bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Gut Microbiota of Overweight Mice by Agavins and Their Association with Body Weight Loss
Authors: Huazano-García Alicia , Shin Hakdong , López Mercedes
Published: October 2017

Agavins consumption has led to accelerated body weight loss in mice. We investigated the changes on cecal microbiota and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) associated with body weight loss in overweight mice. Firstly, mice were fed with standard (ST5) or high-fat (HF5) diet for five weeks. Secondly, overweight mice were shifted to standard diet alone (HF-ST10) or supplemented with agavins (HF-ST + A10) or oligofructose (HF-ST + O10), for five more weeks. Cecal contents were collected before and after supplementation to determine microbiota and SCFA concentrations. At the end of first phase, HF5 mice showed a significant increase of body weight, which was associated with reduction of cecal microbiota diversity (PD whole tree; non-parametric t test, p < 0.05), increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and reduced SCFA concentrations (t test, p < 0.05). After diet shifting, HF-ST10 normalized its microbiota, increased its diversity, and SCFA levels, whereas agavins (HF-ST + A10) or oligofructose (HF-ST + O10) led to partial microbiota restoration, with normalization of the Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio, as well as higher SCFA levels (p < 0.1). Moreover, agavins noticeably enriched Klebsiella and Citrobacter (LDA > 3.0); this enrichment has not been reported previously under a prebiotic treatment. In conclusion, agavins or oligofructose modulated cecal microbiota composition, reduced the extent of diversity, and increased SCFA. Furthermore, identification of bacteria enriched by agavins opens opportunities to explore new probiotics.
Mediterranean Diet Adherence and Genetic Background Roles within a Web-Based Nutritional Intervention: The Food4Me Study
Authors: San-Cristobal Rodrigo , Navas-Carretero Santiago , Livingstone Katherine , Celis-Morales Carlos , Macready Anna , Fallaize Rosalind , O’Donovan Clare , Lambrinou Christina , Moschonis George , Marsaux Cyril , Manios Yannis , Jarosz Miroslaw , Daniel Hannelore , Gibney Eileen , Brennan Lorraine , Drevon Christian , Gundersen Thomas , Gibney Mike , Saris Wim , Lovegrove Julie , Grimaldi Keith , Parnell Laurence , Bouwman Jildau , Van Ommen Ben , Mathers John , Martinez J.
Published: October 2017

Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) adherence has been proven to produce numerous health benefits. In addition, nutrigenetic studies have explained some individual variations in the response to specific dietary patterns. The present research aimed to explore associations and potential interactions between MedDiet adherence and genetic background throughout the Food4Me web-based nutritional intervention. Dietary, anthropometrical and biochemical data from volunteers of the Food4Me study were collected at baseline and after 6 months. Several genetic variants related to metabolic risk features were also analysed. A Genetic Risk Score (GRS) was derived from risk alleles and a Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS), based on validated food intake data, was estimated. At baseline, there were no interactions between GRS and MDS categories for metabolic traits. Linear mixed model repeated measures analyses showed a significantly greater decrease in total cholesterol in participants with a low GRS after a 6-month period, compared to those with a high GRS. Meanwhile, a high baseline MDS was associated with greater decreases in Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference and glucose. There also was a significant interaction between GRS and the MedDiet after the follow-up period. Among subjects with a high GRS, those with a high MDS evidenced a highly significant reduction in total carotenoids, while among those with a low GRS, there was no difference associated with MDS levels. These results suggest that a higher MedDiet adherence induces beneficial effects on metabolic outcomes, which can be affected by the genetic background in some specific markers.
Polymer Nanocomposites via Click Chemistry Reactions
Authors: Arslan Mehmet , Tasdelen Mehmet
Published: October 2017

The emerging areas of polymer nanocomposites, as some are already in use in industrial applications and daily commodities, have the potential of offering new technologies with all manner of prominent capabilities. The incorporation of nanomaterials into polymeric matrix provides significant improvements, such as higher mechanical, thermal or electrical properties. In these materials, interface/interphase of components play a crucial role bringing additional features on the resulting nanocomposites. Among the various preparation strategies of such materials, an appealing strategy relies on the use of click chemistry concept as a multi-purpose toolbox for both fabrication and modulation of the material characteristics. This review aims to deliver new insights to the researchers of the field by noticing effective click chemistry-based methodologies on the preparation of polymer nanocomposites and their key applications such as optic, biomedical, coatings and sensor.
Proteogenomics in Aid of Host–Pathogen Interaction Studies: A Bacterial Perspective
Authors: Fels Ursula , Gevaert Kris , Van Damme Petra
Published: October 2017

