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Internet of Things (IoT) devices are critical to operate and maintain, because of their number and high connectivity.
A lot of security issues concern IoT devices and the networks they
are integrated. To help getting an overview of an IoT network,
the devices and the security, we propose a scoring system to get
a good impression of IT security. This system generates single
scores for each device, using features like encryption, update
behavior, etc. Furthermore, a summarized score for the whole
network is calculated, to show the status of the network security
in an easy way for the administrator. To enable the scoring
system, a precise list of the existing devices and their operating
status is necessary. To achieve this, we present an open standard
for the IoT Device IdentificAtion and RecoGnition (short IoTAG),
which requires that devices report, e.g., their name, an unique ID,
the firmware version and the supported encryption. The proposed
standard is described in detail and an implementation guideline
is given in this paper. Additionally, information about how to
realize the serialization, the integrity and the communication
with IoTAG.
Der Einzug Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in die Medizin scheint angesichts der Nutzenpotenziale unvermeidlich. Durch den Agentencharakter KI-basierter Systeme ergeben sich teils neuartige normative An- und Herausforderungen. Für den hochgradig sensiblen Anwendungsbereich der Medizin erscheint es daher notwendig, den KI-Einsatz mit ethischen Leitlinien einzuhegen. Dies wirft die Frage auf, auf welche Erfahrungsbasis eine ethische Fundierung des Einsatzes KI-basierter Technik gestellt werden könnte. Damit ist kein Schluss vom Sein auf das Sollen gemeint, sondern die Berücksichtigung bereits geführter normativer Debatten. Eine Möglichkeit, sich der normativen Landschaft der KI anzunähern, liegt in der Auseinandersetzung mit der Entwicklungsgeschichte der KI und den damit verbundenen Debatten um ethische und soziale Aspekte. Mit diesem explorativen Ansatz können relevante Problemfelder identifiziert, vorläufige Gestaltungs- und Einsatzempfehlungen für KI-Systeme in der Praxis formuliert und Vorschläge zu deren Einbettung in existierende Organisationsstrukturen generiert werden.
In this work, a tensegrity structure with spatially curved members is applied as rolling locomotion system. The actuation of the structure allows a variation of the originally cylindrical shape to a conical shape. Moreover, the structure is equipped with internal movable masses to control the position of the center of mass of the structure. To control the locomotion system a reliable actuation strategy is required. Therefore, the kinematics of the system considering the nonholonomic constraints are derived in this paper. Based on the resulting insight in the locomotion behavior a feasible actuation strategy is designed to control the trajectory of the system. To verify this approach kinematic analyses are evaluated numerically. The simulation data confirm the path following due to an appropriate shape change of the tensegrity structure. Thus, this system enables a two-dimensional rolling locomotion.
The use of mechanically prestressed compliant structures in soft robotics is a recently discussed topic. Tensegrity structures, consisting of a set of rigid disconnected compressed members connected to a continuous net of prestressed elastic tensioned members build one specific class of these structures. Robots based on these structures have manifold shape changing abilities and can adapt their mechanical properties reversibly by changing of their prestress state according to specific tasks.
In the paper selected aspects on the potential use of elastomer materials in these structures are discussed with the help of theoretical analysis. Therefore, a selected basic tensegrity structure with elastomer members is investigated focusing on the stiffness and shape changing ability in dependence of the nonlinear hyperelastic behavior of the used elastomer materials. The considered structure is compared with a conventional tensegrity structure with linear elastic tensioned members. Finally, selected criterions for the advantageous use of elastomer materials in compliant tensegrity robots are discussed.
This paper describes a large-scale empirical study investigating the relevance of socio-technical congruence over key basic software quality metrics, namely, bugs and churn. That is, we explore whether alignment or misalignment of social communication structures and technical dependencies in large software projects influences software quality. To this end, we have defined a quantitative and operational notion of socio-technical congruence, which we call /socio-technical motif congruence/ (STMC). STMC is a measure of the degree to which developers working on the same file or on two related files, need to communicate. As socio-technical congruence is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon, the interpretability of the results is one of our main concerns, so we have employed a careful mixed-methods statistical analysis. In particular, we provide analyses with similar techniques as employed by seminal work in the field to ensure comparability of our results with the existing body of work. The major result of our study, based on an analysis of 25 large open-source projects, is that STMC is /not/ related to project quality measures---software bugs and churn---in any temporal scenario. That is, we find no statistical relationship between the alignment of developer tasks and developer communications on one hand, and project outcomes on the other hand. We conclude that, wherefore congruence does matter as literature shows, then its measurable effect lies elsewhere.
Smart grid, smart metering, electromobility, and the regulation of the power network are keywords of the transition in energy politics. In the future, the power grid will be smart. Based on different works, this article presents a data collection, analyzing, and monitoring software for a reference smart grid. We discuss two possible architectures for collecting data from energy analyzers and analyze their performance with respect to real-time monitoring, load peak analysis, and automated regulation of the power grid. In the first architecture, we analyze the latency, needed bandwidth, and scalability for collecting data over the Modbus TCP/IP protocol and in the second one over a RESTful web service. The analysis results show that the solution with Modbus is more scalable as the one with RESTful web service. However, the performance and scalability of both architectures are sufficient for our reference smart grid and use cases.
