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Medical diagnosis and treatment constitute a network of inter‐related processes. The conventional method of medical diagnosis and treatment of diseases involves a state space search of the medical knowledge of diseases and patient history, which could be combinatorially explosive. This paper presents a report on the experimental study of an intelligent, interactive, user‐friendly, knowledge‐based system which performs a stepwise analysis of a patient's complaints, filtering cognitive and emotional elements to be able to make inferences. It applies both forward and backward chaining in making inferences concerning the management of disease. A case study of the system is carried out using some tropical diseases. It is believed that the system will serve as a useful contribution towards tropical medical informatics.

Acquisition of books, serials and other educational materials by libraries involves a complex decision process; especially when there are many books to choose from and the resources are meager. Attempts have been made in the past to take decisions concerning library acquisitions using structured information such as cost, availability of funds, and number of copies needed by the library, author and year of publication. The purpose of this research is to provide a framework for the combination of both structured and unstructured information in the library acquisitions decision process.

The research methodology involves the design of a knowledge‐based system, which is powered by the classical method of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), which carries out a pairwise comparison (PWC) of acquisition decision variables.

The results of the study show that decision variables involved in library acquisitions can be grouped and hierarchically structured. The application of the pairwise comparison matrix produces eigenvectors that aid in stepwise refinement of the results of the conventional acquisition process in order to achieve some level of optimality in the decision process.

The framework provided in this study could be useful for library professionals and information scientists as a veritable library decision support tool that applies both structured and unstructured information in the acquisition decision process.

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative approach that is proposed for developing e‐libraries with metadata to meet the need of training observation and classification skills in a mobile learning environment.

A knowledge engineering approach is proposed to assist teachers in defining metadata of e‐libraries to meet the need of training observation and classification skills. Based on the innovative approach, an e‐library of butterfly and ecology has been developed. Moreover, an experiment was conducted from March‐April 2007 on the science course “Butterfly and Ecology” at an elementary school in Taiwan. There were two teachers and 35 students participated in the experiment.

Experimental results showed that the e‐library developed with the innovative approach is able to effectively support the training of observation and classification skills for elementary school students.

Currently, the innovative approach has only been applied to the training of observation and classification knowledge. Further studies will be needed to assist teachers in defining metadata of e‐libraries for other educational objectives, such as “analysis” (the ability to separate material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood), “synthesis” (the ability to put parts together to form a new whole) and “evaluation” (the ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose).

With the innovative approach, personalized supports can be provided as a guide for students' learning. Moreover, students are allowed to face the real objects with technology‐rich supports during the learning process.

The purpose of this study is to develop a model to understand the relationships among technology, organizational and environmental (TOE) contexts, intention to adopt cloud computing (IACC) and actual usage of cloud computing (AUCC) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia as a developing country. More specifically, this paper seeks to explore the mediation effect of IACC on the relationship between TOE context and AUCC.

A positivist research approach was selected for this study. Drawing largely upon the TOE framework, this study uses survey data from 209 Malaysian SMEs. Structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) was used to assess the structural relations of the research model.

The results of the structural model show that data security, technology readiness, top management support, competitive pressure and innovativeness are the most significant factors in predicting the adoption of cloud computing in Malaysian SMEs. Further, the results indicate that intention to adopt cloud computing can play a mediating role between TOE factors and the actual usage of cloud computing.

The focus upon Malaysian SMEs may diminish the generalizability of the findings. This study provides profound insight into the management and foundation of cloud computing, different types of cloud services and deployment models that could facilitate the management of enterprise strategic resources and contribute to the performance improvement. This study also provides another important implication for practitioners regarding the absolute necessity of value drivers’ identification within enterprise and understand the causal relationships, which are vital in driving those values.

This study provides several practical guidance for practitioners in deploying cloud services which are most suitable option for their specific technology requirement in their enterprise to enjoy the full benefits of their intangible assets. Another significant implication of this study lies in the fact that it may require a different emphasis on nature and adoption design when there is a higher level of stress on technology-related and cloud computing resources.

This study contributes to the extant literature by developing an integrative model to identify how a wide set of contextual factors can determine the intention to adopt cloud computing and, in turn, influence the actual usage of cloud computing in SMEs in Malaysia as a developing country.

This paper aims to propose a new genetically evolved fuzzy cognitive mapping approach as a decision-making framework for analyzing the relationships between the drivers and strategies for green computing adoption.

A focus group discussion among stakeholders in the Philippines is used to establish the relationships between the drivers and strategies of green computing adoption.

The proposed approach significantly reduces the time complexity for developing the fuzzy cognitive maps and provides a basis for comprehensively clustering drivers and strategies that share similar characteristics.

This paper’s results provide insights into how the drivers and strategies of green computing adoption facilitate the intention of adopting stakeholders. Moreover, it provides a framework for analyzing structural relationships that exist between factors in a compliant manner.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, the paper is the first to analyze the drivers and strategies of green computing under a complex systems’ perspective. Moreover, this is the first study to offer lenses in a Philippine scenario.

