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PROCESSES TO ENABLE USER-SPECIFIED POLICIES FOR PERVASIVE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS
No full textThe focus of this work is developing processes to enable user-specified policies to help roaming users manage their interaction with a pervasive computing environment. A user-specified policy is a policy, defined by the user, which represents how she would prefer the pervasive computing environment to behave towards her. Towards realising such policies, two related research areas have to be enhanced. They are dynamic policy conflict detection and resolution and inter-domain policy negotiation. This report discusses the state of the art in related areas, and details the work carried out towards meeting the research objectives
The Electronic Commerce Integrated Development Methodology For Small Firms
Get PDFElectronic Commerce (EC) technologies have the ability to reshape industry structure, and in doing so modify the rules of competition, which, in turn, lead to new methods of competing (Thong, 1999; Hawkins et al., 1999). The technological shift from traditional methods to Internet-based methods of trading has facilitated cost and competitive advantage (Auger and Gallaugher, 1997). However, to maximise EC gains it is critical that organisations understand the phases of technological assimilation and also the managerial issues involved in implementing new technologies. This specifically requires a coherent and combined approach to EC technology deployment, Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and associated activities such as Organisational Learning (OL).
Research conducted by Turban et al. (1999) indicates that Information Systems Development (ISD) can provide a stimulus for productivity and quality improvements, through process improvements, automation, and associated initiatives. It is therefore evident that there is a very close relationship between BPR and ISD. Furthermore, research reveals that many leading authors view Information Technology (IT) as being a critical enabler of BPR (Bartram, 1992; Davenport, 1993). Stoddard and Jarvenpaa (2000) believe that the absence of IT capabilities can be a major inhibitor to BPR. ..
Privacy, patients and healthcare workers: a critical analysis of large scale, integrated manufacturing information systems reapplied in health
Get PDFThis paper examines the social impact of healthcare systems upon two key stakeholders, patients and healthcare workers. The paper focuses upon ‘privacy’, a growing concern of organisations involved in the delivery of healthcare services. Surprisingly, privacy is typically undervalued in information systems development, including healthcare systems. This paper applies a developmental privacy framework to determine a variety of privacy issues pertinent to the use of ICT for healthcare applications in the context of the two stakeholders above. The framework identifies privacy issues relevant to the stakeholders and a number of relevant themes are discussed. The paper also notes the absence of human-centred investigations of privacy in healthcare informatics. Finally, the paper demonstrates the usefulness of a recently developed privacy framework in assessing the social impact of advanced technology systems in the healthcare field
Electron-hole asymmetry and two-state lasing in quantum dot lasers
Get PDFWe study the decrease of the ground-state output with increasing current in two-state quantum dot
lasing. We show that the asymmetry in the thermal population redistribution breaks the symmetric
dynamical evolution of the electron-hole pairs. This fully explains the transition from two-state to
single-state lasing observed experimentally. The model also reproduces the temperature dependence
of the two-state lasin
Daidalos Security Framework for Mobile Services
Get PDFMobility is now the central focus of the lives of European citizens in business, education, and leisure. This will be enriched by pervasiveness in the future. The Daidalos vision is to seamlessly integrate heterogeneous network technologies that allow network operators and service providers to offer new and profitable services, giving users access to a wide range of pervasive, personalised voice, data, and multimedia services. This paper discusses the security issues that need to be addressed to make Daidalos a real viable solution for future pervasive mobility. Issues include among others privacy & identity management, secure protocols, distributed key management, security in ad hoc networks
Impact of lime, nitrogen and plant species on fungal community structure in grassland microcosms
No full textA microcosm-based approach was used to study impacts of plant and chemical factors on the fungal community structure of an upland acidic grassland soil. Seven plant species typical of both unimproved and fertilized grasslands were either left unamended or treated with lime, nitrogen or lime plus nitrogen. Fungal community structure was assessed by a molecular approach, fungal automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (FARISA), while fungal biomass was estimated by measuring soil ergosterol content. Addition of nitrogen (with or without lime) had the largest effect, decreasing soil pH, fungal biomass and fungal ribotype number, but there was little corresponding change in fungal community structure. Although different plant species were associated with some changes in fungal biomass, this did not result in significant differences in fungal community structure between plant species. Addition of lime alone caused no changes in fungal biomass, ribotype number or community structure. Overall, fungal community structure appeared to be more significantly affected through interactions between plant species and chemical treatments, as opposed to being directly affected by changes in individual improvement factors. These results were in contrast to those found for the bacterial communities of the same soils, which changed substantially in response to chemical (lime and nitrogen) additions
The Classical Taste of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough, in Irish Architectural and Decorative Arts
Get PDFUsing previously unpublished material, this study examines the classical taste of the second Earl of Bessbourough in terms of his travels, collection of antiquities and design of his homes
SECURIST: Co-ordinating the development of a Strategic Research Agenda for Security and Dependability R&D
Get PDFThis paper provides a brief overview of SecurIST and an introduction to the Security Task Force Initiatives that have been formed.
Companies and projects wishing to join these initiatives can still register their interests at www.securitytaskforce.or
INCONGRUENCY & RUTHLESS BRANDS: MODELLING THE EFFECTS OF TRUST ON THE CUSTOMER - COMPANY RELATIONSHIP
Get PDFThe image congruity theory has received great interest by marketing academics over the decades (Bellenger et al., 1976; Malhotra, 1981; Sirgy and Chenting, 2000). However, to date most of the research concerning image congruity is based on the assumption that the greater the image match between consumer and brand, the more favourable the relationship between the two (Malhotra, 1981; Aaker, 1997). Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Scale was validated for a variety of consumers and products, and generally consisted of positive dimensions (e.g. sincere, rugged, competent, sophisticated, excited) and proposed that a good image was determined by those brands which rated highly on positive dimensions.
Recently, there has been an extension to the concept of image congruence and its application to corporate image (Davies et al., 2004; Argenti and Druckenmiller, 2004). However to date, the marketing literature has neglected to investigate brand-consumer incongruency, and more importantly to try to offer explanations for this with regard to outcomes such as satisfaction and purchase behaviour. We argue that success is neither about having an image which rates either positively (for example, highly agreeable) or negatively (for example, highly ruthless) on various dimensions of brand personality, nor is it about always having a congruence or ‘match’ between brand image and consumer image as theoretical contributions have suggested.
This paper aims to investigate this issue and offer such explanations by investigating brands traditionally viewed as ‘ruthless’ and ‘agreeable’ on a measurement scale (Davies et al., 2002) through the development and testing of a conceptual model. That said, surely it is not only ruthless people who purchase ruthless brands.
We propose that corporate image is every dimension of the brand, which is externally perceived by the consumer. It is therefore the aggregate of organisation brand image (product and company) and CEO image. The management of this externally perceived image is clearly of significance to the field of corporate reputation management (Brown and Dacin, 1997). For instance, today there are numerous companies who are perceived as ruthless in their business operations but yet hold a positive image with their publics e.g. Ryanair. Similarly, there are numerous CEO’s that hold somewhat ruthless images but these traditionally negative images are not influential over public perception of the corporate image e.g. Richard Branson (seen as ruthless) and Virgin (seen as an agreeable alternative).
We use the metaphor of ‘brand as person’ to present a conceptual framework that illustrates the relationships between consumer, organisation brand (product and company) and CEO image. The influence that brand trust as a moderator (Mayers et al., 1995) has on the consumer - company relationships is examined, and likewise the influence that brand trust has on the relational outcomes of intimacy, self-connectedness, commitment and purchase intention are discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for theory and managerial practice