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Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming more frequently used in more applications as the number of connected devices is in a rapid increase. More connected devices result in bigger challenges in terms of scalability, maintainability and most importantly security especially when it comes to 5G networks. The security aspect of IoT devices is an infant field, which is why it is our focus in this paper. Multiple IoT device manufacturers do not consider securing the devices they produce for different reasons like cost reduction or to avoid using energy-harvesting components. Such potentially malicious devices might be exploited by the adversary to do multiple harmful attacks. Therefore, we developed a system that can recognize malicious behavior of a specific IoT node on the network. Through convolutional neural network and monitoring, we were able to provide malware detection for IoT using a central node that can be installed within the network. The achievement shows how such models can be generalized and applied easily to any network while clearing out any stigma regarding deep learning techniques.

Recently, Wireless Sensor/Actuator Networks (WSAN) became a major innovation in the modern world. This technology consists of two main parts, a group of sensors and actuators. Sensors act as an information gathering tool which collects data about the physical world like heat and humidity then communicates this data with other nodes on the network. Upon receiving the collected data, actuators can then perform actions that interact with the physical world according to the collected data. This type of interaction between devices and the physical world sparked new horizons in IoT and other smart devices. Therefore, some applications based on WSAN can automate specific tasks like controlling temperature of the room in a smart home. But as technology advances, WSAN based applications are implemented into more mission critical systems where QoS is very crucial and cannot tolerate packet loss or delays. Hence, QoS have become an important factor when discussing mission critical WSAN, since such systems can be life-threatening in many cases. Therefore, in this paper, we will provide a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art approaches, protocols and applications that contributed in enhancing QoS in WSAN. Furthermore, we will provide our own comments on the shortcomings of the proposed solutions and discuss our take on how the discussed techniques can be further improved.

The nature of disruptive and sustaining technologies is sufficiently different to require different activities for the commercialization of these technology categories. Few theorists have developed conceptual schemes about the different methods of commercializing these technologies. The authors take the first steps in investigating these differences by contrasting firms that commercialize disruptive technologies with those that commercialize sustaining technologies. They reveal major differences and analyze these in terms of four major commercialization components: product realization, revenue generation, research support, and market potential. Several hypotheses regarding size of the firm, its financial risk profile, and its R&D strategy are utilized.

The transfer of technologies from government-operated research laboratories to commercial firms can be a challenging process especially for small and emerging entrepreneurial firms. Since the National Laboratories have become major creators of disruptive technologies and small firms are more apt to commercialize disruptive technologies, it is important to get small firms involved in these processes. This paper covers an innovative program used by Sandia National Laboratories to transfer micro-electro-mechanical systems' technology to small firms through training, prototyping and access provided to all small and large firms alike providing the impetus to small and entrepreneurial firms to create successful innovations that can generate new industries. The effect of the model on small and large firms is also shown over the last few years.

High-technology new firms are an important source of strong economic value and spillovers. It is therefore theoretically and practically important to understand the antecedents to their creation. This study focuses on understanding attitudinal, situational and personal characteristics associated with entrepreneurial activity by academic inventors. We surveyed patent holders and examined differences between entrepreneur inventors (EIs) and non-entrepreneur inventors (NEIs) in many dimensions. In demographic variables, EIs are more likely male, who have had a career in academic institutions. They were actively involved in technology development with grants used to validate the commercial potential of the technology and in a large number of contacts in the industry. They were also involved in business activities outside of their employment that required technical skills. EIs who had commercialization support from their regions were more likely to become entrepreneurs. The ones who exhibited innovative behavior were also more likely to become entrepreneurs. We used these differences to predict inventors who were more likely to become entrepreneurs using these demographic, personal characteristics, situational and attitudinal descriptors using discriminant functions with very good success. The model to forecast the inventors’ likely path to commercializing their technologies can have practical implications for universities and public policy-makers.

