Infrastructure-as-a-Service is the most flexible form of cloud computing and provides great opportunities to acquire and release computing resources as necessary. However, consumers face an increasingly opaque market due to growing number of providers and tariff options. As an approach to aid consumers finding the right tariff matching their needs, we suggest a broker model as an intermediate b...

Abstract: The highly competitive communications markets of the future should encompass mechanisms for enabling users to find and associate with the most appropriate retailers, i.e., those offering at a certain time period, adequate quality services in a cost efficient manner. This paper presents such mechanisms. Our starting point is the definition of a business case, through which the role of ...

This paper designs a reliability distribution network with limited capacity under partial and complete facility disruptions. To increase the reliability of the distribution network, a new mixed integer linear programing model is developed by considering multiple mitigation strategies including diversification, fortification, and transshipment. The distribution network constitutes of reliable di...

Collaborative filtering (CF) recommenders are subject to numerous shortcomings such as centralized processing, vulnerability to shilling attacks, and most important of all privacy. To overcome these obstacles, researchers proposed for utilization of interpersonal trust between users, to alleviate many of these crucial shortcomings. Till now, attention has been mainly paid to strong points about...

The study presents an empirical analysis of best practice production and cost frontiers for a sample of 94 acute care hospitals by applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a regression model, in a two-stage approach. This paper contributes to the DEA and efficiency measurement literatures by adding results from a homogeneous method of partitioning cost efficiency into its allocative (or pri...

Computing cost optimal paths in network data is a very important task in many application areas like transportation networks, computer networks or social graphs. In many cases, the cost of an edge can be described by various cost criteria. For example, in a road network possible cost criteria are distance, time, ascent, energy consumption or toll fees. In such a multicriteria network, a route o...

he demand for cost-efficient provision of mobile multimedia services is faced with the reality of scarce radio resources. The requirement of spectrum efficiency has driven the development of various digital radio technologies — digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital video broadcasting (DVB), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Universal Mobile T...

In the future, electronic exchanges will be a major facilitator of negotiation systems and a driver for new forms of bargaining and matchmaking between potential trading partners. Most existing bargaining systems are based on formalized auction schemes which need a centralized authority (an auctioneer). With the development of decentralized networks, we need new forms of electronic bargaining w...

During the past four decades, public trust in governments has continued to diminish due to various administrative, political, socio-cultural, economic, and mass media causes. Focusing on the administrative dimension, this study explores selected administrative factors to the declining of public trust, including public perception of administrative corruption (lack of transparency), inefficiency ...