Internet technology

Computer aided digital patching of the fragmented object has the great advantages in efficiency, re-operation and avoiding of inadvertent damage, which is widely used in restoring and repairing of culture heritages. In this paper, we propose a unified framework for 3D fragmented object patching, and the contributions lies in: 1) a unified framework for 3D fragmented object patching consisting of 3D shape feature extraction, 3D surface region segmentation and 3D surface matching is proposed; 2) a novel geometry projection based 3D histogram model is proposed to extract the shape feature of 3D fragmented object robust to noise and sampling of 3D model; 3) a surface segmentation based on region dilation method is presented with the enough considering of the influence of surface coarseness on 3D surface region segmentation instead of handling the debris with regular shape, flat surface and few broken surfaces using the current algorithms; 4) a 3D surface matching based on height-map using 3D shape features directly instead of using curves of debris as match features as the current algorithms. The experiments are implemented on the simulation data and the real 3D scanning data of the fragmented object with a Roland LPX-250 3D laser scanner, and the results show that the proposed algorithm is feasible and effective.

The advancement of internet technologies has been significantly observed in past decades
and is proved most utilitarian in educational sector. Interaction with digitally delivered
content, network-based services and tutoring support are the innovative approaches fore-
learning. E-learning has the potential to improve the literacy rate in India especially in
remote areas where situation is worse. The present study was undertaken with an objective
to analyse the use of e-learning among the rural youth of Udaipur district of Rajasthan
state. Sample of the study comprised of 140 rural youth (70 male and 70 female).
Regarding use of e-learning tools, findings revealed that most of the respondents used
internet (93.57%) and smart phones (92.86%) whereas more than half of the respondents
(56.43%) used smart classroom. Other tools like personal computer, laptop, CD/DVD,
audio videotape and interactive TV were used by 32.86- 47.86 per cent respondents.
Various platforms such as YouTube, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp were
accessed for e-learning by the respondents. It was determined that half of the respondents
(56.42%) were using e-learning tools to medium extent whereas 19.28 per cent were using
them to high extent.

Revista IT & C este o publicație trimestrială din domeniile tehnologiei informației și comunicații, și domenii conexe de studiu și practică.

Cuprins:

EDITORIALS / EDITORIALE

Provocări și limitări în utilizarea inteligenței artificiale
Challenges and Limitations in the Use of Artificial Intelligence

Utilizarea științei datelor în detectarea amenințărilor persistente avansate
Levering Data Science in the Detection of Advanced Persistent Threats

Instrumente utilizate în dezvoltarea IA – Testul Turing
Tools Used in AI Development – The Turing Test

Importanța cercetării big data
The Importance of Big Data Research

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY / TEHNOLOGIA INFORMAȚIEI

Impact of Big Data Technology on Contemporary Society
Impactul tehnologiei Big Data asupra societății contemporane

Metode, tehnici și modele ale amenințărilor persistente avansate – Ciclul de viață al APT
Methods, Techniques and Patterns of Advanced Persistent Threats – APT Lifecycle

Detectarea amenințărilor persistente avansate în războiul cibernetic – Studii academice
Detecting Advanced Persistent Threats in Cyber Warfare – Academic Studies

Tendințe în evoluția inteligenței artificiale – Agenți inteligenți
Trends in the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Agents

Tehnologia radar, coloana vertebrală a sistemelor moderne de apărare în războiul electronic
Radar technology, the backbone of modern electronic warfare defense systems

Human Capital changes during COVID-19 Pandemic. Why software development methodologies shifted from Waterfall to Agile.
Capitalul uman se schimbă în timpul pandemiei de COVID-19. De ce metodologiile de dezvoltare software au trecut de la waterfall la agile.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS / TELECOMUNICAȚII

The Revolutionary Role of Blockchain Technology in Communication
Rolul revoluționar al tehnologiei blockchain în comunicare

Inteligența artificială în comunicații în războiul electronic
Artificial Intelligence in Communications in Electronic Warfare

Securitatea în rețelele de telecomunicații 5G cu 5G Core
Security in 5G Telecommunications Networks with 5G Core

Considerații de securitate în rețelele de telecomunicații 5G
Security Considerations in 5G Telecommunications Networks

PROGRAMMING / PROGRAMARE

Algoritmi IA utilizați în securitatea națională
AI Algorithms Used in National Security

Algoritmi de inteligență artificială în războiul electronic
Artificial Intelligence Algorithms in Electronic Warfare

