bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using Semantics in XML Information Access
Authors: Ferreira Flavio Xavier , Henriques Pedro Rangel , Gancarski Alda Lopes
Published: December 2012

This chapter presents an ongoing work in the context of the Portuguese Emigration Museum about information access in XML collections associated with semantic information. The museum asset is made up of documents of more than 8 kinds, ranging from passport records to photos/cards and building-drawings. In this chapter, the authors discuss the approach used to create the exhibition rooms of the virtual Web-based museum. Each room consists of the information contained in those single or interrelated resources. The information exhibited in each room is described by an ontology, written in OWL. The authors also discuss the approach used to take advantage of a combination of structural and semantic information to efficiently retrieve documents from the MEC collection. Both approaches can be automatised to allow a very systematic way to deal with the huge and rich museum assets.
Face Recognition with Active Appearance Model (AAM)
Authors: Klavdianos Patrycia Barros de Lima , Brasil Lourdes Mattos , Melo Jairo Simão Santana
Published: December 2012

Recognition of human faces has been a fascinating subject in research field for many years. It is considered a multidisciplinary field because it includes understanding different domains such as psychology, neuroscience, computer vision, artificial intelligence, mathematics, and many others. Human face perception is intriguing and draws our attention because we accomplish the task so well that we hope to one day witness a machine performing the same task in a similar or better way. This chapter aims to provide a systematic and practical approach regarding to one of the most current techniques applied on face recognition, known as AAM (Active Appearance Model). AAM method is addressed considering 2D face processing only. This chapter doesn’t cover the entire theme, but offers to the reader the necessary tools to construct a consistent and productive pathway toward this involving subject.
Building a Multiple Object Tracking System with Occlusion Handling in Surveillance Videos
Authors: Almomani Raed , Dong Ming
Published: December 2012

Video tracking systems are increasingly used day in and day out in various applications such as surveillance, security, monitoring, and robotic vision. In this chapter, the authors propose a novel multiple objects tracking system in video sequences that deals with occlusion issues. The proposed system is composed of two components: An improved KLT tracker, and a Kalman filter. The improved KLT tracker uses the basic KLT tracker and an appearance model to track objects from one frame to another and deal with partial occlusion. In partial occlusion, the appearance model (e.g., a RGB color histogram) is used to determine an object’s KLT features, and the authors use these features for accurate and robust tracking. In full occlusion, a Kalman filter is used to predict the object’s new location and connect the trajectory parts. The system is evaluated on different videos and compared with a common tracking system.
A Robust Color Watershed Transformation and Image Segmentation Defined on RGB Spherical Coordinates
Authors: Moreno Ramón , Graña Manuel , Madani Kurosh
Published: December 2012

The representation of the RGB color space points in spherical coordinates allows to retain the chromatic components of image pixel colors, pulling apart easily the intensity component. This representation allows the definition of a chromatic distance and a hybrid gradient with good properties of perceptual color constancy. In this chapter, the authors present a watershed based image segmentation method using this hybrid gradient. Oversegmentation is solved by applying a region merging strategy based on the chromatic distance defined on the spherical coordinate representation. The chapter shows the robustness and performance of the approach on well known test images and the Berkeley benchmarking image database and on images taken with a NAO robot.
Gesture Learning by Imitation Architecture for a Social Robot
Authors: Bandera J.P. , Rodríguez J.A. , Molina-Tanco L. , Bandera A.
Published: December 2012

This description is based on the identification of a set of generic components, which can be found in any learning by imitation architecture. It highlights the main contribution of the proposed architecture: the use of an inner human model to help perceiving, recognizing and learning human gestures. This allows different robots to share the same perceptual and knowledge modules. Experimental results show that the proposed architecture is able to meet the requirements of learning by imitation scenarios. It can also be integrated in complete software structures for social robots, which involve complex attention mechanisms and decision layers.
An Embedded Vision System for RoboCup
Authors: Olivares P. Cavestany , Herrero-Pérez D. , Jiménez J. J. Alcaraz , Barberá H. Martínez
Published: December 2012

In this chapter, the authors describe their vision system used in the Standard Platform League (SPL), one of the official leagues in RoboCup competition. The characteristics of SPL are very demanding, as all the processing must be done on board, and the changeable environment requires powerful methods for extracting information and robust filters. The purpose is to show a vision system that meets these goals. The chapter describes the architecture of the authors’ system as well as the flowchart of the image process, which is designed in such a manner that allows a rapid and reliable calibration. The authors deal with field features detection by finding intersections between field lines at frame rate, using a fuzzy-Markov localisation technique. Also, the methods implemented to recognise the ball and goals are explained.
Selective Review of Visual Attention Models
Authors: García Juan F. , Rodríguez Francisco J. , Matellán Vicente
Published: December 2012

