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The purpose of this paper is to study the informational role played by an intermediary in the service industry.

The paper used survey and choice data collected from agents and customers, respectively, in the hotel industry.

The paper shows that informational role of agents in choice varies from mere facilitation of the transaction (e.g. making reservation) to a more active role involving accurate predictions about attributes that consumers will perceive important, more realistic performance evaluation of choice options and providing information about experience attributes. The results also show how an agent's role depends on customer's prior knowledge about the choice options, the goal underlying service consumption (e.g. business vs vacation travel), benefits sought by the consumer and the agent's perception about a long term relationship with the consumer. Finally, the results also reveal a unique pattern of differences between agents and consumers in the perceived importance and performance ratings of various features of the service.

This research is limited to agents in the hotel industry. The hypotheses should be tested on other service agent industries such as airlines and restaurants. Future research should consider other alternative sources of information that consumers may use, such as printed material.

The unique nature of the data set – that is, information from the agent as well as the consumer on the same transaction – offers a great opportunity to study the two different points of view and test some hypothesis regarding the degree to which the players understand each other.

This paper aims to propose a mobile agent-based security information and event management architecture (MA-SIEM) that uses mobile agents for near real-time event collection and normalization on the source device. The externalization of the normalization process, executed by several distributed mobile agents on interconnected computers and devices, proposes a SIEM server dedicated mainly for correlation and analysis.

The architecture has been proposed in three stages. In the first step, the authors described the different aspects of the proposed approach. Then they implemented the proposed architecture and presented a new vision for the insertion of normalized data into the SIEM database. Finally, the authors performed a numerical comparison between the approach used in the proposed architecture and that of existing SIEM systems.

The results of the experiments showed that MA-SIEM systems are more efficient than existing SIEM systems because they leave the SIEM resources primarily dedicated to advanced correlation analysis. In addition, this paper takes into account realistic scenarios and use-cases and proposes a fully automated process for transferring normalized events in near real time to the SIEM server for further analysis using mobile agents.

The work provides new insights into the normalization security-related events using light mobile agents.

This guide is compiled in order that banks may see the extent of the overall problem of fraud and money laundering in documentary credit transactions. It also contains advice on how banks and bankers may protect themselves and their staff from the consequences of fraudulent attacks against the system.

Small Bore Inspection. Detection of corrosion and other faults in the walls of tubes, valves, holes and bores of small dimensions is now considerably simplified by the Bore Viewer. This instrument consists of a battery handle, a light probe, and sleeve with an elliptical mirror. The aide walls of the bore, illuminated by a small lamp, are viewed in the mirror through a magnifying lens and, in this way, holes from 3/16 to 1¼ in. diam. and up to 8 in. in length can be inspected in detail.

The goal of the study is to underline “Cinematic Architecture” as another source of architectural thinking and research. This study is also a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema. Moreover, the study introduces the architectural components that qualify the cinematic spaces to be influential cinematic experience. This is in addition to investigating the impact of these components on the viewers' cognitive and emotional experience of films.

In the reported study, an empirical experiment examined scenes from three different movies as experienced by a selected group of audience of movies fans (architects and laypersons). The audience was asked to report feelings the audience had about each scene using a questionnaire that was designed for this purpose, and the audience was asked to write down the aspects that affected the audience's emotions. The experiment evaluated selected emotional states and could specify the architectural features and/or objects that significantly contributed in inducing these emotions.

This study's findings concluded that emotions, which exist in the positive margin of the emotions “circumplex model,” were influenced by architectural components that were different from those that influenced emotions which lie in the negative margin of the model.

As for filmmakers, the study contributes in developing filmmakers' knowledge about the role of architecture in scenic creation and thus how that knowledge enhances filmmakers' film narrative and the narrative's spatial imagery. As for academia, this study contributes in developing the knowledge about film cognition as related to architectural semiotics. In the context of behavioral approach to architectural design, a behavior setting which is the basic element in environmental design can be dramatized by applying a cinematic narrative to a human activity system within a milieu of architectural design elements.

This study is important for architects, as the study provides architects with an alternative tool for fictional experience and for testing architectural ideas through cinematic architecture. This study also helps in developing new venues for the practice of architecture into the world of fiction. This study also contributes in developing the trend that architectural design thinking can learn from cinematic thinking and practice.

This study introduces an empirical approach to evaluate architectural entities as part of cinematic experience. This study also comes as a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema.

The purpose of this paper is to provide findings of an exploratory study of Special Agents in Charge (SACs) in a variety of federal law enforcement agencies and presents summary descriptions, including demographics and career paths of female agents.

Incumbent SACs, reached with assistance from law enforcement organizations and through snowball techniques, anonymously completed questionnaires that were mailed to each individually. This methodology provided a snapshot in time of the first generation of women to have reached the rank of SAC.

The findings suggest that women are moving up the ranks of federal agencies even while their overall percentages of employment have become somewhat static. Regardless of type or size of federal agency, there are a number of common career paths and the ages and racial demographics of the women are also similar across agencies.

As federal agency recruitment of women seems to have stagnated, a portrait of women who have reached middle management may provide insight into the obstacles women face in these agencies and also into how some women have overcome these obstacles.

The findings are derived from the first ever study of women SACs. In addition to providing a snapshot of incumbent women, it will provide baseline data for later studies of future generations of women who move up in the ranks of federal law enforcement.

Purpose: This purpose of this chapter is to present several theories of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is the ease of access to, and the availability of, basic financial services to all members of the population. Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs in a responsible and sustainable way. Financial inclusion practices vary from country to country, and there is need to identify the underlying principles or propositions that can explain the observed variation in financial inclusion practices. These set of principles or propositions are called theories.

Methods: The chapter uses conceptual discussions to formulate alternative theories of financial inclusion.

Findings: The study shows that financial inclusion theories are explanations for observed financial inclusion practices. It also shows that the ideas and perspectives on financial inclusion can be grouped into theories to facilitate meaningful discussions in the literature.

Originality/value: Currently, there are no observed or elaborate theories of financial inclusion in the policy or academic literature. This chapter is the first attempt to develop theories of financial inclusion. The theories are intended to be useful to researchers, academics and practitioners. The resulting contributions to theory development are useful to the problem-solving process in the global financial inclusion agenda.