For any organization, analysis of performance and effectiveness through available data allows for informed decision making. Data envelopment analysis, or DEA, is a popular, effective method that can be used to measure productive efficiency in operations management assessment. Data Envelopment Analysis and Effective Performance Assessment addresses the myriad of practical uses and innovative developments of DEA. Emphasizing the importance of analyzing productivity by measuring inputs, goals, economic growth, and performance, this book covers a wide breadth of innovative knowledge. This book is essential reading for managers, business professionals, students of business and ICT, and computer engineers.

Recent innovations have created significant developments in data storage and management. These new technologies now allow for greater security in databases and other applications. Decentralized Computing Using Block Chain Technologies and Smart Contracts: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a concise and informative source of academic research on the latest developments in block chain innovation and their application in contractual agreements. Highlighting pivotal discussions on topics such as cryptography, programming techniques, and decentralized computing, this book is an ideal publication for researchers, academics, professionals, students, and practitioners seeking content on utilizing block chains with smart contracts.

Usability Testing for Survey Research provides researchers with a guide to the tools necessary to evaluate, test, and modify surveys in an iterative method during the survey pretesting process. It includes examples that apply usability to any type of survey during any stage of development, along with tactics on how to tailor usability testing to meet budget and scheduling constraints. The book's authors distill their experience to provide tips on how usability testing can be applied to paper surveys, mixed-mode surveys, interviewer-administered tools, and additional products. Readers will gain an understanding of usability and usability testing and why it is needed for survey research, along with guidance on how to design and conduct usability tests, analyze and report findings, ideas for how to tailor usability testing to meet budget and schedule constraints, and new knowledge on how to apply usability testing to other survey-related products, such as project websites and interviewer administered tools.

During the last decade, interoperability has emerged as a vivid research area in electronic business and electronic governance, promising a significant increase in productivity and efficiency of information systems, enterprises and administrations. Interoperability in Digital Public Services and Administration: Bridging E-Government and E-Business provides the latest research findings such as theoretical foundations, principles, methodologies, architectures, technical frameworks, international policy, standardization and case studies for the achievement of interoperability within the provision of digital services, from administration and businesses toward the user citizens and enterprises.

Artificial neural network research is one of the new directions for new generation computers. Current research suggests that open box artificial higher order neural networks (HONNs) play an important role in this new direction. HONNs will challenge traditional artificial neural network products and change the research methodology that people are currently using in control and recognition areas for the control signal generating, pattern recognition, nonlinear recognition, classification, and prediction. Since HONNs are open box models, they can be easily accepted and used by individuals working in information science, information technology, management, economics, and business fields. Emerging Capabilities and Applications of Artificial Higher Order Neural Networks contains innovative research on how to use HONNs in control and recognition areas and explains why HONNs can approximate any nonlinear data to any degree of accuracy, their ease of use, and how they can have better nonlinear data recognition accuracy than SAS nonlinear procedures. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as nonlinear regression, pattern recognition, and data prediction, this book is ideally designed for data analysists, IT specialists, engineers, researchers, academics, students, and professionals working in the fields of economics, business, modeling, simulation, control, recognition, computer science, and engineering research.

Human factors are the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and other methods to design to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. Human factor issues and the impact of technology on society is a topic that is only growing, and it is essential that it is considered as technology becomes more present in our daily lives. This not only impacts society now but is something to be considered for the future. It is also incredibly important for those in the human factors profession to consider the impact of technology for their work and for the users they are helping design for. Therefore, this topic has immense impact and is important to study from a research perspective to advance the understanding of how technology works, how we work, and how we as humans work within the context of the technology we use. Human Factors Issues and the Impact of Technology on Society examines the role of technology on society with a specific focus on human factors issues and how they are associated with and related to technology use in society. A few highlighted topics within this book are digital health technologies, learning technologies, ethics in social technology, ICT use in businesses, and sustainability. These topics are only a few of examples of how this book analyzes technology in all different facets of society, making it ideal for a wide audience including human factors practitioners, technologists, sociologists, policy makers, teachers, technology developers and designers, business professionals, ethicists, researchers, academicians, students, and anyone else seeking more information on how technology is impacting society through the viewpoint of human factors.

Thanks to the digital revolution, even a traditional discipline like philology has been enjoying a renaissance within academia and beyond. Decades of work have been producing groundbreaking results, raising new research questions and creating innovative educational resources. This book describes the rapidly developing state of the art of digital philology with a focus on Ancient Greek and Latin, the classical languages of Western culture. Contributions cover a wide range of topics about the accessibility and analysis of Greek and Latin sources. The discussion is organized in five sections concerning open data of Greek and Latin texts; catalogs and citations of authors and works; data entry, collection and analysis for classical philology; critical editions and annotations of sources; and finally linguistic annotations and lexical databases. As a whole, the volume provides a comprehensive outline of an emergent research field for a new generation of scholars and students, explaining what is reachable and analyzable that was not before in terms of technology and accessibility.

