Abstract: Objective: To review published criteria for specifically evaluating health related information on the world wide web, and to identify areas of consensus. Design: Search of world wide web sites and peer reviewed medical journals for explicit criteria for evaluating health related information on the web, using Medline and Lexis-Nexis databases, and the following internet search engines: Yahoo!, Excite, Altavista, Webcrawler, HotBot, Infoseek, Magellan Internet Guide, and Lycos. Criteria were extracted and grouped into categories. Results: 29 published rating tools and journal articles were identified that had explicit criteria for assessing health related web sites. Of the 165 criteria extracted from these tools and articles, 132 (80%) were grouped under one of 12 specific categories and 33 (20%) were grouped as miscellaneous because they lacked specificity or were unique. The most frequently cited criteria were those dealing with content, design and aesthetics of site, disclosure of authors, sponsors, or developers, currency of information (includes frequency of update, freshness, maintenance of site), authority of source, ease of use, and accessibility and availability. Conclusions: Results suggest that many authors agree on key criteria for evaluating health related web sites, and that efforts to develop consensus criteria may be helpful. The next step is to identify and assess a clear, simple set of consensus criteria that the general public can understand and use. Key messages Many organisations and individuals have published criteria to evaluate health related information on the world wide web A literature and world wide web search found that the most frequently cited criteria were those dealing with content, design and aesthetics of site, disclosure of authors, sponsors, or developers, currency of information, authority of source, and ease of use Criteria related to confidentiality and privacy were only cited by one author Consensus regarding critical criteria for evaluation of web based health information seems to be emerging Our results indicate that many authors agree on key criteria for evaluating health related web sites, and that efforts to develop a set of key criteria may be helpful

Abstract: The exponential growth and capillar diffusion of the Web are nurturing a novel generation of applications, characterized by a direct business-to-customer relationship. The development of such applications is a hybrid between traditional IS development and Hypermedia authoring, and challenges the existing tools and approaches for software production. This paper investigates the current situation of Web development tools, both in the commercial and research fields, by identifying and characterizing different categories of solutions, evaluating their adequacy to the requirements of Web application development, enlightening open problems, and exposing possible future trends.

Abstract: A document-collaboration videoconferencing system between a first and a second conference attendee. In one embodiment, the system comprises a document server, a local presenter computing system, and a conferencing computing system. In this embodiment, the local presenter computing system transfers a document to the document server over a network, and the first conferencing system copies such document over the network from the document server.

Abstract: An Internet subscription system for alerting subscribers to changes in data maintained at Internet sites has an input interface for a subscriber to specify a data condition to be monitored and a condition for notification and a gatherer for gathering data changes from one or more Internet sites. A guard compares data changes with the condition for notification, and a notification alert system notifies the subscriber of a change that meets the condition for notification. The system is particularly suited to notification requirements regarding metadata changes over multiple sources. Users can configure the system to many different frequencies and many different data and notification conditions. Alerts may be made to many different devices in different ways as well, and may or may not include specific data.

Abstract: Systems, methods and related software products which enable users to temporarily store and subsequently retrieve information are disclosed. The system embodiments include a plurality of input devices, client computers (each having a user-specific personal finance application) and a web-site server with a database. The input devices, client computers and server are communicatively linked via a communication network so that a plurality of users can temporarily store and/or manipulate financial transaction information on the server from any of the input devices. Each user can also transmit financial profile information to the server. This information enables the server to replicate the unique profile characteristics for each of the finance applications. This, in turn, simplifies remote entry of information, subsequent download of that information and integration of such information into each user's personal finance application. When the user accesses a respective client computer having the user's customized personal finance application, the user can download the previously stored information and automatically integrate the information into the user's personal finance application.

