Search

Background: India being the forerunner in the cyber world the occupational health problem is slowly awakening to this group of modern occupational diseases, which are slowly taking its roots among the information technology (IT) professionals. Studies have also shown that computer users are at greater risk of developing eye problems and visual fatigue. Methodology: Cross sectional study was carried out over a period of one year time among 800 participants to study the eye problems among computer users. Results: Out of 800 participants; 70.25% participants had any computer related eye problem. If participants work more than four hours in a single spell prevalence of eye problems was 84.49%. Prevalence of visual problem was maximum (76.67%) who use computer for seven to nine hours per day. Conclusion: It is observed that occurrence of visual problems are related more to number of hours spent gazing at the screen than number of years of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online whistle-blowing reporting systems (WBRS) have become increasingly prevalent channels for reporting organizational failures. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and similar international laws now require firms to establish whistle-blowing (WB) procedures and WBRSs, increasing the importance of WB research and applications. Although the literature has addressed conventional WB behavior, it has not explained or measured the use of WBRSs in online contexts that could significantly alter elements of anonymity, trust, and risk for those using such reporting tools. This study proposes the WBRS model (WBRS-M). Using actual working professionals in an online experiment of hypothetical scenarios, we empirically tested the WBRS-M for reporting computer abuse and find that anonymity, trust, and risk are highly salient in the WBRS context. Our findings suggest that we have an improved WB model with increased explanatory power. Organizations can make WB less of a professional taboo by enhancing WBRS users' perceptions of trust and anonymity. We also demonstrate that anonymity means more than the mere lack of identification, which is not as important in this context as other elements of anonymity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we report the empirical findings of a vignette study designed to examine how volitional computer users cope with information technology (IT) threats based on the technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT). We incorporate the construct of wishful thinking, an important form of emotion-focused coping behavior that is rarely studied, along with problem-focused coping into a research model to examine the interaction between the two coping approaches. The results reveal that wishful thinking weakens the effect of perceived avoidability on avoidance motivation. In turn, wishful thinking is positively affected by perceived threat and this effect is stronger when a user has low risk tolerance. Although perceived avoidability can reduce wishful thinking, its effect is fully mediated by perceived threat. This study highlights the important role of wishful thinking in affecting users’ security behavior. It not only corroborates, but also extends the extant propositions of TTAT, thus making a significant contribution to IT security research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology (IT) changes rapidly, seriously challenging IT management. In response, many organizations create a formal group of IT professionals to evaluate emerging IT so they can better cope with its change. A survey based on structured interviews was mailed to a nationwide sample of 1,000 IT organizations. Two hundred forty-six respondents provided data to identify categories of coping mechanisms to handle changing IT. Five categories emerged: Education and Training, Internal Procedures, Vendor Support, Consultant Support, and Endurance. Organizations apply Education and Training more extensively than the others. Thus the research contributes to understanding the means by which organizations cope with rapid IT change. The research also found that organizations with a group dedicated to investigating emerging IT cope more extensively, but not more successfully, than do those without one. Thus the research contributes not only by providing an understanding of how organizations cope with rapid IT change, but also by suggesting the need to achieve more from the group charged with emerging IT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study which was designed to test the hypothesis that the computer experienced subjects would be more suspicious or less confident of computer derived information than would the non-experienced. The key finding of the study was that the mimeograph group of computer experienced subjects modified more answers than did the computer experienced print-out group. This implies that computer experienced subjects were less affected by information that was computer generated than they were by information presented in a more traditional format.

