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The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the restructuring process of the University of Arizona libraries. The paper focuses more specifically on the research support services (RSS) team, one of the librarian teams, that moved from a subject liaison model to a domain model focused on different work areas.

The paper details the three phases of restructuring: building the general frame of change by the restructuring team, staffing outline by the implementation team, and how the resulting team, the research support team, managed its assigned work.

The restructuring resulted in a few changes to the library as whole but the largest change was the creation of the RSS team and the move from a subject specialist model to a domain model. The RSS model has allowed the team to accomplish their work with fewer staff.

The paper provides a new approach of how a research university is responding to economic and technological challenges.

The complexity of the firm’s external environment, with its constant changes, forces managers to develop novel strategies that can meet new strategic needs. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of reward systems (RSs) in strategic management, as well as their relationship to learning and entrepreneurial orientation (EO), commonly referred to as the driving force behind growth, competitive advantages (CAs) and improved performance. It also focuses on the study of the relationship between EO and business performance (BP), the introduction and testing of the possible antecedents of this relationship and potential mediating factors.

A conceptual model was tested on a sample of 1,190 Portuguese firms using a structural equation model.

It is shown for the first time that learning orientation (LO) is an antecedent of the RSs and, subsequently, of EO. Additionally, the CAs of differentiation and cost leadership play a mediating role in the relationship between EO and BP. Furthermore, RSs are also a driving force behind both CAs.

This study makes several empirical and theoretical contributions, addressing the gap in the literature about the role of RSs in strategic management. It tests the relationship between LO and the firm’s performance by taking the mediating effects of RSs, EO and CAs into account. Additionally, we discuss LO as an antecedent strategic variable of human resources practices, in particular, RSs. Finally, we broaden the scope of our research by examining these issues in the context of Portuguese SMEs from different industries.

The purpose of this paper is to present a thorough analysis of three complementary features of real-scale really simple syndication (RSS)/Atom feeds, namely, publication activity, items characteristics and their textual vocabulary, that the authors believe are crucial for emerging Web 2.0 applications. Previous works on RSS/Atom statistical characteristics do not provide a precise and updated characterization of feeds’ behavior and content, characterization that can be used to successfully benchmark the effectiveness and efficiency of various Web syndication processing/analysis techniques.

The authors empirical study relies on a large-scale testbed acquired over an eight-month campaign from 2010. They collected a total number of 10,794,285 items originating from 8,155 productive feeds. The authors deeply analyze feeds productivity (types and bandwidth), content (XML, text and duplicates) and textual content (vocabulary and buzz-words).

The findings of the study are as follows: 17 per cent of feeds produce 97 per cent of the items; a formal characterization of feeds publication rate conducted by using a modified power law; most popular textual elements are the title and description, with the average size of 52 terms; cumulative item size follows a lognormal distribution, varying greatly with feeds type; 47 per cent of the feed-published items share the same description; the vocabulary does not belong to Wordnet terms (4 per cent); characterization of vocabulary growth using Heaps’ laws and the number of occurrences by a stretched exponential distribution conducted; and ranking of terms does not significantly vary for frequent terms.

Modeling dedicated Web applications capacities, Defining benchmarks, optimizing Publish/Subscribe index structures.

It especially opens many possibilities for tuning Web applications, like an RSS crawler designed with a resource allocator and a refreshing strategy based on the Gini values and evolution to predict bursts for each feed, according to their category and class for targeted feeds; an indexing structure which matches textual items’ content, which takes into account item size according to targeted feeds, size of the vocabulary and term occurrences, updates of the vocabulary and evolution of term ranks, typos and misspelling correction; filtering by pruning items for content duplicates of different feeds and correlation of terms to easily detect replicates.

A content-oriented analysis of dynamic Web information.

The aim is the provide an introduction to RSS feeds.

Description of the basic disc‐based audio‐video technologies.

Provides the baseline for types of RSS feeds and readers such as which are one of two categories, web‐based, or desktop based.

This paper is useful for information management professionals who seek greater understanding of the RSS feeds, uses in libraries and how to get started.

Research support services (RSS) is an emerging and popular area in university libraries, whose increasing importance has been well documented since the early 2010s. This study aims to identify the status of RSS provided in the university libraries of Pakistan and to compare the results with relevant international studies. The research also reports on the perception of librarians regarding the application of RSS in Pakistani university libraries.