Abstract: A Web based system provides informational services for assisting customers in selecting products or other types of items from an electronic catalog of a merchant. Users of the system can create and join user communities, such as communities based on user hobbies, localities, professions, and organizations. The system also supports implicit membership communities that are based on email addresses (e.g., all users having a “nasa.com” email address), shipping/billing addresses, and other known user information. Using purchase history data collected for online users, the system automatically identifies and generates lists of the most popular items (and/or items that are becoming popular) within particular communities, and makes such information available to users for viewing. For example, in the context of an online book store users of the nasa.com community may automatically be presented a Web page which lists the bestselling book titles among nasa.com users, or may be sent email notifications of purchase events or hotselling books within the community. Another feature involves automatically notifying users interested in particular products of other users (preferably other members of the same community) that have purchased the same or similar products. For example, in one embodiment, when a user accesses a book detail page, the detail page is customized to include the names and email addresses of other members of the user's community that recently purchased the same book.

Abstract: From the Publisher: A comprehensive guide to today's most advanced R&D in highly parallel programming and applications. Volume 1 of this two-volume set collected today's best work on the systems aspects of high performance cluster computing. Now, in High Performance Cluster Computing: Programming and Application Issues, Volume 2, Rajkumar Buyya brings together the world's leading work on programming and applications for today's state-of-the-art "commodity supercomputers." The book is organized into three areas: programming environments and development tools; Java(tm) as a language of choice for development in highly parallel systems; and state-of-the-art high performance algorithms and applications. All three areas have seen major advances in recent years-and in all three areas, this book offers unprecented breadth and depth. Coverage includes: New parallel programming techniques and tools, including MP and PVM, active objects, scoped behavior, and LiPS. State-of-the-art debuggng techniques: Code liberation, global renaming, name reclamation, and debugging interfaces. The WebOS: Designing operating system services for wide-area applications. Leveraging Java(tm) to the fullest: Distributed objects, the HPspmd model, and more. Clustered Web servers and other high performance Web applications. Real-time resource management, climate ocean modeling, parallel reflexive reasoning, content-based image retrieval, biomedical applications, and more.

Abstract: Web sites are increasingly being used by educators in place of traditional content media and instructional approaches, such as texts and lectures. This new teaching philosophy has led to a myriad of questions concerning instructional design principles, learners' cognitive strategies, human-Internet interaction factors and instructional characteristics of Web media that transverse political, geographic and national boundaries.Instructional and Cognitive Impacts of Web-Based Education is a compendium of materials by noted researchers and practitioners that addresses national and international issues and implications of Web-based instruction and learning, offering suggestions and guidelines for analyzing and evaluating Web sites from cognitive and instructional design perspectives.

Abstract: An integrated web based system for generating electronic request for proposal (RFP) forms and responding to the generated RFPs over a secure communications network. Using a web site interface, the present invention enables users to request specific information for goods and services from specific vendors, automates the process of responding to the RFPs, and automates the process of reviewing, analyzing and presenting the results. Potential vendors are notified via e-mail when the RFP is completed, and have the option to respond to the RFP by using information stored in the associated online databases or by providing new information that is then stored in the online databases. The system remembers links from questions to all appropriate responses and prompts vendors to add them to their response form. Analysis on completed forms is automated and enables the users to evaluate RFPs.

Abstract: Most Web applications are still developed ad hoc. One reason is the gap between established software design concepts and the low-level Web implementation model. We summarize work on WebComposition, a model for Web application development, then introduce the WebComposition Markup Language, an XML-based language that implements the model. WCML embodies object-oriented principles such as modularity, abstraction and encapsulation.

Abstract: A method of interactively sharing information between at least two devices in a computer network, each device having a respective browser associated therewith for handling the information, includes retrieving information from an information source in the network for storage in response to receipt of a retrieval request from a first browser associated with a first device. The method further includes sending the stored information to at least a second browser of at least a second device in response to receipt of a similar --request therefrom, the second device receiving the request from the first device, such that the devices can share the information retrieved from the information source in response to the single request made to the source. Preferably, a surrogate is established in at least the first device for informing the second device of the request made such that the browser of the second device can make the similar request. Also, the information available from the information source in the computer network may include dynamically changing (i.e., stateful) content.

