Volume 4, Issue 3, March 2012

User Modeling in Web Transactional Tasks: Visual and Behavioral patterns

Mashael Al-Saleh and Areej Al-Wabil

Constructing a model of how humans interact with the web is essential for informing the design and evaluation of interactive elements on the web. Most of the constructed frameworks and models have focused on navigational and informational tasks. The main contribution of this paper is the construction of a model of user interaction in transactional tasks which can be the basis of design guidelines for web forms in order to optimize the design of interfaces. The model was examined and tested in an exploratory eye tracking study. Evidence suggests that the model is effective in representing human behavior patterns in interacting with transactional tasks on the web.

Keywords: Eye tracking, user modeling, transactional task, visual attention

The Moral Hazard Model: The Discrete and the Continuous Cases

Colomeischi Tudor

This paper emphasizes a review of the main results concerning the optimal contracts of the moral hazard model. The moral hazard model was described in the discrete case, for the variant of two levels of effort, as well as the variant with many levels of effort. The continuous case of the moral hazard model was also taken into consideration, in the situation of information symmetry, as well as for the asymmetric information variant.

Keywords: moral hazard model, asymmetric information, Principal-Agent model, optimal contracts, effort level

Sequences Constraints for Physical Mapping Problem

Hamza Zidoum

The physical mapping is a crucial tool in the analysis of the genomic sequences. Algorithms for the mapping process are based on NP-complete combinatorial optimizations. PQ-trees have been extensively used to manipulate the hybridization matrix. This paper presents an extension of PQ-trees. A PQR-tree is a suitable data structure for testing the Consecutive Ones Property (COP), besides it can handle partial orders information on probes. Moreover, we embed PQR-trees in the more general framework of Constraint Programming (CP). We introduce Sequences and present the filtering algorithms for checking sequence constraints consistency. A PQR-tree is a canonical form that characterizes a family of sequential arrangements of a given set. The relations we are dealing with are classical sets relations besides sequencing relations such as group, potential, metric and range constraints. The filtering algorithm is based on incremental consistency techniques used to reduce PQR-trees, hence pruning the inconsistencies before the labeling phase. We claim that the sequence structure introduces a flexibility criterion on CP which renders it a suitable tool for solving NP-complete combinatorial problems related to sequencing as in physical mapping problems.

Keywords: Constraint Programming, Filtering algorithms, Physical Mapping, Consecutive One Property

An Effective Comparison of Graph Mining Algorithms and Techniques

B. Venkateshwar Reddy, S. Kalyani and B. Jyothi

Many graph mining algorithms have been proposed in recent past researches, all these algorithms rely on a Very different approach so it’s really hard to say that which one is the most efficient and optimal if talk in the sense of Performance. Graph mining has become an increasingly important research topic in modeling complicated structures, such as bioinformatics, protein-protein interaction Network (PPI), circuits, images, social networks, the web, XML documents, web crawl, and workflows. This paper investigates on comparison of graph mining algorithms and techniques for finding the Information.

Keywords: Sub graphs, Graph mining

MDSR: An Approach to Secure DSR Routing Protocol

Abu Sayed Chowdhury and Suraiya Akhter

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring infrastructure less network of mobile devices connected by wireless links. Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Each must forward traffic unrelated to its own use, and therefore be a router. The primary challenge in building a MANET is equipping each device to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic. Such networks may operate by themselves or may be connected to the larger Internet. MANETs are a kind of wireless ad hoc networks that usually has a routable networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network. However, MANET properties present major vulnerabilities in security. Mobile ad hoc the open and dynamic operational environment of MANET makes it very vulnerable to attacks. One common type of attacks at MANET targets at the underlying routing protocols. Because every network node in a MANET can be a router for data transmission, malicious nodes have opportunities to modify or discard routing information or even to advertise fake routes in an attempt to attract user data to go through themselves. Some new routing protocols have been proposed to address the issue of securing routing information. However, there are still limitations in existing protocols. In this paper, we present an approach named Modified Dynamic Source Routing (MDSR) to secure particularly a MANET routing protocol- Dynamic Source Routing (DSR). Computer simulation was conducted and simulation results demonstrate that our proposed MDSR significantly outperforms the existing secure protocols such as SDSR and ARIADNE.

