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Mobile opportunistic networks make use of node mobility to provide occasional contact opportunities for mobile devices to deliver data. In this paper, we investigate the inherent properties of data disseminations in mobile opportunistic networks by answering the question regarding how far and how fast a packet can be disseminated in mobile opportunistic networks. This problem has been overlooked by recent research, but it is very important because it reveals the potential for mobile opportunistic networks to support emerging applications such as mobile commerce and emergency services that may involve time and location sensitive information dissemination. Our investigations are taken from the perspectives of small and large scales. From the perspective of small scale, the probability distributions of the minimum time needed by the data to spread to a given region, namely, \mathcalT, are deduced for both the one-copy case and the multiple-copy case. From the perspective of large scale, by using the large deviation theory, the probability distributions of \mathcalT are deduced for both the one-copy case and the multiple-copy case when the destination region is far enough from the data origin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Database technology affects many disciplines beyond computer science and business. This paper describes two animations developed with images and color that visually and dynamically introduce fundamental relational database concepts and querying to students of many majors. The goal is for educators in diverse academic disciplines to incorporate the animations in their existing courses in order to meet their pedagogical needs. The introduction of the animations was assessed and evaluated within several contexts, including non-majors courses offered by computer scientists as well as a course on computational molecular biology. The evaluation indicated that student knowledge of fundamental database concepts improved significantly with the use of the courseware. The animations provide visual learners with an engaging method to learn the topics presented with the ability to replay the dynamic presentation. Overall, the evaluation indicates the accessibility of database topics across the disciplines as well as the specific concepts that need further elaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer to peer (P2P) e-commerce applications exist at the edge of the Internet with vulnerabilities to passive and active attacks. These attacks have pushed away potential business firms and individuals whose aim is to get the best benefit in e-commerce with minimal losses. The attacks occur during interactions between the trading peers as a transaction takes place. In this paper, we propose how to address Sybil attack, an active attack, in which peers can have bogus and multiple identities to fake their owns. Most existing work, which concentrates on social networks and trusted certification, has not been able to prevent Sybil attack peers from doing transactions. Our work exploits the neighbor similarity trust relationship to address Sybil attack. In our approach, duplicated Sybil attack peers can be identified as the neighbor peers become acquainted and hence more trusted to each other. Security and performance analysis shows that Sybil attack can be minimized by our proposed neighbor similarity trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest for data mining techniques has increased tremendously during the past decades, and numerous classification techniques have been applied in a wide range of business applications. Hence, the need for adequate performance measures has become more important than ever. In this paper, a cost-benefit analysis framework is formalized in order to define performance measures which are aligned with the main objectives of the end users, i.e., profit maximization. A new performance measure is defined, the expected maximum profit criterion. This general framework is then applied to the customer churn problem with its particular cost-benefit structure. The advantage of this approach is that it assists companies with selecting the classifier which maximizes the profit. Moreover, it aids with the practical implementation in the sense that it provides guidance about the fraction of the customer base to be included in the retention campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the paper "Business Model and Tactical Choices in IT-enabled Project Creation: Interplay of Effectuation and Causation Processes" is presented.