Abstract: A data-driven approach can be fruitfully used in the speci cation and automatic generation of data-intensive Web applications, i.e., applications which make large amounts of data available on the Web. We present a multi-level architecture based on orthogonal abstractions for the de nition of the structure, derivation, navigation, composition, and presentation of Web sites; then we show how these ingredients are used in Torii, a tool environment for the speci cation and automatic generation of Web sites, currently developed in the context of a large Esprit project. By means of design tools, speci cations are collected in a design repository, which is next used for Web page generation. This dynamic, data-centered approach opens up opportunities for personalizations: each user can be mapped to an individual hypertextual view of the Web site (called site view), and business rules may be used to change site views, both statically and dynamically. We argue that personalization of Web access (also called oneto-one Web delivery) is naturally supported by the proposed data-driven approach, and is We acknowledge the support of ESPRIT Project 28771 W3I3, MURST Project Interdata, CNR-CESTIA, and the HP Internet Philanthropic Initiative. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the VLDB copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Very Large Data Base Endowment. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or special permission from the Endowment. Proceedings of the 25th VLDB Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1999. at the same time a key ingredient of the Web applications of the near future.

Abstract: A Web-based buyer-driven system of commerce efficiently and inexpensively connects buyers and sellers. In general, the system includes a Web site globally accessible by potential buyers and sellers. Potential buyers post descriptions of products and services they desire on the Web site. Interested sellers of those products and services can access the descriptions posted by the buyers and selectively post responses to buyers. The responses preferably include information identifying the seller and describing the product or service offered by the seller. The system determines if the potential buyer retrieves a response directed to him from a potential seller and, if so, it charges that potential seller a small fee.

Abstract: A method for retrieving information, including designating at least one word appearing in a display of a body of text generated by a first computer (52). Responsive to the designation, the at least one designated word is automatically transmitted via a network to a second computer (30). Data relating to the at least one designated word are received from the second computer.

Abstract: Electronic commerce is emerging as a major Web-supported application. In this paper we argue that database technology can, and should, provide the back-bone for a wide range of such applications. More precisely, we present here the ActiveViews system, which, relaying on an extensive use of database features in-cluding views, active rules (triggers), and enhanced mechanisms for notification, access control and logging/tracing of users activities, provides the needed basis for electronic commerce. Based on the emerging XML standards (DOM, query languages for XML, etc.), the system offers a novel declarative view specification language, describing the relevant data and activities of all actors (e.g. vendors and clients) participat-ing in electronic commerce activities . Then, acting as an application generator, the system generates an actual, possibly customized, Web application that allows users to perform the given set of controlled activities and to work interactively on the specified data in a standard distributed environment. Although closely related to workflow management systems, a major difference here is the importance we give to data. While workflow systems give declarative means for specifying the operations flow, the data involved is typically described in a very abstract manner, often disconnected from the description of the flow itself. In contrast, our approach promotes the data, acknowledging its importance for optimization coherence and analysis of applications. The ActiveView system is developed at INRIA on top of Ardent s XML repository and Java.

Abstract: An analgetic composition which comprises, as an active ingredient, a therapeutically effective amount of a synergistic mixture of an indole-3-acetic acid derivative of the formula, wherein R is a halobenzoyl, piperonylcyl or cinnamoyl group and R1 is a 5-methoxy or 5,6-methylenedioxy group; and a narcotic or anti-narcotic analgesic selected from the group consisting of a compound of the formula, wherein R2 and R3 are each a C1 - C3 alkyl group and R4 is a 4-(4-fluorophenyl)-4-oxobutyl, cyclopropylmethyl or 3-methyl-2-butenyl group; a compound of the formula, wherein R5 is a hydrogen atom or a C1 - C3 alkyl group; a compound of the formula, and a compound of the formula, wherein R6 is a C1 - C3 alkyl group; and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent and its preparation and a method of obtaining analgesia which comprises administering the same to a patient.