Keywords: Dynamic Source Routing, Merkle Signature, Mobile Ad hoc Network, and Security Threats

Off-Line Arabic Handwriting Character Recognition Using Word Segmentation

Manal A. Abdullah, Lulwah M. Al-Harigy and Hanadi H. Al-Fraidi

The ultimate aim of handwriting recognition is to make computers able to read and/or authenticate human written texts, with a performance comparable to or even better than that of humans. Reading means that the computer is given a piece of handwriting and it provides the electronic transcription of that (e.g. in ASCII format). Two types of handwriting: on-line and off-line. The most important purpose of off-line handwriting recognition is in protection systems and authentication. Arabic Handwriting scripts are much more complicated in comparison to Latin scripts. This paper introduces a simple and novel methodology to authenticate Arabic handwriting characters. Reaching our aim, we built our own character database. The research methodology depends on two stages: The first is character extraction where preprocessing the word and then apply segmentation process to obtain the character. The second is the character recognition by matching the characters comprising the word with the letters in the database. Our results ensure character recognition with 81%. We eliminate FAR by using similarity percent between 45-55%. Our research is coded using MATLAB.

Keywords: Arabic character recognition, handwriting recognition, OCR, off-line handwriting recognition, pattern recognition

IEEE 802.22 Standard Approved for White Space Development

Hsien-Tang Ko, Chien-Hsun Lee and Nan-Shiun Chu

The 802.22 Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN) standard was formally approved on July 22, 2011. The new standard will operate in the UHF and VHF spectrum used for broadcasting, and will support single-channel 22 Mbps broadband wireless access with a theoretical range of up to 100 km. The 802.22 technology will be particularly suitable for areas with low population density and avoid the interference with terrestrial TV broadcast signals. To optimize spectrum utilization, the UK and US have been actively examining ways of exploiting the unused "White Space" in the TV spectrum. The passing of the 802.22 standard is expected to accelerate the development of "White Space" applications such as remote area communications, IoT communications, and emergency disaster communications.

Keywords: 802.22, WRAN, White Space, Cognitive Radio

Eye Tracking System with Blink Detection

Sidra Naveed, Bushra Sikander and Malik Sikander Hayat Khiyal

This paper presents an efficient eye tracking system having a feature of eye blink detection for controlling an interface that provides an alternate way of communication for the people who are suffering from some kind of severe physical disabilities. The proposed system uses pupil portion for tracking the movement of eyes .The idea of this technique is to track eye movements by detecting and locating the center portion of pupil and then uses this information to move the mouse cursor accordingly for driving the interface. The system has shown successful results on the recorded cam videos as expected and accurately detects eye blinks whether voluntary and involuntary. The system is totally non-intrusive as it only uses a video cam for recording a video, so it is more users friendly and easier to configure. The experimental results have proved that the proposed system is better in its performance and efficiency than the current systems in practice.

Keywords: Eye tracking, Pupil detection, Blink detection, mouse movement

Representing and Organizing Contextual Data in Context Aware Environments

U. Mahmud, U. Farooq, M. Y. Javed and N. A. Malik

Context aware systems visualize smart service adaptations in pervasive computing environments. The context aware process starts by gathering the contextual data through sensors present in the environment. The contextual data is represented as an ontology using a platform independent language like Web Ontology Language (OWL). This activity is carried out in a Context Gathering and Representation Module (CGRM) that is part of our context aware system. To provide more power to the ontological representation, allied components should be provided with this module. These components include freshness and confidence calculators. This paper presents a context representation module with freshness and confidence modules.

Keywords: Contextual Data, Knowledge Modeling, Ontology Design, Pervasive Computing

Exploring Statistical Aspects using Arena for Simulation Results of WRONs by OWns

Asima Nisar

Arena contains a set of built-in functions for generating random variates from the commonly used probability distributions. These distributions appear on drop-down menus in many Arena modules where they’re likely to be used. They also match the distributions in the Arena Input Analyzer (except for the Johnson Distribution). Simulation refers to a broad collection of methods and applications to mimic the behavior of real systems, usually on a computer with appropriate software and Arena is the Best choice for this. SIMAN simulation language underlies Arena. These days simulation is more popular and powerful than ever since computers and software are better than ever [4]. Arena is used to interprete simulation results statistically, obtained by using OWns regarding Optical WDM networks.

