IT Concepts Research Articles

Modelling the non-linear interfacial shear rheology behaviour of chickpea protein-adsorbed complex oil/water layers

The objective of this work is the evaluation of chickpea protein adsorption at oil/water (O/W) interface as a function of protein concentration and pH value (2.5, 5.0 and 7.5). To assess molecular interpretation, interfacial tension is determined as a function of concentration with a Wilhelmy plate, whereas interfacial small amplitude oscillatory shear (i-SAOS) properties are determined using a double wall-ring (DWR) geometry controlled by a DHR3 rheometer (TA Instruments) and a pendant drop tensiometer (IT Concept) is used to determine linear viscoelastic dilatational measurements. This work provides a model which could predict both the linear and non-linear viscoelastic behavior of complex fluid-fluid interfacial layers. To this end, relaxation tests using the DWR device are carried out at the interface under the linear and non-linear regimes. Steady state viscosity values are also obtained to check the ability of the model to predict the interfacial flow behaviour. Results show that the Wagner-I model can reproduce fairly well the steady state flow behaviour of chickpea protein-adsorbed interfaces. This model is based on the use of a memory function calculated from the generalized Maxwell (obtained from i-SAOS measurements) and a damping function obtained by the Laun model from linear and non-linear relaxation tests.

I184] Benefits of MRI for radiation therapy

The treatment success of radiotherapy depends on the capability of imaging to precisely localize and delineate the tumor including its biological and functional heterogeneity. Advances of radiation therapy are therefore intrinsically and inevitably linked to advances of imaging for visualizing individual morphologic, functional and molecular tumor characteristics with high spatial and temporal resolution. In order to achieve optimized tumor control and to minimize side effects 3D/4D treatment planning, guidance, and monitoring should include morphological, functional, metabolic and targeted molecular imaging as an integrative part. Oncologic MR imaging is accordingly challenged to improve and further develop novel concepts for precise tumor delineation and characterization. Significant progress has been achieved in morphologic-functional MRI and PET/MR, which have the potential to improve the delineation of target volumes and to adapt the dose to selected subvolumes. But integration of multiparametric MR imaging data into individual radiotherapy planning, guidance and control is still challenging. Improved IT concepts for precise spatial coregistration of multimodal morphologic and functional imaging data as well as for integration of complex imaging data into the radiotherapy process including quality control are required. Concerning imaging, hardware integration of PET and MRI (PET/MR) has proved to improve spatial coregistration of morphologic and biologic/functional imaging information. For use of imaging to improve daily radiotherapy planning and guidance hardware integration of MRI and linear accelerators (MR/Linac) are currently under development. The presentation will outline the potentials, challenges and limitations of MR and PET/MR imaging for modern radiotherapy.

Reflections on Tourism Actors perception of Spanish Smart Tourism Destinations

The aim of this paper is to debate the IT concept from the perception different agents of the tourism sector have about it and to see to what extent there is agreement or disagreement in the definition of the concept itself, its influence on the competitive improvement of destinations and future trends. In short, it intends to analyze the potential, but also to understand the risks and main challenges that the incorporation of IT can cause over current destinations. The work procedure involves asking experts in the tourism sector and in the academic world about the different thematic areas on IT and ITD: the definition of the concept and the welfare of its evolution in the immediate future, the characteristics and components of an ITD system, the role of the technological components in an ITD, the linking of IT with sustainability, the limits and risks of IT display, and the determinants and conditionings that destinations have for the development of IT strategies. The collected information has been obtained from the opinion of around thirty experts, with the purpose of gathering different points of view through the Delphi method: the academic specialists (belonging to national and international universities), those affected (from the case of study of the tourist municipalities of the province of Barcelona) and the facilitators (companies and organizations involved in the use of technologies to promote IT).

Resource orchestration for innovation: the dual role of information technology

ABSTRACTThe question of how information technology-both as an operand resource and as an operant resource-impacts on innovation processes and innovation outcomes remains largely uninvestigated in the manufacturing enterprises. Building on an in-depth case study of a manufacturing enterprise in China, we present a resource orchestration for innovation model and examine the dual role of IT in three distinct innovation processes. The model highlights the multilevel nature of the computerisation process, showing that it entails different IT role and be associated with a particular innovation outcome at each process. This study synthesises resource orchestration framework and IT concepts to elaborate the synergistic relationships between various resources at all levels both inside and between enterprises. Our study not only contributes to broadening the theoretical perspectives by exploring the dual role of IT in managerial issues but also provides some practical suggestions for business leaders to facilitate innovation processes.