The purpose of this chapter is both to review some of the most representative visual attention models, both theoretical and practical, that have been proposed to date, and to introduce the authors’ attention model, which has been successfully used as part of the control system of a robotic platform. The chapter has three sections: in the first section, an introduction to visual attention is given. In the second section, relevant state of art in visual attention is reviewed. This review is organised in three areas: psychological based models, connectionist models, and features-based models. In the last section, the authors’ attention model is presented.
Threshold-Based Location-Aware Access Control
Authors: Peeters Roel , Singelée Dave , Preneel Bart
Published: December 2012

Designing a secure, resilient and user-friendly access control system is a challenging task. In this article, a threshold-based location-aware access control mechanism is proposed. This design uniquely combines the concepts of secret sharing and distance bounding protocols to tackle various security vulnerabilities. The proposed solution makes use of the fact that the user carries around various personal devices. This solution offers protection against any set of (t-1) or fewer compromised user’s devices, with t being an adjustable threshold number. It removes the single point of failure in the system, as access is granted when one carries any set of t user’s devices. Additionally it supports user-centered management, since users can alter the set of personal devices and can adjust the security parameters of the access control scheme towards their required level of security and reliability.
Mobile Agent Based Network Defense System in Enterprise Network
Authors: Cai Yu
Published: December 2012

Security has become the Achilles’ heel of many organizations in today’s computer-dominated society. In this paper, a configurable intrusion detection and response framework named Mobile Agents based Distributed (MAD) security system was proposed for enterprise network consisting of a large number of mobile and handheld devices. The key idea of MAD is to use autonomous mobile agents as lightweight entities to provide unified interfaces for intrusion detection, intrusion response, information fusion, and dynamic reconfiguration. These lightweight agents can be easily installed and managed on mobile and handheld devices. The MAD framework includes a family of autonomous agents, servers and software modules. An Object-based intrusion modeling language (mLanguage) is proposed to allow easy data sharing and system control. A data fusion engine (mEngine) is used to provide fused results for traffic classification and intrusion identification. To ensure Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements for end users, adaptive resource allocation scheme is also presented. It is hoped that this project will advance the understanding of complex, interactive, and collaborative distributed systems.
Modeling and Analyzing User Contexts for Mobile Advertising
Authors: Jing Nan , Yao Yong , Ru Yanbo
Published: December 2012

Context-aware advertising is one of the most critical components in the Internet ecosystem today because most WWW publisher revenue highly depends on the relevance of the displayed advertisement to the context of the user interaction. Existing research work focuses on analyzing either the content of the web page or the keywords of the user search. However, there are limitations of these works when being extended into mobile computing domain, where mobile devices can provide versatile contexts, such as locations, weather, device capability, and user activities. These contexts should be well categorized and utilized for online advertising to gain better user experience and reaction. This paper examines the aforementioned limitations of the existing works in context-aware advertising when being applied for mobile platforms. A mobile advertising system is proposed, using location tracking and context awareness to provide targeted and meaningful advertisement to the customers on mobile devices. The three main modules of this comprehensive mobile advertising system are discussed, including advisement selection, advertisement presentation, and user context databases. A software prototype that is developed to conduct the case studies and validate this approach is presented.
A Framework for the Quality Evaluation of B2C M-Commerce Services
Authors: Garofalakis John , Stefani Antonia , Stefanis Vassilios
Published: December 2012

Business to consumer m-commerce services are here to stay. Their specifics, as software artifacts, indicate that they are primarily and most importantly user-driven; as such user perceived quality assessment should be an integral part of their design process. Mobile design processes still lack a formal and systematic quality control method. This paper explores m-commerce quality attributes using the external quality characteristics of the ISO9126 software quality standard. The goal is to provide a quality map of a B2C m-commerce system in order to facilitate more accurate and detailed quality evaluation. The result is a new evaluation framework based on decomposition of m-commerce services to three distinct user-software interaction patterns and mapping to ISO9126 quality characteristics.
Tool-Supported User-Centred Prototyping of Mobile Applications
Authors: Leichtenstern Karin , André Elisabeth , Rehm Matthias
Published: December 2012

There is evidence that user-centred development increases the user-friendliness of resulting products and thus the distinguishing features compared to products of competitors. However, the user-centred development requires comprehensive software and usability engineering skills to keep the process both cost-effective and time-effective. This paper covers that problem and provides insights in so-called user-centred prototyping (UCP) tools which support the production of prototypes as well as their evaluation with end-users. In particular, UCP tool called MoPeDT (Pervasive Interface Development Toolkit for Mobile Phones) is introduced. It provides assistance to interface developers of applications where mobile phones are used as interaction devices to a user’s everyday pervasive environment. Based on found tool features for UCP tools, a feature study is described between related tools and MoPeDT as well as a comparative user study between this tool and a traditional approach. A further focus of the paper is the tool-supported execution of empiric evaluations.
DSOA
Authors: Buzeto Fabricio Nogueira , Filho Carlos Botelho de Paula , Castanho Carla Denise , Jacobi Ricardo Pezzuol
Published: December 2012

