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The optimization of energy use in family homes and public buildings is an ongoing topic of discussion. State-of-the-art research has almost always focused on reducing the consumption of heating systems, air-conditioning or lighting. Despite their importance, user-related variables, such as comfort, are normally not included in the optimization process. These aspects should be considered to be able to effectively minimize energy consumption. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive energy optimization approach, one that will consider both climatological factors and user behaviour. Learning about user behaviour is key to effective optimization. In this work, the proposed architecture's capacity to organize Virtual Agent Organizations (VAO) allows it to adapt to highly variable user behavior and preferences. This agent methodology has the ability to manage Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) to obtain user preferences and predict their behaviour in the home or building. The proposed approach has been tested in two different buildings, a traditional-construction house and a modular home, obtaining savings of 30.16% and 13.43%, respectively. These results validate the proposed mixed approach of temperature adjustment algorithms together with the extraction of user behavior patterns for the establishment of a threshold based on preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed networks are found everywhere: from social communities, computer networks, gaming communities, to cryptocurrencies. All of these are an instance of a distributed network. Virtual organizations are another instance of a distributed network, which does not require its belonging individuals to be physically present in a single place to do work. In this paper, we will review the structure of these types of organizations, present some challenges that these organizations face, as well as introduce potential solutions and tools that they can use to meet their needs. Finally, we will propose virtual organizations as a resolution to some of the issues that exist in the Western Balkan countries (WB6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality compliance checking of urban private constructions in Iran follows a fragmented pattern. By considering this fragmentation along with the inherent complexities of the quality compliance checking, it becomes urgent to look closer at this mechanism to find a way for making improvements. Since there is no determination to change the existing mechanism, this study discusses the use of virtual organizations as a strategy to enhance the level of quality. To this end, according to the intended approach for developing virtual organizations, this study identifies the capabilities of this type of systems in the first step. Then, this research evaluates the impacts of virtual organization absorption on the quality of urban private constructions. In this evaluation, the paper applies the system dynamics approach as the modeling tool due to its ability to address complexities and feedback structures. The resulted dynamic model needs initial values and requires functions to be able to run the simulation. In this case, the Delphi Technique is used to extract the functions and the values. After importing the resulted values and functions into the model, the focus group is used for the validation. The result of this analysis represents the positive impacts of the virtual organization absorption in the quality compliance checking mechanism. Fifty-percent improvement in the quality level of urban private constructions after a twenty-year period is one of the results, which could be considered as an indicator of virtual organization impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in information, communication, and computational technologies allow digital volunteer networks formed by concerned publics across the globe to contribute to an effective response to disasters and crises. Digital volunteer networks are event-centric and emergent networks. Currently, the literature is sharply growing in the fields of communication, computer science, emergency management, and geography. This article aims to assess the current status of the literature and suggest a comprehensive conceptual framework of digital volunteer networks in response to disasters and crises. This framework is based on a traditional input–process–output model consisting of three dimensions: the disaster and crisis context, a voluntary response process, and outputs and outcomes. We also discuss challenges of digital volunteer networks for crisis response. This article is expected to contribute to the development of related theories and hypotheses and practical strategies for managing digital volunteer networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-nose systems are becoming increasingly important instruments across all industries, especially the fields of food and beverages and biomedicine. Given the inaccurate, unsafe and unreliable dependency on the human nose to detect smells that are highly risky and hazardous to human health, e-nose systems offer a tremendous advantage. E-noses are convenient, highly efficient and can be used in real life to detect various types of odors. This paper presents a virtual organization of agents that integrates different classification techniques and neural networks to perform information fusion from parameters retrieved by the E-nose. The integral brain in e-noses is the data processing system, which classifies odors that have been detected by the detection part of its system. The system mimics how a human brain classifies odors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual organizations (VOs) are formed by an alliance of organizations linked by a partnership for dealing with emerging challenges. Information and communication technologies