Report Datenmigration
(2010)
Mehrere Terabyte Daten aus einem auf dem Mainframe laufenden COBOL-Programm auf eine SOA-Architektur unter Linux zu migrieren, stellt besondere Anforderungen an die Werkzeuge und Entwickler. Geschickte Kombination vorhandener Tools und effizienter Strategien vermeiden Stillstandszeiten und beschleunigen den Datentransfer.
We consider the development of software systems that integrate collaborative real-time modeling and distributed computing. Our main goal is user-orientation: we need a collaborative workspace for geographically dispersed users with a seamless access of every user to high-performance servers. This paper presents a particular prototype, Clayworks, that allows modeling of virtual clay objects and running computation-intensive deformation simulations for objects crashing into each other. In order to integrate heterogeneous computational resources, we adopt modern Grid middleware and provide the users with an intuitive graphical interface. Simulations are parallelized using a higher-order component (HOC) which abstracts over the web service resource framework (WSRF) used to interconnect our worksuite to the computation server. Clayworks is a representative of a large class of demanding systems which combine collaborative, user-oriented modeling with performance-critical computations, e.g., crash-tests or simulations of biological population evolution.
In this article, we study the effect of skill-biased technological change on unemployment and wage inequality in the presence of a link between social benefits and average income. In this case, an increase in the productivity of skilled workers, and hence their wage, leads to an increase in average income and hence in benefits. The increased fallback income, in turn, makes unskilled workers ask for higher wages. As higher wages are not justified by corresponding productivity increases, unemployment rises. Generally, we show that skill-biased technological change leads to increasing unemployment of the unskilled and to a moderately increasing wage inequality when benefits are endogenous. The model provides a theoretical explanation for diverging dynamics in wage inequality and unemployment under different social benefits regimes. Analysing the social legislation in 14 countries, we find that benefits are linked to the evolution of average income in Continental Europe but not in the US and the UK. Given this institutional difference, our model predicts that skill-biased technological change leads to rising unemployment in Continental Europe and rising wage inequality in the US and the UK.
Wie kann die funktionale Sicherheit in Fahrzeugen zukunftssicher und effektiv gewährleistet werden? Und wie kann dies speziell in elektrifizierten Antrieben gelingen? Mit dieser Aufgabenstellung haben sich AVL in Kooperation mit dem LaS³ und der Universität der Bundeswehr München in einem Forschungsprojekt beschäftigt. Die Antwort lautet: Die automatischen Speichertests in Zusammenspiel mit der Programmfluss-Überwachung und redundanter Hardware können besonders effektiv durch die „Codierte Verarbeitung“ ersetzt werden. Denn hier wird die Diversität in Software erhöht, um die aufwendigere und kostspielige Redundanz von Hardware zu reduzieren.
In logical circuits, like arithmetic operations in a processor system, arbitrary faults become a more tremendous aspect in future. Modern manufacturing processes lead to less reliability and higher vulnerability of software execution to soft-errors. The correctness of certain results is important especially for safety–critical applications whose reliability depends on the fault-free execution of each single instruction and the dependencies between them. The more complex a software is the more unreliable the outcome is. But, there is a contrary effect. If the probability for multiple faults increases, there is also the chance that two faults compensate each other and the result is correct again. This paper presents the basic ideas for such a reliability evaluation of a software's data flow with arbitrary soft-errors and the effect of fault compensation. Further, this evaluation provides a possibility to compare different implementations of a data flow with respect to the reliability. This is shown by the comparison of two different error codes as alternatives for coded data processing.
We present a transformation rule to convert linear codes into arithmetic codes. Linear codes are usually used for error detection and correction in broadcast and storage systems. In contrast, arithmetic codes are very suitable for protection of software processing in computer systems. This paper shows how to transform linear codes protecting the data stored in a computer system into arithmetic codes safeguarding the operations built on this data. Combination of the advantages of both coding mechanisms will increase the error detection capability in safety critical applications for embedded systems by detection and correction of arbitrary hardware faults.
Partly Proportionate fair (Partly-Pfair) scheduling, which allows task migration at runtime and assigns each task processing time with regard to its weight, makes it possible to build highly efficient embedded multi-core systems. Due to its non-work-conserving behavior, which might leave the CPU idle even when tasks are ready to execute, tasks finish only shortly before their deadlines are reached. Benefits are lower task jitter, but additional workload, e.g. through interrupts, can lead to deadline violations. In this paper we present a work-conserving extension of Partly-Pfair scheduling, called PERfair scheduling and the algorithm P-ERfair-PD2 which applies Pfair modifications used for Partly-Pfair on the concept of ERfairness and PD2 policies. With a simulation based schedulability examination we show for multiple time base (MTB) task sets that P-ERfair- PD2 has the same performance as Partly-Pfair-PD2. Additionally, we show that P-ERfair- PD2 has a much higher robustness against perturbations, and therefore it is well suited for embedded domains, especially for the Automotive domain.
