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Organizations increasingly use machine learning (ML) to transform their operations. The technical complexity and unique challenges of ML lead to the emergence of ML operations (MLOps) practices. However, the research on MLOps is in its infancy and is fragmented across disciplines. We extend and integrate these conversations by developing a framework that accounts for the technical, organizational, behavioral, and temporal aspects of the overarching ML-based solution lifecycle. We identify the key components of ML-based solution lifecycle and their configuration through an in-depth study of Finland’s Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (FAIA) and follow-up semi-structured interviews with experts from multiple international organizations outside FAIA. This study contributes to the recent IS literature concerned with the sociotechnical aspects of ML. We bring new insights into the discussion on organizational learning, conjoined agency, and automation and augmentation. These insights extend and complement MLOps practices, thereby helping organizations better realize the potential of ML technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"With the advent of Industry 4.0, Blockchain is the new technology which current in its nascent stage but seems to have high prospectus in the coming decade. In todays senario when each application and tool is getting tied to the digital thread and each aspect of the data related to product is captured with sensors and exceptional devices thus making its place in Internet of things. This high diverse spectrum of data has changed the way will work in future. These technologies are bound to exponentially change the speed of growth. In such time we need to have strong foundation like Blockchain which will bring in more transparancy, trust, privacy, appropriate access sharing, and will channel the chaos inherant to these new technology coming in. As rightly said by B. Bias, C. Bisiere, Executive Director American Blockchain Council: Blockchain in simple terms "Wherever people, processes, businesses, governments, or the social good requires proof of identity, ownership, transactions, or commitments; Blockchain technologies promise to meet those needs with a degree of trust and integrity never before possible". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Container Terminal is a specialized port facility for container vessels to load and unload shipping containers. Yard cranes, terminal tractors and quay cranes are used to transport container between wharf and yard and vice-versa. Quay cranes' container handling speed is considered as the performance of container terminals commonly indicated as Moves per Hour (MPH). As such, quay cranes with high reliability and availability is paramount to ensure desired container handling performance is achieved. However, in many container terminals the performance of quay cranes is impacted due to lack of maintenance, spare parts and timely refurbishment, retrofitting or replacement of deteriorating components or the quay cranes itself. This paper attempts to propose the appropriate maintenance activities to be carried out and the performance of the quay cranes are monitored to detect impending performance deterioration and action to be taken. The approach is based on evaluation of 12 months operational data of breakdown frequency, breakdown hours, operating hours, container moves and downtime. The correlation analysis for reliability has good negative correlation (-0.75) with breakdown frequency and breakdown hours has strong correlation (0.93) with breakdown frequency. The study will explore 60 months data to establish a quay crane reliability prediction model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tech startups bring innovative products and services to the market, and entrepreneurs manage numerous challenges across startups' lifecycle stages. More than 90% of the startups experience failure despite the support from a startup ecosystem, and therefore, it throws open the following research questions. Why do tech startups fail? What are the causal attributes of startup failure across the lifecycle stages? What are the causal attributes that differentiate a failed tech startup from a successful one? Against this backdrop, this comprehensive study explored the causal attributes of startup failures in India, with the following two specific objectives: (i) Do causal factors vary within the lifecycle stage? and (ii) What are the attributes that differentiate a failed tech startup from a successful one? We gathered primary data from 151 cofounders and analyzed using binomial logistic regression and identified causal attributes of startup failures. The startup's lifecycle stage plays a significant role and implies how entrepreneurs prioritize and allocate resources to maximize their returns. The other causal attributes that are statistically significant are revenue, product market fit, product roadmap, market promotion, conflict with investors, level of confidence at execution, extent of focus on current startups, and entrepreneur's experience level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collaborative virtual worlds can be used to achieve different purposes according to the intended use. The design of 3D collaborative virtual environments for learning has been an important research field for several years. However, the research in this specific field has shown that in most of the cases, the environments do not have appropriate technical characteristics. The design of the educational collaborative virtual environments goal is to produce environments that encourage users to achieve effective learning. In this sense, the current study presents a design model for development of 3D Educational Collaborative Virtual Environments. This model is based on the engineering software techniques and methods. It is supported by a spiral cycle that allows us to develop applications. The process is divided into a set of activities that are being carried out throughout each cycle, producing several work products, with