play a fundamental role facilitating cooperation, communication and collaboration among the VO members. The formal identification and representation of Requirements Engineering (RE) for one organization have been researched to a large extent along with several elicitation techniques. However, these techniques are not adequate for covering the major challenges of RE for VO. We explore the work done in the management and RE fields to propose a model-based framework for eliciting VOs' requirements. The goal is to analyze the VO from two points of view: border (intra-organizational, inter-organizational and extra-organizational) and abstract (intentional, organizational and operational). This article includes the framework validation with a case study and a transformation process to develop partial Business Process Diagram from the intentional models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many music students today experience difficulties in composing melodies without a prior harmonical guide. While harmony can be helpful in creating a melody the generation of harmony is challenging due to the many factors that must be taken into account, such as style, harmonic functions, musical consonance or aesthetics. Although various solutions have been proposed in the past, our study employs a different expert solution based on virtual organizations to make musical harmonies, which can assist novice improvisers and/or composers. The virtual organizations are implemented with Multi-Agent System (MAS) using PANGEA (Platform for Automatic coNstruction of orGanizations of intElligent Agents), a platform to develop different multiagent systems. The main goal is to simulate an expert multiagent system that can compose harmony following specific rules. To do so, the Harmony Search Algorithm is implemented as the main behavior of the composer agent, and adapted to a Belief-Desire-Intention architecture. The application of a VO has not been previously used in the development of this kind of expert system in music. We measured the quality of the music obtained, by minimizing a mathematical function. Additionally, we developed an evaluation test that positively validates the musical results from the perspective of consonance and usefulness of the composers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multinational organizations are turning to collaborative technology to enable virtual organizational structures. While collaborative technology provides distributed workers with new affordances to form relationships and share knowledge, collaborative technology also has complex, interwoven implications for virtual organizing. To disentangle these concerns, this study considers four key dimensions of virtuality—spatial dispersion, temporal dispersion, dynamic structure, and functional diversity—in relation to technology use and engagement with peers within an organization. Survey data were collected in a multinational organization that facilitates work through extensive use of collaborative technology. The results of structural equation modeling reveal connections between two dimensions of virtuality, use of collaborative technology and peer engagement in the organization. Findings suggest that understanding interactions in virtual organizations requires a more nuanced approach to virtuality and active management of technology implementation. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that managers need to actively manage the deployment of new collaborative technology by focusing on specific characteristics of work groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research scientists have become increasingly dependent on collaborations across laboratories and organizations to maintain their productivity. However, the increased specialization of individual laboratories works against the current drive toward understanding systems in the sciences. Consequently, there is a tension between the rising importance of collaborative efforts and the practical and structural challenges in establishing and managing such collaborations. Combining ethnographic case studies of three biology research labs with network data of their larger scientific community, we explore the changing process of scientific knowledge production in the age of Big Science. We find that virtual technologies open up the knowledge process as scientists have easier access to data, publications, and each other. At the same time, we find that these technologies—specifically scientific databases—do not eradicate the social aspects of scientific knowledge production as collaborative structures in science remain relatively unchanged. We discuss the implications for theory and practice of this seemingly contradictory character of scientific knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the transition to knowledge society insentive usage of knowledge and communication technologies leads to virtuality process in organizations. New and dynamic structure expressed as virtual organization has displayed the characteristics differ from traditional organizations, such as geographical distribution, personalized applications, based on knowledge and communication technologies, employees operating remotely from each other. Besides this, how knowledge sharing factbasically including communication- takes place in virtual organization is an interesting subject. Also human resources management in virtual organizations seen as a process contributed to knowledge sharing in terms of HRM's structure of being dynamic and directly related to human.The aim of this study is to examine the interaction of the knowledge sharing and human resources management in virtual organizations. With this aim, the conceptual framework of the virtual organization, HRM in virtual organization and the relationship with knowledge sharing are explained through the literature review. The last chapter of the study includes the