Eingebettete Systeme unterliegen neben den funktionalen Anforderungen besonders nichtfunktionalen Qualitätsanforderungen wie Effizienz, Zuverlässigkeit und Echtzeitfähigkeit. Mit steigendem Bedarf an Rechenkapazität können bisherige Konzepte zur Leistungssteigerung von Singlecore-Systemen jedoch nicht mehr eingesetzt werden - der Umstieg auf Multicore-Systeme wird erforderlich. Im zweiten Teil dieser Arbeit wird ein simulationsbasierter Ansatz zum Vergleich von Multicore-Scheduling-Algorithmen vorgestellt, mit dem Algorithmen für Multicore-Systeme mit voller Migration und dynamischer Task-Priorität untersucht werden. Wir erweitern diesen Ansatz um ein Verfahren zur Untersuchung einer Tasksetmenge mit stochastisch beschriebenen Eigenschaften und vergleichen ihn mit den im Teil 1 beschriebenen Algorithmen BinPacking-EDF und P-ERfair-PD² für eine Gruppe von Automotive Powertrain Systemen.
Eingebettete Systeme unterliegen neben den funktionalen Anforderungen besonders nicht funktionalen Qualitätsanforderungen wie Effizienz, Zuverlässigkeit und Echtzeitfähigkeit. Mit steigendem Bedarf an Rechenkapazität können bisherige Konzepte zur Leistungssteigerung von Singlecore-Systemen jedoch nicht mehr eingesetzt werden – der Umstieg auf Multicore-Systeme wird erforderlich. Im ersten Teil dieser Arbeit werden eine mögliche Prozessorarchitektur für zukünftige Automotive Multicore-Systeme und die Abstraktion der Software für diese Systeme vorgestellt. Nach einer Klassifkation von Multicore-Scheduling-Algorithmen präsentieren wir exemplarisch einen Algorithmus mit statischer Taskallokation und einen Algorithmus mit dynamischer Taskallokation. Bei beiden Algorithmen handelt es sich um eine Überführung theoretisch behandelter Algorithmen auf Automotive Systeme.
Der Embedded Markt stellt sich auf eine neue Herausforderung ein: denUmstieg von Singlecore- auf Multicore-Prozessorsysteme. Dabei soll dieUmsetzung der Norm ISO 26262 die Funktionale Sicherheit der elektri-schen und elektronischen Systeme im Kraftfahrzeug gewährleisten. In diesem Beitrag betrachten die Hochschule Regensburg und die TÜV SüdAutomotive GmbH das Scheduling eines Echtzeitsystems als ein sicher-heitsrelevantes Sub-System.
Safely embedded software
(2009)
PURPOSE
IT outsourcing (ITO) has developed into an established practice for organizations but the interorganizational and oftentimes international collaboration it involves comes at a price: Reports from academia and practice suggest that more than 25% of all ITO projects fail, many because of cultural differences between client and provider organizations. Against this background, this paper analyzes the complex nature of cultural distance and its multi-faceted effect on ITO success.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
This paper builds upon extant literature on culture on the national, organizational and team level, conceptualizes its effect on relationship quality and ITO success, and hypothesizes a model on potential moderators and management techniques to offset culture-induced challenges. It then evaluates and refines the model by means of an interpretive qualitative research design for an in-depth single-case study of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (P7S1), a leading European media company that reconfigured its IT sourcing model three times in 10 years.
FINDINGS
The results from interviews with top managers from client and provider organizations represent one of the first integrated views on the critical importance of cultural compatibility on multiple levels, provide manifold examples for its complex effect on ITO success, as well as moderators and potential management techniques to promote ITO success.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS
This paper contributes relevant empirical insights to the growing body of literature on culture and its underestimated role in ITO success. It builds on tentative theory that is confirmed and refined.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The paper helps in substantiating the complex and intangible nature of culture and demonstrates means for its effective management.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE
The results from interviews with top managers from client and provider organizations represent one of the first integrated views on the critical importance of cultural compatibility on multiple levels, provide manifold examples for its complex effect on ITO success, as well as moderators and potential management techniques to promote ITO success.
Teletherapie beinhaltet vielfältige synchrone und asynchrone Möglichkeiten zur digitalen Versorgung von PatientInnen. Die Videotherapie stellt hierbei ein wichtiges synchrones Angebot dar, mit dem das therapeutische Angebot erweitert werden kann. Internationale Studien und auch Studien aus Deutschland bestätigen das Potenzial des Einbezugs digitaler Maßnahmen in die therapeutische Versorgung. In diesem Beitrag werden die Ergebnisse einer qualitativen Studie präsentiert, in der die in der COVID-19-Krise gesammelten Erfahrungen von TherapeutInnen mit Videotherapie vorgestellt werden.
Fachbereichs-IT, Schatten-IT, Business-managed IT. All diese Begriffe beschreiben IT, die neben den eigentlichen, regulären IT-Systemen oder -Prozessen in Unternehmen existieren und von Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern der Fachbereiche genutzt werden. Im Fall von„Schatten-IT“ handelt es sich um IT-Systeme und -Prozesse (IT-Instanzen), die sich ohne Kenntnis der IT-Verantwortlichen etabliert haben; im Fall von„Business-managed IT“ entstehen die IT-Systeme und -Prozesse in Kenntnis der bzw. in Abstimmung mit den IT-Verantwortlichen im Unternehmen.„Fachbereichs-IT“ subsumiert Schatten-IT und Business-managed IT. Welche Ursachen führen zu solchen IT-Instanzen, welche Potenziale und Risiken haben diese IT-Instanzen und wie lassen sie sich steuern?
