowledge representation. The system provides Physics tutorials. It was implemented in Prolog and the knowledge base is on a relational database server.
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Paper Nr: 895
Title:

IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR SECURITY PURPOSES
Authors:

Petros Belsis, Stefanos Gritzalis, Christos Skourlas and Ioannis Drakopoulos
Abstract: Due to its rapid growth, Information Systems Security becomes a new era of expertise, related to a vast quantity of knowledge. Exploiting all this knowledge becomes a difficult task, due to its heterogeneity. Knowledge Management (KM) on the other hand, becomes an expanding and promising discipline that has drawn considerable attention. In this paper we deploy our arguments about the benefits of KM techniques and their possible applications to assist security officers in improving their productivity and effectiveness. To prove this, we exploit possible technological prospects, and we present the architecture of a prototype developed to implement selected innovating KM components, embedding state-of-the-art multimedia java-based applications.
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Paper Nr: 899
Title:

OUTLIER DETECTION AND VISUALISATION IN HIGH DIMENSIONAL DATA
Authors:

Lydia Boudjeloud and Francois Poulet
Abstract: The outlier detection problem has important applications in the field of fraud detection, network robustness analysis, and intrusion detection. Such applications have to deal with high dimensional data sets with hundreds of dimensions. However, in high dimensional space, the data are sparse and the notion of proximity fails to retain its meaningfulness. Many recent algorithms use heuristics such as genetic algorithms, the taboo search... in order to palliate these difficulties in high dimensional data. We present in this paper a new hybrid algorithm for outlier detection in high dimensional data. We evaluate the performances of the new algorithm on different high dimensional data sets, and visualise its results for some data sets.
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Paper Nr: 912
Title:

MULTI-AGENT ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL FOR eCONTRACTING
Authors:

Benjamin Gateau, Khadraoui Djamel, Eric Dubois and Olivier Boissier
Abstract: This paper covers development and analysis tools, software and system architecture engineering and development methodologies. It introduces the MOISE+ (Model of Organization for multI-agent System) model seen under three points of view : structural, functional and deontic. In practical, this model is available as a JAVA component. The original contribution of the paper is the extension of the model to take into account the notion of sanctions. These ones are necessary in order to control the respect of normative specifications (obligation, permission, prohibition) of behaviors. The results of the generalized model are implemented on an eCommerce application dealing with eContracting.
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Paper Nr: 915
Title:

AN AGENT BASED INFRASTRUCURE FOR FACILITATING EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE
Authors:

Jennifer Sampson
Abstract: Evidence-based medicine relies heavily on the timely dissemination of ‘best evidence’ to a wide audience of health practitioners (Atkins and Louw, 2000). However, finding, assimilating and using this information resource effectively can be difficult. In this paper we describe an infrastructure for facilitating evidence-based health care using Agora - a multi-agent system. This paper discusses a new application for AGORA, and also describes issues for disseminating such medical knowledge via an adaptive, intelligent, distributed, mobile information service. We describe how an agent based approach can deliver clinical cases and diagnosis information to clinicians at point of care tailored to her/his needs. This research in progress is particularly important for the facilitating flow of information in health care.
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Area 3 - Information Systems Analysis and Specification

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 27
Title:

ON INFORMATION SECURITY GUIDELINES FOR SMALL/MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
Authors:

David Chapman and Leonid Smalov
Abstract: The adoption rate of Internet-based technologies by United Kingdom (UK) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is regularly surveyed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Over several decades information security has evolved from early work such as the Bell La Padula (BLP) model toward widely disseminated Information Security Guidelines containing comprehensive and detailed advice. The overwhelming volume and level-of-detail provided often fails to address the information security requirements of SMEs. SMEs typically fail to implement effective Internet strategies due to lack of information security awareness, lack of technical skills and inadequate financial resources. Awareness of information security issues among SMEs is poor. The European Union supported ISA-EUNET Consortium has developed a set of best practices to support SMEs. We present a sample mapping of the Computer Security Expert Assist Team (CSEAT) Information Security Review Areas onto the Alliance for Electronic Business (AEB) web security guidelines as an example of a possible roadmap approach for SMEs to gain information security awareness.
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Paper Nr: 112
Title:

WORKFLOW ACCESS CONTROL FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Authors:

Dulce Domingos, António Rito-silva and Pedro Veiga
Abstract: Workflow management systems are increasingly being used to support business processes. Methodologies have been proposed in order to derive workflow process definitions from business models. However, these methodologies do not comprise access control aspects. In this paper we propose an extension to the Work Analysis Refinement Modelling (WARM) methodology, which also enables to determine workflow access control information from the business process model. This is done by identifying useful information from business process models and showing how it can be refined to derive access control information. Our approach reduces the effort required to define the workflow access control, ensures that authorization rules are directly related to the business and aligns access control with the information system architecture that implements the business process.
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Paper Nr: 117
Title:

USING SECURITY ATTACK SCENARIOS TO ANALYSE SECURITY DURING INFORMATION SYSTEMS DESIGN
Authors:

Haralambos Mouratidis, Paolo Giorgini and Gordon Manson
Abstract: It has been widely argued in the literature that security concerns should be integrated with software engineering practices. However, only recently work has been initiated towards this direction. Most of this work, however, only considers how security can be analysed during the development lifecycles and not how the security of an information system can be tested during the analysis and design stages. In this paper we present results from the development of a technique, which is based on the use of scenarios, to test the reaction of an information system against potential security attacks.
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Paper Nr: 125
Title:

CONSTRAINT-GUIDED ENTERPRISE PORTALS
Authors:

Christopher Hogger and Frank Kriwaczek
Abstract: It is shown how an enterprise portal, supporting a community of users discharging roles expressed as combinations of plans and constraints, can be usefully guided by a constraint processor. In particular, constraint logic programming on finite domains provides the users with useful insights regarding their possible work schedules. Constraints assist also in shaping the electronic artefacts created and transmitted by the users. The implementation is supported by mechanisms for assigning and updating roles and for assisting the search for remedies in the case of constraint failure.
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Paper Nr: 125
Title:

CONSTRAINT-GUIDED ENTERPRISE PORTALS
Authors:

Christopher Hogger and Frank Kriwaczek
Abstract: It is shown how an enterprise portal, supporting a community of users discharging roles expressed as combinations of plans and constraints, can be usefully guided by a constraint processor. In particular, constraint logic programming on finite domains provides the users with useful insights regarding their possible work schedules. Constraints assist also in shaping the electronic artefacts created and transmitted by the users. The implementation is supported by mechanisms for assigning and updating roles and for assisting the search for remedies in the case of constraint failure.
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Paper Nr: 215
Title:

ANALYSIS AND RE-ENGINEERING OF WEB SERVICES
Authors:

Axel Martens
Abstract: To an increasing extend software systems are integrated across the borders of individual enterprises. The Web service approach provides group of technologies to describe components and their composition, based on well established protocols. Focused on business processes, one Web service implements a local subprocess. A distributed business processes is implemented by the composition a set of communicating Web services. At the moment, there are various modeling languages under development to describe the internal structure of one Web service and the choreography of a set of Web services. Nevertheless, there is a need for methods for stepwise construction and verification of such components. This paper abstracts from concrete syntax of any proposed language definition. Instead, we apply Petri nets to model Web services. Thus, we are able to reason about essential properties, e. g. usability of a Web service – our notion of a quality criterion. Based on this framework, we present an algorithm to analyze a given Web service and to transfer a complex process model into a appropriate model of a Web service.
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Paper Nr: 230
Title:

BALANCING STAKEHOLDER’S PREFERENCES ON MEASURING COTS COMPONENT FUNCTIONAL SUITABILITY
Authors:

Alejandra Cechich and Mario Piattini
Abstract: COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) components can be incorporated into other systems to help software developers to produce a new system, so that both artefacts – components and the system – form a single functional entity. In that way, developing software becomes a matter of balancing required and offered functionality between the parties. But required functionality is highly dependent on component’s users, i.e. stakeholders of a COTS component selection process. Inputs to this process include discussions with composers, reuse architects, business process coordinators, and so forth. In this paper, we present an approach for balancing stakeholder’s preferences, which can be used in the process of measuring functional suitability of COTS candidates. We describe and illustrate the use of our proposal to weight requirements of components and determine suitable COTS candidates for given software.
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Paper Nr: 238
Title:

A POLYMORPHIC CONTEXT FRAME TO SUPPORT SCALABILITY AND EVOLVABILITY OF INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
Authors:

Isabelle Mirbel
Abstract: Nowadays, there is an increasing need for flexible approaches, adaptable to different kinds of Information System Development (ISD). But customization of ISD processes have mainly be thought of for the person in charge of building processes, i.e. the methodologists, in order to allow him/her to adapt the process to the need of its company or projects. But there is also a need for customizations dedicated to project team members (application engineers), to provide them with customized guidelines (or heuristics) which are to be followed while performing their daily task. The knowledge capitalization framework we propose supports evolvability and customization of ISD processes. Reuse and customization are handled through process fragments stored in a dedicated repository. Our purpose is not to propose a new way to built processes, as several approaches already exist on this topic, but to ease the use of existing ones by making them less rigid and allowing their adaptation to the need of the company, the project and most of all, the project team member. Therefore, in addition to a repository of process fragments, we propose a scalable and polymorphic structure allowing methodologists to define a working space through a context made of criterias. Thanks to this context the project team members better qualify their ISD problem in order to find a suitable solution. A solution is made of process fragments organized into a route-map specially built to answer the project team member need and directly usable by him/her. The context-frame we focus on in this paper is a scalable structure which supports evolution and tailoring by the methodologists for the project team member’s need with regards to project and process features.
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Paper Nr: 262
Title:

A TOOL INTEGRATION WORKBENCH FOR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE - Integrating heterogeneous models and tools
Authors:

Diederik Van Leeuwen, Hugo Ter Doest and Marc Lankhorst
Abstract: Enterprise architecture incorporates the specification of relations between different domains, each speaking its own languages and using its own tools. As a consequence, the enterprise architecture asks for the integration of existing modelling tools. This integration has both technical and conceptual aspects. On a technical level, models in different formats managed by dedicated tools need to be related. On a conceptual level, models are expressed in different modelling languages or conceptual schemas, making the integration of these models complex. In this paper we present the design of a workbench for enterprise architecture that serves as a tool integration environment and a modelling tool at the same time: it supports both technical integration of existing modelling tools and conceptual integration of modelling schemas. The workbench is a viewpoint-driven environment that provides the means to bring together and elaborate upon existing heterogeneous content, as well as to break down existing content into more specific content managed by dedicated tools. This viewpoint-driven environment serves as a starting point for report generation for stakeholders more remote to the architecture design process. Moreover, re-use of architectural assets is supported in straightforward manner by a transparent disclosure of existing design artefacts in one integrated environment.
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Paper Nr: 327
Title:

REVERSING THE TREND OF COMMODITIZATION - A case study of the strategic planning and management of a call center
Authors:

Brad Poulson, Jimmy Huang, Sue Newell and Robert Galliers
Abstract: The paper challenges the prevalent paradigm that differentiates between the management of a core competence and commodity processes. A case study is conducted to examine the strategic planning and management of a call center to illustrate that a commodity process, such as handling customers’ complaints and enquiries, can be transformed into a core competence, if a clear strategic intent is articulated and adequate management approaches are followed. Findings derived from this study suggest that a call center can provide substantial added value to the business and be managed differently through devising an appropriate intellectual capital management approach.
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Paper Nr: 327
Title:

REVERSING THE TREND OF COMMODITIZATION - A case study of the strategic planning and management of a call center
Authors:

Brad Poulson, Jimmy Huang, Sue Newell and Robert Galliers
Abstract: The paper challenges the prevalent paradigm that differentiates between the management of a core competence and commodity processes. A case study is conducted to examine the strategic planning and management of a call center to illustrate that a commodity process, such as handling customers’ complaints and enquiries, can be transformed into a core competence, if a clear strategic intent is articulated and adequate management approaches are followed. Findings derived from this study suggest that a call center can provide substantial added value to the business and be managed differently through devising an appropriate intellectual capital management approach.
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Paper Nr: 406
Title:

SPECIFYING AN INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE WITH DASIBAO - A standard based method
Authors:

Anne Picault, Philippe Bedu, Juliette L. Delliou, Jean Perrin and Bruno Traverson
Abstract: If companies want to be competitive they undoubtedly have to manage IS evolution and IS architecture. EDF, the French state utility, has developed its own architecture method called DASIBAO. DASIBAO is based on two standards: OMG’s MDA and ISO/RM-ODP. DASIBAO provides guidelines for architecture design from capturing user needs to system implementation. DASIBAO progressive steps helps to choose between architecture scenarios and to keep track of these choices. This track enables to asses the impacts of any IS evolution and to limit them to the bare minimum. This article presents the use of DASIBAO through an example related to customer relationship. DASIBAO has been applied at EDF in various projects and is now on its start to be used on a large scale.
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Paper Nr: 408
Title:

FEATURE MATCHING IN MODEL-BASED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Authors:

Alar Raabe
Abstract: There is a growing need to reduce the cycle of business information systems development and make it independent of underlying technologies. Model-driven synthesis of software offers solutions to these problems. This article describes a method for synthesizing business software implementations from technology independent business models. The synthesis of business software implementation performed in two steps, is based on establishing a common feature space for problem and solution domains. In the first step, a solution domain and a software architecture style are selected by matching the explicitly required features of a given software system, and implicitly required features of a given problem domain to the features provided by the solution domain and the architectural style. In the second step, all the elements of a given business analysis model are transformed into elements or configurations in the selected solution domain according to the selected architectural style, by matching their required features to the features provided by the elements and configurations of the selected solution domain. In both steps it is possible to define cost functions for selecting between different alternatives which provide the same features. The differences of our method are the separate step of solution domain analysis during the software process, which produces the feature model of the solution domain, and usage of common feature space to select the solution domain, the architectural style and specific implementations.
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Paper Nr: 585
Title:

ACTIVITY CREDITING IN DISTRIBUTED WORKFLOW ENVIRONMENTS
Authors:

Eric Browne, Michael Schrefl and James R. Warren
Abstract: Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) are increasingly being introduced to deal with cooperative inter-organisational business processes. There are many situations in these distributed workflow environments, where, for a given business process, activities might be undertaken in one enterprise that overlap with, or repeat activities undertaken elsewhere. This paper examines such situations in the context of healthcare, where duplicated tests and procedures are costly and can have negative health impacts on patients undergoing unnecessary tests and interventions. Our approach is based on a two-tier goal/process representation of business processes and an execution model comprising a candidate discovery phase, followed by a component crediting phase. We introduce the notions of full vs. partial crediting, goal-level vs. activity-level crediting and examine the role that termporal constraints play in determining candidate components for crediting.
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Paper Nr: 588
Title:

THE PROFILES OF PROJECTS SUPPLIED BY A FULL-SCALE ICT-SERVICES PROVIDER
Authors:

Ari P. Hirvonen, Jarmo Ahonen and Mirja Pulkkinen
Abstract: The role of modern ICT-services providers has changed from easily defined system engineers to full-scale providers. The types, or profiles, of projects supplied by such providers are not very well understood. In this article a company specific analysis of a set of projects is presented. The analysis clarifies the types of projects and discusses the features of those types. Five distinctive profiles of projects were found excluding the maintenance. Some of the profiles were unexpected and seem to reflect the changing nature of the system engineering market. This change shows that changes to existing methodologies and new methodologies are required in order to offer proper methodological support for modern full-scale ICT-services providers.
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Paper Nr: 612
Title:

ENHANCING COLLABORATION IN BUSINESS PROCESS MODELLING
Authors:

Nikos Karacapilidis and Emmanuel Adamides
Abstract: Business process modelling is widely considered as the most critical task in the development of enterprise information systems that address the actual needs of a company. As business processes cross functional and sometimes company boundaries, the coordinated inclusion of diverse perspectives and knowledge sources is necessary. Towards this end, this paper presents an information systems framework that aims at the exploitation of personalised knowledge through a structured process of collaborative and argumentative business process model construction. By integrating an argumentation system that is specific to business process modelling with a discrete-event modelling simulation tool, we provide the appropriate infrastructure to increase the productivity and effectiveness of process design and re-engineering efforts. The paper presents the design rationale, the structure and the functionality of the proposed framework through a comprehensive example of collaborative work towards building a model of a typical business process in a manufacturing company.
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Paper Nr: 614
Title:

A METHODOLOGY FOR INTEGRATING NEW SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS AND APPLICATIONS IN A VIRTUAL LABORATORY ENVIRONMENT
Authors:

Ersin C. Kaletas, Hamideh Afsarmanesh and L. O. Hertzberger
Abstract: Emergence of advanced complex experiments in experimental sciences resulted in a change in the way of experimentation. Several solutions have been proposed to support scientists with their complex experimentations, ranging from simple data portals to virtual laboratories. These solutions offer a variety of facilities to scientists, such as management of experiments and experiment-related information, and management of resources. However, issues related to adding new types of experiments to proposed support environments still remain untouched, causing inefficient utilization of efforts and inadequate transfer of expertise. The main topic of this paper is to present a methodology for integrating new scientific domains and applications in a multi-disciplinary virtual laboratory environment. In order to complement the methodology with the right context, the paper also presents an experiment model that uniformly represents scientific experiments, data models for modelling experiment-related information, and mechanisms for the management of this information.
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Paper Nr: 620
Title:

THE DEGREE OF DIGITALIZATION OF THE INFORMATION OVERFLOW - A case study
Authors:

Turo Kilpeläinen and Pasi Tyrväinen
Abstract: The degree of digitalization in organizations has increased remarkably. This trend will continue if the so called natural laws of information technology are veracious. At the same time the format of communicated information has shifted from traditional face-to-face and analogue communication to digital communication forms, such as digital documents. Because information is increasingly available in digital form on one hand for example the duplication and forwarding of email messages and attachments gets easier, which may easily lead to information overflow. On the other hand digitalization increases productivity, improves quality and reduces costs. As the ability of humans to adopt information has not developed at the same pace as information and communication technology (ICT), it is interesting to see whether the degree of digital communication correlates with the total amount of communication in organization. In this paper we tested this hypothesis in an industrial organization using genre-based measurement method to gather data on communication flows. The results show, that the correlation between the degree of digital communication and the amount of total communication can be seen in some degree.
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Paper Nr: 635
Title:

TOWARDS A META MODEL FOR DESCRIBING COMMUNICATION - How to address interoperability on a pragmatic level
Authors:

Boriana Rukanova, Kees van Slooten and Robert A. Stegwee
Abstract: The developments in the ICT led companies to strive to make parts of the business transaction electronic and raised again the issue of interoperability. Although interoperability between computer systems has been widely addressed in literature, the concept of interoperability between organizations is still to a large extent unexplored. Standards are claimed to help achieving interoperability. However, experience with the implementation of EDI standards shows that many EDI implementation projects led to technical solutions with unclear business benefits. New standards are currently being developed, however their implementation can also lead again to purely technical solution, if the social context is not taken sufficiently into account. In this paper we address the problem on how to identify interoperability problems on a pragmatic level that can occur between organizations that want to carry out business transactions electronically. We also point out that, in order to identify interoperability problems on a pragmatic level, it is necessary to capture the communication requirements of the business parties and to evaluate to what extent a standard is capable to meet these requirements. To perform that evaluation we develop a meta model for describing communication. The meta model is based on theory of speech-act and communicative actions. The use of the meta model to identify interoperability problems on a pragmatic level is illustrated with an example.
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Paper Nr: 654
Title:

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT USING A PATTERN LANGUAGE-BASED TOOL
Authors:

Rosana Braga, Paulo Masiero and Fernao Germano
Abstract: Domain-specific pattern languages can be used to model applications, so that following particular paths in the pattern language lead to the complete design of particular systems. This paper shows how to use a pattern language-based analysis method and tool to help in the development of domain-specific systems, where the development is basically done at the analysis level. The requirements of the target system are matched against analysis patterns, so that the system is specified in terms of the patterns used to model it. The tool is fed with this information and uses it to instantiate a framework that was built based on the same pattern language. The result is the source-code for the target system, that can be used as a prototype, extended or improved to become the real system.
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Paper Nr: 671
Title:

OPEN ISSUES ON INFORMATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH DOMAIN: THE VISION
Authors:

André Vasconcelos, Carla Marques Pereira, Pedro Sousa and José Tribolet
Abstract: Currently organizations, pushed by several business and technological changes, are more concern about Information systems (IS) than ever. Though organizations usually still face each IS as a separately technological issue with slight relations with business domain. This paper discusses the importance of the Information System Architecture (ISA) as the tool for ensuring a global view on IS and for explicitly assessing alignment between technology and business processes and strategies. In this paper, considering the numerous topics, technologies and buzzwords surrounding ISA domain, we identify the major ISA open issues, namely: ISA Modelling, ISA Methodology, ISA Evaluation, IS Architectural Styles and Patterns, and IS/Business Alignment. We also present our advances in addressing some of these issues, by proposing an approach for ISA evaluation and IS/Business Alignment measure. This approach is supported on an ISA modelling framework and provides several indicators and measures for ISA evaluation. This approach is applied to an IS health care project evaluation.
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Paper Nr: 671
Title:

OPEN ISSUES ON INFORMATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH DOMAIN: THE VISION
Authors:

André Vasconcelos, Carla Marques Pereira, Pedro Sousa and José Tribolet
Abstract: Currently organizations, pushed by several business and technological changes, are more concern about Information systems (IS) than ever. Though organizations usually still face each IS as a separately technological issue with slight relations with business domain. This paper discusses the importance of the Information System Architecture (ISA) as the tool for ensuring a global view on IS and for explicitly assessing alignment between technology and business processes and strategies. In this paper, considering the numerous topics, technologies and buzzwords surrounding ISA domain, we identify the major ISA open issues, namely: ISA Modelling, ISA Methodology, ISA Evaluation, IS Architectural Styles and Patterns, and IS/Business Alignment. We also present our advances in addressing some of these issues, by proposing an approach for ISA evaluation and IS/Business Alignment measure. This approach is supported on an ISA modelling framework and provides several indicators and measures for ISA evaluation. This approach is applied to an IS health care project evaluation.
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Paper Nr: 740
Title:

Impact of the Evolution of Business Rules on Inter-organizational Workflows
Authors:

Daniela Rosca and Joanna Li
Abstract: One important characteristic of e-commerce is the ability to rapidly react to changes imposed by trading partners or market environment. Therefore, in the context of B2B integration, interorganizational workflows need to allow for a quick implementation of change. In this paper we are looking at the dynamic modification of interorganizational workflows, due to the addition of business rules. Business rules express statements and constraints about the way an enterprise is doing business. They represent the most dynamic component of a workflow. We are especially interested in enacting the business rules change without interrupting the existing workflow instances. To achieve this goal we apply the P2P approach, which guarantees that if the modification is done based on projection inheritance transformation rules, the initial behaviour of the workflow is not disrupted. In this paper, we introduce a rule markup language, rXRL, based on XML and grounded in Petri-Nets theory. It is an extension of XRL that allows for the representation and enactment of business rules in workflows. We demonstrate the expressive power of rXRL with a small e-commerce application that involves the cooperation of multiple trading partners.
Paper Nr: 777
Title:

INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS USING ADAPTIVE REGRESSION SPLINES
Authors:

Srinivas Mukamala, Andrew Sung, Ajith Abraham and Vitorino Ramos
Abstract: Past few years have witnessed a growing recognition of intelligent techniques for the construction of efficient and reliable intrusion detection systems. Due to increasing incidents of cyber attacks, building effective intrusion detection systems (IDS) are essential for protecting information systems security, and yet it remains an elusive goal and a great challenge. In this paper, we report a performance analysis between Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), neural networks and support vector machines. The MARS procedure builds flexible regression models by fitting separate splines to distinct intervals of the predictor variables. A brief comparison of different neural network learning algorithms is also given.
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Paper Nr: 848
Title:

VIEWS, SUBJECTS, ROLES AND ASPECTS : A COMPARISON ALONG SOFTWARE LIFECYCLE
Authors:

Bouchra El Asri, Mahmoud Nassar, Abdelaziz Kriouile and Bernard Coulette
Abstract: To face the increasing complexity of software systems and to meet new needs in flexibility, adaptability and maintainability, classical object-oriented technology is not powerful enough. As pointed out by many authors, one must take into account the multiplicity of actors’ viewpoints in complex systems development. Views, subjects, roles and aspects are viewpoint-oriented concepts that permit a flexible adaptation of modelling and use of systems. This article aims to provide software developers with a comparison between view, subject, role and aspect approaches in respect to their principles and impacts on systems development as well as on systems use. After a brief presentation of these approaches, we discuss their similarities and differences by means of criteria positioning them along the software lifecycle.
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Paper Nr: 869
Title:

XML DATA CONSTRAINT AND XINCAML
Authors:

Jing M. Xu, Ying N. Zuo, Shunxiang Yang and Zhong Tian
Abstract: XML is becoming the de facto standard for data exchange. Because it brings structures and semantics to the contents, it is very important for applications to verify the validity of XML data before further processing. W3C XML Schema language can specify many of the constraints in XML data, but it lacks of the capability of expressing application specific inter-node constraints. Therefore XincaML (eXtensible inter-node constraint Markup Language) is invented as a complement to XML Schema language to specify this kind of application constraints. XincaML is a descriptive inter-node constraint specification language. XincaML Processor is a reference Java implementation of the XincaML language parser and constraints checker. Developers can easily integrate the processor into their applications to handle inter-node constraints besides validating XML data against XML Schema. XincaML and the processor provide a common mechanism for applications to describe and process inter-node constraints, thus significantly eliminate the need and labor to hard-code the constraint handling in applications and speeds up the application development.
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Paper Nr: 870
Title:

A USER-CENTERED METHODOLOGY TO GENERATE VISUAL MODELING ENVIRONMENTS
Authors:

Gennaro Costagliola, Vincenzo Deufemia, Filomena Ferrucci and Carmine Gravino
Abstract: CASE tools supporting many activities of the software development process embed visual modeling environments. Indeed, visual languages are practical means to allow engineers to define models and different views of software systems. However the effectiveness of visual modeling environments strongly depends from the process and tools used for their development. In this paper we present a user-centered methodology for the development of customized visual environments, and a tool to support it. The use of UML meta-modeling techniques and formal methods characterizes the proposed approach. Moreover, incremental development and rapid prototyping are ensured by the use of an automatic generation tool that allows designers to focus on structural features of the target language disregarding the visual environment creation.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 24
Title:

A COMPARITIVE STUDY OF ELGAMAL BASED CRYPTOGRAPHIC ALGORITHMS
Authors:

Ramzi Haraty, Hadi Otrok and A. N. El-Kassar
Abstract: In 1985 a powerful and practical public-key scheme was produced by ElGamal; his work was applied using large prime integers. El-Kassar et al. and El-Kassar and Haraty modified the ElGamal public-key encryption scheme from the domain of natural integers, Z, to two principal ideal domains, namely the domain of Gaussian integers, Z[ i ], and the domain of the rings of polynomials over finite fields, F[x], by extending the arithmetic needed for the modifications to these domains. In this work we implement the classical and modified ElGamal cryptosystem to compare and to test their functionality, reliability and security. To test the security of the algorithms we use a famous attack algorithm called Baby-Step-Giant algorithm which works in the domain of natural integers. We enhance the Baby-Step-Giant algorithm to work with the modified ElGamal cryptosystems.
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Paper Nr: 52
Title:

ANALYSIS AND CONFIGURATION METHODOLOGY FOR VIDEO ON DEMAND SERVICES BASED ON MONITORING INFORMATION AND PREDICTION
Authors:

Xabiel G. Pañeda, David Melendi, Roberto Garcia, Victor G. Garcia and Ángel Neira

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis and configuration methodology for video-on-demand services. Usually, two entities take part in this kind of services: a network operator and a content provider. The former provides an Internet connection and manages servers and proxies, whereas the latter generates the provided contents. All their possibilities of configuration must be based on an accurate service behavioural analysis which evaluates the quality and the quantity of resources, contents and subscribers. This analysis can be performed using monitoring information and predictions of a near future behaviour established by managers. To formalize both analysis and configuration, a methodology must be developed in order to help the service managers to attain a good performance and at the same time, make a profit for their companies.
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Paper Nr: 75
Title:

DESCRIBING SOFTWARE-INTENSIVE PROCESS ARCHITECTURES USING A UML-BASED ADL
Authors:

Ilham Alloui and Flavio Oquendo
Abstract: Many Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) have been proposed in the software architecture community, with several competing notations, each of them bringing its own body of specification languages and analysis techniques. The aim of all is to reduce the costs of error detection and repair while providing adequate abstractions for modelling large software-intensive systems and establishing properties of interest. However, there now exists a large consensus to standardise on notations and methods for software analysis and design as standardisation provides an economy of scale that results in various and better tools, better interoperability between tools, more available developers skilled in using the standard notation, and lower training costs. Therefore software-intensive process architectures can be relevantly described using a standard-compliant design notation. Among such notations, the UML modelling language that on one side makes use of visual notations and on the other side, is an emerging standard software design language and a starting point for bringing architectural modelling into industrial use. This paper presents an architecture-centred UML-based notation to describe software process architectures. The architectural concepts have already been formally defined in an Architecture Description textual Language. The notation is illustrated by a business-to-business process application. The main contribution of this work is to show that UML with its large and extensible set of predefined constructs imposes itself as a relevant candidate to be extended with the necessary architectural concepts and customisation to model software-intensive processes. The work presented is being developed and validated within the framework of the ArchWare1 IST 5 ongoing European project.
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Paper Nr: 75
Title:

DESCRIBING SOFTWARE-INTENSIVE PROCESS ARCHITECTURES USING A UML-BASED ADL
Authors:

Ilham Alloui and Flavio Oquendo
Abstract: Many Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) have been proposed in the software architecture community, with several competing notations, each of them bringing its own body of specification languages and analysis techniques. The aim of all is to reduce the costs of error detection and repair while providing adequate abstractions for modelling large software-intensive systems and establishing properties of interest. However, there now exists a large consensus to standardise on notations and methods for software analysis and design as standardisation provides an economy of scale that results in various and better tools, better interoperability between tools, more available developers skilled in using the standard notation, and lower training costs. Therefore software-intensive process architectures can be relevantly described using a standard-compliant design notation. Among such notations, the UML modelling language that on one side makes use of visual notations and on the other side, is an emerging standard software design language and a starting point for bringing architectural modelling into industrial use. This paper presents an architecture-centred UML-based notation to describe software process architectures. The architectural concepts have already been formally defined in an Architecture Description textual Language. The notation is illustrated by a business-to-business process application. The main contribution of this work is to show that UML with its large and extensible set of predefined constructs imposes itself as a relevant candidate to be extended with the necessary architectural concepts and customisation to model software-intensive processes. The work presented is being developed and validated within the framework of the ArchWare1 IST 5 ongoing European project.
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Paper Nr: 76
Title:

U_VBOOM : UNIFIED ANALYSIS AND DESIGN PROCESS BASED ON THE VIEWPOINT CONCEPT
Authors:

Hair Abdellatif
Abstract: The introduction of viewpoint in object-oriented design provides several improvements in modeling complex systems. In fact, it enables the users to build a unique model accessible by different users with various points of view, instead of building several sub-models whose management is too hard to complete. Those concepts of view and viewpoint were implemented by VBOOL, the language which propose a new relationship "the visibility". VBOOM, the analyze/design method, integrates those concepts in an object-oriented modeling. The aims of this work are, firstly to propose a new representation of the visibility relationship of VBOOL in UML standard language for modeling and specifying object-oriented systems. Secondly, to complete UML by an oriented viewpoint method to get a complete software engineering process. The definition of this method is based on VBOOM method. This method is called U_VBOOM, which represents an adaptation of VBOOM in UML. The new representation of the visibility relationship encourages the multi-targets code generation and improve the process of development proposed by the VBOOM method.
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Paper Nr: 116
Title:

METRICS FOR DYNAMICS: HOW TO IMPROVE THE BEHAVIOUR OF AN OBJECT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Authors:

Jean-louis Cavarero and Maria Jose Escalona
Abstract: If we ask about which is the main difference between modelling a system using a traditional model like the entity relationship model or an object oriented model, from our point of view the answer is that, in the first one, the processes are not located somewhere, and, in the second one, the processes (operations or methods) are encapsulated in classes. The choice of the right classes to home every operation is essential for the behaviour of the system. It is totally useless to design a well built system, according to a lot of statics metrics, if the system does not run well after. In other words, dynamic metrics allowing to evaluate the behaviour of a system when it runs are much more useful than any static metrics used to tell if the system is correctly built or not. According to this, we propose in this paper, a new approach to evaluate a priori the behaviour of a system, by taking into account the notion of event cost and the notion of time (which is obviously essential). The final goal of this approach is to deliver information on the way operations have to be placed in classes in order to get better performances when the system is running. However, the proposal of metrics is of no value if their practical use is not demonstrated, either by means of case studies taken from real projects or by controlled experiments. For this reason, an optimisation tool is being under construction in order to provide solutions to this problem.
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Paper Nr: 116
Title:

METRICS FOR DYNAMICS: HOW TO IMPROVE THE BEHAVIOUR OF AN OBJECT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Authors:

Jean-louis Cavarero and Maria Jose Escalona
Abstract: If we ask about which is the main difference between modelling a system using a traditional model like the entity relationship model or an object oriented model, from our point of view the answer is that, in the first one, the processes are not located somewhere, and, in the second one, the processes (operations or methods) are encapsulated in classes. The choice of the right classes to home every operation is essential for the behaviour of the system. It is totally useless to design a well built system, according to a lot of statics metrics, if the system does not run well after. In other words, dynamic metrics allowing to evaluate the behaviour of a system when it runs are much more useful than any static metrics used to tell if the system is correctly built or not. According to this, we propose in this paper, a new approach to evaluate a priori the behaviour of a system, by taking into account the notion of event cost and the notion of time (which is obviously essential). The final goal of this approach is to deliver information on the way operations have to be placed in classes in order to get better performances when the system is running. However, the proposal of metrics is of no value if their practical use is not demonstrated, either by means of case studies taken from real projects or by controlled experiments. For this reason, an optimisation tool is being under construction in order to provide solutions to this problem.
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Paper Nr: 116
Title:

METRICS FOR DYNAMICS: HOW TO IMPROVE THE BEHAVIOUR OF AN OBJECT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Authors:

Jean-louis Cavarero and Maria Jose Escalona
Abstract: If we ask about which is the main difference between modelling a system using a traditional model like the entity relationship model or an object oriented model, from our point of view the answer is that, in the first one, the processes are not located somewhere, and, in the second one, the processes (operations or methods) are encapsulated in classes. The choice of the right classes to home every operation is essential for the behaviour of the system. It is totally useless to design a well built system, according to a lot of statics metrics, if the system does not run well after. In other words, dynamic metrics allowing to evaluate the behaviour of a system when it runs are much more useful than any static metrics used to tell if the system is correctly built or not. According to this, we propose in this paper, a new approach to evaluate a priori the behaviour of a system, by taking into account the notion of event cost and the notion of time (which is obviously essential). The final goal of this approach is to deliver information on the way operations have to be placed in classes in order to get better performances when the system is running. However, the proposal of metrics is of no value if their practical use is not demonstrated, either by means of case studies taken from real projects or by controlled experiments. For this reason, an optimisation tool is being under construction in order to provide solutions to this problem.
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Paper Nr: 127
Title:

ALIGNING BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING AND SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION IN A COMPONENT-BASED WAY - The advantages of SDBC
Authors:

Boris Shishkov and Jan G. Dietz
Abstract: This paper introduces the SDBC approach. It aligns business process modeling and software specification. They are aligned in a component-based way. In particular, business components are identified and reflected in the software specification. The business components are identified considering the rich semantic and language/communicative expressiveness of current business systems. This is claimed to have a definite value in building a complete and realistic business model. The component-based alignment on the other hand is claimed to have sound theoretical background and promising practical perspective.
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Paper Nr: 180
Title:

ONTOLOGY MODELING TOOL USING CONCEPT DICTIONARY AND INFERENCE
Authors:

Yoichi Hiramatsu
Abstract: The usefulness of ontology is strongly dependent on a knowledge representation policy and its maintenance. The subject of knowledge representation and modeling tools has been one of the most exciting themes among ontology scientists. Some ontology editing tools originated and developed in the field of expert systems, and others were designed originally by ontology research groups. Key features of the newly implemented tool are: (a) reference to a concept dictionary (EDR, WordNet) to ascertain word semantics, and (b) use of an inference algorithm (MOP) provided by Schank et al. Satisfactory results were obtained in the application of ontology modeled by the present tool. We will discuss how our tool was constructed and describe applications using the tool to achieve solutions for enterprise integration. This work was developed as a part of the project entitled “Operation-support system for large-scale system using information technology” (Koide et al., 2003) for the Japanese Government IT Program, period 2002-2005.
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Paper Nr: 200
Title:

FORMAL SPECIFICATION AND VERIFICATION OF XML-BASED BUSINESS DOMAIN MODELS
Authors:

Wolfgang Schuetzelhofer and Karl M. Goeschka
Abstract: The rapidly growing use of XML in the development of business to business (B2B) applications requires new approaches in building enterprise application infrastructures. In this field the modeling of business domain semantics, thus focusing on the user’s perception of data, in contrast to physical data representation, is gathering more and more importance. It is increasingly important to provide a sound mathematical foundation on modeling business domains, together with a well defined way to map business domain semantics to XML-structures. In our recent work we propose a semantic meta model, built on set- and algebra-theory, considered to serve for the formal definition of operations and transformations and to prove the correctness and completeness of design methods. Based on the mathematical model we propose an XML language to construct domain models and to formally express business domain semantics. The language not only allows to express structural schemas and static constraints but also provides to formulate dynamic business rules, which is considered critical for the quality of a business domain model and which is therefore centrally focused in our work. In addition we provide an XML syntax to encode domain instances and we apply standardized XML technologies to formally verify the validity of domain instances with respect to their specifying domain models. With our paper we contribute to the field of formal software engineering by proposing a business domain modeling language based on XML and founded on a sound mathematical model. The expression of dynamic business rules and the application of XML technologies to formally verify validity of domain instances and of entire domain models are the strength of our approach.
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Paper Nr: 281
Title:

OO SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT BARRIERS FOR STRUCTURAL DEVELOPERS - Making the most of your systems engineering methodology
Authors:

Elsabe Cloete and Aurona Gerber
Abstract: Paradigm contamination occurs where methods from different system development (SD) paradigms are integrated or combined. We investigate the OO and structural SD approaches and concern ourselves with the question of how paradigm contamination can be avoided, especially when developers were initially exposed to structural programming techniques and are now expected to apply an OO approach. By comparing the techniques associated with specific SD approaches, an outline is given of the particular differences and commonalities that regularly cause paradigm contamination. Guidelines for avoiding contamination traps are then provided. This is significant for practitioners enabling them to be aware of the possible contamination pitfalls as well as how to avoid them, and as a result to reap the intended benefits of the chosen SD method.
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Paper Nr: 320
Title:

DIFFICULT ISSUES IN DESIGNING ADAPTIVE OBJECT MODEL SYSTEMS
Authors:

Yun Mai, Jinmiao Li and Gregory Butler
Abstract: The adaptive object model enables a system to change its behavior at run-time without re-programming. It provides an extremely extensible architecture solution for large software systems. As a particular kind of reflective architecture, the core of the adaptive object model encapsulates changeable system properties and behaviors as meta-information. Changing the meta-information reflects changes in the domain. However, this approach leads to a more complex design compared to a traditional object-oriented design and thus its implementation is difficult for developers. This paper provides a general design model that compiles techniques proposed by existing adaptive systems and models. The core of the design model is based on a layered architecture. The paper starts from a high level view of the architecture. It then zooms in different components. Major issues in designing various components are fully discussed. General design solutions are elicited as a result of the discussions.
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Paper Nr: 332
Title:

A PROTOTYPE TOOL FOR USE CASE REFACTORING
Authors:

Shengbing Ren, Gregory Butler, Kexing Rui, Jian Xu, Wei Yu and Renhang Luo
Abstract: Use cases are widely used in software engineering. It is important to improve the understandability and maintainability of use case models. We propose the approach of refactoring use case models. This paper describes a prototype tool for the refactoring process. We introduce the use case metamodel and its XML document type definition (DTD) used in the tool. Based on the Drawlets framework, we implement the functionality for drawing and viewing use case models. We propose the refactoring framework and implement some use case refactorings. Our experience shows that the tool greatly facilitates the process to reorganize use case models.
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Paper Nr: 345
Title:

A HOLISTIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY FOR ORGANISATIONAL MANAGEMENT (HISSOM), APPLIED TO EUROPE’S LARGEST BANCASSURER
Authors:

David Lanc and Lachlan Mackinnon
Abstract: Co-ordination and alignment of Information Systems Strategy, ISS, with organisational strategy has become key to competitive success, as the ramifications of the Internet has shifted control from information providers to information users. Yet, despite over 40 years of research, there remains no established, practical SISP method for strategic alignment, due primarily to a failure to achieve alignment of the interests of the perspective groups that influence organisational direction. HISSOM is a practical, holistic model that co-ordinates the needs of key organisational influence groups, and aligns the organisation’s ISS with its agreed needs. HISSOM is applied to the first electronic commerce enabled strategy of Europe's largest bancassurer. The impact of the organisation's strategy on its IS capability, and the emergence of IS-led initiatives, are highlighted. The five HISSOM perspectives, of external stakeholders, executive management, business management, IS management responsible for IS strategy, and the wider IS function, and their roles HISSOM, are also described. The applicability of HISSOM, and its relative success is described.
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Paper Nr: 413
Title:

EXPERIENCING AUML IN THE GAIA METHODOLOGY
Authors:

Luca Cernuzzi and Franco Zambonelli
Abstract: In the last few years a great number of AOSE methodologies have been proposed, some of which centered on organizational aspects to better capture the behavior of agents societies. Those methodologies may be considered very useful for modeling open systems composed of a great number of interacting autonomous agents. Gaia exploits organizational abstractions to provide clear guidelines for the analysis and design of complex and open Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). However, the notation of the Gaia methodology is probably less powerful (and perhaps less acceptable for industry solutions) than others (like AUML). In this perspective, this aims at performing a preliminary exploration towards the potential application of the AUML notation into the Gaia methodology: it explores the above issues using an application example and pays specific attention to the problem of modeling the complexity of open MAS and emergent behaviors.
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Paper Nr: 414
Title:

A MANUFACTURING INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Authors:

Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson and Delvin Grant
Abstract: The 21st century marketplace poses many challenges for modern manufacturing organizations thus requiring them to display increased levels of agility supported by an effective information systems infrastructure. The objective of this paper is to propose an Information Systems Architecture that meets the challenges of modern manufacturing organizations. For the manufacturing information systems architecture (MISA) to successfully meet these challenges it must satisfy five objectives: 1. Support the Value Chain Activities; 2. Support the interactions among the five Interacting Organizational Variables (i.e. Task, Communication, Technology, People, Structure); 3. Effectively deal with Industry Factors and Forces; 4. Integrate the organization internally and with its environment; and 5. Address other Enterprise Engineering issues. We present a MISA that satisfies these five objectives.
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Paper Nr: 414
Title:

A MANUFACTURING INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Authors:

Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson and Delvin Grant
Abstract: The 21st century marketplace poses many challenges for modern manufacturing organizations thus requiring them to display increased levels of agility supported by an effective information systems infrastructure. The objective of this paper is to propose an Information Systems Architecture that meets the challenges of modern manufacturing organizations. For the manufacturing information systems architecture (MISA) to successfully meet these challenges it must satisfy five objectives: 1. Support the Value Chain Activities; 2. Support the interactions among the five Interacting Organizational Variables (i.e. Task, Communication, Technology, People, Structure); 3. Effectively deal with Industry Factors and Forces; 4. Integrate the organization internally and with its environment; and 5. Address other Enterprise Engineering issues. We present a MISA that satisfies these five objectives.
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Paper Nr: 431
Title:

COMMUNICATION AND ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE IN EXTENDED ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION
Authors:

Frank Goethals, Jacques Vandenbulcke, Wilfried Lemahieu, Monique Snoeck, Manu De Backer and Raf Haesen
Abstract: Business-to-Business integration (B2Bi) is considered to be not merely an IT-issue, but also a business problem. This paper draws attention to the two communication gaps companies within an Extended Enterprise are confronted with when integrating their systems. To overcome these communication problems we propose the use of Enterprise Architecture descriptions. Therefore we give a bird’s-eye view of what Enterprise Architecture descriptions could look like in the context of the Extended Enterprise, as well as the compelling advantages that can be gained from using such descriptions in integration exercises. This paper is no how-to guide for Extended Enterprise Architecture but is meant to show the importance of Enterprise Architecture descriptions in this realm, something that is heartrendingly neglected.
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Paper Nr: 448
Title:

EVALUATION OF RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS THROUGH SIMULATED USERS
Authors:

Miquel Montaner, Beatriz Lopez and Josep Lluís De La Rosa
Abstract: Recommender systems have proved really useful in order to handle with the information overload on the Internet. However, it is very difficult to evaluate such a personalised systems since this involves purely subjective assessments. Actually, only very few recommender systems developed over the Internet evaluate and discuss their results scientifically. The contribution of this paper is a methodology for evaluating recommender systems: the ”profile discovering procedure”. Based on a list of item evaluations previously provided by a real user, this methodology simulates the recommendation process of a recommender system over time. Besides, an extension of this methodology has been designed in order to simulate the collaboration among users. At the end of the simulations, the desired evaluation measures (precision and recall among others) are presented. This methodology and its extensions have been successfully used in the evaluation of different parameters and algorithms of a restaurant recommender system.
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Paper Nr: 455
Title:

INTEGRATING PROCESS- AND OBJECT-APPROACHES - An ontological imperative
Authors:

Shivraj Kanungo
Abstract: There is an emerging belief about the virtually unanimous agreement that the object-oriented paradigm is superior to the classical (structured) paradigm. We do not accept such unqualified judgments. In this paper, we address the differences from the ontological perspective. We adopt a discursive approach to analysing and discussing the differences, similarities and resolution approaches. We accept the position that object-oriented programming is here to stay and is one of the legitimate silver bullets. Once we contrast the two approaches, we explain how the consumer of the approach perceives its utility. By employing this approach, we highlight the end-user and developer perspectives. We conclude the paper by restoring some perspective on the uncontested superiority of the object paradigm over the classical paradigm. Lastly, we highlight research and pedagogical issues regarding contemporary treatment of structured and object-oriented approaches.
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Paper Nr: 484
Title:

META DATA FRAMEWORK FOR ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS SPECIFICATION - Aiming to reduce or remove the development phase for EIS systems
Authors:

Jon Davis, Andrew Tierney and Elizabeth Chang
Abstract: This paper proposes a process for implementing a meta-data approach to defining a platform independent operational computer system application. It identifies Enterprise Information System (EIS) type systems as ideal candidates for implementation using this meta-data, based on the simplification opportunities available due to the typically visual and transactional component bias of EIS systems. It describes architecture for the development of a suitable meta-data based application generator system. This development could lead to the generation of new accelerated EIS development methodologies in business modeling, analysis, design, system deployment and global information exchange.
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Paper Nr: 491
Title:

THE DELEGATION PROBLEM AND PRACTICAL PKI-BASED SOLUTIONS
Authors:

Venus L. Cheung, Lucas C.k. Hui and S.m. Yiu
Abstract: Delegation is a process where a delegator grants or authorizes all or some of his/her power to another a delegate to work on his/her behalf. In an office, it is common for officers to delegate their power to subordinates. In a digital environment (e.g. a secure enterprise information system with confidential electronic documents), how delegation can be handled properly is still an open question. In this paper, we address the delegation problem in the context of a secure information system, lay down a set of requirements from the users’ point of view and propose several practical PKI-based schemes to solve the problem. Analysis on the proposed schemes concludes that Proxy Memo can solve the problem quite efficiently while reducing the key management problem.
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Paper Nr: 504
Title:

MATCHING ERP FUNCTIONALITIES WITH THE LOGISTIC REQUIREMENTS OF FRENCH RAILWAYS - A Similarity Approach
Authors:

Iyad Zoukar and Camille Salinesi
Abstract: Ensuring the adequacy of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations to business requirements is still an issue that needs to be addressed. One important cause of inadequacy results from the lack of attention paid to the precise and systematic analysis of how well ERP functionalities match the business requirements. One well known reason for this is that the language used to define ERPs is different from the one used to define business requirements, and there is no technique available so far to evaluate systematically similarities between ERP functionality models and business requirements models. Our approach to this issue is (i) to materialise with a unified goal/strategy modelling language both the ERP functionalities and the business requirements, and (ii) to systematically specify using a similarity model how a given ERP functionality model and a business requirement model should match together. This paper outlines this matching method and explains how the similarity model was developed in a systematic way.
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Paper Nr: 579
Title:

FROM ONTOLOGY CHARTS TO CLASS DIAGRAMS - semantic analysis aiding systems design
Authors:

Rodrigo Bonacin, M. Cecilia C. Baranauskas and Kecheng Liu
Abstract: Despite the wide adoption of the Object Oriented paradigm for software development and the usefulness of the Unified Modelling Language, there still are aspects of business modelling not well captured and represented. Previous literature in Organisational Semiotics has shown that its methods could facilitate a converging process for reaching a semantic representation, which delivers an agreed business model. In this paper we define a process for informing UML class diagrams with results of Semantic Analysis. We provide a group of heuristic rules to aid the construction of a preliminary class diagram from an ontology chart.
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Paper Nr: 587
Title:

