2006-06-01,"Margaret Grieco, Royal Colle and Muna Ndulo",Meeting the Information Challenge: The Experience of Africa,Hardback,9781847180100,34.99,"Africa faces serious challenges in the world of globalisation. One of the most serious and basic of these challenges is that of information and communication technologies. Meeting the range of social, economic and political goals in the contemporary world requires the meeting of the information challenge. This volume - primarily the product of a specialist meeting at Cornell University - provides both overview and detail on how this challenge can be and is being met.",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-01-01,Susan Stuart and Gordana Dodig Crnkovic,"Computation, Information, Cognition: The Nexus and the Liminal",Hardback,9781847180902,39.99,"This book draws together a number of important strands in contemporary approaches to the philosophical and scientific questions that emerge when dealing with the issues of computing, information, cognition and the conceptual issues that arise at their intersections. It discovers and develops the connections at the borders and in the interstices of disciplines and debates, and presents a range of essays that deal with the currently vigorous concerns of the philosophy of information, ontology creation and control, bioinformation and biosemiotics, computational and post- computational ap- proaches to the philosophy of cognitive science, computational linguistics, ethics, and education. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-03-01,Soraj Hongladarom,Computing and Philosophy in Asia,Hardback,9781847181190,39.99,"This volume is a collection of selected papers presented at the Second Asia-Pacific Computing and Philsosophy Conference, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2005. The conference was organized by the Center for Ethics of Science and Technology, Chulalongkorn University on behalf of the International Association of Computing and Philosophy (www.ia-cap.org). Computing have had a long relationship with philosophy, starting from the problem of how symbols being manipulated in computing bear a relation to the outside world, to those of artificial intelligence, robotics, computer simulation, and so on. Moreover, as computer technologies have become thoroughly pervasive in today's environment, there are also issues concerning social and ethical impacts brought about by them. The papers in the volume represent a wide variety of concerns and various dimensions within which computing and philosophy are related. Furthermore, it also represents some of the first attempts to highlight cultural dimensions of computing and philosophy, which became prominent when the conference was held for the first time within the milieu of an Asian culture. (The First Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy was held in Canberra, Australia.) Hence, many of the papers in the volume address this added dimension. Apart form the usual problems of how computers and human lives are interconnected, the papers here also discuss how computers are related to human lives as lived in a specific culture. Thus the book breaks a new ground and should be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students who are interested, not only on computing and philosophy generally construed, but also on this exciting new dimension of how the cultures of Asia, the West, and others bear upon the traditional issues in computing and philosophy, and on how this dimension raises some new concerns and agenda. Among the topics discussed in this volume are: political online forums in Saudi Arabia, e-democracy and structural transformation of public sphere, the Buddhist informational person, a glance into the lives of computerized generation in Thailand, technology and journalism in the market, local approaches and global potential (?) of information ethics, computer-enhanced good life, computer teaching ethics, and many others.",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-03-01,Mary Valentis with Tara P. Monastero and Paula Yablonsky,"TechKnowledgies: New Imaginaries in the Humanities, Arts, and TechnoSciences",Hardback,9781847181367,39.99,"TechKnowledgies: New Imaginaries and Transmigrations in the Humanities, Arts, and TechnoSciences is a diverse collection of essays, a recently produced technology play by William Kennedy, art, and installations that represent, and at times resist, the ways science and technology are interacting with the arts and the humanities to produce new imaginaries and disciplinary transmigrations that gesture towards a “university” of tomorrow. As theorists’ posit new futures and call for an end to historically grounded, or discipline-based, so-called silo approaches to knowledges, a de facto reorganization of disciplinary boundaries and a migratory spirit have spontaneously infused the humanities with new life. These transmigrations, instead of diffusing the disciplinary terrain, have strengthened and broadened existing fields. They are provoking re-mappings of intellectual topography, and, ironically, have brought about more rather than less integration. Activated by such massive cultural shifts as the turn from print to visual culture; the technological revolution and its virtual sublimes; the acceleration of scientific advances; the rise and incorporation of mass or popular culture and the possibilities of replication, the humanities are producing integrated knowledges, what we are calling new TechKnowledgies, that interface the humanities, the arts, the social and hard sciences with digital technologies and research emerging at the borders of all these fields. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007-05-01,Chantal Ammi,Innovative Technology and Globalization,Hardback,9781847181756,39.99,"Globalization is leading the industry worldwide especially the new technology sector. The main aim of the book is to enhance the reader's knowledge – especially from a multidisciplinary perspective rather than from an individual functional perspective –the role of the globalization in the evolving world of the new technologies. This book will overview the process of globalization from a number of perspectives, including historical, geographical and social viewpoints while focusing on the new technologic products and services. Globalization and its effects on the innovative technology sector are best examined in terms of the social ramifications, and especially the geographical and political and economic (or political economy) contexts, at and between different levels, including the local, the regional and the global. "," ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008-12-01,Gordana Dodig Crnkovic and Susan A. J. Stuart ,"Computation, Information, Cognition: The Nexus and the Liminal",Paperback,978-1-4438-0040-2,19.99,"This book draws together a number of important strands in contemporary approaches to the philosophical and scientific questions that emerge when dealing with the issues of computing, information, cognition and the conceptual issues that arise at their intersections. It discovers and develops the connections at the borders and in the interstices of disciplines and debates, and presents a range of essays that deal with the currently vigorous concerns of the philosophy of information, ontology creation and control, bioinformation and biosemiotics, computational and post-computational approaches to the philosophy of cognitive science, computational linguistics, ethics, and education. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-01-01,Valentine Casey,Software Testing and Global Industry: Future Paradigms,Hardback,978-1-4438-0109-6,34.99,"Today software development has truly become a globally sourced commodity. This trend has been facilitated by the availability of highly skilled software professionals in low cost locations in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Far East. Organisations endeavouring to leverage the opportunities this provides and to avail of the benefits of establishing operations close to emerging markets have embraced this strategy in large numbers. Software testing plays a key role in delivering high quality products and is a labour intensive, complex and expensive activity. In the context of Global Software Development (GSD) to date testing has been perceived as a well defined task that is relatively straightforward and lends itself to being outsourced or offshored. This volume considers this specific topic and demonstrates that testing in a GSD environment is not a simple activity. It is prone to be negatively impacted by all the factors associated with distributed software development. This work also provides practical solutions which can be utilised to address these important issues. While the primary focus of this work is software testing it is also the culmination of 10 years research by the author in the area of GSD. During this period he has considered all aspects of the software development life cycle. This experience and knowledge has been incorporated into this volume. It is therefore relevant to note this work is of value to the wider software community not just to those interested in testing. It specifically considers the establishment of virtual teams and their efficient and effective operation. Therefore this book has relevance to all those interested in implementing or improving a GSD strategy. Its particular strengths are that while it is a scholarly work it is industry based and practical. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-02-01,Mario Scerri,The Evolution of the South African System of Innovation since 1916,Hardback,978-1-4438-0160-7,39.99,"In this book, Mario Scerri provides the reader with a novel and sweeping rendition of South Africa’s economic history from the early part of the twentieth century to the present. He applies a broad innovation systems approach to this history spanning the period from 1916, which saw the drafting of South Africa’s first Science and Technology plan to the first fourteen years of the post-apartheid period. The introduction of the book lays out the scope of the work and its focus on the identification of continuities and ruptures in the economic history of South Africa. The first part of the book deals with the theoretical foundations of the approach. The first chapter in this section looks at the emergence of evolutionary economics and innovation systems theory as the basis for the main countervailing argument against the neoclassical/neoliberal orthodoxy. In the course of this chapter the foundation is laid for the development of an alternative general theory of economics. The second chapter covers the main debates on the economic history of South Africa and looks at the several varieties of the liberal and Marxist renditions of this history. The theoretical section lays the foundation for the history that is covered in the four chapters which follow. These cover three broad periods since 1916. The first runs up to 1948 with the election victory of the National Party. The second covers the apartheid period and the last follows with an account of the post apartheid political economy. An endnote provides the basis for the analysis of what may possibly be the emergence of a fourth main period in the evolution of the South African system of innovation. The Evolution of the South African System of Innovation since 1916 opens up a novel engagement with the complex phenomenon of apartheid, its genealogy and its aftermath. It will appeal to economists and economic historians who are interested in the economy of South Africa. It will be of particular interest to evolutionary economists who use the systems of innovation approach as an alternative to mainstream neoclassical economics in the analysis of dynamic economic systems. For this particular audience, this book will provide a