The book and movie, The Da Vinci Code, are a cultural phenomenon of the early 21st Century. The book occupied bestseller lists for years and Newsweek magazine deemed the 2006 film version "movie of the year" even before its release. The main storyline smeared the Roman Catholic Church with assertions of secrecy, involvement with murder, and a centuries-long practice of misogyny. It also claimed that Mary Magdalene was the progenitor of the Catholic Church, the wife of Jesus Christ, and that Jesus was not regarded as divine during his lifetime. What may be inconsequential as "fiction" grew more serious for Christian leadership when it became clear after the 2003 book release that the work was challenging the belief system of some Christian faithful. Reactivity grew on the part of Opus Dei-- a Catholic support group depicted in the novel--and various writings appeared on the World Wide Web attempting to debunk the book. The web materials formed a tapestry of information and persuasion about the Da Vinci novel and movie. In the vein of public relations, corporations, agencies and stakeholders use techniques of "impression management" to help negotiate and define perceptions of an issue gone public. The present study employs impression management as a template for understanding how "major Christian religions online" responded, and content-analyzes the messages put forth to deal with public perceptions of The Da Vinci Code. What were the characteristics of these messages? How did they compare to Church reaction toward negative popular fiction of the past, such as 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ? How effective was the Church in addressing public opinion? What could be done more fruitfully in the arena of public relations? The results indicate a generally effective information strategy was employed.

By joining bodies of research in media theory, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy, "Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace" offers a vision of learning that values social empowerment over technical skills. An inquiry into the existence and range of models equipped to cultivate critical teaching and learning in the Internet-supported classroom, this new study argues that media literacy offers the best long-term training for today's youth to become experienced practitioners of 21st-century technology. Author Julie Frechette helps educators develop and provide concrete learning strategies that enable students to judge the validity and worth of what they see on the Internet as they strive to become critically autonomous in a technology-laden world.

Part of this effort lies in developing a keen awareness of the institutional, political, and economic structure of the Internet as a means of communication that is increasingly marketing products and targeting advertisements toward youth. Values on the Internet are discussed constantly both by the major media and by the private sector, with little regard for the pervasive interests and authority of profitable industries staking out their territory in this new global village. Unlike other studies that provide a broad sociohistorical context for the development of theoretical uses of new technologies in the classroom, "Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace" lays the groundwork for establishing critical thinking skills that will serve students' interests as they navigate this vast and complicated cyberterritory.

This book throws new light on the way in which the Internet impacts on democracy. Based on Jurgen Habermas' discourse-theoretical reconstruction of democracy, it examines one of the world's largest, most diverse but also most unequal democracies, Brazil, in terms of the broad social and legal effects the internet has had. Focusing on the Brazilian constitutional evolution, the book examines how the Internet might impact on the legitimacy of a democratic order and if, and how, it might yield opportunities for democratic empowerment. The book also assesses the ways in which law, as an institution and a system, reacts to the changes and challenges brought about by the Internet: the ways in which law may retain its strength as an integrative force, avoiding a 'virtual' legitimacy crisis.

This book provides an overview of the problems involved in engineering scalable, elastic, and cost-efficient cloud computing services and describes the CloudScale method - a description of rescuing tools and the required steps to exploit these tools. It allows readers to analyze the scalability problem in detail and identify scalability anti-patterns and bottlenecks within an application. With the CloudScale method, software architects can analyze both existing and planned IT services. The method allows readers to answer questions like: * With an increasing number of users, can my service still deliver acceptable quality of service? * What if each user uses the service more intensively? Can my service still handle it with acceptable quality of service? * What if the number of users suddenly increases? Will my service still be able to handle it? * Will my service be cost-efficient? First the book addresses the importance of scalability, elasticity, and cost-efficiency as vital quality-related attributes of modern cloud computing applications. Following a brief overview of CloudScale, cloud computing applications are then introduced in detail and the aspects that need to be captured in models of such applications are discussed. In CloudScale, these aspects are captured in instances of the ScaleDL modeling language. Subsequently, the book describes the forward engineering part of CloudScale, which is applicable when developing a new service. It also outlines the reverse and reengineering parts of CloudScale, which come into play when an existing (legacy) service is modified. Lastly, the book directly focuses on the needs of both business-oriented and technical managers by providing guidance on all steps of implementing CloudScale as well as making decisions during that implementation. The demonstrators and reference projects described serve as a valuable starting point for learning from experience. This book is meant for all stakeholders interested in delivering scalable, elastic, and cost-efficient cloud computing applications: managers, product owners, software architects and developers alike. With this book, they can both see the overall picture as well as dive into issues of particular interest.