the aim to provide each team member a set of guidelines and tools necessary for to make intelligent decisions about what they do. The model is composed by five steps, namely: Conception, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Evaluation. Each step contains a set of diagrams to support the developer team in their tasks. With this model, the applications are developed in a series of incremental releases, that is, the final system is constructed, based on the refined prototype. These steps include activities that enable to quantify the quality of Educational Collaborative Virtual Environments (ECVE). It is based on the Quantitative Evaluation Framework developed by Escudeiro (Escudeiro, 2007) and allow us to have a degree of freedom in the selection of quality criteria. Thus, we can obtain a single quantitative value of quality for any domain in analysis, i.e., we can adapt it in any domain and valence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During regression testing, developers rely on the pass or fail outcomes of tests to check whether changes broke existing functionality. Thus, flaky tests, which nondeterministically pass or fail on the same code, are problematic because they provide misleading signals during regression testing. Although flaky tests are the focus of several existing studies, none of them study (1) the reoccurrence, runtimes, and time-before-fix of flaky tests, and (2) flaky tests indepth on proprietary projects. This paper fills this knowledge gap about flaky tests and investigates whether prior categorization work on flaky tests also apply to proprietary projects. Specifically, we study the lifecycle of flaky tests in six large-scale proprietary projects at Microsoft.We find, as in prior work, that asynchronous calls are the leading cause of flaky tests in these Microsoft projects. Therefore, we propose the first automated solution, called Flakiness and Time Balancer (FaTB), to reduce the frequency of flaky-test failures caused by asynchronous calls. Our evaluation of five such flaky tests shows that FaTB can reduce the running times of these tests by up to 78% without empirically affecting the frequency of their flaky-test failures. Lastly, our study finds several cases where developers claim they "fixed" a flaky test but our empirical experiments show that their changes do not fix or reduce these tests' frequency of flaky-test failures. Future studies should be more cautious when basing their results on changes that developers claim to be "fixes". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systems Engineers conduct tradespace studies for the purpose of determining those preferred product design configurations that can provide enhanced value based on key selected parameters. The results of such analyses can identify those unique configuration sets that potentially provide more desirable "value" outcomes as defined for the product being evaluated. A significant limitation of most tradespace studies is the lack of consideration of manufacturing related criteria. Such studies may unintentionally infer that all unique design configurations are essentially equal in terms of their "manufacturability" while manufacturing related costs often vary significantly for different configurations over a product's lifecycle. Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored research has resulted in the development of a methodology for calculating a manufacturability value based on subject matter expert (SME) evaluations of conceptual design criteria that can be available for inclusion in the tradespace early in a product's lifecycle. This methodology includes the consideration of eight key, fundamental parameters of design, manufacturing operations, and supply chain as they collectively relate in terms of value inherent with a specified conceptual design configuration. The design's perceived manufacturability is calculated as a relative index value in terms of SME assessed risk using a typical risk matrix considering the likelihood and consequence of problematic situational occurrences. Once the SME performed assessments have been concluded, the compiled manufacturability database can subsequently be utilized for enhanced tradespace analytics by program decision makers. The methodology is explained via discussion of a simplified notional aircraft case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern business environment is very dynamic, unpredictable, turbulent, characterized by: a shorter life cycle of products or services, with expressive competition on a global scale, transition of society from an industrial to a society in which knowledge is treated like a critical resource in the economy, volatility of the market and economic conditions. Constantly impose new challenges that the management of a modern organization faces to achieve effective and efficient operations, which makes the manager's job more complex and dynamic, in constant struggle to rich the business position and to improve it. Only those businesses companies that are willing to promote innovation, change and continuously working on improving the quality of its products and services know what success is. Otherwise, their existence can seriously be in questione. Those companies that are not willing to innovate, will hardly be able to keep up with the global competition. Nowdays, in new circumstances the consumers in time, where their information are more accessible than ever, have a wide choice and the possibility to decide what is most acceptable to them. Crude market conditions do not forgive errors. Essential is to learning and to innovate in the modern business environment and it can not be only a privilege of management, but it must become obligation and needs of all employees. Organizations expected of employees that innovate becomes a state of their consciousness and aware of its usefulness in the way that every day do something for their environment and for their economic subject. By investing in employee skills, the company will indirectly invest in improving their products and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to