PROCESS MODELLING – BURDEN OR RELIEF? - Living Process Modelling within a Public Organisation
Authors:

Silke Palkovits, Thomas Roessler and Maria Wimmer
Abstract: Process modelling and process reorganisation are key criteria in regards to successful implementation of e-government. Yet up to recently, e-government had a rather technical dimension. Nowadays, it is being recognised that e-government is multi-faceted and that it requires a holistic approach. However, the questions of ‘how can the concept of Business Process Modelling (BPM) be applied successfully’ and ‘what is the added-value of managing an authority’s processes’ often cannot be answered immediately and directly due to the complexity of this topic. So, many public authorities shy at thinking in a comprehensive way and, instead, continue to focus on single issues because these are simpler to understand and easier to manage. The aims of this paper are to create awareness about the added-value of integrated business process modelling, to introduce a holistic concept for the analysis, re-organisation and modelling of government’s processes and to propose a tailor-made methodology for describing the processes. The authors will go deeply into the topic of process management with specific requirements of public authorities including legal as well as security aspects. Reading through this contribution, the reader should easily recognise the added value of BPM for public administrations and that the management of processes within public administration is a relief and not a burden.
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Paper Nr: 587
Title:

PROCESS MODELLING – BURDEN OR RELIEF? - Living Process Modelling within a Public Organisation
Authors:

Silke Palkovits, Thomas Roessler and Maria Wimmer
Abstract: Process modelling and process reorganisation are key criteria in regards to successful implementation of e-government. Yet up to recently, e-government had a rather technical dimension. Nowadays, it is being recognised that e-government is multi-faceted and that it requires a holistic approach. However, the questions of ‘how can the concept of Business Process Modelling (BPM) be applied successfully’ and ‘what is the added-value of managing an authority’s processes’ often cannot be answered immediately and directly due to the complexity of this topic. So, many public authorities shy at thinking in a comprehensive way and, instead, continue to focus on single issues because these are simpler to understand and easier to manage. The aims of this paper are to create awareness about the added-value of integrated business process modelling, to introduce a holistic concept for the analysis, re-organisation and modelling of government’s processes and to propose a tailor-made methodology for describing the processes. The authors will go deeply into the topic of process management with specific requirements of public authorities including legal as well as security aspects. Reading through this contribution, the reader should easily recognise the added value of BPM for public administrations and that the management of processes within public administration is a relief and not a burden.
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Paper Nr: 608
Title:

EXPLICIT CONCEPTUALIZATIONS FOR KNOWLEDGE MAPPING
Authors:

Willem-olaf Huijsen, Samuel Driessen and Jan Jacobs
Abstract: Knowledge mapping supports members of an organization in finding knowledge available within the organization, and in developing insights into corporate expertise. An essential prerequisite is an explicit conceptualization of the subject domain to enable the classification of knowledge resources. Many tools exist to create explicit conceptualizations. This paper establishes a set of requirements for conceptualization tools from the perspective of knowledge mapping. Next, a number of tools are reviewed – thesauri, ontologies, and semantic networks – using the following criteria: the complexity, the effort required, and the degree to which it is possible to integrate it into the overall knowledge mapping system.
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Paper Nr: 609
Title:

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT BY WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS - Preliminary results from an empirical study
Authors:

Hajo Reijers
Abstract: Workflow Management (WfM) systems have acquired a respectable place in the market of enterprise information systems. Although it is clear that implementation of a WfM system may shorten process execution and increase efficiency, little is known about the extent of these effects on business process performance. In this paper, we report on a running longitudinal multi-case study into the quantitative effects of WfM systems on logistic parameters such as lead time and service time. We conclude that in most cases significant decreases of lead time and service time will take place for the cases under consideration. In the presentation of our research outline, we show how we use process simulation for the validation of our measurements, the prediction of performance improvement, and the comparison of the pre- and post-implementation situation. As a side effect of this study, we present some interesting characteristics of actual business processes and the way WfM systems are implemented in practice.
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Paper Nr: 645
Title:

CAPTURING REQUIREMENTS VARIABILITY INTO COMPONENTS - A goal driven approach
Authors:

Sondes Bennasri and Carine Souveyet
Abstract: Abstract :Software Customisation also known as Software Variability is a central concept in the development of different kinds of software such as product families or software for disabled people. The solutions proposed in the literature to deal with the variability address design and implementation aspects like the mechanisms that can be used to implement the variability in a software architecture. The representation of the variability at a requirements level is neglected. Our contribution in this paper is to propose a goal driven approach that captures the variability at requirements level and maps it into a component-based solution centred on the concept of Customisable Component. An identification process is provided to assist the designer during the identification and the conceptualisation of the customisable components. The approach is illustrated with the Crews L’Ecritoire software.
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Paper Nr: 647
Title:

COMPONENT-BASED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT (CBDE)
Authors:

Raphael S. Neto, Daniel Lucredio, Adriano A. Bossonaro, Joao D. Cunha, Antonio Francisco Do Prado, Iolanda Claudia Sanches Catarino and Alexandre Marcilio de Souza
Abstract: This paper presents an Component-Based Software Development Environment - CBDE that supports the construction and reuse of software components according to Catalysis. Its integrates a CASE tool, named to MVCase, and a RAD tool, named to C-CORE, to support the whole process of Component-Based Software Development (CBD). The CBD process, follows the spiral model of software development, including activities that start from communication with the customers to identify the requirements for construction and reuse of components, until the delivery and customers component assessment. This paper focuses on details related to the two phases of the CBD Construction process. The MVCase and C-CORE help the software engineer automating great part of the components construction and reuse tasks.
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Paper Nr: 689
Title:

COMPETENCE MODELING AND MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY
Authors:

Mounira Harzallah and Giuseppe Berio
Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach to the enterprise competence management and a case study. This approach is based on a model called CRAI (Competency-Resource-Aspect-Individual) which allows representing enterprise personnel's competencies. On the other hand, the paper provides a generic competency management process in which the CRAI model plays the central role. The proposed case study is part of a real project developed with the partnership of a French enterprise in the manufacturing domain.
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Paper Nr: 689
Title:

COMPETENCE MODELING AND MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY
Authors:

Mounira Harzallah and Giuseppe Berio
Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach to the enterprise competence management and a case study. This approach is based on a model called CRAI (Competency-Resource-Aspect-Individual) which allows representing enterprise personnel's competencies. On the other hand, the paper provides a generic competency management process in which the CRAI model plays the central role. The proposed case study is part of a real project developed with the partnership of a French enterprise in the manufacturing domain.
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Paper Nr: 731
Title:

MIXIN BASED BEHAVIOUR MODELLING - An example based on composed state machines
Authors:

Ashley Mcneile and Nicholas Simons
Abstract: State Machines are the basic mechanism used to specify the behaviour of objects in UML based object models and admit the possibility of direct animation or execution of a model. Tools that exploit this potential offer the promise of both supporting early validation of a model under development and allowing generation of final code directly from the model. Recently, we have made some new proposals on how state machines are used to model behaviour: firstly, that complex object behaviour can be best modelled by the parallel composition of multiple state machines; and secondly, that a formal distinction can be made between purely event driven machines and those whose states are derived from other information in the model. We illustrate the advantages of this approach with a small example that shows how it can help reduce redundancy and promote simplicity.
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Paper Nr: 738
Title:

A CASE STUDY OF COMBINING i* FRAMEWORK AND THE Z NOTATION
Authors:

Aneesh Krishna, Sergiy Vilkomir and Aditya Ghose
Abstract: Agent-oriented conceptual modeling (AoCM) frameworks are gaining wider popularity in software engineering. In this paper, we are using AoCM framework i* and the Z notation together for requirements engineering (RE). Most formal techniques like Z are suitable for and designed to work in the later phases of RE and early design stages of system development. We argue that early requirements analysis is a very crucial phase of software development. Understanding the organisational environment, reasoning and rationale underlying requirements along with the goals and social dependencies of its stakeholders are important to model and build effective computing systems. The i* framework is one such language which addresses early stage RE issues cited above extremely well. It supports the modeling of social dependencies between agents with respect to tasks and goals both functional and non-functional. We have developed a methodology involving the combined use of i* and the Z notation for agent-oriented RE. In our approach we suggest to perform one-to-one mapping between i* framework and Z. At the first instance general i* model has been mapped into Z schemas, and then i* diagrams of the Emergency Flood Rescue Management Case Study are mapped into Z. Some steps explaining further information refinement with examples are also provided. Using Z specification schemas, we are in a position to express properties that are not restricted to the current state of the system, but also to its past and future history. The case study described in this paper is taken from one of the most important responsibilities of the emergency services agency, managing flood rescue and evacuation operations. By using this case study, we have tested the effectiveness of our methodology to a real-life application.
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Paper Nr: 748
Title:

AGENT-ORIENTED DESIGN PATTERNS
Authors:

T. T. Do, Manuel Kolp, Stéphane Faulkner and Alain Pirotte
Abstract: Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) architectures are gaining popularity over traditional ones for building open, distributed, and evolving software required by today’s corporate IT applications such as eBusiness systems, web services or enterprise knowledge bases. Since the fundamental concepts of multi-agent systems are social and intentional rather than object, functional, or implementation-oriented, the design of MAS architectures can be eased by using social patterns. They are detailed agent-oriented design idioms to describe MAS architectures as composed of autonomous agents that interact and coordinate to achieve their intentions, like actors in human organizations. This paper presents social patterns and focuses on a framework aimed to gain insight into these patterns. The framework can be integrated into agent-oriented software engineering methodologies used to build MAS. We consider the Broker social pattern as a combination of patterns and use it to illustrate the framework. The automatation of patterns design is also overviewed.
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Paper Nr: 763
Title:

UML MODEL VERIFICATION THROUGH DEPENDENCY RELATIONSHIPS
Authors:

Mouez Ali, Hanêne Ben-abdallah and Faiez Gargouri
Abstract: The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has merged as a de-facto standard for modeling especially information systems. However, in spite of its wide spread usage, UML still lacks support for verification methods and tools. Several researches proposed verification methods for certain UML diagrams, however, none of the proposed methods covers all of the UML diagrams, which are semantically overlapping in any system model. In this paper, we propose a modular verification method for UML models. The proposed method uses the implicit (semantic) and explicit (syntactic) relations among all the diagrams of a UML model. The implicit inter-diagram relations are deduced from the UP design process. In this paper, we overview the proposed method and illustrate its feasibility through an information system example.
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Paper Nr: 766
Title:

E-SYSTEMS DESIGN THROUGH THE STUDY OF AUTHENTIC WORK PRACTICE - social activity theory and the case of University - Industry collaboration
Authors:

John Perkins and Sharon Cox
Abstract: E-commerce systems involve collaborative systems that support and enable trading partners to work together as members of communities of practice. Eliciting the information requirements necessary to design, develop and run these systems requires understanding of what practitioners do in practice, as well as what policy directives impose as practice. A practice-centric approach is proposed for identification of elements of practice, a brief summary is made of some tools and concepts from Social Activity Theory and their relevance for further analysis of collaborative system information requirements is assessed.
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Paper Nr: 773
Title:

BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING WITH OBJECTS AND ROLES
Authors:

Artur Caetano, António R. Silva and José Tribolet
Abstract: Role-based business process modeling deals with partitioning the universe of process modeling into different areas of concern by describing how business objects collaborate. A business object represents a concept of interest in the organization, such an activity or an entity, which can play multiple roles according to its behavior while interacting with other business objects. A specific business object collaboration can be expressed by the roles played by every participant in that scenario. This approach allows creating semantically richer business process models, and designing business objects where behavior is clearly separated and dependent on its usage context. Both of these results contribute to increase the understandability of process models and to enhance business object reuse.
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Paper Nr: 865
Title:

TOWARDS MEETING INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Meeting Knowledge Management
Authors:

Vincenzo Vincenzo Pallotta, Hatem Ghorbel, Afzal Ballim, Agnes Lisowska and Stephane Marchand-Maillet
Abstract: Interaction through meetings is among the richest human communication activities. Recently, the problem of building information repositories out of recordings of real meetings has gained interest. We report here a summary of the first two years of research carried out within the Swiss funded research project (IM)2, together with some lessons learned and future perspectives.
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Paper Nr: 867
Title:

ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING - foundational roots for design for complexity
Authors:

Angela L. Nobre
Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the field of organisational learning and claims that its foundational roots still have to be further developed and explored. This critique points to the potential of sociothecnical systems, complex systems theory and appreciative inquiry as building blocks from which an effective organisational learning design can emerge. The current challenges faced by organisations are related to the complexity of the knowledge economy. These challenges need to be answered by an organisational development strategy that incorporates competitive issues, corporate governance and sustainability concerns.
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Paper Nr: 868
Title:

HUMAN-CENTERED SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND USE INCONSISTENCIES
Authors:

Claudine Toffolon and Salem Dakhli
Abstract: The framework we describe in this paper is composed of two parts. The first part provides a typology of deviations and inconsistencies which occur during human-centered systems development and use. This typology, based on four facets and three levels of abstraction (conceptual, detailed, technical), permits identifying other types of deviations and inconsistencies not considered in the literature. It may be useful to define methods and tools to manage and reduce deviations and inconsistencies in compliance with the organization’s constraints, priorities and technical maturity. The second part consists in a coordination framework which permits reduction of deviations and inconsistencies inherent in human-centered systems.
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Paper Nr: 871
Title:

DETERMINING REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATIONS OF ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR PROFITABILITY
Authors:

K. D. Tham and Mark S. Fox
Abstract: A company’s profits may be defined as the positive difference between its income revenues and operational costs. Today, most companies use traditional costing methods and/or traditional Activity-Based Costing (ABC) to determine their operational costs with a view to direct operational and business process changes so that profits are realized. A tripartite approach is presented towards determining requirements and specifications of enterprise information systems for profitability (EISP). In the first part, an understanding of the nuances of traditional costing and ABC as is currently practiced in enterprises is presented to point the shortcomings of these current costing practices. The second part provides a case study that vividly demonstrates the problems in the current costing methods and clearly points their inadequacies towards profitability. The third part presents a framework for the specifications of enterprise information systems for profitability through ontology-based enterprise modeling, EABEM and Temporal-ABC for the attainment of improved knowledge about costs.
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Paper Nr: 873
Title:

REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING FOR ORGANISATIONAL MODELLING
Authors:

Simon Tan and Kecheng Liu
Abstract: This paper explores a semiotic perspective to information systems engineering, using organisational modelling techniques rooted in organisational semiotics. The components and relationships of large corporations are highly complex, volatile and unstructured. Semiotic modelling techniques are therefore introduced to address these challenges posed by large enterprises. MEASUR, a suite of methods based on organisational semiotics, are used to address the IT and organisational requirements, needed to encapsulate behavioural patterns and to formalise the convoluted relationships. A case study illustrating the applicability of MEASUR is presented, to evaluate a crime reporting system from the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) in UK, and to examine its application and significance in the modelling of organisations. We focus on two key fundamental issues. Firstly we investigate the agent behaviour within the organisation. Secondly, we analyse the semantics of the relationships between these patterns of behaviour in building a normative model of a large organisation.
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Paper Nr: 873
Title:

REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING FOR ORGANISATIONAL MODELLING
Authors:

Simon Tan and Kecheng Liu
Abstract: This paper explores a semiotic perspective to information systems engineering, using organisational modelling techniques rooted in organisational semiotics. The components and relationships of large corporations are highly complex, volatile and unstructured. Semiotic modelling techniques are therefore introduced to address these challenges posed by large enterprises. MEASUR, a suite of methods based on organisational semiotics, are used to address the IT and organisational requirements, needed to encapsulate behavioural patterns and to formalise the convoluted relationships. A case study illustrating the applicability of MEASUR is presented, to evaluate a crime reporting system from the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) in UK, and to examine its application and significance in the modelling of organisations. We focus on two key fundamental issues. Firstly we investigate the agent behaviour within the organisation. Secondly, we analyse the semantics of the relationships between these patterns of behaviour in building a normative model of a large organisation.
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Paper Nr: 880
Title:

A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSMENT OF ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION APPROACHES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Authors:

Ronald Giachetti, Alba Nydia Nunez, Bertha M. Arteta and Dwayne Truex
Abstract: Enterprise integration is the study of an organization, its business processes, and resources, understanding how they are related to each other and determining the enterprise structure so as to efficiently and effectively execute the enterprise goals. There are many separate research streams that have developed theories, approaches, and technologies for integrating the enterprise. There seems to be little sharing of concepts across disciplines or consensus on the topic of enterprise integration. Moreover, what is meant by the term ‘integration’ is poorly defined. In this article an enterprise integration framework is presented to bring together the divergent views of enterprise integration so that how they are related to each other can be understood. The enterprise integration framework defines five levels of the enterprise system to define the integration types encountered at each level. The five levels are organization, process, application, data, and network. The enterprise integration framework is used to analyse the many approaches used by different disciplines toward enterprise integration. The analysis identifies gaps for further research.
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Paper Nr: 889
Title:

SECURING A WEB-BASED EPR - An approach to secure a centralized EPR within a hospital
Authors:

Ana M. Ferreira, Ricardo J. Cruz-Correia and Altamiro Costa-pereira
Abstract: The introduction of new technologies such as the EPR stresses the importance of healthcare information security. The Biostatistics and Medical Informatics Department of Porto’s Faculty of Medicine is developing a centralized Electronic Patient Record at Hospital S. João, in Portugal, the HSJ.ICU. The main objective is to electronically integrate heterogeneous departmental information in a secure way, using Internet technology. The methodology used takes into consideration user-driven security issues in terms of confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. This was achieved using CEN/TC251 prestandards, Internet security protocols (e.g. TLS) and digital signature protocols. Having in mind the CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability) structure helps organizing and in a way, separating concepts that can be assessed in a more direct and efficient way. Security issues are already rooted and constitute a good basis for any enhancements that will be made in the future.
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Paper Nr: 5
Title:

PRIVACY CONCERNS IN INTERNET APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Moshe Zviran, Seev Neumann and Diego Hocksman
Abstract: Privacy is defined as “freedom from unauthorized intrusion”. While privacy has been a sensitive issue before the advent of computers, the concern has been further exacerbated by the fact that the Web makes it easy for data to be automatically collected and added to databases and analyzed by sophisticated data mining tools and personalized marketing services. This study explores the nature of the privacy concern in the online environment. The objective of this study is to get a better understanding of the factors that can affect online privacy and how this concern could affect users’ behavior.
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Paper Nr: 5
Title:

PRIVACY CONCERNS IN INTERNET APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Moshe Zviran, Seev Neumann and Diego Hocksman
Abstract: Privacy is defined as “freedom from unauthorized intrusion”. While privacy has been a sensitive issue before the advent of computers, the concern has been further exacerbated by the fact that the Web makes it easy for data to be automatically collected and added to databases and analyzed by sophisticated data mining tools and personalized marketing services. This study explores the nature of the privacy concern in the online environment. The objective of this study is to get a better understanding of the factors that can affect online privacy and how this concern could affect users’ behavior.
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Paper Nr: 12
Title:

A NEW VULNERABILITY TAXONOMY BASED ON PRIVILEGE ESCALATION
Authors:

Yongzheng Zhang and Xiaochun Yun
Abstract: Computer security vulnerabilities badly compromise the system security. To profoundly understand the causes of known vulnerabilities and prevent them, this paper develops a new taxonomic character, and then integrates a privilege-escalating based vulnerability taxonomy with multidimensional quantitative attribute. This taxonomy greatly contributes to further researches of security risk assessment of computer system.
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Paper Nr: 124
Title:

A NEW MODEL TO MANAGE IDS ALERTS
Authors:

Marco Bonato and Walter Godoy Junior
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present a new model to reduce the alerts generated by an IDS (Bace, 2000) analyzer. This model allows the administrator to analyze only the messages that really generate risks for an environment or machine. This is very important when you have a complex environment with a lot of machines with many services in them.
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Paper Nr: 134
Title:

MODEL CHECKING AN OBJECT-ORIENTED DESIGN - Validation Led Development of Software
Authors:

Simon C. Stanton and Vishv Malhotra
Abstract: The object-oriented design methodologies have focused on methods, tools and representations to build classes taking advantage of inheritance and encapsulation properties. Modelling of the interaction among the objects often does not go beyond the method declarations stage until the programming phase. Efforts to include object constraints in the object-oriented design to embody the behavioural correctness have not reached the level assertions play in understanding the correctness of the traditional imperative programs. The paper describes use of a model checker to establish correctness of an object-oriented design.
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Paper Nr: 182
Title:

OPEN SOURCE VS. CLOSED SOURCE
Authors:

Vidyasagar Potdar and Elizabeth Chang
Abstract: Open source software development represents a fundamentally new concept in the field of software engineering. Open source development and delivery occurs on Internet time. Developers are not confined to a geographic area. They work voluntarily on a project of their choice. Developers work for peer-recognition and self-satisfaction. Open Source software is always in an evolutionary stage: it never reaches a final stage. As new requirements emerge the software is enhanced by the user/developers. In this paper, we give an introduction to the insights of open source software development. We then elucidate the perceived benefits and point out the differences between open source and closed source software development approaches.
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Paper Nr: 196
Title:

SMALL ENTERPRISES’ PREDISPOSITION TO ADOPT AN ERP
Authors:

Louis Raymond, Suzanne Rivard and Danie Jutras
Abstract: Enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) are now being implemented in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition to allowing for the integration of technological architectures, these systems make best practices available to small firms. This paper presents the results of a study that was aimed at identifying the dimensions of SMEs’ readiness for the adoption of this new technology.
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Paper Nr: 253
Title:

METHOD-IN-ACTION AND METHOD-IN-TOOL - Some implications for CASE
Authors:

Brian Lings and Björn Lundell
Abstract: Tool support for Information Systems development can be considered from many perspectives, and it is not surprising that different stakeholders perceive such tools very differently. This can contribute on one side to poor selection processes and ineffective deployment of CASE, and on another to inappropriate tool development. In this paper we consider the relationship between CASE tools and Information Systems development methods from three stakeholder perspectives: concept developer, Information Systems developer and product developer. These perspectives, and the tensions between them, are represented within a ‘stakeholder triangle’, which we use to consider how the concept of method-in-action affects and is affected by the concept of method-in-tool. We believe that the triangle helps when interpreting seemingly conflicting views about CASE adoption and development.
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Paper Nr: 260
Title:

VIEW VISUALISATION FOR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE - From conceptual framework to prototype
Authors:

Maria-eugenia Iacob and Diederik Van Leeuwen
Abstract: In this paper we address the problem of visualisation of enterprise architectures. To this purpose a framework for the visualisation of architectural views and the design of a visualisation infrastructure are presented. Separation of concerns between storage, internal representation and presentation is the main requirement for setting up this framework, since it will allow us to select and subsequently present differently the same content (models) to different types of stakeholders. Our approach has resulted in an operational prototype that has been tested in a pilot case, also presented in what follows.
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Paper Nr: 266
Title:

FORMALIZATION OF CLASS STRUCTURE EXTRACTION THROUGH LIFETIME ANALYSIS
Authors:

Mikio Ohki
Abstract: For an analyst who tries to extract class structures from given requirements specifications for an application area with which he/she is not familiar, it is usually easier first to extract analysis elements, such as attributes, methods, and relationships, then to compose classes from those elements, than to extract entire classes at the same time. This paper demonstrates how to define the set of operations that can be used to derive lifetime-based class structures, provided that methods, including their identification names and lifetimes, can be extracted from given requirements specifications. The latter part of this paper describes an experiment that validates the defined operations by deriving typical design patterns, and also describes the differences between my approach and Pree's meta-pattern approach. Finally, it discusses the important role of lifetime analysis and an effective style of requirements specifications for object-oriented system development.
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Paper Nr: 282
Title:

P- MANAGER: ACTIONS VS. MESSAGES
Authors:

Carlos Costa, J. P. Costa and Manuela Aparício
Abstract: The use of tools to support management and coordination among workers is a subject of important effort performed by researchers in several fields of computer science and information systems. But here we stress the importance of integrating a perspective based in actions and a perspective based in messages as way to achieve coordination. In this context, we propose a system used to support planning, organisation and control of operations. This system also intends to be enhanced with functionalities supported by mobile and wireless technology.
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Paper Nr: 337
Title:

REASONS FOR INTEGRATING SOFTWARE COMPONENT SPECIFICATIONS IN BUSINESS PROCESS MODELS
Authors:

Marie-Therese Christiansson and Benneth Christiansson
Abstract: Organisations, business processes and co-workers are in a ”never-ending change-mode”. It is therefore unrealistic to expect any definitive requirements for computer based information systems. In this paper we argue for the need of bridging the gap between business process modelling and software component specification. By using a core business process model that integrates both essential knowledge concerning business processes and their possible improvements and also integrates software component requirements in the form of software component specifications; IS professionals should be able to judge the potential, development and management of component-based information systems. This implies the need of an “informal” software component specification that is grounded in business processes and created for the people who are best suited to model requirements, i.e. people who run and perform business. This “close to business” specification can be expressed on a high-level and in an informal manner due to the fact that the specification does not have to serve as software development requirements because the software component already exists, the difficulty is acquisition. With an integrated core business process model we have the possibility to perform modelling more effective and achieve more benefits and use it as a foundation for software component acquisition. We can focus on business actions and their constant changes and at the same time identify the corresponding changes in software requirements.
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Paper Nr: 398
Title:

TOWARDS PATTERN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Authors:

Erki Eessaar
Abstract: Patterns allow division of knowledge into manageable pieces. It is necessary to develop Pattern Management System (PMS) in order to effectively use patterns. In this article components of PMS are proposed. PMS uses metadata about patterns and database of patterns to guide management of patterns. Textual descriptions of patterns and models what specify pattern are stored in the database of patterns.
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Paper Nr: 420
Title:

INTEGRATING A PATTERN CATALOGUE IN A BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL
Authors:

Lucineia Heloisa Thom and Cirano Iochpe
Abstract: This paper proposes the Transactional Model of Business Process (TMBP), an extension of the Transactional Model of Workflow Processes (TMWP) proposed in the context of the Workflow on Intelligent Distributed database Environment (WIDE). The TMBP mainly includes elements, such as, a Pattern Catalogue that make possible to create business sub-processes (BSP) from the reuse of BSP patterns based on structural aspects.
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Paper Nr: 456
Title:

DIMANAGER: A TOOL FOR DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
Authors:

Maria E. Pedras, Elisa Huzita, Gabriel Santiago and Tania Tait
Abstract: In a competitive world, is very important that to have tools that offer an adequate support to the project manager with information about the development process. However at the moment, there is no a complete environment offering the adequate resources to develop distributed software, integrating both technical aspects related to software development and the management aspects. So it is very interesting to develop tools that offer an adequate support to project manager with technical and managerial information. This paper presents DIMANAGER - a tool to manage the distributed software development, including planning and monitoring aspects. It is part of the DiSEN environment and offers the adequate technical and managerial information for the project manager. These information can be used to make decision about how the resources can be better used and also make decision regarding the actions that need to be taken to obtain a software with quality.
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Paper Nr: 483
Title:

A FORMAL APPROACH TO ENTERPRISE MODELING
Authors:

Yoshiyuki Shinkawa
Abstract: Model driven development for software systems provides us with many advantages in quality, productivity, or reusability. For accurate modeling, we have to create many kinds of models from various viewpoints. When applying model driven development to enterprise information systems, those viewpoints include not only software oriented matters but also business oriented matters. Such complexity in modeling often causes inconsistency between models. This paper presents a formal and systematic way to create consistent and integrated enterprise models that reflect those various viewpoints. Set theory, Colored Petri Nets (CPNs), and Unified Modeling Language (UML) are used for this formalism. In addition, the paper proposes a set theoretic approach to evaluating consistency between enterprise models. The consistency is discussed in traditional hierarchical organization and modern matrix organization.
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Paper Nr: 500
Title:

MODELLING THE DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WORKFLOW COMPONENTS
Authors:

Leo Pudhota, Elizabeth Chang and J. Davis
Abstract: Whether the economy is strong or weak, competition is fierce. The need for business change to maintain a competitive edge comes faster in this rough business environment causing the business process model to get more dynamic and complex. However, one has to manage it so the efficiency of business processes are maximised. This paper develops a modelling approach for dynamic business processes, defining exceptions and enabling business strategies to be captured vigorously while simultaneously allowing changes to be handled. We introduce the MAO workflow model, and we propose the automation of workflow components using MDA.
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Paper Nr: 508
Title:

MEASURING REQUIREMENT EVOLUTION - A Case Study in the E-commerce Domain
Authors:

Päivi Ovaska
Abstract: Although requirement evolution is a widely recognized phenomenon, there are only a few approaches for measuring it. These existing approaches are based on the assumption that all the requirements exist and can be seen in the requirement elicitation and analysis phases. They do not include provisions for the emergence during systems development of new requirements, which cannot be anticipated in the requirement elicitation and analysis phase. This paper shows how the concept of requirements creep is adopted for the measurement of emergent requirement evolution. We use a case study in the E-commerce domain to illustrate the use of this measure in the prediction of systems development. The findings of this study suggest that requirement evolution can be measured in a practical software project, and the findings demonstrate the strong influence of requirements creep on the systems development effort. The findings of our study encourage us to undertake further studies involving other organizations and projects.
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Paper Nr: 513
Title:

UML vs. IDEF: AN ONTOLOGY-ORIENTED COMPARATIVE STUDY IN VIEW OF BUSINESS MODELLING
Authors:

Ovidiu Noran
Abstract: The UML and IDEF sets of languages characterize typical modelling approaches of software engineering and computer integrated manufacturing, respectively. This paper presents a comparative analysis of these languages based on their ontologies and in view of their use in business modelling. A brief introduction to UML and IDEF is followed by a high-level comparison taking into account underlying paradigms and language structure. This is followed by a comparative assessment of the expressive power of the two groups of languages, based on the ontologies of their relevant components. The analysis is structured using a set of views deemed appropriate for the modelling domain (i.e. business). The key findings of this paper aim to provide an insight into the suitability of UML ’versus’ that of IDEF in business modelling.
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Paper Nr: 526
Title:

LEGACY MIGRATION AS PLANNED ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Authors:

Teta Stamati, Panagiotis Kanellis, Konstantina Stamati and Drakoulis Martakos
Abstract: Traditionally, legacy migration has been viewed as the simple replacement of aged or problematic hardware and software, including the applications, interfaces and databases that compose an information system infrastructure. Our position is that this view is outdated and is at best myopic taking into account that the role of technology is not merely supportive but today pervades every aspect of the way enterprises conduct their business. As such, our position is that migration should be approached as a planned change process that first and foremost requires an understanding and an approach that covers the range of issues and organisational entities involved. In this context, this paper presents such a structured approach that defines the landscape, deals with the semantics of legacy migration and, can be applied by organisations that recognise the need to manage the process in a controlled and not in a piecemeal and ad hoc fashion.
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Paper Nr: 611
Title:

APPLYING ONTOLOGIES IN THE KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY IN GEOGRAPHIC DATABASES
Authors:

Guillermo Hess and Cirano Iochpe
Abstract: This article proposes a software architecture to integrate geographic databases conceptual models. The goal is the preprocessing phase on the knowledge discovery in database, using geographic databases conceptual schemas as input data, in order to obtain analysis patterns candidates. The semantic unification is very important in this process, since the data mining tools are not capable to recognize synonyms neither to distinguish between homonymous. In this way a methodology to refer the knowledge basis was developed.
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Paper Nr: 630
Title:

TOWARDS A BUSINESS PROCESS FORMALISATION BASED ON AN ARCHITECTURE CENTRED APPROACH
Authors:

Fabien Leymonerie, Lionel Blanc Dit Jolicoeur, Sorana Cimpan, Christian Braesch and Flavio Oquendo
Abstract: Nowadays, enterprises need to control their business processes and to manage more and more information. EAI - Enterprise Application Integration - solutions offer a partial response to these requirements. However, the lack of formalisation that characterises such solutions limits the reuse and verification of properties. This paper claims that business processes have to be formally defined using a formalism that presents certain features (representation of several abstraction levels, domain specific concepts, property expression and preservation, etc.) and proposes the use of an ADL - Architecture Description Language - as formalism. A case study illustrates our proposition.
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Paper Nr: 638
Title:

ORGANISATIONAL SEMIOTICS EMBEDDED IN A SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT CYCLE - A Case Study in a Business Organisation
Authors:

Carlos Alberto Cocozza Simoni and M. Cecilia C. Baranauskas
Abstract: Searching for competitiveness and excellence in quality, business companies have revisited their processes generating new demands for the Information Technology (IT) department, involving knowledge that goes beyond the software development itself: understanding the organisation, its processes and businesses as a whole. Regarding software development methods, we have perceived significant advances in the technical aspects of software development lately; but the same attention had not been directed to the domain analysis which could have serious consequences in the applications and in the company. As a way to contribute in this direction we have investigated the use of Organisational Semiotics in real contexts of systems development. A case study discussed in this paper involves the use of this theoretical basis in a real work situation for evaluation purposes.
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Paper Nr: 641
Title:

INTEGRATING AGILE AND MODEL-DRIVEN PRACTICES IN A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE WEB INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Authors:

Paloma C. Garcia De Marina, Esperanza Marcos and Valeria de Castro
Abstract: Nowadays, the Web information systems (WIS) development has become an interesting area in both research and business world. On the one hand, the WIS development needs specific methodologies for taking into account certain specific aspects for Web systems. Therefore, traditional methodologies do not facilitate a quick and light development as the agile methodologies. On the other hand, the system modeling becomes too specific because new technologies are emerging and becoming popular constantly. In this way, OMG proposes the Model-driven Architecture (MDA), a model-driven framework for software development. Due to the advantages of both agile and model-driven proposals, a topic of interest is the approach between them. In this way, we are working in a model-driven methodological framework for agile development of WIS, named MIDAS which is presented in this paper.
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Paper Nr: 644
Title:

SEMI-AUTOMATED SOFTWARE INTEGRATION - An approach based on logical inference
Authors:

Mikhail Kazakov and Habib Abdulrab
Abstract: The paper addresses a problem of semi-automated enterprise application integration. More close we discuss a problem of integration of numerical simulation components in the area of manufacturing engineering information systems. We propose an approach that is based on annotation of software interfaces with formal logical specifications. Logical inference procedure is used to choose appropriate enterprise software component depending on client requests. First, we discuss the problem and difficulties of integration of numerical simulation solvers and manufacturing engineering solutions in general. This is followed by description of the methodology of semi-automated integration based on use of description logics.
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Paper Nr: 666
Title:

DISTRIBUTED REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION: MINIMIZING THE EFFECT OF GEOGRAPHIC DISPERSION
Authors:

Leandro Lopes, Rafael Prikladnicki, Jorge N. Audy and Azriel Majdenbaum
Abstract: Requirements specification is an important phase of the requirements engineering area in the software development process. In geographically distributed environments, this phase becomes critical due to the characteristics of the distributed development (physical and temporal distance, cultural differences, trust, communication, etc). The objective of this paper is to analyze the requirements specification in geographically distributed environments, identifying the main challenges and proposing a process to minimize the impacts of this scenario. The results are based on a case study carried on a multinational organization that has software development units in multiple countries, and was recognized as a SW-CMM level 2 organization in 2 of them. The results suggest the necessity to adapt the requirements specification phase to the distributed software development environment, addressing the main existing challenges. The problems and the solutions adopted are presented, aiming to relate these solutions to the organization distribution level, considering where the project team, users and customers are located.
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Paper Nr: 669
Title:

Q-ONLINE - Integrating a questionnaire system in an organization
Authors:

Cláudio M. Sapateiro, Hugo Gamboa and Nuno Miguel Vicente De Pina Gonçalves
Abstract: Organizations are increasingly using questionnaires as a form of collecting data. Our work1 focus in a creation of a web based questionnaire platform, Q-Online, that managed a multi-questionnaires projects on a multi-users environment. The project goal is to provide a standard structure to collect data in several organization situations, particularly answering the needs of our organization: a school of technology. Examples of application of the platform are the collection of data from students or teachers and the usage inside of an Elearning system. The system was tested in a major school questionnaire focusing the entire school population. We present preliminary results from this questionnaire. The user interaction during the answering of the questionnaire was monitored in order to enable future retrieve of behavioural information. The data analysis developed permits a first overview of the questionnaire answers while Data Mining techniques will be provided to identify relevant information in the answers data.
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Paper Nr: 676
Title:

DEVELOPMENT OF ICT IN PROFESSIONAL WORK
Authors:

Ann Johansson
Abstract: ICT plays a critical role in many organisations of today. It is important in well-tried systems development methods as well as in recently improved object-oriented methods to support development of information and communication technology in many different organisations. The methods provide prescribed and formal ways to perform the development. This paper reports the results from two different studies performed. The first is an ethnographical study in the NU health care organisation in Sweden and the second is a case study carried out at the Wing of Såtenäs, an airbase within the Swedish Air Force and at Volvo Aero Corporation. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the character of professional work and its impact on development of information and communication technology. Professions consist of special competences and attitudes to the work they are performing. The professions of the health care workers and the flight technicians can also point this out.
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Paper Nr: 681
Title:

REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING FOR THE BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING: an Example in the Agro-Food Supply Chain
Authors:

Floriana Marin, Paolo Bresciani, Fabrizio Sannicolò and Lucia Martinelli
Abstract: Recent researches in Requirements Engineering and Software Engineering suggest that a deep organizational analysis is needed as a preliminary phase of any project that aims at introducing or modifying the use of Information Technologies inside an organization. Accordingly to this view, the social setting is the motivating factor that justify the technological choices. In this paper, we show with an example how balancing social and business issues can be properly addressed and analyzed by means of the Early Requirements Analysis phase of the Tropos methodology. In particular, we refer to an ongoing project with the goal of proposing web based technologies to spread-off information, data and knowledge on the so called Genetically Modified Organisms.
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Paper Nr: 700
Title:

AN INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT TOOL BASED ON PATTERN REUSE
Authors:

Agnès Front-Conte, Ibtissem Hassine, Dominique Rieu and Laurent Tastet
Abstract: A pattern is a general and consensual solution to solve a problem frequently encountered in a particular context. Patterns systems are becoming more and more numerous. They offer product patterns or process patterns of varied range and cover (analysis, design or implementation patterns, and general, domain or enterprise patterns). New application development environments have been developed together with these pattern-oriented approaches. These tools address two kinds of actors: patterns engineers who specify patterns systems, and applications engineers who use these systems to specify information systems. Most of the existing development environments are made for applications engineers; they offer few functionalities allowing definition and organization of patterns systems. This paper presents AGAP, a development environment for defining and using patterns. Not only does AGAP address applications engineers, but it also allows patterns engineers to define patterns systems.
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Paper Nr: 733
Title:

INFORMATION SYSTEMS SUPPORT FOR MANUFACTURING PROCESSES - The standard S95 perspective
Authors:

Patrícia Macedo, Pedro Sinogas and José Tribolet
Abstract: Manufacturing Execution Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems support the Manufacturing Enterprise. The two families of systems have been developed independently, so they have grown without a scope or a strictly defined border. The feature overlapping between them raises relevant issues in the integration with control systems. This paper analyzes how different types of manufacturing processes are supported by ERP and MES, and how the standard developed by ISA: S95 defines the scope of each system. This standard also provides the separation of production from non-production processes. A paper mill enterprise case study is presented, where the business processes are identified and a system framework is proposed in accordance with the S95 hierarchy function model.
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Paper Nr: 750
Title:

AS IS ORGANIZATIONAL MODELING - The problem of its dynamic management
Authors:

Nuno Castela and José Tribolet
Abstract: In nowadays business competitive world, the organizations need to have some integrated and accurate representation of its business processes and information systems to allow fast responses to activities like business process reengineering, information systems requirements capture and quality systems implementation, etc. The frequency and importance of this kind of activities is rising up. Unfortunately, the maintenance of this representation is not a trivial question and the business model tends to be constructed to be used and then “sit on the shelf”. In this paper, first is shown why frequently the As-Is model “sit on the shelf”. Then, is shown who the “clients” of the As-Is model are, and how these organizational actors can contribute to maintain the As-Is model updated. In the end preliminary characteristics of a model are identified in order to became it self-sustainable. A meta-model of the As-Is model and a prototype tool are also presented.
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Paper Nr: 776
Title:

BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING TOWARDS DATA QUALITY ASSURANCE - An Organizational Engineering Approach
Authors:

Hugo Bringel, Artur Caetano and José Tribolet
Abstract: Data is handled everyday by information systems and its inherent quality is a fundamental aspect to operational and support business activities. However, inappropriate data quality may lead to economic and social problems within the organizational context. This paper addresses how to syntactically and semantically ensure data quality at information entity level. To do so, we define a business process-modeling pattern for describing the features required to ensure and validate business object data using a conceptual data quality attribute model. This pattern makes use of object-oriented concepts such as inheritance and traceability and is described as an extension to the Unified Modeling Language. A case study is presented to exemplify the proposed concepts.
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Paper Nr: 859
Title:

REPRESENTATION OF BUSINESS INFORMATION FLOW WITH AN EXTENSION FOR UML - From Business Processes to object-orientated Software Engineering
Authors:

Oliver Daute
Abstract: The use of enterprise software solutions is getting increasingly important. Today thousands of users are able to work in an integrated enterprise solution. The requirements of software systems have changed dramatically in quality and quantity in the last decades. While the know-how in technology was the main factor for success in the past, today much more effort is needed and involved to understand what the customer wants. At this point Business Process Engineering became an important way to describe the business and system requirements. It focuses on requirements, terminology, processes, dependencies, and on the Business Information Flow, which is the subject of this article. There are several procedures and methodologies available for modeling business process requirements. Most of them are focused on a particular area of business and utilize a special modeling technique often used to customize a standard software solution. A better way, specifically for non-standard software solutions is the use of an independent modeling language like the UML. The UML is well established in the domain of object orientated software development (Meta, 2003). For business process modeling more investigations are required, especially on how to represent business information flow. An appropriate way, as we propose here, is to add business information flow to UML Use Case Diagrams.
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Paper Nr: 863
Title:

COMPONENT-BASED MODELLING OF ORGANISATIONAL RESOURCES USING COLOURED PETRI NETS
Authors:

Khodakaram Salimifard
Abstract: Collaborative software applications such as workflow management systems require a clear separation between process model and resource model. The process model realises the partial order of business processes while the organisation model provides the structure of the resources to be utilised. In this paper, we propose a CPN-based framework for modelling organisational functioning units. The models are developed independent of the process layer. Maintaining the flexibility and scalability, the model, hence, is capable to be modified without altering the process model.
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Paper Nr: 875
Title:

USING SAP SYSTEM CONFIGURATION SECURITY TEST TO COMPLY WITH SARBANES-OXLEY ACT
Authors:

Jen-Hao Tu
Abstract: Most observers would agree that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) is the single most important piece of legislation affecting corporate governance, financial disclosure and the practice of public accounting. On the other hand, the SAP system is the most widely used ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in the world. There are thousands of seamlessly linked components and subsystems. Conducting security tests in a complicated ERP system is still a major challenge. Based on the study of the SAP system configuration security testing at the author’s company, this work-in-progress paper will discuss related configuration security weakness in SAP system and suggest practical solutions to enhance the security control of SAP to comply with SOA.
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Paper Nr: 908
Title:

ACHIEVING SUPPLEMENTARY REQUIREMENTS USING ASPECT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Authors:

Julie Vachon and Farida M. Diro
Abstract: The problem of attempting to work supplementary requirements (software quality attributes and constraints) only around the end of the development phase is frequent and quite risky for there is little chance the final architecture will be able to meet these quality requirements without important modifications. Supplementary specifications capture the requirements which are not defined using the use case model. They are some kind of crosscutting concerns which one would like to plug in at some later stage of the design process (e.g. after prototyping use cases). The connection with the aspect notion suggests that aspect-oriented techniques may here be called upon advantageously. This article presents an aspect-oriented methodology to support the development of supplementary specifications in UML. The use-case analysis is adapted to take care of crosscutting requirements and a pattern is proposed for the elaboration of aspect-oriented designs.
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Paper Nr: 909
Title:

FOUNDING ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS ON ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Authors:

Ian Douglas
Abstract: Information, knowledge and learning systems are developed with the implicit belief that their existence will lead to better performance for those using them, and that this will translate into better performance for the organisations for which the user works. One important activity that must occur prior to requirements analysis for such systems is organisational and human performance analysis. One key software application that is missing from most organisations is an integrated enterprise system for analysing performance needs, determining appropriate support solutions, monitoring the effect of those solutions, and facilitating the reuse and sharing of the resulting knowledge. A model for such a system is presented, together with a prototype demonstrating how such a system could be implemented.
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Paper Nr: 916
Title:

Mitigating the Effects of Denial of Service Attacks on E-commerce Sites
Authors:

Mohammad A. Awan and S. Zaidi
Abstract: DoS Attacks have caused substantial damage to the Internet. An attacker with limited resources can carry out these attacks against very sophisticated sites or networks causing huge financial losses, disruption in key public utilities dispensation and above all inducing a sense of insecurity in a world, which is increasingly becoming dependent on Internet. Recently, a number of mechanisms have been proposed to counter the threat posed by DoS attacks. Amongst them Proactive server roaming and feedback mechanism for Diffserv clients are two of the more prominent ones. We here describe in detail VIPNet, a mechanism for protecting e-commerce sites. In VIPNet, traffic is divided into two classes. Some of the important clients are chosen as VIPs and their packets given preferential treatment having guaranteed Quality of Service, enabling them withstand any congestive attacks. An attacker having a valid VIP right can only mount a DoS attack against another VIP. A non-VIP cannot utilize the resources of the VIP. A technical comparison of a VIPNet with other schemes is also provided in the paper. We show through practical implementation of VIPNet that it effectively counters the threat posed by DoS attacks. In the end we propose some enhancements in the VIP protocol in order to remove one of its limitations i.e. it assumes that the interaction between servers and clients is transaction-based where at the end of each transaction the server gets a payment. Our proposed enhancements would permit the protocol to support sites that charge a flat fee.
Rejecteds
Paper Nr: 505
Title:

A FORMAL APPROACH TO VIEWS INTEGRATION IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Authors:

Brahim Lahna, Ounsa Roudiès, Agnès Front Conte and Jean-pierre Giraudin
Abstract: Classification plays a significant role in various scientific fields where knowledge is to be organized according to certain hierarchies. In information systems modelling, we often consider that a given model can be best described with multiple views approach, but usually without mentioning the formal properties of classification of these various views. In this paper, we present an approach to classifying views into hierarchy through the lattice concept. Along with the approach, we present the concept of views, viewpoints and views integration principle. Since each view adds a new perspective of the system to the model, information from one view can be used to validate the integrity of other views. This paper proposes a process pattern described according to P-SIGMA formalism, being used to ensure integrity between views and to guarantee coherent viewpoints of the system stakeholders.
Paper Nr: 505
Title:

A FORMAL APPROACH TO VIEWS INTEGRATION IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Authors:

Brahim Lahna, Ounsa Roudiès, Agnès Front Conte and Jean-pierre Giraudin
Abstract: Classification plays a significant role in various scientific fields where knowledge is to be organized according to certain hierarchies. In information systems modelling, we often consider that a given model can be best described with multiple views approach, but usually without mentioning the formal properties of classification of these various views. In this paper, we present an approach to classifying views into hierarchy through the lattice concept. Along with the approach, we present the concept of views, viewpoints and views integration principle. Since each view adds a new perspective of the system to the model, information from one view can be used to validate the integrity of other views. This paper proposes a process pattern described according to P-SIGMA formalism, being used to ensure integrity between views and to guarantee coherent viewpoints of the system stakeholders.
Paper Nr: 953
Title:

A Proposed Model for a Context Aware Distributed System
Authors:

Duncan Bates, Martin Hope, Tim Ritchings and Nigel Linge
Abstract: Our paper reports on research work conducted in association with the UK utility industry to design and deliver a context aware GIS system for field engineers. This research identified clear business benefits and the need for intelligent information flow algorithms which could match information delivery requirements to the capability of the delivery networks. In turn our work has now resulted in a proposed generic model for the design and operation of a mobile context aware distributed system. We present the practical experience gained from delivering a context aware GIS application delivered via an IEEE 802.11 wireless network, leading towards the development of our generic model for such systems. The core objective of this latter research is the derivation of an algorithm to allow the efficient delivery of information to a user, based on the user’s context. The pseudo-code for this algorithm is presented, together with an overview of the inputs to this algorithm, of which user context is one, and the issues surrounding them. Finally there is a look towards the future and possible further refinements that might be performed on the algorithm, namely the application of fuzzy logic.
Paper Nr: 1027
Title:

The Incidence Matrix of Lines over Z/(m) with Applications to Cryptography

Authors:

Peizhong Lu, Yan Zou and Gang Xue

Abstract: In this paper we first show that the property of full rank also holds for the incidence matrix of lines over any finite ring $Z_m.$ Then we use this result to obtain the Linear Combination Theorem which characterizes independent variables in statistics over $Z_m$. It follows from the theorem we present several characterizations of correlation immune(CI) functions over $Z_m$ in cryptography. Finally, we deduce a generalization, from $Z_2$ to $Z_m,$ of Xiao-Massey Theorem\cite{Xiao} on spectral characterization of CI functions. In the case of finite fields, a similar generalization from $% F_2$ to $F_q$ is obtained recently by Gopalakrishnan and Stinson \cite{Gop}.

