Analysis of U.S. E-Commerce Sales Using Winters’ Method

More than three billion people around the world have the access to the Internet or around 40% of the world population has an Internet connection, and there are over one billion websites on the World Wide Web as of August 2016 (InternetLiveStas). While these numbers are truly impressive, there is no doubt that they will continue to grow rapidly in the foreseeable future. Business on the Internet has also flourished as a consequence. Electronic commerce or e-business, the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, service, or information via computing networks, including the Internet, is positively one of the major driving forces for businesses of all sizes today. The impact of electronic commerce is indeed phenomenal or even revolutionary. The Internet and World Wide Web have changed our society substantially in general, and the ways in which companies and organizations conduct businesses, consumers buy, sell and exchange, and individuals work, communicate, entertain, get educated, and involve in many other activities in particular. The benefits and advantages of electronic commerce are being felt in many different and meaningfully ways. Nowadays a significant portion of businesses rely either heavily or in some cases solely on the revenues or returns generated from the electronic commerce division of their corresponding businesses. More and more companies and organizations of all sizes, are working to make a greater presence in the virtual world and conduct more e-commerce because of the importance of e-commerce to the success, or sustainability, or even the very survival of the organization as well as the advantages e-business brings. U.S. Census Bureau has being conducted survey on e-commerce sales since 1999 and estimated that the total electronic sales (defined as sales of goods and services where an order is placed by the buyer or price and terms of sale are negotiated over an Internet, extranet, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network, electronic mail, or other online system) in the U.S. This paper provides a time-series analysis of U.S. e-commerce sales for the period of 1999 - 2015 using Winters’ Method. It also includes quarterly U.S. e-commerce sales projections for the period of 2015 - 2017. Keywords: Electronic Commerce; E-Commerce; Time Series Analysis; Winters’ method; Seasonality; Exponential smoothin

A Comparison Of Internet And Classroom Students Performance In The Course Information Society

This empirical study investigated the performance of the students who took an undergraduate course “Information Society” either online, or in a traditional classroom setting in the semesters fall 2002, spring 2003, spring 2004, and summer 2003. Our study analyzed the performance of 279 students in those semesters. The students in each semester or summer session completed the same course work, including listening to the same lectures and taking the same exams. The results of our analysis indicates that that the Internet students performed at least in the same level as the on-campus students and that the online delivery method did not negatively affect success of the students. However, we also found that the non-completion rates for the course Information Society (SOC285) in fall 2002 and spring 2004 were different for students who took the course online or in a traditional classroom setting, indicating that Internet students in the course had more difficulties in finishing the course. The third major finding is that for online delivery, the students in the short summer session (in summer 2003) performed as well as students in normal semesters (fall 2002, spring 2003, and spring 2004) in terms of both completion rate and median scores

Teaching IT in a Hybrid Learning Environment: A case study

Dakota State University offers a Master’s degree in Information Systems to students using what is referred to as a hybrid learning environment, a simultaneous combination of in-class, remote interactive audio/video connections (DDN), and Internet connections. This paper identifies some of the issues and challenges that have been encountered by faculty and students in this teaching environment

Data allocation and query optimization in large scale distributed databases

Distributed database technology is expected to have a significant impact on data processing in the upcoming years because distributed database systems have many potential advantages over centralized systems for geographically distributed organizations. Data allocation and query optimization are two of the most important aspects of distributed database design. Data allocation involves placing a database and the applications that run against it in the multiple sites of a network. It is a very complex problem consisting of two processes: data fragmentation and fragment allocation. Data fragmentation involves the partitioning of each relation into a group of fragment relations while fragment allocation deals with the distribution of these fragmented relations across the sites of the distributed system. Query optimization includes designing algorithms that analyze and convert queries into a set of data manipulation operations. Both the data allocation and query optimization problems are NP-hard in nature and notoriously difficult to solve. We have attempted to combine the two highly interrelated and interactive decision processes in data allocation by formulating them as integer programs taking into consideration different constraints and under various assumptions. Various solution methods are discussed and a new linearization method is investigated. We next analyze the query optimization problem and reduce it to a join ordering problem. Several heuristics and a genetic algorithm have been developed for solving the join ordering problem. Some computational experiments on these algorithms were conducted and solution qualities compared. The computation experiments show that the suggested linearization method performs clearly and consistently better than a currently widely used method and that heuristics and genetic algorithms are viable methods for solving query optimization problem. It is anticipated that the models and solution methods developed in this study for data allocation and query optimization in distributed database systems may be of practical as well as theoretical use. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done to solve the distributed database design problems in order to achieve its potential benefits. Our models and solution methods can be the starting point for eventual resolution of these complex problems in large scale distributed database systems