A quantitative survey was conducted of the chief librarians/head librarians working in the 175 university libraries of Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was designed and pre-tested with national and international research experts, faculty members and library professionals. SPSS was used to calculate descriptive statistics. Results of the study were compared with previous literature from an international perspective.

Results of the study indicated that most of the university libraries are providing basic RSS and that they have good collections of both general and subject-specific works to meet the needs of researchers. Most respondents not only were interested in providing RSS but also emphasized that libraries should upgrade their collection to meet researchers’ requirements. However, results of the study also indicated that there was noticeably less support for both the more advanced and newer research support services.

Because the delivery of RSS enables libraries to help meet a university’s strategic research goals, the findings will be of interest to university library and information science executives, policymakers and administration. The suggested recommendations highlight those service areas which are most in need of improvement.

This research provides an updated perspective on the delivery of research support services by university libraries in Pakistan.

With the aid of the calculational system developed by the authors, the analysis of the problem of laser shock processing (LSP) treatment for induction of residual stress (RS) fields for fatigue life enhancement in relatively thin sheets in a way compatible with reduced overall workpiece deformation due to spring-back self-equilibration has been envisaged. Numerical results directly tested against experimental results have been obtained confirming the critical influence of the laser energy and irradiation geometry parameters. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Plane rectangular specimens (160 mm×100 mm×2 mm) of Al-cladded (∼80 μm) Al2024-T351 were considered both for LSP experimental treatment and for corresponding numerical simulation. The test piece is fixed on a holder and is driven along X and Y directions by means of an anthropomorphic robot. The predefined pulse overlapping strategy is used for the irradiation of extended areas of material. From the geometrical point of view, a full 3D configuration for the real geometry and for the sequential overlapping strategy of pulses has been considered. The FEM elements used for the simulation are an eight-node brick reduced integration with hourglass control in the treated area, namely C3D8RT, and a six-node trainer prism in the rest of the geometry, where there is no applied load, namely C3D6T, that ease meshing complex partitions. The element size in the nearest of the treated surface is 100×100×25 µm, being the maximum element size which allows to maintain calculation convergence.

Numerical results directly tested against experimental results have been obtained confirming: first, the critical influence of the laser energy and irradiation geometry parameters on the possible thin sheets deformation, both at local and global scales. Second, the possibility of finding LSP treatment parameter regimes that, maintaining the requirements relative to in-depth RSs fields, are able to reduce the relative importance of sheet deformation. Third, the possibility of finding LSP treatment parameter regimes able to provide through-thickness compressive RSs fields at levels compatible with an effective fatigue life enhancement. Fourth, the possibility of improving this through-thickness compressive RSs fields by double-side treatments. Fifth, the capability of the experimental LSP treatment system at the authors site (CLUPM) of practically achieve the referred through-thickness compressive RSs fields in excellent agreement with the predictive assessment obtained by the used numerical code (SHOCKLAS®).

The referred results provide a firm basis for the design of LSP treatments able to confer a broad range of RSs fields to thin components aiming the extension of their fatigue life, an enormously relevant field in which the authors are currently working.

The LSP treatment of relatively thin specimens brings, as an additional consequence, the possible bending in a process of laser shock forming. This effect poses a new class of problems regarding the attainment of specified RS’s depth profiles in the mentioned type of sheets, and, what can be more critical, an overall deformation of the treated component. The analysis of the problem of LSP treatment for induction of tentatively through-thickness RS’s fields for fatigue life enhancement in relatively thin sheets in a way compatible with reduced overall workpiece deformation due to spring-back self-equilibration is envisaged in this paper for the first time to the authors knowledge. The coupled theoretical-experimental predictive approach developed by the authors has been applied to the specification of LSP treatments for achievement of RS’s fields tentatively able to retard crack propagation on normalized specimens.

Localization is a fundamental problem in wireless sensor networks. In many applications, sensor location information is critical for data processing and meaning. While the global positioning system (GPS) can be used to determine mote locations with meter precision, the high hardware cost and energy requirements of GPS receivers often prohibit the ubiquitous use of GPS for location estimates. This high cost (in terms of hardware price and energy consumption) of GPS has motivated researchers to develop localization protocols that determine mote locations based on cheap hardware and localization algorithms. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of wireless sensor network localization techniques, and provide a detailed overview for several distance‐based localization algorithms.