Alinierea, explicabilitatea și confinarea ca obiective ale inteligenței artificiale
Alignment, Explainability and Confinement as Goals of Artificial Intelligence

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Balancing Innovation and Responsibility
Etica inteligenței artificiale: echilibrarea inovației și a responsabilității

CYBER SECURITY / SECURITATEA CIBERNETICĂ

Securitatea cibernetică și războiul cibernetic
Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare

Amenințările Persistente Avansate în securitatea cibernetică
Advanced Persistent Threats in Cyber Security

Studii de caz privind atacurile cibernetice – Amenințările persistente avansate
Cyber Attack Case Studies – Advanced Persistent Threats

Threats of Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity
Amenințări ale inteligenței artificiale pentru securitatea cibernetică

Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and Posthumanism: A Convergence of Frontiers?
Securitatea cibernetică, inteligența artificială, și postumanismul: o convergență a frontierelor?

ISSN 2971 – 9097 ISSN-L 2821 – 8469, DOI: 10.58679/IT55341

The paper describes the architecture of a distributed web-based measurement system able to disseminate measurement data over the Internet. After drawing the general architecture here proposed, the paper goes on describing, in somewhat detail, (i) the design choices adopted, (ii) the solutions implemented in order to correctly manage the measurement equipment also in presence of multiple connections, (iii) the assessment for maintaining a high degree of both generality and portability. Finally, a first application concerning a measurement station for the dissemination of environmental quantities over Internet is reported, in order to highlight the capabilities of the proposed architecture.

Legacy information systems typically form the backbone of the information flow within an organisation and are the main vehicle for consolidating information about the business. As a solution to the problems these systems posebrittleness, inflexibility, isolation, non-extensibility, lack of openness etc. -many companies are migrating their legacy systems to new environments which allow the information system to more easily adapt to new business requirements. This paper presents a survey of research into Migration of Legacy Information Systems. The main problems that companies with legacy systems must face are analysed, and the challenges possible solutions must solve discussed. The paper provides an overview of the most important currently available solutions, and their main downsides are

The Internet of Things (IoT) applies the sensors and microcontrollers and links them through the internet. The eventual objective of low-power devices for Internet of Things is to lesser the overall system power and to extend battery life. For the development of energy efficient IoT devices, novel adiabatic techniques are proposed. By improving the performance of the comparator, one can improvise the whole system performance. The efficacy of computing devices depends on the performance of arithmetic circuits, including comparator. This paper proposes 1-bit comparator design using adiabatic techniques such as DC-DB PFAL (Direct current diode-based positive feedback adiabatic logic) and MPFAL (Modify positive feedback adiabatic logic) which are well-suited with an extensive range of applications (e.g. IoT sensors and an inbuilt analog to digital converter). For performance analysis, the results are compared together along with the other adiabatic and non adiabatic designs already repo...

Middleware is a layer of software that is used by applications to locate people and resources and to provide security. Middleware in the form of authentication, authorization, and directory services is especially of interest for improving the scalability and security of managed multimedia applications. This paper describes the problems, challenges and solutions to creating middleware for real-time voice/videoconferencing applications. As part of the Internet2 Middleware and National Science Foundation Middleware Initiatives, we have designed, built and deployed middleware for scalable videoconferencing and other Internet multimedia applications. Two standards are currently used for signaling in such applications: H.323, the ITU-T signaling standard used in most of today's commercial video-conferencing systems; and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), an IETF approved standard for voice and video communications. Specific outcomes of our research include the creation of the International ITU-T standard called H.350 Directory Services Architecture for Multimedia Conferencing; an advanced SIP-based videoconferencing client that is secure and H.350 enabled; a prototype H.323 endpoint that is H.350 enabled; a Video Middleware 'Cookbook' that fully documents the H.350 architecture and provides detailed examples for software developers as well as configuration and deployment instructions; a large-scale test bed; example local and global directory services; and an architecture supporting single-sign-on authentication that is consistent with the federated administration model.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) enables user access to an operating system instance with a fine-grained control of private software and hardware resources. Many various factors can affect VPS performance and they primarily include physical server hardware specifications, installed operating system, virtualization layer, and the underlying network infrastructure. Therefore, it is very important to properly select a VPS host that meets users, applications and services resource and performance requirements. This paper presents a performance evaluation of three popular VPS hosts; namely Digital Ocean, Linode and VULTR. Performance measurement was conducted under the same controlled conditions for all three VPS hosts using a popular benchmark application for Unix operating systems - UnixBench. Three performance evaluation experiments with a focus on examining and studying key performance metrics which include CPU scheduling, memory management, hard disk drive management and Unix operating s...

