Integrated Information Service Research Articles

A web services-based approach to develop a networked information integration service platform for gear enterprise

In order to deal with the problems of information integration and data sharing across distributed heterogeneous application systems in gear enterprises, it is imperative to build up a high quality information integration platform. Web Services, an emerging form of service-oriented architecture (SOA) for distributed computing, have the potential to serve as a key enabling technology to integrate heterogeneous systems under the distributed environment. This paper presents a novel information integration service platform which offers better support for the networked manufacturing of gear enterprise by taking full advantage of technologies of SOA and Web services. In this paper, the information integrated operation mode of gear enterprise networked manufacturing is deeply analyzed and the functional architecture of the networked information integration service platform is proposed. Furthermore, the application integrated framework of gear enterprise is constructed and the software architecture of the service platform is implemented in the .NET environment. Finally, an actual application example of hypoid gear networked manufacturing is provided to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed platform.

African Studies - Striving for Integrated Information Services: Recent Developments in Germany and Europe

New projects, services and collaborations have recently brought the infrastructural services for African Studies a big step forward. This report gives an account of new subject gateways and digitisation projects. It discusses recent European cooperation ventures in the field of librarianship. Additionally, new developments and services of the Africa Collection at Frankfurt University Library are presented, which help to address the changing needs of researchers and to handle information overload, while keeping up with the latest developments. Nevertheless, the fragmentation and compartmentalisation of the different services still hinder more integrated information services.

Health Care Leaders’ Challenges in the Time of Health Care Reform

In the next 5 years, our health care leaders will experience unprecedented challenges and opportunities. These changes are stimulated by the current proposed national health care system changes geared toward reducing the countries health care expenditures while expanding access to health care services. In addition to health care system reform, our current presidential and congressional administration is considering insurance reform. Our national leaders are proposing the development of a strong primary care system that is expected to both reduce health care cost and improve health care outcomes. Within these proposed changes, technological advances are considered an essential component of the transformative change for the health care system. The implementation of electronic health records is expected to improve the efficiency of our current health care system while providing access to data that can be used to compare effectiveness of health care delivery models and effectiveness of interventions. Two proposed models of health care delivery within these health care changes are accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes. The accountable care organizations are organizational structures that permit hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers with the ability to collaborate and work together to provide costeffective care while maintaining accountable outcomes. The patient-centered medical home models are health care practice systems that embrace a patient-centered primary care model with an emphasis on evidence-based practice to improve both individualand population-level health outcomes. An overriding theme of both these new health care models is the integration of health care information, referral systems, and primary and specialty health care services within a well-articulated and aligned health care delivery system focusing on meeting the specific population’s health care needs in a cost-effective manner based on the latest evidence-based practice standards and guidelines. The proposed health care changes and new models of health care delivery systems that are emerging are requiring health care leaders to strengthen existing partnerships with primary care providers, adopt and accelerate the use of electronic health records, invest in performance measurement systems, adopt a model of evidence-based practice, and engage community members and nonprofit organizations within the health care delivery system networks. At the heart of this transformational change in our health care system is developing integrated systems that can provide health care services to a population while considering and integrating medical advances into the standards of practice of individualized health care such as genetic testing, genetic counseling, and pharmacogenomics. In conclusion, each health care provider interested in promoting men’s health will be challenged to ensure that men’s health issues are considered in the dialogue of this health care reform movement. Health Care Leaders’ Challenges in the Time of Health Care Reform

An efficient method to measure the semantic similarity of ontologies

PurposeWith the recent availability of large number of bioinformatics data sources, query from such databases and rigorous annotation of experimental results often use semantic frameworks in the form of an ontology. With the growing access to heterogeneous and independent data repositories, determining the semantic similarity or difference of two ontologies is critical in information retrieval, information integration and semantic web services. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new sense refinement algorithm to construct a refined sense set (RSS) for an ontology so that the senses (synonym words) in this refined sense set represent the semantic meanings of the terms used by this ontology.Design/methodology/approachA new concept of a semantic set is introduced that combines the refined sense set of ontology with the relationship edges connecting the terms in this ontology to represent the semantics of this ontology. With the semantic sets, measuring the semantic similarity or difference of two ontologies is simplified as comparing the commonality or difference of two sets.FindingsThe experimental studies show that the proposed method of measuring the semantic similarity or difference of two ontologies is efficient and accurate; comparisons with existing methods show the efficacy of using the new method.Originality/valueThe concepts introduced in this paper will improve automation of bioinformatics databases to serve queries based on heterogeneous ontologies.

