Abstract The well-known search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN, are not enough for the advanced users who require user experience, for instance, much more correlative words, or interactive operations applied to returned results such as re-ranking and zooming. To focus on this idea of interactivity, we proposed and implemented interactive interfaces to improve user experience for supporting Web search.... The well-known search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN, are not enough for the advanced users who require user experience, for instance, much more correlative words, or interactive operations applied to returned results such as re-ranking and zooming. To focus on this idea of interactivity, we proposed and implemented interactive interfaces to improve user experience for supporting Web search. They are nice interfaces supporting dynamically changing re-ranking, related word zooming, and related word emphasizing and deemphasizing. It has been served as online search service recently. Our experimental evaluations confirm their convenience and good online performance. Read More Read Less

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of biotechnology systems to nanotechnology systems. This in turn explains how three sub-technologies under the umbrella of biotechnology (therapeutics, platform and bioinformatics) are determining its evolution and subsequent contribution to nanotechnology. A large sample was used to test three propositions for the three technologies. The findings indicate that only platform... The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of biotechnology systems to nanotechnology systems. This in turn explains how three sub-technologies under the umbrella of biotechnology (therapeutics, platform and bioinformatics) are determining its evolution and subsequent contribution to nanotechnology. A large sample was used to test three propositions for the three technologies. The findings indicate that only platform technology is positively significantly related. This implies that therapeutics and bioinformatics are less likely to co-evolve with nanotechnology. Accordingly, firms in platform technologies are likely to perform in the economies where there is greatest focus on nanotechnology development. Read More Read Less

Abstract Advances in Internet technology have considerably facilitated the acquisition, representation, storage and distribution of images in digital format. These advances, however, made the unauthorized manipulation and reproduction of original digital images an easy process. Consequently, the design and development of effective digital image copyright protection methods have become necessary. Recently, digital image watermarking has emerged as a major technology to... Advances in Internet technology have considerably facilitated the acquisition, representation, storage and distribution of images in digital format. These advances, however, made the unauthorized manipulation and reproduction of original digital images an easy process. Consequently, the design and development of effective digital image copyright protection methods have become necessary. Recently, digital image watermarking has emerged as a major technology to prevent illegal and malicious copying and distribution of digital images by embedding an unnoticeable information into the image content. In this paper, we propose an imperceptible and robust digital image watermarking algorithm. The algorithm is based on cascading two powerful mathematical transforms; the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). Combining the two transforms compensates for the drawbacks of each other, resulting in a very effective watermarking. Simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. Read More Read Less

Abstract In the distributed computing environment, collaboration and resource sharing among several organizations are subjects of concern. Well-established authentication and authorization are thus vital. This paper proposes a novel design and implementation of Distributed RBAC (DRBAC) and Single Sign-On (SSO) system that spans over multiple administrative domains. Our key idea is based on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) technique owing to its modularity,... In the distributed computing environment, collaboration and resource sharing among several organizations are subjects of concern. Well-established authentication and authorization are thus vital. This paper proposes a novel design and implementation of Distributed RBAC (DRBAC) and Single Sign-On (SSO) system that spans over multiple administrative domains. Our key idea is based on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) technique owing to its modularity, autonomy, distributedness, flexibility, and scalability. All agents serve their specific purposes. We use PKI technology to secure both intra- and interdomain agents communication as well as to establish trust relationships. The Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is adopted to support the exchange of authentication and authorization information in the architecture. The authorization scheme is based on the Privilege Management Infrastructure (PMI). In addition, we incorporate the XACML authorization concept into the MAS engine to support the relying parties or organizations whose their access control systems are written in XACML policy. Finally, we reported our extended implementation status and introduce the multi-instance processing technique to enhance the performance of the overall system. Read More Read Less

Abstract A problem of progressive transmission of the large vector maps from spatial information systems to the clients over the Internet or by channels with narrow bandwidth is considered. First, a simplified version of the vector map is sent to a client. The client can manipulate with the data at the coarse resolution level and request finer version of the map... A problem of progressive transmission of the large vector maps from spatial information systems to the clients over the Internet or by channels with narrow bandwidth is considered. First, a simplified version of the vector map is sent to a client. The client can manipulate with the data at the coarse resolution level and request finer version of the map or of a part of the map. The proposed algorithm includes optimal multiresolution polygonal approximation used jointly with multiresolution quantization and compression of the quantized data with arithmetic codes. The proposed approach demonstrates a high compression performance with optimal and heuristic algorithms for polygonal approximation. Read More Read Less

Abstract In this paper, a new method of dirty paper code design is investigated, namely the biorthogonal matrix. The error probability is analysed for the code design. Since the code has the maximum dmin, the robustness of this code is optimal. However, due to the limited availability of the codewords, the performance is restricted. Superior coding and binning methods are derived... In this paper, a new method of dirty paper code design is investigated, namely the biorthogonal matrix. The error probability is analysed for the code design. Since the code has the maximum dmin, the robustness of this code is optimal. However, due to the limited availability of the codewords, the performance is restricted. Superior coding and binning methods are derived from the in-depth analysis of the simulation results. Simulation results identify this restriction and solutions are discussed. Comparisons are made with non-orthogonal codes showing the robustness advantage of biorthogonal codes. Read More Read Less

Abstract Digital signature is nowadays a consolidated machinery allowing the management of electronic documents with full legal power. In this scenario, digital signature represents thus the key issue on every process of document dematerialization toward which both private and public organizations, as well as simple citizens, are moving quickly. Unfortunately, digital signature suffers from a severe vulnerability, directly deriving from the... Digital signature is nowadays a consolidated machinery allowing the management of electronic documents with full legal power. In this scenario, digital signature represents thus the key issue on every process of document dematerialization toward which both private and public organizations, as well as simple citizens, are moving quickly. Unfortunately, digital signature suffers from a severe vulnerability, directly deriving from the potential untrustworthiness of the platform where the signature generation process runs, enabling a set of possible dangerous attacks. The basic reason of this vulnerability is that an even secure smart card is anyway a handicapped computer, since it misses I/O devices so that there is no trusted control about the link between the document to sign and the digest received from the smart card. Exploiting such a weakness, the attacker can intrude in order to obtain signed documents with no intention from the subscriber. The problem is inherently unsolvable, provided that the current signature infrastructure, as well as its legal value, are maintained. In this paper we propose a new approach to contrasting the above problem, from which we derive two techniques with different features in terms of efficiency and robustness. The nice feature of our proposal, beside its effectiveness, is that it totally preserves the current software and legal infrastructure. Read More Read Less

Abstract The World Wide Web as a social network reflects changes of interest in certain domains. It has been shown that free online content available through blogs, wikis, news media and online forums is a valuable source of information to identify trends in certain domains. Utilizing this data, one can construct ontologies that describe this information and provide a semantically correct... The World Wide Web as a social network reflects changes of interest in certain domains. It has been shown that free online content available through blogs, wikis, news media and online forums is a valuable source of information to identify trends in certain domains. Utilizing this data, one can construct ontologies that describe this information and provide a semantically correct overview of a domain. Tracked over time this also enables a user to identify trends and hypes. The decentralised structure of the Internet, the huge amount of data and upcoming Web2.0 technologies pose several challenges to a crawling system for ontology learning, evolution and trend analysis. This paper presents a distributed crawling system with browser integration for Web2.0. The proposed crawler is a high performanceWeb data retrieval system aimed to gather browser-equivalent textual Web content and prepare it for ontology learning. Read More Read Less