By providing useful tools to study host–pathogen interactions, next-generation omics has recently enabled the study of gene expression changes in both pathogen and infected host simultaneously. However, since great discriminative power is required to study pathogen and host simultaneously throughout the infection process, the depth of quantitative gene expression profiling has proven to be unsatisfactory when focusing on bacterial pathogens, thus preferentially requiring specific strategies or the development of novel methodologies based on complementary omics approaches. In this review, we focus on the difficulties encountered when making use of proteogenomics approaches to study bacterial pathogenesis. In addition, we review different omics strategies (i.e., transcriptomics, proteomics and secretomics) and their applications for studying interactions of pathogens with their host.
Reincarnation in America: A Brief Historical Overview
Authors: Irwin Lee
Published: October 2017

American theories of reincarnation have a long and complex history, dating from 1680s to the present. It is the purpose of this paper to highlight the main currents of reincarnation theory in the American context, giving a brief historical survey. Sources surveyed begin with Native American traditions, and then move to immigrant traditions based in Western Esotericism, Christianity, Judaism, missionary Hinduism and Buddhism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and concludes with more current theoretical influences, based in paranormal science research. The paper demonstrates that current theories of reincarnation are increasingly less dependent upon religious support and increasingly based in direct personal experience, paranormal research, and new therapeutic models. The paper concludes with some reflections on the complexity of reincarnation theory and raises questions concerning the future development of such theory.
Design of a Mobile Robot for Air Ducts Exploration
Authors: Koledoye Moses , De Martini Daniele , Carvani Massimo , Facchinetti Tullio
Published: October 2017

This work presents the solutions adopted for the design and the implementation of an autonomous wheeled robot developed for the exploration and mapping of air ventilation ducts. The hardware is based on commercial off-the-shelf devices, including sensors, motors, processing devices and interfaces. The mechanical chassis was designed from scratch to meet a trade-off between small size and available volume to host the components. The software stack is based on the Robot Operating System (ROS). Special attention was dedicated to the design of the mobility strategy, which must take into account some constraints and issues that are specific to the considered application, such as the relatively small size of ducts, the need to detect and avoid possible holes on the floor of the duct and other unusual obstacles and the unavailability of external reference frameworks for localization. The main contribution of this paper lies in the design, implementation and experimentation of the overall system.
Addendum: Bian, Z. et al. A Robust Inversion Algorithm for Surface Leaf and Soil Temperatures Using the Vegetation Clumping Index. Remote Sens. 2017, 9, 780
Authors: Bian Zunjian , Cao Biao , Li Hua , Du Yongming , Song Lisheng , Fan Wenjie , Xiao Qing , Liu Qinhuo
Published: October 2017

After publication of the research paper [1], it was found that funding information was missing from the Acknowledgment part [...]
Building IoT Services for Aging in Place Using Standard-Based IoT Platforms and Heterogeneous IoT Products
Authors: Fattah Sheik , Sung Nak-Myoung , Ahn Il-Yeup , Ryu Minwoo , Yun Jaeseok
Published: October 2017

An aging population and human longevity is a global trend. Many developed countries are struggling with the yearly increasing healthcare cost that dominantly affects their economy. At the same time, people living with old adults suffering from a progressive brain disorder such as Alzheimer’s disease are enduring even more stress and depression than those patients while caring for them. Accordingly, seniors’ ability to live independently and comfortably in their current home for as long as possible has been crucial to reduce the societal cost for caregiving and thus give family members peace of mind, called ‘aging in place’ (AIP). In this paper we present a way of building AIP services using standard-based IoT platforms and heterogeneous IoT products. An AIP service platform is designed and created by combining previous standard-based IoT platforms in a collaborative way. A service composition tool is also created that allows people to create AIP services in an efficient way. To show practical usability of our proposed system, we choose a service scenario for medication compliance and implement a prototype service which could give old adults medication reminder appropriately at the right time (i.e., when it is time to need to take pills) through light and speaker at home but also wrist band and smartphone even outside the home.
Assessment of Ionospheric Gradient Impacts on Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) Data in Guangdong Province, China
Authors: Wang Zhipeng , Wang Shujing , Zhu Yanbo , Xin Pumin
Published: October 2017

Ionospheric delay is one of the largest and most variable sources of error for Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) users because inospheric activity is unpredictable. Under normal conditions, GBAS eliminates ionospheric delays, but during extreme ionospheric storms, GBAS users and GBAS ground facilities may experience different ionospheric delays, leading to considerable differential errors and threatening the safety of users. Therefore, ionospheric monitoring and assessment are important parts of GBAS integrity monitoring. To study the effects of the ionosphere on the GBAS of Guangdong Province, China, GPS data collected from 65 reference stations were processed using the improved “Simple Truth” algorithm. In addition, the ionospheric characteristics of Guangdong Province were calculated and an ionospheric threat model was established. Finally, we evaluated the influence of the standard deviation and maximum ionospheric gradient on GBAS. The results show that, under normal ionospheric conditions, the vertical protection level of GBAS was increased by 0.8 m for the largest over bound σ v i g (sigma of vertical ionospheric gradient), and in the case of the maximum ionospheric gradient conditions, the differential correction error may reach 5 m. From an airworthiness perspective, when the satellite is at a low elevation, this interference does not cause airworthiness risks, but when the satellite is at a high elevation, this interference can cause airworthiness risks.
Identifying the Areas Benefitting from the Prevention of Wind Erosion by the Key Ecological Function Area for the Protection of Desertification in Hunshandake, China
Authors: Xiao Yu , Xie Gaodi , Zhen Lin , Lu Chunxia , Xu Jie
Published: October 2017