An Evaluation of Lean IT Efficiency in Organization Using Fuzzy Approach

This article describes how nowadays due to the importance of information technology in organizations, it is necessary to examine the efficiency of IT used in the organization. Given the importance of IT in organizations, waste identification in such context and its elimination can have a significant effect on production quality optimization, service provision and IT management. Accordingly, the concept of lean IT was introduced in 2007 which mainly aims to make IT more efficient in organization as much as possible. The current study aims to examine lean IT level in organization. Therefore, first the criteria and sub-criteria of lean IT were determined by experts; after identifying their hierarchical structure, a questionnaire was given to the experts in IT department in two companies. In the next stage, another questionnaire was designed which included importance and status of criteria in the organizations from the viewpoint of the experts. Based on the obtained results, two criteria including “error prevention or hash” and “wait time/delay removal” obtained the highest priority.

A Risk Management Approach for a Sustainable Cloud Migration

Cloud computing is not just about resource sharing, cost savings and optimisation of business performance; it also involves fundamental concerns on how businesses need to respond on the risks and challenges upon migration. Managing risks is critical for a sustainable cloud adoption. It includes several dimensions such as cost, practising the concept of green IT, data quality, continuity of services to users and clients, guarantee tangible benefits. This paper presents a risk management approach for a sustainable cloud migration. We consider four dimensions of sustainability, i.e., economic, environmental, social and technology to determine the viability of cloud for the business context. The risks are systematically identified and analysed based on the existing in house controls and the cloud service provider offerings. We use Dempster Shafer (D-S) theory to measure the adequacy of controls and apply semi-quantitative approach to perform risk analysis based on the theory of belief. The risk exposure for each sustainability dimension allows us to determine the viability of cloud migration. A practical migration use case is considered to determine the applicability of our work. The results identify the risk exposure and recommended control for the risk mitigation. We conclude that risks depend on specific migration case and both Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and users are responsible for the risk mitigation. Inherent risks can evolve due to the cloud migration.

SFC links with AITC for off-grid power at DOD training sites, with Vites for trailer power

German-based SFC Energy has signed a partnership and distribution agreement with Advanced IT Concepts (AITC) in Florida, under which AITC will sell and service SFC Energy's EFOY Pro direct methanol fuel cells as reliable off-grid power sources for defence equipment in environments such as training facilities, test ranges etc. for the US Department of Defense. SFC has also announced that fellow German company Vites GmbH has integrated EFOY Pro DMFCs in its new Vikomobil, to deliver off-grid power and long autonomy to the communication systems on the trailer.

Evolution of the Building Management System in the INFN CNAF Tier-1 data center facility.

The INFN CNAF Tier-1 data center is composed by two different main rooms containing IT resources and four additional locations that hosts the necessary technology infrastructures providing the electrical power and cooling to the facility. The power supply and continuity are ensured by a dedicated room with three 15,000 to 400 V transformers in a separate part of the principal building and two redundant 1.4MW diesel rotary uninterruptible power supplies. The cooling is provided by six free cooling chillers of 320 kW each with a N+2 redundancy configuration. Clearly, considering the complex physical distribution of the technical plants, a detailed Building Management System (BMS) was designed and implemented as part of the original project in order to monitor and collect all the necessary information and for providing alarms in case of malfunctions or major failures. After almost 10 years of service, a revision of the BMS system was somewhat necessary. In addition, the increasing cost of electrical power is nowadays a strong motivation for improving the energy efficiency of the infrastructure. Therefore the exact calculation of the power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric has become one of the most important factors when aiming for the optimization of a modern data center. For these reasons, an evolution of the BMS system was designed using the Schneider StruxureWare infrastructure hardware and software products. This solution proves to be a natural and flexible development of the previous TAC Vista software with advantages in the ease of use and the possibility to customize the data collection and the graphical interfaces display. Moreover, the addition of protocols like open standard Web services gives the possibility to communicate with the BMS from custom user application and permits the exchange of data and information through the Web between different third-party systems. Specific Web services SOAP requests has been implemented in our Tier-1 monitoring system in order to collect historical trends of power demands and calculate the partial PUE (pPUE) of a specific part of the infrastructure. This would help in the identification of “spots” that may need further energy optimization. The StruxureWare system maintains compatibility with standard protocols like Modbus as well as native LonWorks, making possible reusing the existing network between physical locations as well as a considerable number of programmable controller and I/O modules that interact with the facility. The high increase of detailed statistical information about power consumption and the HVAC (heat, ventilation and air conditioning) parameters could prove to be a very valuable strategic choice for improving the overall PUE. This will bring remarkable benefits for the overall management costs, despite the limits of the non-optimal actual location of the facility, and it will help us in the process of making a more energy efficient data center that embraces the concept of green IT.