Ubiquitous environments are composed by a wide variety of devices, each one with different characteristics like communication protocol, programming and hardware platforms. These devices range from powerful equipment, like PCs, to limited ones, like cell phones, sensors, and actuators. The services provided by a ubiquitous environment rely on the interaction among devices. In order to support the development of applications in this context, the heterogeneity of communication protocols must be abstracted and the functionalities dynamically provided by devices should be easily available to application developers. This paper proposes a Device Service Oriented Architecture (DSOA) as an abstraction layer to help organize devices and its resources in a ubiquitous environment, while hiding details about communication protocols from developers. Based on DSOA, a lightweight middleware (uOS) and a high level protocol (uP) were developed. A use case is presented to illustrate the application of these concepts.
Reducing Power and Energy Overhead in Instruction Prefetching for Embedded Processor Systems
Authors: Gu Ji , Guo Hui
Published: December 2012

Instruction prefetching is an effective way to improve performance of the pipelined processors. However, existing instruction prefetching schemes increase performance with a significant energy sacrifice, making them unsuitable for embedded and ubiquitous systems where high performance and low energy consumption are all demanded. This paper proposes reducing energy overhead in instruction prefetching by using a simple hardware/software design and an efficient prefetching operation scheme. Two approaches are investigated: Decoded Loop Instruction Cache-based Prefetching (DLICP) that is most effective for loop intensive applications, and the enhanced DLICP with the popular existing Next Line Prefetching (NLP) for applications of a moderate number of loops. The experimental results show that both DLICP and the enhanced DLICP deliver improved performance at a much reduced energy overhead.
Software Engineering Productivity
Authors: Hernández-López Adrián , Colomo-Palacios Ricardo , García-Crespo Ángel , Cabezas-Isla Fernando
Published: December 2012

Software engineering productivity has been widely studied, but there are many issues that remain unsolved. Interesting works related to new metrics and more replications of past productivity analysis have emerged, however, in order to fulfill these unsolved issues, a consensus about influencing factors and well recognized and useful sets of inputs and outputs for using in measurements must be reached. In this regard, a clear state of the art may shed light on further research in software engineering productivity, which remains a promising research area. In this paper, general concepts of software engineering productivity along with general issues and recent challenges that need further attention from the research community are presented.
IT Offshoring
Authors: Kefi Hajer , Mlaiki Alya , Peterson Richard L.
Published: December 2012

This article is about the role played by trust in structuring and shaping offshoring projects and how cultural differences interfere in the related inter-firms relationships. The study, conducted with three IT service provider companies established in Tunisia, has provided a dataset that confirms the structuring role of trust in terms of transferability effect between the client and the offshoring unit. Findings indicate that trust is perceived as an influencing factor when it is situated at the inter-organizational level and not at the interpersonal level for all the actors concerned. This finding is independent of the cultural affiliation (individualistic versus collectivist). While cultural differences are not “negotiated” the same way by all of the respondents, trust seems noticeably more difficult to settle between the Tunisian partners than between the Tunisian offshoring unit and its European clients.
Multicultural Software Development
Authors: Aramo-Immonen Heli , Jaakkola Hannu , Keto Harri
Published: December 2012

Productivity management is a challenge for software engineering companies and, in this regard, there is a current trend toward globalization. Via acquisitions and mergers, business has become international and employs different national cultures. Therefore, the focus of this article is on the understanding of cultural differences affecting productivity in globalized software production. The relation between productivity and non coding activities in software development projects has not been proven. Software development is expert work, typically made in closely collaborating local teams and global distribution of expert work increases the degree of difficulty. In this paper, the authors analyze multicultural ICT companies from their productivity perspective through the lens of cultural differences. The purpose of this study is to report findings based on general cultural studies and reported experiences that seem to affect productivity in the software industry. Some company cases are also described and analyzed.
Global IT Project Management Using Web 2.0
Authors: Gholami Behnaz , Murugesan San
Published: December 2012

For many businesses, managing globally distributed IT projects effectively is key to success in today’s competitive environment. However, IT projects and their managements are notorious for failures, and managing globally distributed teams poses unique additional challenges. While the Internet, email and the Web have been major means of communication among such teams, new Web 2.0 technologies and applications which have emerged into prominence in the last few years present new opportunities for successfully managing global projects. This paper presents the authors’ findings on awareness and level of use of Web 2.0 tools for project management among global teams. It also offers recommendations on how managers of global IT projects can manage their teams more efficiently and effectively using Web 2.0 tools.
Scheduling Large and Complex IT Projects Using Sliding-Frame Approach
Authors: Cohen Yuval , Sadeh Arik , Zwikael Ofer
Published: December 2012