Research on the spatial flow of ecosystem services can help to identify the spatial relationships between service-providing areas (SPAs) and service-benefitting areas (SBAs). In this study, we used the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model to stimulate the flow paths of the wind erosion prevented by ecosystems in Hunshandake, China. By interpolating these paths, the SBAs were identified, and their benefits in terms of land cover, population, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) were determined. The results indicated that the flow paths mostly extended to the eastern part of the study area, and the estimated cover of the SBAs was 39.21% of the total area of China. The grid cells through which many (≥10%) of the trajectories passed were mainly located in the western part of north-eastern China and the eastern part of northern China. The benefitting population accounted for 74.51% of the total population of China, and the GDP was 67.11% of the total in 2010. Based on this research, we described a quantitative relationship between the SPAs and the SBAs and identified the actual beneficiaries. This work may provide scientific knowledge that can be used by decision makers to develop management strategies, such as ecological compensation to mitigate damage from sandstorms in the study area.
Rural Electrification Efforts Based on Off-Grid Photovoltaic Systems in the Andean Region: Comparative Assessment of Their Sustainability
Authors: Feron Sarah , Cordero Raúl , Labbe Fernando
Published: October 2017

In this paper, we comparatively assess the sustainability of rural electrification efforts based on off-grid solutions in Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. Our assessment considers four dimensions of sustainability (institutional, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural). We found that Ecuador and Chile have consistently failed to ensure mechanisms for the operation and maintenance of the deployed off-grid systems, which has made these solutions in poor Chilean and Ecuadorian communities inevitably unsustainable. Although Peru has adopted a cross-tariff scheme, the Peruvian case shows that ensuring the funding of off-grid PV solutions is not enough. Peruvian officials appear to be unaware of the importance of local participation (local values and lifestyles are constantly disregarded) and most of the projects have been designed without the participation and engagement of the communities, which has often led to project failures and payment defaults. However, although each country has its particular challenges, we found that the three Andean countries have consistently neglected the importance of strong formal institutions with a flexible and decentralized structure, which in turn significantly compromised the rural electrification effort in these countries.
Leakage Detection and Estimation Algorithm for Loss Reduction in Water Piping Networks
Authors: Adedeji Kazeem , Hamam Yskandar , Abe Bolanle , Abu-Mahfouz Adnan
Published: October 2017

Water loss through leaking pipes constitutes a major challenge to the operational service of water utilities. In recent years, increasing concern about the financial loss and environmental pollution caused by leaking pipes has been driving the development of efficient algorithms for detecting leakage in water piping networks. Water distribution networks (WDNs) are disperse in nature with numerous number of nodes and branches. Consequently, identifying the segment(s) of the network and the exact leaking pipelines connected to this segment(s) where higher background leakage outflow occurs is a challenging task. Background leakage concerns the outflow from small cracks or deteriorated joints. In addition, because they are diffuse flow, they are not characterised by quick pressure drop and are not detectable by measuring instruments. Consequently, they go unreported for a long period of time posing a threat to water loss volume. Most of the existing research focuses on the detection and localisation of burst type leakages which are characterised by a sudden pressure drop. In this work, an algorithm for detecting and estimating background leakage in water distribution networks is presented. The algorithm integrates a leakage model into a classical WDN hydraulic model for solving the network leakage flows. The applicability of the developed algorithm is demonstrated on two different water networks. The results of the tested networks are discussed and the solutions obtained show the benefits of the proposed algorithm. A noteworthy evidence is that the algorithm permits the detection of critical segments or pipes of the network experiencing higher leakage outflow and indicates the probable pipes of the network where pressure control can be performed. However, the possible position of pressure control elements along such critical pipes will be addressed in future work.
The Influence of Hydrated Lime, Portland Cement and Cement Dust on Rheological Properties of Recycled Cold Mixes with Foamed Bitumen
Authors: Buczyński Przemysław , Iwański Marek
Published: October 2017