SDN and NFV as Enabler for the Distributed Network Cloud

SDN and NFV gained significant momentum within the last years. Although widely used in research labs and cloud environments, SDN has not yet been deployed in mobile telecommunication networks. In this paper, we focus on use cases driving mobile network evolution towards cost-efficient IT-based solutions using standardized hardware and software-based concepts, such as SDN and NFV. Two SDN use cases for mobile networks are described. One deals with the disaggregation of mobile network gateways and the other with SDN-enabled security concepts and applications for mobile networks. Based on the SDN use cases, the paper highlights open issues and challenges for integrating IT concepts in future telecommunication networks.

A Study on Green IT Evaluation Indicators

With the international community’s efforts to respond to climate changes progressing in the world, Green IT technologies have also developing rapidly. As green IT technologies against climate change has emerged as the agenda of social sciences, the concept of green IT has evolved into two types: greening of IT and greening by IT. In order to cope with the long-term climate change, it is necessary to discuss whether the greening of IT and the greening by IT evolve in some way. In this context, this study reviewed in depth green IT research trends as well as concepts of greening of IT and greening by IT to respond to climate change. Furthermore, it proposed a life cycle assessment (LCA) as an indicator for assessing green IT. The results of this study are expected to contribute to solving political problems with green IT and continuing research in the climate change era. They are also presented to make a contribution to the development of Received (January 25, 2016), Review Result (February 10, 2016) Accepted (February 17, 2016), Published (April 30, 2016) 156-743 Department of IT Policy and Management, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea email: cnn5001kr@naver.com 156-743 Graduate School of Software, Soongsil University, Sangdo-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea email: keita89@naver.com 156-743 Dept ITPM, Soongsil Univ., Sangdo 1-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Korea email: kshan@ssu.ac.kr (Corresponding Author) 156-743, Graduate School of Software, Soongsil University, Seoul Korea email : kjb123@ssu.ac.kr A Study on Green IT Evaluation Indicators Copyright c 2016 HSST 10 IT industry in Korea by presenting the concepts of greening of IT and greening by IT. Based on this, in this study, as a precondition of Green IT, Discussed by emphasize the need for environmental load measurement method based on the entire life cycle of the product is finished.

ON ENGLISH IT FIELD BORROWINGS IN MODERN RUSSIAN

Language is a reflection of society, which is developing with alterations in political, economic, and social spheres. As a result, some words lose their importance and fade into obscurity, whereas others come into existence. Despite the fact that the occurrence of borrowings is a global phenomenon, some spheres are more prone to accept foreign words, the dynamic IT field among them. As the USA have been leaders in the technical sphere for many years, the majority of the words describing IT concepts are of the American origin. Having entered the receiving language, some loan words may alter the meaning in order to avoid lexical competition and survive. To establish whether any semantic changes occurred, borrowings and their native counterparts have to be analyzed according to dictionary definitions as well as their contexts. Thus the aim of the present research was to analyze the issues of synonymy as well as the usage and meaning differences of English borrowings (nouns) of the IT field in the Russian language and their native counterparts. In order to perform the analysis, quantitative as well as qualitative research methods were applied. The quantitative method, particularly a corpus-based research, was employed while checking frequency and collecting the most frequent collocates of the loan words. The analysis of raw frequencies in the Russian National Corpus revealed that 21 loan words are widespread, whereas 25 of them are occasional. The majority of the loan words were found to be semantically narrowed. The analysis revealed that not a single one is in lexical competition with native Russian lexemes, since all of them are results of lexical addition rather than replacement. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.8.4

Pedagogy and interactive white board technology integration in higher education institutions: Computer-based teaching scenario protoypes