Barrett's esophagus figured a swift rise in the number of cases in the past years. Although traditional diagnosis methods offered a vital role in early-stage treatment, they are generally time- and resource-consuming. In this context, computer-aided approaches for automatic diagnosis emerged in the literature since early detection is intrinsically related to remission probabilities. However, they still suffer from drawbacks because of the lack of available data for machine learning purposes, thus implying reduced recognition rates. This work introduces Generative Adversarial Networks to generate high-quality endoscopic images, thereby identifying Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma more precisely. Further, Convolution Neural Networks are used for feature extraction and classification purposes. The proposed approach is validated over two datasets of endoscopic images, with the experiments conducted over the full and patch-split images. The application of Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks for the data augmentation step and LeNet-5 and AlexNet for the classification step allowed us to validate the proposed methodology over an extensive set of datasets (based on original and augmented sets), reaching results of 90% of accuracy for the patch-based approach and 85% for the image-based approach. Both results are based on augmented datasets and are statistically different from the ones obtained in the original datasets of the same kind. Moreover, the impact of data augmentation was evaluated in the context of image description and classification, and the results obtained using synthetic images outperformed the ones over the original datasets, as well as other recent approaches from the literature. Such results suggest promising insights related to the importance of proper data for the accurate classification concerning computer-assisted Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma detection.
Shadow IT describes covert/hidden IT systems that are managed by business entities themselves. Additionally, there are also overt forms in practice, so-called Business-managed IT, which share most of the characteristics of Shadow IT. To better understand this phenomenon, we interviewed 29 executive IT managers about positive and negative cases of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. By applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we derived four conditions that characterize these cases: Aligned, local, simple, and volatile. The results show that there are three sufficient configurations of conditions that lead to a positive outcome; one of them even encompasses Shadow IT. The most important solution indicates that IT systems managed by business entities are viewed as being positive if they are aligned with the IT department and limited to local requirements. This allows to balance local responsiveness to changing requirements and global standardization. In contrast, IT systems that are not aligned and permanent (and either organization-wide or simple) are consistently considered as negative. Our study is the first empirical quantitative–qualitative study to shed light on the success and failure of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT.
Terahertzscanner
(2009)
Following up on Thomas Nagel’s paper “What is it like to be a bat?” and Alan Turing’s essay “Computing machinery and intelligence,” it shall be claimed that a successful interaction of human beings and autonomous artificial agents depends more on which characteristics human beings ascribe to the agent than on whether the agent really has those characteristics. It will be argued that Masahiro Mori’s concept of the “uncanny valley” as well as evidence from several empirical studies supports that assertion. Finally, some tentative conclusions concerning moral implications of the arguments presented here shall be drawn
On the one hand technological innovations can create new markets and can provide for solutions of current social problems; on the other hand the can raise questions concerning environmental and/or social adequacy on short-, middle-, and long-range time scales. In or-der to strengthen the positive outcomes of innovations and to reduce or even prevent nega-tive effects, the task of technology assessment is to predict the positive as well as the nega-tive effects and repercussions of innovations as early as possible. However, it must be pre-supposed that first, it must be possible to make to a certain extent reliable predications about the future development and second, that regulatory measurements in order to strengthen the positive outcomes of innovations and to reduce or even prevent negative effects will find their respective addressees. But if one takes, for instance, ubiquitous information and com-munication technology into account it can be demonstrated that those conditions rarely can be met. This is the result of the types of innovation which take place in case of ICT as well as of the so-called Collingridge dilemma. Both factors reduce the reliability of predictions. Furthermore, regulatory measurements often do not find their addressees since the borders of the societal subsystems in which innovation take place are blurring and therefore, these subsystems often cannot be reached with mainstream regulatory approaches like laws.
If citizens actively participate in the process of collecting empirical data, as a key element of empirically oriented scientific projects, this can be seen as a contribution to an open and citizen-oriented science. Such participation can be supported by providing technical tools. The paper therefore presents examples of participatory sensing as the provision of affordable sensors for measuring environmental parameters as well as wearable technologies for recording quantified vital data and physiological states. Conceptually, the provision of data collected with these tools can be understood as a commons – with all opportunities and risks associated with such goods. After describing examples of participatory sensing and wearable technologies, the authors identify potential challenges and outline technical and organizational approaches to solve them.
Technik in der Pflege
(2018)
With examples concerning the development and dissemination of computer technology in the Soviet Union, the U.S., and other Western countries it shall be demonstrated that computer development on the one hand
and social change as well as changes in policy making and administration on the other hand are mingled with each other without a clear direction of causation being discernible.It also shall be shown that perceived social and political threats imposed by early computer technology sometimes actually helped to stop or at least slow down social change.
One conclusion that can be drawn from the case studies described for RRI is that the conscious steering of innovations fails because of diffuse and uncoordinated resistance from very different stakeholders. The case studies also suggest that the effectiveness of RRI might be rather limited.
Cybersecurity in health
(2019)
Purpose
Cybersecurity in healthcare has become an urgent matter in recent years due to various malicious attacks on hospitals and other parts of the healthcare infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to provide an outline of how core values of the health systems, such as the principles of biomedical ethics, are in a supportive or conflicting relation to cybersecurity.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper claims that it is possible to map the desiderata relevant to cybersecurity onto the four principles of medical ethics, i.e. beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice, and explore value conflicts in that way.