Abstract: Foreword By Paolo Glisenti Introduction I THE FOUNDATION 1 Introduction to Internet Business Being Online Defining E-Business Reasons for Going Online Differentiating between E-Business Categories Using the New Paradigm of E-Business 2 Preparing the Online Business Competitor Analysis on the Internet The Fourth Channel Paradigms in the New Economy Return on Investment Driving Business Process Reengineering Designing, Developing, and Deploying the System 3 Selecting the Technology Internet Networking Exploring the IT Infrastructure Deciding on the Enterprise Middleware Choosing the Right Enterprise Applications Building the E-Business Applications Speeding up the Internet 4 Avoiding Legal Issues Global Contracts The Web Site Encryption Algorithms Developing a Dark Site 5 Marketing Strategies on the Web Internet Marketing Technologies Web Design Attracting Visitors to Your Site Virtual Societies Localization Promoting Your E-Business Banner Ad Campaigning Online Measurement One-to-One Marketing Direct Marketing Choosing the Right ISP II E-BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 6 Search Engines and Portals Searching the Internet The Future of Searching Intelligent Network Agents Portal Sites 7 Shopping and ORM Solutions Online Shopping Shopping Solutions Implications of the New Economy Electronic Software Distribution Configurator Tools Auctioning on the Internet Operational Resources Management Joining the Shopping and ORM Solutions 8 Supporting E-Business Components Content Management Systems Customer Relationship Management Knowledge Management Systems 9 Interactive Communication Experiences The Basics Moderating Online Meetings Internet Chat Solutions Peer-to-Peer Technologies Internet-Based Trainings III INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES 10 Comparing Web Technologies Finding the Right Browser The Hypertext Markup Language The Dynamic Web Dynamic Server Concepts Web Application Servers The Extensible Markup Language Plug-ins JavaScript 11 Security on the Internet Creating a Security Strategy Cryptographic Tools Applications of Cryptology Privacy on the Internet Fighting Virus and Hoax Virus Warnings Conflicts in the Information Age Client-based Security Server-based Security 12 Dealing with Java Introducing Java Java Foundation Classes Jini JavaBeans InfoBus Resolving Possible Java Issues Avoiding the Java Wars The Future of Java Computing 13 Imaging on the Internet Image Business Image Concepts The FlashPix Format QuickTime VR VRML Comparing Imaging Technologies The Future of Imaging 14 Paying Via the NET The Payment Business Fraud on the Internet Example Business Cases Postpaid Payment Systems Instant-paid Payment Systems Prepaid Payment Systems Comparing Payment Technologies The Future of Payment IV THE PRESENT FUTURE 15 The Open Source Community Information Wants to Be Free Free Software Projects Open Source Projects Moving Your Company from Products to Services Introduction to Open Hardware Outlook into the Future 16 Pervasive Computing Internet Services Programming Models Device-to-device Communication Information Exchange Service Broadcasting The Vision Comparison of Pervasive Computing Technologies The Future of Pervasive Computing 17 Beyond Pervasive Computing Technical Outlook on the Future Looking into the Future of Business The Societal Impact A: Glossary of E-Business Terms B: Example Internet Business Architecture The Business Idea Marketing on the Web Implementation of the Service Outlook into the Future C: Useful Web Addresses Business Comics Computers Fun Hacking-Related Sites Internet Organizations Mailing Lists News Search Engines Software Development D: Internationalization of Web Sites Introduction Bad Habits ISO 8859 and Unicode ISO 639 Language Codes International URLs E DotCom Death Analysis Introduction DotCom Failures Successful Examples The Future Subject Index

Abstract: The popularity of the Web as a universal access mechanism for network information has created the need for developing Web based DBMS client/server applications. However, the current commercial applet based methodologies for accessing database systems offer limited flexibility, scalability and robustness. We propose a new framework for Web based distributed access to database systems based on Java based mobile agents. The framework supports lightweight, portable and autonomous clients as well as operation on slow or expensive networks. The implementation of the framework shows that its performance is comparable to, and in some cases outperforms, the current approach. In fact, in wireless and dial-up environments and for average size transactions, a client/agent/server adaptation of the framework provides a performance improvement of approximately a factor of ten. For the fixed network, the gains are about 40% and 30% respectively.

Abstract: A unified web-based voice messaging system provides voice application control between a web browser and an application server via an hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) connection on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The application server generates and maintains a server-side data record, also referred to as a “brownie”, that includes application state information and user attribute information for an identified user session with the web browser. The application server, in response to receiving a new web page request from the browser, initiates a web application instance to begin a transient application session with the browser. The brownie also includes a session identifier that uniquely identifies the session with the user of the application session. The application server stores the brownie in a memory resident within the server side of the network, and sends to the browser the session identifier and the corresponding web page requested by the web browser.

