A design of benchmarking method for assessing performance of e-Government systems

This paper is an initial work towards developing an e-Government benchmarking model that is user-centric. To achieve the goal then, public service delivery is discussed first including the transition to online public service delivery and the need for providing public services using electronic media. Two major e-Government benchmarking methods are critically discussed and the need to develop a standardized benchmarking model that is user-centric is presented. To properly articulate user requirements in service provision, an organizational semiotic method is suggested.

Benchmarking 2D hydraulic models for urban flooding

This paper describes benchmark testing of six two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic models (DIVAST, DIVASTTVD, TUFLOW, JFLOW, TRENT and LISFLOOD-FP) in terms of their ability to simulate surface flows in a densely urbanised area. The models are applied to a 1·0 km × 0·4 km urban catchment within the city of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and are used to simulate a flood event that occurred at this site on 30 July 2002. An identical numerical grid describing the underlying topography is constructed for each model, using a combination of airborne laser altimetry (LiDAR) fused with digital map data, and used to run a benchmark simulation. Two numerical experiments were then conducted to test the response of each model to topographic error and uncertainty over friction parameterisation. While all the models tested produce plausible results, subtle differences between particular groups of codes give considerable insight into both the practice and science of urban hydraulic modelling. In particular, the results show that the terrain data available from modern LiDAR systems are sufficiently accurate and resolved for simulating urban flows, but such data need to be fused with digital map data of building topology and land use to gain maximum benefit from the information contained therein. When such terrain data are available, uncertainty in friction parameters becomes a more dominant factor than topographic error for typical problems. The simulations also show that flows in urban environments are characterised by numerous transitions to supercritical flow and numerical shocks. However, the effects of these are localised and they do not appear to affect overall wave propagation. In contrast, inertia terms are shown to be important in this particular case, but the specific characteristics of the test site may mean that this does not hold more generally.

Benchmarking or business opportunity: Using milk recording data to expose your clients' weaknesses

Routine milk recording data, often covering many years, are available for approximately half the dairy herds of England and Wales. In addition to milk yield and quality, these data include production events that can be used to derive objective Key Performance Indicators (KPI) describing a herd's fertility and production. Recent developments in information systems give veterinarians and other technical advisers access to these KPIs on-line. In addition to reviewing individual herd performance, advisers can establish local benchmark groups to demonstrate the relative performance of similar herds in the vicinity. The use of existing milk recording data places no additional demands on farmer's time or resources. These developments could also readily be exploited by universities to introduce veterinary undergraduates to the realities of commercial dairy production.

Benchmarking consensus model quality assessment for protein fold recognition

Background: Selecting the highest quality 3D model of a protein structure from a number of alternatives remains an important challenge in the field of structural bioinformatics. Many Model Quality Assessment Programs (MQAPs) have been developed which adopt various strategies in order to tackle this problem, ranging from the so called "true" MQAPs capable of producing a single energy score based on a single model, to methods which rely on structural comparisons of multiple models or additional information from meta-servers. However, it is clear that no current method can separate the highest accuracy models from the lowest consistently. In this paper, a number of the top performing MQAP methods are benchmarked in the context of the potential value that they add to protein fold recognition. Two novel methods are also described: ModSSEA, which based on the alignment of predicted secondary structure elements and ModFOLD which combines several true MQAP methods using an artificial neural network. Results: The ModSSEA method is found to be an effective model quality assessment program for ranking multiple models from many servers, however further accuracy can be gained by using the consensus approach of ModFOLD. The ModFOLD method is shown to significantly outperform the true MQAPs tested and is competitive with methods which make use of clustering or additional information from multiple servers. Several of the true MQAPs are also shown to add value to most individual fold recognition servers by improving model selection, when applied as a post filter in order to re-rank models. Conclusion: MQAPs should be benchmarked appropriately for the practical context in which they are intended to be used. Clustering based methods are the top performing MQAPs where many models are available from many servers; however, they often do not add value to individual fold recognition servers when limited models are available. Conversely, the true MQAP methods tested can often be used as effective post filters for re-ranking few models from individual fold recognition servers and further improvements can be achieved using a consensus of these methods.