This research is part of a research trilogy that investigated issues impacting Interactive White Board Technology (IWBT) adoption and use in a higher education institution. The other two research studies in this trilogy used (1) focus group approach and (2) survey research to identify such impacting factors. One major insight from these two studies suggested that aspects concerning IWBT limited use and integration in the classroom. By capitalizing on this major finding, this research addresses such IWBT integration by developing different teaching prototypes or scenarios. This is done through using IWBT's more advanced features to showcase specific IT concepts in seven IT departments in the College of Information Technology (CIT) in UAE University. The objective here is to increase teaching-faculty's (TF) awareness about IWBT's advanced features, the proximity of these features to TF's course-content, and how these features could be used to implement a teaching scenario. To further increase the success of the development of the different scenarios, both teaching faculty and students were involved in the development. It is believed that adopting such an approach here could further promote and integrate IWBT in teaching and showing its effective use to TF more specifically.

A new way of working: Case study of Siemens AG's collaborative work environment

Siemens AG is a global technology company that has been operating for more than 165 years. The company is active worldwide, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalisation. Siemens AG is a producer of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, such as offshore wind-turbine construction, supplying combined cycle turbines for power generation, providing power transmission solutions as well as infrastructure solutions and automation, drive and software solutions for industry. At the end of September 2014, the company had around 357,000 employees worldwide. It is therefore important to maintain and further develop a high-quality work environment for Siemens’ employees. Such work environments are also critical to be attractive to the best talents of tomorrow. At Siemens, the new way of working is about creating a setting that enables employees to choose the best working environment based on the tasks at hand, while fostering a spirit of collaboration and inspiring them to perform at their fullest potential. Employees in the new environment enjoy a culture of trust, state-of-the-art IT and innovative office concepts, allowing space for creativity, collaboration and personal responsibility.

Railway Assets: A Potential Domain for Big Data Analytics

Two concepts currently at the leading edge of todays information technology revolution are Analytics and Big Data. The public transportation industry has been at the forefront in utilizing and implementing Analytics and Big Data, from ridership forecasting to transit operations Rail transit systems have been especially involved with these IT concepts, and tend to be especially amenable to the advantages of Analytics and Big Data because they are generally closed systems that involve sophisticated processing of large volumes of data. The more that public transportation professionals and decision makers understand the role of Analytics and Big Data in their industry in perspective, the more effectively they will be able to utilize its promise. This paper gives an overview of Big Data technologies in context of transportation with specific to Railways. This paper also gives an insight on how the existing data modules from the transport authority combines Big Data and how can be incorporated in providing maintenance decision making.

New Software Engineering Requirements in Clouds and Large-Scale Systems

The primary IT paradigm has changed from a compute-centric to a data-centric problem perspective. For decades our whole IT concepts were building around the foundation laid out by von Neumann. As the memory wall, parallelism, dynamicity, and multitenancy become the predominating factors in modern application performance and capabilities, this foundation doesn't hold true anymore. Rather than building up new layers, a complete rethinking of the software engineering principles is in order to overcome the essential issues in the long run. This article provides an overview over the core problems and the different approaches to overcome them.

Using visual tools to improve clinical engagement and group understanding of complex IT concepts.

This work describes how the use of a visual patient journey modeling tool significantly improved the engagement of clinical staff and their group understanding of the complex IT concepts associated with event-driven computer simulation. Such group understanding and engagement is acknowledged as critical to the successful implementation of a wide range of quality improvement initiatives [1, 2]. The specific example described in this paper relates to the improved utilisation of chemotherapy unit resources.

Study about the Impact of Information Security Systems on Corporate Performance: Based on IT Relatedness Theory