welcome addition to the growing body of literature in this area, especially given the novelty of its historical approach. ","“Mario Scerri has collated and analysed an impressive body of literature and has produced the first comprehensive and contextual analysis of South Africa’s National System of Innovation. He carefully weaves together a coherent narrative which blends empirical detail with theories of innovation. He has placed at the disposal of academic-scholars, activist-researchers and policymakers an invaluable intellectual resource.” Rasigan Maharajh, Chief Director, Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI), South Africa. rasigan@antfarm.co.za; maharajhr@tut.ac.za “Mario Scerri integrates the analysis of systems of innovation with a broader discourse on power to a degree that is rarely found in the literature. His analysis of the South African system of innovation is a novel and valuable contribution to the current debates in this field.” Mammo Muchie, NRF/DST Research Professor Chair Holder, IERI, TUT, South Africa; Coordinator of the Development, Innovation and International Political Economy Research in Aalborg University, Denmark: muchiem@tut.ac.za mammo@ihis.aau.dk, http:// www.diiper.ihis.aau.dk ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-02-01,Peter Baofu,The Future of Post-Human Engineering: A Preface to a New Theory of Technology,Hardback,978-1-4438-0175-1,44.99,"Why should mass media be informational and accurate as much as its proponents would claim—and, conversely, disinformational and propagandistic as much as its critics would argue? Contrary to the conventional wisdom held by many since the modern era of mass media, neither of the two opposing views is correct, to the extent that a total analysis of media influence has yet to be adequately explored and understood. Something fundamentally vital to the analysis of communication has been missing. This is not to say, however, that the literature on media studies hitherto existing in history has been much ado about nothing; on the contrary, indeed, much can be learned from different theoretical approaches in the field. But the important point to remember here is that this book aims to show an alternative (better) way to understand the nature of mass media (which goes beyond both the pros and cons in the literature on media influence, while learning from them all). If true, this seminal view will alter the way of how mass media are to be understood, with its enormous theoretical implications for going beyond the existing paradigms on the future of communication, in a small sense—and for predicting the future of open and closed societies, in a large sense. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-03-01,Jack Downey,Career Paths for Programmers: Skills in Senior Software Roles,Hardback,978-1-4438-0242-0,39.99,"The creation of computer software is traditionally associated with technically brilliant but socially inept people - the programmer character in the movie Jurassic Park being a perfect example. However, the development of commercial software is a task requiring input from a multi-disciplinary team, the success of which depends not only on the team members’ technical skills, but also on their ability to communicate and collaborate with each other. Based on a three-year research study, this book explores the various roles associated with software development. It explains how these roles are not clearly defined or delimited and it also highlights the extent to which practitioners have to deal with both technical and non-technical people – colleagues, managers, sales people, customers and suppliers. By focussing on senior practitioners (people in their thirties and forties), this book investigates the skills needed in these roles and shows the diverse paths practitioners take to get to their current positions. It will be of interest to all software practitioners who are concerned about the options available to them later in their careers. It also offers support to human resource personnel who might struggle to develop job descriptions for software people. Finally it offers insights to national policy makers who wish to see the Irish software industry survive in the global market. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-05-01,"Joseph R. Chaney, Judd Ethan Ruggill and Ken S. McAllister",The Computer Culture Reader,Hardback,9781847185563,39.99,"The Computer Culture Reader brings together a multi-disciplinary group of scholars to probe the underlying structures and overarching implications of the ways in which people and computers collaborate in the production of meaning. The contributors navigate the heady and sometimes terrifying atmosphere surrounding the digital revolution in an attempt to take its measure through examinations of community and modes of communication, representation, information-production, learning, work, and play. The authors address questions of art, reality, literacy, history, heroism, commerce, crime, and death, as well as specific technologies ranging from corporate web portals and computer games to social networking applications and virtual museums. In all, the essayists work around and through the notion that the desire to communicate is at the heart of the digital age, and that the opportunity for private and public expression has taken a commanding hold on the modern imagination. The contributors argue, ultimately, that the reference field for the technological and cultural changes at the root of the digital revolution extends well beyond any specific locality, nationality, discourse, or discipline. Consequently, this volume advocates for an adaptable perspective that delivers new insights about the robust and fragile relationships between computers and people. ","Tracing computer culture to mechanical thinking machines of the 1600s, Judd Ruggill, Ken McAllister and Joseph Chaney offer an absorbing journey into the diversity