No. 2 (2006)
Published:
2006-06-30
ARTICLES FROM THIS ISSUE
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MUMMY – mobile knowledge management
Abstract
The project MUMMY funded by the European Commission develops means to improve the efficiency of mobile business processes through mobile, personalized knowledge management. MUMMY approaches the challenges of modern mobile work processes. To do so, it takes advantages of latest achievements in mobile connectivity and its capa- bilities (like “always on-line” high bandwidth personalization ubiquity), latest hardware options like camera-equipped hand- held devices, and uses multimedia, hypermedia, and semantic web technologies. Technical development and appliance of the results are intensively consulted and integrated with business processes of several commercial organizations that are mem- bers of the MUMMY consortium. In this paper the achieve- ments of MUMMY are introduced and individual components are briefly described.
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Empowering the mobile worker by wearable computing – wearIT@work
Abstract
Currently wearable computing is still a technology of niches and in a laboratory stage. With wearIT@work a project dedicated to applications was launched by the European Commission (EC IP 004216). The first year of the project is nearly over and first results were achieved. In this paper the concept of the project is introduced and first results are presented. As the project strongly follows a user centred design approach much effort was put on first investigations with users in the four application domains of maintenance, production, hospital and fire fighting. Beside this results concerning a wearable computing hardware platform and software framework were achieved.
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EWD-P as an example of a "The Best of Good Practice" project
Abstract
The European Document Exchange System – Poland (EWD-P), developed by Rodan Systems SA is one of the most modern electronic document exchange systems in European Union. EWD-P is a workflow system that facilitates decision-making within the state bureaucratic system, with a special brief to work out official Polish government standpoints on numerous legislative issues constantly arising within the EU. The EWD-P project has created an effective platform for electronic exchange of documents related to the EU legislative process. The intelligent workflow management functionality aims to support a complex flow of documents through the meanders of the central government administration. The EWD-P system includes a high-level classification of documents using an artificial intelligence technique for document categorization. The EWD-P system simplifies interaction between ministerial departments involved in elaboration of a final common position and facilitates a more efficient organization of work within government and other public administration institutions involved in the EU legislative process.
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Innovative approach to identity management solution development for e-government at EU level
Abstract
This paper presents the main aspects of research, analysis and design of the open identity management architecture for e-government development within GUIDE, a project financed by the 6FP of the EC. The most important identity management issues strongly influencing the European e-government development are briefly discussed. An emphasis is placed on the innovative interdisciplinary approach used in GUIDE, aimed at covering the whole range of technical, process, policy, legal and social identity management issues, and seeking to overcome the existing fragmentation of identity management initiatives. GUIDE brings together the European industrial, financial and technical market leaders in e-government solutions, as well as leading academic institutes of the relevant scientific disciplines. Through its scientific, technological and socio-economic goals GUIDE will contribute towards initiatives that will ultimately deliver multiple benefits to governments, citizens and businesses.
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A way of integrating deaf, hearing- and speech-impaired people into modern communication society
Abstract
This article deals with the exclusion of deaf, hearing- and speech-impaired people from our modern communication society, as they are unable to use the phone. This situation leads to discrimination and disadvantages in their everyday lives. One solution to this problem is the implementation of so-called relay centers which act as go-betweens; with the aid of communications assistants and interpreters, a direct conversation with a hearing person becomes possible. The Center for Sign Language and Deaf Communication has developed a concept of such a relay center for Austria. The main innovations are the integrative technological approach (trying to integrate all possible communication devices) and the embedding into an Internet portal, including additional services for the target groups. An overview of the activities carried out during the 6-month preparatory project is given, and the results are described
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Inclusion of sign language users via information and communication technology
Abstract
The paper addresses the situation of sign language users (mostly deaf people) in the context of inclusion as a political goal. For several reasons, there is often still some confusion with the terms of deaf and hearing impaired. In order to overcome this confusion, a survey is given over the needs of people who have a sign language as their preferred language as well as the needs of people who decide on preferring spoken language (mostly hard-of-hearing people). One should also doubt that the whole target group of people with disabilities in the hearing area consists of two separate groups only. Starting from the right of self-determination, the better solution seems to be the individual right of a person to choose any offers which are useful for her/him. As for other groups of people with special needs, ICT is seen as a big chance for improving their situation in terms of life and job chances. Several projects and experiences are reported