The traditional view of economic regions has always focused on the resources of the region as inputs to a production function and not as a distinctive advantage to an innovation function. The Brazi...

A significant gap exists in early-stage seed capital for technology-based new ventures. This article reports the results of a survey of embryonic firms in the southwestern United States that received significant amounts of their initial capital from strategic partners. Through this survey of firms, we have examined various characteristics of the partnerships. The firms were identified through extensive research of multiple sources (at least 30) such as universities, federal laboratories, state and local economic development agencies, incubator centers, technology parks, venture capital funds, NASA Regional Technology Transfer Centers, corporate alliance partners, entrepreneurial networking organizations and by word-of-mouth from other entrepreneurs. Our empirical research findings identified the following key issues as salient to small-firm/large-firm, technology-driven strategic alliances formed for seed capital investment purposes: (a) Processes of strategic alliance formation; (b) Benefits accruing from strategic alliance formation; (c) Alternative market roles to forming a strategic alliance; (d) Governance processes of strategic alliances; (e) Alternative sources of funding to forming a strategic alliance; (f) Critical success/failure factors in strategic alliance formation.

Managing the careers of research, development and engineering (RD&E) professionals is important to the strategic use of RD&E in the economy. Appropriate mechanisms for motivating RD&E professionals will probably emerge as a critical success factor for organizations that want to compete in world markets. This study examines dimensions and levels of career orientation and their correlations with individual and work-related outcome variables among 78 RD&E professionals. The findings reveal a rich diversity of career orientation in RD&E professionals. The data strongly suggest that RD&E professionals are service, lifestyle and security oriented. However, they scored low on technical orientation and entrepreneurship. This paper suggests that the dual career ladder is not an effective device for managing RD&E professionals. Organizations must be careful to provide career paths that retain and motivate workers and, more importantly, find matches between organizational needs and individuals' needs, and restructure jobs accordingly. The authors offer suggestions for future research and identify implications for management.

Objective: Self-perceived health status may be helpful in identifying patients at high risk for adverse outcomes. The Euro Heart Survey on Coronary Revascularization (EHS-CR) provided an opportunity to explore whether impaired health status was a predictor of 1-year mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing angiographic procedures. Methods: Data from the EHS-CR that included 5619 patients from 31 member countries of the European Society of Cardiology were used. Inclusion criteria for the current study were completion of a self-report measure of health status, the EuroQol Questionnaire (EQ-5D) at discharge and information on 1-year follow-up, resulting in a study population of 3786 patients. Results: The 1-year mortality was 3.2% (n = 120). Survivors reported fewer problems on the five dimensions of the EQ-5D as compared with non-survivors. A broad range of potential confounders were adjusted for, which reached a p

Aims: Revascularization in patients with coronary artery disease changed over the last two decades, favouring the number of patients treated by means of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) when compared with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been performed to compare these two competing revascularization techniques. Because of the strict enrolment criteria of RCTs in which highly selected patients are recruited, the applicability of the results may be limited in clinical practice. The current study evaluates to what extent patients in clinical practice were similar to those who participated in RCTs comparing PCI with CABG. Methods and results: Clinical characteristics and 1-year outcome of 4713 patients enrolled in the Euro Heart Survey on Coronary Revascularization were compared with 8647 patients who participated in 14 major RCTs, comparing PCI with CABG. In addition, we analysed which proportion of survey patients would have disqualified for trial participation (n = 3033, 64%), aiming at identifying differences between trial-eligible and trial-ineligible survey patients. In general, important differences were observed between trial participants and survey patients. Patients in clinical practice were older, more often had comorbid conditions, single-vessel disease, and left main stem stenosis when compared with trial participants. Almost identical differences were observed between trial-eligible and trial-ineligible survey patients. In clinical practice, PCI was the treatment of choice, even in patients who were trial-ineligible (46% PCI, 26% CABG, 28% medical). PCI remained the preferred treatment option in patients with multi-vessel disease (57% in trial-eligible and 40% in trial-ineligible patients, respectively, P < 0.001); yet, the risk profile of patients treated by PCI was better than that for patients treated either by CABG or by medical therapy. In the RCTs, there was no mortality difference between PCI and CABG. In clinical practice, however, we observed 1-year unadjusted survival benefit for PCI vs. CABG (2.9 vs. 5.4%, P < 0.001). Survival benefit was only observed in trial-ineligible patients (3.3 vs. 6.2%, P < 0.001). Conclusion: Many patients in clinical practice were not represented in RCTs. Moreover, only 36% of these patients were considered eligible for participating in a trial comparing PCI with CABG. We demonstrated that RCTs included younger patients with a better cardiovascular risk profile when compared with patients in everyday clinical practice. This study highlights the disparity between patients in clinical practice and patients in whom the studies that provide the evidence for treatment guidelines are performed. © The European Society of Cardiology 2006. All rights reserved.