research about the interaction of knowledge sharing and HRM in the virtual organization. The survey questions measuring the attitudes related to knowledge sharing and HRM functions take place in the survey that is applicated to the virtual employees of quality and consultancy firm. In the survey Likert Scale is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Organizations are a mechanism where agents can demonstrate their social skills since they can work in a cooperative and collaborative way. Nonetheless, the development of organizations using Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) requires extensive experience in different methodologies and platforms. Model-Driven Development (MDD) is a technique for generating application code that is developed from basic models and meta-models using a variety of automatic transformations. This paper presents an approach to develop and deploy organization-oriented Multi-Agent Systems using a model-driven approach. Based on this idea, we introduce a relatively generic agent-based meta-model for a Virtual Organization, which was created by a comprehensive analysis of the organization-oriented methodologies used in MAS. Following the MDD approach, the concepts and relationships obtained were mapped into two different platforms available for MAS development, allowing the validation of our proposal. In this way, the resultant approach can generate Virtual Organization deployments from unified meta-models, facilitating the development process of agent-based software from the user point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the economic and social development of the advanced and developing countries is well established. SMEs operating in a transnational market must constantly adapt to changing and turbulent organizational environment and search for new possibilities of gaining competitive advantage. To face this challenge, SMEs base their operation on collaboration within virtual organizations (VOs). VO operation is based on collaborative processes. Due to dynamism and required flexibility of collaborative processes, existing business information systems are insufficient to efficiently support them. In this article, a novel RMV method for supporting collaborative processes based on process mining techniques is proposed. The RMV method allows activity patterns in various instances of collaborative processes to be identified and used for recommendation of activities. This method provides an opportunity for better computer support of collaborative processes leading to more efficient and effective cooperation of small and medium-sized enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the last two decades, virtualization processes have been considered developing phenomena in management studies, particularly within the context of the creation of inter- and intra-organizational networks, establishing strong relationships with customers and the appreciation of intangible assets in companies. The purpose of this paper is to define the concept of virtualization from a marketing perspective, identify the main directions of marketing virtualization, and to propose a multidimensional conceptual solution for virtualization within the marketing processes. The proposed analyses help to understand the multifaceted impact of the virtual environment on company's marketing and can support the quantitative empirical studies on the marketing virtualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Virtual Organizations (VOs) represent a new collaboration paradigm in which the participating entities pool resources, services, and information to achieve a common goal. VOs represent an interesting approach for companies to achieve new and profitable business opportunities by being able to dynamically partner with others. Thus, choosing the appropriate VO partners is a crucial aspect. Ensuring trustworthiness of the members is also fundamental for making the best decisions. In this paper, we show how trust negotiation represents an effective means to select the best possible members during different stages in the VO lifecycle. We base our discussion on concrete application scenarios and illustrate the tools created by us that integrate trust negotiation with a VO Management toolkit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the uses of Web 2.0 and social media by the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and asks three primary questions: (1) What techniques allowed the Obama campaign to translate online activity to on-the-ground activism? (2) What sociotechnical factors enabled the Obama campaign to generate so many campaign contributions? (3) Did the Obama campaign facilitate the development of an ongoing social movement that will influence his administration and governance? Qualitative data were collected from social media tools used by the Obama '08 campaign (e.g., Obama '08 Web site, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, e-mails, iPhone application, and the Change.gov site created by the Obama-Biden Transition Team) and public information. The authors find that the Obama '08 campaign created a nationwide virtual organization that motivated 3.1 million individual contributors and mobilized a grassroots movement of more than 5 million volunteers. Clearly, the Obama campaign utilized these tools to go beyond educating the public and raising money to mobilizing the ground game, enhancing political participation, and getting out the vote. The use of these tools also raised significant national security and privacy considerations. Finally, the Obama-Biden transition and administration utilized many of the same strategies in their attempt to transform political participation and civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Organizations (VOs) are dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources. VOs are widely accepted in grid and other distributed