Collaborative business services represent the collaboration of business service domains across organisations. This collaboration is characterised by the interdependencies of business activities and business resources between business partners. These interdependencies require information and process sharing within constraints to ensure consistency across organisations. Most approaches for collaborative business service analyses fall into two categories: 1) those based on business-process modelling perspectives using a business process modelling language; 2) those based on collaboration patterns such as network topology or interaction patterns. However, no studies examine the connections between the two categories even though collaboration patterns influence business-process management. In this paper, we investigate the sharing of different aspects of business objects such as data value and behaviours in the context of collaborative services. We formalise this approach with a collaboration framework, and present constraints emerged. To implement the framework, we develop a model of collaborative business services and evaluate its effectiveness.

We introduce a statistical experiment setting to carry out a multicollision attack on any iterated hash function. We develop a method for finding multicollisions that gives larger multicollision sets for the same amount of work as Joux's famous method i.e. with 2.5•k2 n 2 work one can find greater than 2 k -collisions for large k. Furthermore, if the message length is not restricted, we show that we can create arbitrarily large multicollisions by finding two cycles in the iterated hash function. This applies even when an ideal compression function is used.

The design principles proposed independently by both Ralph Merkle and Ivan Damgård in 1989 are applied widely in hash functions that are used in practice. The construction reads the message in one message block at a time and applies iteratively a compression function that, given a single message block and a hash value, outputs a new hash value. This iterative structure has some security weaknesses. It is vulnerable, for instance, to Joux's multicollision attack, herding attack that uses diamond structures and Trojan message attack. Our principal research topic comprises the deficiencies in hash function security induced by the Merkle-Damgård construction. In this work, we present a variant of Joux's multicollision attack. We also develop a new, time-saving algorithm for creating diamond structures. Moreover, two new efficient versions of Trojan message attack are introduced. The main contribution of the thesis is the analysis of generalized iterated hash functions. We study the combinatorial properties of words from a new perspective and develop results that are applied to give a new upper bound for the complexity of multicollision attacks against the so called q-bounded generalized iterated hash functions.

We introduce a statistical experiment setting to carry out a multicollision attack on any iterated hash function. We develop a method for finding multicollisions that gives larger multicollision sets for the same amount of work as Joux's famous method i.e. with 2.5•k2 n 2 work one can find greater than 2 k -collisions for large k. Furthermore, if the message length is not restricted, we show that we can create arbitrarily large multicollisions by finding two cycles in the iterated hash function. This applies even when an ideal compression function is used.

Reproduction is an open access, online, peer-review journal publishing papers on all aspects of research into reproductive endocrinology, infertility, bioethics and the advanced reproductive technologies. The journal reports on important developments impacting the field of human reproductive medicine and surgery. The field exists as a sub-specialty of obstetrics & gynecology, focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of complex human reproductive problems. The continued growth of this relatively new field depends on quality research by proven scientists as well as junior investigators who, together, make contributions to this area of medical and surgical practice. The publishing revolution made possible by internet technology presages a bright future for continued interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers. Against this background, Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction exists for the scientific community to facilitate this scholarly dialogue.

In addition to measurements of physical and mechanical properties, quality inspections also include metallographic analyses. When gray casting iron material, different manufacturing processes cause different microstructures in the material, whose metallographic images also perform large differences. The metallographic properties of gray iron can be divided into six types (from Type A to Type F). The proportion of types will influence the strength, wear resistance, and lifetime of specimens. The determination of type is usually dependent on manual judgments. In this study, two approaches were developed to analyze six metallographic types of gray casting iron. The first approach was to determine the type according to features of the detected particles in the metallographic materials by morphology algorithm. Types A, C, and F could be identified with the shape factor (SF) of gray casting iron. Then, the remained part could be identified using average grayscale values of the part-region of the metallographic material. Second approach was to identify Types A, C, and F with SF method and then identify the remaining part through the classification of the YOLO V3 deep learning algorithm. The results showed that the second approach performed more suitably in identifying the types of metallographic of gray casting iron.