Area 4 - Software Agents and Internet Computing

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 68
Title:

INCORPORATING THE ELEMENTS OF THE MASE METHODOLOGY INTO AGENT OPEN
Authors:

Q.-N. N. Tran, B. Henderson-Sellers and J. Debenham
Abstract: Enterprise-wide, web-based systems can be assisted in their construction by the use of agents and an agent-oriented methodology. As part of an extensive research programme to create such an AO methodology by combining the benefits of method engineering and existing object-oriented frameworks (notably the OPF), we have analysed here contributions to the OPF repository of process components from the MASE agent-oriented methodology, identifying three new Tasks, one additional Technique and two new Work Products.
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Paper Nr: 119
Title:

A Study of User Attitude Dynamics in a Computer Game
Authors:

Yang Cao, Golha Sharifi, Yamini Upadrashta and Julita Vassileva
Abstract: When designing a distributed system where a certain level of cooperation among real people is important, for example CSCW systems, systems supporting workflow processes and peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, it is important to study the evolution of relationships among the users. People develop attitudes to other people and reciprocate the attitudes of other people when they able to observe them. We are interested to find out how the design of the environment, specifically the feedback mechanisms and the visualization may influence this process. For this purpose we designed a web-based multi-player computer game, which requires the players to represent explicitly their attitudes to other players and allows studying the evolution of interpersonal relationships in a group of players. Two versions of the game deploying different visualization techniques were compared with respect to the dynamics of attitude change and type of reactions. The results show that there are strong individual differences in the way people react to success and failure and how they attribute blame and change their attitude to other people involved in the situation. Also the level and way of visualizing the other players’ attitude influences significantly the dynamics of attitude change.
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Paper Nr: 128
Title:

TOWARDS AN AGENT-BASED AND CONTEXT-ORIENTED APPROACH TO COMPOSE WEB SERVICES
Authors:

Zakaria Maamar, Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Hamdi Yahyaoui and Willem-Jan Van Den Heuvel
Abstract: We present an agent-based and context-oriented approach for the composition of Web services. A Web service is an accessible application that other applications and humans can discover and trigger to satisfy multiple needs (e.g., hotel booking). Because of the complexity that characterizes the composition of Web services, two concepts in this paper are put forward to reduce this complexity namely software agent and context. A software agent is an autonomous entity that acts on behalf of users, whereas context is any relevant information that characterizes a situation. During the composition process, software agents engage conversations with their peers to agree on which Web services will participate in this process. In these conversations, agents take into account the execution context of the Web services.
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Paper Nr: 194
Title:

TEAMBROKER: CONSTRAINT BASED BROKERAGE OF VIRTUAL TEAMS
Authors:

Achim Karduck and Amadou Sienou
Abstract: Some consulting projects are carried out in virtual teams, which are networks of people sharing a common purpose and working across organizational and temporal boundaries by using information technologies. Multiple investigations covering these teams focus on coordination, group communication and computer supported collaborative work. However, additional perspectives like the formation of teams are also important. Here one should deal with the question: how to form the best team? To approach this question, we have defined team formation as the process of finding the right expert for a given task and allocating the set of experts that best fulfills team requirements. This has been further transformed into a problem of constraint based optimal resource allocation. Our environment for computer supported team formation has been developed by having adopted the brokerage view that consists of mediating experts between peers requesting a team and the ones willing to participate in a team. Computer supported brokerage of experts has been realized as a distributed problem solving that involves entities representing experts, brokers and team initiators.
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Paper Nr: 195
Title:

DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF AGENT-BASED NEGOTIATION HEURISTIC FOR ONLINE NEGOTIATIONS
Authors:

Kaushal Chari and Manish Agrawal
Abstract: This paper presents a negotiation heuristic for software agents that enable agents to learn about the opponent’s behavior and use market information while conducting online negotiations. The heuristic is tested in a pilot experimental study, where the performance of agents is evaluated with respect to human negotiators in a simulated electronic market. Preliminary results indicate that agents may have the potential to do better than humans in multi-issue negotiation settings.
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Paper Nr: 270
Title:

USING AGENT PLATFORMS FOR SERVICE COMPOSITION
Authors:

Agostino Poggi, Michele Tomaiuolo and Paola Turci
Abstract: Autonomous software agents and semantic web technologies promise to pave the way for really dynamic and adaptive distributed applications. The Agenticities project is the first effort to create a large and open society, where collaborating and competing peers are able to interact effectively. This paper describes the services deployed on the Agentcities network, both at the infrastructure and application level, and shows how they can be successfully used for the intelligent and dynamic composition of simple services provided by different providers into more complex ones.
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Paper Nr: 275
Title:

TRUSTED EMAIL - A Proposed Approach to Prevent Credit Card Fraud in Soft-Products E-Commerce
Authors:

Nien T. Sui, Saleh Alfuraih and Dennis McLeod
Abstract: Soft-products are intangible products that can be consumed without shipment, such as software, music and calling cards (calling time). The demand for soft-products on the Internet has been increasing for the past few years. At the same time, fraudulent credit card transactions have also increased. Compared to tangible products, fraudulent credit card transactions on soft-products are easier to conduct while difficult to recover. The fraudulent transaction is a major problem for e-commerce merchants, customers, and credit card issuers. In this paper, we classify the type of products sold on the Internet, and the common fraud that occurs for each type. We review some of the best existing credit card fraud prevention methods and introduce the Trusted email mechanism as a new way to prevent fraudulent transactions on soft-product. Trusted email is a custom email solution that can uniquely identify and authenticate the online customer, prevent unauthorized credit card transactions, and effectively resolve e-commerce disputes.
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Paper Nr: 310
Title:

AUTOMATIC INTEGRATION OF INTER-ENTERPRISE PROCESSES WITH HIERARCHICAL BROKER FRAMEWORK
Authors:

Shun-fa Chang, Li-chen Fu and Ming-yu Tsai
Abstract: In recent years, the manufacturing technologies are more and more complex. Almost all production processes need cooperation among multiple enterprises. It is true that today’s manufacturing process is a complex workflow forming a supply chain. Each enterprise provides their services to accomplish professional processes. With the growth of Internet usage, there are more and more services able to be processed on the web. Web-service is one of the applications on Internet and it can help enterprises cooperate with one another in their services easily. In this paper, we propose a Hierarchical Broker Framework to provide an advanced broker function for enterprises’ cooperation. In this framework, we can classify all services to keep searching easier, to present the relations between two enterprises more flexibly, to match buyers and sellers more precisely, and to cut down broker’s loading. On the ride of an enterprise client, we do not have to modify any existing enterprise architecture. Beside, we will also design an adapter to connect the broker server and the existing enterprises. By these designs, we try to find an automatic way to integrate these enterprise processes to improve efficiency and reduce their transaction overheads.
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Paper Nr: 311
Title:

SEMANTIC E-LEARNING AGENTS - Supporting E-Learning By Semantic Web and Agents Technologies
Authors:

Jürgen Dunkel, Ralf Bruns and Sascha Ossowski
Abstract: E-learning is starting to play a major role in the learning and teaching activities at institutions of higher education worldwide. The students perform significant parts of their study activities decentralized and access the necessary information sources via the Internet. Several tools have been developed providing basic infrastructures that enable individual and collaborative work in a location-independent and time-independent fashion. Still, systems that adequately provide personalized and permanent support for using these tools are still to come. This paper reports on the advances of the Semantic E-learning Agent (SEA) project, whose objective is to develop virtual student advisors, that render support to university students in order to successfully organize und perform their studies. The E-learning agents are developed with novel concepts of the Semantic Web and agents technology. The key concept is the semantic modeling of the E-learning domain by means of XML-based applied ontology languages such as DAML+OIL and OWL. Software agents apply ontological and domain knowledge in order to assist human users in their decision making processes. For this task, the inference engine JESS is applied in conjunction with the agent framework JADE.
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Paper Nr: 469
Title:

SEAMLESS COMMUNICATION AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR MOBILE USERS IN A WIRELESS ENVIRONMENT
Authors:

Golha Sharifi, Julita Vassileva and Ralph Deters
Abstract: Providing mobile workers with mobile devices such as a Compaq iPaq with a CDPD card can support them in retrieving information from centralized information systems. More specifically, mobile devices can enable mobile users to make notifications for schedule changes and add new data into the information system. In addition these devices can facilitate group communication anytime and anywhere. This paper presents different ways of providing non-critical information in a timely fashion for nomadic users of mobile devices using a wireless network. A distributed application prototype to support nomadic users is proposed, and a simulated environment is used to evaluate the prototype. Since solutions for seamless access are highly domain specific, the study involves homecare workers at Saskatoon District Health (SDH). By keeping track of the users’ current context (time, location etc.) and a user task model, it is possible to predict the information needs of mobile users and to provide context dependent adaptation of both the content and the functionality. Moreover, to avoid interrupts in the user’s interaction with the main information sources, methods for mobile transactions management using agent-based smart proxies that buffer, delay or pre-fetch information/data are introduced.
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Paper Nr: 518
Title:

AGENT PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE WITH INCOMPLETE KNOWLEDGE - AGENTSPEAK(I)
Authors:

Duc Vo and Aditya Ghose
Abstract: This paper proposes an agent programming language called AgentSpeak(I). This new language allows agent programs (1) to effectively perform while having incomplete knowledge of the environment, (2) to detect no-longer possible goals and re-plan these goals correspondingly, and (3) to behave reactively to changes of environment. Specifically, AgentSpeak(I) uses default theory as agent belief theory, agent always act with preferred default extension at current time point (i.e. preference may changes over time). A belief change operator for default theory is also provided to assist agent program to update its belief theory. Like other BDI agent programming languages, AgentSpeak(I) uses semantics of transitional system. It appears that the language is well suited for intelligent applications and high level control robots, which are required to perform in highly dynamic environment.
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Paper Nr: 604
Title:

AMPLIA LEARNING ENVIRONMENT - A Proposal for Pedagogical Negotiation
Authors:

Cecilia Dias Flores, João Carlos Gluz, Rosa Maria Vicari and Louise Seixas
Abstract: AMPLIA supports training of diagnostic reasoning and modelling of domains with complex and uncertain knowledge. It focuses on the medical area, and it helps a learner to create a Bayesian network for a certain problem. A pedagogic negotiation process (managed by an intelligent Mediator Agent) aids handle the differences of topology and probability distribution between the model the learner built and the one built-in in the system. The negotiation process occurs between the agents that represent the expert knowledge domain and the agent that represents the learner knowledge. As a consequence, the learner visualises the organisation of his/her ideas, creates and tests hypothesis, and discuss them with the system .
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Paper Nr: 617
Title:

MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS AND THE SEMANTIC WEB - The SemanticCore Agent-based Abstraction Layer
Authors:

Marcelo Ribeiro and Carlos J. Pereira de Lucena
Abstract: In the Web first years, it was claimed that it would revolutionize the way people work and learn by creating a rich information environment where everybody would cooperate through content publish and recovering. This promising model showed its limitations with the information explosive growth. Many initiatives were taken to address this problem, but none of them gained such attention as the Semantic Web proposal. The combination of machine understandable content with human oriented content can avoid information overload and create a new set of possibilities in terms of software development and integration. Although the Semantic Web is on its very beginning, some proposals already address some requirements for the Semantic Web creation. This paper presents the SemantiCore agent-based abstraction layer for the Semantic Web. The SemantiCore uses high level agent-based abstractions to create applications for the semantic web. SemantiCore uses the middleware concept to allow the integration with well known technologies such as the FIPAOS platform and the Web Services standards.
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Paper Nr: 625
Title:

FROM CORBA TO WEB SERVICES COMPOSITION
Authors:

Denivaldo Lopes and Slimane Hammoudi
Abstract: CORBA has some positive aspects to develop applications, but its communication model is limited to accomplish interactions among clients and enterprise servers on the Web. The technologies of Web Service seem to offer a better answer for developing distributed applications on the Web. The first part of this paper is a discussion about the evolution of CORBA and of Web Services, showing their benefits and limitations. The new solutions provided by the technologies of Web Services (XML, WSDL, UDDI and SOAP) are more adapted for the Web than CORBA. However, these technologies are not sufficient to compose Web Services, which represents a real challenge. Workflow Technology seems to be a better answer for this challenge. The second part of this paper deals with this integration of Workflow technology and Web service that is designed in WEWS. An approach for transaction based on conversation plus optimistic commit protocol is also presented. A comparison of our work and other propositions is provided too, highlighting similarities and differences.
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Paper Nr: 636
Title:

THE SCOPE AND INTENSITY OF DERIVED BENEFITS FROM E-COMMERCE PENETRATION IN SMES
Authors:

Louis-a. Lefebvre, Elie Elia, Élisabeth Lefebvre and Onno Omta
Abstract: This paper attempts to (i) to assess the relative importance of benefits related to the gradual unfolding of business-to-business e-commerce (B-2-B e-commerce) penetration among manufacturing SMEs and (ii) to demonstrate that the scope and intensity of these benefits increase in the later stages of e-commerce penetration as organizational learning gradually takes place. Empirical evidence strongly suggests that these benefits are cumulative and that organizational learning allows SMEs to reap these benefits.
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Paper Nr: 636
Title:

THE SCOPE AND INTENSITY OF DERIVED BENEFITS FROM E-COMMERCE PENETRATION IN SMES
Authors:

Louis-a. Lefebvre, Elie Elia, Élisabeth Lefebvre and Onno Omta
Abstract: This paper attempts to (i) to assess the relative importance of benefits related to the gradual unfolding of business-to-business e-commerce (B-2-B e-commerce) penetration among manufacturing SMEs and (ii) to demonstrate that the scope and intensity of these benefits increase in the later stages of e-commerce penetration as organizational learning gradually takes place. Empirical evidence strongly suggests that these benefits are cumulative and that organizational learning allows SMEs to reap these benefits.
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Paper Nr: 646
Title:

A HYBRID COLLABORATIVE RECOMMENDER SYSTEM BASED ON USER PROFILES
Authors:

Marco de Gemmis, Pasquale Lops, Giovanni Semeraro, Maria Francesca Costabile, Oriana Licchelli and Stefano P. Guida
Abstract: Nowadays, users are overwhelmed by the abundant amount of information delivered through the Internet. Especially in the e-commerce area, largest catalogues offer millions of products and are visited by users having a variety of interests. It is of particular interest to provide customers with personal advice: Web personalization has become an indispensable part of e-commerce. One type of personalization that many Web sites have started to embody is represented by recommender systems, which provide customers with personalized advices about products or services. Collaborative systems actually represent the state-of-the-art of recommendation engines used in most e-commerce sites. In this paper, we propose a hybrid method that aims at improving collaborative techniques by means of user profiles that store knowledge about user interests.
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Paper Nr: 648
Title:

ARCHCOLLECT FRONT-END - A Web usage data mining knowledge acquisition mechanism focused on static or dynamic contenting applications
Authors:

Joubert de Castro Lima, Ahmed Esmin, Juvêncio D. Geraldo Moura, Bruno Ferreira and Tiago Carneiro
Abstract: Knowledge acquisition mechanism is essencial to every Web usage mining project and it can be implemented on the user or on all servers configuration. This paper presents a low coupled acquisition mechanism focused on users’ interactions, associated with semantic data, binded to almost all markup languages and with monitored application layout independence. This mechanism acquires knowledge only from the Web browser. It separates the requests: one for the monitored application and the other for the server called ArchCollect, and has a parser that automatically inserts the knowledge acquisition mechanism into the static/dynamic user’s page. Like other acquisition mechanisms, the ArchCollect front-end is scalable since it can deal with massive network traffic, adopting scalable ArchCollect servers or scalable internal components. It is efficient since it reduces drastically the preprocessing, sharing this hard activity with all users, and since it makes no log files interpretation or completation. It is realible since it eliminates browser and server caches problems. This project can collect layout, usage and performance data, providing general application focus, like Srivastava et.al proposed.
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Paper Nr: 650
Title:

FEDERATED MEDIATORS FOR QUERY COMPOSITE ANSWERS
Authors:

Dong Cheng and Nacer Boudjlida
Abstract: The capture, the structuring and the exploitation of the expertise or the capabilities of an “object” (like a business partner, an employee, a software component, a Web site, etc.) are crucial problems in various applications, like cooperative and distributed applications or e-business and e-commerce applications. The work we describe in this paper concerns the advertising of the capabilities or the know-how of an object. The capabilities are structured and organized in order to be used when searching for objects that satisfy a given objective or that meet a given need. One of the originality of our proposal is in the nature of the answers the intended system can return. Indeed, the answers are not Yes/No answers but they may be cooperative answers in that sense that when no single object meets the search criteria, the system attempts to find out what a set of “complementary” objects do satisfy the whole search criteria, every object in the resulting set satisfying part of the criteria. In this approach, Description Logics (DL) is used as a knowledge representation formalism and classification techniques are used as search mechanisms. The determination of the “complementary objects” is founded on the DL complement concept.
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Paper Nr: 651
Title:

HOW TO BUILD A MULTI-MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM - The Agent.Enterprise Approach
Authors:

Tim Stockheim, Jens Nimis, Thorsten Scholz and Marcel Stehli
Abstract: The maturity of technical foundations for multi-agent systems and the support by development tools, infrastructure services, and a number of development methodologies leads to an increasing number of existing multi-agent systems. A more and more networked environment drives the demand for coupling these heterogeneous systems to large multi-multi-agent systems. Unfortunately, the design and implementation steps necessary in this context are currently not supported by established development methodologies; conventional approaches mainly focus on isolated multi-agent systems. In this paper, we present an approach for the integration of heterogeneous multi-agent systems. The Agent.Enterprise system is a coupled multi-multi-agent system that has been designed and tested in the manufacturing logistics domain.
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Paper Nr: 663
Title:

COMBINING ONE-CLASS CLASSIFIERS FOR MOBILE-USER SUBSTITUTION DETECTION
Authors:

Oleksiy Mazhelis and Seppo Puuronen
Abstract: Modern personal mobile devices, as mobile phones, smartphones, and communicators can be easily lost or stolen. Due to the functional abilities of these devices, their use by an unintended person may result in a severe security incident concerning private or corporate data and services. The means of user substitution detection are needed to be able to detect situations when a device is used by a non-legitimate user. In this paper, the problem of user substitution detection is considered as a one-class classification problem where the current user behavior is classified as the one of the legitimate user or of another person. Different behavioral characteristics are to be analyzed independently by dedicated one-class classifiers. In order to combine the classifications produced by these classifiers, a new combining rule is proposed. This rule is applied in a way that makes the outputs of dedicated classifiers independent on the dimensionality of underlying behavioral characteristics. As a result, the overall classification accuracy may improve significantly as illustrated in the simulated experiments presented.
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Paper Nr: 665
Title:

A WIRELESS APPLICATION THAT MONITORS ECG SIGNALS ON-LINE: ARCHITECTURE AND PERFORMANCE
Authors:

Jimena Rodríguez, Lacramioara Dranca, Alfredo Goñi and Arantza Illarramendi
Abstract: In this paper, we present an innovating on-line monitoring system that has been developed by applying new advances in biosensors, mobile devices and wireless technologies. The aim of the system is to monitor people that suffer from heart arrhythmias without having to be hospitalized; and therefore, living a normal life while feeling safe at the same time. On the one hand, the architecture of the system is presented; and, on the other hand, some performance results and implementation details are explained showing how the previous solution can be effectively implemented and deployed into a system that makes use of PDAs, and wireless communications: Bluetooth and GPRS. Moreover, special attention is paid to two aspects: cost of the wireless communications and notification latency for the detected serious heart anomalies.
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Paper Nr: 729
Title:

TURNING THE WEB INTO AN EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORY
Authors:

Luís Veiga and Paulo Ferreira
Abstract: The weight of dynamically generated content versus static content has progressed enormously. Preserving accessibility to this type of content raises new issues. However, there are no large-scale mechanisms to enforce referential integrity in the WWW. We propose a system, comprised of a distributed web-proxy and cache architecture, to access and automatically manage web content, static and dynamically generated. It is combined with an implementation of a cyclic distributed garbage collection algorithm. It is scalable, correctly handles dynamic content, enforces referential integrity on the web, and is complete with regard to minimizing storage waste.
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Paper Nr: 746
Title:

AGENT-ORIENTED DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Authors:

Stéphane Faulkner, Manuel Kolp, T. T. Do and Adrien Coyette
Abstract: Agent architectures are gaining popularity for building open, distributed, and evolving software required by e-commerce applications. Unfortunately, despite considerable work in software architecture during the last decade, few research efforts have aimed at truly defining patterns and languages for agent architectural design. This paper proposes a modern approach based on organizational structures and architectural description languages to define and specify agent architectures notably in the case of e-commerce system design.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 35
Title:

JURISDICTION IN B2C E-COMMERCE REDRESS
Authors:

Chin Eang Ong
Abstract: E-commerce jurisdiction has always been an issue because e-commerce exists in a borderless environment and this e-environment diminishes the importance of physical location and locality. This imposes a great concern over which country’s jurisdiction to engage when disputes occur between business and consumer in the e-environment. This is crucial when the consumer is seeking ‘redress’ as there is always the question as to where a court action should be brought in? The current jurisdictions by the European Commission (EC) within the European Union (EU), The E-commerce Directive – Country of Origin and Rome II are still in the drafting process. These legislations are not the total solution. This paper discusses the issue of current jurisdiction, whether there is a need to call for a single jurisdiction and what complications arise when seeking redress in this borderless e-environment. This paper also raises important issues that relate to the gaps and loopholes that exist in Country of Origin and Rome II.
Paper Nr: 47
Title:

DEVELOPING AN INTRANET AND EXTRANET BUSINESS APPLICATION FOR A LARGE TRAVEL AGENT
Authors:

Robert Shaw and Anthony Atkins
Abstract: This paper outlines an e-business strategy for a large independent Travel Agent with multiple sales channels and business units. The present configuration does not provide a framework for the development of e-business solutions for the travel company. The paper discusses the creation of an infrastructure for the development of the company’s Intranet to integrate its separate business units with Extranet technology using e-business applications. This strategy provides a stable platform and infrastructure capable of supporting the traditional business functions and allowing for development of e-business operations. The paper discusses a number of tools and techniques for strategic development to incorporate e-business sales channels. The most appropriate tools for application to the travel industry are discussed and their application has shown how the travel agent can develop competitive advantage through the use of strategic information systems. The creation of a centralised e-business system, utilising a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is outlined with a predicted cost savings of £1 million per annum. The application of a centralised e-business system supported by the VPN has allowed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to be evaluated. An initial trial using a CRM system gave increased sales of £150,000, which if applied throughout the business would increase sales by £1.2 million.
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Paper Nr: 47
Title:

DEVELOPING AN INTRANET AND EXTRANET BUSINESS APPLICATION FOR A LARGE TRAVEL AGENT
Authors:

Robert Shaw and Anthony Atkins
Abstract: This paper outlines an e-business strategy for a large independent Travel Agent with multiple sales channels and business units. The present configuration does not provide a framework for the development of e-business solutions for the travel company. The paper discusses the creation of an infrastructure for the development of the company’s Intranet to integrate its separate business units with Extranet technology using e-business applications. This strategy provides a stable platform and infrastructure capable of supporting the traditional business functions and allowing for development of e-business operations. The paper discusses a number of tools and techniques for strategic development to incorporate e-business sales channels. The most appropriate tools for application to the travel industry are discussed and their application has shown how the travel agent can develop competitive advantage through the use of strategic information systems. The creation of a centralised e-business system, utilising a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is outlined with a predicted cost savings of £1 million per annum. The application of a centralised e-business system supported by the VPN has allowed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to be evaluated. An initial trial using a CRM system gave increased sales of £150,000, which if applied throughout the business would increase sales by £1.2 million.
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Paper Nr: 71
Title:

MANAGING E-MARKET TRANSACTION PROCESSES - Exploring the limits of process management with a multiagent system
Authors:

John Debenham
Abstract: Knowledge-driven processes are business processes whose execution is determined by the prior knowledge of the agents involved and by the knowledge that emerges during a process instance. They are characteristic of emergent business processes. The amount of process knowledge that is relevant to a knowledge-driven process can be enormous and may include common sense knowledge. If a process’ knowledge can not be represented feasibly then that process can not be managed; although its execution may be partially supported. In an e-market domain, the majority of transactions, including requests for advice and information, are knowledge-driven processes for which the knowledge base is the Internet, and so representing the knowledge is not an issue. These processes are managed by a multiagent system that manages the extraction of knowledge from this base using a suite of data mining bots.
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Paper Nr: 122
Title:

USING INTERACTION PROTOCOLS IN DISTRIBUTED CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
Authors:

Santtu Toivonen, Tapio Pitkäranta, Heikki Helin and Jung Ung Min
Abstract: We present an interaction protocol based approach for facilitating distributed construction processes. In our approach, software agents represent various participants of a construction project. Examples of such are contractor, subcontractor, and supplier. These agents are supposed to communicate according to predefined interaction protocols. Should an agent be unaware of some protocol needed in the process, it benefits from adopting it. We approach this problem with interaction protocol descriptions serialized in a commonly agreed upon format and design our agents so that they can adapt to the descriptions. We present a scenario in the field of construction industry, where the project participants do not know in advance how to communicate with each other. However, by adapting to the interaction protocol descriptions provided by the respective parties they are eventually able to interact.
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Paper Nr: 164
Title:

RESOURCE SHARING AND LOAD BALANCING BASED ON AGENT MOBILITY
Authors:

Gilles Klein, Alexandru Suna and Amal F. Seghrouchni
Abstract: From the recent improvements in network and peer-to-peer technologies and the ever-growing needs for computer might, new ways of sharing resources between users have emerged. These methods are very diverse, from SETI@HOME which is a way to share the load of analysing the data from space in order to find traces of extraterrestrial life, to NAPSTER and its successors, and to Real-time video-games. However, these technologies allow only centralised calculus-sharing, even if they already offer ”peer-to-peer” sharing of data. We present in this paper a method based on Multiagent systems which allow load-sharing between distant users.
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Paper Nr: 177
Title:

FINANCIAL REPORTING: AN INTERNET CLEARINGHOUSE
Authors:

Max M. Gottlieb and Boris Stavrovski
Abstract: The creation of accounting transactions has been changed from a manual to computerized recording. In many operational applications the accounting entries are generated as a byproduct of the underlying transactions (such as sales), thus making it possible to shorten the existing delays in creation of accounting data. Under this method it is possible to issue financial statements monthly or weekly, as opposed to the presently used quarterly and annual periods. Many corporations already generate such financial reports for their internal use, but not for external purposes. Corporations provide the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) with more detailed and supplemental information, in addition to the financial reporting, including sales of their stocks by their officers. Corporations also disclose substantial facts in their press releases and conferences with financial analysts. They are obligated to disclose this information to their shareholders. But how to do it quickly and in a way that small investor could obtain this information at the same time as the institutional investors? It would be advisable to distribute financial reports via an electronic clearinghouse. This method would permit an instant access to the reports and assure that these documents cannot be modified. In the following paragraphs we will review the existing reporting frequency contrasting them with the needs of investors, and describe the generation of accounting transactions. Next, the proposed method of collection and distribution of financial reports as well as their possible analyses by a central electronic clearinghouse will be discussed. Finally, we will explore the need for changes of the attestation standards, describe how to assure the integrity of distributed electronically financial statements, and propose sequence of implementation of the new distribution.
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Paper Nr: 177
Title:

FINANCIAL REPORTING: AN INTERNET CLEARINGHOUSE
Authors:

Max M. Gottlieb and Boris Stavrovski
Abstract: The creation of accounting transactions has been changed from a manual to computerized recording. In many operational applications the accounting entries are generated as a byproduct of the underlying transactions (such as sales), thus making it possible to shorten the existing delays in creation of accounting data. Under this method it is possible to issue financial statements monthly or weekly, as opposed to the presently used quarterly and annual periods. Many corporations already generate such financial reports for their internal use, but not for external purposes. Corporations provide the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) with more detailed and supplemental information, in addition to the financial reporting, including sales of their stocks by their officers. Corporations also disclose substantial facts in their press releases and conferences with financial analysts. They are obligated to disclose this information to their shareholders. But how to do it quickly and in a way that small investor could obtain this information at the same time as the institutional investors? It would be advisable to distribute financial reports via an electronic clearinghouse. This method would permit an instant access to the reports and assure that these documents cannot be modified. In the following paragraphs we will review the existing reporting frequency contrasting them with the needs of investors, and describe the generation of accounting transactions. Next, the proposed method of collection and distribution of financial reports as well as their possible analyses by a central electronic clearinghouse will be discussed. Finally, we will explore the need for changes of the attestation standards, describe how to assure the integrity of distributed electronically financial statements, and propose sequence of implementation of the new distribution.
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Paper Nr: 179
Title:

VIRTUAL ACTIVE IP NODE FOR COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS
Authors:

Francisco Puentes and Victor Carneiro
Abstract: The present document describes the VAIN architecture (Virtual Active IP Node), which enables users to deploy new network services based on virtual active networks, and how it solves the challenge of segmenting the incoming traffic that crosses nodes towards the services, conserving the original objective of independence of the protocol (Tennenhouse,1996). Our solution is based on using network expressions that use all the semantic contained in each incoming packet, which does not need to know the inner structure of the protocols. VAIN architecture has been development to response to challenges outlined by electronic commerce, specifically those regarding to collaborative environments and marketplaces. To achieve this objective we have considered the following goals: first, a three layer conceptualization; second, a transparent implantation and its integration with existing infrastructures; and third, a strategy of network traffic distribution based in all the information within the input packets, which is named “expressions based distribution”.
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Paper Nr: 209
Title:

THE IMPACT OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND COMMUNICATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM - Case Study of NORTH OF PORTUGAL and SOUTH OF GALICIA
Authors:

Manuel Perez Cota, Luis Vilán-Crespo, Jose Paulo Machado Da Costa and Ana Isabel Díez Sánchez.
Abstract: This article intends to synthesize the results obtained by the investigation work done in the North of Portugal, by GEAC - Group of Teaching Attended by Computer, of the Vigo University, under orientation of the PhD. Manuel Pérez Cota. The main objective, in this investigation phase, is to try to identify the teacher's profile, his sensibility for the teaching-learning process based in the technologies, in what way are or not the computer sciences tools used, how, when and where, the knowledge were acquired, in the meaning of computer science, for the teacher, try to identify the decisive causes and the importance of these, for an appropriate use of the computer science in the education process, inside of the your class.
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Paper Nr: 231
Title:

THE PROJECT OF VIRTUAL LABORATORY FOR INFORMAL COMMUNICATION ON GIGABIT NETWORK
Authors:

Yasuo Ebara, Yukinori Goto, Toshihiko Shimokawa, Shinji Yamane, Kenzi Watanabe and Yuko Murayama
Abstract: As the computer network technology has evolved, the Internet has spread out to include variety of users. They get together and create communities on the network, so that virtual relations between people have been emerging. Many such virtual communities use chat rooms, mailing lists and message boards making use of the existing applications. On the other hand, informal communication such as a chat and private conversation during a break at a conference, has been recognized important. We often come across a good idea when having relaxing conversations. In a daily life, we have various environments for informal communications which are necessary for keeping relations with the others even for having better formal communications. However, it is not so easy to have an environment for informal communications in a cyber space on the Internet when only relying on the existing applications. In this research, we try and use some new experimental informal communication tools in our virtual laboratory environment in which several universities are interconnected with Japan Gigabit Networks (JGN) /ATM. First, We have set up a CCD camera at each laboratory and deliver streaming live video to share the environment. Then, we constructed a meeting system using Microsoft Netmeeting and OpenMCU. In addition, we implemented on-door communication systems using the metaphor of a door on WWW as a media for novel types of informal communications. In this paper, We explain the summaries of experimental environment and the supporting applications for informal communications. We also let students to take the main role of communications so that they use tools for their informal communications in a realistic way.
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Paper Nr: 274
Title:

A P2P-BASED INFRASTRUCTURE FOR VIRTUAL-ENTERPRISE’S SUPPLY-CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Authors:

Loris Penserini, Luca Spalazzi and Maurizio Panti
Abstract: This paper proposes and describes a prototype of a peer-to-peer based infrastructure to support virtual enterprise’s supply chain management. Because of a virtual enterprise is composed of autonomous, distributed, and continuously evolving entities, we have naturally modelled each business entity like a peer’s agent platform that can play several roles according to the task to be fulfilled. To this end, we describe and apply such roles, required to the organizational architecture, into a virtual storehouse scenario.
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Paper Nr: 415
Title:

A MODEL OF AGENT ONTOLOGIES FOR B2C E-COMMERCE
Authors:

Domenico Rosaci
Abstract: This paper proposes a formal model of agent ontologies, suitable to represent the realities of both customers and sellers in a B2C electronic commerce scenario. This model is capable of describing the entities involved in the above realities (products, product features, product categories) as well as the behaviour of customers and sellers in performing their activities. A system architecture, based on the presented ontology model, is also briefly described.
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Paper Nr: 437
Title:

INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC INTER-SYSTEMIC CONTRACTING - ISSUES ON CONSENT AND CONTRACT FORMATION
Authors:

Francisco Andrade and José Neves
Abstract: Electronic contracting as an object of legal studies is getting more and more complex. Computers are currently being used not only as a way of searching and processing information, but also as communication tools, as automatic operators and already as a way of developing and accessing new forms of intelligent behaviour through the use of intelligent devices. New ways of electronic contracting have appeared each one with different specifications and ways of operating. The Brazilian legal doctrine has established a way of classifying electronic contracts according to the specific technical way of accomplishing each type of electronic communicating and contracting. For each category, there must be a different analysis relating to the main issue of the formation of contracts – mainly concerning the declaration of will, the expression of intent, the question of knowing whether a contract should be considered to be formed or completed. This issue is particularly problematic as far as Intelligent Electronic Inter-systemic contracting is concerned. The notions of digital signature and Interchange-Agreements may not be sufficient to grant validity to contracts formed not just through the machines, but indeed by the machines. So, it must be analyzed at least two main possibilities of considering the issue of the expression of consent in inter-systemic intelligent transactions: the possibility of considering the electronic devices as mere machines or tools, or the most daring possibility of considering the electronic devices as “legal persons”.
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Paper Nr: 446
Title:

A NETWORK COMPONENT ARCHITECTURE FOR COLLABORATION IN MOBILE SETTINGS
Authors:

Bernd Eßmann, Thorsten Hampel and Thomas Bopp
Abstract: Today Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ) is used in broad areas of human cooperation. With the propagation of radio-based communication and ad hoc networking it may enter new areas of human cooperation. One important aspect is the new quality in CSCW of being independent from special network-enabled places. Another aspect is the more intuitive support of face-to-face cooperation utilizing personal mobile devices. To open this field of collaboration our approach featuring Distributed Cooperative Knowledge Spaces specifically addresses conceptual issues pertaining to the transition from classical, server-centered to mobile, distributed collaboration environments. With this concept we introduce persistent and personal knowledge spaces as well as so-called temporary knowledge areas and groups. Our prototypical application for spontaneous collaboration implements this approach. We are able to draw here on many years of experience in the development and testing of our concept of Cooperative Virtual Knowledge Spaces.
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Paper Nr: 468
Title:

PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK SIMULATION
Authors:

Nyik S. Ting and Ralph Deters
Abstract: Peer-to-Peer (p2p) networks are the latest addition to the already large distributed systems family. With a strong emphasis on self-organization, decentralization and autonomy of the participating nodes, p2p-networks tend to be more scalable, robust and adaptive than other forms of distributed systems. The much-publicized success of p2p-networks for file-sharing and cycle-sharing has resulted in an increased awareness and interest into the p2p protocols and applications. However, p2p-networks are difficult to study due to their size and the complex interdependencies between users, application, protocol and network. This paper has two aims. First, to provide a review of existing p2p-network simulators and to make a case for our own simulator named 3LS (3-Level-Simulator). Second, it presents our current view that there is a need for more realistic/complex models in p2p-network simulation since ignoring the underlying network, topology and/or the behaviour of applications can result in misleading simulation results.
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Paper Nr: 470
Title:

AN ANALYSIS OF VARIATION IN TEACHING EFFORT ACROSS TASKS IN ONLINE AND TRADITIONAL COURSES
Authors:

Gregory Hislop and Heidi Ellis
Abstract: As the role of the internet and internet technologies continues to grow in pace with the rapid growth of online education, faculty activities and tasks are changing to adapt to this increase in web-based instruction. However, little measurable evidence exists to characterize the nature of the differences in teaching effort required for online versus traditional courses. This paper reports on the results of a quantitative study of instructor use of time which investigates not only total time expended, but also examines differences in types of effort. The basis of the study is a comparison of seven comparable pairs of online and traditional course sections where instructors recorded time spent during course instruction for the seven pairs. This paper discusses relevant related work, presents the study motivation and design, discusses how teaching effort varies across different tasks between online and traditional courses, and presents thoughts for future research. The results of this study indicate that instructors of online courses spend more time on direct interaction with students when compared to instructors of traditional courses, but spend less time on other activities such as grading and materials preparation.
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Paper Nr: 478
Title:

ANALYZING OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOURS OF DEVICE ECOLOGY WORKFLOWS
Authors:

Seng Loke and Sea Ling
Abstract: We envision an Internet computational platform of the 21st century that will include device ecologies consisting of collections of devices interacting synergistically with one another, with users, and with Internet resources. We consider device ecology workflows as a type of workflow describing how such devices work together. It would be ideal if one can model the devices in a computer and analyze the effects when such workflows are executed in the device ecology. This paper provides a Petri Net model in terms of workflow nets for analyzing the observable effects of device ecology workflows.
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Paper Nr: 493
Title:

STRATEGIC NEGOTIATION OF BANDWIDTH IN COOPERATIVE NETWORKS
Authors:

Jonathan Bredin
Abstract: We analyze the scenario where a pair of network devices each periodically relies on the other to handle network traffic. Without immediate reward, the forwarding device incurs an opportunity cost in handling the other’s request. We find, however, situations where rational decision makers prefer bandwidth exchange to isolated operation. We base our analysis on a take-or-leave-it protocol inspired by the Rubinstein bargaining model, and extend it to evaluate repeated interaction between pairs of devices.
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Paper Nr: 507
Title:

SEMANTIC SUPPORT FOR AUTOMATED NEGOTIATION WITH ALLIANCES
Authors:

Stanislav Pokraev, Zlatko Zlatev, Rogier Brussee and Pascal Van Eck
Abstract: Companies can form alliances on the Internet to aggregate buying or selling power and create value. More concretely, together resources are shared or new possibilities are exploited that cannot be exploited individually. Most alliances are formed as a result of a negotiation process between the companies that form an alliance. This paper proposes a software framework that enables automated negotiation between alliances. Our framework allows for the semantic description of negotiation objects and their attributes, and provides a mean for the exchange of negotiation messages unambiguously interpretable by all parties involved. The proposed framework supports ad-hoc alliances by allowing parties with a common interest to negotiate on the proposal they want to make to other market participants first.
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Paper Nr: 582
Title:

INTRODUCING AN OPERATIONAL AND TECHONOLOGICAL E-COMMERCE FRAMEWORK FOR EUROPEAN SMES - Designing regional and interegional e-commerce zones for SMEs in four Less Favoured European Regions (LFRs) based on Request Based Virtual Organisation (RBVO) concept
Authors:

Achilleas Balatos, Kostas Petropoulos, Ioannis Ignatiadis, Vladislav Jivkov and Markus Lüken
Abstract: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represent the driving force for local development and growth in European Less Favoured Regions (LFRs); geographical isolated areas characterized by poor business performance and a less developed and privileged economy. The introduction of e-commerce is considered as an essential element for improvement of local SME’s competitiveness and position in the Global Market, supporting simultaneously these regions to overcome their geographical limitations and follow up international business trends. In the context of the IST-2001-33251 LAURA project, the potential for regional and interregional e-commerce development has been analysed in four European LFRs (Epirus, Messinia, Saxony-Anhalt, and South Central Bulgaria). Based on these results and adopting the notion of a specific type of Virtual Organisation taxonomy (Request Based Virtual Organisation - RBVO), we present an operational and technological e-commerce framework adapted to the specific context of LFRs. The paper outlines the core identified factors that will influence the introduction and the effect of e-commerce in Less Favoured Regions.
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Paper Nr: 600
Title:

SOFTWARE AGENTS FOR SUPPORTING STUDENT TEAM PROJECT WORK
Authors:

Janice Whatley
Abstract: In this paper an agent system is described, which has been designed to support students undertaking team projects as part of their studies on campus or online. Team projects form an important part of the learning process for campus based students, but are not easily incorporated into the learning activities for online students. The particular problems of working on projects in teams are explored, and an agent system was designed to support some of the maintenance tasks of team working. Agent technology is suggested because of the ease of communication between software agents and their autonomy in operation. The agent system has been tested on student teams working on campus, and the results indicate that this type of support agent may be helpful to students. The modified version of the agent system was successfully implemented, and the trial suggests that it may be scaled up to use over the Internet to support online student teams.
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Paper Nr: 606
Title:

CUSTOMIZABLE DATA DISTRIBUTION FOR SYNCHRONOUS GROUPWARE
Authors:

Stephan Lukosch
Abstract: The state of a groupware application must be shared to support interactions between collaborating users. There have been a lot of discussions about the best distribution scheme for the state of a groupware application. Many existing groupware platforms support only one distribution scheme, e.g. a replicated or a central scheme, and apply the selected scheme to the entire application. None of these schemes fits well for every groupware application. Different applications and even single applications have different requirements concerning data distribution. This paper describes DreamObjects, a development platform that simplifies the development of shared data objects. DreamObjects supports a variety of distribution schemes which can be applied per shared data object. Additionally, it offers an interface that developers can use to introduce their own distribution schemes.
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Paper Nr: 653
Title:

A DYNAMIC AGGREGATION MECHANISM FOR AGENT-BASED SERVICES
Authors:

Makram Bouzid , Jerome Picault and David Bonnefoy
Abstract: At a time when the web is switching from a data-oriented view to a service-oriented view, we can envision an environment where services are dynamically and automatically combined to solve new problems that one single service cannot solve. Agent technology provides a good basis for creating such an environment but many issues remain to be solved. This paper presents a step towards a dynamic service aggregation mechanism, introducing a pragmatic approach and an implementation. This work was carried out in the context of the Agentcities.RTD project.
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Paper Nr: 655
Title:

CAN AVATARS REPLACE THE TRAINER? - A case study evaluation
Authors:

Ahmad Kamil Mahmood and Elaine Ferneley

Abstract: E-learning implementations have become an important agenda item for academic and business institutions as an enabler to complement their education and training needs. However, many of the existing e-learning systems, present several limitations such as them being static, passive and consisting of a time-consuming set of services. This has highlighted the need for functionality, which allows more creativity, autonomy, and flexibility on behalf of the learner. The inclusion of avatar technology in e-learning environments has been of growing interest, aiming to encourage the learner to become more engaged and motivated whilst augmenting the use of human trainers. However, the empirical investigations on the effect of animated agents in teaching and learning has revealed diverse results in a continuum from avatars being helpful to them being distracting. This research has evaluated the utility of avatars. Unusually, the research has chosen a qualitative, interpretive approach with supporting case study data as the chosen research methodology. The justification for this research approach will be made and the initial findings will be presented together with a proposed conceptual framework.
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Paper Nr: 672
Title:

BulB – VISUALISING BULLETIN BOARD ACTIVITY
Authors:

Rehman Mohamed, John Ferguson, David Elsweiler, Alasdair Mac Cormack, John Wilson and George Weir
Abstract: Visualisation is well known as an effective means of enriching user interaction with complex systems. Recent research with online communities has considered the application of visualisation tool support, with the intention of further improving communication between community members. This paper reviews existing work in this area with specific reference to the application of visualisation to improve user interaction within online forums such as bulletin boards. The paper then outlines work undertaken by the authors to develop a second-generation visualisation tool - ‘BulB’.
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Paper Nr: 685
Title:

EVALUATION OF RECENT RESEARCH IN MOBILE AGENT PLATFORMS FOR MOBILE DEVICES
Authors:

Qusay Mahmoud, Zhujun Xu and Xining Li
Abstract: Most mobile devices such as cell phones suffer from limited computational resources as well as a small display size in which to present information to the user. In addition, the wireless environment that devices operate in suffers from limited bandwidth and frequent network disconnections. Mobile agents, which as software entities that are capable of roaming the network, do not need much bandwidth. This makes mobile agents a promising mechanism for the mobile devices. In this paper, we report on recent research that has been carried out in the area of mobile agents for mobile devices; we classify the several agent platforms that have been developed according to their underlining approaches and we discuss their advantages and disadvantages as well as limitations and concerns for embedded mobile agent platforms. In addition, we present directions for future direction in this area. To conclude, limitation and concerns for embedded mobile agent platforms are discussed.
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Paper Nr: 692
Title:

ON ONTOLOGY MATCHING PROBLEMS - for building a corporate Semantic Web in a multi-communities organization
Authors:

Thanh L. Bach, Rose Dieng-kuntz and Fabien Gandon
Abstract: Ontologies are nowadays used in many domains such as Semantic Web, information systems… to represent meaning of data and data sources. In the framework of knowledge management in an heterogeneous organization, the materialization of the organizational memory in a “corporate semantic web” may require to integrate the various ontologies of the different groups of this organization. To be able to build a corporate semantic web in an heterogeneous, multi-communities organization, it is essential to have methods for comparing, aligning, integrating or mapping different ontologies. This paper proposes a new algorithm for matching two ontologies based on all the information available about the given ontologies (e.g. their concepts, relations, information about the structure of each hierarchy of concepts, or of relations), applying TF/IDF scheme (a method widely used in the information retrieval community) and integrating WordNet (an electronic lexical database) in the process of ontology matching.
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Paper Nr: 696
Title:

A RECOMMENDATION BASED FRAMEWORK FOR ONLINE PRODUCT CONFIGURATION
Authors:

Nikos Karacapilidis and Thomas Leckner
Abstract: Adopting a mass customization strategy, enterprises often enable customers to specify their individual product wishes by using web based configurator tools. With such tools, customers can interactively and virtually create their own instance of a product. However, customers are not usually supported in a comprehensive way during the configuration process, thus facing problems such as complexity, uncertainty, and lack of knowledge. To address the above issue, this paper presents a framework that aids customers in selecting and specifying individualized products by exploiting recommendations. Having first focused on the characteristics of configurator tools and the principles of model-based configuration, we then introduce the concept of masks for product models. The main contribution of this paper is the proposal of an integrated approach for supporting model-based product configurator tools by similarity-based recommendations. Our approach in providing recommendations has been based on the widely accepted theory of Fuzzy Sets and its associated concept of similarity measures, while recommendations provided are based on the processes of stereotype definitions and dynamic customer clustering.
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Paper Nr: 768
Title:

TOOLKITS SUPPORTING OPEN INNOVATION IN E-GOVERNMENT
Authors:

Alexander Felfernig, Christian Russ and Manfred Wundara
Abstract: Today there exists a variety of efforts to bring public administration closer to its customers (citizens, entrepreneurs, etc.). This paper investigates the concept of open innovation, i.e. the integration of the customer into the product creation process of a company, w.r.t. its applicability in the area of e-government. The concept of open innovation is well known within the context of mass customizing products and services, i.e. production and selling of customer-individual products and services under mass production pricing conditions. The authors show how approaches from the area of artificial intelligence can be applied as tools for open innovation in e-government.
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Paper Nr: 771
Title:

FORMATION AND FULFILLMENT OF ELECTRONIC CONTRACTS IN ICS
Authors:

Nathalia S. Oliveira, Sofiane Labidi, Edson Nascimento and Carlos R. Baluz
Abstract: This work is part of the ICS project (Intelligent Commerce System) whose aim is to design and implement an effective B2B E-commerce system based on mobile and intelligent agents. The ICS lifecycle is based on five phases: User Modeling, Matchmaking, Negotiation, Contract Formation and Contract Fulfillment. We propose here an automated process for the Contract Formation and Fulfillment phases. We propose ontology for sharing knowledge between agents that participate in the configuration process of contract, besides a repository to store contract templates and contract instances. For managing the contract fulfillment, a Temporal Workflow and active rules based on ECA paradigm of Active Database System are applied in order to develop this process.
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Paper Nr: 774
Title:

E-SERVICES IN MISSION-CRITICAL ORGANIZATIONS: IDENTIFICATION ENFORCEMENT
Authors:

Carlos Costa, José Luis Oliveira and Augusto Silva
Abstract: The increasing dependency of enterprise on IT has rise up major concerns on security technology and procedures. Access control mechanisms, which are the core of most security policies, are mostly based on PIN and, some times, in Public Key Cryptography (PKC). Despite these techniques can be already broadly disseminated, the storage and retrieval of security secrets is yet a sensitive and open issue for organization and users. One possible solution can be provided by the utilization of smart cards to store digital certificates and private keys. However, there are special organizations where even this solution does not solve the security problems. When users deal with sensible data and it is mandatory to prevent the delegation of access privileges to third persons new solutions must be provided. In this case the access to the secrets can be enforced by a three-factor scheme: the possession of the token, the knowledge of a PIN code and the fingerprint validation. This paper presents a Professional Information Card system that dynamically combines biometrics with PKC technology to assure a stronger authentication that can be used indistinctly in Internet and Intranet scenarios. The system was designed to fulfill current mission-critical enterprises access control requirements, and was deployed, as a proof of concept, in a Healthcare Information System of a major Portuguese Hospital.
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Paper Nr: 885
Title:

GRIDBLOCKS – WEB PORTAL AND CLIENT FOR DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
Authors:

Juho Karppinen, Marko Niinimaki, John White and Tapio Niemi
Abstract: GridBlocks is an architecture and a reference implementation of a distributed computing platform for heterogenous computer clusters. It can be used when there is a need to analyze vast amounts of data that is stored in a distributed fashion. The computing and storage resources can be used both by a Web interface or by a standalone Java client. Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI) is used for secure authentication and communication.
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Paper Nr: 891
Title:

A CONTENT ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE FOR CONSUMER-TO-BUSINESS E-COMMERCE
Authors:

Joshua H. Greenberg, Douglas Dankel II and Borko Furht
Abstract: Consumer-to-Business (C2B) systems represent the future of eCommerce. Using natural language as a basis, and remaining keenly aware of its potential pitfalls, we describe a software specific communication model based on a new concept called Content Biased Language (CBL). It is shown that the requirements of a C2B system cannot be satisfied with anything less than the stretchability of a CBL. Once this fact has been established, the remainder of this paper discusses a representation for a CBL, as well as an architecture for utilizing that representation. This effort results in the description of a new software quality measure called stretchability, as well as the introduction of perspective domain graphs (PDGs), external open ontological type systems (EOOTS), and global and constituent systems. Finally, the discussion closes with the definition of a new distributed system design called the Content Oriented Architecture (COA).
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Paper Nr: 36
Title:

E-ENTERPRISE: AWARENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF TRANSPARENT FACTORY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
Authors:

Gobbi Ramasamy, Abu Hassan Darussman, Manimaran B, S. H. Chua, Shanmugavel S and Josia A.
Abstract: Three strategies, which denoted as M3A, Management Automation, Marketing Automation and Manufacturing Automation have to be jointly incorporated to confront the more competitive market. An answer to these needs, transparent factory (TF), which is an open automation framework, based on internet technologies that provide seamless communication between plant floor and business system has been introduced by Schneider Electric. Despite the good work and technology introduced, the acceptance is only significant in United States, Europe and Africa. Hence, this paper is to look into the awareness of the TF in South East Asia (SEA) in particular. A particular reference to oil & gas plant in Indonesia, which had the system implemented recently, and a waste treatment plant in Malaysia will be highlighted in this paper.
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Paper Nr: 206
Title:

AN AGENT ARCHITECTURE FOR STEEL PRODUCT BUSINESS NETWORKS
Authors:

Heli Helaakoski, Janne Kipinä and Harri Haapasalo
Abstract: Networked manufacturing enterprises are now moving towards more open information exchange for integrating their activities with those of their suppliers, customers and partners within wide supply chain networks. Therefore there has been increasing need for software systems to support business networks. This paper introduces SteelNet agent architecture, which facilitates a real collaboration of companies by enabling a seamless information and material flow in a business network. Different operations of order-delivery process in the network have been modelled as agents that are able to collaborate with each other. The SteeNet agent architecture is a basis for a prototype that handles the operations of manufacturing steel products in a supply chain.
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Paper Nr: 232
Title:

EGOVERNMENT MATURITY MODEL (EGMM)
Authors:

Hossein Safari, Moslehi A., Mohammadian A., Farazmand E., Haki K. and Khoshsima G.
Abstract: eGovernment has been defined as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled route to good governance. eGovernment is an evolutionary path that its effective implementation requires a complete understanding of constituting elements and at the same time taking a holistic view to stay focused on its overall objectives. This paper introduces a new heuristic model that could be used to measure eGovernment maturity called “eGovernment Maturity Model” (eGMM). eGMM has five levels of maturity encompassing varying degree of initiatives, from the lowest to the highest. Stages include close, readiness, develop, manage, and seamless. In this model two aspects are considered: eService maturity and plan maturity.
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Paper Nr: 259
Title:

CONNECTING VIRTUAL SPACES - Shadow Objects as key elements for weaving the cooperative space
Authors:

Thomas Bopp, Thorsten Hampel and Bernd Eßmann
Abstract: Cooperative knowledge areas are a well-proved approach to support process of cooperative work and E-Learning. The Paderborn Open-Source system sTeam establishes cooperative knowledge spaces so far as a single server implementation. This paper presents our architecture of distributed cooperative knowledge areas. The main conceptual idea of the sTeam system is a combination of a document management system and a MUD. The goal of a distributed architecture of cooperative knowledge spaces is the ability to create one world of connected virtual knowledge spaces over various servers. Something, which is especially important, when thinking of new scenarios of integrating peer-to-peer clients into a multi-server architecture. Distributed knowledge spaces also have to cover concepts for a multi-server group and user management, which allow to move users transparently from one server to another. Materials should be structured independently of their location on a server. The following paper first discusses the idea of structuring a virtual world into zones or areas, which is also found in multi-user virtual environments. After that our architecture of distributed cooperative knowledge areas is presented. In the field of user management two different approaches of a peer-to-peer and master-server group and user-management are possible and discussed in detail. Our trial implementation will be a fusion of both concepts and prototypes.
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Paper Nr: 265
Title:

ADAPTIVE AGENTS FOR SUPPLY NETWORKS
Authors:

Gavin Finnie and Jeff Barker
Abstract: Dynamic information flow in esupply networks requires that buyers and suppliers have the ability to react rapidly when needed. Using intelligent agents to automate the process of buyer/seller interaction has been proposed by a number of researchers. One problem in providing intelligent automated collaboration is incorporating learning capability i.e. an agent should be capable of adapting it’s behaviour as conditions change. This paper proposes a scalable multi-agent system which uses case-based reasoning as a framework for at least part of its intelligence. Tests with a simulated system show that such an agent is capable of learning the best supplier and also capable of adapting if supply conditions change.
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Paper Nr: 284
Title:

PRINCIPLES FOR CREATING WEB SITES: A DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
Authors:

Carlos Costa, Pedro Costa and Manuela Aparício
Abstract: The importance of aesthetics is frequently forgotten, in order to solve this problem, we identified in the literature some of the theory that is underlying graphic design, gestalt theory and multimedia design. Based in the literature review, we proposed principles for web site design. We also present a tool to evaluate web design.
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Paper Nr: 394
Title:

LEARNING PROCESSES AND THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGICAL NETWORKS AS AN INNOVATIVE CHALLENGE
Authors:

Alberto Carneiro
Abstract: This paper intends to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the role and the value of technological networks in learning processes, whose integration can enhance enterprise performance. Considering that the adequate combination of some variables, as IT, Internet, Intranet, computers, Information Systems and teamwork’s' activities may modify drastically organisations’ behaviour, a conceptual model for the optimisation of enterprises’ performance as a function of technological networks is suggested.
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Paper Nr: 429
Title:

DEPENDABILITY OF LOCATION-BASED SERVICES: A LARGELY OVERLOOKED ASPECT
Authors:

Artem Katasonov
Abstract: There is obvious lack of attention to the dependability issues in literature on location-based services (LBS). Both researchers and practitioners were so far too much concerned with the questions about what useful features an LBS should have, while almost completely leaving out the questions about how to assure such basic properties as reliability or response accuracy. However, LBSs are applications that require high dependability, as we argue in this paper, so assuring those is both more critical and more difficult than usually. We discuss the existence of this disagreement between the actual importance of LBS dependability and the level of attention towards it among practitioners and researchers. We also identify and briefly discuss the major factors influencing dependability of LBSs, namely the quality of content, software reliability, algorithms appropriateness, interface quality, and communication quality.
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Paper Nr: 445
Title:

INTEGRATING DESIGN DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS USING THE ROSETTANET E-BUSINESS FRAMEWORK
Authors:

Paavo Kotinurmi, Hannu Laesvuori, Katrine Jokinen and Timo Soininen
Abstract: E-business frameworks providing standards and specifications that aim at enabling integrating the enterprise applications of business partners with relative ease have been recently proposed. This paper reports on experiences gained from developing a prototype system for integrating design document management systems based on the RosettaNet e-business framework. We present the requirements for the prototype, extracted from a case study of a product development network, and the design and implementation of the system. We then discuss the experiences gained in the light of the feasibility of applying such frameworks and their supporting technologies as foundations for e-business. The RosettaNet e-business framework was found to be relatively easy to implement and use. However, the RosettaNet specifications for product development processes and the related business document definitions, e.g. for design document delivery, are not sufficient in all respects. As a consequence, two implementations of the same RosettaNet standard process may be incompatible, and thus the aim of providing easy integration may fail. Furthermore, the effort required to build the system and fill in the missing parts in RosettaNet to integrate the product design activities may risk the goal of easy integration.
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Paper Nr: 460
Title:

FLOW-ORIENTED DEPLOYMENT OF A MULTI-AGENT POPULATION FOR DYNAMIC WORKFLOW ENACTMENT - A different view on how to use agents for workflow management
Authors:

Sebastian Kanzow, Karim Djouani and Yacine Amirat
Abstract: In the virtual enterprise paradigm, workflow processes are shared between different businesses partners, leading to new requirements for workflow management applications. Several multi-agent systems have been proposed to cope with their inherently distributed nature. Most of those systems define agents as some kind of helper programs situated on (human) resource level, instantiated on some workflow participant’s personal computer. We argue that this concept is not adequate and propose an approach to create and deploy agents on a virtual flow level, where one agent takes care of one workflow sub-process, instead of attaching one or more agents to an existing resource. Finally, we present a probabilistic classification approach to decide on the assignment of tasks to agents.
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Paper Nr: 492
Title:

MGAIA: EXTENDING THE GAIA METHODOLOGY TO MODEL MOBILE AGENT SYSTEMS
Authors:

Weanna Sutandiyo, Mohan B. Chhetri, Seng Loke and Shonali Krishnaswamy
Abstract: Mobile agents are a class of software agents that have the ability to move from host to host and are particularly relevant for mobile and distributed applications. The development of several mobile agent implementation environments has necessitated conceptual modelling techniques for mobile agent applications. In this paper, we present mGaia, our extension of the Gaia Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodology to model mobile agent systems.
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Paper Nr: 621
Title:

MODELLING MOBILE AGENT APPLICATIONS BY EXTENDED UML ACTIVITY DIAGRAM
Authors:

Miao Kang and Kenji Taguchi
Abstract: Mobile agent technology has gained increasing importance in recent years. However, little work has been done in defining notations/languages to capture and model mobile agent applications. This paper presents extensions of UML activity diagrams for modelling mobile agent applications, which capture specific features of mobile agents such as mobility, cloning and communications.
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Paper Nr: 643
Title:

DESIGNING QUALITY WEB APPLICATIONS USING PATTERNS
Authors:

Stephanos M. Mavromoustakos and Andreas Andreou
Abstract: Patterns are commonly utilized by Web developers for reusability purposes. However, this paper shows how Web patterns can also enhance the quality of Web applications. Firstly, Web quality is divided into five major components, namely usability, functionality, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability. Secondly, the relationship of these quality components with certain Web patterns is demonstrated and a set of guidelines for designing quality Web applications using these patterns is proposed. A successful Web site is then used as a case- study to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed guidelines. The Web patterns utilized by the site under study are identified and matched with the proposed list of patterns. Finally, we investigated how these patterns contribute to the success of the specific Web application.
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Paper Nr: 682
Title:

A WEB-ENABLED MOBILE AGENT PLATFORM FOR E-COMMERCE AND M-COMMERCE - “The Havana Platform”
Authors:

Leslie Yu and Qusay Mahmoud
Abstract: A side effect to our increasingly information-driven economy and lifestyle is the annoyance and headaches of information overload. Everywhere we go, we are bombarded by email, spam, online advertisements, beepers beeping, cell phones ringing, and incoming SMS messages. The wealth of information available at our fingertips online is both a blessing and a curse in disguise. This paper presents the Havana mobile agent platform, which can be integrated with the existing Web infrastructure, designed to be used for e-commerce and m-commerce applications. The platform features some unique characteristics such as its business model where all participants are locked in business contracts. With the aid of user location information, mobile agents are deployed to engage in the process of wading through the mountains of information online in order to comparison shop on behalf of the user while filtering out irrelevant information.
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Paper Nr: 728
Title:

SOLVING TRANSACTIONAL CONTROL IN CURRENT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORKS
Authors:

Vitor Roque, José Luis Oliveira and Rui P. Lopes
Abstract: Policy Based Network Management has been presented as a paradigm for efficient and customisable management systems. The IETF has provided a framework to describe the concept but some aspects still open like transactional control. In fact transactional control mechanisms are receiving today great attention in the scope of network management. In here, we identify the lacks of current management paradigms concerning transactional control and we propose a policy-based network management system that allows specify operations over aggregations of agents and that provides high-level atomic transactions.
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Paper Nr: 735
Title:

COMPOSITION OF WEB SERVICES IN THE ICS ARCHITECTURE
Authors:

Carlos R. Baluz, Sofiane Labidi, R. F. Tomaz, B. Wanghon and Nathalia S. Oliveira
Abstract: This paper proposes the use of the Web Services Composition to enhance the matchmaking process acctually in use within the ICS (Intelligent Commerce System), a Business-to-Business e-commerce system. The actual matchmaking process used in the ICS considers only single services and may return a high number of false-negative results. The new approach aims to reduce the number of false-negative results through the composition of existing single services to obtain new functionality.
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Paper Nr: 749
Title:

A WEB-BASED TIME BOOKING FRAMEWORK
Authors:

Liping Zhao and Abdelgadir Ibrahim
Abstract: A framework can be viewed as a design schema from which application systems derive. Application systems of a framework are called instantiations of the framework and collectively form a product family. The article describes the development of a web-based time booking framework. The development consists of three main stages: meta level design, framework level design and application instantiation. The article illustrates, through the development of a car hiring application system, that once the framework is in place, instantiating an application system only requires a few simple steps.
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Paper Nr: 861
Title:

CONTEXT AWARE COLLABORATION IN ENTERPRISES
Authors:

Harish Kammanahalli, Srividya Gopalan, Sridhar V and Krithi Ramamritham
Abstract: Providing the most relevant information at the most appropriate time at the most appropriate location helps in improving the overall enterprise productivity. In this paper, we discuss the various aspects of a context and the ways and means of tracking the same so as to exploit the most recent and expectedly accurate description of the business situation in delivering the information to assist in collaboration. Further, we discuss the role of data and app grids in meeting the real-time delivery requirements.
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Paper Nr: 888
Title:

TOWARDS AN INFORMATION ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR USE WITH THE SEMANTIC WEB
Authors:

Heidi Ellis, Gregory Hislop and Todd Kowalczyk
Abstract: The extension of the existing Web with meaningful information to form the Semantic Web holds great potential for allowing applications to carry out much more sophisticated tasks than supported by the current Web. As part of carrying out these tasks, Semantic Web applications must access and integrate information from a variety of sources including databases, services, programs, sensors, personal devices, etc. The ability of Semantic Web applications to dynamically assess this information with respect to its trustworthiness and quality is a key contribution to the successful completion of tasks. In addition, increasing interest in the research areas of security and information assurance highlight the need for an information assessment framework for the Semantic Web that incorporates aspects of trust and information quality as both of these aspects are necessary components to information security and electronic commerce. This paper presents a research agenda for the development of an information assessment framework encompassing information quality and trust management or trust agency for the Semantic Web.
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Paper Nr: 914
Title:

OBJECT-PROCESS METHODOLOGY APPLIED TO AGENT DESIGN
Authors:

Zoheir Ezziane
Abstract: As computer systems become ever more complex, we need more powerful abstractions and metaphors to explain their operations. System development shows that designing and building agent systems is a difficult task, which is associated with building traditional distributed, concurrent systems. Understanding natural, artificial, and social systems requires a well-founded, yet intuitive methodology that is capable of modeling these complexities in a coherent, straightforward manner. Object-Process Methodology (OPM) is a system development and specification approach that combines the major system aspects (function, structure, and behavior), into an integrated single model. This paper will provide a paradigm for designing agent systems using the object-process methodology. It aims to identify design concepts, and to indicate how they interact with each other.
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Rejecteds
Paper Nr: 258
Title:

Privacy Enforcement Embedded in Mobile Services
Authors:

Ronald Van Eijk, Peter Ebben, Alfons Salden and Mortaza Bargh
Abstract: Next generation mobile services in business-to-employee (B2E) settings put very high demands on the privacy protection features of context-aware, personalization and adaptation enabling technologies. To this end we propose a middle agent framework that allows parties to securely exchange personal or business sensitive contextual information independently of the available networks. In order to demonstrate our privacy enforcing middle agent framework, we build a scheduling service, in which the middle agents collectively arrange an update of a meeting between employees by adapting location and time on the basis of privacy and scheduling policies of the traveling employees themselves or the companies they work for. We developed and deployed this scheduling service on a LEAP agent platform and used a PDA to communicate with the middle agents on the server using WLAN and GPRS networks.

Area 5 - Human-Computer Interaction

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 204
Title:

ASSESSMENT OF E-LEARNING SATISFACTION FROM CRITICAL INCIDENTS PERSPECTIVE
Authors:

Nian-shing Chen, Kan-Min Lin and No N. Kinshuk
Abstract: Understanding learner satisfaction and its factors is very important for E-learning quality development. In this study, we describe an E-learning satisfaction assessment model based on the negative critical incidents perspective and examine if critical incidents affect E-learning satisfaction. The model is tested using an empirical study of 230 online learners at NSYSU Cyber-University. The results show that the model is valid and it can provide 71% of explanatory power for overall cumulative satisfaction for E-learning in our empirical case. The critical incidents that affect E-learning satisfaction can be classified into four categories: administration, functionality, instruction and interaction. Among them, interaction and functionality are found to be the most important factors.
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Paper Nr: 213
Title:

CABA2 L A BLISS PREDICTIVE COMPOSITION ASSISTANT FOR AAC COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE
Authors:

Nicola Gatti and Matteo Matteucci
Abstract: In order to support the residual communication capabilities of verbal impaired peoples softwares allowing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) have been developed. AAC communication software aids provide verbal disables with an electronic table of AAC languages (i.e. Bliss, PCS, PIC, etc.) symbols in order to compose messages, exchange them via email, or vocally synthetize them, and so on. A current open issue, in thins kind of software, regards human-computer interaction in verbal impaired people suffering motor disorders. They can adopt only ad-hoc input device, such as buttons or switches, which require an intelligent automatic scansion of the AAC symbols table in order to compose messages. In such perspective we have developed C A BA2 L an innovative composition assistant exploiting an user linguistic behavior model adopting a semantic/probabilistic approach for predictive Bliss symbols scansion. C A BA 2 L is based on an original discrete implementation of auto-regressive hidden Markov model called DAR-HMM and it is able to predict a list of symbols as the most probable ones according to both the previous selected symbol and the semantic categories associated to the symbols. We have implemented the composition assistant as a component of BL I S S 2003 an AAC communication software centered on Bliss language and experimentally validated it with both synthetic and real data.
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Paper Nr: 263
Title:

MANAGING EMOTIONS IN SMART USER MODELS FOR RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS
Authors:

Gustavo González, Beatriz Lopez and Josep Lluís De La Rosa
Abstract: Our research focuses on the development of methodologies that take into account the human factor in user models. There is an obvious link between personality traits and user preferences - both being indications of default tendencies in behavior, that can be automated by systems that recommend items to a user. In this work, we define an emotional component for Smart User Models and provide a methodology to build and manage it. The methodology contemplates the acquisition of the emotional component, the use of emotions in a recommendation process and the updating of the Smart User Model according to the recommendation feedback. The methodology is illustrated with a case study.
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Paper Nr: 264
Title:

A METHODOLOGY FOR INTERFACE DESIGN FOR OLDER ADULTS
Authors:

Mary Zajicek
Abstract: This paper puts forward a new design method based upon Alexandrian patterns for interface design for particular user groups. The author has created a set of interface design patterns for speech systems for older adults with the aim of supporting the dynamic diversity in this group. The patterns themselves reflect a significant body of research work with this user group uncovering important information about how they interact with speech systems. The design knowledge embedded in these patterns is therefore closely linked to knowledge about the user and enables interface designers to clarify which users are excluded from their software.
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Paper Nr: 271
Title:

DEFECTS, USEFULNESS AND USABILITY OF ETHICS THEORIES IN IS ETHICS EDUCATION
Authors:

Tero Vartiainen and Mikko T. Siponen
Abstract: Computer ethics is recognized as an essential component of information systems curricula. However, little is known about how students perceive the usefulness and usability of ethics theories in solving computer-related moral conflicts, and what kinds of mistakes they make in solving moral problems by applying those theories. To fill this gap, an interpretive qualitative and quantitative study (n=20) was conducted to determine the defects, perceived usefulness and usability of alternative ethics theories (utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics, prima-facie principles, Rawls' veil of ignorance) in computer ethics teaching. The results shed a new light on the use of these theories in this field of education, and also suggest new directions for it.
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Paper Nr: 515
Title:

AUTOMATIC NAVIGATION AMONG MOBILE DTV SERVICES
Authors:

Chengyuan Peng and Petri Vuorimaa
Abstract: Limited number of input buttons on a mobile device, such as mobile phones and PDAs, restricts people’s access to digital broadcast services. In this paper, we present a reinforcement learning approach to automatically navigating among services in mobile digital television systems. Our approach uses standard Q-learning algorithm as a theory basis to predict next button for the user by learning usage patterns from interaction experiences. We did the experiment using a modified algorithm in test system. The experimental results demonstrate that the performance is good and the method is feasible and appropriate in practice.
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Paper Nr: 628
Title:

ROBUST SPOKEN DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL BASED ON MULTILINGUAL SUBPHONETIC SEGMENT RECOGNITION
Authors:

Shi-Wook Lee, Kazuyo Tanaka and Yoshiaki Itoh
Abstract: This paper describes the development and application of a subphonetic segment recognition system for spoken document retrieval. Following from the development of an open-vocabulary spoken document retrieval system, where the retrieval process is accomplished in the symbolic domain by measuring the distance between the parts of subphonetic segment results from pattern recognition in the acoustic domain, the system proposed here performs matching based on subphonetic segment as more basic unit than the semantic unit. As such, the system is not constrained by vocabulary or grammar, and can be readily extended to multilingual tasks. This paper presents the proposed spoken document retrieval system including the proposed subphonetic segment recognition scheme, and evaluates the performance and feasibility of the system through experimental application to multilingual retrieval tasks.
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Paper Nr: 634
Title:

A CONTACT RECOMMENDER SYSTEM FOR A MEDIATED SOCIAL MEDIA
Authors:

Michel Plu, Layda Agosto, Laurence Vignollet and Jean-charles Marty
Abstract: Within corporate intranet or on the WWW, a global search engine is the main service used to discover and sort information. Nevertheless, even the most "intelligent" ones have great difficulties to select those targeted to each user specific needs and preferences. We have built a mediated social media named SoMeONe, which helps people to control their information exchanges through trusted relationships. A key component of this system is a contact recommender, which helps people to open their relationship networks by exchanging targeted information with qualified new users. Instead of using only matching between interests of users, this "socially aware" recommender system also takes into account existing relationships in the social network of the system. In this paper, we describe the computations of those recommendations based on a social network analysis.
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Paper Nr: 656
Title:

EMOTION SYNTHESIS IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS
Authors:

Amaryllis Raouzaiou, Kostas Karpouzis and Stefanos Kollias
Abstract: Man-Machine Interaction (MMI) systems that utilize multimodal information about users' current emotional state are presently at the forefront of interest of the computer vision and artificial intelligence communities. Interfaces with human faces expressing emotions may help users feel at home when interacting with a computer because they are accepted as the most expressive means for communicating and recognizing emotions. Thus, emotion synthesis can enhance the atmosphere of a virtual environment and communicate messages far more vividly than any textual or speech information. In this paper, we present an abstract means of description of facial expressions, by utilizing concepts included in the MPEG-4 standard to synthesize expressions using a reduced representation, suitable for networked and lightweight applications.
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Paper Nr: 675
Title:

ACCESSIBILITY AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS
Authors:

António Ramires Fernandes , Jorge R. Pereira and José C. Campos
Abstract: Internet accessibility for the visually impaired community is still an open issue. Guidelines have been issued by the W3C consortium to help web designers to improve web site accessibility. However several studies show that a significant percentage of web page creators are still ignoring the proposed guidelines. Several tools are now available, general purpose, or web specific, to help visually impaired readers. But is reading a web page enough? Regular sighted users are able to scan a web page for a particular piece of information at high speeds. Shouldn’t visually impaired readers have the same chance? This paper discusses some features already implemented to improve accessibility and presents a user feedback report regarding the AudioBrowser, a talking browser. Based on the user feedback the paper also suggests some avenues for future work in order to make talking browsers and screen readers compatible.
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Paper Nr: 779
Title:

PERSONALISED RESOURCE DISCOVERY SEARCHING OVER MULTIPLE REPOSITORY TYPES - Using user and information provider profiling
Authors:

Boris Rousseau, Parisch Browne, Paul Malone, Mícheál Ó. Foghlú, Paul Foster and Venura Mendis
Abstract: The success of the Information Society, with the overabundance of online multimedia information, has become an obstacle for users to discover pertinent resources. For those users, the key is the refinement of resource discovery as the choice and complexity of available online content continues to grow. The work presented in this paper will address this issue by representing complex extensible user and information provider profiles and content metadata using XML and the provision of a middle canonical language to aid in learner-to-content matching, independent of the underlying metadata format. This approach can provide a federated search solution leading to personalise resource discovery based on user requirements and preferences, seamlessly searching over multiple repository types. The novelty of the work includes the complex extensible user profiles, information provider profiles, the canonical language and the federated search strategy. Although, the work presented is focused on E-Learning, the general ideas could be applied to any resource discovery or information retrieval system.
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Paper Nr: 851
Title:

ADAPTIVE WEB SEARCH BASED ON IMPLICITLY CONSTRUCTED USER PROFILE
Authors:

Kazunari Sugiyama, Masatoshi Yoshikawa, Kenji Hatano and Shunsuke Uemura
Abstract: t is getting more and more difficult for users to find the information they desire on the WWW (World Wide Web). Web search engines help users find useful information on the WWW. However, when the same query is submitted by different users, typical search engines return the same result irregardless of who submitted the query. Generally, each user has different information needs for his/her query. Therefore, the search result should be adapted to users with different information needs. In addition, not only personal computers but also mobile terminals such as cellular phones and PDAs are more common these days. Therefore, it is increasingly important to implement techniques which provide valuable information that satisfies each user’s need for information on these devices. In this paper, we first propose several approaches to adapting search results according to each user’s need for relevant information, and then verify the effectiveness of our proposed approaches. Experimental results show that more fine-grained search systems that adapt to a user’s preferences can be achieved by constructing user profiles based on modified collaborative filtering.
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 171
Title:

USER INTERFACE DESIGN FOR VOICE CONTROL SYSTEMS
Authors:

Wolfgang Tschirk
Abstract: A voice control system converts spoken commands into control actions, a process which is always imperfect due to errors of the speech recognizer. Most speech recognition research is focused on decreasing the recognizers’ error rates; comparatively little effort was spent to find interface designs that optimize the overall system, given a fixed speech recognizer performance. In order to evaluate such designs prior to their implementation and test, three components are required: 1) an appropriate set of performance figures of the speech recognizer, 2) suitable performance criteria for the user interface, and 3) a mathematical framework for estimating the interface performance from that of the speech recognizer. In this paper, we will identify four basic interface designs and propose an analytical approach for predicting their respective performance.
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Paper Nr: 233
Title:

MANAGERIAL OPENNESS AND THE ADOPTION OF DISTRIBUTED GROUP SUPPORT SYSTEMS - The Case of WebWide Participation
Authors:

John Rohrbaugh
Abstract: The full involvement of designated participants in meeting process is a well-recognized standard of group effectiveness, yet most face-to-face meetings are undertaken without the presence of every group member. The problem of total participation in asynchronous meetings convened with distributed group support systems has been noted frequently but investigated rarely. This paper describes a portion of a large field study using the distributed group support system WebWide Participation in which explanations for meeting involvement (and non-involvement) were explored. In particular, four WebWide meetings with varying levels of participation were selected, and surveys were sent to all designated participants. The hypothesis was that non-participants have less openness (i.e., one of the key personality dimensions in Big Five personality theory--the characteristic of being intellectually curious and receptive to new experiences) than active participants who willingly joined in the meeting process. Using two indices of managerial openness, a discriminant analysis was undertaken that correctly distinguished over four of every five participants and non-participants in the targeted WebWide meetings. The importance of this finding for advancing the adoption of other new group support technologies is discussed.
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Paper Nr: 237
Title:

INFORMATION SYSTEMS FAILURE EXPLAINED THROUGH THE LENS OF THE CULTURAL WEB
Authors:

David Avison and David Wilson
Abstract: This paper provides a discussion of the Australian telecommunications company One.Tel Limited. The paper examines the information technology strategies employed by the company and assesses the extent to which a failure of those strategies may have contributed to, or precipitated, the downfall of the business. In particular, it looks at the company through the lens of Johnson and Scholes’ (1993) cultural web. This perspective provides clear evidence of failings at the company, which were likely to have led to failure in its IT/IS policy and applications which, in turn, at least partly explains the downfall of the business.
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Paper Nr: 283
Title:

HEURISTICS SUPPORTING USABLE AUTHORING TOOLS - Matching the right tool to the right user
Authors:

Paula Kotze and Elsabe Cloete
Abstract: Over the past few years while e-learning has been gaining momentum, the user profile of instructional authoring tools has also evolved. It seems that commercial authoring products have not yet been adapted to address all user groups, which impedes lecturers in their working environment while preparing e-learning materials, with the materials not achieving the required quality as a result. In this paper heuristics to design an authoring tool aimed at a specific user group, namely the ordinary lecturer, are described to enable subject-expert lecturers (not necessarily technically skilled) to create and reuse their own e-materials without undergoing intensive technical training. The significance of these heuristics lies in the fact that they provide a method to overcome many of the complexities associated with the design of instructional authoring tools. Furthermore, tools developed according to these heuristics might enable institutions to cope with the universal design demands associated with e-learning, without their e-learning programmes being delayed by the scarcity of professional instructional designers and instructional programmers.
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Paper Nr: 346
Title:

INTERACTIVE 3D PRODUCT ASSEMBLER FOR THE WWW - A Case Study of a 3D Furniture Store
Authors:

Sophia K. Soo and Stephen Chan
Abstract: We describe a system that allows customers to interactively select, assemble, and modify 3D products over the WWW, enhancing the usage of 3D techniques for e-business. It provides a framework for a web-based 3D assembling system that can significantly simplify the assembling process while retaining enough flexibility to build an approximate model of real products. The assembled object is captured in a two-level architecture. Components are first connected using simplified and automatic assembling mechanism; then a bundle of connected components are grouped together by a parametric object-oriented grouping method. This grouping method parameterize the components to build a group of descriptive, featured and related object types - product, part and primitive within the assembling model. The system enhances the flexibility and efficiency for the assembling process over the WWW. For archival and data transfer, we developed an assembly-specific data format – Assembly ML. In the prototype implementation of our interactive 3D assembler (I3DA), we integrated an intelligent decision helper to assist casual customers in selecting and assembling their desired product.
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Paper Nr: 433
Title:

A COMPARATIVE SURVEY OF ACTIVITY-BASED METHODS FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Authors:

Amanda Quek and Hanifa Shah
Abstract: The role of human factors and the importance of sociocultural and contextual issues in information systems (IS) development has long been recognised. However, these ‘soft’ details remain elusive and difficult to capture. Activity theory (AT) provides a framework with which to analyse and understand human behavior in context. AT-based methods for IS development may therefore be a way forward. This paper presents a comparative survey of five AT-based methods. Each method is described, and its strengths and weaknesses briefly identified. The methods are then compared along nine key dimensions. As part of the findings, it is determined that most of the methods are selective in their use of AT, and are not sufficiently validated. Several correlations have also been noted across dimensions. Observations are presented on the limitations of existing methods, and suggestions are then made on possible ways forward.
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Paper Nr: 440
Title:

THE MEETING OF GESTALT AND COGNITIVE LOAD THEORIES IN INSTRUCTIONAL SCREEN DESIGN
Authors:

Dempsey Chang and Juhani E. Tuovinen
Abstract: Without doubt Gestalt Theory has formed an important basis for many aspects of educational visual screen design. Despite the familiarity many computer screen designers claim with it, Gestalt Theory is not a single small set of visual principles uniformly applied to by all designers. In fact, it appears that instructional visual design literature often deals with only a small set of Gestalt laws. Recently Gestalt literature was consulted to distil the most relevant Gestalt laws for educational visual screen design, resulting in eleven laws being identified. In this paper these laws are discussed in terms of the Cognitive Load Theory, (CLT), which has been used with considerable success to improve instructional design. The usefulness of the combined perspectives drawn from the Gestalt Theory and CLT for educational visual screen design were applied to the redesign of an instructional multimedia application, WoundCare, designed to teach nursing students wound management. The evaluation results were encouraging. Both the new design and the value of applying the eleven Gestalt laws and CLT principles to improve learning were strongly supported. However, many aspects of applying this combination of theories to educational interface design remain unclear and this forms a useful direction for future research.
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Paper Nr: 474
Title:

REAL WORLD SENSORIZATION AND VIRTUALIZATION FOR OBSERVING HUMAN ACTIVITIES
Authors:

Koji Kitamura, Yoshifumi Nishida, Makoto Kimura and Hiroshi Mizoguchi
Abstract: This paper describes a method for robustly detecting and efficiently recognizing daily human behavior in real world. The proposed method involves real world sensorization for robustly observing his or her behavior using ultrasonic 3D tags, which is a kind of an ultrasonic location system, real world virtualization for creating a virtual environment through modeling 3D shape of real objects by a stereovision system, and virtual sensorization of the virtualized objects for quickly registering human activities handling objects in real world and efficiently recognizing target human activities. As for real world sensorization, this paper describes algorithms for robustly estimating 3D positions of objects that a human handles. This paper also describes a method for real world virtualization and virtual sensorization using the ultrasonic 3D tag system and a stereovision system.
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Paper Nr: 514
Title:

VERBS & TOPIC MAPS: A PROPOSAL FOR LEGAL DOCUMENTATION FROM THE DOCUMENT CONTENT ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE
Authors:

Marzal Miguel Ángel, Marzal Miguel Ángel, Bolaños Carmen, Morato Jorge and Calzada Francisco Javier
Abstract: A final evaluation of the project Development of a verb thesaurus for dynamic information environments. Implementation of the ISO/IEC 12350:1999 standard is presented as a base for the use of its results on future research projects. First, the interest of the Library and Information Science field towards verbal structures is justified for its efficacy on the documental analysis of the movement for: a) a relevant indentification, description and classification of hypermedia, b) its sufficient analytic documental adaptation to the the dynamic transverse character of the hypertext contents and c) the required redefinition of the hierarchical structure of thesauri. Then the methodological evolution of these dynamic concepts is tackled as well as its implementation to the development of verb thesauri for the Spanish legal language. Main contributions of this paper are new research lines oriented to a more specific field of theoric formulation and instrumental implementation.
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Paper Nr: 521
Title:

PREDICTING THE USER ACCEPTANCE OF PERSONALIZED INFORMATION SYSTEMS: CASE MEDICAL PORTAL
Authors:

Seppo Pahnila
Abstract: This paper describes ongoing research, which focuses on the effect of attitudes and intentions in the use of personalized Web Information Systems (WIS). By applying the widely used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the theory of planned behavior, innovation diffusion theory and self-efficacy theory, we take an extended view of the factors explaining the individual acceptance and usage of newly emerging personalized Web Information Systems. Many features of personalized WIS differ from the “traditional” information systems, and we believe that this research will shed new light on the research into the acceptance of personalized WIS.
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Paper Nr: 529
Title:

USABILITY HEURISTICS FOR XML-BASED WEB DEVELOPMENT
Authors:

Marta Fernández de Arriba and José A. López Brugos
Abstract: Heuristic evaluation is a usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design. This paper discusses a set of rules to evaluate the level of usability of an XML-based Web site. Taking advantage that XML separates the contents of a document from its presentation, heuristics grouped by content and presentation are defined in an analogous way, allowing a suitable evaluation for that type of applications.
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Paper Nr: 602
Title:

UNOBTRUSIVE ACQUSITION OF USER INFORMATION FOR E–COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Oshadi Alahakoon, Seng Loke and Arkady Zaslavsky
Abstract: E-commerce has become a common activity among many people. Although widely used, the interfaces which users communicate with e-commerce systems are still at an early stage of development in terms of intelligence and user-friendliness. Unobtrusiveness is recognized as one of the most important desired attributes of an intelligent and friendly interface. In this paper we describe our work on an information architecture to minimize obtrusiveness. A layered information architecture supported by a structured user profile model is described in the paper. As example scenario is presented to clarify the new architecture and the development of a cost model for measuring the level of obtrusiveness is discussed.
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Paper Nr: 616
Title:

ACCESSIBLE COMPUTER INTERACTION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES - The case of quadriplegics
Authors:

Paula Kotze, Mariki Eloff, Ayodele Adesina-ojo and Jan Eloff
Abstract: Universal design is the design of products and environments so that anyone can use them without adaptation or specialised design. Life must be simplified by making products, communications and the built environment more usable for as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. To understand the challenges that a disabled person has to face when using the computer, we have to know what capabilities such a person has. Only then will it be possible to apply universal design to computer interfaces. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the challenges that many people face in their everyday lives and determine to what extent disabled people, especially people with limited or no use of their hands and arms, interact independently with computer equipment. The paper specifically looks at quadriplegics, their capabilities, a survey of how they use computer equipment, as well as special devices available to assist them in this interaction.
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Paper Nr: 627
Title:

A FLEXIBLE INTERFACE ARCHITECTURE FOR DIGITAL TALKING BOOKS
Authors:

Carlos Duarte, Luís Carriço and Hugo Simões
Abstract: Talking books, besides helping the blind and print-disabled communities to have easier access to books, also allow reading in situations when the vision becomes temporarily unavailable, for instance, while driving. In this paper, we present a user interface model-based architecture for digital talking books. The books allow for multimodal interaction in an effort to broaden the usage scope. Considering the execution platform, user and usage characteristics, a great number of configurations for the books are possible. For the situations where the most suited configuration can not be forecast, an adaptable book can be the solution.
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Paper Nr: 697
Title:

CONTENT ENRICHMENT THROUGH DYNAMIC ANNOTATION
Authors:

George Weir, George Lepouras and Costas Vassilakis
Abstract: This paper describes a technique for interceding between users and the information that they browse. This facility, that we term ‘dynamic annotation’, affords a means of editing Web page content ‘on-the-fly’ between the source Web server and the requesting client. Thereby, we have a generic way of modifying the content displayed to local users by addition, removal or reorganising any information sourced from the World-Wide Web, whether this derives from local or remote pages. For some time, we have been exploring the scope for this device and we believe that it affords many potential worthwhile applications. Here, we describe two varieties of use. The first variety focuses on support for individual users in two contexts (second-language support and second language learning). The second variety of use focuses on support for groups of users. These differing applications have a common goal which is content enrichment of the materials placed before the user. Dynamic annotation provides a potent and flexible means to this end.
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Paper Nr: 703
Title:

MODULAR PRODUCTION OF RICH DIGITAL TALKING BOOKS
Authors:

Luís Carriço, Carlos Duarte, Nuno Guimarães, António Serralheiro and Isabel Trancoso
Abstract: This paper presents a framework for automatic production of rich Digital Talking Books (DTB). The production process converts existing audio tapes and OCR-based digitalization of text books into full-fledged, multiple synchronized, multimodal digital books. The framework deals with the content organization processes and User Interface definition. The first one identifies content units and its relations. The latter, based on abstract, yet DTB specific, pattern-based UI specifications, allows the definition of various forms of interaction and presentation, required by the diversity and constraints of targets users (e.g. visually impaired persons) and situations of use (e.g. learning). The framework also permits to balance the complexity and flexibility of the generated DTBs, in order to cope with the resources provided on the different execution platform.
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Paper Nr: 726
Title:

USING VISUALS TO CONVEY INFORMATION
Authors:

Luis B. Gouveia
Abstract: This paper summarizes the literature on visualisation and information visualisation and provides a broad view of available systems and techniques. The paper also argues that the use of visuals can help conveying information, and that can be an advantage to the use of visualisation and information visualisation to support information management.
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Paper Nr: 760
Title:

TOWARDS A MODEL FOR PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATION SERVICES BASED ON USER PERCEPTION
Authors:

Cláudia M.F.A.Ribeiro, Nelson Rosa and Paulo Cunha
Abstract: The emerging of the new generation applications like videoconference and the increasing in the demand of QoS services have enforced the need of new service models. As in the most new applications the user can perceives the level of quality a service is provided, data communication services are currently evolving towards more personalized ones. A direct consequence of this trend is the necessity of explicit treatment of the user perception. Challenges in this evolution include the better understanding of “how” users perceive QoS and “how” the perception is actually realised by underlying QoS mechanisms. This paper addresses these questions by presenting a formal architecture, namely ESCHER that implements a conceptual user perception model for QoS services.
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Paper Nr: 849
Title:

USER ADAPTATION IN A PEDESTRIAN GUIDANCE SYSTEM FOR THE BLIND
Authors:

Vivien Guillet, Beatrice Rumpler and Jean-Marie Pinon
Abstract: Among today’s emerging pedestrian guidance systems (i.e. able to automatically answer questions of the form “How should I go from localization a to localization b ?), some are dedicated to blind people; fewer if any focus on impaired people as well as people without any deficiency. Contrary to this, the “ouvej” system relies on representing impairments as a part of the user’s profile in order to be adaptable to any kind of user. Furthermore, we consider that benefits of the user modeling involved in such adaptation mechanisms go beyond the only impairment category in order to respect the user’s preferences in itineraries and itineraries descriptions, by modeling itinerary environment. Whereas existing adaptive system often rely on the use of explicit feedback from the user, we propose to limit adaptation-related interactions by using implicit user evaluations inferred from observations of users interactions with the system. This article focuses on blind pedestrian users using a vocal interface. After detailing our approach, we detail our itinerary and user models; Then the implicit as well as explicit itinerary evaluation mechanisms are described; Next sections focus on the actual adaptation and expected benefits of inferences between different users; Our prototype is then described. We conclude by presenting our first observations, future work and evaluation.
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Paper Nr: 874
Title:

AN INNOVATIVE VOCAL INTERFACE FOR AUTOMOTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Authors:

Gennaro Costagliola, Sergio Di Martino, Filomena Ferrucci, Giuseppe Oliviero, Umberto Montemurro and Alessandro Paliotti
Abstract: The design of interfaces for automotive information systems is a critical task. In fact, in the vehicular domain the user is busy in the primary task of the driving, and any visual distraction inducted by the telematic systems can bring to serious consequences. Since road safety is paramount, it is needed to define new interaction metaphors, not affecting the driver’s visual workload, such as auditory interfaces. In this paper we propose an innovative automotive auditory interaction paradigm, whose main goals are not to require visual attention, to be smart for expert users, as well as easy to use for inexperienced users. This is achieved by a new atomic dialogue paradigm, based on a help-on-demand mechanism, to provide a vocal support to users in trouble. Finally, we present some examples of dialogue based on such approach.
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Paper Nr: 890
Title:

COLLABORATING TO IMPROVE ERP USABILITY
Authors:

Tamara Babaian, Wendy Lucas and Heikki Topi
Abstract: Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have unintuitive user interfaces that hinder usability, frustrate users, and ultimately interfere with their successful adoption and utilization in organizations. Despite the huge costs associated with poorly implemented systems, ERP usability has received little attention from the research community. It is our contention that existing theories on usability must be extended to address the unique challenges resulting from the size, complexity and integrated functionality of these industrial behemoths. This paper discusses collaboration theory as a potentially beneficial way to conceptualize the relationship between the user and the system and to provide a foundation on which interfaces can be developed that enhance user performance and satisfaction with ERP systems.
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Paper Nr: 192
Title:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REQUIREMENTS - for an e-Learning System
Authors:

Yaen Y. Sofer and Steve B. Mcintosh
Abstract: The learning environment where students of the same age group learn together instructed by a teacher, was developed over the years and is known today as the traditional classroom. This traditional classroom may be changed by using the latest Web-based technology to replace and/or support the learning process. These new learning environments are accessible using the Internet as the main communication medium and by other remote means such as CD-ROM, and video. Many aspects of the current use of these new technologies reflect an approach to teaching and learning reminiscent of the “programmed learning” training material of the 1970s. This paper uses Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to construct a Consensus Primary Task Model (CPTM) to analyse the requirements for a distance or e-learning system. In conducting the analysis, we investigate the alternative methods proposed for the construction of a CPTM.
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Paper Nr: 457
Title:

LEARNING BY DOING AND LEARNING WHEN DOING - Dovetailing E-Learning and Decision Support with a Data Mining Tutor
Authors:

Klaus P. Jantke, Steffen Lange, Gunter Grieser, Peter Grigoriev, Bernhard Thalheim and Bernd Tschiedel
Abstract: In this paper, e-learning meets decision support in enterprises’ business practice. This presentation is based on an on-line e-learning system named DaMiT for the domain of knowledge discovery and data mining (see http://damit.dfki.de). The DaMiT system has primarily been developed for technology enhanced learning in German academia. It is now on the cusp of entering training on demand in enterprises. Simple stand-alone e-learning seems quite unrealistic and does not meet the needs of industry. It is very unlikely that employees take a detour to study theory of whatever sort. More likely, they are willing to engage in studies whenever the need derives directly from their practical work. In those cases, they might even be willing to dive into theory. How to dovetail e-learning and enterprise business applications, such that both sides benefit from it?
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Paper Nr: 501
Title:

BASIC STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE TELEOPERATION PLATFORMS THROUGH THE INTERNET
Authors:

Juan Escribano, J. A. Cerrada, S. R. Gómez and Carlos Cerrada
Abstract: This paper shows in a schematic way the basic objectives to enhance teleoperation platforms, that have been achieved in the PhD Thesis (Escribano, 2003). These objectives are the result of acquired experience working with the teleoperation platform developed by our research group in teleoperation. The objectives carried out have been formulated after analyzing the performance of the initial platform and detecting some restrictions in several key parts of its design. Specifically, three basic improvement areas have been take into account. The enhance objectives have been focused in aspects such as the operating system, the human-machine interface and finally, in aspects regarding to the communication between the master and the slave. In this paper the main detected problems are introduced as well as the chosen solutions in each case. Experimental results regarding to the last enhancement objective are finally shown.
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Paper Nr: 525
Title:

MODELLING DIALOGUES WITH EMOTIONAL INTERACTIVE AGENTS
Authors:

Cveta Martinovska and Stevo Bozinovski
Abstract: The paper describes a possible approach to the design of believable dialogs between users and emotionally intelligent interactive agents capable of conveying emotional, verbal and non-verbal signals. User's affective profile is built according to the standard test in psychiatry and clinical psychology Emotions Profile Index. The agents have to predict and influence the behavior of users through communicative acts. The predictive power to a certain degree relies on expecting cooperation and on understanding user emotions, personality, interests and other mental states. Dialog automata are used to conceptualize the conversation between the users and the animated agents.
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Paper Nr: 753
Title:

ACCESSING HYPERMEDIA SYSTEMS EFECTIVENESS IN LEARNING CONTEXTS
Authors:

Alexander Macena da Silva and Silvina Santana
Abstract: Hypermedia systems are increasingly being used in teaching/learning environments. Biomec is a hypermedia system that has got, as it main goal, the interrelation of concepts coming from Sports and Basic Mechanics, just as it is intended in an area of knowledge denominated Physics of Sports. The final objective of Biomec is to increase the efficiency of the learning processes in this area of study. The system development has been grounded in learning theories, with contents being organized according to the theory of Ausubel (1968) and the theory of cognitive flexibility (Spiro et al., 1992). Apparently, a hypermedia system like Biomec is suitable to the teaching/learning of Physical Education. However, only an astringent evaluation, with its target public, can assert what are its real benefits. This work presents a methodology for the evaluation and improvement of this kind of systems.
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Paper Nr: 883
Title:

USABILITY OF VISUAL DATA MINING TOOLS
Authors:

Edwige F. Badjio and Francois Poulet
Abstract: Visual data mining is a field of research which needs knowledge from several domains: statistics, data analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, human-machine interfaces, data or information visualization. We are interested in visual data mining environment usability (man-machine interaction quality). This paper investigates how usability aspects can be incorporated in visual data mining environment so that usability can be taking into account during the design process of the tool without prototype evaluation tests which are time consuming at design stage. We have defined and we present here a set of criteria for improving visual data mining tools usability.
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Paper Nr: 920
Title:

DICHOCOA COMMUNICATOR – SUBSYSTEM FOR BIOMEDICAL HOME SYSTEM
Authors:

Rudolf Volner and Lubomir Pousek
Abstract: The article describes information network and CATV applications, backbone network structure. Cable is a natural network for carrying high-capacity, bandwidth - intense information. In the age of analogue program signals, cable’s capacity was a natural transmission media for broadcast colour TV and high-fidelity stereo sound programs. In the new digital program signal age, cable’s high capacity is a natural network for carrying interactive computer-based, data - intensive multimedia programs. This paper explains the concept, main functions, services and other aspects of the DICHOCOA Communicator, which is a new communication system based on text communication and making the user aware of the existence and activities of others connected to the network.
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