This book presents state-of-the-art research on robust resource allocation in current and future wireless networks. The authors describe the nominal resource allocation problems in wireless networks and explain why introducing robustness in such networks is desirable. Then, depending on the objectives of the problem, namely maximizing the social utility or the per-user utility, cooperative or competitive approaches are explained and their corresponding robust problems are considered in detail. For each approach, the costs and benefits of robust schemes are discussed and the algorithms for reducing their costs and improving their benefits are presented. Considering the fact that such problems are inherently non-convex and intractable, a taxonomy of different relaxation techniques is presented, and applications of such techniques are shown via several examples throughout the book. Finally, the authors argue that resource allocation continues to be an important issue in future wireless networks, and propose specific problems for future research.

The book is a collection of high-quality peer-reviewed research papers presented in the first International Conference on Signal, Networks, Computing, and Systems (ICSNCS 2016) held at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India during February 25-27, 2016. The book is organized in to two volumes and primarily focuses on theory and applications in the broad areas of communication technology, computer science and information security. The book aims to bring together the latest scientific research works of academic scientists, professors, research scholars and students in the areas of signal, networks, computing and systems detailing the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted.

Innovations in cloud and service-oriented architectures continue to attract attention by offering interesting opportunities for research in scientific communities. Although advancements such as computational power, storage, networking, and infrastructure have aided in making major progress in the implementation and realization of cloud-based systems, there are still significant concerns that need to be taken into account. Principles, Methodologies, and Service-Oriented Approaches for Cloud Computing aims to present insight into Cloud principles, examine associated methods and technologies, and investigate the use of service-oriented computing technologies. In addressing supporting infrastructure of the Cloud, including associated challenges and pressing issues, this reference source aims to present researchers, engineers, and IT professionals with various approaches in Cloud computing.

This book covers aspects of human re-identification problems related to computer vision and machine learning. Working from a practical perspective, it introduces novel algorithms and designs for human re-identification that bridge the gap between research and reality. The primary focus is on building a robust, reliable, distributed and scalable smart surveillance system that can be deployed in real-world scenarios. This book also includes detailed discussions on pedestrian candidates detection, discriminative feature extraction and selection, dimension reduction, distance/metric learning, and decision/ranking enhancement.This book is intended for professionals and researchers working in computer vision and machine learning. Advanced-level students of computer science will also find the content valuable.

This book gathers papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Computer Engineering and Networks (CENet2019), held in Changsha, China, on October 18-20, 2019. It examines innovations in the fields of computer engineering and networking and explores important, state-of-the-art developments in areas such as Information Security, Information Hiding and Cryptography, Cyber Security, and Intelligent Computing and Applications. The book also covers emerging topics in computer engineering and networking, along with their applications, discusses how to improve productivity by using the latest advanced technologies, and examines innovation in the fields of computer engineering and networking, particularly in intelligent computing and security.

Mobile IP: Present State and Future is an up-to-date introduction to the rapidly evolving field of mobile IP. In addition to detailed coverage of motivation behind mobile IP and fundamental concepts of mobile IP like agent advertisement and discovery, registration and tunneling, the book provides a comprehensive treatment of various associated technical issues such as security, TCP performance, multicasting and integration with wireless. The book has been written to serve as a text for network professionals who are yearning to acquire a clear understanding of this interesting field. It also covers ongoing research on possible ways to mitigate the challenges and issues associated with mobile IP. This makes the book a good reference for advanced readers as well as researchers in the field. Network system developers and administrators will find this book useful due to discussions on applications of mobile IP in the real world, and management of mobile IP. Last but not least, the book delineates possible future directions of mobile IP, a topic that will be of interest to a large section of network professionals and researchers. The book contains a large number of examples, illustrations and notes to make the presentation simple and interesting. The book should be relevant for courses on advanced networking, mobile computing and similar topics.

The widespread use of XML in business and scientific databases has prompted the development of methodologies, techniques, and systems for effectively managing and analyzing XML data. This has increasingly attracted the attention of different research communities, including database, information retrieval, pattern recognition, and machine learning, from which several proposals have been offered to address problems in XML data management and knowledge discovery. XML Data Mining: Models, Methods, and Applications aims to collect knowledge from experts of database, information retrieval, machine learning, and knowledge management communities in developing models, methods, and systems for XML data mining. This book addresses key issues and challenges in XML data mining, offering insights into the various existing solutions and best practices for modeling, processing, analyzing XML data, and for evaluating performance of XML data mining algorithms and systems.

