IS/IT outsourcing practices of small- and medium-sized manufacturers

Firms began outsourcing information system functions soon after the inception of electronic computing. Extant research has concentrated on large organizations and large-valued outsourcing contracts from a variety of different industries. Smaller-sized firms are inherently different from their large counterparts. These differences between small and large firms could lead to different information technology/information system (IT/IS) items being outsourced and different outsourcing agreements governing these arrangements. This research explores and examines the outsourcing practices of very small through to medium-sized manufacturing organizations. The in-depth case studies not only explored the extent to which different firms engaged in outsourcing but also the nuances of their outsourcing arrangements. The results reveal that all six firms tended to outsource the same sorts of functions. Some definite differences existed, however, in the strategies adopted in relation to the functions they outsourced. These differences arose for a variety of reasons, including size, locality, and holding company influences. The very small and small manufacturing firms tended to make outsourcing purchases on an ad hoc basis with little reliance on legal advice. In contrast, the medium-sized firms often used a more planned initiative and sought legal advice more often. Interestingly, not one of the six firms outsourced any of their transaction processing. These findings now give very small, small-, and medium-sized manufacturing firms the opportunity to compare their practices against other firms of similar size.

Design and implementation of a windows-based parallel computing environment for large scale optimization

A parallel computing environment to support optimization of large-scale engineering systems is designed and implemented on Windows-based personal computer networks, using the master-worker model and the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM). It is involved in decomposition of a large engineering system into a number of smaller subsystems optimized in parallel on worker nodes and coordination of subsystem optimization results on the master node. The environment consists of six functional modules, i.e. the master control, the optimization model generator, the optimizer, the data manager, the monitor, and the post processor. Object-oriented design of these modules is presented. The environment supports steps from the generation of optimization models to the solution and the visualization on networks of computers. User-friendly graphical interfaces make it easy to define the problem, and monitor and steer the optimization process. It has been verified by an example of a large space truss optimization. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

mecA locus diversity in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates in Brisbane, Australia, and the development of a novel diagnostic procedure for the Western Samoan phage pattern clone

An emerging public health phenomenon is the increasing incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections that are acquired outside of health care facilities. One lineage of community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) is known as the Western Samoan phage pattern (WSPP) clone. The central aim of this study was to develop an efficient genotyping procedure for the identification of WSPP isolates. The approach taken was to make use of the highly variable region downstream of mecA in combination with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) defined by the S. aureus multilocus sequence typing (MLST) database. The premise was that a combinatorial genotyping method that interrogated both a highly variable region and the genomic backbone would deliver a high degree of informative power relative to the number of genetic polymorphisms-interrogated. Thirty-five MRSA isolates were used for this study, and their gene contents and order downstream of mecA were determined. The CA-MRSA isolates were found to contain a truncated mecA downstream region consisting of mecA-HVR-IS431 mec-dcs-Ins117, and a PCR-based method for identifying this structure was developed. The hospital-acquired isolates were found to contain eight different mecA downstream regions, three of which were novel. The Minimum SNPs computer software program was used to mine the S. aureus MLST database, and the arcC 2726 polymorph was identified as 82% discriminatory for ST-30. A real-time PCR assay was developed to interrogate this SNP. We found that the assay for the truncated mecA downstream region in combination with the interrogation of arcC position 272 provided an unambiguous identification of WSPP isolates.

Ontological evaluation of enterprise systems interoperability using ebXML

Enterprise systems interoperability (ESI) is an important topic for business currently. This situation is evidenced, at least in part, by the number and extent of potential candidate protocols for such process interoperation, viz., ebXML, BPML, BPEL, and WSCI. Wide-ranging support for each of these candidate standards already exists. However, despite broad acceptance, a sound theoretical evaluation of these approaches has not yet been provided. We use the Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) models, in particular, the representation model, to provide the basis for such a theoretical evaluation. We, and other researchers, have shown the usefulness of the representation model for analyzing, evaluating, and engineering techniques in the areas of traditional and structured systems analysis, object-oriented modeling, and process modeling. In this work, we address the question, what are the potential semantic weaknesses of using ebXML alone for process interoperation between enterprise systems? We find that users will lack important implementation information because of representational deficiencies; due to ontological redundancy, the complexity of the specification is unnecessarily increased; and, users of the specification will have to bring in extra-model knowledge to understand constructs in the specification due to instances of ontological excess.