The Internet has provided a plethora of commercial opportunities, the majority of them arising from advances in software and networking. As the technology evolves in an ever increasing pace, new opportunities are bound to be created. This paper examines how one of these technologies, the 6 th version of the Internet Protocol, may affect the Internet and the opportunities associated with it, by looking at one specific emerging application: Internet Television (IPTv). In particular, the paper examines the possible impact and implications of multicasting on television broadcasts. Television and cable broadcasters have looked for ways to exploit the potential of narrowcast for a long time, but conventional narrowcast business models have been hampered by the geographic and technological limitations in reaching audiences big enough to be economically viable. The Internet, however, is naturally disposed toward one-to-one communications and high levels of interactivity thus providing a significant platform from which to broadcast. The television industry has been selected in order to highlight that emerging Internet technologies can significantly affect well-established industries and markets and create new opportunities when carefully exploited. More specifically by reducing entry barriers it can allow SMEs to enter markets that traditionally required large investments. The paper discusses the implications for policy makers and regulatory bodies, entrepreneurs wishing to start new channels, established television broadcasters and finally the viewers themselves.

Collaborative business services represent the collaboration of business service domains across organisations. This collaboration is characterised by the interdependencies of business activities and business resources between business partners. These interdependencies require information and process sharing within constraints to ensure consistency across organisations. Most approaches for collaborative business service analyses fall into two categories: 1) those based on business-process modelling perspectives using a business process modelling language; 2) those based on collaboration patterns such as network topology or interaction patterns. However, no studies examine the connections between the two categories even though collaboration patterns influence business-process management. In this paper, we investigate the sharing of different aspects of business objects such as data value and behaviours in the context of collaborative services. We formalise this approach with a collaboration framework, and present constraints emerged. To implement the framework, we develop a model of collaborative business services and evaluate its effectiveness.

When the construction of a network component has finished the testing phase begins, which is just as important as the implementation itself. During testing the conformance test has to be executed first. The conformance test examines whether the System Under Test (SUT) corresponds to its specifications, that is whether it generates the appropriate output and transfers to the appropriate state when induced by some kind of an input. Once the SUT has passed the conformance test, the load test begins, which stresses the SUT by the maximal load it has to be able to bear with in its latter real-life environment, while examining its behavior in this extreme situation. However, for generating this high load we far don't have as much host computers in the test environment as the SUT will have to serve once it gets into its real-life environment. This means each host in the test environment has to emulate more hosts of the real-life environment. To carry this out these real-life hosts are represented by software entities, the so-called test components in the test environment, and each one of these test components is assigned to a host in the test environment. The question now is how these assigments have to be made. Main objectives of most of the task assignment algorithms developed so far are to maximize the number of running tasks (sometimes even overloading the hosts is permitted) and to minimize the communication costs between the tasks [1,2]. In our case the tasks (test components) don't communicate with each other and in order to simulate the real-life environment faithfully, overloading testing hosts is prohibited. This implies that a fully new approach is needed. In this paper we present a heuristic test component assignment algorithm that takes the above mentioned aspects into consideration and that is specialized for handling typical load testing traffic patterns. The other problem we introduce a possible solution for is scheduling in a load testing environment. In the case of conformance tests where the test environment emulates a single user, scheduling can be derived from real time scheduling. Contrarily, when dealing with load tests the test environment acts as a big amount of users or hosts, and as mentioned above a testing host has to run many test components representing many users parallelly. This leads us to another problem, namely the problem of scheduling these test components inside a testing host. The essence of the problem is that if each one of the many test components assigned to a testing host run on separate threads just like in the classic case, context switching takes a dominant part of the CPU load. The solution we developed for solving the problem of the huge overload caused by context switching introduces the concept of virtual threads. A virtual thread plays the same role as a regular thread in the classical approach, that is, exactly one test component is assigned to a virtual thread. These virtual threads are then branched together into regular threads. By significantly reducing the number of regular threads this way, the CPU load used for context switching can be reduced to a near-zero level. As our simulations have shown handling these two problems by the solutions we present in this paper results in a significant raise in the efficiency of executing load tests.