computing environments. Previous VO research produces several separate tools to provide part of the functionality including user registration, user mapping, authentication, authorization, and VO management. However, none of the work covers all the functionality or focuses on non-functional properties. This paper formally defines virtual organization in terms of three functional requirements and four non-functional properties. The functional requirements are user management, resource management, and VO management. The non-functional properties are decentralization, flexibility, simplicity, and efficiency. The problem is formulated as designing a VO architecture to satisfy the functional requirements and achieve the non-functional properties at the same time. This paper presents a layered architecture with GNode abstraction to construct Agora, an implementation of VOs. In Agora architecture, all the entities including users, resources, and agoras are abstracted as GNodes. A naming layer is constructed to manage these GNodes. At the top, there is a logic layer implementing all Agora functionality based on GNode and managing the physical layer resources. The Agora architecture has been implemented in the Vega Grid Operating System. Agora is deployed in the China National Grid and other grid platforms with more than 27 sites and 19 applications. The evaluations through real applications, high performance computing VO scenarios, and micro benchmarks show that the Agora architecture provides complete VO functionality, while achieving decentralization, flexibility, simplicity, and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies allow for networked work schemes for employees. In this context, relationship with the main employer may be managed easier with others with complementary organizations (NGO, leisure group.) This work analyzes how social identity evolves, with a study among 205 professionals from different organizations. They have been divided into networked and non-networked professionals. These professionals were part of more than one organization what allow compare social identity with the main employer and the complementary organizations. The main objective of this research is to show if networked models facilitate social identity with complementary organizations, and could loose the social identity with the main employer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nowadays, in a wide variety of sectors from production-based to service-oriented, temporary collaboration among organizations in the so-called Virtual Organizations (VOs), is the trend adopted by most, and in particular by small and medium enterprises. Pre-existence of long-term associations/clusters of active and competitive organizations, the so-called Virtual Organizations Breeding Environments (VBEs), is shown to greatly enhance dynamic creation of VOs. A number of VBEs have been formed world-wide during the last decade, mostly among organizations located in a common region, with common business culture, and primarily focus on specific lines of activities. This paper however addresses the 2nd generation VBEs that are not bound to geographical regions or specific activities. These VBEs shall play an active role in the society/market as competitive entities, and need to effectively support agile configuration and establishment of dynamic VOs. Furthermore, the 2nd generation VBEs require enabling ICT infrastructure and tools, to facilitate their daily management activities as well as supporting the collaboration among their member organizations. The paper introduces a number of models, methodologies and tools designed and developed to support 2nd generation VBEs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper proposes a hierarchical control system in grid virtual organization. The hierarchical system can be decomposed into multiple application groups, which can be further decomposed into multiple applications. At the top of the hierarchy, the global controller controls the gross allocation of resources to the groups. At the next level down, the group controller coordinates the local deployments of all applications that consume the local allocation of resources. At the lowest level, the local controllers adjust the local resource usages to optimize the utility of single application. The hierarchical control system considers all applications and coordinates all layers of grid architecture upon any changes. According to different time granularity, we adopt a different control scheme. The global control considers all applications and coordinates three layers of grid architecture in response to large system changes at coarse time granularity, while local control adapts a single application to small changes at fine granularity. This paper adopts utility-driven cross layer optimization for grid applications to find a system wide optimization and solves the cross-layer optimization by using pricing based decomposition. A set of hierarchical utility functions is used to measure the performance of the grid system that follows the system, group and application hierarchy. This paper uses total utility to measure the overall quality of grid system. The experiments are conducted to test the performance of the hierarchical control algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Virtual organizations (VO) temporarily aggregate resources of different domains to achieve a common goal. Web services are being positioned as the technological framework for achieving this aggregation in the context of cross-organizational business applications. Numerous architectures have been proposed for securing VOs, mostly for scientific research, such that they do not address all the requirements of business-oriented applications. This paper describes these additional requirements and proposes a novel architecture and approach to managing VO access control policies. Business users can