Keywords: OWns (Optical WDM network simulator), CBR (Constant Bit Rate), RWA (Routing and Wavelength Assignment), WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing), WRONs (Wavelength Routed Optical Networks)

Optical WDM network simulator: OWns - An Overview

Asima Nisar

OWns (Optical WDM network simulator) is a powerful tool to simulate Optical Networks with WDM technology. This special patch is compatible with NS – 2; the Discrete-Event simulator. It needs to modify OWns regarding architectural issues for extensilibity, easy manipulation, platform independence for enhancement in its components and functionalities. Proper publicity is a must to convince researchers for its use.

Keywords: OWns (Optical WDM network simulator), OWAN (Optical Wide Area Networks), WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing), WRONs (Wavelength Routed Optical Networks)

Learning Management Systems from Popularity to Decline: Success, Failure and the Future Use

Abdulsalam K. Alhazmi and Azizah AbdulRahman

Learning Management Systems (LMS) is the most web-based system that has been widely used in higher educational institutions throughout the previous period because of its diverse features in managing course contents and facilitating teaching and learning process. The widely increasing use of the system creates opportunities for the researchers to study different aspects of LMS development and use. In spite of the features LMS supports, there are also problems associated with the system design and implementation. Relaying on the results of various studies in this field and from the experience in the academic field using the system for a long time, this paper arises to summarize the success aspects of the system and its failure. Furthermore, based on the structure and the beneficial aspects of the system, the paper gives suggestions regarding the future use of these systems in higher educational institutions.

Keywords: Accreditation, Instructional Design, Learning Management System (LMS)/Course Management System (CMS), Learning Outcomes, Pedagogical

Ants’ colony algorithm Establish the best learning path to form an integrated content from a multi-presentation pedagogical objective in an ILE

A. Naji and M. Ramdani

We will present in this paper an approach that allows for an integrated content of a learning objective in a computer environment for human learning (ILE). In the latter, the same course can have several presentations. A first step is to create an interface that helps the author to upload her/his course according to a predefined structure. In the second step, the students’ collective work allows us to select the best concepts from the various presentations of an educational objective. These concepts will form an educational objective consists of an integrated content. To achieve this, we base our approach on the ants’ colony algorithm.

Keywords: ILE, integrated pedagogical content, multi-presentations, pedagogical objective, Concept, evaluation, content adap-tation, best pedagogical path

New methods of research on Riccati equations for loopless maps

Liyan Pan and Yanpei Liu

In this paper, enumerative equations of rooted loopless maps on the surfaces for given number of root-vertex degree and edges are provided, including orientable, nonorientable and total of genus all. These differential equations are all Riccati type. No feasible and convenient way has been in sight for extracting an explicit solution to solve the functional equations up to now. As to general maps on the surfaces, compact expression with the edge number for one vertex map has been obtained by our early document. Based on this, the corresponding calculative functions of rooted loopless maps with two parameters are extracted directly and the number can be derived by simple recursive formulae. Meanwhile, some preceding recursive results are indicated in the appendice.

Keywords: Loopless map; Enumerative equation; Calculative function; Riccati type

A Comprehensive Study of Rough Sets and Rough Fuzzy Sets on Two Universes

M. E. Abd El-Monsef, A. M. Kozae, A. S. Salama and R. M. Aqeel

In rough set theory, the lower and upper approximation operators can be constructed via a variety of approaches. Various generalizations of rough approximation operators have been made over the years. This paper presents a framework for the study of rough sets and rough fuzzy sets on two universes of discourse. By means of a binary relation between two universes of discourse, a class of revised rough sets and revised rough fuzzy sets based on two universes have been proposed. Some properties of the new model are revealed. We believe that this model will be more natural in the sense that rough sets (resp. rough fuzzy sets) are approximated by sets (resp. fuzzy sets) on the same universe. Moreover, some results, examples and counter examples are provided.

Keywords: approximation operator; generalized rough set; generalized rough fuzzy set; inverse serial relation; revised rough set; revised rough fuzzy set; strong inverse serial relation

Model Selection Criterions as Data Mining Algorithms’ Selector The Selection of Data Mining Algorithms through Model Selection Criterions

Dost Muhammad Khan and Nawaz Mohamudally

The selection criterion plays a vital role in the selection of right model for right dataset. It is a gauge to determine whether the dataset is under-fitted or over-fitted. If the dataset is either over-fitted or under-fitted, both are the errors in the dataset and lead to produce the vague or ambiguous knowledge from the dataset and hence need to be addressed properly. The data is used either to predict future behavior or to describe patterns in an understandable form within discovered process. The major issue is that how to avoid from these problems. There are different approaches to avoid the problem of over and underfitting, namely, model selection, Jittering, Weight Decay, Early Stopping and Bayesian estimation. We talk about only the model selection criterions in this paper. Furthermore, we focus on how the value of model selection criterion is used to map with the appropriate data mining algorithm for the dataset.