Many IT projects and software development projects are very complex and sophisticated involving a large coordinated team. Such projects are a constant part of the operations of software companies such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Google, Yahoo, IBM, and others. Many other companies carry large software projects as part of their IT operations. As a result of the size and complexity of such projects, a rolling horizon approach for their planning and management is not only plausible but also desirable. For large projects, traditional project scheduling techniques cannot provide an optimal and timely solution to minimum project duration under precedence and resource constraints. This paper proposes a technique that allows utilizing non-polynomial (NP) algorithms in a heuristic manner – generating high quality schedules in reasonable time. This approach can be applied efficiently for solving most project scheduling problems. The main advantage of this approach is its ability to dissect the original problem into small sub-problems of a controllable size to which exact techniques can be applied. Thus, it neutralizes the complexity of the applied algorithms (and their non-polynomial growth). Moreover, the same technique could be used for implementing a rolling-horizon approach in project planning and management.
Snapshot of Personnel Productivity Assessment in Indian IT Industry
Authors: Natarajan Thamaraiselvan , Rajah Saraswathy R. Aravinda , Manikavasagam Sivagnanasundaram
Published: December 2012

Measuring the productivity of employees has been one of the concerns of IT organisations globally. It is indispensable to calculate the cost of the project vis-a-vis the time estimate. While calculating the lines of coding (Loc) has generally been the common criteria for programmers, it is not always considered an effective measure of the actual work done. The time spent on activities like attending training programmes, participating in meetings, co-coordinating with colleagues, or conceptualising, is presumably unaccounted. Questions lurking unanswered relate to the effective criteria and international benchmarks. Amusingly most companies have their own home-grown productivity calculators to track the progress of their projects. Productivity measurement is equally important for an organisation as well as an IT worker. Awareness of productivity paves way-for mutual progress-self and the organization. This paper, through illustrative-case examples, provides a holistic perspective of personnel productivity assessment methods used in Indian IT industry.
Earth Building Materials, Production, and Construction Techniques
Authors: Niroumand Hamed , Zain M.F.M , Alhosseni Sanaz Naghavi
Published: December 2012

Building materials and construction technology are strongly interrelated with the pillars for sustainable development (e.g. environment, society economy, culture and politics). Earth Building, an 11,000-year-old practice of building using sustainable and earth materials, is practiced worldwide. Earth has been used to construct walls, floors, roofs, and even furniture. Today it is estimated that between 33-50%of the world’s population is housed in earth homes. This chapter reviews the two-year process of earth buildings and earth architecture carried out by the Department of Architecture Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering at National University of Malaysia (UKM). The current research emphasis is on the types, construction methods, and architectural aspects of earth buildings and earth architecture. The current manuscript compares type of earth buildings and their properties and applications based on building materials and architectural aspects in construction.
Future Learning Spaces
Authors: Holland Charlotte , Judge Miriam
Published: December 2012

Higher education institutions are promoting the integration of online technologies in teaching and learning as an attempt to provide flexible modes of delivery, to diversify the profile of students accessing higher education and to facilitate the development of life-long learning skills. The availability of personal digital devices, such as wireless laptops and mobile phones, and campus-wide Internet connectivity has the potential to enhance or detract from learning in higher education. This chapter explores the trend towards online learning in higher education, examining the potential of and current practices in the integration of Information and Communication Technologies, focusing on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in teaching and learning, and presenting some of the challenges that arise in the integration of online technologies and implementation of Learning 2.0 in higher education.
A Users’ Perspective on Academic Blogging
Authors: Deac Mihai , Hosu Ioan
Published: December 2012

There has been much research dedicated to the use of blogs in higher education, but a great deal of its enthusiasm is based on data that have the potential to be distorted by social desirability. The current chapter attempts a more balanced look at the use of educational blogs, taking into account the shortcomings, as well as the benefits of their proliferation amongst students. The authors write from the perspective of the blog users. Although their feedback is mostly positive, user behavior is also affected by fear of peer appraisal, lack of engagement, lack of trust, or unwillingness to share knowledge or to debate. In order to support our argumentation, the authors use traffic data from the educational blog “blogdeseminar,” survey data from a convenience sample of Romanian students, and qualitative data from 11 interviews.
Uses and Implementation of Social Media at University
Authors: Díaz-González María-Jesús , Froufe Natalia Quintas , Brena Almudena González del Valle , Pumarola Francesc
Published: December 2012