This article presents a laboratory evaluation of the viscoelastic properties of recycled base courses produced with different fillers. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of loading time and temperature on the complex modulus (E*) and the phase angle (6) of recycled base courses with respect to selected additives used. The mixtures contained reclaimed asphalt pavement RAP, crushed stone from existing base courses and virgin aggregate. Foamed bitumen 50/70 at 2.5% was used as a binder. The hydraulic binder constituted 3.0% of the recycled base course mixture. Portland cement, hydrated lime and cement kiln dust CKD were added as fillers. Evaluation of rheological properties of recycled base courses according to selected additives was carried out to the procedure set out in EN 12697-26 annex D. The evaluation of stiffness modulus was conducted in the direct tension- compression test on cylindrical samples (DTC-CY). The samples were subjected to the cycles of sinusoidal strain with an amplitude Bo < 25μB. All tests were performed over a range of temperatures (5 ºC, 13 ºC, 25 ºC, 40 ºC) and loading times (0.1 Hz, 0.3 Hz, 1 Hz, 3 Hz, 10 Hz, 20 Hz). The results were used to model stiffness modulus master curves of the recycled base courses containing selected additives in the hydraulic binder.
Profession « nettoyeur du net »
Authors: Smyrnaios Nikos , Marty Emmanuel
Published: October 2017

Cet article propose d’étudier les logiques qui président au fonctionnement économique, technique et éditorial des services de modération de contenu à travers une recherche originale combinant deux volets : une enquête par entretiens et observation menée entre février et mars 2016 auprès d’un des trois principaux fournisseurs de services de modération aux médias français et une analyse semi-automatisée et comparative d’un échantillon de messages publiés et non publiés par trois sites d’information, portant sur les attentats de novembre 2015 à Paris. Notre travail confronte ainsi la pratique de la modération, encastrée dans un cadre socioéconomique plus large et travaillée par un faisceau de contraintes de natures juridique, technique et industrielle, à la qualité et au pluralisme d’informations qu’elle produit et met à disposition de l’espace public numérique.
L’entreprise de presse et son audience en ligne
Authors: Malcorps Sylvain
Published: October 2017

Depuis la fin des années 1990, les journalistes web des entreprises de presse ont progressivement intégré les web metrics dans le cadre de leurs missions quotidiennes. Cet article revient sur les mécanismes qui ont conduit depuis 1996 les journalistes de la rédaction en ligne du quotidien belge L’Écho à s’emparer de ces nombres, en observant comment les modèles de revenus privilégiés par l’entreprise pour ses activités en ligne ont pu avoir une influence sur ce processus. En mettant d’abord au jour les modes de négociation des acteurs impliqués dans le processus de « configuration de l’audience », cette étude de cas montre que le passage d’un modèle de revenus basé sur la publicité vers un modèle centré sur l’abonnement va conduire les journalistes web à s’approprier différemment les métriques et à modifier la nature des contenus publiés sur le site.
Les téléphonistes de la Chambre
Authors: Chibois Jonathan
Published: October 2017

Résumé Cet article traite des transformations du métier de député en France durant la IIIe République, engendrées par l'installation du téléphone et la création d'un service chargé de son exploitation au Palais Bourbon, à partir de 1881. L'analyse des archives historiques de la questure de la Chambre montre qu'en raison de différentes contraintes, l'appropriation de ce moyen de communication a été singulière, au sens où elle a pris la forme d'un usage par délégation. Plutôt que de téléphoner eux-mêmes, les députés se sont en effet peu à peu déchargés de leurs appels sur les téléphonistes, inaugurant des modalités inédites de division du travail parlementaire. La formalisation des usages du téléphone chez les députés illustre alors la rationalisation du parlementarisme français au début du 20e siècle.
Déclassement sectoriel et rassemblement public
Authors: d’enquête Collectif , Blavier Pierre , Baciocchi Stéphane , Le Méner Erwan , Bidet Alexandra , Boutet Manuel , Champenois Lucie , Gayet-Viaud Carole , Akturk Busra , Auvert Laura , Aymard Camille , Bass Lilas , Boda Chayma , Borrell Alexandre , Bourdais Julien , Brondex Louise , Chave Frédérique , Chenet Marie , Dubois Brianne , Doduik Nicolas , Dupreelle Lucille , Gasnier Camille , Ginsburger Maël , Guénée Lorraine , Guiraud Clarisse , Lafuente Oriane , Macchi Odile , Mak Ariane , Marissal Amélie , Ollitrault Chloé , Palet Léa , Pavie Alice , Petitier Jacques , Pigounides Vassily , Pivot Manon , Pruvost Geneviève , Rapin Paco , Rivière Camille , Tasset Cyprien , Thore Anna , Tomas Vincent
Published: October 2017

Résumé L'article vise à documenter empiriquement quelles étaient les caractéristiques sociales des présents à Nuit Debout place de la République, en s'appuyant sur une enquête collective par questionnaires passés in situ au printemps 2016 place de la République à Paris. Bien qu'issus des classes supérieures de la société française, une bonne partie des présents sont des « créatifs culturels » travaillant dans des secteurs d'emploi en crise. La relative concentration, mais aussi limitation, de ces milieux de recrutement en Ïle-de-France constitue une des explications du caractère à la fois soudain et circonscrit dans le temps de Nuit Debout. Ces caractéristiques aident aussi à comprendre que cette mobilisation ait pris la forme nouvelle d'une conviviale et sociable occupation de la place de la République.
Prolonged Hospital Discharge for Children with Technology Dependency: A Source of Health Care Disparities
Authors: Sobotka Sarah A. , Agrawal Rishi K. , Msall Michael E.
Published: October 2017