Using Heuristics and Genetic Algorithms for Large-scale Database Query Optimization

Abstract. Distributed database system technology is one of the major developments in information technology area. It will continue to have a very significant impact on data processing in the upcoming years because distributed database systems have many potential advantages over centralized systems for geographically distributed organizations. The continuing interest in distributed database systems in the research community and the marketplace and the introduction of many commercial products indicate that distributed database systems will play a more important role in data processing and eventually will replace centralized systems as the major database technology in the future. The availability of high speed communication networks and, especially, the phenomenal popularity of the Internet and the intranets will undoubtedly speed up the transition process. Some challenging problems must be solved before the full potential benefits of distributed database technology can be realized. Among them is query processing (including query optimization), one of the most important issues in distributed database system design. The query optimization problem in large-scale distributed databases is NP-hard in nature and difficult to solve. In this study, the query optimization problem is reduced to a join ordering problem similar to a variant of traveling salesman problem. We explored several heuristics and a genetic algorithm for solving the join ordering problem. Some computational experiments on these algorithms were conducted and solution qualities compared. The computation experiments show that heuristics and genetic algorithms are viable methods for solving query optimization problem in large scale distributed database systems. Keywords: heuristics, genetic algorithm, NP-Hard, large scale database, query optimization, travelling salesman proble

A Conceptual Framework for Hybrid Distance Delivery for Information System Programs

This paper describes a conceptual framework for learning effectiveness emphasizing hybrid distance delivery for Information Systems (IS) courses. The framework is then applied to the Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) program at Dakota State University

Research on Funding Differences among Regional Electricity Markets in Northern China based on Thermoelectric Decoupling

With the development of China’s electricity spot market, planned power and market power will coexist for a long time. At the same time, by avoiding the risk of market price fluctuation through medium and long-term market, spot market guarantees electricity balance and secure operation of the grid. The electricity market mechanism has an increasingly large influence on the operation and dispatching model of power system. In spot market, decoupling operation model of market and non-market power has a large influence on both supply and demand sides and improper dredging mechanism may cause significant settlement deviation. To solve this problem, the paper, taking a city in northern China as an example, analyzes the electricity spot market, compares the sources of difference fund of market and non-market power under decoupling and non-decoupling models and compares the pros and cons of coupling and decoupling. The paper also studies the disparity of difference fund and proposes advice adapted to the electricity spot market development of northern China

Unveiling a CAAX Protease-Like Protein Involved in Didemnin Drug Maturation and Secretion.

The assembly line biosynthesis of the powerful anticancer-antiviral didemnin cyclic peptides is proposed to follow a prodrug release mechanism in Tristella bacteria. This strategy commences with the formation of N-terminal prodrug scaffolds and culminates in their cleavage during the cellular export of the mature products. In this study, a comprehensive exploration of the genetic and biochemical aspects of the enzymes responsible for both the assembly and cleavage of the acylated peptide prodrug scaffolds is provided. This process involves the assembly of N-acyl-polyglutamine moieties orchestrated by the nonribosomal peptide synthetase DidA and the cleavage of these components at the post-assembly stage by DidK, a transmembrane CAAX hydrolase homolog. The findings not only shed light on the complex prodrug mechanism that underlies the synthesis and secretion of didemnin compounds but also offer novel insights into the expanded role of CAAX hydrolases in microbes. Furthermore, this knowledge can be leveraged for the strategic design of genome mining approaches aimed at discovering new bioactive natural products that employ similar prodrug biochemical strategies