There have been many contributions to scientific literature which have helped develop a theoretical framework in the field of education and Information Technologies. The contributions have come from the educational sciences and from the communication processes and collaboration perspectives. The purpose of this chapter is to make a contribution within the specific scope of university teaching and social media. In order to achieve this objective, a case study methodology was chosen to analyze the use and implementations of social media networks in Spanish Schools of Communication. The parameters used were chosen out of the same social media nature (potential use). The success of social media presence at Schools of Communications must follow an initial plan and a further control and supervision of the plan. The relationship of social media with the university community depends greatly upon the specific community manager’s profile and commitment.
Web Use in Public Relations Education
Authors: Sebastião Sónia Pedro
Published: December 2012

The chapter relates several of the difficulties associated with public relations as an academic subject. Bearing these obstacles in mind, a public relations academic program has been defined, along with, a teaching strategy using Web-based social media (blog and Facebook profile) to communicate with students. The main purposes of the research are: to understand how university students see public relations as a subject and to ascertain their attitude toward the importance of using web-based communication tools in the assessment of public relations disciplines. The results have shown that students understand that the use of Web-social media is important to their academic life and to their relationship with the teacher. Nevertheless, it is also admitted that the use of technological tools must be followed by motivation, interest in the subject of public relations, and in general, academic work.
The Impact of Social Media on Scholarly Practices in Higher Education
Authors: Esposito Antonella
Published: December 2012

This chapter reports selected findings from a small-scale, exploratory study aiming to provide a snapshot of actual modes of uptaking new digital tools for research purposes. The study consists in an interview project, carried out in a large Italian university and constituted by semi-structured interviews to 14 senior, young, and doctoral researchers, working in humanities, social sciences, medicine, and physics subject areas. Whereas the most popular attitude is a pragmatic and efficiency-driven approach in selecting and using old and new tools, a few isolated profiles of digital scholars emerge, championing the construction of their digital identity along with networked modes of knowledge production and distribution, despite the lack of legitimation of their own research context.
Implementation of Augmented Reality in “3.0 Learning” Methodology
Authors: Redondo Ernest , Navarro Isidro , Sánchez Albert , Fonseca David
Published: December 2012

This chapter discusses the impact of using social media resources and new emerging technologies in teaching and learning processes. The authors of this chapter focus on Spanish architecture-education framework by analyzing three case studies carried out by students finishing architecture and building degrees. Students’ interaction with this resources is assessed, as well as their derived academic results, and the degree of satisfaction from students and teachers using these resources and technologies. To conduct the study, the authors worked with Web based freeware applications, such as Dropbox, blogging systems, Moodle, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Google Maps. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets PCs, were used to test QR-Codes (Quick Response Codes) and Augmented Reality technology based applications as Junaio and Ar-Media Plugin.
Gαi2 Is the Essential Gαi Protein in Immune Complex–Induced Lung Disease
Authors: Wiege Kristina , Ali Syed R. , Gewecke Britta , Novakovic Ana , Konrad Franziska M. , Pexa Katja , Beer-Hammer Sandra , Reutershan Jörg , Piekorz Roland P. , Schmidt Reinhold E. , Nürnberg Bernd , Gessner J. Engelbert
Published: December 2012

Heterotrimeric G proteins of the Gαi family have been implicated in signaling pathways regulating cell migration in immune diseases. The Gαi-protein–coupled C5a receptor is a critical regulator of IgG FcR function in experimental models of immune complex (IC)–induced inflammation. By using mice deficient for Gαi2 or Gαi3, we show that Gαi2 is necessary for neutrophil influx in skin and lung Arthus reactions and agonist-induced neutrophilia in the peritoneum, whereas Gαi3 plays a less critical but variable role. Detailed analyses of the pulmonary IC-induced inflammatory response revealed several shared functions of Gαi2 and Gαi3, including mediating C5a anaphylatoxin receptor–induced activation of macrophages, involvement in alveolar production of chemokines, transition of neutrophils from bone marrow into blood, and modulation of CD11b and CD62L expression that account for neutrophil adhesion to endothelial cells. Interestingly, C5a-stimulated endothelial polymorphonuclear neutrophil transmigration, but not chemotaxis, is enhanced versus reduced in the absence of neutrophil Gαi3 or Gαi2, respectively, and knockdown of endothelial Gαi2 caused decreased transmigration of wild-type neutrophils. These data demonstrate that Gαi2 and Gαi3 contribute to inflammation by redundant, overlapping, and Gαi-isoform–specific mechanisms, with Gαi2 exhibiting unique functions in both neutrophils and endothelial cells that appear essential for polymorphonuclear neutrophil recruitment in IC disease.
Nuclear Translocation of MEK1 Triggers a Complex T Cell Response through the Corepressor Silencing Mediator of Retinoid and Thyroid Hormone Receptor
Authors: Guo Lei , Chen Chaoyu , Liang Qiaoling , Karim Mohammad Zunayet , Gorska Magdalena M. , Alam Rafeul
Published: December 2012