Children with ventilator assistance have been supported in living at home since 1981 when parental advocacy ushered in a change to Medicaid policy. As the population of children who use medical technology such as long-term ventilation increases, we must critically evaluate our systems for preparing families for home life. Discharge delays persist in the modern era because of fragmentation between hospital and home systems. These discharge delays result in children spending time in less developmentally rich environments, further exacerbating the health and development disparities of children with complex disabilities. In this article, we discuss the complication of hospital discharge and how it contributes to health and developmental disparities. We also describe a hospital-to-home transitional care model, which presents a home-like environment to provide developmental support while focusing on parental training, home nursing, and public-funding arrangements.

[
Pediatr Ann.
2017;46(10):e365–e370.]
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and Trauma-Informed Care for Children Exposed to Community Violence
Authors: Stolbach Bradley C. , Anam Seeba
Published: October 2017

Racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes and access have been consistently documented for a wide variety of physical and behavioral health conditions. Health inequities are most pronounced in areas with high levels of racial and ethnic segregation, where children and adolescents are also more likely to face economic inequality, which places them at high risk for exposure to neighborhood violence and traumatic loss. Community violence exposure (CVE) has been increasingly recognized as a prominent contributor to negative physical and mental health outcomes. CVE has been linked to children's risk for negative psychological outcomes, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, externalizing behavior, and internalizing symptoms, as well as obesity, asthma, and health-risk behaviors. Providers of pediatric care have opportunities to address CVE and related health disparities by developing trauma-informed systems that routinely screen for CVE, provide basic support for affected families, and link those in need to trauma-focused intervention.

[
Pediatr Ann.
2017;46(10):e377–e381.]
A Modified Foveal Advancement Technique in the Treatment of Persistent Large Macular Holes
Authors: Gurelik Gökhan , Sul Sabahattin , Kılıç Gaye , Özsaygılı Cemal
Published: October 2017

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the outcomes of a new surgical technique on the closure of persistent large macular holes (MHs)

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

Data for 10 eyes of 10 patients who underwent surgical intervention for the treatment of large and persistent MHs were reviewed retrospectively. After entrance of the three-port transconjunctival 23-gauge sutureless vitrectomy instruments, a shallow perihole retinal detachment was formed by injecting a small amount of fluid with a 39-gauge /41-gauge subretinal cannula under the perihole (superior, temporal, and inferior sparing nasal bundle fibers) retina. Edges of the hole were brought closer with small, passive aspirations by a silicone-tipped cannula. After fluid-air exchange, a 39-gauge /41-gauge cannula was placed over the hole to remove submacular fluid. Then air was changed with 20% sulfur hexafluoride endotamponade.

RESULTS:

Mean minimum hole diameter was 691 μm ± 98 μm (range: 500 μm to 812 μm), and mean basal diameter was 1,604 μm ± 321 μm (range: 1,066 μm to 2,200 μm). Preoperative best spectacle-corrected visual acuities (BSCVAs) were lower than 20/200 in eight patients and were 20/200 in two patients. MHs were successfully closed in all eyes (100%). BSCVA did not change in two patients and were lower than 20/200. BSCVAs were 20/200 in six patients and greater than 20/200 in two patients. The ellipsoid zone (EZ) was lost in all patients.

CONCLUSIONS:

All the large and persistent MHs were successfully closed and stayed closed during follow-up period. However, increase in visual acuities was limited, which was related to the loss of the EZ. The authors' modified technique seems to be a good option for the surgical treatment of large and persistent MHs.

[
Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina
. 2017;48:793–798.]
Characterization of Artifacts Associated With Multicolor Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy
Authors: Feng Henry L. , Sharma Sumit , Stinnett Sandra , Asrani Sanjay , Mruthyunjaya Prithvi
Published: October 2017

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:

To characterize the appearance of three types of artifacts observed on multicolor confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (cSLO).

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

Retrospective review of 159 eyes of 96 consecutive patients from the Duke Eye Center who underwent multicolor cSLO with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Infrared (IR), green, blue, and multicolor reflectance images were evaluated for artifacts with corresponding SD-OCT scans available for reference.

RESULTS:

Multicolor cSLO artifacts were detected in 23.3% (37 of 159) of eyes and comprised three main patterns: spot, wisp, and net. Only three instances of these artifacts were detected on IR reflectance versus 34, 37, and 35 instances on green, blue, and multicolor reflectance, respectively. Artifacts were observed in 0% of eyes with clear lenses, 27.7% of eyes with cataracts, and in 20.8% of eyes with posterior chamber intraocular lenses.

CONCLUSION:

Awareness of spot, wisp, and net artifacts when interpreting multicolor cSLO images may facilitate the identification of true retinal pathology.