focus on designing business processes, exposing web services and managing their VO partnerships, while the architecture supports and secures the web service interactions involved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the article we investigate the field of virtual organizations, which in the definition of many authors consists of two components: outsourcing and information and communication technology. In the study we have tried to determine which of the two, in the opinion of employees working in the area of Slovene tourism, contributes to a greater degree to virtualization of the company. We determine that outsourcing influences the virtualization of the company more strongly than does information and communication technology, since it enables the company to acquire new knowledge and know-how and increase its competitiveness in the marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel complex network model to evaluate the reputation of virtual organizations. By using the Lyapunov function and linear matrix inequality approaches, the local synchronization of the proposed model is further investigated. Here, the local synchronization is defined by the inner synchronization within a group which does not mean the synchronization between different groups. Moreover, several sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the local synchronization of the proposed network model. Finally, several representative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods and theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Grid architecture is protocol architecture, with protocols defining the basic mechanisms by which virtual organization (VO) users and resources negotiate, establish, manage, and exploit sharing relationships. A standard based open architecture facilitates extensibility, interoperability, portability, and code sharing; standard protocols make it easy to define standard services that provide enhanced capabilities. Grid architecture organizes into layers. In the paper, a three-layer coordination of grid architecture is proposed. The aim is to optimize the end-to-end quality of the dynamic grid application as well as efficiently utilizing the grid resources. A joint coordination algorithm, which exploits the interlayer coupling of fabric layer, collective layer and application layer, is proposed. The algorithm aims to achieve a system-wide optimization based on the user''s preferences. We formulate the integrated coordination of three layers into a constrained optimization problem. Utility functions are used to express grid user'' preferences, resource provider''s benefit function and system''s objectives. The optimization framework provides a layered approach to the sum utility maximization problem. The advantage of the proposed joint three-layer coordination is demonstrated through simulations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes the reference architecture to support a multi-user virtual healthcare network that enables rehabilitation and social reintegration of people with disabilities. The network, based on a virtual collaborative environment supported by the www, includes collaboration and interpersonal communication devices and data collection mechanisms that provide knowledge management for the system and effectiveness evaluation. The Virtual Network (VN) allows the rehabilitation patients spread in geographically dispersed areas, a very frequent reality in the considered context, to access a distributed virtual platform able to offer communication and shared knowledge with doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers and other people involved in the process of rehabilitation. VN solutions allow building a virtual shared space, a context of understanding and knowledge where the "real world" knowledge affects virtual interaction and virtual interaction modifies "real world" therapies. The main aim of the VN is to achieve a higher quality of life for the people with disabilities and, in the long term, from the economic point of view, to produce important savings/profits and bring about feasible ways to improving/re-organizing health care services. The present paper illustrates our team's first steps in building such a network in Romania. The first section establishes the link between the virtual reality and the medical rehabilitation as an important branch of the healthcare system. Several applications in the field are presented here. The second section focuses on two main aspects: on the one hand, the current Romanian reality of medical rehabilitation and, on the other hand, the existing possibilities to build a VN for rehabilitation as a solution to the main problems Romania has in this field. The third section is a technical preamble to the knowledge sharing process particularized for a healthcare VN in section number four. The last part of the paper includes both pro and cons arguments for the designing of a VN as a solution to the discrepancy between the demand and the real current hospitals' supply of medical rehabilitation in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines collaborative networked organizations (CNOs) which are constituted by a variety of entities that are largely autonomous and geographically distributed. The authors outline existing techniques and propose new methods and techniques appropriate for modeling virtual organization breeding environment (VBEs). First, the authors proposes an ontology representing the common vocabulary and identifying the actors and relationships in a specific type of network, namely VBE. Second, the authors propose a methodology for semi-automated ontology construction for the needs of VBEs.