MEK1 phosphorylates ERK1/2 and regulates T cell generation, differentiation, and function. MEK1 has recently been shown to translocate to the nucleus. Its nuclear function is largely unknown. By studying human CD4 T cells, we demonstrate that a low level of MEK1 is present in the nucleus of CD4 T cells under basal conditions. T cell activation further increases the nuclear translocation of MEK1. MEK1 interacts with the nuclear receptor corepressor silencing mediator of retinoid and thyroid hormone receptor (SMRT). MEK1 reduces the nuclear level of SMRT in an activation-dependent manner. MEK1 is recruited to the promoter of c-Fos upon TCR stimulation. Conversely, SMRT is bound to the c-Fos promoter under basal conditions and is removed upon TCR stimulation. We examined the role of SMRT in regulation of T cell function. Small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of SMRT results in a biphasic effect on cytokine production. The production of the cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and IFN-γ increases in the early phase (8 h) and then decreases in the late phase (48 h). The late-phase decrease is associated with inhibition of T cell proliferation. The late-phase inhibition of T cell activation is, in part, mediated by IL-10 that is produced in the early phase and, in part, by β-catenin signaling. Thus, we have identified a novel nuclear function of MEK1. MEK1 triggers a complex pattern of early T cell activation, followed by a late inhibition through its interaction with SMRT. This biphasic dual effect most likely reflects a homeostatic regulation of T cell function by MEK1.
Ofatumumab Is More Efficient than Rituximab in Lysing B Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells in Whole Blood and in Combination with Chemotherapy
Authors: Bologna Luca , Gotti Elisa , Da Roit Fabio , Intermesoli Tamara , Rambaldi Alessandro , Introna Martino , Golay Josée
Published: December 2012

Ofatumumab (OFA) is a human anti-CD20 Ab approved for treatment of fludarabine-refractory B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). The efficacy of different immunotherapeutic strategies is best investigated in conditions that are as physiologic as possible. We have therefore compared the activity OFA and rituximab (RTX), alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic agents in unmanipulated whole blood assays, using flow cytometry. OFA (10–100 μg/ml) lysed B-CLL targets in whole blood more efficiently and with faster kinetics than RTX, with a mean 56% lysis at 24 h compared with 16%. This activity of OFA was fully complement dependent, as shown by >99% inhibition by anti-C5 Ab eculizumab and a lack of NK cell activation in whole blood. OFA-mediated NK cell activation was blocked by complement. OFA-mediated lysis could be increased an additional 15% by blocking CD55 and CD59 complement inhibitors. Interestingly, OFA-mediated lysis correlated significantly with CD20 expression levels (r2 = 0.79). OFA showed overlapping dose response curves similar to those for RTX in phagocytosis assays using either human macrophages or neutrophils. However, phagocytosis was inhibited in the presence of serum or whole blood. Finally, combined treatment with mafosfamide and fludarabine showed that these therapeutic drugs are synergistic in B-CLL whole blood assays and show superior activity when combined with OFA compared with RTX. These results confirm in B-CLL samples and in physiologic conditions the superior complement mediated cytotoxicity induced by OFA alone compared with RTX, the lack of NK cell activation, and phagocytosis in these conditions and suggest effective chemoimmunotherapy strategies using this new generation anti-CD20 Ab.
Knowledge of, and attitudes towards, Voluntary HIV Counselling and Testing services amongst adolescent high school students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Authors: Gatta Abraham A. , Thupayagale-Tshweneagae Gloria
Published: December 2012

Voluntary HIV counselling and testing (VHCT) is one of the key strategies in the prevention of HIV in Ethiopia. However, utilisation of the VHCT services amongst adolescents has been reported as low by previous studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate adolescents’ knowledge and attitudes towards VHCT services amongst adolescents attending high school in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. A cross-sectional school-based design using quantitative methods was employed to attain the objectives of the study. Data collection was done using self-administered structured questionnaires amongst 378 adolescent high school students. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings revealed that 75.7% of students are aware of the voluntary HIV counselling and testing services; 62.2% use the services and suggested that VHCT services should be located in schools and youth clubs for better access by adolescents. Thirty-two percent of respondents rated themselves at risk of HIV infection and 35.2% were not willing to disclose their HIVpositive status to anybody. The findings of the study clearly indicate a need for a more accessible voluntary HIV counselling and testing services for adolescents.
Seroprevalence of leptospirosis in dogs in urban Harare and selected rural communities in Zimbabwe
Authors: Dhliwayo Solomon , Matope Gift , Marabini Lisa , Dutlow Keith , Pfukenyi Davis M.
Published: December 2012