provide a starting point for application of Quality Scheduling Index within the production process with an emphasis on the product lifecycle and a comparison with our society where due to demand there is an offer which should be in time, at the required level of quality and at the corresponding place of selling. The scope of the article is the expansion of the application of newly developed Quality Scheduling Index within several other branches of industry and an initial evaluation of its implementation. The article presents outputs of the author's yet not published research and work in the filed of management and economics of the industrial enterprise and wants to become a starting point of the implementation of Quality Schedulin Index in enterprises which want to innovate their production process and reduce costs and dead time of the products / services within their lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition of products from conceptual design, through development, and ultimately to production and use is fraught with potential risk. The cumulative magnitude of associated risk depends largely on the maturity of the technical aspects of the product's design and the extent to which the required manufacturing processes are sufficiently ready for production. Products that incorporate proven technology with a demonstrated history of successful transition to production and sustainment are inherently less risky than products that integrate newly developed technology in a design which, in turn, may require development of yet unproven manufacturing processes. The United States Department of Defense (among other organizations) has established defined Technology Readiness Levels as well as defined Manufacturing Readiness Levels. The criteria contained therein effectively provides a baseline for the comprehensive information and activities necessary for transitioning a design through each of the successive stages of the product lifecycle. This research paper proposes a taxonomy based assessment of the ascertained risk associated with the baseline criteria at the early stages of a product's lifecycle that, unless mitigated, accumulates throughout the subsequent stages of the lifecycle. This phenomenon can result in cost overruns, functional degradation, and even failed product launches. The proffered methodology is intended to provide for an "early warning" system so that discrepancies in the criteria can be readily addressed at even the earliest stages, subsequently reducing or eliminating the resulting negative cost impacts of unmitigated risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets evolve very quickly and companies form, grow, and then oftentimes fail in quick succession. The complexity of interactions change throughout the market and the firm's evolution, as companies navigate within their markets, manage their internal staffing and product development, and handle external funding imperatives. The inability or unwillingness to address complexity at any of the various life cycle stages, a firm could be forced into rapid decline and ultimately fail. Complexity is a collection of interacting objects: human, technological, financial, or management issues; and these factors change along the high tech lifecycle as well. Complexity cannot be completely managed, but it can be often reasonably contained; this paper will provide inferential evidence for complexity migration from markets to firms, and the authors will examine factors that influence the nature of complexity in markets at various stages in the firm and market life cycle and discuss the boundary layers and tipping points that change the complexity landscape. The concept appears to be paramount because the literature on complex markets indicates that decisions can only be made on the margin when the future is made uncertain by high level of uncertainty due to complexity. And the firm will have to readjust its behavior without guidance from strategic plans and corporate vision, in some circumstances without the benefit of a stabilizing feedback generated through corporate learning under these circumstances of extreme decision pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, product development has migrated towards a different philosophy of repair. Originally, product philosophy was to design products to last without designing for a specific lifecycle. When the products malfunctioned, different components were readily available, whether made by the original manufacturer or generic components. This concept was very effective in extending the overall system or product life, because broken components could be swapped out with ease and minimal cost. The focus of maintaining a product's viability has shifted to three different areas. The first is a philosophy where the focus has shifted from replacing or repairing components of an inoperable system to a focus on replacing the entire system or product with an entirely new system or product. The second is where the ability to diagnose what is wrong with an inoperable system requires advanced technology and software only available through the original manufacturer and at their price-point and their requirements. The third is where it is obvious what the system or product requires in order to be fully functioning again, but the replacement parts required to be purchased from the original manufacturer. In this scenario, it is often not possible to install a more cost-effective component not made by the original manufacturer that will restore the original product or system. As these philosophies gain acceptance and even expand, economies of scale are diminished, consumer cost can increase, and the environment is impacted. This paper investigates these changing philosophies so managers can evaluate the influences they invoke. As a result of this cursory review, managers and engineers should recognize that changing their product development philosophy can impacft business sustainability goals and/or business strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is intuitively obvious to anyone who has applied Porter-style analyses, such