A Reference Architecture for Electronic Business-to-Business Collaboration Setup and Enactment Systems

The question what a business-to-business (B2B) collaboration setup and enactment application-system should look like remains open. An important element of such collaboration constitutes the inter-organizational disclosure of business-process details so that the opposing parties may protect their business secrets. For that purpose, eSourcing [37] has been developed as a general businessprocess collaboration concept in the framework of the EU research project Cross- Work. The eSourcing characteristics are guiding for the design and evaluation of an eSourcing Reference Architecture (eSRA) that serves as a starting point for software developers of B2B-collaboration systems. In this paper we present the results of a scenario-based evaluation method conducted with the earlier specified eSourcing Architecture (eSA) that generates as results risks, sensitivity, and tradeoff points that must be paid attention to if eSA is implemented. Additionally, the evaluation method detects shortcomings of eSA in terms of integrated components that are required for electronic B2B-collaboration. The evaluation results are used for the specification of eSRA, which comprises all extensions for incorporating the results of the scenario-based evaluation, on three refinement levels.Peer reviewe

Two ways to Grid: the contribution of Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) mechanisms to service-centric and resource-centric lifecycles

Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) support service lifecycle tasks, including Development, Deployment, Discovery and Use. We observe that there are two disparate ways to use Grid SOAs such as the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) as exemplified in the Globus Toolkit (GT3/4). One is a traditional enterprise SOA use where end-user services are developed, deployed and resourced behind firewalls, for use by external consumers: a service-centric (or ‘first-order’) approach. The other supports end-user development, deployment, and resourcing of applications across organizations via the use of execution and resource management services: A Resource-centric (or ‘second-order’) approach. We analyze and compare the two approaches using a combination of empirical experiments and an architectural evaluation methodology (scenario, mechanism, and quality attributes) to reveal common and distinct strengths and weaknesses. The impact of potential improvements (which are likely to be manifested by GT4) is estimated, and opportunities for alternative architectures and technologies explored. We conclude by investigating if the two approaches can be converged or combined, and if they are compatible on shared resources

IN-SILICO APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR PEDIATRIC UNITS

There is an observed serious challenge to the provision and management of pediatric healthcare and facilities in most African countries. This has probably contributed to the high mortality rates recorded among African children. It is thus imperative to evaluate all possible approaches to the development of the appropriate manage of the problem. In-silico approaches to information management of pediatrics sections of hospitals could for example help reduce mortality rates among children. This study was aimed at developing a prototype clinic information system for keeping track of infants’ clinical records, diagnosis of their various ailments, proffering possible solutions and their respective responses to drug treatments. Research focus was on the pediatric sections of some hospitals located in southwestern part of Nigeria, particularly sections in care of the children between the ages of 5 and 9 years. A monthly or annual report generated from this system will assist in making proper recommendation to research institutions on ways of improving chemotherapeutic management of common diseases of infants and to governmental agencies on the need for more funding to support in this quest. C#.Net was the programming language used for the implementation of the system, while SQL server 2008 was used to provide the database support. It is hoped that the developed system will help in the reduction of infant mortality rates in hospitals were it is implemented

Ontology-based collaborative framework for disaster recovery scenarios

This paper aims at designing of adaptive framework for supporting collaborative work of different actors in public safety and disaster recovery missions. In such scenarios, firemen and robots interact to each other to reach a common goal; firemen team is equipped with smart devices and robots team is supplied with communication technologies, and should carry on specific tasks. Here, reliable connection is mandatory to ensure the interaction between actors. But wireless access network and communication resources are vulnerable in the event of a sudden unexpected change in the environment. Also, the continuous change in the mission requirements such as inclusion/exclusion of new actor, changing the actor's priority and the limitations of smart devices need to be monitored. To perform dynamically in such case, the presented framework is based on a generic multi-level modeling approach that ensures adaptation handled by semantic modeling. Automated self-configuration is driven by rule-based reconfiguration policies through ontology

Towards Interoperability of Smart City Data Platforms

We present a comprehensive analysis of the literature on interoperability of smart city data platforms in an attempt to conceptualize interoperability approaches. To this end, we propose a taxonomy of said approaches based on four dimensions with three characteristics each. The taxonomy can be used to classify interoperability approaches. We discuss implications for theory and practice and conclude with a first assessment of individual approaches towards their prospect of success

Inter-organizational Integration of Smart Objects: White Spots in the Solution Landscape

The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) has sparked considerable efforts in research and development over the past decade.Much of these efforts were driven by applications of RFID technology for monitoring the flow of goods and prominent earlyadopters such as Wal-Mart and Metro Group. Also, the global standards organization GS1 provided a number of wellrecognized specifications that are tailored to monitor objects across organizations.Development of the IoT has certainly benefited from the strong demand for monitoring goods in business applications.However, the dominance of these application scenarios and corresponding standards comes at the risk of neglectingrequirements from other domains. In this paper, we review the focus of existing works. Our contribution is twofold. (1) Usinga systematic literature review, we analyze existing research contributions and identify underrepresented areas. (2) We discussselected approaches in detail and highlight open issues in the covered functionality. The aim of our work is to raise awarenessfor open potentials in the IoT service domain and to direct future research and developments

Agents and stream data mining: a new perspective

Many organizations struggle with the massive amount of data they collect. Today, data does more than serve as the ingredients for churning out statistical reports. They help support efficient operations in many organizations, and to some extent, data provide the competitive intelligence organizations need to survive in today\u27s economy. Data mining can\u27t always deliver timely and relevant results because data are constantly changing. However, stream-data processing might be more effective, judging by the Matrix project.<br /