[
Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina
. 2017;48:810–815.]
Tectonic perspectives for urban ambiance? Towards a tectonic approach to urban design
Authors: Christiansen Elias Melvin , Laursen Lea Holst , Hvejsel Marie Frier
Published: October 2017

Urban challenges derived from climate prospects and densification call for a renewed engagement with the question of the liveability of the built environment. Within this context, the economic and technical concept of our cities is an increasingly dominant aspect, whereas the fragile but vital question of ambiance that seemingly signifies our sense of liveability is often suppressed. This requires us, as architects and urban designers, to refine our descriptions of ambiance as an integral part of the technical construction principles applied in the built environment, hereby considering it a continuous space, as suggested in theories of landscape urbanism. By recalling the etymological meaning of tectonics as a contextual joining of aesthetics and technology at the architectural scale, the paper states that this can be understood as a tectonic challenge which crosses the architectural and urban domains. As a result, the potential is opened up to develop further the theory of landscape urbanism by juxtaposing it with tectonic architectural theory. The paper investigates this potential through a combined conceptual and analytical case, studying whether it is possible to define and describe urban ambiances across scale, in relation to the concept of the built environment, when applying an “urban tectonic” perspective.
Improving Privacy and Security of User Data in Location Based Services
Authors: Yamin Mohammad , Sen Adnan Ahmed Abi
Published: October 2017

Location Based Services (LBS) expose user data to malicious attacks. Approaches, evolved, so far, for preserving privacy and security, suffer from one or more anomalies, and hence the problem of securing LBS data is far from being resolved. In particular, accuracy of results vs. privacy degree, privacy vs. performance, and trust between users are open problems. In this article, we present a novel approach by integration of peer-to-peer (P2P) with the caching technique and dummies from real queries. Our approach increases efficiency, leads to improved performance, and provides solutions to many problems that have existed in the past. In addition, we offer an improved way of managing cache. Simulation demonstrates superiority of our approach over earlier ones dealing with both the ratio of privacy and that of performance.
Environmental Location Assessment for Seaweed Cultivation in Ghana
Authors: Segbefia Alexander Yao , Barnes Victor Rex , Akpalu Lawrence Atsu , Mensah Moses
Published: October 2017

This study was designed to select potential areas for the cultivation of seaweeds on the Ghanaian coastline. The challenge of selecting suitable sites for the cultivation of seaweed along the coast was investigated, using spatial multi-criteria approach in GIS. Environmental and physical parameters based on spatial multi-criteria decision for the best sites suitable for seaweed cultivation were used. The parameters used included Sea-depth (1-10)m, (11-20)m, (21-30)m and (31-40)m, sea-surface temperature (24-26) degree Celsius, proximity to settlements (0-8) kilometers and sheltered coves (areas sheltered from strong wind and waves) as variables for the various models. The study identified twelve suitable sites along the coast of Ghana for seaweed cultivation. Five of the selected sites were ground-truthed for model validation. All five validation sites have agreed to the GIS models indicating that GIS is the most appropriate tool to use for selecting most suitable environment for seaweed cultivation especially when dealing with a complex coastal environment like Ghana's coastline.
Quantifying Decision Making in the Critical Infrastructure via the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)
Authors: Hurley John S.
Published: October 2017

In this paper, we examine the benefits of a more quantifiable way to make decisions that enable senior leaders to better manage disruption of and attacks on the critical infrastructure. Most of the decisions have been made using intuition and in some cases unrelated experiences and have not particularly worked to the benefit of the sectors' performance and stability. Much of this is due to the history of the logic control systems and networks that were fairly isolated and much better protected. Attempts to reduce costs and secure many of the benefits of IP-based environments have unfortunately now also introduced some of the vulnerabilities indicative of IP-based systems into the logic environments. Senior leaders have not been used to these new ‘hybrid' information technology/operational technology (IT/OT) environments which though creating new opportunities also introduce new challenges. The unique nature of the critical infrastructure in which it is over 80%-owned by the private sector, often regulated by the federal government, and serves the interests and demands of the public, creates a non-trivial challenge at many different levels. More trust and cooperation between the three elements of society is surely a desired interest by the key stakeholders, but there are many concerns in terms of over-regulation, costs, and loss of intellectual property that have consistently sustained a level of discomfort between the three communities in terms of the priorities and self-serving interests of each other. The challenges of the low asymmetry entry and attribution within the cyber domain have raised the profile of many actors who would not even have previously registered in the ‘noise' on a trouble or problem scale. Now, the ability to determine those responsible, as well as, almost any actor having the ability to present a challenge to the environment have changed many of the dynamics in terms of how senior leaders must now operate and manage the appropriate systems and networks. Hence, for obvious reasons, senior leaders are much more cautious in their approach to decision making because of the potential consequences. This is especially true because cyber assets, though so valuable can be also so vulnerable. In this study, we will discuss a method that moves decision from a less arbitrary to a more data-centric, quantifiable approach that drives leadership to better and quicker decisions.
The World is Polluted With Leaked Cyber Data
Authors: Burke Ivan D. , van Heerden Renier P.
Published: October 2017

