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This paper aims to present a detailed description of Agents for Enriching Services (AES), an agent-oriented framework that allows adapting a service in an information system. AES provides an adaptation logic that can be instantiated and extended to be useful in different domains. In previous works, we presented the adaptation mechanism of AES, which considers context aspects such as location, infrastructure; user aspects such as preferences and interests; and device aspects such as hardware and software features.

The first step was the definition of different profiles, mainly user and context profiles. Then the adaptation mechanism was defined, which considers these profiles. With this mechanism, the adaptation filters to apply them to the initial queries was specified. Finally, feedback was provided, which included implicit and explicit information from the user and the system. AES is an agent-based framework implemented in Java, using the multi-agent platform BESA and a rule-based engine Drools.

AES can be used as the starting point to adapt services by enriching them considering different stimulus whether they come from the environment, devices or user preferences.

This work was tested in an academic environment and was only applied to enhance queries by using keywords. AES uses the query mechanism implemented in the system that invokes it.

This paper focuses on: an integrated view of AES including its formal description and details about its implementation. Particularly, it includes an exhaustive and formal definition of the filters used to create the adaptation rules and three different scenarios of the application of AES to adapt content according to user and context features. Finally, a comparison analysis is presented to highlight the strengths of our framework, specially its capacity of integration with systems that require providing user- and context-oriented services.

This paper describes a software architecture that automatically adds semantic capabilities to data services. The proposed architecture, called OntoGenesis, is able to semantically enrich data services, so that they can dynamically provide both semantic descriptions and data representations.

The enrichment approach is designed to intercept the requests from data services. Therefore, a domain ontology is constructed and evolved in accordance with the syntactic representations provided by such services in order to define the data concepts. In addition, a property matching mechanism is proposed to exploit the potential data intersection observed in data service representations and external data sources so as to enhance the domain ontology with new equivalences triples. Finally, the enrichment approach is capable of deriving on demand a semantic description and data representations that link to the domain ontology concepts.

Experiments were performed using real-world datasets, such as DBpedia, GeoNames as well as open government data. The obtained results show the applicability of the proposed architecture and that it can boost the development of semantic data services. Moreover, the matching approach achieved better performance when compared with other existing approaches found in the literature.

This work only considers services designed as data providers, i.e., services that provide an interface for accessing data sources. In addition, our approach assumes that both data services and external sources – used to enhance the domain ontology – have some potential of data intersection. Such assumption only requires that services and external sources share particular property values.

Unlike most of the approaches found in the literature, the architecture proposed in this paper is meant to semantically enrich data services in such way that human intervention is minimal. Furthermore, an automata-based index is also presented as a novel method that significantly improves the performance of the property matching mechanism.

This paper aims to examine the trends among the elderly population in China about residential preferences and policy applications, as the elderly is a rapidly expanding demographic group that has increasing and diversifying inclinations for demanding the residential facilities for the elderly (RFEs) now and in the foreseeable future.

Based on a review of the existing literature and policies, a model is conceptualised for understanding the demands of the elderly. Their needs for functional supportiveness and richness of residential resources in RFEs are then categorised into focal groups.

The Chinese elderly’s demand for specialised residential facilities is under a shift from seeking deficit relief to pursuing personal choices. It is suggested that there will be a continuing demand for affordable RFEs from a number of key focal groups, including: the functionally impaired; marginally housed; socially isolated; and the elderly requiring social relief. In addition, retirement housing in China is likely to be more affordable for the next elderly generation. However, the immature social welfare system and low average income level of the current elderly generation means that the Chinese Government has tough decisions to make about service priorities.

Policy and investment priorities may have to be inclusive of those who demand social relief (free-of-charge) and affordable professional long-term care in RFEs, whereas the rest of the demand could be released by growth in the development of community- and home-based service systems.

This study is one of the first to identify the diversifying demands of age-exclusive living facilities for the elderly that deserve priorities in China. The results can inform and guide future policy and project investment in China.

In e-government domain, an efficient semantic interoperability of services is a big challenge. In this context, semantic technologies play a fundamental role in numerous e-government programs. Indeed, these technologies enable enriching the public service description provided by different public administrations with additional semantic information, which allows automatic services processing and information exchange between involved members in comprehensive and interpretable manner, thus facilitating service integration and cooperation. The most frequently used technologies in this area are semantic web services (SWS) technology and ontology. Thus, for modelling efficiently public services, the authors have exploring, studying and analyzing some of e-government researches and projects that applied semantic technologies.

In this paper, the authors address how semantic technologies transform the e-government domain through exploring and studying the use of SWS and ontology in numerous researches and projects applying these technologies in this area. Then, the authors have compared them through a set of criteria defined according to e-government requirements such as the SWS modelling approach for describing semantically public services, ontologies for representing governmental specific features (e.g. regulation and organizational structures) and developed portal for supporting user ' s perspectives. Based on this study, the authors have identified the appropriate standards, frameworks, and models for developing the framework.

The authors have developed a framework for public services which enhances existing approaches with additional aspects. Thus, the approach comparing to other works improves the service ontology with a cognitive semantic approach to support the multiple usage contexts and situations of services. This semantic is developed in form of a Sit/Ctx ontology developed based on CSs model represented through conceptual graphs theory. The authors have used this model besides OWL-S, improving thus the level of automation of discovery and composition process of public services, which become more efficient with taken into consideration their interrelations and situations.

The approach comparing to other works improves the service ontology with a cognitive semantic approach to support the multiple usage contexts and situations of public services, providing thus the end-users (people and enterprises) a better orientation in discovery process.