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Implementation of information security management system in the small healthcare organization
Abstract
The contribution describes the scope and main subject designed within DIGI-Q project. The paper contains results from subprojects of information security management system (ISMS) implementation, managed by students of DIGI-Q course. Very interesting simple risk assessment method and risk management and their application within in small healthcare organization were developed. Criteria and procedures accepted are described
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A roadmap towards healthcare information systems interoperability in Greece
Abstract
The advantages of the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the complex healthcare sector are already well known and well stated in the past. It is common knowledge that in order to install any type of information system in healthcare, six main groups of issues have to be dealt with: organizational and cultural matters related to healthcare, technological gap between healthcare professionals and information science experts, legal requirements on the confidentiality of personal data, of patient related data and on data privacy, industrial and market position of healthcare informatics and interoperability complexity, lack of vision and leadership of the health care managers and health authorities and user acceptability and usability of the proposed information systems. In order to meet these issues stated above, a special focus group (Z3) performed an assessment of the situation of healthcare informatics in Greece and of the main key points that would lead to success. In that sense it is now common knowledge that Greece is lagging information and communication technology progress in healthcare because almost none of the above mentioned issues were dealt with. This assessment is the result of the interaction of more than 150 decision makers, medical informaticians, healthcare practitioners and other individual involved in healthcare. As a conclusion, this focus group resulted in 4 major propositions that will lead to healthcare informatics introduction with better success chances: focus on terminologies and standards, focus on interoperability and information systems sustainability, focus on clear goals and system metrics that can create a healthcare performance management cockpit, and focus on people and what they have to say, by creating a e-health forum. These conclusions were taken into consideration by the Greek government and are incorporated the IASYS project, the national healthcare informatics framework for the next ten years.
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Comparative analysis of models and platforms for the e-learning portals
Abstract
The main basic functions of portal systems have to be implemented by the functionality of it platform. The technological platform of portal should be complied with the specified requirements. The basic set of services and components of e-learning portal contains five components for: services performance, user services, data management, portal adaptors, web infrastructure. The paper presents the detailed outcomes of well-known platforms analysis, discusses the ad- vantages and disadvantages of mentioned systems and gives recommendations for customers in making a choice among these platforms
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Transmitter diversity antenna selection techniques for wireless channels utilizing differential space-time block codes
Abstract
The paper deals with transmitter diversity antenna selection techniques (ASTs) for wireless channels utilizing differential space-time block codes (DSTBCs). The proposed ASTs tend to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of those channels. Particularly, we propose here the so-called general (M,N;K) AST/DSTBC scheme for such channels. Then, based on this AST, we propose two modified ASTs which are more amenable to practical implementation, namely the restricted (M,N;K) AST/DSTBC scheme and the (N + ¯N,N;K) AST/DSTBC scheme. The restricted (M,N;K) AST/DSTBC scheme provides relatively good bit error performance us- ing only one feedback bit for transmission diversity purpose, while the (N+ ¯N,N;K) AST/DSTBC scheme shortens the time required to process feedback information. These techniques remarkably improve bit error rate (BER) performance of wireless channels using DSTBCs with a limited number (typi- cally 1 or 2) of training symbols per each coherent duration of the channel. Simulations show that the proposed AST/DSTBC schemes outperform the DSTBCs without antenna selection even with only 1 training symbol.
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Modeling spatial aspects of mobile channel for low antenna height environments
Abstract
It is essential to have deep understanding of the mobile radio channel in particular for radio communication modeling and advanced technology system design. Models for the mobile radio channel are vital for the study of smart antenna systems, both for the design of algorithms, system-testing purposes, and for network planning. This paper provides an intensive study of the spatial characteristics of the mobile channel for low antenna height cellular environments, i.e., picocells and microcells, assuming Gaussian distributed scatterers. We investigate previous work on the angle of arrival (AoA) statistics for Gaussian distributed scatterers and make appropriate comments. Further, we employ the recently proposed eccentro-scattering physical channel model, as a generalized model, to derive the probability density function (pdf) of AoA of the multipaths at base station (BS) assuming Gaussian distributed scatterers around both BS and mobile station (MS). We found that the pdf of AoA at BS is directly affected by the standard deviation of the scatterers’ density and the size of the scattering disc. The derived formulas, in closed form, can be used further for performance assessment of smart antennas and beamwidth design purposes.