and historical sweep of computer culture. Contributors from diverse disciplines write about web design, games, and users, but also about art and art museums, World War II, self-help, crime and more. The Computer Culture Reader has lots to offer the curious and the novice as well as the cyber-experienced and the cyber-addicted. - Mary Beth Haralovich, Professor, School of Media Arts, University of Arizona ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-06-01,John Burton,The Medical Device Industry: Developments in Software Risk Management ,Hardback,978-1-4438-0561-2,39.99,"The Medical Device industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Device manufacturers are producing increasingly sophisticated and complex medical device software to differentiate themselves in the battle for dominance in this sector. The increase in the complexity of medical device software has introduced new challenges with respect to making medical devices and their associated software safe. Risk management has emerged as key in addressing these challenges. Existing literature on risk management for medical devices has been slow to adequately account for the complex nature of software in modern medical devices. Conversely, excellent progress has been made in the broader Software Engineering community with the production of holistic software risk based models such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®) and SPICE™. However, these models do not account for medical device specific requirements. This book examines the possibility of a unified approach whilst investigating the relevance of the CMMI® SPI model to the medical device regulatory requirements. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009-07-01,Grzegorz Kość and Krzysztof Majer,Tools of Their Tools: Communications Technologies and American Cultural Practice,Hardback,978-1-4438-0978-8,44.99,"The book explores the role of communication technologies in American cultural practice over the last 150 years. Communication technologies are here understood to include audio and visual reproduction technologies, analogue telecommunications such as traditional telephony, radio and television broadcasts, digital telecommunications, computer-mediated communications, telegraphy, and computer networks. The study of the impact of such technologies is a way to explore the various flows and tensions of American culture. How has American society molded communication technologies? How have they, in turn, shaped American history? Are Americans still, in the words of Thoreau, ""tools of their tools""? More so or less than during the philosopher's Walden days? How do America's cultural, ethical, and economic assumptions determine and limit the ways in which telecommunications function in American society? Fascinating questions abound. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-03-01,Tracey Bowen and Mary Lou Nemanic ,Cultural Production in Virtual and Imagined Worlds,Hardback,978-1-4438-1780-6,39.99,"Cultural Production in Virtual and Imagined Worlds foregrounds how the two important fields of visual culture and Internet culture interact. This collection of essays explores the intersections, overlaps and disparities in terms of how the two discourses illuminate our everyday negotiations as we become increasingly dependent on the Internet and virtual/visual imaginings for constructing who we are. What is being examined here are the ways in which we use visual/virtual lenses to see the world both individually and collectively. This book represents a transnational effort that began as a series of conversations during the Mid Atlantic Popular/American Culture conferences from 2005–2009. The editors, a Canadian and an American, have included contributors across national and geographic contexts. Cultural Production is aimed at raising questions, crossing borders and presenting points of departure for future scholarship in the relatively new and very rapidly changing disciplines of visual and virtual cultures. Our critical approach to this study includes viewing Internet images as contested sites of cultural activity and also as sites that advance ideologies related to cultural transformation. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010-11-01,Graham R. Sturdy,Business Process Reengineering: Strategies for Occupational Health and Safety,Hardback,978-1-4438-2509-2,39.99,"This is an important text for all students and practitioners of Business Process Reengineering. It provides a comprehensive resource for understanding and implementing BPR as relating to the needs of each individual business, and it places particular emphasis on the importance of the OH&S function within the commercial environment. This volume provides an in-depth coverage of all the key areas which are essential to the implementation of BPR. It provides unique practical guidance on implementing BPR strategies as formulated by the author and a range of academic practitioners and industry experts. Importantly, it demonstrates how these initiatives can be implemented in a real-world environment and in accordance with stated business objectives, so as to effect positive and productive change. The advantages of a newly-developed business tool known as the “Sturdy BPR Matrix” are carefully considered, as is guidance on the implementation of BPR in any situational context. ","“I thoroughly recommend this comprehensive study of BPR. It is well-researched and explores the wide range of research literature that is available on this subject in a manner that is both practical and comprehensive.” —Professor Eamonn Murphy, Enterprise Research Centre, University of Limerick “The approaches and studies presented in this volume are all well-supported by the available evidence and the research draws on real-world examples as based on valuable years spent working in the industrial sector. I applaud this contribution to the study of BPR.” —Dr Mícheál Ó