This study examines the psychometric properties of the short-form measure of user information satisfaction (UIS) proposed by Ives, Olson, and Baroudi [7]. Based on extensive testing, the questionnaire appears to be a reasonably valid and reliable measure. A framework for how this measure can be used to detect and diagnose problems with user satisfaction is presented and illustrated via two case studies. Finally, recommendations and suggestions are made regarding the future use of this and other measures of user information satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the critical success factor (CSF) method has been suggested by several sources as a means of ensuring the success of an organization. An investigation was performed to determine the existence and nature of CSFS for information centers (IC). Twenty-six CSFS were determined from various sources. The importance of each was rated in a survey of IC managers, and a principal components analysis was performed to indicate the underlying structure. This paper reports the effect on the composite CSFS of the IC variables age, size, and hardware option supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks are getting closer to our real physical world. People share the exact location and time of their check-ins and are influenced by their friends. Modeling the spatio-temporal behavior of users in social networks is of great importance for predicting the future behavior of users, controlling the users’ movements, and finding the latent influence network. It is observed that users have periodic patterns in their movements. Also, they are influenced by the locations that their close friends recently visited. Leveraging these two observations, we propose a probabilistic model based on a doubly stochastic point process with a periodic-decaying kernel for the time of check-ins and a time-varying multinomial distribution for the location of check-ins of users in the location-based social networks. We learn the model parameters by using an efficient EM algorithm, which distributes over the users, and has a linear time complexity. Experiments on synthetic and real data gathered from Foursquare show that the proposed inference algorithm learns the parameters efficiently and our method models the real data better than other alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key problem in user relationship analysis is the identification and representation of user interest. The basis to tackle this issue is user similarity measures. In social tagging system, users collaboratively create and manage tags to annotate and categorize content for searching and recommending. Due to the contribution to reflect users' opinions and interests, tags are metadata for user similarity measures. However, there are some issues about it such as data sparseness, the user none-distinguished interest areas and relatively little consider about user influence. This article argues a similarity measure method that based on user's interest topic division. First, we construct tag clustering and divide the user community according to user interest areas. Second, we improve user similarity measurement model using social network analysis (SNA) and PageRank. Finally, the validity of the improved method about user similarity calculation is verified using del.icio.us data set. Experimental results show that the improved method gets the highest @PN and sorting accuracy compared with the traditional tag-based user similarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, in the Internet of Things (IoT) society, the massive use of technological devices available to the people makes possible to collect a lot of data describing tastes, choices and behaviours related to the users of services and tools. These information can be rearranged and interpreted in order to obtain a rating (i.e., evaluation) of the subjects (i.e., users) interacting with specific objects (i.e., items). Generally, reputation systems are widely used to provide ratings to products, services, companies, digital contents and people. Here, we focus on this issue, adopting a Collaborative Reputation System (CRS) to evaluate the visitors’ behaviour in a real cultural event. The results obtained, compared with those obtained by other methods (i.e., classification), have confirmed the reliability and the usefulness of CRSes for deeply understand dynamics related to visiting styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine the extent to which technological advances can enhance inter-organizational information sharing in disaster relief. Our case is the Virtual OSOCC (On-Site Operations Coordination Centre) which is a part of the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) under the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). The online platform, which has been developing for more than a decade, provides a unique insight into coordination behaviour among disaster management agencies and individual actors. We build our study on the analysis of a complete database of user interaction including more than 20,000 users and 11,000 comments spread across approximately 300 disaster events. Controlling for types and severities of the events, location-specific vulnerabilities, and the overall trends, we find that the introduction of new features have led to increases in user activity. We supplement the data-driven approach with evidence from semi-structured interviews with administrators and key users, as well as a survey among all users specifically designed to capture and assess the elements highlighted by both interviews and data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(ANTECEDENT) The main responsibility of the Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) as an organization is to provide services in high level quality. That implies that the services will be an appropriate service and it will ensure continuity. In this context, the organization needs to adopt the best practices in service management to be more efficient and competitive. Some ITSM models collect the best practices of recognized organizations. These models are mainly applied by large organizations. (OBJECTIVE) The objective of this study is to gather experiences in the application of ITSM models in small organizations. (METHODS) To achieve this objective a systematic literature review was performed. (RESULTS) We found primary studies applied to IT areas from some large and medium companies but there is a few in small companies' context. (CONCLUSION) During the SLR we have identified some improvements and difficulties in many organizations, we have