 Jonas Allemann, Web Service Integration and Composition for Enabling Automatic Adaption of Heterogeneous WSDL Descriptions, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Master's Thesis)
 
Distributed heterogeneous process composition becomes increasingly crucial and is used extensively in various kinds of applications such as web search engines, real-time systems, high performance computing, grid computing and distributed systems to provide more flexible service mapping and enable access to heterogeneous services. This work explains the basics of a Service Oriented Architecture approach for implementing distributed and heterogeneous business processes via Web Services, specially concentrating on Web Service Composition and Automated Web Service Composition, and further on shows an example of an implementation of a travel business service based on BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language). |
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Danar Barzanji, Visualisierung von Metadaten-Hierarchien in einer serviceorientierten Architektur, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Master's Thesis)
This diploma thesis aims at the design and implementation of a web-application, which visualizes a hierarchical structure for metadata in a service-oriented architecture. Two major problems of traditional web applications were detected. They were usability and performance problems. These problems reduce the capability of web application to visualize and navigate in the metadata models. For this reason new technologies for developing of web application were analyzed. The main aim of this analysis was to identify technologies that support developing of rich internet applications (RIAs). RIAs are web applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications. Two technologies were chosen to develop a RIA. They were Ajax-Technologies and JavaServer Faces. |
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Christine Richartz, Lernen und Flow, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Master's Thesis)
In this study, flow experienced by users during a learning session with an elearning program and its correlation to further learning success were assessed. For the experiment the people tested had to practise two algorithms with a flow-creating and a non-flow-creating learning program. Flow experiences were measured using two different methods: firstly by means of a questionnaire and secondly by EEG records. The direct comparison of the programs indicates that flow can be produced by a program. Between women and men there is no difference regarding flow experiences. Instead there were discrepancies concerning the flow experiences in different age groups: People over 25 have more intensive flow experiences than younger people. Furthermore the results of the questionnaire show, that learning success and self-assessment on learning progress after a learning session can be predicted through the intensity of the flow experience. These experiences depend again on the motivation which is generated by the program. |
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Michael Roth, A Java EE Framework for Managing Biometric Data based on BioLANCC, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Master's Thesis)
Biometric data has become an important subject in many situations that require control mechanisms. Besides passports with biometric information about a person or military applications, access controls for buildings or rooms based on biometric data are discussed. With the introduction of such a system, the management of the involved data is an important issue. BioLANCC is a software that supports this management. It has been developed for the centralized managment of biometric data and is being used at several places. In many use cases, the needs of the users cannot be met with a completely centralized access to the management software. More flexibility in terms of a distributed access is required. To provide this additional functionality, this work focuses on the creation of a framework that enables a distributed use of BioLANCC. This framework builds on the original BioLANCC and converts it into a Java EE web application. With this adaption of the original software, the biometric data can be managed from any place with an internet connection and a web browser. This work comprises evaluations of middleware and frameworks as well as the actual implementation of a prototype. |
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Gregory S. Crawford, Joseph Crespo, Helen Tauchen, Bidding asymmetries in multi-unit auctions: implications of bid function equilibria in the British spot market for electricity, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 25 (6), 2007. (Journal Article)
This paper introduces and tests Bid Function Equilibria (BFE) in the British spot market for electricity. BFE extend von der Fehr and Harbord's (1993) multi-unit auction model of wholesale electricity markets by allowing firms to have heterogeneous costs for different generating units. Pure-strategy equilibria in BFE predict asymmetric bidding by producers: a single firm (the “price-setter") bids strategically while other firms (“non-price-setters") bid their costs. We test for asymmetries in firms' bid functions in the British spot market between 1993 and 1995 and find strong empirical support for the theory. We conclude that BFE have important implications for the design and governance of electricity markets. |
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Burkhard Stiller, Grid Services and Federations in the Future Internet, In: DATEV, Nürnberg - TrendScout Workshop. 2007. (Conference Presentation)
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K Kaljurand, Attempto Controlled English as a semantic web language, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Dissertation)
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Claudia Som, Lorenz Hilty, Qualitative Risk Assessment for Converging Technologies: Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Technologies, In: ISETS07 International Symposium on EcoTopia Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 2007. (Conference or Workshop Paper)
The term ‘converging technologies’ refers to a technological vision combining nano-, bio-, and information technologies with cognitive science (NBIC technologies). The main target application field is human enhancement, i.e. the development of technological products which improve human performance. This paper presents a first attempt to assess the opportunities and risks of the NBIC development for the individual, for society and the ecological environment. |
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Katharina Reinecke, Gerald Reif, Abraham Bernstein, Cultural user modeling with CUMO: an approach to overcome the personalization bootstrapping problem, In: First International Workshop on Cultural Heritage on the Semantic Web at the 6th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2007), Busan, South Korea, 2007-11-11. (Conference or Workshop Paper published in Proceedings)
The increasing interest in personalizable applications for heterogeneous user populations has heightened the need for a more efficient acquisition of start-up information about the user. We argue that the user’s cultural background is suitable for predicting various adaptation preferences at once. With these as a basis, we can accelerate the initial acquisition process. The paper presents an approach to factoring culture into user models. We introduce the cultural user model ontology CUMO, describing how and to which extend it can accurately represent the user’s cultural background. Furthermore, we outline its use as a re-usable and shared knowledge base in a personalization process, before presenting a plan of our future work towards cultural personalization. |