Cognitive fit between conceptual schemas and internal problem representations: The case of geospatio-temporal conceptual schema comprehension

Geospatio-temporal conceptual models provide a mechanism to explicitly represent geospatial and temporal aspects of applications. Such models, which focus on both what and when/where, need to be more expressive than conventional conceptual models (e.g., the ER model), which primarily focus on what is important for a given application. In this study, we view conceptual schema comprehension of geospatio-temporal data semantics in terms of matching the external problem representation (that is, the conceptual schema) to the problem-solving task (that is, syntactic and semantic comprehension tasks), an argument based on the theory of cognitive fit. Our theory suggests that an external problem representation that matches the problem solver's internal task representation will enhance performance, for example, in comprehending such schemas. To assess performance on geospatio-temporal schema comprehension tasks, we conducted a laboratory experiment using two semantically identical conceptual schemas, one of which mapped closely to the internal task representation while the other did not. As expected, we found that the geospatio-temporal conceptual schema that corresponded to the internal representation of the task enhanced the accuracy of schema comprehension; comprehension time was equivalent for both. Cognitive fit between the internal representation of the task and conceptual schemas with geospatio-temporal annotations was, therefore, manifested in accuracy of schema comprehension and not in time for problem solution. Our findings suggest that the annotated schemas facilitate understanding of data semantics represented on the schema.

Prediction of subcellular localization using sequence-biased recurrent networks

Motivation: Targeting peptides direct nascent proteins to their specific subcellular compartment. Knowledge of targeting signals enables informed drug design and reliable annotation of gene products. However, due to the low similarity of such sequences and the dynamical nature of the sorting process, the computational prediction of subcellular localization of proteins is challenging. Results: We contrast the use of feed forward models as employed by the popular TargetP/SignalP predictors with a sequence-biased recurrent network model. The models are evaluated in terms of performance at the residue level and at the sequence level, and demonstrate that recurrent networks improve the overall prediction performance. Compared to the original results reported for TargetP, an ensemble of the tested models increases the accuracy by 6 and 5% on non-plant and plant data, respectively.

A distributed systems approach to secure Internet mail

One of the obstacles to improved security of the Internet is ad hoc development of technologies with different design goals and different security goals. This paper proposes reconceptualizing the Internet as a secure distributed system, focusing specifically on the application layer. The notion is to redesign specific functionality, based on principles discovered in research on distributed systems in the decades since the initial development of the Internet. Because of the problems in retrofitting new technology across millions of clients and servers, any options with prospects of success must support backward compatibility. This paper outlines a possible new architecture for internet-based mail which would replace existing protocols by a more secure framework. To maintain backward compatibility, initial implementation could offer a web browser-based front end but the longer-term approach would be to implement the system using appropriate models of replication. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A theory for execution-time derivation in real-time programs

We provide an abstract command language for real-time programs and outline how a partial correctness semantics can be used to compute execution times. The notions of a timed command, refinement of a timed command, the command traversal condition, and the worst-case and best-case execution time of a command are formally introduced and investigated with the help of an underlying weakest liberal precondition semantics. The central result is a theory for the computation of worst-case and best-case execution times from the underlying semantics based on supremum and infimum calculations. The framework is applied to the analysis of a message transmitter program and its implementation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A First Order Predicate Logic Formulation of the 3D Reconstruction Problem and its Solution Space

This paper defines the 3D reconstruction problem as the process of reconstructing a 3D scene from numerous 2D visual images of that scene. It is well known that this problem is ill-posed, and numerous constraints and assumptions are used in 3D reconstruction algorithms in order to reduce the solution space. Unfortunately, most constraints only work in a certain range of situations and often constraints are built into the most fundamental methods (e.g. Area Based Matching assumes that all the pixels in the window belong to the same object). This paper presents a novel formulation of the 3D reconstruction problem, using a voxel framework and first order logic equations, which does not contain any additional constraints or assumptions. Solving this formulation for a set of input images gives all the possible solutions for that set, rather than picking a solution that is deemed most likely. Using this formulation, this paper studies the problem of uniqueness in 3D reconstruction and how the solution space changes for different configurations of input images. It is found that it is not possible to guarantee a unique solution, no matter how many images are taken of the scene, their orientation or even how much color variation is in the scene itself. Results of using the formulation to reconstruct a few small voxel spaces are also presented. They show that the number of solutions is extremely large for even very small voxel spaces (5 x 5 voxel space gives 10 to 10(7) solutions). This shows the need for constraints to reduce the solution space to a reasonable size. Finally, it is noted that because of the discrete nature of the formulation, the solution space size can be easily calculated, making the formulation a useful tool to numerically evaluate the usefulness of any constraints that are added.