Data breaches are becoming more common and numerous every day, where huge amount of data (corporate and personal) are leaked more frequently than ever. Corporate responses to data breaches are insufficient, when commonly remediation is minimal. This research proposes that a similar approach to physical pollution (environmental pollution) can be used to map and identify data leaks as Cyber pollution. Thus, IT institutions should be made aware of their contribution to Cyber pollution in a more measurable method. This article defines the concept of cyber pollution as: security vulnerable (such as unmaintained or obsolete) devices that are visible through the Internet and corporate networks. This paper analyses the recent state of data breach disclosures Worldwide by providing statistics on significant scale data breach disclosures from 2014/01 to 2016/12. Ivan Burke and Renier van Heerden model security threat levels similar to that of pollution breaches within the physical environment. Insignificant security openings or vulnerabilities can lead to massive exploitation of entire systems. By modelling these breaches as pollution, the aim is to introduce the concept of cyber pollution. Cyber pollution is a more tangible concept for IT managers to relay to staff and senior management. Using anonymised corporate network traffic with Open Source penetration testing software, the model is validated.
Mobile Commerce Adoption in Saudi Organizations
Authors: Alfahl Husam , Houghton Luke , Sanzogni Louis
Published: October 2017

Mobile commerce is an emerging trend with the potential to generate new streams of revenue for many established organizations. The paper invokes an exploratory qualitative study into mobile commerce adoption practice in Saudi banks and telecoms with a view to pave the way to the eventual generalization of the finding across Saudi organizations. Organizations in both sectors were approached and interviews carried out with key individuals in order to establish emergent themes believed to be related to the adoption of mobile commerce. The findings revealed that themes related to policy and legal environment, information and communication technology infrastructure, and security, affect organizational mobile commerce adoption in Saudi organizations significantly. Overall 15 adoption themes were identified and organized into three categories namely, environmental/organizational, technological, and miscellaneous factors to form a preliminary conceptual mobile Commerce adoption model.
End Users' Perceptions of Critical Success Factors in ERP Applications
Authors: Saygili Ebru E. , Ozturkoglu Yucel , Kocakulah Mehmet C.
Published: October 2017

Today's competitive world is given the critical role of enterprise resource planning (ERP) for coordinating the workflow in companies from different industries. To provide valuable insights into ERP, identifying the critical factors are the most important issue in achieving quality and success. Both in literature and practice, there are quite a few of success factors for ERP applications. One of the purposes of this paper is to empirically classify the most important critical factors referred by scholars in previous studies. Another purpose is to determine the critical success factors in the light of end-user perceptions. In this respect, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factorial structure of the scale. Data was collected 128 ERP end-users from different departments of companies in manufacturing industry. The results of the analysis provided a six-dimensional structure for critical success factors (CSFs) in quality and successful ERP applications.
Green Information Technology Usage
Authors: Hernandez Alexander A.
Published: October 2017

Green information technology is resource efficient and effective consumption through the use of IT infrastructures to address environmental sustainability. This study aims to understand the level of awareness and practices of IT professionals towards GIT in organizations. A survey questionnaire was used, the study found that participants have a high awareness and practices of Green IT covering the efficient use of computing resources, energy conservation in an office environment, responsible disposal of electronic wastes, and demonstrate an individual contribution and commitment to GIT adoption practices in organizations. The study also found that male IT professionals have better awareness of GIT in organizations. The awareness and practices of IT professionals in GIT offers direction for organizations to strategically integrate GIT within their core business objectives and activities to attain environmental sustainability. Practical and theoretical implications are presented.
A Concept ‘Vandalised'
Authors: Kamete Amin Y.
Published: October 2017

The article attempts to explain how there can be contestation and uncertainty over something that should be as ‘obvious' as e-planning. It tries to make sense of stakeholders' conflicting interpretations of e-planning in a real-life case. It uses the social shaping of technology perspective as an analytical framework and draws on semiotics and post-structural theories to provide a more nuanced explanation. Drawing on research in ‘Tektown', a Zimbabwean urban centre that had embarked on an e-planning project, the paper confirms the SST argument that contrary to technological determinism, the appropriation of technology does not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined logic or a single determinant. But it also reveals that there are limitations in the explanatory power of SST when confronted with questions of contestation, uncertainty, and outcome. The paper argues that e-planning is fraught with conflicts and disagreements precisely because it is an empty signifier. It contends that the population of this vacuous concept can be explained in terms of power/knowledge.
Intelligent Techniques for Providing Effective Security to Cloud Databases
Authors: Arunarani Ar , Perkinian D Manjula
Published: October 2017

