Performance Analysis of Public Cloud Computing Providers

The objective of this paper is to perform a comprehensive performance comparison of public cloud services for computing and to analyze the correlation between their prices and performance. Eight representative public cloud providers were divided into two groups using market share: small cloud providers and large cloud providers. Results revealed that these offered computing services vary widely in performance and price; most small cloud providers have more stable and better computing performance than large cloud providers; the performance of CPU impact price significantly

Investigating the Feasibility of a 3D Virtual World Technology for People with Dementia

Three Dimensional Virtual Worlds (3DVWs) are computer-generated, simulated, graphical and multimedia environments, designed so that users can ‘live in’ and engage via their own digital and graphical self-representations known as ‘avatars’. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using 3DVWs to enhance engagement and quality of life in people with dementia. A mixed-methods research design, guided by a feasibility framework, was used, with data collected from semi-structured interviews, observations, and surveys. Eleven residents expressed interest in the 3DVWs intervention after reading an advertisement and attended an introductory session. After this, eight people expressed a desire to participate in the six-session intervention. Participants generally enjoyed the experience of using 3DVWs. Of those who completed all six sessions, two-thirds showed a positive change in their quality of life score. Moreover, those who participated in almost all sessions showed higher satisfaction with the use of the 3DVW than those who dropped out. Both residents and care staff perceived the 3DVW as engaging, fun and memory stimulating. The findings support the feasibility of using 3DVWs with people with dementia, and this justifies the need for further research

Users’ Attitudes on Mobile Devices: Can Users’ Practices Protect their Sensitive Data?

Smartphones are the most popular personal electronic devices. They are used for all sorts of purposes, from managing bank accounts to playing games. As smartphone apps and services proliferate, the amount of sensitive data stored on or processed by handheld devices rise as well. This practice entails risks, such as violating users’ privacy, stealing users’ identities, etc. Particularly, stealing an unlocked device grants full access to sensitive data and applications. In this survey, we examine whether users adopt some basic practices to protect their sensitive personal data themselves, or is there a need to further strengthen their protection? Our statistical analysis assesses smartphone users’ security attitudes and practices among different age groups. Finally, we investigate the factors that affect the attitude of users with respect to their practices for the protection of personal data.The results of this study, show that while many smartphone users do take some security precautions, a high percentage (24%) of them still ignores security and privacy risks. In addition, 19,1 % of users do not follow any practices to protect their PINs and Passwords

Investigating into the Prevalence of Complex Event Processing and Predictive Analytics in the Transportation and Logistics Sector: Initial Findings From Scientific Literature

As ever new sensor solutions are invading people’s everyday lives and business processes, the use of the signals and events provided by the devices poses a challenge. Innovative ways of handling the large amount of data promise an effective and efficient means to overcome that challenge. With the help of complex event processing and predictive techniques, added value can be created. While complex event processing is able to process the multitude of signals coming from the sensors in a continuous manner, predictive analytics addresses the likelihood of a certain future state or behavior by detecting patterns from the signal database and predicting the future according to the detections. As to the transportation and logistics domain, processing the signal stream and predicting the future promises a big impact on the operations because the transportation and logistics sector is known as a very complex one. The complexity of the sector is linked with the many stakeholders taking part in a variety of operations and the partly high level of automation often being accompanied by manual processes. Hence, predictions help to prepare better for upcoming situations and challenges and, thus, to save resources and cost. The present paper is to investigate the prevalence of complex event processing and predictive analytics in logistics and transportation cases in the research literature in order to motivate a subsequent systematic literature view as the next step in the research endeavor

Wellness Routines with Wearable Activity Trackers: A Systematic Review

With the advent of technological advancements, different types of wearables are built and introduced to individuals to better quantify and monitor their lifestyles. This helps in creating awareness among individuals about their health and wellness, motivating them to make healthy changes in their lifestyles. The young-elderly (aged 60–75) age group constitutes an important segment of the society, which is growing worldwide, but with little or no attention of researchers and practitioners. Wearables offer lots of open research avenues; with a proper integration with new and existing mobile applications it will be possible to build systematic and smart life routines for users. Designing wearables for young elderly is an interesting design challenge with its own set of requirements. We have carried out a systematic review of current literature to get an understanding of how wearables can support wellness routines for individuals. The purpose is to study the current state of art in creating wellness routines with wearables as technological interventions. In doing so we present a categorization of existing approaches and a summarization of different design recommendations that serve different design goals. The review also suggests a clear lack of efforts to address the needs of the young-elderly. We suggest an introduction of action design research to encourage users to be part of a co-creation process that would help to lower adoption barriers for the young elderly