Findings
With respect to the question of how these principles should be balanced, there are reasons to think that the priority of autonomy relative to beneficence and non-maleficence in contemporary medical ethics could be extended to value conflicts in health-related cybersecurity.
Research limitations/implications
However, the tension between autonomy and justice, which relates to the desideratum of usability of information and communication technology systems, cannot be ignored even if one assumes that respect for autonomy should take priority over other moral concerns.
Originality/value
In terms of value conflicts, most discussions in healthcare deal with the conflict of balancing efficiency and privacy given the sensible nature of health information. In this paper, the authors provide a broader and more detailed outline.
Two concepts describe the autonomous deployment of IT by business entities: Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. Shadow IT is deployed covertly, that is, software, hardware, or IT services created/procured or managed by business entities without alignment with the IT organization. In contrast, Business-managed IT describes the overt deployment of IT, that is, in alignment with the IT organization or in a split responsibility model. The purpose of this paper is to extend the conceptual understanding of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT, comparing the perceptions of 29 CIOs and senior IT managers with the results of a systematic literature review. By doing so, this paper presents a structured and comprehensive view of causing factors, outcomes, and governance of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT in practice. A comparison of academic literature and practitioner perceptions reveals the limitations and gaps of the current research and highlights avenues for future research. The authors find three category-spanning themes occurring as causing factors, outcomes, and—as part of governance measures—factors to improve the IT organization: (1) (Poor) business-IT alignment (2) (lack of) agility, and (3) (lack of) policies. This study is innovative with its comprehensive qualitative interview data that the authors compare to the existing literature. Therefore, the paper brings together theoretical and practical insights into Shadow IT and Businessmanaged IT, which should aid practitioners and scholars in decision making and future research.
Integrative Co-occurrence matrices are introduced as novel features for color texture classification. The extended Co-occurrence notation allows the comparison between integrative and parallel color texture concepts. The information profit of the new matrices is shown quantitatively using the Kolmogorov distance and by extensive classification experiments on two datasets. Applying them to the RGB and the LUV color space the combined color and intensity textures are studied and the existence of intensity independent pure color patterns is demonstrated. The results are compared with two baselines: gray-scale texture analysis and color histogram analysis. The novel features improve the classification results up to 20% and 32% for the first and second baseline, respectively.
Die fortschreitende Digitalisierung des Gesundheitswesens ebnet auch den Weg einer stärkeren Verbreitung der telemedizinischen Versorgung in Deutschland. Die Politik erleichtert diesen Weg, z.B. mit dem eHealth-Gesetz oder mit der Lockerung des "Fernbehandlungsverbots" durch den Deutschen Ärztetag. Dabei wird schon aus der Definition (siehe z.B. die unten stehende Definition der AG Telemedizin) klar, dass Telemedizin keine neue medizinische Disziplin begründet. Bei Telemedizin handelt es sich nur um ein technisches Werkzeug in Kombination mit geeigneten klinischen Prozessen, damit bestehende medizinische Expertise unter Einsatz von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien räumliche Entfernungen oder einen zeitlichen Versatz überbrücken kann. Patientinnen und Patienten können also behandelt werden, auch wenn sie vom Arzt räumlich entfernt sind.
The estimation of illuminant color is mandatory for many applications in the field of color image quantification. However, it is an unresolved problem if no additional heuristics or restrictive assumptions apply. Assuming uniformly colored and roundly shaped objects, Lee has presented a theory and a method for computing the scene-illuminant chromaticity from specular highlights [H. C. Lee, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3, 1694 (1986)]. However, Lee’s method, called image path search, is less robust to noise and is limited in the handling of microtextured surfaces. We introduce a novel approach to estimate the color of a single illuminant for noisy and microtextured images, which frequently occur in real-world scenes. Using dichromatic regions of different colored surfaces, our approach, named color line search, reverses Lee’s strategy of image path search. Reliable color lines are determined directly in the domain of the color diagrams by three steps. First, regions of interest are automatically detected around specular highlights, and local color diagrams are computed. Second, color lines are determined according to the dichromatic reflection model by Hough transform of the color diagrams. Third, a consistency check is applied by a corresponding path search in the image domain. Our method is evaluated on 40 natural images of fruit and vegetables. In comparison with those of Lee’s method, accuracy and stability are substantially improved. In addition, the color line search approach can easily be extended to scenes of objects with macrotextured surfaces.
Purpose
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common threat to vision. While classification of disease stages is critical to understanding disease risk and progression, several systems based on color fundus photographs are known. Most of these require in-depth and time-consuming analysis of fundus images. Herein, we present an automated computer-based classification algorithm.
Design Algorithm development for AMD classification based on a large collection of color fundus images. Validation is performed on a cross-sectional, population-based study.
Participants.
We included 120 656 manually graded color fundus images from 3654 Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) participants. AREDS participants were >55 years of age, and non-AMD sight-threatening diseases were excluded at recruitment. In addition, performance of our algorithm was evaluated in 5555 fundus images from the population-based Kooperative Gesundheitsforschung in der Region Augsburg (KORA; Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) study.
Methods.
We defined 13 classes (9 AREDS steps, 3 late AMD stages, and 1 for ungradable images) and trained several convolution deep learning architectures. An ensemble of network architectures improved prediction accuracy. An independent dataset was used to evaluate the performance of our algorithm in a population-based study.