TQM has met with very mixed reviews from organizations that have attempted to understand and to implement this strategy for organizational improvement. Succesful implementation of TQM requires that all critical factors for success be addressed effectively. Several factors are thought to be crucial to the success of TQM. Among these factors are training in support of the transition to TQM, performance evaluation process and content aligned witht the nature of a TQM organization, and rewards for quality improvements. This paper examines the effects of training, performance evaluation, and rewards on TQM implementation success. TQM implementation success was measured by cost reduction, profit increases and higher morale. A survey of 111 New Mexico service and manufacturing firms is utilized to study the effects of TQM training, performance evaluation, and rewards on TQM implementation success. The results of this survey are analyzed through factor analysis and regression analysis. The results are discussed and integrated with the literature on training, performance evaluation, and TQM.

Although the commercialization of public-sector technology is a primary federal strategy for improving the international competitiveness of U.S. industry, the potential role of spin-off entrepreneurship in this strategy is poorly understood. Inventors from three large national laboratories are compared to each other and to spin-off entrepreneurs from the same laboratories. A 1992 survey gathered data on personal characteristics, attitudes, and perceptions of situational variables from 213 inventors and 24 spin-off entrepreneurs. This paper identifies differences among the laboratories as well as differences between each of the laboratories and the entrepreneurs that have started ventures from inventions discovered at these laboratories. These differences should be used to identify areas of change that are needed to increase the number of inventions that are spun-off from the laboratories. These changes include affecting the inventors' entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions of key situational variables.

Entrepreneurship levels have been identified as key indicators of the potential of countries’ economic systems to augment wealth creation and (healthier) distribution. For that reason policy makers...

An important priority of contemporary public policy is to strengthen U. S. industrial competitiveness through the transfer and commercialization of public-sector technology. However, the evolving collaboration between federal technology sources and private organizations presents critical strategic challenges. To avoid disappointment, it is imperative that all parties (federal agencies, contractors, and laboratories as well as potential private partners) understand the scope and complexity of these challenges, and that each partner know the constraints, resources, methods, and culture of the other.

The design of a decision support system (DSS) that helps the strategic planner evaluate the effect of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) on the performance of an organization and determine the parameters which affect the costs and benefits of such a system is introduced. The DSS involves analysis and quantification of costs and benefits through the use of interacting accounting, simulation, and optimization modules. It enables the decision maker to perform sensitivity analyses by allowing consideration of various scenarios and different levels of various inputs. In this DSS, the decision maker is able to combine either traditional accounting techniques or activity-based costing with simulation and optimization in order to arrive at a decision as to the level of investment to make in an AMT system. >

Since the early 1980s, the University of New Mexico (UNM) has been increasingly active in the area of manufacturing engineering and robotics research and education. Six robotics and manufacturing laboratories devoted to research and instruction have been established. Many PhD and master's students use these facilities in their research, and instructional programs have been established at the undergraduate and graduate level in both the Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments. Notably, a master's level program was established in 1987 with participation from two universities, UNM and New Mexico State University. Active collaboration is the mode of operation between the College of Engineering and the Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management at UNM in the manufacturing program, a program in total quality management, and in the establishment of a computer-integrated manufacturing program and laboratory through IBM's CIM in Higher Education Alliance. This paper describes these programs in detail, and discusses some approaches and future plans.

