Producer Anonymity based on Onion Routing in Named Data Networking

Named Data Networking (NDN) is one of promising next generation Internet architectures that aim to realize efficient content distribution. However, in terms of producer anonymity, NDN has a serious problem that adversaries can easily learn who publishes what content due to its feature that content is inherently tied to the producer by the content name and the signature. In this paper, we first define producer anonymity rigorously in terms of content-producer unlinkability, and then design a system to achieve it. Our design is based on hidden service, which is an onion routing-based system in IP, however, we improve it to take full advantage of NDN. We demonstrate that our system provides a level of anonymity comparable to hidden service with lower overhead through analysis and experiment

KEMNAD: A Knowledge Engineering Methodology for Negotiating Agent Development

Automated negotiation is widely applied in various domains. However, the development of such systems is a complex knowledge and software engineering task. So, a methodology there will be helpful. Unfortunately, none of existing methodologies can offer sufficient, detailed support for such system development. To remove this limitation, this paper develops a new methodology made up of: (1) a generic framework (architectural pattern) for the main task, and (2) a library of modular and reusable design pattern (templates) of subtasks. Thus, it is much easier to build a negotiating agent by assembling these standardised components rather than reinventing the wheel each time. Moreover, since these patterns are identified from a wide variety of existing negotiating agents(especially high impact ones), they can also improve the quality of the final systems developed. In addition, our methodology reveals what types of domain knowledge need to be input into the negotiating agents. This in turn provides a basis for developing techniques to acquire the domain knowledge from human users. This is important because negotiation agents act faithfully on the behalf of their human users and thus the relevant domain knowledge must be acquired from the human users. Finally, our methodology is validated with one high impact system

The practice and effects of corporate media relations in Chennai: Beyond just denials and evolving?

This study aims to research on the changing perception and importance attached to media relations by corporate houses and business journalists in India specifically Chennai - where traditionally media relations was never practiced professionally - where relations with the print or electronic media was limited to issuing denials and seeking distance (Sengupta, 2006), with the concept of a low-key profile.The study is based on in-depth interviews of communication managers of 13 orgnanisations and 10 journalists from print and television media.The findings could provide insights for academicians and researchers on the change in media relations practice and its effects on media reporting in emerging IT hubs in India and other similar regions in the world

International entrepreneurship education: postgraduate business students experiences of entrepreneurship education

Objectives The study aims to enhance understanding of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in meeting the expectations and motivations of international postgraduate students participating in UK business & management education. Specifically, it explores within sample groups of learners: RQ1. What is the typical profile of the international students’ prior education and work experience? RQ2. What do students expect from studying an entrepreneurship PG course in the UK? RQ3. What are their experiences of, and learning outcomes from, the entrepreneurship course? RQ4. What benefits regarding their skills and knowledge do they perceive result from participation? Prior Work International Postgraduate education has grown substantially in the last decade (UUK, 2010). There has been significant growth in international postgraduate student participation in UK business related subjects, involving both MBA and other Masters’ programmes such as MSc in Management and a range of specialist awards, which increasingly offer Entrepreneurship as a core or option. Prior research focuses on transnational comparisons between France, Germany and Poland (Packham et al, 2010) USA, Spain and China (Pruett et al, 2009) Africa and Europe (Davey et al, 2011) China (Millman et al, 2010) and Poland (Jones, et al, 2011) with relatively little research specifically addressing entrepreneurship for international students on postgraduate courses in the UK (Hall and Sung, 2009, Liu, 2010). Approach This article originates in the authors’ experiences in running postgraduate entrepreneurship modules for international students in UK Business Schools. They found that students often experienced concerns about a ‘mismatch’ between their expectations of UK business and management education and their actual experiences, with experiences of cultural tensions between prior learning experiences and their acculturation to the requirements and norms of UK business education. The study is a microcosm of a wider issue as these concerns are shared more generally by international Postgraduate students. Results The results confirmed that career development was a major motivator for international study in the UK. Interest in entrepreneurship is increasing but there are tensions between the expectations of the postgraduate experience and the experienced reality. Entrepreneurship was in some cases seen as a distinctive ‘peak experience’, but cultural factors, learning effectiveness and linguistic capability need to be addressed in designing learning programmes. Implications The study contributes new evidence and ideas to the debate on entrepreneurship education in meeting the career expectations and motivations of international postgraduate students participating in entrepreneurship education, especially in the light of new curricular guidance (QAA, 2012) and UK government regulation. Value It offers suggestions for educators on the effective design and delivery of entrepreneurship for international students in the rapidly changing and competitive postgraduate market

Addressing the equity gap in California community colleges’ transfer pathways: a transfer center guide for supporting underrepresented student success

California Community Colleges (CCC) are integral in ensuring student enrollment, persistence, and subsequent higher education degree attainment. As one of the most affordable institutions of learning, community colleges symbolize access to various degree and certificate completion options, transfer opportunities, vocation and remedial education, as well as workforce training. However, a high percentage of students, especially from underrepresented backgrounds, systematically falls short of the set institutional guidelines and do not complete a degree or transfer within the expected timeframes. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the effective strategies utilized by CCC transfer center directors (TCDs) for supporting underrepresented student transfer efforts. Several dimensions of the transfer process were examined through an equity lens, including institutional and individual factors, as well as policy implications in the established transfer center functions. The interviews conducted with study participants revealed the challenges and opportunities associated with facilitating transfer efforts on-campus and revealed best practices for new practitioners coming into the field. Some of the main themes that emerge, such as lack of awareness regarding available resources, negative self-perception, and financial implications can act as perceived and real barriers in the pursuit of transfer success. Providing holistic support programs and comprehensive services in terms of transfer exploration and preparation can greatly mitigate these roadblocks, especially for underrepresented community college students

Hotel online reviews: creating a multi-source aggregated index

Purpose This paper aims to develop a model to predict online review ratings from multiple sources, which can be used to detect fraudulent reviews and create proprietary rating indexes, or which can be used as a measure of selection in recommender systems. Design/methodology/approach This study applies machine learning and natural language processing approaches to combine features derived from the qualitative component of a review with the corresponding quantitative component and, therefore, generate a richer review rating. Findings Experiments were performed over a collection of hotel online reviews – written in English, Spanish and Portuguese – which shows a significant improvement over the previously reported results, and it not only demonstrates the scientific value of the approach but also strengthens the value of review prediction applications in the business environment. Originality/value This study shows the importance of building predictive models for revenue management and the application of the index generated by the model. It also demonstrates that, although difficult and challenging, it is possible to achieve valuable results in the application of text analysis across multiple languagesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Digital analytics and high organizational performance: a fuzzy-set QCA approach

Empirical evidence and previous literature on the effect of customer analytics on organizational performance demonstrate contrasting results. The enormous expansion of digital customer-related data, which is accessible almost freely and in real time, has made this a critical issue for contemporary marketing managers. Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analyses (fsQCA), this study examines which configurations of digital analytics and organizational customer-related culture, processes and capabilities drive high market performance. The evidence finds certain conditions are necessary for achieving high market performance, and other conditions constitute a path of sufficient conditions, depending on the level of environmental dynamisms