Main Outcome Measures.
κ Statistics and accuracy to evaluate the concordance between predicted and expert human grader classification.
Results.
A network ensemble of 6 different neural net architectures predicted the 13 classes in the AREDS test set with a quadratic weighted κ of 92% (95% confidence interval, 89%–92%) and an overall accuracy of 63.3%. In the independent KORA dataset, images wrongly classified as AMD were mainly the result of a macular reflex observed in young individuals. By restricting the KORA analysis to individuals >55 years of age and prior exclusion of other retinopathies, the weighted and unweighted κ increased to 50% and 63%, respectively. Importantly, the algorithm detected 84.2% of all fundus images with definite signs of early or late AMD. Overall, 94.3% of healthy fundus images were classified correctly.
Conclusions
Our deep learning algoritm revealed a weighted κ outperforming human graders in the AREDS study and is suitable to classify AMD fundus images in other datasets using individuals >55 years of age.
IT-Offshoring
(2014)
Lean IT
(2017)
IT-Backsourcing
(2019)
The importance of information systems (IS) for companies has grown rapidly over the recent years. For example, companies from various industries are focusing their efforts to digitize business models, to adopt agile forms of collaboration, and to leverage automation of routine tasks. This forces companies to review their IS sourcing strategies and to potentially consider alternatives for current outsourcing contracts.
One potential option could be to backsource IS services currently performed by external vendors. Based on empirical observations, previous academics defined it as the repatriation of all assets, activities, and skills needed to perform IS services back in-house, which had been outsourced previously to one or multiple vendors. The distinctive characteristic of backsourcing is the change in ownership back to the mother organization. This distinguishes the term backsourcing from similar terms, e.g., backshoring, reshoring, or relocating, which rather focus on the change in location of the service delivery. At the initial sourcing decision, the strategy to outsource an IS service was considered most promising. However, certain developments both inside the company, but also on a broader industry level may lead to a re-evaluation of the situation and thus to an adjustment of the original sourcing strategy.
Over the last years, there has been a strong increase in cloud-based services and a shift towards the deployment of standardized, almost “industrialized” applications as services. Before, large companies leveraged their size in realizing economies of scale within their sourcing volumes. The raise of cloud computing as well as standardization of service delivery decreased those benefits and led towards a decline in large outsourcing contracts across a variety of services and a growth of multi-sourcing of individual IS services from the respective “best-in-breed” vendors for shorter time periods. Besides sourcing the best vendor for each service, companies that implement multi-sourcing strategies additionally aim for cost benefits due to an increased competition between vendors, and an increase in agility and adaptability.
At the same time, a move towards multi-sourcing strategies with shorter contract durations leads to an increase in so-called “second generation sourcing decisions”, namely whether to continue outsourcing a respective service or to bring the service back in-house. Given the developments within the IS environment, this research projects aims at understanding why IS services are backsourced and which factors influence a company’s decision to backsource an IS service.
The identification of suitable applications or projects is a main initial step in any software development or maintenance related IS offshoring arrangement. This paper examines evaluation criteria and their importance for selecting application or project candidates for offshoring. Based on a literature analysis and interviews with 47 experts from 36 different German companies describing 64 case examples, we find that in contrast to the literature, “size”, “codification”, and “language” are perceived as important selection criteria by experts. Case examples additionally show that “business specificity” seems to be a main reason for application or project failures, that “business criticality” appears to be less important than suggested by the literature, and that adequate “size” might be a necessary prerequisite, but seems not to be a sufficient criterion for an application’s or project’s suitability for offshoring. These differences in comparison to findings from the literature may be explained by cultural and language differences.
This paper empirically examines the current state of the IS offshoring phenomenon in Germany regarding project characteristics and success patterns. Relying on a sample of 304 projects conducted at various industry sectors and companies, results show that IS offshoring primarily occurs in sectors Telecommunications and IT at large corporations. Cost reduction is the main reason for going offshore and offshore projects are executed as part of a larger program at companies. Noticeably, most projects are delivered from India. Additionally, neither captive offshoring nor offshore outsourcing dominates as a de-livery option. Comparing different project subgroups regarding project success, the results reveal that projects delivered by an internal or partially owned service provider are more successful. Other project characteristics such as a project’s embedded-ness in a larger offshoring program, a project’s size, or a project’s offshoring degree in terms of relatively offshored labor hours show few significant differences. The paper addresses the paucity of empirical research on the current state of the IS offshoring phenomenon in Germany.
High labor cost in western countries allows cost savings by companies engaging in IS offshoring. However, studies worldwide indicate that a large number of companies that engaged in IS offshoring are not satisfied with the outcome. Our study examined the determinants of IS offshore project success: We developed a model and empirically tested it with data collected from 304 experts who reported on projects offshored from Germany to a wide range of near and distant countries. The model posited a direct effect of offshoring expertise and trust in offshore service provider (OSP) on success, as well as an indirect effect mediated by project suitability, knowledge transfer, and liaison quality. An analysis using partial least squares (PLSs) provided significant support for almost all these relationships. However, it showed that offshoring expertise played a minor role in explaining success and the mediating constructs. Trust in OSP had a small direct effect on success and a medium to large effect on the mediating constructs. Project suitability, knowledge transfer, and liaison quality all had small direct effects on success.