A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate seroprevalence of canine leptospirosis in urban Harare and five selected rural communities in Zimbabwe and to assess public awareness of the disease. Sera from randomly selected dogs were tested for antibodies to the serovars Canicola, Grippotyphosa, Icterohaemorrhagiae and Pomona of Leptospira interrogans using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Clinical chemistry was performed on all seropositive and selected seronegative sera to screen for hepatic and renal insufficiency. A questionnaire- based survey was conducted in Harare to assess dog owners’ awareness of leptospirosis and other zoonoses. Overall, 15.6% of sera samples tested (39 out of 250; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 11.0% – 20.2%) were positive for leptospiral antibodies. A significantly higher (p < 0.05) seroprevalence was recorded in urban dogs than in rural dogs (25% vs. 11.2%). No significant difference in seroprevalence was observed amongst dogs from different rural communities or between sexes of dogs. There was a significant association between seropositivity and hepatic and/or renal insufficiency (p < 0.01), with dogs having hepatic and/or renal insufficiency being approximately twice as likely to be seropositive (relative risk = 1.96; 95% CI: 1.3–3.0). Of the dog owners, 78.8% (119/151) were aware of zoonoses. Except for rabies (92.4%), awareness of leptospirosis (5.0%) and other zoonoses amongst these owners was low. This study showed that leptospirosis was present and represented a risk to dogs from urban Harare and the selected rural communities in Zimbabwe. Availing training programmes for dog owners would be beneficial in improving disease control and reducing the public health risk of pet zoonoses.
Blocking Babesia bovis vaccine reactions of dairy cattle in milk
Authors: Combrink Michael P. , Carr Graham , Mans Ben J. , Marais Frances
Published: December 2012

The use of 1.16 mg/kg (one third) of the recommended dose of diminazene aceturate, administered indiscriminately to cattle on day seven of the unfrozen Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina bivalent live blood vaccine reaction, was an infection and block treatment method of immunisation used successfully with no known adverse effect on the parasites or the development of protective immunity. Continuing with this practice after replacement of the unfrozen vaccine with deep-frozen monovalent B. bovis and B. bigemina live blood vaccines resulted in reports of vaccine failure. Laboratory investigation indicated the harmful effect of block treatment in preventing the development of durable immunity against B. bigemina as opposed to the much lesser effect it had on B. bovis. Consequently the practice was no longer recommended. A B. bovis vaccination attempt aimed at controlling the disease of dairy cows in milk (n = 30) resulted in 20% fatalities during the expected vaccine reaction period. The practice of block treating B. bovis was therefore reinvestigated, this time in a field trial using dairy cattle in milk (n = 11). Using 0.88 mg/kg (one quarter) of the recommended dose of diminazene administered on day 12 of the B. bovis vaccine reaction resulted in only two animals (n = 5) testing ≥ 1/80 positive with the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) although parasites could be demonstrated in three. In the untreated control group, by contrast, five of the vaccinated animals (n = 6) tested ≥ 1/80 positive with IFAT and parasites could be demonstrated in all. The unsatisfactory outcome obtained in this study, combined with that of the earlier investigation, indicated that there are more factors that influence successful vaccination than previously considered. It is therefore concluded that block treatment of the live frozen South African cattle babesiosis vaccines reactions is not recommended.
The languishment of employee commitment in the light of perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace
Authors: Coetzee Mariette , Botha Jo-Anne
Published: December 2012

Orientation: This article reports on the behaviours displayed by committed employees and the influence of perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace on employees’ commitment.Research purpose: The objective of the study was to identify organisational behaviours that are indicative of employee commitment and whether perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace influence employees’ commitment.Motivation for the study: Employees are emotionally attached to organisations and treating employees in a fair manner plays a huge role in building commitment.Research design, approach and method: This study made use of a quantitative approach and a questionnaire was developed to collect data on employees’ biographical details, their work behaviour and perceptions of how fairly they believe they were treated in the workplace. A disproportionate, stratified sampling method was used and a sample of 349 employees from a leading bank in South Africa participated. Factor analysis, correlations, t-tests and analysis of variance statistics were computed to achieve the objectives.Main findings: The factor analysis identified the following four factors relating to employee commitment: obedience, job satisfaction, participation and loyalty. The results of the t-tests revealed that biographical factors do not have a practical significant effect on employee commitment, whereas treatment in the workplace does have a significant effect on employee commitment.Practical/managerial implications: Committed employees engage in specific behaviours and if they do not, managers need to pay attention to the way employees are treated in the workplace.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to a better understanding of the dimensionality of employee commitment in the light of perceptions of fair treatment.
After Fukushima: The precautionary principle revisited
Authors: Huber Wolfgang
Published: December 2012

