Nowadays, many current real financial applications have nonlinear and uncertain behaviors which change across the time. Therefore, the need to solve highly nonlinear, time variant problems has been growing rapidly. These problems along with other problems of traditional models caused growing interest in artificial intelligent techniques. In this paper, comparative research review of three famous artificial intelligence techniques, i.e., artificial neural networks, expert systems and hybrid intelligence systems, in financial market has been done. A financial market also has been categorized on three domains: credit evaluation, portfolio management and financial prediction and planning. For each technique, most famous and especially recent researches have been discussed in comparative aspect. Results show that accuracy of these artificial intelligent methods is superior to that of traditional statistical methods in dealing with financial problems, especially regarding nonlinear patterns. However, this outperformance is not absolute.

A comparative survey of artificial intelligence applications in finance: artificial neural networks, expert system and hybrid intelligent systems

Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World

article i nfo In this literature review, we examine and assess the state of research of online and blended learning in the business disciplines with the intent of assessing the state of the field and identifying opportunities for meaningful future research. We review research from business disciplines such as Accounting, Economics, Finance, Information Systems (IS), Management, Marketing, and Operations/Supply Chain Management. We found that the volume and quality of research in online and blended business education has increased dramatically during the past decade. However, the rate of progress is somewhat uneven across disciplines. IS, Management, and multi-disciplinary studies have the highest volumes of research activity, with markedly less activity in Finance and Economics. Furthermore, scholars of online and blended business education predominantly publish in learning and education journals of the business disciplines rather than also publishing in journals that focus on technology-mediated learning, thereby missing an opportunity to inform scholars in other disciplines about their work. The most common research streams across disciplines were outcome comparison studies with classroom-based learning and studies examining potential predictors of course outcomes. Results from the comparison studies suggest generally that online courses are at least comparable to classroom-based courses in achieving desired learning outcomes, while there is divergence in findings of comparisons of other course aspects. Collectively, the range of untested conceptual frameworks, the lack of discipline-specific theories, and the relative absence of a critical mass of researchers focused on the topic suggest ample opportunities for business scholars seeking to enter this research community.

http://www.anitacrawley.net/Resources/Articles/Arbaughetal2009.pdf

Research in online and blended learning in the business disciplines: Key findings and possible future directions

Despite considerable research on passwords, empirical studies of password strength have been limited by lack of access to plaintext passwords, small data sets, and password sets specifically collected for a research study or from low-value accounts. Properties of passwords used for high-value accounts thus remain poorly understood.We fill this gap by studying the single-sign-on passwords used by over 25,000 faculty, staff, and students at a research university with a complex password policy. Key aspects of our contributions rest on our (indirect) access to plaintext passwords. We describe our data collection methodology, particularly the many precautions we took to minimize risks to users. We then analyze how guessable the collected passwords would be during an offline attack by subjecting them to a state-of-the-art password cracking algorithm. We discover significant correlations between a number of demographic and behavioral factors and password strength. For example, we find that users associated with the computer science school make passwords more than 1.5 times as strong as those of users associated with the business school. while users associated with computer science make strong ones. In addition, we find that stronger passwords are correlated with a higher rate of errors entering them.We also compare the guessability and other characteristics of the passwords we analyzed to sets previously collected in controlled experiments or leaked from low-value accounts. We find more consistent similarities between the university passwords and passwords collected for research studies under similar composition policies than we do between the university passwords and subsets of passwords leaked from low-value accounts that happen to comply with the same policies.

/pdf/measuring-password-guessability-for-an-entire-university-mvcun1u7zh.pdf

Measuring password guessability for an entire university

Different Perspectives of Learning Styles from VARK Model

Flexible learning environments are becoming increasingly important for the planning and delivery of information systems curricula. Despite the significance and importance of these new learning environments, little has been done to empirically assess their impact on student learning outcomes. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of using a technology-centric flexible learning environment to teach a tertiary level introductory information systems course. The subjects for the study were students who were enrolled in two similar courses: (1) a group using traditional teaching and learning methods only, and (2) a group using a flexible learning approach incorporating extensive use of web technology. The course content, lecturer, textbook and assessment were the same for each group. The results show that the technology-centric flexible learning course provided an effective learning environment for students. However significant differences in academic performance within individual assessment items indicate that particular assessment strategies are more suited to a flexible learning context than others. Student tertiary entrance scores and computer playfulness were identified as important overall predictors of academic performance.

/pdf/impact-of-web-based-flexible-learning-on-academic-r2y25485fx.pdf

Impact of web based flexible learning on academic performance in information systems

Control mechanisms established on the boundary of an information system are an important preliminary step to minimising losses from security breaches. The primary function of such controls is to restrict the use of information systems and resources to authorized users. Password-based systems remain the predominant method of user authentication despite the many sophisticated and viable security alternatives that have emerged from research and development. However, the literature shows that passwords are often compromised through the poor security and management practices of users. This paper examines user password composition and security practices for email accounts. The results of a survey that examines user practice in creating and using passwords are reported. The results show that many users know about the risks of hackers, viruses and so on and take preliminary steps to combat them such as having passwords longer than eight characters. However, this appears to be as far as many users are willing to accede to the probability that their information and computing resources can be compromised. This paper makes some recommendations for the education of users in creating and maintaining their passwords. The responsibility for these educational programs can be shared between governments, organisations, educational institutions at all levels, and software vendors.

/pdf/user-behaviours-associated-with-password-security-and-468tmk31fu.pdf

User Behaviours Associated with Password Security and Management

Financial institutions such as banks have been active in the development of a variety of expert systems. Several banks have developed expert systems that capture the experience of their top loan officers in evaluating loan applications. The research literature reveals a number of criteria and measures that have been employed by researchers and lenders. While some consensus is apparent for several measures, the research clearly indicates that both quantitative and qualitative information must be employed in evaluating a loan proposal. Further, the research on rural lending has shown that subjective assessments play an important role in the evaluation of agricultural loans, but they have rarely been included as part of an expert system to appraise agricultural loan applications. Several agricultural loan evaluation systems are operational, but not all are ‘true’ expert systems. While they have all focused on analysing the borrower's financial position given the current market and economic conditions, most have not taken into account qualitative factors such as the character of the borrower. The purpose of this paper is to present an expert system that has been specifically designed and developed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative assessments in agricultural loan evaluation. The development of the expert system is outlined; the knowledge acquisition process is described; system validation is explained, as is the loan officers’ perception of the expert system. An evaluation of several agricultural loan evaluation expert systems is also included in this paper.

ALEES: an agricultural loan evaluation expert system

Digital Business Security Development: Management Technologies provides comprehensive coverage of issues associated with maintaining business protection in digital environments. Containing state-of-the-art research relevant to informing business practice, this Premier Reference Source provides base level knowledge for managers who are not specialists in the field as well as advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking research and further study.

Digital Business Security Development: Management Technologies

A wealth of literature exists on the use of Internet technologies for Information Systems education; however, there is little research on course design methodologies that are particularly suited to Information Systems courses. This paper reviews several generic frameworks for course design and develops one that incorporates the important elements of each for use in designing Information Systems courses. The development process revealed that there was a framework within a framework, that is a higher order cyclical framework and the lower level design/redesign framework. The results of initial research on the applicability of the framework for the design/redesign of Information Systems courses suggest support for the usefulness of the approach.

Kay Bryant

Papers

Impact of web based flexible learning on academic performance in information systems

User Behaviours Associated with Password Security and Management

ALEES: an agricultural loan evaluation expert system

Digital Business Security Development: Management Technologies

A methodology for the design of courses in information systems