Strategic trends towards service operations have been widely reported in the recent literature, but organisational capabilities to support such service-centred strategies are less well understood. The purpose of this paper is to identify key organisational issues in managing complex engineering service operations throughout the lifecycle.

Using instruments developed from the product lifecycle management technologies and the network configuration concept, key organisational issues for engineering service operations were identified through case studies focusing on complex engineering products and services systems across a variety of industrial sectors.

The case studies demonstrated different organisational features and strategic priorities of engineering service operations along the whole lifecycle. A generic trend has been observed for engineering systems to move from being design, development and manufacturing focused to embracing support and end-of-life recycling matters.

This paper provides an overall framework for integrating key organisational issues in engineering service operations. It contributes to the service literature by highlighting the need of developing appropriate organisational capabilities to support service-centred strategies with engineering cases. It also provides guidance for companies to manage their engineering network operations throughout the whole lifecycle of complex products and services systems.

This paper seeks to make people aware of the condition of Chinese cultural information resources sharing through the case of the National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project (NCIRSP). The paper seeks to provide an overview of NCIRSP, and summarize its achievements.

This paper first indicates that cultural information resources sharing is a kind of special resources sharing, and NCIRSP in China is a good example of the realization of this kind of resources sharing. The author introduces NCIRSP in general, and analyzes the operation and its achievements. The author considers that there are some problems which exist in the practice of NCIRSP which will hinder its development and proposes measures to solve those problems.

NCIRSP is a project which is advanced by the Chinese government as well as governments at other levels, which means the project has a strong organization and powerful support. The operation of NCIRSP is made up by four aspects: the network, the construction of digital resources, the implementation of technology, and the websites of services. These four aspects determine the effective operation of NCIRSP and promote the project to make great achievements. Meanwhile, there are problems which hinder NCIRSP from developing further, including the unbalanced collection of cultural information resources in various areas, the scattered storage of resources, and the absence of a sophisticated training mechanism for professionals engaged in the project. Measures to solve the problems are suggested.

NCIRSP is an innovative project supported by the Government of China, even though it is rarely known about by people outside China. This paper introduces NCIRSP in detail, and makes people aware of the situation of cultural information resources sharing in China.

To present the state of the arts application of semantic web technologies in web portals and corresponding achievable improvements for identifying the potential improvement made by semantic web technology.

An evaluation scheme is proposed to investigate various web portals that make use of semantic web technologies in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This scheme consists of three layers: information access, information processing and grounding technologies. Two academic portals and two commercial portals are selected based on the definition of semantic web portal. Detailed evaluation based on the proposed scheme is conducted on these four select portals.

Semantic web technologies can definitely increase the information consistency and the information processing quality of web portals by using ontologies to model portal structure and consensus knowledge. Furthermore, semantic web services will be acting as the key technologies to lift current portals to next level.

This paper proposes an elaborated evaluation method for investigating various portals. It reveals the current status of semantic web applications in web portals.

The purpose of the paper is to report on the perception of students in regard to critical antecedents, dimensions and consequences of service quality with an aim to develop a theoretical model in the context of a university in Australia.

This research used focus group discussions with 19 students who had been studying in undergraduate and postgraduate level programs at an Australian university.

The findings show that the critical antecedents to perceived service quality are information and past experience. There are three aspects of perceived service quality, namely, academic, administrative and facilities. Student satisfaction and student trust are found to have direct and positive relationships with perceived service quality as consequences; and brand performance and behavioural intention are found to have indirect relationships with perceived service quality mediated through satisfaction and trust.

This paper found three separate themes and their relationships with service quality in the context of a university. These themes are: information, past experience and brand performance. Perceived service quality was found playing an important role in this theoretical model. The model provides a good explanation of university brand performance and students' behavioural intentions.

The evolving visitors' expectations and the unfolding digital transformation compel rethinking on the service offering of museums and cultural institutions. Although digitalization and people-centeredness are widely exploited to enhance the visiting experience, there is limited evidence of their implications on organizational attractiveness. The article investigates this issue, examining the service attributes that entice visitors.

The study collected secondary data from the latest census study by the Italian Institute of Statistics on museums and cultural institutions. Two hierarchical regression models have been run on a sample of large publicly owned organizations (n = 312) to identify the service factors that were most effective in attracting Italian and foreign visitors.

Museums and cultural institutions undergoing a digital transformation were more effective in attracting visitors. The delivery of virtual tours and online events captivated the Italian audience. Foreigners appreciated the opportunity to use applications augmenting the on-site visit.

Digitalization and people-centeredness improve the attractiveness of museums and cultural institutions. Using digital channels to engage visitors fosters their desire to interact with cultural heritage. Furthermore, digitalization enriches the on-site visit, expanding conventional services with virtuality. However, the adverse effects on cultural heritage should be carefully handled.

This study highlights the service attributes that add to the attractiveness of museums and cultural institutions, enabling them to engage visitors and improve the visiting experience.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the critical research issues in terms of service quality in higher education.

The paper critically examines a number of leading studies in satisfaction, service quality, and higher education.

The paper finds five critical research agenda in the field of service quality in higher education sector.

The paper shows the research gaps of service quality in higher education through a review of literature. Future research should empirically address those gaps.

The growth of service quality literature started with commercial enterprises. Later, it is expanded in the management and marketing of higher education sector. Measuring and modeling service quality in higher education is new. The paper shows the nature and future directions of service quality research in higher education.

The research issues developed for this paper are relevant to antecedents, dimensions and consequences of service quality in the context of higher education.