When the construction of a network component has finished the testing phase begins, which is just as important as the implementation itself. During testing the conformance test has to be executed first. The conformance test examines whether the System Under Test (SUT) corresponds to its specifications, that is whether it generates the appropriate output and transfers to the appropriate state when induced by some kind of an input. Once the SUT has passed the conformance test, the load test begins, which stresses the SUT by the maximal load it has to be able to bear with in its latter real-life environment, while examining its behavior in this extreme situation. However, for generating this high load we far don't have as much host computers in the test environment as the SUT will have to serve once it gets into its real-life environment. This means each host in the test environment has to emulate more hosts of the real-life environment. To carry this out these real-life hosts are represented by software entities, the so-called test components in the test environment, and each one of these test components is assigned to a host in the test environment. The question now is how these assigments have to be made. Main objectives of most of the task assignment algorithms developed so far are to maximize the number of running tasks (sometimes even overloading the hosts is permitted) and to minimize the communication costs between the tasks [1,2]. In our case the tasks (test components) don't communicate with each other and in order to simulate the real-life environment faithfully, overloading testing hosts is prohibited. This implies that a fully new approach is needed. In this paper we present a heuristic test component assignment algorithm that takes the above mentioned aspects into consideration and that is specialized for handling typical load testing traffic patterns. The other problem we introduce a possible solution for is scheduling in a load testing environment. In the case of conformance tests where the test environment emulates a single user, scheduling can be derived from real time scheduling. Contrarily, when dealing with load tests the test environment acts as a big amount of users or hosts, and as mentioned above a testing host has to run many test components representing many users parallelly. This leads us to another problem, namely the problem of scheduling these test components inside a testing host. The essence of the problem is that if each one of the many test components assigned to a testing host run on separate threads just like in the classic case, context switching takes a dominant part of the CPU load. The solution we developed for solving the problem of the huge overload caused by context switching introduces the concept of virtual threads. A virtual thread plays the same role as a regular thread in the classical approach, that is, exactly one test component is assigned to a virtual thread. These virtual threads are then branched together into regular threads. By significantly reducing the number of regular threads this way, the CPU load used for context switching can be reduced to a near-zero level. As our simulations have shown handling these two problems by the solutions we present in this paper results in a significant raise in the efficiency of executing load tests.

The various forms and tremendous number of spam emails have brought great challenges to accurate email classification. In this paper, we present a behavior- and time-feature-based email classification method. Based on email logs, email social networks are built through the extraction of entities and relations from the email records using the MapReduce model. By combining behavior features from social networks and time features from email sending intervals, we adopt a Support Vector Machine based classifier to identify spammers and nonspammers. Compared with the current email classification methods, the advantages of our method are: (1) in addition to the behavior-based features, our method integrates the time feature to facilitate email classification; (2) to efficiently handle the vast number of emails, we employ the MapReduce model to extract the behavior- and time-based features on the email social network. Experiments on real email data of three years show that the proposed meth...

Internet technology as a widely accepted modern telecommunication standard has been widely extended to combine with numerous other technologies, e.g., satellite, ATM, wireless. This is what we term as Hybrid Internet. Along with this technology emerging, various enhancements and alterations of standard TCP IP for di erent purposes have been proposed and studied intensively. More and more frequently we are facing the question of how to choose from these di erent schemes to design a system for a particular purpose, which would inevitably involve the interaction and trade-o study. We believe that simulation is a powerful tool for this type of work. In this paper, we describe our implementation of a Hybrid Internet testbed which includes a series of tra c models and TCP IP enhancements. The goal of our work is to make a set of reusable modules upon which w e can build complex systems to study the standard protocols and their variations. We also present application examples using these module components.

The opening up of the Internet to large-scale public access from the early 1990s was attended by a proliferation of words associated with, referring to, and circulating on the Internet. A great many dictionaries of such Internet terms were published in the course of the decade, which effectively constituted a distinctive vocabulary. This vocabulary was unusually fluid and quickly socially grounded. Dictionaries of Internet terms worked with somewhat different ideas of authority and usage from those of standard ordinary-language or technical and professional dictionaries. This paper considers the development of such dictionaries in that decade, with some necessary attention to earlier and later trajectories.

Using textual passwords suffer from the balance between security and usability. Password policies are usually adopted by system administrators to force users to choose strong passwords. However, users often use a simple password to make it easy to remember, which reduces the password strength and make it vulnerable to information security threats. When users enter their passwords in public places like airports or cafes, they become exposed to shoulder surfing attacks which are considered as a kind of social engineering. With a little effort, an attacker can capture a password by recording the individual's authentication session or by direct observation. To overcome this vulnerability, we propose a new textual-password approach that uses camouflage characters and a virtual keyboard which leads to generating strong and easy to remember passwords. The perspective of usability and security was evaluated by experimental studies conducted with 65 users and then compared with recent studies. The results showed that the proposed technique has the lowest shoulder surfing success rate with just 3.63% with reasonable usability.