Modelling requirements of supplier selection for benchmarking service provision

Supplier selection has a great impact on supply chain management. The quality of supplier selection also affects profitability of organisations which work in the supply chain. As suppliers can provide variety of services and customers demand higher quality of service provision, the organisation is facing challenges for making the right choice of supplier for the right needs. The existing methods for supplier selection, such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) can automatically perform selection of competitive suppliers and further decide winning supplier(s). However, these methods are not capable of determining the right selection criteria which should be derived from the business strategy. An ontology model described in this paper integrates the strengths of DEA and AHP with new mechanisms which ensure the right supplier to be selected by the right criteria for the right customer's needs.

Using the web graph to influence application behaviour

The Web's link structure (termed the Web Graph) is a richly connected set of Web pages. Current applications use this graph for indexing and information retrieval purposes. In contrast the relationship between Web Graph and application is reversed by letting the structure of the Web Graph influence the behaviour of an application. Presents a novel Web crawling agent, AlienBot, the output of which is orthogonally coupled to the enemy generation strategy of a computer game. The Web Graph guides AlienBot, causing it to generate a stochastic process. Shows the effectiveness of such unorthodox coupling to both the playability of the game and the heuristics of the Web crawler. In addition, presents the results of the sample of Web pages collected by the crawling process. In particular, shows: how AlienBot was able to identify the power law inherent in the link structure of the Web; that 61.74 per cent of Web pages use some form of scripting technology; that the size of the Web can be estimated at just over 5.2 billion pages; and that less than 7 per cent of Web pages fully comply with some variant of (X)HTML.

Largest connected component of a star graph with faulty vertices

In order to make a full evaluation of an interconnection network, it is essential to estimate the minimum size of a largest connected component of this network provided the faulty vertices in the network may break its connectedness. Star graphs are recognized as promising candidates for interconnection networks. This article addresses the size of a largest connected component of a faulty star graph. We prove that, in an n-star graph (n >= 3) with up to 2n-4 faulty vertices, all fault-free vertices but at most two form a connected component. Moreover, all fault-free vertices but exactly two form a connected component if and only if the set of all faulty vertices is equal to the neighbourhood of a pair of fault-free adjacent vertices. These results show that star graphs exhibit excellent fault-tolerant abilities in the sense that there exists a large functional network in a faulty star graph.

Benchmarking and valuation issues in measuring depreciation for European office markets

Purpose – The paper addresses the practical problems which emerge when attempting to apply longitudinal approaches to the assessment of property depreciation using valuation-based data. These problems relate to inconsistent valuation regimes and the difficulties in finding appropriate benchmarks. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a case study of seven major office locations around Europe and attempts to determine ten-year rental value depreciation rates based on a longitudinal approach using IPD, CBRE and BNP Paribas datasets. Findings – The depreciation rates range from a 5 per cent PA depreciation rate in Frankfurt to a 2 per cent appreciation rate in Stockholm. The results are discussed in the context of the difficulties in applying this method with inconsistent data. Research limitations/implications – The paper has methodological implications for measuring property investment depreciation and provides an example of the problems in adopting theoretically sound approaches with inconsistent information. Practical implications – Valuations play an important role in performance measurement and cross border investment decision making and, therefore, knowledge of inconsistency of valuation practice aids decision making and informs any application of valuation-based data in the attainment of depreciation rates. Originality/value – The paper provides new insights into the use of property market valuation data in a cross-border context, insights that previously had been anecdotal and unproven in nature.

Benchmarking and setting intervention targets for key cell count parameters

Herd Companion uses routine milk‐recording records to generate twelve‐month rolling averages that indicate performance trends. This article looks at Herd Somatic Cell Count (SCC) and four other SCC‐related parameters from 252 National Milk Records (NMR) recorded herds to assess how each parameter correlates with the Herd SCC. The analysis provides evidence for the importance of targeting individual cows with high SCC recordings (>200,000 cells/ml and >500,000 cells/ml) and/or individual cows with repeatedly high SCC recordings (chronic high SCC) and/or cows that begin lactation with a high SCC recording (dry period infection) in order to achieve bulk milk Herd SCC below 200,000 cells/ml.

Development of a semantic graph-based scene description

Software representations of scenes, i.e. the modelling of objects in space, are used in many application domains. Current modelling and scene description standards focus on visualisation dimensions, and are intrinsically limited by their dependence upon their semantic interpretation and contextual application by humans. In this paper we propose the need for an open, extensible and semantically rich modelling language, which facilitates a machine-readable semantic structure. We critically review existing standards and techniques, and highlight a need for a semantically focussed scene description language. Based on this defined need we propose a preliminary solution, based on hypergraph theory, and reflect on application domains.