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Helmut Max Dietl, Egon Franck, Was Profigolfer von Ökonomen lernen können, In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 261, p. 66, 9 November 2007. (Newspaper Article)
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David Hausheer, Auctions for Virtual Network Environments, In: Workshop on Management of Network Virtualisation. 2007. (Conference Presentation)
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Markus Innerebner, Michael Böhlen, Igor Timko, A web-enabled extension of a spatio-temporal DBMS, In: GIS '07: Proceedings of the 15th annual ACM international symposium on Advances in geographic information systems, ACM, New York, USA, 2007-11-07. (Conference or Workshop Paper published in Proceedings)
Many database applications deal with spatio-temporal phenomena, and during the last decade a lot of research targeted location-based services, moving objects, traffic jam preventions, meteorology, etc. In strong contrast, there exist only very few proposals for an implementation of a spatio-temporal database system let alone a web-based spatio-temporal information system.This paper describes the design and implementation of a web-based spatio-temporal information system. The system uses Secondo as spatio-temporal DBMS for handling moving objects and MapServer as an OGC-compliant rendering engine for static spatial data. We describe the architecture of the system and compare our system with a standalone application. The paper investigates in detail issues that arise in the context of the web. First, we describe an implementation of a lightweight client that takes advantage of the functionality offered by Secondo and MapServer. Second, we describe how moving objects can be represented in GML. We discuss possible GML representations, propose an extension of GML that uses 3D segments (2D location + time) to represent moving objects, and present experiments that compare the solutions. |
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Harald Lohre, Rationalizing global market anomalies, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Dissertation)
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Philippe Wallimann, Nachlassplanung als Private Banking Dienstleistung, University of Zurich, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology, 2007. (Bachelor's Thesis)
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Helmut Max Dietl, Egon Franck, Eine höhere Geburtenrate, aber keine gesamtwirtschaftlichen Effekte: Die Wirksamkeit einer Fussball-Europameisterschaft für die Volkswirtschaft ist höchst umstritten, In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 254, p. 67, 1 November 2007. (Newspaper Article)
Sportgrossveranstaltungen wie die Fussball- EM verschlingen häufig umfangreiche öffentliche Ressourcen. Oft werden Steuergelder in mehrstelliger Millionenhöhe für Infrastrukturmassnahmen (u. a. Stadienbau) ausgegeben. Aber auch für die Durchführung des Anlasses müssen grössere öffentliche Budgets bereitgestellt werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund taucht immer wieder die Frage auf, ob sich diese Ausgaben wirtschaftlich gesehen lohnen. |
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H Egger, P Egger, Outsourcing and trade in a spatial world, Journal of Urban Economics, Vol. 62 (3), 2007. (Journal Article)
This paper provides an analysis of outsourcing and trade in a spatial model à la Hotelling. In this setting, we discuss the trade-off between transport-cost-related disadvantages and outsourcing-related production cost advantages of a large economy and we investigate how the existence of national transport costs influences both the structure of industrial production and the pattern of final goods trade. In addition, the model gives a rich picture of the possible welfare effects of trade liberalization. In particular, we show that a final goods exporting country definitely gains from economic integration, while a final goods importing country may lose. Finally, when lowering domestic outsourcing activities, trade liberalization may reduce world welfare, even if pro-competitive effects lead to a decline in consumer prices. |
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Bruno Frey, Silke Humbert, Friedrich Schneider, Was denken deutsche Ökonomen? Eine empirische Auswertung einer Internetbefragung unter den Mitgliedern des Vereins für Socialpolitik im Sommer 2006, Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Vol. 8 (4), 2007. (Journal Article)
This article presents the results of a survey among the members of the „Verein f¨ur Socialpolitik“, the association of German speaking economists, containing questions on schools of thought, economic role models and policy issues. A probit analysis is used to identify to what extent ideological preferences or personal facts determine the respondent’s opinion. Some of the questions were already asked a quarter of a century ago so that it is possible to track the changes in view among economists. One of the most important findings is that neoclassical economics has become more strongly accepted. |
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Beat Fluri, Michael Würsch, Martin Pinzger, Harald Gall, Change Distilling: Tree Differencing for Fine-Grained Source Code Change Extraction, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 33 (11), 2007. (Journal Article)
A key issue in software evolution analysis is the identification of particular changes that occur across several versions of a program. We present change distilling, a tree differencing algorithm for fine-grained source code change extraction. For that, we have improved the existing algorithm of Chawathe et al. for extracting changes in hierarchically structured data. Our algorithm extracts changes by finding both a match between the nodes of the compared two abstract syntax trees and a minimum edit script that can transform one tree into the other given the computed matching. As a result, we can identify fine-grained change types between program versions according to our taxonomy of source code changes. We evaluated our change distilling algorithm with a benchmark we developed that consists of 1,064 manually classified changes in 219 revisions of eight methods from three different open source projects. We achieved significant improvements in extracting types of source code changes: Our algorithm approximates the minimum edit script by 45% better than the original change extraction approach by Chawathe et al. We are able to find all occurring changes and almost reach the minimum conforming edit script, i.e., we reach a mean absolute percentage error of 34%, compared to 79% reached by the original algorithm. The paper describes both our change distilling algorithm and the results of our evaluation. |
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Massimiliano Lungarella, Information transfer at multiple time scales, Physical Review E, Vol. 76 (5), 2007. (Journal Article)
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Rolf Pfeifer, Massimiliano Lungarella, Fumiya Iida, Self-organization, embodiment, and biologically inspired robotics, Science, Vol. 318, 2007. (Journal Article)
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