According to the development of new Information Technologies, firms consistently invest a significant amount of money in IT activities, such as establishing internal and external information systems. However, several anti-Information activitiessuch as hacking, leakage of information and system destructionare also rapidly increasing, thus many firms are exposed to direct and indirect threats. Therefore, firms try to establish information security systems and manage these systems more effectively via an enterprise perspective. However, stakeholders or some managers have negative opinions about information security systems. Therefore, in this research, we study the relationship between multibusiness firms’ performance and information security systems. Information security indicates physical and logical correspondence of information system department against threats and disaster. Studies on information security systems suggested frameworks such as IT Governance Cube and COBIT Framework to identify information security systems. Thus, this study define that information security systems is a controlled system on enterprise IT process and resource on IT Governance perspective rather than independent domain of IT. Thus, Information Security Systems should be understood as a subordinate concept of IT and business processes. In addition, this study incorporates information capability to information security system literature to show the positive relationship between Information Security Systems and Corporate Performance. The concept of information capability suggested that an interaction of human, information, technical and an effect on corporate performance using three types of capability (IT Practice, Information Management Practice, Information Behaviors and Values). Information capability is about firms’ capability to manage IT infrastructure and information as well as individual employees who use IT infrastructure and information. Thus, this study uses information capability as a mediating variable for the relationship between information security systems and firms’ performance.To investigate the relationship between Information Security Systems and multibusiness firms' performance, this study extends the IT relatedness concept into Information Security Systems. IT relatedness provides understanding of how corporations cope with conflicts between headquarters and business units to create a synergy effect and achieve high performance using IT resources. Based on the previous literature, this study develops the IT Security Relatedness model. IT Security Relatedness is our main independent variable, while Information Capability and Information Security Performance are mediating variables. To control for the common method bias, we collect each multibusiness firm's financial performance and use it as our dependent variable. We find that Information Security Systems influence Information Capability and Information Security Performance positively, and these two variables consequently influence Corporate Performance positively. In addition, this result indirectly shows that corporations under a multibusiness environment can obtain synergy effects using the integrated Information Security Systems. This positive impact of Information Security Systems on multibusiness firms’ performance has an important implication to various stakeholders. Therefore, multibusiness firms need to establish Information Security Systems to achieve better financial performance.

Computerized Accounting Information Systems and Perceived Security Threats in Developing Economies: The Nigerian Case

The concept of IT as a business enabler is enshrined in the widespread use of computerized accounting information system the world over. However, this milestone in accounting portends imminent challenges in terms of the integrity of underlying accounting transactions processed by IT equipment and facility, an important question arises: what are the likely threats to computerized accounting information systems resulting from the deployment of IT in business and how can these challenges be overcome especially in developing economies? To analyse this area of interest, Nigerian companies has been chosen as reference. An empirical study was conducted through a structured survey directed to the users of computerized accounting systems. Information was collected in order to explain the perceived threats common to CAIS's as well as determine what categories of threats were most significant. Results show that employees and outsiders constitute key threats to information assets used in computerized accounting when not controlled effectively. This suggests that management should put in place authorization procedures on a need to know basis only. Authorized users should have access to only applications and data required to perform specific tasks only. Also, there should be regular logging and monitoring of logical access to systems and data, policies and procedures on segregation of duties, access and transaction logs.

Does IT matter for environmental performance? An empirical study based on the Chinese context

Answering Watson et al.(2010)’s call for IS researchers to address the environmental sustainable challenge, this article purposes to conduct an empirical study to examine the role of IT in enabling environmental management and enhancing environmental performance. Drawing upon Hart’s natural- resource-based view of the firm and literature on IT and environmental sustainability, we introduce the concept of IT- environmental integration as a synergistic capability and proposed a theoretical model to examine the relationships among IT capabilities and IT-environmental integration and environmental performance. Data from the survey on Chinese manufacturers verifies the mediating effect of IT-environmental integration on the relationship between IT capabilities and environmental performance. The moderating effect of environmental orientation is also verified on the impact of IT capabilities on IT-environmental integration. The present study, thus, advance our understanding of IT capabilities and their implications for firm environmental performance.

Student Adoption & Development of Digital Learning Media: Action Research & Recommended Practices

During the fall semesters of 2009 and 2010, faculty members teaching a junior-level IT and networking concepts course and a senior-level information security course, produced video-captured lectures, recorded fine-grained conceptual tutorials and podcasts, developed software simulations, and provided media for ad-hoc learning assistance. Students produced video for several class assignments. They also had the option of replacing a typical written semester report with a video project. Student satisfaction with the various forms of digital learning media, perceptions of learning, and intention to adopt for future courses were measured in a series of surveys and compared to self-reported learning styles. Of particular interest was how students would perform and respond to the higher order learning activity of creating digital output. Outcomes were generally positive, and in some cases, students reported that access to digital media positively changed the way they prepared for class and studied for exams. While students reported that developing digital media was preferable to traditional projects and felt they learned more about their topics during the process of developing a video or simulation, they noted the time commitment was high. They are not yet ready to see digital media used exclusively for content delivery and expressed a preference for a mix of media and traditional classroom lectures. The paper concludes with suggestions for introducing digital learning media into an IT curriculum.