Detecting finite bandwidth periodic signals in stationary noise using the signal coherence spectrum

All signals that appear to be periodic have some sort of variability from period to period regardless of how stable they appear to be in a data plot. A true sinusoidal time series is a deterministic function of time that never changes and thus has zero bandwidth around the sinusoid's frequency. A zero bandwidth is impossible in nature since all signals have some intrinsic variability over time. Deterministic sinusoids are used to model cycles as a mathematical convenience. Hinich [IEEE J. Oceanic Eng. 25 (2) (2000) 256-261] introduced a parametric statistical model, called the randomly modulated periodicity (RMP) that allows one to capture the intrinsic variability of a cycle. As with a deterministic periodic signal the RMP can have a number of harmonics. The likelihood ratio test for this model when the amplitudes and phases are known is given in [M.J. Hinich, Signal Processing 83 (2003) 1349-13521. A method for detecting a RMP whose amplitudes and phases are unknown random process plus a stationary noise process is addressed in this paper. The only assumption on the additive noise is that it has finite dependence and finite moments. Using simulations based on a simple RMP model we show a case where the new method can detect the signal when the signal is not detectable in a standard waterfall spectrograrn display. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Off-line signature verification and forgery detection using fuzzy modeling

Automatic signature verification is a well-established and an active area of research with numerous applications such as bank check verification, ATM access, etc. This paper proposes a novel approach to the problem of automatic off-line signature verification and forgery detection. The proposed approach is based on fuzzy modeling that employs the Takagi-Sugeno (TS) model. Signature verification and forgery detection are carried out using angle features extracted from box approach. Each feature corresponds to a fuzzy set. The features are fuzzified by an exponential membership function involved in the TS model, which is modified to include structural parameters. The structural parameters are devised to take account of possible variations due to handwriting styles and to reflect moods. The membership functions constitute weights in the TS model. The optimization of the output of the TS model with respect to the structural parameters yields the solution for the parameters. We have also derived two TS models by considering a rule for each input feature in the first formulation (Multiple rules) and by considering a single rule for all input features in the second formulation. In this work, we have found that TS model with multiple rules is better than TS model with single rule for detecting three types of forgeries; random, skilled and unskilled from a large database of sample signatures in addition to verifying genuine signatures. We have also devised three approaches, viz., an innovative approach and two intuitive approaches using the TS model with multiple rules for improved performance. (C) 2004 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding conceptual schemas: exploring the role of application and IS domain knowledge

Although information systems (IS) problem solving involves knowledge of both the IS and application domains, little attention has been paid to the role of application domain knowledge. In this study, which is set in the context of conceptual modeling, we examine the effects of both IS and application domain knowledge on different types of schema understanding tasks: syntactic and semantic comprehension tasks and schema-based problem-solving tasks. Our thesis was that while IS domain knowledge is important in solving all such tasks, the role of application domain knowledge is contingent upon the type of understanding task under investigation. We use the theory of cognitive fit to establish theoretical differences in the role of application domain knowledge among the different types of schema understanding tasks. We hypothesize that application domain knowledge does not influence the solution of syntactic and semantic comprehension tasks for which cognitive fit exists, but does influence the solution of schema-based problem-solving tasks for which cognitive fit does not exist. To assess performance on different types of conceptual schema understanding tasks, we conducted a laboratory experiment in which participants with high- and low-IS domain knowledge responded to two equivalent conceptual schemas that represented high and low levels of application knowledge (familiar and unfamiliar application domains). As expected, we found that IS domain knowledge is important in the solution of all types of conceptual schema understanding tasks in both familiar and unfamiliar applications domains, and that the effect of application domain knowledge is contingent on task type. Our findings for the EER model were similar to those for the ER model. Given the differential effects of application domain knowledge on different types of tasks, this study highlights the importance of considering more than one application domain in designing future studies on conceptual modeling.