founded when applying ITSM models. The principal difficulty was the lack of knowledge of its personnel and consultants have, for adopting a model. On the other hand, companies who succeeded in the application of an ITSM model, had founded some benefits, such as processes improvement, higher user satisfaction, and service cost and time reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a general framework for understanding the use of information and communication technology in education and discusses the impact of computer usage on students' health and development. Potential beneficial and harmful effects of computer use by children are discussed. Early epidemiological and laboratory studies have indicated that children are at least of similar risk of developing musculoskeletal and vision problems as adults, and musculoskeletal and visual health problems developed in childhood are likely to persist into adulthood. This article, therefore, aims to provide a reflection on the deficits of existing policy and recommendations for child-specific guidelines in computer use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimensionality reduction is a useful technique to cope with high dimensionality of the real-world data. However, traditional methods were studied in the context of datasets with only numeric attributes. With the demand of analyzing datasets involving categorical attributes, an extension to the recent dimensionality-reduction technique t -SNE is proposed. The extension facilitates t -SNE to handle mixed-type datasets. Each attribute of the data is associated with a distance hierarchy which allows the distance between numeric values and between categorical values be measured in a unified manner. More importantly, domain knowledge regarding distance considering semantics embedded in categorical values can be specified via the hierarchy. Consequently, the extended t -SNE can project the high-dimensional, mixed data to a low-dimensional space with topological order which reflects user's intuition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This case study aims to describe the renovations and intended functions for rooms; explain the different design approaches implemented for the different end-user populations; provide an overview of traditional, new and non-library services for which spaces were designed; briefly explain training and planning; and describe the spaces and services that function well and those that do not. Indiana University Libraries completed two significant renovations in late 2014. They renovated the Learning Commons, which is a 27,000 square feet (SQF) facility designed to meet the needs of undergraduate students, and they created the Scholars’ Commons, which is a 15,000 SQF facility supporting graduate student and faculty research. Design/methodology/approach – Both spaces were thoughtfully designed to support new and traditional library services, as well as services supported by non-library units. Staff training and service planning took place during the construction process, with the goal of having outstanding services operating on opening day. Findings – The goal of creating flexible space was achieved, but it presents organizational and staffing challenges. Libraries seeking to create multifunctional environments must consider the practical implications of daily operation and use of such spaces. Research limitations/implications – This case study describes two library environments that are in their first year of operation and the assessment of the use and impact is underway. The stage of the work limits the research to be reported upon. Practical implications – The spaces described provide very practical information for other academic libraries that seek to renovate spaces and provide innovative services. Originality/value – Academic libraries that are in the planning stage of a learning space should take note of the variety of spaces, strategies for working with cavernous spaces, use of natural light and “bring-your-own-device” interior designs. In addition, the service hub model implemented in the Scholars’ Commons is a unique approach for digital scholarship centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing is emerging as one of the latest field of information technology. Basically, cloud computing is the phenomenon of providing the computing services using a network of remote servers that are hosted over the internet which is related to storing, managing and processing the data, rather than a local server or a personal computer [1]. The computer-centered world today is opting for pay-for-use models and due to evolution of the cloud computing over the years it can handle such massive data as per on demand. This paper contains descriptive information about the basic services provided by cloud computing and also the cloud service providers that are present in the market these days. It holds different features that are provided by the cloud services and also gives a brief description about the list of cloud services that are present in the marker for a user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delays in the user acceptance of information technology (IT) service projects in Korea have occurred frequently due to various risk factors. User acceptance delays may hinder the achievement of the client's project objectives and cause schedule delays or cost overruns. Furthermore, the client may impose a delay charge and claim for additional damages, causing serious disputes between buyer and supplier. The main causes of user acceptance delays are unclear user requirements, changes in user requirements, poor-quality development outputs, excessive functional and non-functional errors, lack of user involvement, unclear user roles and responsibilities, and unclear criteria of user acceptance test. We help foster the timely completion of user acceptance by proposing a method of identifying the risk factors in user acceptance delay and creating a project management plan to weed out the identified risks. We propose a guideline for an IT service management plan that weeds out or lowers the risk factors well in advance. To validate the guideline's utility, we apply it to IT service projects. The results show that the guideline is effective in identifying and removing risk factors affecting delays in the user acceptance of IT service projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context : In backing business processes with information technology, a difficult trade-off appears between the desire to control processes for avoiding undesirable executions, and the flexibility that users need in