In der Produktion gilt „Lean Management“ als einer der de-facto Standardmanagementansätze. Lean Management in IT-Organisationen (Lean IT) ist dahingegen in der Praxis weniger verbreitet und in der Wissenschaft kaum erforscht. Dieser Beitrag aggregiert und erweitert die Ergebnisse mehrerer Forschungsarbeiten. Dabei werden vorrangig zwei Aspekte diskutiert: (1) Ein mögliches Einführungsmodell für Lean IT. Dieses verknüpft fünf Rollen (Sponsor, Programmleiter, Navigator, Linienführungskraft und Linienexperte) mit vier Phasen (Vorbereitung, Analyse, Gestaltung und Implementierung). (2) Besondere Herausforderungen für Linienführungskräfte, die aufgrund der „bottom up“-Ausrichtung bei Lean-IT-Einführungen stark gefordert werden. Neben einer klaren Vision für die Organisationseinheit und dem Verständnis, an welcher Stelle Lean IT die Organisationseinheit konkret unterstützen kann, benötigen sie Offenheit, Veränderungswillen und die Bereitschaft Verantwortung an Mitarbeiter zu delegieren. Außerdem sollten sie über ein ausreichendes Zeitbudget für die Einführung verfügen, um ihrer gestaltenden und qualitätssichernden Funktion nachkommen zu können.
Basierend auf einer systematischen und umfangreichen Analyse von Praxisbeiträgen zum Thema Schatten-IT, die zwischen September 2015 und August 2016 erschienen sind, beschreibt der vorliegende Artikel Governance-Aspekte zu diesem Phänomen. Er ergänzt damit vorhergehende akademische Studien. Es zeigt sich, dass unter Praktikern der Eindruck vorherrscht, dass IT-Abteilungen unter zunehmendem Druck stehen, schneller auf sich ändernde Anforderungen aus den Fachbereichen reagieren zu müssen. Können IT-Abteilungen diesen Erwartungen nicht entsprechen, beschaffen sich Fachbereiche und Nutzer selbst Lösungen in Form von Schatten-IT. Als mögliche Antwort darauf kann sich die IT-Abteilung agiler organisieren und die IT-Architektur im Unternehmen modernisieren. Eine weitere Möglichkeit besteht darin, sich das innovative Potenzial von Schatten-IT zunutze zu machen und deren Umsetzung aktiv durch organisatorische und technische Maßnahmen zu unterstützen. IT-Sicherheitsmanagement und technische Schutzmechanismen können helfen, die so entstandenen Lösungen abzusichern und die Risiken zu minimieren. Nach vorherrschender Ansicht entwickelt sich die IT-Abteilung als Konsequenz aus all diesen Maßnahmen zu einem nutzerorientierten, internen Service-Provider und strategischen Partner für die Fachbereiche.
An increasing amount of IS offshoring research has been published during the last four years. This paper presents a comprehensive view of the field of study from a managerial point of view. It provides a consolidated view of the field of study between 2010 and 2013 based on a manual search comprising 69 selected journals and 9 conferences, as well as a search using 6 journal databases. The literature review ensures continuity of research by connecting to a comprehensive literature analysis covering the years 1999 to 2009. This way it consolidates and critically reflects the state of the research of the last 14 years. Overall, we compiled 95 relevant publications originating from leading IS journals and IS conference proceedings. The results indicate that IS offshoring research is largely non-theory based, using almost entirely empirical data and interpretive research methods and -to a smaller extent -positivist research designs. The ISO research of the last 14 years focuses on the implementation stages "how" and "outcome" while the pre-implementation-stages “why”, “what”, and “which” are comparatively sparsely researched. Future studies should apply a more theory-driven approach with a greater attention on pre-implementation aspects of information systems offshoring. In addition, future research should investigate the special nature of near- and onshoring, captive offshoring as well asagile (project) management techniques suitable for ISO.
Lean Management is a standard production mode that has been familiar to production organizations for several decades. To date, however, academic literature has presented surprisingly little information about the application of Lean Management in Information Technology (IT) organizations, or what is called Lean IT. Drawing upon an empirical qualitative case study of the IT departments of two multinational companies, in this paper we identify change management lessons learned for Lean IT implementations, as well as seven characteristics of a corresponding change management approach. As an extension of our work, researchers should validate and expand our initial findings, preferably in a quantitative setting.
Information systems backsourcing describes the transferof previously outsourced activities, assets, or personnel back to the originating companyto regain ownership and control. While there is much research on information systems outsourcing, the topic of backsourcing information systemsis still an emerging research area. Therefore, ourpaper aims to explore and synthesizethe existing literature on information systemsbacksourcing, since there is no exhaustiveliteraturereview of the state of the research to our knowledge available yet. In this paper, wecreate a framework to structure the existing research along the overallbacksourcing process. We identifydifferent motivators, such asexpectation gaps, orinternal and external organizational changes, leading towards a backsourcing decision, and factors positively or negatively influencing this decision. Additionally, we derive implementation success factors based on the existing literature to guide companies through the backsourcing process.We also differentiate the term backsourcing from related, sometimes synonymously used terms, by emphasizing the change of ownership back to the company of originas the main criterion.Additionally, we discuss opportunities for future research in the field of information systems backsourcing.