Etienne de Villiers, more than other theologians, elaborates on basic elements of a Christian ethics of responsibility. He distinguishes between retrospective and prospective responsibility. The prospective aspect attracted awareness after the nuclear accident in the Fukushima reactors on 11 March 2011. The question on how to respond in an ethically responsible manner to catastrophic risks was put back on the agenda. The article takes up this question and discusses the answer given in the international debate by the introduction of the �precautionary principle�. The principle is described with its background in the �heuristics of fear�, proposed by the philosopher Hans Jonas. Four criticisms are discussed in detail relating to the problems of scientific uncertainty, the burden of proof, the weight of damages and the perils of precaution. That leads to a reformulation of the precautionary principle as a concrete element within an ethics of responsibility.
Personal-ethical perspectives in the work of Etienne de Villiers
Authors: Van Niekerk Andr� C.J.
Published: December 2012

With a mixture of hesitation and gratitude, the author undertook a reflection from a pastor�s viewpoint on Etienne de Villiers�s personal-ethical contributions to date. The distinguishing term �personal� in �personal ethics� is problematic, but the discussion thereof provided an opportunity to demonstrate that De Villiers did not develop a narrowed individual ethic, and decidedly also did not elect to take the route of Dilschneider�s �personal ethics�, but provided valuable contributions on ethical issues of a more personal nature. De Villiers�s greatest contribution concerns fundamental ethics which, viewed from the perspective of our history, as well as from our current situation, is now most essential for authenticity. This more fundamental focus on ethics has numerous implications for social ethics and also for more personal ethics.
Ekklesiologie en Etiek: Die werk van Etienne de Villiers in die lig van die ekumeniese diskussie oor ekklesiologie en etiek
Authors: Wethmar Conrad
Published: December 2012

Ecclesiology and Ethics: Etienne de Villiers� work in the light of ecumenical discussions on ecclesiology and ethics. In honouring Etienne de Villiers, this article discusses the latter�s contribution to a deepening of the notions of church and ethics, as well as the mutual relationship between these notions in the South African context. De Villiers� work in this regard is compared with that which has been done by the World Council of Churches (WCC). The article therefore highlights the manner in which De Villiers, in line with the WCC, analysed the moral deformation, but also the transformation and formation in which especially the Dutch Reformed Church was involved in in South Africa since the middle of the 20th century. Although De Villiers mainly works in the field of Christian ethics, it is clear that the latent ecclesiological views to which his ethical contributions are related, would also, to a considerable extent, be in line with those that have been and are being developed by the WCC.
Public Theology in pluralistic societies? Lessons from the theology of Etienne de Villiers
Authors: Koopman Nico
Published: December 2012

This article discussed the meaning and significance of the theological contribution of Etienne de Villiers for the task of prophetic public theology in pluralistic societies. It was argued that De Villiers�s theology enriched public theology in a variety of ways. De Villiers convincingly argued that Christian morality does have unique contents. These unique contents enrich and deepen discussions in the pluralistic public domain. De Villiers also showed that Christians can enter the public domain from the perspective of so-called thicker theological convictions like sin and love. De Villiers emphasised the participation of Christians in so-called technical discourses. This implied that Christians strive to make their convictions as far as possible intellectually accessible to a pluralistic audience, that Christians strive for moral consensus, sound moral decision-making, influencing of the public opinion and participation in policy- making processes in pluralistic life. This technical discourse with the aim to reach moral consensus and to impact on policymaking processes should also be practiced within Christian communities where a plurality of moral views, even conflicting views, exist. This quest for decision-making, consensus and impacting on public policy are to be advanced in the ecumenical Christian family, and even between Christians and other religions.
Multiple Pathways to and from Responsibility Interpretations and the Development of Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms
Authors: Adams Thomas G.
Published: December 2012

Responsibility beliefs and interpretations are paramount to the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, yet very little is understood about the development of responsibility-related cognitions. The present study utilized a large non-clinical sample (N = 356), retrospective (i.e., self-reported developmental factors) and cross sectional data (i.e., self-reported severity of responsibility interpretations and OC-symptoms), and structural equation modeling to test the direct and indirect relations between developmental pathways to responsibility-related cognitions, responsibility interpretations of intrusions, and specific OC symptom dimensions. Results showed that: responsibility interpretations fully mediated the relations between a highly responsible childhood and 1) OC-obsessing and 2) OC-hoarding symptoms. Responsibility interpretations also fully mediated the relations between events in which an individual caused actual or imagined harm and 1) OC-obsessing, 2) OC-hoarding, 3) OC-arranging, and 4) OC-checking. Moreover, these effects varied across genders. Interpretations, limitations, and future directions are discussed in detail.