The Virtual Reali? Modelling Language [I], V M has become a recognised standard for network applied and network distributed virtuaf reafi? during rhe past three years. In this article, we shall describe and present current ideas in VRML technofogy that are mostly focused on integrating the VRh4L with other technologies applied in Internet services (e.g. data streaming and push techniques, multicasting and multimedia). Our example is a project of the VRIT group (Virtual Reali?/Internet Technologyl involving a V M webcast of the University Sailing Regatta, the first attempf af a pseudo or true realtime VR webcast such an event.

This paper considers the support of real-time applications in an Integrated Services Packet Network (ISPN). We first review the characteristics of real-time applications. We observe that, contrary to the popular view that real-time applications necessarily require a fixed delay bound, some real-time applications are more flexible and can adapt to current network conditions. We then propose an ISPN architecture that supports two distinct kinds of real-time service: guaranteed service, which is the traditional form of real-time service discussed in most of the literature and involves pre-computed worst-case delay bounds, and predicted service which uses the measure performance of the network in computing delay bounds. We then propose a packet scheduling mechanism that can support both of these real-time services as well as accommodate datagram traffic. We also discuss two other aspects of an overall ISPN architecture: the service interface and the admission control criteria.

bVhen building small product families, sofivare should be shared between drfferent members of the family, birt the sofiare can still be created as one system (Ivith variation points) with a single architecture. For large and diverse product families (product populations), the sofiware can no longer be developed in one context and at one moment in time. Instead, one must combine so f l a r e components of which the development is separated in space and in time, each with their own evolution path. In other words, we need independent deployment of components. We discuss four aspects of independent deployment in this paper. Two of these aspectsupward and downward compatibility -deal with variation in time. The other hvo reusability and portabilitydeal with variation in space. For each aspect we indicate the relevance, provide some examples, and list several techniques to deal with it. The paper can thus be seen as a guide for product population development.

This paper describes Pavilion, an object-oriented middleware framework for developing collaborative webbased applications. Pavilion enables a developer to construct new applications by inheriting and extending its default functionality. Reusable and extensible Pavilion components include interfaces to common web browsers, a reliable multicast protocol tailored for delivery of web resources, a leadership protocol for floor control, and a highly modular proxy server that supports data typespecific plug-ins. The architecture and operation of Pavilion are described, followed by a discussion of VGuide, a synchronous VRML application built using Pavilion. VGuide enables one user to lead other users through virtual worlds in a synchronous manner.

This paper shows that online political discussion networks are, on average, wider and deeper than the networks generated by other types of discussions: they engage a larger number of participants and cascade through more levels of nested comments. Using data collected from the Slashdot forum, this paper reconstructs the discussion threads as hierarchical networks and proposes a model for their comparison and classification. In addition to the substantive topic of discussion, which corresponds to the different sections of the forum (such as Developers, Games, or Politics), we classify the threads according to structural features like the maximum number of comments at any level of the network (i.e. the width) and the number of nested layers in the network (i.e. the depth). We find that political discussion networks display a tendency to cluster around the area that corresponds to wider and deeper structures, showing a significant departure from the structure exhibited by other types of discussions. We propose using this model to create a framework that allows the analysis and comparison of different internet technologies for the promotion of political deliberation.

The Information and Communications Technologies are making possible a new form to teach and to learn in a global context that cannot be ignored by the Universities. Their educative policies in the Information and Knowledge Society have to stimulate the creation of synergies between universities, departments, research groups, students, etc, not only in a national but in a new and

Data sharing over the internet is increasingly efficient and increasingly anonymous. This growing anonymity makes it difficult for data users to exchange feedback: interesting ideas, innovations, ancillary data, concerns about data quality, etcetera. For data producers not knowing the end-users makes it more difficult to collect end-user feedback and tailor the production process to users needs. Feedback can be exchanged through social networks, in other words contacts with other users. Very little is known about such social networks in the case of data sharing. In this paper we present an analysis of the social networks associated with two land cover datasets. We found that most users have zero to two links to other users and virtually no links to users in other organisations. Without these links, it seems almost impossible to identify users of a particular dataset. Internet technology can help but is currently not used to enhance exchange of feedback within the user community.