hAodha, University of Limerick ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-02-01,Subhash Chandra and Girish Nath Jha,Computer Processing of Sanskrit Nominal Inflections: Methods and Implementation,Hardback,978-1-4438-2684-6,34.99,"Computer Processing of Sanskrit Nominal Inflections: Methods and Implementation is the result of Research and Development (R&D) at the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) level at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. The title of the dissertation was “Machine Recognition and Morphological Analysis of Subanta-Padas.” The work, which is based on the reverse engineering implementation of Panini’s Sanskrit Grammar, brings together new and original studies in the area of computational linguistics, language technology and natural language processing with reference to parsing Sanskrit nominal inflections. On the surface level, Panini has defined rules in a forward looking generative fashion which makes reverse analysis necessary for parsing. Since parsing inflections is the first basic step towards complete analysis, the present work has relevance for any larger system that may evolve in future. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-07-01,Martin J. Leahy and Marie-Louise O’Connell,14th International Machine Vision and Image Processing Conference: IMVIP 2010,Hardback,978-1-4438-2962-5,44.99,"Established in 1997, the International Machine Vision and Image Processing (IMVIP) conferences bring together theoreticians, practitioners, industrialists and academics, from the numerous related disciplines involved in the processing and analysis of image-based information. These events provide a platform for communication and exchange between participants whereby cutting edge research and advances within the field can be communicated, discussed and information exchanged. IMVIP events are hosted annually by different universities on the island of Ireland. These proceedings reflect the manuscripts selected for oral presentation at the 14th instalment of the series hosted by the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2010 in association with the Irish Pattern Recognition and Classification Society (IPRCS), a member organisation of the International Association of Patten Recognition (IAPR). ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-07-01,"Tríona Hourigan, Liam Murray and Elaine Riordan",Quality Issues in ICT Integration: Third Level Disciplines and Learning Contexts,Hardback,978-1-4438-2967-0,39.99,"The aim of this publication is to discuss the broad question of quality when integrating technology into teaching and learning contexts. The book draws on the experiences of researchers and tutors working in different subject disciplines in order to focus on the commonalities identified when exploiting new technologies within a distinct pedagogical environment. This resource therefore hopes to offer students and teachers an insight into the various applications of technology in teaching and learning. This book can be dissected into a number of areas, including innovative research currently being undertaken at the fore of this technological revolution in order to support integration; the employment of technologies with a link to facilitating communities of membership; the use of specific Reusable Learning Objects designed for both secondary and tertiary education respectively; the use of e-portfolios for students, teachers and information workers; and the critical evaluation of technology. This resource therefore proposes to offer students and teachers an insight into the different applications of technology in teaching and learning. It is hoped that this can be drawn on by undergraduate and postgraduate students; instructional designers; educational managers; teachers; teacher trainers; academics; media technology students with the express intention of illuminating some of the quality issues surrounding the exploitation of technology for teaching and learning purposes. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-07-01,Anghel Chiru,The Automobile and the Environment: International Congress of Automotive and Transport Engineering CONAT 2010,Hardback,978-1-4438-2972-4,64.99,"The Automobile and the Environment gathers a selection of papers presented by researchers and engineers from academic institutions and the automotive industry at the International Congress for Automotive and Transport Engineering CONAT 2010, organized by the Transylvania University of Brașov in Romania, SIAR (The Society of Automotive Engineers from Romania) and SAE International, under the patronage of FISITA (The International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies) and EAEC (European Automobile Engineers Cooperation). The book contains four parts: 1. Automotive Powertrains 2. Alternative Fuels 3. Vehicle Dynamics and Vehicle Systems Design 4. Transport, Traffic and Safety By studying this book, engineers will be given the opportunity to evaluate the new visions and concepts being applied in the modern automotive industry, and also the chance to identify themes for future studies in the context of sustainable development, the use of alternative energy, reorganisation of industry strategies, and the increase in competitivity through innovation. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-08-01,Kamila Dębowska-Kozłowska and Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk,"On Words and Sounds: A Selection of Papers from the 40th PLM, 2009",Hardback,978-1-4438-3161-1,44.99,"The present volume On Words and Sounds is a collection of selected papers from PLM 2009. The Poznań Linguistic Meeting (PLM) is an annual international general linguistics conference. The book consists of fifteen articles, each of which can be read separately or in relation to others. The book will definitely appeal to the academic readership interested in linguistic disciplines such as: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and clinical linguistics. Collectively, the contributions investigate the interrelationships among those disciplines as well as between language and music. The central aim for the scholars was to explore the PLM 2009 leitmotif “Variants, Variability, Variation” and show that the complete study of language involves diversified frameworks often rooted in interdisciplinary approaches. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-11-01,Vladimir N. Strelnikov and Viktor A. Valtsifer,Technical Chemistry: From Theory to Praxis,Hardback,978-1-4438-3341-7,34.99,"The purpose of this book is twofold. Firstly, to introduce researchers from the Institute of Technical Chemistry, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Perm, Russia, who are currently involved in research and development, and represent an impressive diversity of scientific interests. They never confine themselves to one area in their research work, but always devote their time, professional interests, talent and dedication to several fields of organic chemistry, science of materials and nanotechnologies. Secondly, the book collects a number of scientific papers, many of which were presented at the international conference “Technical Chemistry: From Theory to Praxis 2010” held in Perm. These papers report new results in said fields of chemistry while focusing on the results of research projects funded by the Russian Academy of Sciences and by the Russian Fund for Basic Research. The book has been designed for those who develop new products and now also have to take into account social driving forces which have already come into play, e.g., safety, health and environmental factors, energy conservation, apart from conventional economic considerations such as development costs, raw material supply, etc. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2011-12-01,Assefa D. Semegn,Software Architecture and Design for Reliability Predictability,Hardback,978-1-4438-3380-6,49.99,"Reliability prediction of a software product is complex due to interdependence and interactions among components and the difficulty of representing this behavior with tractable models. Models developed by making simplifying assumptions about the software structure may be easy to use, but their result may be far from what happens in reality. Making assumptions closer to the reality, which allows complex interactions and interdependences among components, results in models that are too complex to use. Their results may also be too difficult to interpret. The reliability prediction problem is worsened by the lack of precise information on the behavior of components and their interactions, information that is relevant for reliability modeling. Usually, the interactions are not known precisely because of subtle undocumented side effects. Without accurate precise information, even mathematically correct models will not yield accurate reliability predictions. Deriving the necessary information from program code is not practical if not impossible. This is because the code contains too much implementation detail to be useful in creating a tractable model. It is also difficult to analyze system reliability completely based on the program code. This book documents the resulting novel approach of designing, specifying, and describing the behavior of software systems in a way that helps to predict their reliability from the reliability of the components and their interactions. The design approach is named design for reliability predictability (DRP). It integrates design for change, precise behavioral documentation and structure based reliability prediction to achieve improved reliability prediction of software systems. The specification and documentation approach builds upon precise behavioral specification of interfaces using the trace function method (TFM). It also introduces a number of structure functions or connection documents. These functions capture both the static and dynamic behaviors of component based software systems. They are used as a basis for a novel document driven structure based reliability prediction model. System reliability assessment is studied in at least three levels: component reliability, which is assumed to be known; interaction reliability, a novel approach to studying software reliability; and service reliability, whose estimation is the primary objective of reliability assessment. System reliability can be expressed as a function of service reliability. A mobile streaming system, designed and developed by the author as an industrial product, is used as a case study to demonstrate the application of the approach. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-01-01,Małgorzata Sokół,Discoursal Construction of Academic Identity in Cyberspace: The Example of an E-Seminar,Hardback,978-1-4438-3468-1,39.99,"The aim of this volume is to look into how academic identity is discoursally constructed in CMC (computer-mediated communication), using the example of an e-seminar. An e-seminar is an asynchronous type of CMC, where private, public and institutional domains merge, and therefore it provides an interesting context for exploring academic communication phenomena in cyberspace. The linguistic cues of academic identity can be identified on three levels of discourse organisation: the features of lexico-grammar, textual macrostructures and genres. In general, the analysis shows how these three levels of discourse organisation contribute towards how academics negotiate their identities relative to the aims and activities of their discourse communities and relative to their individual goals. The discoursal construction of academic identity in electronic discourse depends also on such factors as the medium’s defining properties and the lack of direct physical contact between interactants. An important finding is the confirmation of the individuating character of the medium: i.e. the authors’ self-presentation in an e-seminar is characterised by their distinctive voice and increased self-disclosure. Communication in this context enhances individuality, which bears important consequences for how academics negotiate their identity in electronic discourse, exploiting the possibilities offered by the new medium. The results of the analysis reveal how important it is for scholars to maintain a legitimate identity in an e-seminar. Virtual academic identity as constructed in this context is as an extension of academic identity constructed in the real world. The new communicative medium seems to have extended the repertoire of effective means of self-promotion, and the presentation of academic achievements and expertise. These aspects have become important for academic interaction in today’s world, which is characterised by such phenomena as the internationalisation and globalisation of scholarship, commodification of science and intensified competition. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of discourse analysis, academic literacy, rhetoric and genre studies, and to all those concerned with the complexities of identity work in the context of computer-mediated communication. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-01-01,Dana Petcu and José Luis Vázquez-Poletti,European Research Activities in Cloud Computing,Hardback,978-1-4438-3507-7,44.99,"What’s new in the European research and development area? Cloud computing is a provision model where whatever computing resource that can be thought of (machines, network, software solutions, applications) is provided as a service. This new paradigm has changed the center of gravity of computing in both the academic and industry environments, but despite the considerable efforts and investments, there are critical problems that are not yet solved. The research and development community involved in distributed computing is searching for viable solutions that will increase the adoption of the cloud. This is the case of the collaborative work done by multi-national teams in the context of the FP7 programme of the European Commission. Students, researchers and developers working in the field of distributed computing will find in this book a snapshot of the on-going activities in research and development of cloud computing undertaken at the European level. These activities are organized by the latest hot topics of cloud computing research, which include services, management, automation and adoption. Summarizing, this book will help the reader understand and identify the research and development winds that are pushing the clouds to Europe. ",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012-05-01,Ivan Stanev and Katalina Grigorova,Knowledge Based Automated Software Engineering,Hardback,978-1-4438-3771-2,34.99,"The process of developing big information systems is less effective and more resource consuming than the software developers expect. The most widely disseminated software engineering methods and tools applied through the life cycle of this process, are characterised with a low level of process automation, insufficient component reusability and dissatisfactory final product flexibility. The efficiency of the software development process can be improved with the application of hi-tech IT instruments as: (1) non-formal business model specifications, (2) automated verification and modification of the non-formal specifications related to predefined standardised knowledge bases both for the domain and IT areas, (3) automated generation of the final software product from the verified business model, and (4) incorporation of components set for real time monitoring and tuning within the generated software. The book presents the authors’ views on the Knowledge Based Automated Software Engineering (KBASE). It involves the domain scope, the implemented research methods, tools and applications. The KBASE products presented in the book are addressed to the needs of scientists, practitioners and students working in the areas of Software Engineering, Computer Science, Knowledge Representation, Artificial Intelligence, Manufacturing Engineering, and Education. ","“I am e-mailing to highly recommend the new book titled Knowledge Based Automated Software Engineering which is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK in December 2011. This book contains 9 papers written by leading researchers into the Knowledge Based Automated Software Engineering (KBASE) area from 4 universities in Bulgaria and Turkey. The papers were selected and edited by Ivan Stanev and Katalina Grigorova from University of Ruse, Bulgaria who are active researchers and teachers in this field. This volume presents the authors’ views on the KBASE domain scope, methods used, and developed tools and applications. The presented approaches, instruments and solutions are addressed to both scientists and practitioners in the Software Engineering and Computer Science areas.” —Peter L. Stanchev, Ph.D., D.Sc., Professor and chair of Computer Systems Department, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences “I highly recommend the new book titled Knowledge Based Automated Software Engineering which is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK in Jun 2012. The active researchers in the KBASE field Ivan Stanev and Professor Katalina Grigorova from University of Ruse, Bulgaria had selected for this book 9 papers describing new implemented research methods, tools and applications written by leading researchers into this area from 4 universities in Bulgaria and Turkey. The KBASE products presented in the book are addressed to the needs of scientists, practitioners and students working in the areas of Software Engineering, Computer Science, Knowledge Representation, Artificial Intelligence, Manufacturing Engineering, and Education.” —Assoc. Prof. Juliana Peneva, PhD, New Bulgarian University ",Cambridge Scholars Publishing