Shadow IT and Business-managed IT describe the autonomous deployment/procurement or management of Information Technology (IT) instances, i.e., software, hardware, or IT services, by business entities. For Shadow IT, this happens covertly, i.e., without alignment with the IT organization; for Business-managed IT this happens overtly, i.e., in alignment with the IT organization or in a split responsibility model. We conduct a systematic literature review and structure the identified research themes in a framework of causing factors, outcomes, and governance. As causing factors, we identify enablers, motivators, and missing barriers. Outcomes can be benefits as well as risks/shortcomings of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. Concerning governance, we distinguish two subcategories: general governance for Shadow IT and Business-managed IT and instance governance for overt Business-managed IT. Thus, a specific set of governance approaches exists for Business-managed IT that cannot be applied to Shadow IT due to its covert nature. Hence, we extend the existing conceptual understanding and allocate research themes to Shadow IT, Business-managed IT, or both concepts and particularly distinguish the governance of the two concepts. Besides, we find that governance themes have been the primary research focus since 2016, whereas older publications (until 2015) focused on causing factors.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the main tasks, necessary skills, and the implementation of the offshore coordinator’s role to facilitate knowledge transfer in information systems (IS) offshoring.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical exploratory study uses the classical Delphi method that includes one qualitative and two quantitative rounds to collect data on IS experts’ perceptions to seek a consensus among them.
Findings
The participants agreed, with strong consensus, for a set of 16 tasks and 15 skills. The tasks focused primarily on relationship management and facilitating knowledge transfer on different levels. The set of skills consists of approximately 25 per cent “hard” skills, e.g. professional language skills and project management skills, and approximately 75 per cent “soft” skills, e.g. interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to deal with conflict. Two factors mainly influence implementing the offshore coordinator role: project size and the number of projects to be supported simultaneously.
Practical implications
The findings provide indications of how to define and fulfill this crucial role in practice to facilitate the knowledge transfer process in a positive way.
Originality/value
Similarities in previous research findings are aggregated to examine the intermediate role in detail from a consolidated perspective. This results in the first comprehensive set of critical tasks and skills assigned to the competency dimensions of the universal competency framework, demonstrating which and how many competency dimensions are critical.
Research on Shadow IT is facing a conceptual dilemma in cases where previously “covert” systems developed by business entities are integrated in the organizational IT management. These systems become visible, are thus not “in the shadows” anymore, and subsequently do not fit to existing definitions of Shadow IT. Practice shows that some information systems share characteristics of Shadow IT but are created openly in alignment with the IT organization. This paper proposes the term “Business-managed IT” to describe “overt” information systems developed or managed by business entities and distinguishes it from Shadow IT by illustrating case vignettes. Accordingly,our contribution is to suggest a concept and its delineation against other concepts. In this way, IS researchers interested in IT originated from or maintained by business entities can construct theories with a wider scope of application that are at the same time more specific to practical problems. In addition, the terminology allows to value potentially innovative developments by business entities more adequately.
Purpose
With the rise of digitization, IT organizations are challenged to provide efficient service delivery and offer innovative digital solutions while maintaining a constant resource capacity. To address this challenge, some IT organizations have adopted Lean Management (LM). Although LM is a standard production mode in manufacturing, it is less familiar to IT organizations. The purpose of this paper is to identify 12 lessons learned from companies who implemented LM in their IT organization (Lean IT) to free up their IT resource capacity from existing day-to-day operations so they could use it to enable their digitization strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of two major international companies from different industries. Data were collected from 25 structured interviews.
Findings
The lessons learned provide insights into how these companies implemented Lean IT, the potential outcomes they aimed for, what they did to achieve those outcomes, how they facilitated the implementation of Lean IT, and restrictions they encountered during the implementation.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are based on a limited range of IT organizations.
Practical implications
The lessons learned inform those implementing Lean IT because they explain how companies have implemented Lean IT to facilitate digitization and the benefits and pitfalls they encountered. A comparison of Lean IT and Lean Production shows that LM is transferable to IT organizations if domain specific requirements are respected.
Originality/value
This paper reports the unique experience of companies implementing Lean IT, which can inform other companies in a similar situation.
Incomplete conceptualization of the information technology outsourcing (ITO) literature represents a challenge for navigating extant research and engaging into purposeful academic discourse. We extend the analysis of empirical findings on determinants of ITO decisions, outcomes, and governance. We identify increasing levels of research maturity, analyze effects of 38 new independent variables, highlight contradictory findings, and observe increasing interest in emerging topics such as innovation through ITO and multisourcing.
To prepare their IT landscape for future business challenges, companies are changing their IT sourcing arrangements by using selective sourcing approaches as well as multi-sourcing with more but smaller sourcing contracts. Companies therefore have to reconsider and re-evaluate their IT sourcing setup more frequently. Collecting data from 251 global experts, we empirically tested the effect of service quality, relationship quality, and switching costs on IT sourcing decisions using partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Drawing on previously conducted expert interviews, our model extends previous studies and introduces a decision maker’s sourcing preferences as a not yet examined moderator on IT sourcing decisions. This allows us to investigate the influence of the decision maker’s beliefs on the decision process. We were able to confirm the negative effect of switching costs on a decision in favor of backsourcing, however we could not find significant support for the remaining hypotheses. We further discuss potential reasons for our findings and suggest future research opportunities based on our contribution.