This dissertation deals with a multiterminal source model for secret key generation by multiple network terminals with prior and privileged access to a set of correlated signals complemented by public discussion among themselves. Emphasis is placed on a characterization of secret key capacity, i.e., the largest rate of an achievable secret key,…

The Service Oriented Computing (SOC) paradigm, defines services as software artifacts whose implementations are separated from their specifications. Application developers rely on services to simplify the design, reduce the development time and cost. Within the SOC paradigm, different Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) have been developed.…

In recent times, "plagiarism detection software" has become popular in universities and colleges, in an attempt to stem the tide of plagiarised student coursework. Such software attempts to detect any copied material and identify its source. The most popular such software is Turnitin, a commercial system used by thousands of institutions…

For information systems development project student teams, learning how to improve software development processes is an important training. Software process improvement is an outcome of a number of creative behaviours. Social cognitive theory states that the efficacy of judgment influences behaviours. This study explores the impact of three types…

This paper presents our recent experiences with the design of game-like applications in 3-D virtual environments as well as its impact on student motivation and learning. Therefore our paper starts with a brief analysis of the motivational aspects of videogames and virtual worlds (VWs). We then go on to explore the possible benefits of both in the…

Purpose: Presently, searching the internet for learning material relevant to ones own interest continues to be a time-consuming task. Systems that can suggest learning material (learning objects) to a learner would reduce time spent searching for material, and enable the learner to spend more time for actual learning. The purpose of this paper is…

Proper planning and assessment surveys of projects for academic library Web sites will not always be predictive of real world use, no matter how many responses they might receive. In this case, multiple-phase development, librarian focus groups, and patron surveys performed before implementation of such a project inaccurately overrated utility and…

This paper is a mathematical (Boolean) analysis a set of cognitive maps called Thinking Maps[R], based on Albert Upton's semantic principles developed in his seminal works, Design for Thinking (1961) and Creative Analysis (1961). Albert Upton can be seen as a brilliant thinker who was before his time or after his time depending on the future of…

Most innovations have contextual pre-cursors that prompt new ways of thinking and in their turn help to give form to the new reality. This was the case with the e-scape software development process. The origins of the system existed in software components and ideas that we had developed through previous projects, but the ultimate direction we took…

The patients receiving treatment from a hospital need to interact with multiple entities when claiming reimbursements. The complexities of the medical service supply chain can be simplified with an electronic clearance management system that allows hospitals, medical insurance bureau, bank, and patients to interact in a seamless and cashless…

Server virtualization enables a physical computer to support multiple applications logically by decoupling the application from the hardware layer, thereby reducing operational costs and competitive in delivering IT services to their enterprise organizations. IT organizations continually examine the efficiency of their internal IT systems and…

This paper presents a methodology for the design of intelligent learning environments. We recognise that in the educational technology field, theory development and system-design should be integrated and rely on an iterative process that addresses: (a) the difficulty to elicit precise, concise, and operationalized knowledge from "experts" and (b)…

In collaboration with preservice elementary teachers and in-service kindergarten teachers, the authors engaged in small-scale, demand-side production of educational software focused on numeracy skills. That is, the authors built applications designed to address children's specific learning needs as they surfaced in the classroom and were…

Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems can make data accessible in an easily digestible textual form; but using such systems requires sophisticated linguistic and sometimes even programming knowledge. We have designed and implemented an environment for creating and modifying NLG templates that requires no programming knowledge, and can operate…

During the last decade, global optimization has attracted a lot of attention due to the increased practical need for obtaining global solutions and the success in solving many global optimization problems that were previously considered intractable. In general, the central question of global optimization is to find an optimal solution to a given…