as Five Forces or Internal Value Chain, (Porter, 2009; Shekhar, 2010) that these techniques were intended primarily for mature markets. Yet much is to be gained by examining how such analyses and similar techniques evolve along the market lifecycle. An important conclusion that can be derived from this extension exercise concerns the determination of where a firm is located in the market development and how well the firm is adjusted to its market position. This paper will show how internal value chain and five forces can be generalized for companies at various stages of their lifecycle: incubating, start up, growth, mature, and declining. The analytical approach proposed in this paper allows for triangulation of the firm's position along the market lifecycle. Significant findings can be generated and lessons learned in the process of determining where a company is in its market evolution because many functions of the firm have now been mapped along this lifecycle. Prescriptions for specific responses to market conditions will be outlined and conclusions provided on what happens when a firm is not aligned, especially when the misalignment is structural. Many of the examples used come from an extensive database of over a hundred case studies primarily in the high-tech sector in Canada. The analytical methodology described in the article can be applied to any fast developing market with similar results. However, for the sake of anchoring the concepts we will refer to high-tech markets for examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As markets evolve the individual firms naturally coalesce into groups that offer advantages over competitors and a safe refuge from excessive competitive pressures. From informal ecosystems to technology platform emergence to horizontal and vertical acquisitions to all out Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) offensives, the market is replete with natural driving forces that create islands of cooperation, alliances and outright mergers in response to the strategic landscapes and new dominant strategies. This paper will describe the dynamics of alliances, the logic of the formation and sustenance of structures in each phase of the market, the tipping points of change, and the evolution from loosely structured collaborative ecosystems to tight couplings of value chains that dominate markets in late stages. The driving forces behind these emergent structures will be examined and the strengths and weaknesses of the structures discussed under market conditions such as absorbing shock loading. The accompanying structural complexity of the market, the alliances and individual firms will be also commented, based on previous articles by the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three significant lifecycles interact in a given market and evolve concurrently as the market moves through its phases from incubation to maturity and into decline. The market, firm, and product lifecycles have their own profiles and the best results for the firm are obtained when these three coincide; a growing firm introduces for example a growth type product into a growing market; this would be a zero stretch situation where capabilities of the firm are aligned with the principal requirements of the market and the introduction of the new product exacts the least effort. In addition to these three, there is a fourth cycle defined by the evolution of external alliances of the firm that accompany it along its lifecycle. The alliances range from rather complex and flexible structures such as ecosystems at the beginning of the lifecycle to late stage rigid value chains that are, in comparison, simple and brittle, with dire consequences when the alliance is tested by shock loadings. Underlying these external lifecycles and their measures of coincidence are the internal functions of the firm. Decision making, finance, HR, and compensation regimes among many functions also progress along their own lifecycles. These internal functions can be in or out of phase at different points of the market, creating serious challenges when their out of phase state is maximal leading to internal stretch that further taxes the firm's ability of execute. This article proposes a metric of strategic and internal stretch and examine the impacts on the firm's ability to execute its strategy when the degree of stretch is beyond a coping level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work-paper presents few considerations regarding the opportunity that a life extension program to be applied in the case of a ground-to-air missile as an Air Defense Missile System (ADMS) component. A model of a hypothetical AD missile is built and serves as a base for the technical and economical reasons for the extension life decision. Using some market data for the missile's components, the authors try to balances the life-extension costs with those of the complete replacement ones. The scientific, technical and technological support needed for applying such a program is set also. The conclusions refer to the multitude of the factors which are involved in the life extension program management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic contracts (e-contracts) create obligations, permissions, and prohibitions for the parties in the Internet. However, the support to interpret and enforce the clauses related to contracts is limited in current implementations. Besides, e-contracts must follow the continuous change of business rules. The service provider must make available the services that enable the parties to satisfy obligations and respect permissions and prohibitions during the lifecycle of the contract. This task requires a considerable effort from the providers. We propose a lifecycle aid the management econtracts. The lifecycle aims to allow automation of configuration of Web Service in order to facilitate the implementation work of providers. The six phases of lifecycle can be employed in Business-to-business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) contracts. To validate the approach, we employed the lifecycle in an implementation