We present a simulation approach that provides a relatively risk-free and cost-effective environment to examine the decision space for both bid takers and bid makers in web-based dynamic price setting processes. The applicability of the simulation platform is demonstrated for Yankee auctions in particular. We focus on the optimization of bid takers' revenue, as well as on examining the welfare implications of a range of consumer-bidding strategies—some observed, some hypothetical. While these progressive open discriminatory multiunit auctions with discrete bid increments are made feasible by Internet technologies, little is known about their structural characteristics, or their allocative efficiency. The multiunit and discrete nature of these mechanisms renders the traditional analytic framework of gametheory intractable (Nautz and Wolfstetter 1997). The simulation is based on theoretical revenue generating properties of these auctions. We use empirical data from real online auc...

Creating 3D reconstruction of the past is a challenging task requiring a vast set of technical skills, with teams usually including historians, 3D artists and IT technicians. In this paper, we describe our combined efforts to work under a low-budget pipeline to make a 3D simulation of the medieval village of Mértola in the south of Portugal. The work we describe in this paper is part of a larger project called "BIHC BioInspired Human Crowds" whose partial objectives are the development of a set of tools for the animation of 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage sites. We have focused on developing a lightweight model of the village that would allow the incorporation of virtual autonomous inhabitants in a simulation running in real-time and visitable by online audiences in both i) bird’s-eye and ii) first-person points of view. The contribution of this paper is the identification of a set of tools and stages that can be used to obtain the final interactive environment rec...

Despite 30 years' experimentation and 20 years' availability of commercial products, the architecture, engineering, and construction industry in the mid-1990s had yet to achieve an effective integration of computer-based techniques into its business processes. Business processes in all industries are resistant to change, and people tend to use new tools in the same way they used their old ones: computers as pencils. In the architecture, engineering, and construction industry within the United States, this tendency has been aggravated by the segmentation of the work process into myriad specialties, frequently performed by separate companies, with the information flow obstructed by professional licensing, regulation, contracts, the profit motive, and even the training of design professionals. However, a number of developments-the emergence of object technology; industry standardization initiatives; widespread adoption of Internet technologies; and competitive pressures-are converging to create both the feasibility of and the necessity for rethinking and restructuring the industry. This article focuses on computer graphics precedents related to the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.

Shortest path analysis is one of a significant tool in GIS. Several algorithms can be used to utilize the analysis. Dijkstra's algorithm has proven its capability in providing two-dimensional (2D) shortest route information. However, there are few attempts to fit the algorithm for three-dimensional (3D) shortest routes. This chapter describes the investigation and implements the algorithm for 3D environment like 3D building for indoor situations. The developed navigation system used a 3D navigational game engine. The approach works and could be extended for application including emergency and rescue operations, building management, facility management and other 3D geo-information situations. itation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

several new applications and the new emerging technologies that make ad hoc networking possible are pushing the development of ad hoc networks. Securing the ad hoc environment is essential for the success of these new applications as well as for the entire future of ad hoc networking. Several ad hoc security aspects, like trust management and routing concerns were approached in the last few years, but no comprehensive security models for ad hoc environments discussed. This paper presents a security model for wireless servicebased ad hoc networks.

Scholars from different disciplines have recently studied a phenomenon called "the digital divide". Since many of the new government information technology initiatives are based on Internet technologies and require the use of the Internet by citizens, understanding the digital divide (and consequently, the potential demand) is very important for e-government scholars. For some researchers, the divide is not a problem and Internet access is the only relevant determinant of Internet use (access divide). For other researchers, the divide is rooted in more fundamental social differences and opportunities (multi-dimensional divide). Using data from the Piedmont region in Italy, this paper tests these two competing views of the digital divide. Overall, the models based on a multi-dimensional view have greater explanatory power and provide evidence about the relevance of multiple factors affecting both Internet access and Internet use. For instance, females use the Internet for a smaller number of activities than males. Individuals with more formal education and who can speak English use the Internet more. Finally, individuals with more experience using a PC and the Internet itself also use the Internet to perform a broader range of activities.

The emergence of internet technology results in manifold opportunities of cost -effective one-to-one relationships with customers. It is intended to provide customer oriented information and products etc. in an individualized one-to-one manner. The paper's goal is to give a conceptual overview of the per- sonalization concept and to show why and in which way mass customization (product personalization) can be useful accompanied by other personalization activities, e.g. personalization of communication and customer interaction. Therefore the concept of personalization is integrated into the online market- ing mix. The marketing mix discussion leads to a personalization performance system which shows the potential objects of web personalization activities from a customer's point of view giving a guideline for planning personalization activities. The model consists of the three main layers product & services, website and communication. First of all the paper starts with a def...

