Editorial : towards merging grid and pervasive computing

This special issue is in response to the increasing convergence between grids and pervasive computing, while different approaches exist, challenges and opportunities are numerous in this context (Parashar and Pierson, to appear). The research papers selected for this special issue represent recent progresses in the field, including works on mobile ad-hoc grids, service and data discovery, context-aware application building and context accuracy, and communication. All of these papers not only provide novel ideas and state-of-the-art techniques in the field, but also stimulate future research in the Pervasive Grid environment.

Internet and distributed computing advancements : theoretical frameworks and practical applications

This book is a vital compendium of chapters on the latest research within the field of distributed computing, capturing trends in the design and development of Internet and distributed computing systems that leverage autonomic principles and techniques. The chapters provided within this collection offer a holistic approach for the development of systems that can adapt themselves to meet requirements of performance, fault tolerance, reliability, security, and Quality of Service (QoS) without manual intervention.

Ripple effects of house prices : considering spatial correlations in geography and demography

Purpose: Studies into ripple effects have previously focused on the interconnections between house price movements across cities over space and time. These interconnections were widely investigated in previous research using vector autoregression models. However, the effects generated from spatial information could not be captured by conventional vector autoregression models. This research aimed to incorporate spatial lags into a vector autoregression model to illustrate spatial-temporal interconnections between house price movements across the Australian capital cities. Design/methodology/approach: Geographic and demographic correlations were captured by assessing geographic distances and demographic structures between each pair of cities, respectively. Development scales of the housing market were also used to adjust spatial weights. Impulse response functions based on the estimated SpVAR model were further carried out to illustrate the ripple effects. Findings: The results confirmed spatial correlations exist in housing price dynamics in the Australian capital cities. The spatial correlations are dependent more on the geographic rather than the demographic information. Originality/value: This research investigated the spatial heterogeneity and autocorrelations of regional house prices within the context of demographic and geographic information. A spatial vector autoregression model was developed based on the demographic and geographic distance. The temporal and spatial effects on house prices in Australian capital cities were then depicted.

Service and cloud computing supporting genomic analysis of the mammalian species

 This research focused on building Software as a Service clouds to support mammalian genomic applications such as personalized medicine. Outcomes of this research included a Software as a Service cloud framework, the Uncinus research cloud and novel genomic analysis software. Results have been published in high ranking peer-reviewed international journals.