Abstract: A unified web-based voice messaging system provides voice application control between a proxy browser having a web browser, and an application server via an hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) connection on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The proxy browser serves as an HTTP interface for a user device that lacks HTML and HTTP processing capabilites, such as an analog telephone, a cellular telephone, a voice over IP telephone, and the like. The web browser receives an HTML page from the application server having an XML element that defines data for an audio operation to be performed by an executable audio resource within the proxy browser. The audio resource, also referred to as a media resource, selectively executes the HTML tags and the audio operation based on the determined capabilities of the user device. If the user device does not have audio capabilities, the media resource ignores the audio operation, and merely presents the HTML information, assuming the user device has a display. If the media resource determines that the user device has at least a speaker and possibly a microphone, the media resource executes the audio operation based on enhanced audio control specified by the XML element. Similarly, if the media resource determines that the user device does not have a display, the HTML tag information is discarded by the media resource. Hence, a proxy browser can be used by user devices to access enhanced voice control for voice enabled web applications.

Abstract: "A pattern ... describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over" [1]. The possible benefits of using design patterns for Web applications are clear. They help fill the gap between requirements specification and conceptual modeling. They support conceptual modeling-by-reuse, i.e. design by adapting and combining already-proven solutions to new problems. They support conceptual modeling-in-the-very-large, i.e. the specification of the general features of an application, ignoring the detedls. This paper describes relevant issues about design patterns for the Web and illustrates an initiative of ACM SIGWEB (the ACM Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Web). The initiative aims, with the contribution of researchers and professionals of different communities, to build an on-line repository for Web design patterns.

Abstract: A method of providing support to a user of a computer peripheral includes sensing a peripheral indicia at a computer and registering the peripheral and downloading from a server additional information about the peripheral based on the peripheral indicia. The peripheral indicia includes any of a model number, a part number, a serial number, a date of manufacturer and a configuration indicia. Registering the peripheral is performed by launching a communications browser to connect to the server. The method also senses a peripheral condition at the computer where the peripheral condition includes either an error code or a code indicative of a consumable reaching a predetermined threshold or both. This method accesses the server at an address defined by the peripheral condition, and the server provides the browser with additional information about the peripheral condition.

Abstract: Educators, trainers, and business people need to be able to evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of Web‐based training in order to make informed decisions about the extent to which this new media should be used in their organizations. The present study hypothesizes that there are several key design elements that should be considered in costing Web‐based training projects. The relative importance of these elements is examined using a case study approach. The methodology used in this case study can be employed in future cost‐benefit studies of Web‐based training. This case study also provides a detailed cost‐benefit analysis, including the breakeven number of students required to recover Web‐based course development costs and the return on investment over a five‐year period.

Abstract: A consumer product information requesting (CPIR) enabling Servlet for execution on the server-side of an information network such as the Internet. The CPIR-enabling Servlet comprises a Universal Product Number (UPN) a uniquely associated with a particular consumer product on which an information search is to be carried out within a database management subsystem. One or more classes are loaded on a an Internet-enabled information server. When the consumer selects a CPIR-enabling Servlet tag embedded within the WWW and corresponding CPIR-enabling Servlet, a UPN-directed-search is automatically carried out within the database management subsystem, the a graphical user interface (GUI) is displayed within the Internet-enabled browser program used by the consumer, and the results from the UPN-directed search are displayed within the GUI in the form of a menu of categorized URLs pointing to consumer product related information resources published on the WWW, without disturbing the consumer's point of presence thereon. The CPIR-enabling Servlets can be used to build various types of consumer product information systems for operation on the WWW.