Though humans have been communicating through virtual mediators since the invention of the telephone, new technologies make the use of virtual communications even more immediate and pervasive than ever before. By understanding the theories and models behind virtual communication, one can understand the way society has been changed and how it will continue to do so. Analyzing Digital Discourse and Human Behavior in Modern Virtual Environments examines the implications of virtual communication and online interaction and the theories and trends associated with them. It will discuss and address the differences and challenges that develop when communicating virtually and explore the various influences virtual communication plays in work, education, and quotidian life. This title provides a foundation of emerging trends from which new theories and models of communication can grow. This book will become a cherished resource for academics, researchers, technology developers, students, and government or institutional leaders.

Aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) requires unique information technology to meet the challenges set by today's aviation industry. How do IT services relate to aircraft MRO, and how may IT be leveraged in the future? Leveraging Information Technology for Optimal Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) responds to these questions, and describes the background of current trends in the industry, where airlines are tending to retain aircraft longer on the one hand, and rapidly introducing new genres of aircraft such as the A380 and B787, on the other. This book provides industry professionals and students of aviation MRO with the necessary principles, approaches and tools to respond effectively and efficiently to the constant development of new technologies, both in general and within the aviation MRO profession. This book is designed as a primer on IT services for aircraft engineering professionals and a handbook for IT professionals servicing this niche industry, highlighting the unique information requirements for aviation MRO and delving into detailed aspects of information needs from within the industry.

The first book to combine satellite and terrestrial positioning techniques - vital for the understanding and development of new technologies Written and edited by leading experts in the field, with contributors belonging to the European Commission's FP7 Network of Excellence NEWCOM++ Applications to a wide range of fields, including sensor networks, emergency services, military use, location-based billing, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and leisure Location-aware personal devices and location-based services have become ever more prominent in the past few years, thanks to the significant advances in position location technology. Sensor networks, geographic information, emergency services, location management, location-based billing, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and leisure applications are just some of the potential applications that can be enabled by these techniques. Increasingly, satellite and terrestrial positioning techniques are being combined for maximum performance; to produce the next wave of location-based devices and services, engineers need to combine both components. This book is the first to present a holistic view, covering all aspects of positioning: both terrestrial and satellite, both theory and practice, both performance bounds and signal processing techniques. It will provide a valuable resource for product developers and R&D engineers, allowing them to improve existing location techniques and develop future approaches for new systems.

Electric power systems have become much more complex in the past years, due to the integration of distributed generation including renewable energy sources and the challenges caused by intermittency of renewables. This complexity makes power systems potentially more vulnerable. However, use of computer-based protection methods (i.e., digital protection relays) supported by communication technology have helped in protecting electrical networks from faults to which they are subjected to. This second edition of the book covers a comprehensive introduction to the protection of electrical power systems using digital protective relays. The new edition offers a thorough revision and update, and comprehensive additional material. Chapters treat the mathematical background of protection algorithms including, sinusoidal-wave-based algorithms, Walsh function and S-Transform-based techniques, least squares and differential equation-based techniques, travelling wave-based protection, protection of transformers, digital line differential protection, a comparison between digital protection algorithms, and importantly, protection of networks with distributed generation including renewable energy resources. The book is written for researchers in electrical engineering and power engineering, in industry, utilities and universities, and for advanced students. The treatment is logically structured, covering mathematics and principles for the development and implementation of the major algorithms underlying different protection techniques. These techniques can be applied to protection of generator transformers, lines, switchgear and cable circuits: the main components of transmission and distribution systems with and without integrated distributed energy sources including renewables.

The development of information technology in supply chains has shown that this digital revolution can be a source of performance for enterprises and governments. Among these technologies is blockchain. The application of blockchains in cryptocurrency reduces information security risks and eliminates several processing and transaction fees and allows countries with volatile currencies to have a more stable currency. Blockchain Applications in Cryptocurrency for Technological Evolution features a collection of contributions related to the application of blockchain technology in cryptocurrency. It further explains the ways in which these applications have affected the industry. Covering topics such as crypto mining attacks, data processing architecture, and purchase power, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for business leaders and executives, IT managers, logistics specialists, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Researchers have harnessed the flood of personal information and opinions shared on social media platforms in a variety of ways. People communicate not only what they imagine they are purposely sharing but also unintentionally leak information, which allows others to glimpse a sense of the subconscious and unconscious at a macro level. Electronic Hive Minds on Social Media: Emerging Research and Opportunities explores various research techniques to profile the electronic hive mind around social topics as expressed on various modalities of social media, from human, bot, and cyborg social media accounts, and proposes new research methods for harnessing public data from social media platforms. Highlighting topics such as knowledge sharing, swarm intelligence, and social psychology, this publication is designed for researchers, social psychologists, practitioners, and students in marketing, communications, mass media, and similar fields.

Biostatistics Manual for Health Research: A Practical Guide to Data Analysis is a guide for researchers on how to apply biostatistics on different types of data. The book approaches biostatistics and its application from medical and health researcher's point-of-view and has real and mostly published data for practice and understanding. The interpretation and meaning of the statistical results, reporting guidelines and mistakes are taught with real world examples. This is a valuable resource for biostaticians, students and researchers from medical and biomedical fields who need to learn how to apply statistical approaches to improve their research.