The world of business is being profoundly transformed by the Internet and electronic commerce. The rapid advancement of Internet technology and its applications holds promise for the expansion of business opportunities in the global digital economy. Internet systems support a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination and a medium for electronic commerce between organizations and customers across countries. Describes research that leads to the derivation of a diffusion model of Internet systems, comprising four key dimensions: external market factors, external technical factors, internal organization factors, and internal systems factors. The intention is for this model to provide a theoretical base for further research on electronic commerce and Internet technology diffusion.

The emergence of information technology has resulted in an ever-increasing demand to use computers for the efficient management and dissemination of information. Keeping in view the strong need of farmers to collect important and updated information for interactive, flexible and quick decision-making, a model of Decision Support System for Farm Management is developed. The paper discusses the use of Internet technology for the farmers to take decisions. A model is developed for the farmers to access online interactive and flexible information for their farm management. The workflow of the model is presented highlighting the information transfer between different modules.

The aim of the present paper is to closely consider the notions of ''space'' and ''identity'' from two different perspectives of the human experience. We are most of all interested in the psychological realm to which we devote the major part. As such we intend to define a brain disorder known as schizophrenia in light of the duality of 'space and identity'. We consider aspects of the deterioration of these notions that interact to further accentuate the breakdown of the patient diagnosed with the disease. These notions can be altered by factors that are not essentially biological or psychological. We argue that technology does also interfere to rework these notions as such bringing about a less rigorous effect but, still, triggering a less balanced human experience to dwell. This does not entail the onset of schizophrenia. However, it may lay behind other psychological problems. These may share to some extent a fragmented character that turn out to reveal aspects of a schizophrenic nature.

An internet-based information and monitoring platform for the specific requirements of geotechnical engineering projects is presented. The platform is based on a hybrid-model approach consisting of a model-based information management system and a resource management system, the latter also referred to as DCMS. Project key information can be accessed via the main user interface, the "graphical navigator". The graphical navigator provides also a direct access to additional information in the DCMS. Prompt reaction in exceptional situations as well as in daily work gets an extensive support. In practical applications it has been proven that this platform seems to be an adequate tool especially for risk assessment and management in geotechnical engineering projects. Components and advantages of the platform as well as experiences from the applications are presented and discussed in the paper.

The exponential growth of resources on the web, and the wide deployment of devices for multimodal access to the Internet, lead to new problems in information management. In this context, and as part of the European project Vision, we have built an interactive telematic handbook of the culture and the territory of Sardinia. A team of cultural experts browsed the web to get a large collection of Internet resources.The system built for the management of this data uses emerging Internet technologies such as the XML language suite and its applications. The result obtained is a multimodal service, called Eiha?!?, available through PCs and mobile phones.

This article is aimed at analyzing the motivations on the part of firms to invest in websites. What are the drivers behind such investments? In order to address this issue, we have considered two alternative theoretical frameworks. The first relies upon resourcebased theory; the approach herein states that firms with greater resources and competencies are expected to invest more heavily in Internet technologies, especially those firms present in rent-yielding markets (concentrated markets with strong entry barriers). The theory of industrial organization constitutes a second framework and leads to the alternative conjecture that firms should have more incentive to invest in a website when they are in highly-competitive markets. A website can indeed serve as a strategic means for creating artificial entry barriers and eliminating rivals. We have tested these two hypotheses using a French database and found the resource-based approach to be more relevant in explaining the drivers of website investment. In particular, firms tend to invest more in websites when markets are highly concentrated and little exposed to international trade.

This paper presents a blind image authentication technique. It reports on several processes involved in image authentication, tamper detection, and tampered image recovery. The authentication codes of each block consist of three features, variance, grayscale, and edge. To enhance the robustness of each block’s authentication codes, these codes will make three copies and permute their data stream before embedding. The proposed blind image authentication method can verify the integrity of an image without requiring access to the original image. Moreover, image recovery for tampered blocks is also conducted with the same authentication code’s blocks. The experimental results show that the proposed method can successfully achieve the goal of image authentication and maintain the high visual quality on both of  authenticated image and its recovery version if any tamper is happened.