Abstract: This paper provides a technology-based review of World Wide Web-based testing technologies. It suggests an evaluation framework that could be used by practitioners in Web-based education to understand and compare features available in various Web-based testing systems. In order to compare existing options, the life cycle of a question in Web-based education is divided into three stages: (1) preparation, including authoring support, storage, and selection; (2) delivery, including presentation, interaction, and getting the answer; and (3) assessment, including evaluation, grading and recording, and feedback. (Contains 33 ,references.) (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 1 PERFAISSION TO'REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

Abstract: The reconstruction of isosurfaces from scalar volume data has positioned itself as a fundamental visualization technique in many different applications But the dramatically increasing size of volumetric data sets often prohibits the handling of these models on affordable low-end single processor architectures Distributed client-server systems integrating high-bandwidth transmission channels and Web-based visualization tools are one alternative to attack this particular problem, but therefore new approaches to reduce the load of numerical processing and the number of generated primitives are required In this paper we outline different scenarios for distributed isosurface reconstruction from large-scale volumetric data sets We demonstrate how to directly generate stripped surface representations and we introduce adaptive and hierarchical concepts to minimize the number of vertices that have to be reconstructed, transmitted and rendered Furthermore, we propose a novel computation scheme, which allows the user to flexibly exploit locally available resources The proposed algorithms have been merged together in order to build a platform-independent Web-based application Extensive use of VRML and Java OpenGL-bindings allows for the exploration of large-scale volume data quite efficiently

Abstract: Web-based course materials are being used extensively to provide supplementary as well as standalone instruction in educational settings. One of the most powerful elements of using the Web for teaching is the ability to engage learners in an interactive format. Although there are many technologies available that allow instructors to develop interactive Web course materials and elicit feedback from students, many educators choose to use the Web only for distributing static documents. This severely limits the potential of the Web to improve the teaching/learning process. Feedback and Assessment can be used to monitor student progress, control the pace of learning, and evaluate teaching strategies. Using HTML Forms is a simple but powerful technique to collect student feedback and leverage it to improve teaching. Forms are used to collect data from the students who use Web-based course materials. Student feedback can provide the instructor formative evaluation of teaching during the semester. By using this evaluation method, instructors can get immediate feedback on course material, teaching style and student progress in order to make necessary adjustments. This article explores cognitive aspects of learning and using sample Educational Psychology courses to demonstrate how student feedback can be applied in education to improve teaching. Many educators have recognized the potential of using the Internet for instruction. Although many Internet technologies such as e-mail, listservs, ftp and conferencing can be used to assist with teaching, the World Wide Web remains the most popular medium. It provides a user friendly front end and easy access to text, graphics, audio and video materials that may be used in a common and consistent format. Most education Web sites provide basic course information such as syllabus, schedule, announcements and reading lists. Others go beyond static materials to include synchronous or asynchronous communication, online testing, discussion groups, conferences, whiteboards, streaming audio and video. These type of materials are being made available in courses that meet in classrooms regularly and use Web materials as supplementary tools, as well as courses that are delivered entirely over the Web without traditional classroom meetings. The popularity of the Web for use in education can be seen from sites such as The World Lecture Hall (http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture) that contains links to hundreds of courses created by educators worldwide. Course topic areas on this site range from Accounting and Advertising to Women's Studies and Zoology. Web Interactivity Chickering and Ehrmann (1998) suggest that while using technology to teach, educators should eschew materials that are didactic and instead search for technology-assisted solutions that are interactive, problem oriented, and that evoke student motivation. Web interactivity helps engage students in active application of knowledge, principles and values, and provides them with feedback that allows their understanding to grow and evolve. As compared to just accessing a static Web page and either reading or printing it, interactive components involve participation by having the user in some way interact with the Web environment. The interaction can be with content, other students, instructor, participation in a discussion group, quiz questions, simulation program, conferencing, live chat, or by filling out a feedback form. Web environments can make use of one or more of these interactive components at any time. This type of interactivity may seem directly related to the constructivist theory. In designing learning environments, researchers (Honebein 1996; Lebow 1993; Knuth and Cunningham 1993) have recommended using constructivist theory for effective learning. The constructivist approach incorporates pedagogical goals in the knowledge construction process by providing appreciation for multiple perspectives, embedding learning in relevant contexts, encouraging ownership in the learning process, embedding learning in social experience, encouraging use of multiple modes of representation, and encouraging self awareness of the knowledge construction process (Vygotsky 1986; Bruner 1990). …