Research on Assessment Method of Testability for Integrated Information Service Platform

Research on Assessment Method of Testability for Integrated Information Service Platform

Information management and service integration at German universities

Purpose – Customers do not like to deal with maintenance problems and responsibilities for academic support facilities. They prefer service portfolios that integrate services for an easy and comfortable use. This paper aims to describe the organisational changes needed in the computer centres and libraries of German universities.Design/methodology/approach – The article describes how several German universities are setting up an integrated information management system to improve cooperation between institutions that provide academic support in the areas of information, communication and media services.Findings – The largely traditional support structures of German universities are in transition. The problems and challenges posed by information management and service integration, which Anglo‐American universities introduced during the mid‐1980s, are now a key issue at German universities and are being tackled with ever‐greater energy.Originality/value – This article gives an overview of the current state ...

Autonomous Preference-Aware Information Services Integration for High Response in Integrated Faded Information Field Systems

The market and users' requirements have been rapidly changing and diversified. Under these heterogeneous and dynamic situations, not only the system structure itself, but also the accessible information services would be changed constantly. To cope with the continuously changing conditions of service provision and utilization, Faded Information Field (FIF) has been proposed, which is a agent-based distributed information service system architecture. In the case of a mono-service request, the system is designed to improve users' access time and preserve load balancing through the information structure. However, with interdependent requests of multi-service increasing, adaptability and timeliness have to be assured by the system. In this paper, the relationship that exists among the correlated services and the users' preferences for separate and integrated services is clarified. Based on these factors, the autonomous preference-aware information services integration technology to provide one-stop service for users multi-service requests is proposed. As compared to the conventional system, we show that proposed technology is able to reduce the total access time.

A metadata management framework for dynamic information integration

AbstractOne necessary factor in the success of data grid technology to share structured and semi‐structured data across organizational boundaries is the availability of convenient, easy‐to‐use information integration services that provide an application‐specific, integrated view over the relevant data sources. To deal with the many challenges of information integration in such a dynamic environment, the integrated handling of metadata is an essential factor. In this paper, we present the PALADIN integration framework, a platform providing the common infrastructure on top of which the different integration services can be built. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Semantic Interoperability of Geospatial Services

This article proposes a multi-agent based framework that allows multiple data sources and models to be semantically integrated for spatial modeling in business processing. The paper reviews the feasibility of ontology-based spatial resource integration options to combine the core spatial reasoning with domainspecific application models. We propose an ontology-based framework for semantic level communication of spatial objects and application models. We then introduce a multi-agent system, ontology-based spatial information and resource integration services (OSIRIS), to semantically interoperate complex spatial services and integrate them in a meaningful composition. The advantage of using multi-agent collaboration in OSIRIS is that it obviates the need for end-user analysts to be able to decompose a problem domain to subproblems or to map different models according to what they actually mean. We also illustrate a multiagent interaction scenario for collaborative modeling of spatial applications using the proposed custom feature of OSIRIS.

Enhancing Geo‐Service Chaining through Deep Service Descriptions

AbstractWe demonstrate the integrated use of semantic and syntactic service descriptions, called deep service descriptions, for service chaining by combining two prototypes: one that deals with geoservice discovery abstract composition (called ‘GeoMatchMaker’), with one that supports concrete composition and execution of geoservices services (called ‘Integrated Component Designer’). Most other service chaining approaches confine themselves to handling either syntactic or semantic service descriptions. The proprietary formats of these descriptions hamper an effective integration of discovery, composition and execution of multiple services. In essence, service chaining should help a user by providing an appropriate combination of executable services to solve a specified problem or query. Current XML‐based service description languages, such as the Web Ontology Language‐Services (OWL‐S) and the Web Service Description Language‐Semantics (WSDL‐S), allow us to build a geoservice‐reuse architecture based on common ontologies and shared service descriptions. Our approach uses annotation as a bridge between the syntax and semantics of services. This paper reports on its context and implementation issues. The target groups of this research are geo‐information engineers who are confronted with information integration issues and service interoperability issues, and secondly, information engineers who in general are confronted with distributed information and with end users that need to access distributed services as one virtual application.

Integration of Information Services into University Infrastructure. A Report about 7th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium from October 12 to October 13 2007

Integration of Information Services into University Infrastructure. A Report about 7th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium from October 12 to October 13 2007

A Web Service Architecture for Revenue-Earning Information Products

Industries are adopting Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) for multi-organizational federated information systems where there is synergistic value in combined services. By contributing information services to the federation, each participant benefits from integrated access to services provided by other participants. However, integrated information services for use by external customers, based on SOA, are rare. One reason for this is the absence of technical mechanisms for information providers to share in the financial rewards associated with the provision of integrated information products to end customers. This article explores issues associated with the design of charging mechanisms within SOAs that permit dynamic composition of services in order to achieve customer goals. It proposes a suite of service components that can implement charging functions and explains their application within an application scenario. The scenario concerns an integrated service that is of interest to customers in local government practice, sociological research, and real property investment.