that uses the REST style to build, get and set the e-contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collaborative virtual worlds can be used to achieve different purposes according to the intended use. The design of 3D collaborative virtual environments for learning has been an important research field for several years. However, the research in this specific field has shown that in most of the cases, the environments do not have appropriate technical characteristics. The design of the educational collaborative virtual environments goal is to produce environments that encourage users to achieve effective learning. In this sense, the current study presents a design model for development of 3D Educational Collaborative Virtual Environments. This model is based on the engineering software techniques and methods. It is supported by a spiral cycle that allows us to develop applications. The process is divided into a set of activities that are being carried out throughout each cycle, producing several work products, with the aim to provide each team member a set of guidelines and tools necessary for to make intelligent decisions about what they do. The model is composed by five steps, namely: Conception, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Evaluation. Each step contains a set of diagrams to support the developer team in their tasks. With this model, the applications are developed in a series of incremental releases, that is, the final system is constructed, based on the refined prototype. These steps include activities that enable to quantify the quality of Educational Collaborative Virtual Environments (ECVE). It is based on the Quantitative Evaluation Framework developed by Escudeiro (Escudeiro, 2007) and allow us to have a degree of freedom in the selection of quality criteria. Thus, we can obtain a single quantitative value of quality for any domain in analysis, i.e., we can adapt it in any domain and valence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Batteries are increasingly being used as a primary power source and for energy recovery and storage in renewable energy systems such as photovoltaic (solar cell) applications, wind energy and hybrid and battery electric vehicles. This paper aims to analyze the life cycles of lead acid, lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries in their applications and also some methods that may be used to safely recycle or dispose the batteries after they have been used. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the procedure of lifecycle-based design and optimization of electrical motor-drives as well as related methodologies to be developed. As the electric motor-drives are the most electrical energy consuming apparatuses, thorough and in depth optimization of the drives during their design process is essential to support energy efficient and environmental friendly development in electrical engineering and industry processes. Lifecycle-based optimization would grant a possibility to evaluate a wider range of variables that affect the environment and energy consummation of the drives. An overview of existing optimization techniques and related literature is presented. Necessity of new methodologies is pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

P2P botnets are a rapidly growing threat on the Internet. Having a decentralized control structure, a P2P botnet is very stealthy and robust to detect and defense. The paper studied the lifecycle of P2P botnets and developed a P2P botnet Steady-State Model, which helps understanding P2P botnets. The model can be used to study the behavior characteristics, which provide insight on possible defense or design tactics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This passage evaluated the ecological risk which was caused by developing the Biodiesel through the method of lifecycle, and calculated risk index disturbance of water resources by applying the model of risk-business. Computational results show that the equivalent-benchmark consumption of water is 1269.8725 tons for developing the biodiesel in China. The water consumption of Helianthus annulus is minimum which is only 1134.512 tons, and is 0.893 times of equivalent-benchmark, and Hevea brasiliensis is maximum which reaches to 21462.03 tons and is 16.901 times of equivalent-benchmark. The result of the study shows that Helianthus annulus is the primary risk level because the water resources disturbance index of it is less than or equal to 0.2; Pistacia chinensis Bunge, Juglans regia is the second risk level because the water resources disturbance index of it is more than 0.2 but less than or equal to 0.4; Arachis hypogaea is the third risk level because the water resources disturbance index of it is more than 0.4 but less than or equal to 0.6; Vernicia fordii, Sesamum indicum, Linum usitatissimum, Glycine max, Cocos nucifera, Hevea brasiliensis are the fifth dangerous level because the water resources disturbance index of it is more than 0.8. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Information security audit has become more and more important nowadays. Among the audited items, the status of security patch could be the most important part. In this paper, we proposed a security patch lifecycle to assess the information security risk with the help of vulnerability databases. A case study using the Google Trend is also given to demonstrate that the proposed security patch lifecycle is both useful and practical. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within an increasingly competitive environment companies face the challenge to continuously launch innovations which are accepted by the customer and at the same time manageable by the organization. In this context product planning takes in an important role, as demands and potentials concerning the future lifecycle of a product have to be acquired, anticipated and systematically analyzed in order to derive promising product concepts. To support this task, methods and tools to handle the planning relevant information are needed. Therefore this paper addresses a Multiple Domain Matrix (MDM) approach to enable a compatibility analysis of future solution elements which allows in consequence the identification and interpretation of goal conflicts concerning future products. Furthermore the respective MDM approach is also used to evaluate the compatibility of product concepts concerning multiple planning scenarios and also concerning multiple planning horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Service contracts function as interfaces which bridge IT implementation, business modeling, and economical analysis for service systems among various stakeholder from a holistic perspective. This paper conducts a review of recent research and practice on service contracts with focus on service contract content and service contract management. Dimensions of f Quality of data (QoD), Quality of service (QoS), Legal issue, Context, Business term g are introduced to evaluate service contract content. Dimensions of f Description of contract, Monitor/Control, Selection, Matchmaking, Composition g are introduced to evaluate service contract management Based on the survey, we propose possible directions for future efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to explore methodologies and best practices for managing national research project records (NRPR) as knowledge assets and to propose a coherent and consistent management framework to guarantee authenticity, reliability, integrity and reusability of NRPR as knowledge assets through evidence-based knowledge management collaboration throughout the life time of the research, records and knowledge. Based on a critical review of three schools of thought on concepts of, reasons for, and approaches to, national research project recordkeeping under the impact of the lifecycle, continuum and ecosystem methodologies in current practice and research, the authors justify the necessity of establishment of a unified knowledge management framework driven by different priorities and interests of records and archives administrators; researchers and research councils; and research project investors and administrators. Through mapping knowledge intervention gaps, building knowledge interventions linkages and implementing knowledge management practices, this paper rationalizes an integrated use of the three methodologies as complementary approaches to form a unified knowledge management framework. Such a framework is beneficial to collaboration, optimization and innovation of the current management systems for national research project records, which can have shared benefits and impacts on effectiveness, efficiency and economy, and integrate national research project assets management into a cohesive and harmonious system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the light of the numerous cross-references on the role of knowledge and innovation in their respective definitions, one might expect that these research strands would be explored almost in parallel. Yet, the synchronous investigation of knowledge and innovation in management studies constitutes the exception rather than the rule. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship of knowledge and innovation, following a practice-based perspective and shifting the focus to a mediating role of practice, while distanciating ourselves from agent or structure dichotomies. We explore tensions between knowledge and innovation through the life cycle of a small company's business model development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents abstracts of studies on business policy and strategy including "The Contribution of Alliance Networks to Firm Performance: The Case of the U.S. Software Industry," by Dovev Lavie, "The Minimum Assumed Incentive Effect of Executive Share Options," by Brian G. Main, Trevor Buck, Alistair Bruce and Rodio Skovoroda and "Environmental Uncertainty and the Real Options Value of Korean Firms' International Investments," by Seung-Hyun Lee and Mona V. Makhija.

Problems about data engineering are discussed in the background of information system construction. The connotation of data engineering in information system construction is described, and data actions involved in data engineering are classified into five classes: regulations and policies, planning and design, acquisition and processing, application and maintenance, archiving and monitoring. Actions of every class are illustrated in detail. The lifecycle of information system project and the lifecycle of data are studied as well as the inclusive relationship among those lifecycles. The hierarchical framework of data engineering implement is illustrated. This article provides practical reference for specific data engineering like data quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing hypotheses from frameworks outlined in 'social capital' and 'household demographic differentiation and land use' theories, this paper explores land use practices in a socially diverse developing setting, the Southern region of Ethiopia. A sample of 1716 rural farm households show that the demographic lifecycle of the household and the set of social relations defining resource use differentiate households with respect to reported agricultural activities within a year. We found that as households age they are more likely to shift from annual crop production to more permanent or perennial agricultural activities and animal husbandry. Out-migration of household members from this rural region considerably increases the propensity to use land for perennial crops while rural in-migration reduces it. Community context measures including ethnic diversity, availability of common grazing land, forms of land acquisition, off-farm activities, community attitudes, and prior food shortage play a determining role in the households' livelihood. The study suggests that the environmental impact implied by the successful aging of the households and the forms of social capital that tie communities to their environments signify the need to give priority to household demography and community contexts in environmental protection efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]