We designed a decision support system (DSS) to help logistics managers assess wartime readiness and to identify resource and policy changes that could improve it. The DSS, known as the weapon system management information system (WSMIS), detects situations where theater wartime sortie capability might be jeopardized and by what resource shortages or logistics processing bottlenecks. The WSMIS is designed to distinguish between planned and actual logistics support capabilities. Typically logistics resources are acquired and functional processing capabilities are developed far in advance of their actual application. As a result, many intervening factors can invalidate those support plans. WSMIS provides users with the capability to revalidate or revise those plans when needed.

Managers of production facilities encounter substantial complexities when attempting to utilize formal mathematical methods to support their planning activities. These complexities arise from difficulties in the formulation of production models, their execution via computer based methods, and the interpretation of the results obtained. This paper demonstrates a practical method for providing managers with the tools necessary to deal with these complexities. The method is based on the representation of modeling knowledge via formal logic and its implementation via Prolog.

Contemporary technology transfer (TT) focuses on the application of knowledge. Technology is essentially information. Transfer is the movement of information/knowledge/technology via some type of channel (analogue or digital): person-to-person, group-to-group, organization- to-organization.TT centers on the communication of information that is intended to accomplish a task. TT is a particularly difficult type of communication; often it is ineffective. TT is becoming a major management focus and involves a range of organizational, informational, and behavioral challenges to getting knowledge (ideas and products) from research to process and market applications in a cost effective, timely manner.

In this chapter, we analyze international differences in e-commerce activity and strategies within Latin America and between Latin and non-Latin markets. Starting at a macro-level, we compare e-commerce activity and Internet-related developments in Latin America with developments in other regions. Moving to a closer focus on Latin America, we then discuss the evolution of e-commerce within Latin American countries, with an emphasis on Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Finally, we identify prevalent business models and analyze the strategies of key players in this sector, and discuss the outlook for the future.

Summary form only given. This study explores the link between higher and lower order technological learning processes and firm market performance (profitability) via firm strategic assets creation and core capabilities deployment. The model used is one where technological learning facilitates technology transfer which enhances the firms strategic assets and core capabilities thus potentially increasing firm profitability. The theoretical concepts of higher and lower order technological learning are established, its dual nature as technical and administrative learning is defined, and its role in strategic assets and core capabilities development is examined. Technological learning is the medium or "tool" for facilitating and managing technology transfer and is defined as the process by which a technology-driven firm creates, renews, and upgrades its latent and enacted capabilities based on its stock of explicit and tacit resources. Qualitative findings on technological learning are correlated to the quantitative evidence, namely firm profitability data that cover the time period examined (1970-95). The quantitative analysis is based on correlation and therefore evidence of relationships between the levels of learning and profitability as well as between the levels of learning and changes in profitability due to a learning effect. The hypotheses testing based on our empirical data indicates that the levels of learning do not have any significant correlation to profitability. The paper attempts to define further research on the topic as well as reasons to explain these phenomena.

American companies are currently seeking ways to regain their competitive edge, market share and reputation for quality that they have lost over the last two decades. Their efforts have been aimed at: 1. improving times of response to rapidly changing customer needs and tastes by improving flexibility of operations; 2. bringing quality up to Japanese levels; 3. achieving these at lower costs.