Keywords: AIC, BIC, Overfitting, Underfitting, Model Selection

The Prospects of ERP Systems on Quality of Education and Research in Higher Education and Research Institutions of Pakistan

Najia Saher, Dost Muhammad Khan, Faisal Shahzad and Nawaz Mohamudally

It has been challenging for the educational and research institutions like universities and colleges to succeed in their core missions. The universities are facing the reduction in funds from traditional sources which has trimmed their revenues. The competition for private funding including grants, endowments and alumni donations is growing. The escalating student populations are creating physical space and service challenges. The Government regulations create pressure on the institutions to operate with a high degree of transparency, which intensifies the need to report, document and track financial, demographic, and educational information. These myriad of challenges can be addressed by better utilizing the current technology. The higher education and research institutions should be powered with IT that aligns with their requirements, supports for change and improve in the human resource management system. The institutions need to operate more efficiently and integrate processes, from business services to academic affairs and student care, while collaborating externally with government agencies and other service providers. The most of the teaching institutions in Pakistan are still using fragmented, nonintegrated and disjointed business systems, which are resultantly inefficient, outdated, and expensive. These systems are not helpful at all in decision making. The implementation of ERP system is, therefore, the best solution to envelop these bottlenecks. This paper is a case study which shows the effects of using ERP systems as an innovative learning and networked curriculum in a public sector university of Pakistan. This case study aims at emphasizing the importance of data integration and migration explaining in detail the architecture of ERP. The Campus Management Solution (CMS) is the name given to the ERP implementation in The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan (IUB). This case study thoroughly examines the core concepts of implementing ERP along with its consequences.

Keywords: ERP, SAP, Client-Server architecture, HEC, IUB

The Human Resource Development (HRD) at the Higher Education and Research Institutions of Pakistan: The IUB Case Study

Dost Muhammad Khan, Najia Saher, Faisal Shahzad and Nawaz Mohamudally

Each of the past three centuries has been dominated by a single technology. The 18th century is the time for the great mechanical systems accompanying the industrial revolution. The 19th century was the age of steam engine. In the 20th century the key technology is information gathering, processing and then distribution. Among the development we have seen the installation of the worldwide telephone networks, the invention of the radio and the television, the birth of unprecedented growth of computer industry and launching of the information satellite. Due to the rapid technology progress these areas are rapidly converging and the difference between collecting, transporting, storing and perceiving in function are quickly disappearing. Although the computer industry in young as compared to other industries like automobiles and air transportation, but the computer has spectacular progress in short time. Knowledge is a power; but the Knowledge of computer and IT is powerful. It is embarrassing all fields of knowledge. Now every discipline is leaned on computer. Even doctors, engineers, historians and politicians all are compelled to learn the computer. In this paper we discuss the IT HRD in the higher education and research institutions of Pakistan, a case study of IUB.

Keywords: HRD, IUB, ITHRD

Using Fuzzy Methodology to Mapping ITIL Security KPIs to ISMS

Nasibeh Mohammadi, Nasser Modiri, Pantea Arya, Afshin Rezakhani

Security management in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a number of Key process Indicators (KPIs) that are unclear. In this paper, we propose to create a new framework for mapping ITIL security KPIs to related KPIs in Information Security Management System (ISMS). For this mapping is utilized from fuzzy algorithm as named fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (fuzzy AHP). This algorithm obtains the priority of ISMS KPIs that is related to ITIL security management KPIs. With this algorithm the Prioritization in the ISMS KPIs will be possible. The most advantage of this method is creating the collaborative platform between ITIL and ISMS KPIs. Other benefit of this methodology is improving the security in the enterprises that implement ITIL. With this approach, enterprises managers will be able to decide accurately in apply ISMS KPIs in ITIL implementation.

Keywords: Fuzzy AHP, ISMS, ITIL, KPIs