Abstract: The construction industry has suffered from its fragmented structure along the phases of the construction life cycle. The use of information technology (IT) has effectively promoted integration of fragmented information under the scattered construction environment. However, to date, many Internet-based systems for online project collaboration do not sufficiently provide standard formats for transmitting contractual documents and project-related information due to the data compatibility issue. As an alternative, this paper introduces a concept of virtual organization and then examines a CITIS (Contractor Integrated Technical Information Service) system for public construction projects developed in Korea from the viewpoint of a virtual organization concept. The CITIS system suggested here has been applied to local branches of the Korea MOCT (Ministry of Construction and Transportation) and is currently in use. Field evaluation has found that the Korean construction CITIS still lacks collaborative workspace despite its good results on field tests. Finally, the lessons learned from field evaluation are provided to advance the current CITIS toward fully integrated collaborative virtual organization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this Letter, a new complex network model is established for reputation computation in virtual organizations, and its dynamics is investigated. Several sufficient conditions have been derived to ensure the global asymptotical stability of the new complex network model by using Lyapunov method and linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique, where the stability means that the reputation degrees of entities can tend to some fixed constants as time evolves. Also, for this new model, some other dynamical phenomena such as bifurcation and chaos synchronization are proposed for our consideration in the future. This may open a new research branch in the area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cooperative resource sharing enables distinct organizations to form a federation of computing resources. The motivation behind cooperation is that organizations are likely to serve each other by trading unused CPU cycles given the existence of irregular usage patterns of their local resources. In this way, resource sharing would enable organizations to purchase resources at a feasible level while meeting peak computational throughput requirements. This federation results in community grid that must be managed. A functional broker is deployed to facilitate remote resource access within the community grid. A major issue is the problem of correlations in job arrivals caused by seasonal usage and/or coincident resource usage demand patterns. These correlations incur high levels of burstiness in job arrivals causing the job queue of the broker to grow to an extent such that its performance becomes severely impaired. Since job arrivals cannot be controlled, management strategies must be employed to admit jobs in a manner that can sustain a fair level of resource allocation performance at all participating organizations in the community. In this paper, we present a theoretical analysis of the problem of job traffic burstiness on resource allocation performance in order to elicit the general job management strategies to be employed. Based on the analysis, we define and justify a job management strategies for the resource broker to cope with overload conditions caused by job arrival correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the globalization of economic markets and the individuality of market demands, virtual enterprise is becoming an increasingly important organization since it can respond rapidly to market changes and make resource sharing more efficient among manufacturing partners. In this environment, potential partners may be located at different geographical locations and possess different core competition capabilities. Thus, how to select an optimal set of partners capable of responding to a given market opportunity—a new product or even a component, has become a challenging research topic for carrying out agile manufacturing strategy. This paper proposes a comprehensive cost function and establishes its mathematical formulation. The comprehensive cost function considers not only direct-processing cost, but also indirect-processing cost (transportation cost and time-factor cost including both earliness and tardiness). Based on the cost function, this paper presents a pragmatic approach for optimal process and partner selection in a virtual enterprise. This approach is composed of three stages: qualitative pre-qualification, quantitative evaluation, and comprehensive examination. A case study is implemented to illustrate these three stages. Compared with some traditional approaches in normal engineering activities, this approach can be expected to contribute to more efficiently reducing manufacturing cost, improving product quality, and shortening lead-time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The impact of information and communication technology (ICT) is indirect and depends on redesign of practices and structures also outside health care. Improvements will only be realized if all parties involved can coordinate their efforts to take advantage of new technology. A ‘package’ of changed work practices and structures extending across organizational boundaries needs to be designed and implemented. This is very different from the common conception of introducing new ICT tools. Calls for ‘evaluation of benefits’ before new ICT systems are introduced need to recognize this complexity. This article investigates how analysis and economic evaluations can be used to improve decision-making when new applications are proposed. This is done by drawing parallels with experiences from other industries. We conclude that the entire ‘change package’ should be analysed for its consequences on the well-being of care recipients, and the requirements it presents for capital investments and changed labour inputs, in particular changed competence needs. Some concepts and structures are suggested for such evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a number of aspects of using grid computing methods in support of molecular simulations, with examples drawn from the e Minerals project. A number of components for a useful grid infrastructure are discussed, including the integration of compute and data grids, automatic metadata capture from simulation studies, interoperability of data between simulation codes, management of data and data accessibility, management of jobs and workflow, and tools to support collaboration. Use of a grid infrastructure also brings certain challenges, which are discussed. These include making use of boundless computing resources, the necessary changes, and the need to be able to manage experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a prototype grid infrastructure, called the “ e Minerals minigrid”, for molecular simulation scientists. which is based on an integration of shared compute and data resources. We describe the key components, namely the use of Condor pools, Linux/Unix clusters with PBS and IBM's LoadLeveller job handling tools, the use of Globus for security handling, the use of Condor-G tools for wrapping globus job submit commands, Condor's DAGman tool for handling workflow, the Storage Resource Broker for handling data, and the CCLRC dataportal and associated tools for both archiving data with metadata and making data available to other workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A requisitely holistic information support can help us improve our business operation, but such information is hard to attain and even harder to attain in virtual organizations presenting a specific, more fluid form of business systems. Important difficulties include complexity and complicatedness, time (real and future, and their difference from the past), information requirements (realistic definition of them and meeting them), and related methodological problems. Anticipation capability may help business systems develop into anticipatory ones and develop their prevailing thinking style into the anticipatory system thinking (aimed at requisitely holistic mastering of the potential future, even a virtual one). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an approach for a preference-based job-flow scheduling in Grid virtual organizations is proposed and studied. Virtual organizations provide uniform rules of the resources sharing and consumption and should respect individual and common preferences of its stakeholders: users, resource providers and administrators. In most cases, a virtual organization's stakeholders pursue contradictory market-based goals, which may be expressed in terms of time and cost. Still, mutually beneficial job-flow scheduling scenarios are possible in such multi-agent computing environments when the different optimization criteria are coordinated. For this purpose we consider different resources allocation heuristics and scenarios based on a simple linear combination of global (group) and private (user) job scheduling criteria. We study backfilling-based job queue scheduling procedure with a secondary preference-based optimization performed only on the resources allocation step. This approach allows us to respect backfilling-based jobs execution priorities together with more specific individual jobs criteria, including total execution cost or time minimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational reliance on virtual teams (VTs) is increasing tremendously due to the significant benefits they offer, such as efficiently reaching objectives and increasing organizational performance. However, VTs face a lot of challenges that, if overlooked, will prevent them from yielding the required benefits. One of the major issues that hinders the effectiveness of VTs is the decision-making process. There is a lack of scientific research that attempts to understand the factors affecting decision making processes in VTs. Studies in this area have only been done in the United States and Europe. However, such research has not been conducted in the Middle East, where specific scientific solutions are still required to improve the performance of VTs. Therefore, this study is conducted in the Middle East, namely in the United Arab Emirates, to gain scientific knowledge on this region's specificity. An online questionnaire (Google forms) was used to obtain the necessary data. Hypotheses were developed to test the influence of ICT (Information and communications technologies), language, information sharing, and trust on the decision-making processes, and the effect of decision making on team performance. Structural equational model (SEM) methodology was used to test our proposed model. The results showed that factors such as trust, ICT, and information sharing have a direct effect on decision-making processes, while language has no effect on decision making, and decision-making processes have a direct effect on the performance of the VTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In an increasingly competitive market, small and medium enterprises have the temporarily option to divide their core competencies in sub‐competences. In fact, this is the purpose of so‐called virtual organizations (VOs), which aim to attend a particular goal joining partner forces. However, when these VOs are created, it is necessary to deal with the maximum number of participants involved in the process and the risk involved in these relationships, which should be measured through a well‐defined process. This paper aims to present an approach to dimensioning the maximum number of participants involved in the formation of a VO composed of several service providers. This approach is based on the overall risk level of the participants and uses different risk analysis methods to assess the suitable number of participants to be part of a VO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]