Improved utilization of federal technology by private enterprises in the U.S., and by universities and state and local governments as intermediaries in the technology transfer and commercialization process, has become an essential element in plans to improve the U.S. position in international economic competition. American technology represents an underutilized resource which can be harnessed to improve the productivity and innovativeness of industry if effective relationships are developed between technology sources and potential users. A sophisticated system of technology development and transfer entities in not-for-profit organizations and universities has created an infrastructure in most regions and states which provides assistance to individuals and firms seeking technical and business assistance. However, most of the elements in this system have evolved within the last few years and the ultimate impact will not be evident for a while even if proper evaluation is performed. Technology transfer is a contact sport in which success has been elusive and innovative methods need to be explored.

Since 1980, U.S. legislation has been regularly enacted to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of federally-sponsored technology. For example, the 1989 National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act created an official technology transfer mission for the federal laboratories previously excluded—the Department of Energy (DOE) Defense Program laboratories. Since then, DOE and the contractors operating its laboratories have been modifying the management and operating contracts, defining policy, and beginning implementation of the technology commercialization activities. The objective of all this activity is to improve significantly the global competitiveness of U.S. industry.

The commercialisation of disruptive technology requires models that are different from ones for sustaining or incremental technologies. In this paper, we define disruptive technologies and discontinuous innovations, contrast their commercialisation with that of incremental technologies and propose a set of models that will enhance the success of commercialising disruptive technologies. These models are then explained in terms of a suggested plan of action for successful technology transfer activities.

This paper describes a project to implement a decision support system for computer capacity planning. The system provides an intelligent interface to the various models needed for this type of planning by assisting the user in model formulation, data manipulation, model execution, interpretation and manipulation of results. The implementation strategy is based on the integration of relational model and database management with logic. A modified version of a Prolog interpreter is utilized as the vehicle for this integrated strategy.

Incremental MIS design and development methodologies have received limited attention in the MIS literature. This paper describes incremental methodologies appropriate for very large scale MIS developments which can cost millions of dollars and take years to develop. This paper describes a "resource constrained" implementation planning process designed to control both the costs of incremental projects and the functional evolution of the system. The paper also discusses how the process was used in a very large scale system development.

When organizational decision makers are examining the options they have as far as the microcomputer purchase process is concerned, they follow certain steps to insure the compatibility of their information systems plan with the strategic mission and goals of the firm. This article examines the factor of product/supplier attribute importance and tests for significant relationships between attribute importance and the characteristics of the purchasing organization, namely firm size, level of computer expertise, and the type of industry in which the firm competes.

Developing flexible databases that can accommodate the changes and enhancements necessary in development of large scale Management Information Systems (MIS) is crucial to the success of the system and ultimately to the survival of the organization. Since the MIS is constantly being modified and enhanced, it is necessary for the database to be designed to adapt to change as it occurs. Numerous articles point to the need for large scale systems decomposition into smaller subsystems for implementation purposes. They also require an incremental development strategy which coincides with the database evolutionary strategy. This paper describes a methodology for large scale database development that assists MIS managers in building databases for large scale systems. It describes how these concepts were used for implementation of the US Air Force's largest distributed processing MIS—“The Requirements Data Bank” (RDB).

The justification of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) is a topic that has gained a lot of attention due to the strategic effect it has on the competitive stature of industrial firms. The decision to convert to FMS should follow a pattern of feasibility assessments, cost/benefit analysis where consideration of issues such as increased quality, productivity and capability as well as tangible benefits takes place. Difficulties, however, arise in the modeling of the behavior of the proposed FMS. This paper introduces the design of a decision support framework that aids the strategic planner in simulating the performance of proposed FMS and in determining the parameters that affect the costs and benefits, tangible and intangible, of such a system. The decision support system (DSS) allows the user to use subjective evaluations of benefits accruing from intangible considerations of new product design, faster turnaround on design-to-market cycles and new marketing strategies in fragmented markets. The DSS enhances the examination of issues such as changing demand, varied tasks and routings, job and machine flexibility, etc. which affect costs and benefits. It performs these important functions by allowing for the development of scenarios that aid in the evaluation of the effect of the conversion from non-flexible to flexible manufacturing on the organization's financial position.