Multi-layer tree hierarchical architecture based on web service

To solve the problem of the information share and services integration in population information system, we propose a multi-layer tree hierarchical architecture. The command (Web Service Call) is recursively multicast from top layer of tree to bottom layer of tree and statistical data are gathered from bottom layer to top layer. We implemented the architecture by using Web Services technology. In our implementation, client program is the requestor of Web Services, and all leaf nodes of the last layer are only the provider of Web Services. For those nodes of intermediate layers, every node is not only the provider of Web Services, but also the dispatcher of Web Services. We take population census as an example to describe the working flow of the architecture.

特許情報と文献情報の統合検索サービス「DocuPat」の機能紹介とその応用

特許情報と文献情報の統合検索サービス「DocuPat」の機能紹介とその応用

Timeliness and Reliability Oriented Autonomous Network-Based Information Services Integration in Multi-Agent Systems

Under dynamic and heterogenous environment, the need for adaptability and rapid response time to information service systems has become increasingly important. To cope with the continuously changing conditions of service provision and utilization, Faded Information Field (FIF) has been proposed, which is an agent-based distributed information service system architecture. In the case of a mono-service request, the system is designed to improve users' access time and preserve load balancing through the information structure. However, with interdependent requests of multi-service increasing, adaptability, reliability and timeliness have to be assured by the system. In this paper, the relationship between the timeliness and the reliability of correlated services allocation and access is clarified. Based on these factors, the autonomous network-based heterogeneous information services integration technology to provide one-stop service for users' multi-service requests is proposed. We proved the effectiveness of the proposed technology through the simulation and the results show that the integrated service can reduce the total users access time compared with the conventional systems.

Content creation for ICT development projects: Integrating normative approaches and community demand

This paper discusses why concerns about the importance of content provision for ICT community development projects, such as tele-centers, must go beyond international initiatives such as the World Bank Development Gateway. The authors emphasize the importance of grassroots research, such as community needs assessments, for the generation of contextually appropriate content through ICT, including the role that local universities may play as facilitators in the identification and processing of this content. After providing a brief case study of a tele-center research project in India, the paper concludes that awareness raising about the value of information and the integration of information services within the local communication structures constitute a basic foundation for locally relevant content generation and use.

Hermes, the information messenger. Integrating information services and delivering them to the end user

AbstractThe boom of the internet during the last 10 years has produced an accelerated and slightly chaotic growth in information services. User frustration with multiple databases, confusing interfaces, bewildering query languages, search protocols, and differing results formats has also increased. These services need to be both integrated and homogenized. Hermes is a research tool that uses specially designed acquisition, parsing and presentation methods to integrate information resources, from searching in disparate bibliographic databases, to accessing the full text articles online, and developing a web of information associated with each reference, via one seamless common interface. The system has been developed with Open Source software and has a Web interface. At present it searches 17 bibliographic databases on several different platforms, and delivers results from more than 7,000 full text electronic journals. We also discuss the obstacles that exist for the development of this kind of tool, due to the lack of acceptance and implementation of standards, and compare Hermes with other similar projects.

User Behaviour in Relation to Electronic Information Services within the UK Higher Education Academic Community

The User Behaviour Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been established to investigate and profile the use of electronic information services (EIS) within higher education in the UK. Electronic information services are defined as: collections of information tools/products delivered to requesting users electronically, and usually computer mediated. This encompasses media of all types. This article discusses aspects of the methodology of the Framework, and preliminary findings from the first annual cycle of the Framework. Findings are based on interactions with 1500 users, including academic staff, library and information services staff, and students. Executed through three strands, the framework methodology uses an array of quantitative and qualitative approaches to lend a variety of insights into user behaviour with electronic information services, factors that encourage the use of electronic information services, and those that act as barriers to the effective integration of electronic information services into the learning experience.

Contractor integrated technical information service in construction

The research described in this paper implements a U.S. Department of Defense protocol entitled contractor integrated technical information service (CITIS) in a construction industry application to provide an electronic communication environment for sharing construction information among project participants. CITIS is a contractor-developed service that provides electronic access to and (or) delivery of contractual data to users. For the implementation of the CITIS concept in the construction industry, this research performs process and data modeling on a road construction project, then implements and tests a prototype. This article also introduces an overall procedure to implement the concept of CITIS in construction and identifies some challenges such as the limitations in performing process modeling in the public sector, specifically public road construction projects, the lessons learned, and suggestions in overcoming these difficulties.Key words: construction management, continuous acquisition and life cycle support, contractor integrated technical information service.

A Framework For Assessing Transport Information Systems Policies

The integration of information and communication services in transport can be a powerful opportunity to achieve transport policy goals. To ensure maximum benefit from these opportunities offered by information and communication services there is a need to create the conditions for adequate and widespread use of these services in transport. To support policy makers in the identification of policy requirements, i.e. necessary policy actions and measures, a policy assessment framework has been developed and applied. The framework is based on a stagist model in which the analysis of complex relationships between transport, information technology and policy is split into ten steps. In each step the framework addresses the most important aspects and mechanisms to be taken into account when defining policy for the integration of information and communication services