order to attain their higher level goals. While this is a general trend in general business processes, it is even more acute in specific domains like the medical area, where the clinical guidelines are expected to contribute to the optimization of medical assistance. Objective : We study model checking as support for understanding and solving the inconsistencies between the process models and their corresponding execution. The aim is to provide various human users with output in controlled English for the checking of properties about the execution of such processes, and perhaps input in controlled English for properties of interest from the point of view of the user. Method : For the conformance checking of such complex situations, we use an extended version of a Hybrid Logics model checking tool, for the verification of various properties within an abstract representation model. The extension with Description Logics helps to exploit a more refined representation of the entities involved in the execution of processes. The advantages of using the model checker in visualizing and verbalizing connections of the properties checked with their dependencies over time are shown on a sore throat running scenario, relative to its corresponding clinical guidelines. Results : With new data for an alternative run of the execution, our method can update the abstract model to enable the user to see what might happen or might have happened in such runs of the process model. The new updated abstract model corresponding to the new real situations is then used to analyze whether the overall state is acceptable or should further actions be considered to arrive at an acceptable state of the world. Conclusion : Our results show how the combination of Hybrid Logic and Description Logic can provide the necessary abstraction for the checking to be carried out at a level understandable by the human user when the properties of interest can be translated by a controlled English language interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses services for achieving hospitality in information search activities which aimed to assist individual users in their surroundings during day-to-day activities. Topics covered include examples of services that provide support appropriate to the user context and intended for individual users, media processing technology which supports hospitality in information search, and future research plans.

Culture exerts a fundamental effect on employees and their use of technologies. We examine the influence of culture (and other factors) on computer self-efficacy (CSE). CSE, or employees' judgments about their capabilities to use a specific software system, is important given its relationship with work performance. By drawing a sample from two different countries, we show that culture affects CSE indirectly through employees' preferences for individualism and task interdependence. Furthermore, individualism, task interdependence and software personal innovativeness relate positively, whereas task ambiguity and software complexity associate negatively with CSE. Finally, we discuss several implications for human resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender systems are used to make recommendations about products, information, or services for users. Most existing recommender systems implicitly assume one particular type of user behavior. However, they seldom consider user-recommender interactive scenarios in real-world environments. In this paper, we propose a hybrid recommender system based on user-recommender interaction and evaluate its performance with recall and diversity metrics. First, we define the user-recommender interaction. The recommender system accepts user request, recommends N items to the user, and records user choice. If some of these items favor the user, she will select one to browse and continue to use recommender system, until none of the recommended items favors her. Second, we propose a hybrid recommender system combining random and k-nearest neighbor algorithms. Third, we redefine the recall and diversity metrics based on the new scenario to evaluate the recommender system. Experiments results on the well-known MovieLens dataset show that the hybrid algorithm is more effective than nonhybrid ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IT is the key enabler of digital economy. Appropriate usage of IT can provide a strategic competitive advantage to a firm in a dynamic competitive environment. However, there has been a continuing debate on whether IT can actually enhance the productivity of firms. This concept is called IT productivity paradox. In this study, we analyzed the causality among appropriate indicators to demonstrate the real impact of IT on productivity. The 12,100 sample data from 2011 were used for analysis. As expected, the results indicated that mobile device usage, website adoption, e-commerce, open source, cloud computing, and green computing positively influence IT productivity. This unprecedented large-scale analysis can provide clarification regarding the ambiguous causal mechanism between IT usage and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ontology matching is a growing field of research that is of critical importance for the semantic web initiative. The use of background knowledge for ontology matching is often a key factor for success, particularly in complex and lexically rich domains such as the life sciences. However, in most ontology matching systems, the background knowledge sources are either predefined by the system or have to be provided by the user. In this paper, we present a novel methodology for automatically selecting background knowledge sources for any given ontologies to match. This methodology measures the usefulness of each background knowledge source by assessing the fraction of classes mapped through it over those mapped directly, which we call the mapping gain. We implemented this methodology in the AgreementMakerLight ontology matching framework, and evaluate it using the benchmark biomedical ontology matching tasks from the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) 2013. In each matching problem, our methodology consistently identified the sources of background knowledge that led to the highest improvements over the baseline alignment (i.e., without background knowledge). Furthermore, our proposed mapping gain parameter is strongly correlated with the F-measure of the produced alignments, thus making it a good estimator for ontology matching techniques based on background knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]