Cloud databases have been used in a spate of web-based applications in recent years owing to their capacity to store big data efficiently. In such a scenario, access control techniques implemented in relational databases are so modified as to suit cloud databases. The querying features of cloud databases are designed with facilities to retrieve encrypted data. The performance with respect to retrieval and security needs further improvements to ensure a secured retrieval process. In order to provide an efficient secured retrieval mechanism, a rule- and agent-based intelligent secured retrieval model has been proposed in this paper that analyzes the user, query and contents to be retrieved so as to effect rapid retrieval with decryption from the cloud databases. The major advantage of this retrieval model is in terms of its improved query response time and enhanced security of the storage and retrieval system. From the experiments conducted in this work, proposed model increased storage and access time and, in addition, intensified the security of the data stored in cloud databases.
Design and Development of a Parallel Lexical Analyzer for C Language
Authors: Jena Swagat Kumar , Das Satyabrata , Sahoo Satya Prakash
Published: October 2017

Future of computing is rapidly moving towards massively multi-core architecture because of its power and cost advantages. Almost everywhere Multi-core processors are being used now-a-days and number of cores per chip is also relatively increasing. To exploit full potential offered by multi-core architecture, the system software like compilers should be designed for parallelized execution. In the past, various significant works have been made to change the design of traditional compiler to take advantages of the future multi-core platform. This paper focuses on adapting parallelism in the lexical analysis phase of the compilation process. The main objective of our proposal is to do the lexical analysis i.e., finding the tokens in an input stream in parallel. We use the parallel constructs available in OpenMP to achieve parallelism in the lexical analysis process for multi-core machines. The experimental result of our proposal shows a significant performance improvement in the parallel lexical analysis phase as compared to sequential version in terms of time of execution.
Envisioning the Future of Personalization Through Personal Informatics
Authors: Cena Federica , Rapp Amon , Likavec Silvia , Marcengo Alessandro
Published: October 2017

In recent years, User Modeling (UM) scenery is changing. With the recent advancements in wearable and mobile technologies, the amount and type of data that can be gathered about users and employed to build User Models is rapidly expanding. UM can now be enriched with data regarding different aspects of people's daily lives and is likely to deliver novel personalized services. All these changes bring forth new research questions about the kinds of services which could be improved, which of them would be the most useful, the ways of conveying effectively new forms of recommendations, and how users would perceive them. In this paper the authors tried to find answers to some of these questions by exploiting a novel personalized system to conduct a qualitative user study, with the aim to understand users' needs and expectations w.r.t. personalization enabled by the presence of wearable and mobile technologies.
 A imagem corporal na ótica de mulheres após a mastectomia / Body image in optics of women after mastectomy
Authors: Timm Marcella Simões , Perlini Nara Marilene de Oliveira Girardon , Beuter Margrid , Prates Lisie Alende , Birk Noeli Maria , Piccin Catiele
Published: October 2017

Este trabalho teve como objetivo conhecer a percepção e os sentimentos de mulheres mastectomizadas acerca de sua imagem corporal. Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, do tipo descritivo, realizado com sete mulheres diagnosticadas com câncer de mama e submetidas à mastectomia em algum período de suas vidas. Utilizou-se a entrevista aberta como técnica de coleta de dados e aplicou-se a proposta operativa para análise dos dados. A mastectomia corresponde a um momento difícil na vida de uma mulher, o qual implica em sofrimento e mudanças relevantes.  A percepção das mulheres que realizaram mastectomia, em relação à sua imagem corporal, resulta do processo vivido desde o momento do diagnóstico, da revelação da necessidade da mastectomia e das vivências do cotidiano. Todos estes aspectos podem implicar na aceitação da nova imagem corporal. Conclui-se que as mulheres modificaram a maneira como percebiam seus corpos, manifestando, inicialmente, estranhamento, tristeza, choro, ansiedade, dor, além da diminuição da autoestima, refletindo em uma imagem corporal negativa. Todavia, elas utilizaram estratégias de superação que fortaleceram a autoestima e, consequentemente, auxiliaram positivamente na reconstrução da imagem corporal.
Velocity Connection Algorithm of Arbitrary Multi-Axis Linkage
Authors: Wang Fa Li , Zhang Feng Ming , Ge Lin , Ma Hui
Published: October 2017

In this paper, a velocity connection algorithm of arbitrary multi-axis linkage is presented with regard to the problem of velocity connection efficiency of multiple straight-line paths in the motion control system. For this algorithm, with the velocity, acceleration and displacement of the current segment and the previous segment as constraint conditions, the acceleration is not set as a constant but the intersegmental velocity variable is set independently. The initial velocity and final velocity of each segment is solved on this basis, improving the movement efficiency and simplifying the calculation. Therefore, this algorithm is particularly suitable for the high-speed movement mechanism driven by a stepper motor. As for the actual motion track of the rapid prototyping machine, a comparison was made between this algorithm and the traditional velocity connection algorithm to verify the effectiveness of this algorithm.