A Process for Designing and Developing Interactive Learning Objects for Organisations

Organisations are increasingly adopting e-learning environments for employee and customer training projects. These environments use educational technologies and interactive learning objects (ILOs) to increase the quality of digital training experiences. ILOs are growing in popularity because material is multimodal but even more so, interactive which engages trainees and increases motivation to learn. Several studies have proposed processes and guidelines for improving the usability and user experience (UX) of system applications and websites. However, the processes and guidelines for designing ILOs are limited and the majority of these focus on ILOs adopted in educational institutions. Corporations need to consider additional factors, such as the organisational culture and the disparate profile of users when designing their e-learning environment and the ILOs to be adopted. This paper seeks to answer the research question, “What process should be followed when designing interactive learning objects (ILOs) in a corporate context?”. The purpose of this paper is to propose a process for designing and developing ILOs (PDILO) that can be used to increase the UX of these ILOs and ultimately, the usage thereof in an e-learning environment for corporate contexts. A case study approach was adopted and the case was a software development company incorporating e-learning into its management strategy. The design process was used to design ILOs that formed part of a module in the company’s new e- learning environment. The proposed process can be used to guide content developers with the design of ILOs in e-learning environments and ultimately improve the success thereof

An Innovation and Risk Dashboard

In order to manage new product and service innovations within organisations effectively, cognizance needs to be taken of a wide number of diverse risks that are multidisciplinary in nature. However, to display such a large number of risks in a fast-changing environment on short notice with dispersed information requires novel techniques. Using a design science methodology, a unique artefact was delivered with a design grounded in scientific literature, including prescriptive and concrete knowledge sources as well practical knowledge. This risk and innovation dashboard allows new product and service development teams to make quicker and more informed decisions during stage/gate processes. Since no dashboard design approach for managing risks in new product and service development could be found in the academic literature, this paper hopes to make a novel contribution to the state of the art in the fields of decision support systems as well as innovation and risk management

Cloud Adoption Factors in a Specific Business Area: Challenging the Findings of Organisation-Wide Cloud Computing Research

Existing literature investigates cloud adoption factors and their impact on the decision to adopt cloud services in organizations. These studies consider the decision to adopt cloud services as a horizontal organization-wide decision. In this paper we argue that most of cloud decisions in practice do not regard cloud adoption horizontally across the organization. Rather, they consider cloud adoption with respect to the particular business area in which the cloud service will be introduced. These are the types of decisions we investigate in this paper. Drawing on the cloud adoption literature and Diffusion of Innovation and Organizational Capability theories, we formulate our research model involving factors related to cloud’s relative advantage and to organizational innovativeness. Our findings show that cloud’s cost-reduction and remote access benefits tradeoff security concerns as the context of cloud adoption becomes specific and demonstrate the relevance of personnel innovativeness in cloud adoption decisions

Cyber-Attacks Evaluation Using Simple Additive Weighting Method on the Basis of Schmitt\u27s Analysis

A systematic modelling methodology is presented in this paper, so as to evaluate the effects of cyber-attacks on states’ Critical Information Infrastructure, in order to answer the question of whether these attacks have risen to the level of a ‘use of force’ under the principles of international law. By using the qualitative criteria for recognizing the impact of cyber-attacks as proposed by the International Group of Experts in the Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Tallinn Manual) and by applying the Simple Additive Weighting method, the widely used Multiple Attribute Decision Making method, cyber-operations evaluation results are presented. For the analysis a case study of kinetic and cyber-attacks on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system is employed. Taking into account the qualitative and quantitative aspects of such attacks and adding for the first time the ‘military character’ attribute as defined by the Tallinn Manual in the calculation procedure, a more complete evaluation of such attacks is achieved

Influence of Digital Coaching on Physical Activity: Motivation and Behaviour of Physically Inactive Individuals

Digital wellness solutions and their use have become increasingly common. Respectively, the need to understand their users and usage has increased. A general problem with wellness technologies is that they typically provide feedback through numbers and graphs instead of providing actual guidance. One potential and novel solution for this is digital coaching. This study is one of the first to examine digital coaching features and their influence. We define digital coaching in the context of sports and wellness technology and investigate its influence on physical activity motivation and behaviour of physically inactive individuals. The study is based on thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews conducted for 10 participants who used a novel digital coaching solution for one month. The digital coaching solution was found to be beneficial for physical activity and exercise motivation and behaviour. It assisted the users in many ways through different elements and mechanisms. Further, the benefits also spurred to other aspect of physical wellness. The results are discussed and implications provided