This book provides scientific research into Cognitive Internet of Things for Smart Society, with papers presented at the 2nd EAI International Conference on Robotic Sensor Networks. The conference explores the integration of networks and robotic technologies, which has become a topic of increasing interest for both researchers and developers from academic fields and industries worldwide. The authors posit that big networks will be the main approach to the next generation of robotic research, with the explosive number of networks models and increasing computational power of computers significantly extending the number of potential applications for robotic technologies while also bringing new challenges to the network's community. The 2nd EAI International Conference on Robotic Sensor Networks was held 25-26 August 2018 at the Kitakyushu International Conference Center (MICE), Kitakyushu, Japan.

Internet use for business-to-business e-commerce is expected to grow at spectacular rates. Many experts feel that perceived lack of trust in e-commerce transactions on the Internet has contributed to the slow adoption of e-commerce in the recent past. This book provides an avenue for managers and researchers to explore, examine and describe interorganizaitonal trust relationships in e-commerce participation. With the identification of trust behaviours in business relationships this will increase the awareness of e-commerce participants, who can then examine their own and their trading partners' trust behaviours.

This book systematically summarizes the fundamentals and various technologies in both terrestrial radio wireless networks and underwater acoustic networks (UWANs). It addresses the basic issues frequently investigated in terrestrial radio wireless networks and the key technologies suitable for the newly developing research area of UWANs. Starting with a review of our current understanding of wireless networks, it then introduces the principles of the main technologies, including error control, medium access control (MAC) protocols, routing protocols, end-to-end transmission control and mobility issues as well as network security for terrestrial radio wireless networks, and offers detailed surveys of these technologies for UWANs. Providing readers with the basic knowledge of terrestrial radio wireless networking technologies and raising readers' awareness of the developing topic of UWANs in ocean , it is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in terrestrial radio wireless networks and UWANs.

Web technologies have become a vital element within educational, professional, and social settings as they have the potential to improve performance and productivity across organizations. Artificial Intelligence Technologies and the Evolution of Web 3.0 brings together emergent research and best practices surrounding the effective usage of Web 3.0 technologies in a variety of environments. Featuring the latest technologies and applications across industries, this publication is a vital reference source for academics, researchers, students, and professionals who are interested in new ways to use intelligent web technologies within various settings.

The book is a collection of high-quality peer-reviewed research papers presented in the first International Conference on Signal, Networks, Computing, and Systems (ICSNCS 2016) held at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India during February 25-27, 2016. The book is organized in to two volumes and primarily focuses on theory and applications in the broad areas of communication technology, computer science and information security. The book aims to bring together the latest scientific research works of academic scientists, professors, research scholars and students in the areas of signal, networks, computing and systems detailing the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted.

This book discusses blockchain technology and its potential applications in digital government and the public sector. With its robust infrastructure and append-only record system, blockchain technology is being increasingly employed in the public sector, specifically where trustworthiness and security are of importance. Written by leading scholars and practitioners, this edited volume presents challenges, benefits, regulations, frameworks, taxonomies, and applications of blockchain technology in the public domain. Specifically, the book analyzes the implementation of blockchain technologies in the public sector and the potential reforms it would bring. It discusses emerging technologies and their role in the implementation of blockchain technologies in the public sector. The book details the role of blockchain in the creation of public value in the delivery of public sector services. The book analyzes effects, impacts, and outcomes from the implementation of blockchain technologies in the public sector in select case studies. Providing up-to-date information on important developments regarding blockchain in government around the world, this volume will appeal to academics, researchers, policy-makers, public managers, international organizations, and technical experts looking to understand how blockchain can enhance public service delivery.

This book covers all the relevant dictionary learning algorithms, presenting them in full detail and showing their distinct characteristics while also revealing the similarities. It gives implementation tricks that are often ignored but that are crucial for a successful program. Besides MOD, K-SVD, and other standard algorithms, it provides the significant dictionary learning problem variations, such as regularization, incoherence enforcing, finding an economical size, or learning adapted to specific problems like classification. Several types of dictionary structures are treated, including shift invariant; orthogonal blocks or factored dictionaries; and separable dictionaries for multidimensional signals. Nonlinear extensions such as kernel dictionary learning can also be found in the book. The discussion of all these dictionary types and algorithms is enriched with a thorough numerical comparison on several classic problems, thus showing the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm. A few selected applications, related to classification, denoising and compression, complete the view on the capabilities of the presented dictionary learning algorithms. The book is accompanied by code for all algorithms and for reproducing most tables and figures. Presents all relevant dictionary learning algorithms - for the standard problem and its main variations - in detail and ready for implementation; Covers all dictionary structures that are meaningful in applications; Examines the numerical properties of the algorithms and shows how to choose the appropriate dictionary learning algorithm.