To provide a detailed summary of wireless sensor network localization algorithms, the authors outline a tiered classification system in which they first classify algorithms as distributed, distributed‐centralized, or centralized. From this broad classification, the paper then further categorizes localization algorithms using their protocol techniques. By utilizing this classification system, the authors are able to provide a survey of several wireless sensor network localization algorithms and summarize relative algorithm performance based on the algorithms' classification.

There are numerous localization algorithms available and the performance of these algorithms is dependent on network configuration, environmental variables, and the ranging method implemented. When selecting a localization algorithm, it is important to understand basic algorithm operation and expected performance. This tier‐based algorithm classification system can be used to gain a high‐level understanding of algorithm performance and energy consumption based on known algorithm characteristics.

Localization is a widely researched field and given the quantity of localization algorithms that currently exist, it is impossible to present a complete review of every published algorithm. Instead, the paper presents a holistic view of the current state of localization research and a detailed review of ten representative distance‐based algorithms that have diverse characteristics and methods. This review presents a new classification structure that may help researchers understand, at a high‐level, the expected performance and energy consumption of algorithms not explicitly addressed by our work.

This paper aims to provide an overall picture of the application of Web 2.0 technologies in Australasian university libraries. The focus of the research was what types of Web 2.0 technologies were applied in such libraries as well as their purposes and features.

Content analysis was used in terms of quantitative approach. A checklist as the main research instrument was developed based on other checklists and questionnaires, and synthesized ideas from literature. Data were collected by accessing all Australasian university library web sites within two weeks. Then, Microsoft Excel was utilized as a main tool to synthesize and analyze data, and present results.

At least two‐thirds of Australasian university libraries deployed one or more Web 2.0 technologies. Only four Web 2.0 technologies were used for specific purposes and with some basic features. The general Web 2.0 application indexes were still low as the mean application index was 12 points and the highest index was 37 points (out of 100).

A combination of content analysis with survey and/or interview may enable future researchers to analyze other aspects (e.g. the application of internal wikis or the use of instant messaging for reference services) of Web 2.0 that a single method of content analysis could not gain.

This unique study explores the application of Web 2.0 in a wide scope including any Australasian university libraries that deployed any types of Web 2.0 technologies. This study is useful for Australasian university libraries in evaluating/deploying Web 2.0. Library managers, librarians and other university libraries may also find this helpful once they want to implement such technologies in their libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to present an instance of the system developed in the OmniPaper project, regarding the mechanisms of distributed information retrieval. These mechanisms were developed for newspaper articles and they were then instantiated in the context of the scientific publication.

One of the steps of the system's development was the definition of the metadata layer that supports the research and the navigation functionalities as well as the contents' syndication. Several tasks were performed for the definition of the metadata layer, namely: analysis of several metadata standard vocabularies; selection of the metadata elements; definition of an application profile and the RSS template; development of a metadatabase, through the use of a native Resource Description Framework (RDF) database management system to store the RSS descriptions of the scientific publications; implementation of the search and navigation processes developed in the prototype; finally, tests and validation of all developed functionalities.

The RSS technology is well suited for handling the description of scientific contents. RDF records that were used in the OmniPaper RDF prototype were replaced by RSS. The subject and lexical thesauri were kept. This strong metadata layer allows the creation of several services that facilitate the conceptual search of scientific contents.

The system implemented was tested but not evaluated in a real environment with specific users.

This paper presents a system that uses a central metadatabase to support conceptual searching mechanisms. This is a solution for a value‐added service for the scientific community that is fully based in state‐of‐the‐art standard technologies and is fully open for integration with other systems. Moreover this could be implemented by journals to improve the current mechanisms used to access, distribute and disseminate the scientific research developments.

This paper is to address the research gaps about Research Support System (RSS) as mentioned by earlier articles, and to provide a possible solution to develop an RSS for supporting academics in conducting their research.

This study adopts a single-case study with the application of netnography. Data were collected from an ongoing-using Wiki and the data were analysed using the theoretical lens established from earlier articles.

The result confirmed the possibilities of using Wiki to establish a system for supporting research. The authors have established a 3-stage EDM (Establishment, Development, Management) process model for illustrating the steps.

This single-case study revealed the possibility for using Wiki as RSS for helping academics to conduct their research through providing support in preparing literature review, conducting project management and providing an archive for research methodologies. The paper also provided suggestion for practitioners on the implementation of the RSS.

This paper presents one of the earliest studies for developing a model to explain how to develop an RSS that gives a more concrete definition of RSS and outline a process of using Wiki as an RSS.