45,371 research outputs found
Distributed interoperable workflow support for electronic commerce.
Abstract. This paper describes a flexible distributed transactional workflow environment based on an extensible object-oriented framework built around class libraries, application programming interfaces, and shared services. The purpose of this environment is to support a range of EC-like business activities including the support of financial transactions and electronic contracts. This environment has as its aim to provide key infrastructure services for mediating and monitoring electronic commerce.
The NASA SBIR product catalog
The purpose of this catalog is to assist small business firms in making the community aware of products emerging from their efforts in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. It contains descriptions of some products that have advanced into Phase 3 and others that are identified as prospective products. Both lists of products in this catalog are based on information supplied by NASA SBIR contractors in responding to an invitation to be represented in this document. Generally, all products suggested by the small firms were included in order to meet the goals of information exchange for SBIR results. Of the 444 SBIR contractors NASA queried, 137 provided information on 219 products. The catalog presents the product information in the technology areas listed in the table of contents. Within each area, the products are listed in alphabetical order by product name and are given identifying numbers. Also included is an alphabetical listing of the companies that have products described. This listing cross-references the product list and provides information on the business activity of each firm. In addition, there are three indexes: one a list of firms by states, one that lists the products according to NASA Centers that managed the SBIR projects, and one that lists the products by the relevant Technical Topics utilized in NASA's annual program solicitation under which each SBIR project was selected
EU Services Directive - Design Approaches for Romania
Modernizing public administration is the basis for implementation of the EU directive, and in order to ensure this successfully, collaborative procedures between administrative institutions and countries must be put in place and further developed. This paper will present some technical design options for an architectural framework of the Point of Single Contact imposed by EU Services Directive that takes into consideration the specific e-Government background of Romania.EU Services Directive, Romanian e-Government, design, architecture, process, SOA
Industrial Symbiotic Networks as Coordinated Games
We present an approach for implementing a specific form of collaborative
industrial practices-called Industrial Symbiotic Networks (ISNs)-as MC-Net
cooperative games and address the so called ISN implementation problem. This
is, the characteristics of ISNs may lead to inapplicability of fair and stable
benefit allocation methods even if the collaboration is a collectively desired
one. Inspired by realistic ISN scenarios and the literature on normative
multi-agent systems, we consider regulations and normative socioeconomic
policies as two elements that in combination with ISN games resolve the
situation and result in the concept of coordinated ISNs.Comment: 3 pages, Proc. of the 17th International Conference on Autonomous
Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2018
General cost analysis for scholarly communication in Germany : results of the "Houghton Report" for Germany
Management Summary: Conducted within the project âEconomic Implications of New Models for Information Supply for Science and Research in Germanyâ, the Houghton Report for Germany provides a general cost and benefit analysis for scientific communication in Germany comparing different scenarios according to their specific costs and explicitly including the German National License Program (NLP).
Basing on the scholarly lifecycle process model outlined by Björk (2007), the study compared the following scenarios according to their accounted costs:
- Traditional subscription publishing,
- Open access publishing (Gold Open Access; refers primarily to journal publishing where access is free of charge to readers, while the authors or funding organisations pay for publication)
- Open Access self-archiving (authors deposit their work in online open access institutional or subject-based repositories, making it freely available to anyone with Internet access; further divided into (i) CGreen Open Accessâ self-archiving operating in parallel with subscription publishing; and (ii) the âoverlay servicesâ model in which self-archiving provides the foundation for overlay services (e.g. peer review, branding and quality control services))
- the NLP.
Within all scenarios, five core activity elements (Fund research and research communication; perform research and communicate the results; publish scientific and scholarly works; facilitate dissemination, retrieval and preservation; study publications and apply the knowledge) were modeled and priced with all their including activities.
Modelling the impacts of an increase in accessibility and efficiency resulting from more open access on returns to R&D over a 20 year period and then comparing costs and benefits, we find that the benefits of open access publishing models are likely to substantially outweigh the costs and, while smaller, the benefits of the German NLP also exceed the costs.
This analysis of the potential benefits of more open access to research findings suggests that different publishing models can make a material difference to the benefits realised, as well as the costs faced. It seems likely that more Open Access would have substantial net benefits in the longer term and, while net benefits may be lower during a transitional period, they are likely to be positive for both âauthor-paysâ Open Access publishing and the âover-lay journalsâ alternatives (âGold Open Accessâ), and for parallel subscription publishing and self-archiving (âGreen Open Accessâ). The NLP returns substantial benefits and savings at a modest cost, returning one of the highest benefit/cost ratios available from unilateral national policies during a transitional period (second to that of âGreen Open Accessâ self-archiving). Whether âGreen Open Accessâ self-archiving in parallel with subscriptions is a sustainable model over the longer term is debateable, and what impact the NLP may have on the take up of Open Access alternatives is also an important consideration. So too is the potential for developments in Open Access or other scholarly publishing business models to significantly change the relative cost-benefit of the NLP over time.
The results are comparable to those of previous studies from the UK and Netherlands. Green Open Access in parallel with the traditional model yields the best benefits/cost ratio. Beside its benefits/cost ratio, the meaningfulness of the NLP is given by its enforceability. The true costs of toll access publishing (beside the buybackâ of information) is the prohibition of access to research and knowledge for society
Effects of Hyperbolic Rotation in Minkowski Space on the Modeling of Plasma Accelerators in a Lorentz Boosted Frame
Laser driven plasma accelerators promise much shorter particle accelerators
but their development requires detailed simulations that challenge or exceed
current capabilities. We report the first direct simulations of stages up to 1
TeV from simulations using a Lorentz boosted calculation frame resulting in a
million times speedup, thanks to a frame boost as high as gamma=1300. Effects
of the hyperbolic rotation in Minkowski space resulting from the frame boost on
the laser propagation in the plasma is shown to be key in the mitigation of a
numerical instability that was limiting previous attempts
Conformance Verification of Normative Specifications using C-O Diagrams
C-O Diagrams have been introduced as a means to have a visual representation
of normative texts and electronic contracts, where it is possible to represent
the obligations, permissions and prohibitions of the different signatories, as
well as what are the penalties in case of not fulfillment of their obligations
and prohibitions. In such diagrams we are also able to represent absolute and
relative timing constrains.
In this paper we consider a formal semantics for C-O Diagrams based on a
network of timed automata and we present several relations to check the
consistency of a contract in terms of realizability, to analyze whether an
implementation satisfies the requirements defined on its contract, and to
compare several implementations using the executed permissions as criteria.Comment: In Proceedings FLACOS 2012, arXiv:1209.169
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