The adoption of e-commerce in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a much researched topic in developed and developing nations. The application of mobile devices, and social media networks (SMNs) such as Facebook has revolutionalised the e-commerce adoption process in SMEs. However, research into this area is still developing and there is a dearth of knowledge on how SMEs in developing countries enact and apply this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to explain how e-commerce entrepreneurship using SMN is conceptualised and applied in SMEs, and to highlight factors that influence this e-commerce innovation.

An interpretive and qualitative case study approach was adopted as a methodological foundation in a firm pseudo-named, myBot. The study employed the contextualism theory as a meta-theoretical framework to conceptualise and analyse the e-commerce entrepreneurship process in the firm. The study employed face-to-face semi-structured and unstructured interviews with the manager as primary means of obtaining in-depth information. Further information was obtained through website content analysis and document analysis of the firm’s reports and observations.

The results unearth a socially constructed feature of e-commerce entrepreneurship that draws from myBot’s manager’s innovative ability to use Facebook and e-mail to increase sales through its niche market. Factors that propelled e-commerce entrepreneurial activities using Facebook include trust, commitment and innovativeness.

The revelation of this study may have changed due to the dynamic changes in the information and communication technology industry and how these are employed in a particular country and region of the world. Thus, results may not be generalised to other contexts. The study has a methodological limitation as it only had one informant who could respond to the study questions.

The study provides a practical application of using the contextualism theory to analyse e-commerce entrepreneurship in SMN.

The application of e-commerce using SMNs such as Facebook widens the scope of tools that SMEs may use.

The study provides a theoretical lens into the understanding of an e-commerce entrepreneurship process using a contextualism theory. The paper showcases how e-commerce using Facebook can be portrayed in a developing country context.

Small and medium enterprises (SME) significantly alleviate poverty and generate employment to achieve sustainable economic growth. Using electronic devices, e-commerce allows an immediate and advanced communication service to accomplish business transactions. Considering logistics provider as a case, this paper aims to examine the impact of adopting an e-commerce technology on its customers’ and agents’ satisfaction.

The authors use the difference in difference methodology to examine these effects and find positive impacts on both customers and service providers.

As SMEs are widely considered as the powerhouse of an economy, the authors’ findings suggest that using e-commerce not only makes an SME agent more efficient but also accelerates an SME business transaction, which ultimately helps to achieve sustainable economic growth.

A few studies are conducted in examining the impact of SME on economy. However, according to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that examines the impact of e-commerce on SME.

The purpose of this paper is to understand blog continuance. Specifically, this paper aims to compare two theoretical models and an integrated model to identify which theoretical models best predicts blog continuance intention.

An empirical study was conducted through an online survey. Data collected from six famous blogs in Taiwan (n=361) were analyzed using structural equation modeling and pairwise nested F‐tests.

Results show that the ECT‐IS model and the integrated model have greater explanatory power of blog continuance intention than the technology acceptance model (TAM). The results of pairwise nested F‐tests show that the ECT‐IS model exhibits statistically significant R² improvement compared to TAM. However, the R² improvement in the integrated model is not statistically different from that in the ECT‐IS model. The ECT‐IS model is also more parsimonious than the integrated model. Thus, the ECT‐IS is a preferable model. Confirmation and satisfaction are salient factors influencing this intention.

The results of this study provide useful information for blogging service providers (BSPs) to enhance and develop useful blog functions for user satisfaction. By revealing the differences and comparisons among these three models, this study can help BSPs promote the benefits of their blogs to strengthen the continuance intentions of their customers.

This paper is one of the first studies to examine of influence change of variables and compare the relative ability of two competing theories, ECT‐IS and TAM, and an integrated model in explaining blog continuance intention. The results confirm that the ECT‐IS is a better model than the other two for explaining blog continuance intention.

This paper aims to propose an innovative approach to assist teachers in using electronic libraries to develop learning activities for context‐aware ubiquitous learning, in which the learning system can detect students' behaviors and guide them to learn in the real world with personalized support from the digital world.

An electronic library with context‐awareness metadata for supporting learning activities conducted in real‐world environments is presented. Furthermore, a systematic procedure for guiding teachers in employing the electronic library to develop learning activities is proposed based on an innovative approach.

From a practical application conducted on an elementary school, it is found that, with this innovative approach, electronic libraries not only have the potential in supporting traditional in‐class or online learning activities, but also can assist teachers and digital content workers in developing high quality learning activities and related digital learning materials to support outdoor learning.

The findings of this paper imply that, to promote the utilization rate of electronic libraries for more specified purposes, more features of the application domains need to be considered while designing the database schemas of the electronic libraries.

From the feedback of teachers and digital content workers, it is found electronic libraries have high potential for supporting outdoor learning activities for “Science” and “Social science” courses with proper database schema design and the provision of user guidance.

An electronic library for supporting context‐aware ubiquitous‐learning is presented and an innovative approach for guiding teachers to design learning activities is proposed.