This volume offers readers various perspectives and visions for cutting-edge research in ubiquitous healthcare. The topics emphasize large-scale architectures and high performance solutions for smart healthcare, healthcare monitoring using large-scale computing techniques, Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analytics for healthcare, Fog Computing, mobile health, large-scale medical data mining, advanced machine learning methods for mining multidimensional sensor data, smart homes, and resource allocation methods for the BANs. The book contains high quality chapters contributed by leading international researchers working in domains, such as e-Health, pervasive and context-aware computing, cloud, grid, cluster, and big-data computing. We are optimistic that the topics included in this book will provide a multidisciplinary research platform to the researchers, practitioners, and students from biomedical engineering, health informatics, computer science, and computer engineering.

This textbook addresses the conceptual and practical aspects of the various phases of the lifecycle of service systems, ranging from service ideation, design, implementation, analysis, improvement and trading associated with service systems engineering. Written by leading experts in the field, this indispensable textbook will enable a new wave of future professionals to think in a service-focused way with the right balance of competencies in computer science, engineering, and management. Fundamentals of Service Systems is a centerpiece for a course syllabus on service systems. Each chapter includes a summary, a list of learning objectives, an opening case, and a review section with questions, a project description, a list of key terms, and a list of further reading bibliography. All these elements enable students to learn at a faster and more comfortable peace. For researchers, teachers, and students who want to learn about this new emerging science, Fundamentals of Service Systems provides an overview of the core disciplines underlying the study of service systems. It is aimed at students of information systems, information technology, and business and economics. It also targets business and IT practitioners, especially those who are looking for better ways of innovating, designing, modeling, analyzing, and optimizing service systems.

This timely text/reference presents a comprehensive review of the workflow scheduling algorithms and approaches that are rapidly becoming essential for a range of software applications, due to their ability to efficiently leverage diverse and distributed cloud resources. Particular emphasis is placed on how workflow-based automation in software-defined cloud centers and hybrid IT systems can significantly enhance resource utilization and optimize energy efficiency. Topics and features: describes dynamic workflow and task scheduling techniques that work across multiple (on-premise and off-premise) clouds; presents simulation-based case studies, and details of real-time test bed-based implementations; offers analyses and comparisons of a broad selection of static and dynamic workflow algorithms; examines the considerations for the main parameters in projects limited by budget and time constraints; covers workflow management systems, workflow modeling and simulation techniques, and machine learning approaches for predictive workflow analytics. This must-read work provides invaluable practical insights from three subject matter experts in the cloud paradigm, which will empower IT practitioners and industry professionals in their daily assignments. Researchers and students interested in next-generation software-defined cloud environments will also greatly benefit from the material in the book.

Cloud service benchmarking can provide important, sometimes surprising insights into the quality of services and leads to a more quality-driven design and engineering of complex software architectures that use such services. Starting with a broad introduction to the field, this book guides readers step-by-step through the process of designing, implementing and executing a cloud service benchmark, as well as understanding and dealing with its results. It covers all aspects of cloud service benchmarking, i.e., both benchmarking the cloud and benchmarking in the cloud, at a basic level. The book is divided into five parts: Part I discusses what cloud benchmarking is, provides an overview of cloud services and their key properties, and describes the notion of a cloud system and cloud-service quality. It also addresses the benchmarking lifecycle and the motivations behind running benchmarks in particular phases of an application lifecycle. Part II then focuses on benchmark design by discussing key objectives (e.g., repeatability, fairness, or understandability) and defining metrics and measurement methods, and by giving advice on developing own measurement methods and metrics. Next, Part III explores benchmark execution and implementation challenges and objectives as well as aspects like runtime monitoring and result collection. Subsequently, Part IV addresses benchmark results, covering topics such as an abstract process for turning data into insights, data preprocessing, and basic data analysis methods. Lastly, Part V concludes the book with a summary, suggestions for further reading and pointers to benchmarking tools available on the Web. The book is intended for researchers and graduate students of computer science and related subjects looking for an introduction to benchmarking cloud services, but also for industry practitioners who are interested in evaluating the quality of cloud services or who want to assess key qualities of their own implementations through cloud-based experiments.

Under the term Customer Relationship Management (CRM), companies such as SAP, Siebel Systems or E.piphany offer software solutions to optimize customer-facing processes. Business units responsible for the implementation of CRM software are in many cases relatively inexperienced in the reorganization of these processes. It is important for them to consider the needs of their customers as a whole. This book describes the customer relatioship using the concept of the Customer Buying Cycle, thereby creating a neutral orientation framework for CRM projects. For each phase of the Customer Buying Cycle it shows how Information Technologies can be used to generate benefits either for the customer or for the company that implements the CRM tools. This book includes many case studies exemplifying how CRM is realized in the practical business world.