Table of Contents

Abstract: Searching names of persons, families, and organizations is often difficult in online databases because different persons or organizations frequently share the same name and because a single person’s or organization’s name may appear in different forms in various online documents. Databases and search engines can use metadata as a tool to solve the problem of name ambiguity and name variation in online databases. This article describes the challenges names pose in information retrieval and some emerging name metadata databases that can help ameliorate the problems. Effective name disambiguation and collocation increase search precision and recall and can improve assessment of scholarly work.

Abstract: This paper deals with an autonomous cognitive network management architecture which aims at achieving inter-network (horizontal) and inter-layer (vertical) cross-optimization. The proposed architecture is based on the so-called Cognitive Managers transparently embedded in properly selected network nodes. The core of each Cognitive Manager are the so-called thinking modules, which are in charge of taking consistent and coordinated decisions according to a fully cognitive approach. The thinking modules potentially avail of information coming from both the transport and the service/content layers of all networks and, based on all this inter-layer and inter-network information, take consistent and coordinated decisions impacting the different layers, aiming at the overall inter-layer, inter-network optimization.

Abstract: Data hiding techniques have so far concentrated on adding or modifying irrelevant information in order to hide a message. However, files in widespread use, such as HTML documents, usually exhibit high redundancy levels, caused by code-generation programs. Such redundancy may be removed by means of optimization software. Redundancy removal, if applied selectively, enables information hiding. This work introduces Selective Redundancy Removal (SRR) as a framework for hiding data. An example application of the framework is given in terms of hiding information in HTML documents. Non-uniformity across documents may raise alarms. Nevertheless, selective application of optimization techniques might be due to the legitimate use of optimization software not supporting all the optimization methods, or configured to not use all of them.

Abstract: Currently, there is much talk of Web 2.0 and Social Software. A common understanding of these notions is not yet in existence. The question of what makes Social Software social has thus far also remained unacknowledged. In this paper we provide a theoretical understanding of these notions by outlining a model of the Web as a techno-social system that enhances human cognition towards communication and co-operation. According to this understanding, we identify three qualities of the Web, namely Web 1.0 as a Web of cognition, Web 2.0 as a Web of human communication, and Web 3.0 as a Web of co-operation. We use the terms Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 not in a technical sense, but for describing and characterizing the social dynamics and information processes that are part of the Internet.

Abstract: This work presents a cooperative network-aware processing of multimedia content for dynamic quality of service management in wireless IP networks. Our technique can be also used for quality control in UMTS environments, exploiting the tracing watermarking recently introduced in literature. In this work, we use the transmitted video-sequences to monitor the QoS in a videoconference call. The video-sequence of every active user travels on the communication link, one time as video (transparent mode), one time as watermark (hidden mode) describing a boomerang trajectory. The results obtained through our simulation trials confirm the validity of such approach. In fact, the advantages of distributing the management process are (i) an easier and more precise localization of the cause of QoS problems, (ii) a better knowledge of local situations, (iii) a lower complexity for a single QoS agent and (iv) an increase in possible actions.

Abstract: Today’s engineering companies are facing unprecedented competition in a global market place. There is now a knowledge intensive shift towards whole product lifecycle support, and collaborative environments. It has become particularly important to capture information, knowledge and experiences about previous design and following stages during their product lifecycle, so as to retrieve and reuse such information in new and follow-on designs activities. Recently, with the rapid development and adoption of digital technologies, annotation and markup are becoming important tools for information communication, retrieval and management. Such techniques are being increasingly applied to an array of applications and different digital items, such as text documents, 2D images and 3D models. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of recent research in markup for engineering design, including a number of core markup languages and main markup strategies. Their applications and future utilization in engineering design, including multi-viewpoint of product models, capture of information and rationale across the whole product lifecycle, integration of engineering design processes, and engineering document management, are comprehensively discussed.