Cross-community context management in Cooperating Smart Spaces

Recently, social networks have become the most prevalent IT paradigm, as the vast majority of Internet users maintain one or multiple social networking accounts. These accounts, irrespectively of the underlying service, contain rich information and data for the owner’s preferences, social skills, everyday activities, beliefs and interests. Along with these services, the computation, sensing and networking capabilities of the state of the art mobile and portable devices, with their always-on mode, assist users in their everyday lives. Thus, the integration of social networking services with current pervasive computing systems could provide the users with the potential to interact with other users that have similar interests, preferences and expectations; and in general, the same or similar context, for limited or not time periods, in order to ameliorate their overall experience, communicate, socialise and improve their everyday activities with minimal effort. This paper introduces a cross-community context management framework that is suitable for Cooperating Smart Spaces, which couple the advantages of pervasive computing and social networking. This framework goes beyond the state of the art, among others, in that cross-community context from a multitude of sources is collected and processed to enhance the end user experience and increase the perceived value of the services provided.     

Closed Formulas for the Failure Probability of a Strict-Consecutive-k-out-of-n:F System

A consecutive-k-out-of-n:F system is strict if it operates in such a way that isolated failure strings of length less than k (which do not cause system failure) do not occur, or are immediately corrected. This paper gives closed formulas for the failure probability of a strict-consecutive-k-out-of-n:F system.     

Two axiomatic characterizations for the system of spheres-based (and the Epistemic Entrenchment-based) multiple contractions

In some recent works (Reis 2011, Fermé and Reis, J. Philos. Log. 41, 29–52, 2012, Fermé and Reis, Rev. Symb. Log. 6, 460–487, 2013) two new kinds of multiple contraction functions have been proposed, namely the system of spheres-based multiple contractions and the epistemic entrenchment-based multiple contractions, as generalizations (to the case of multiple contraction) of the well-known classes of systems of spheres-based and of epistemic entrenchment-based (singleton) contractions. Additionally, a representation theorem for the class of epistemic entrenchment-based multiple contraction has been proposed, and it has been shown that the two newly proposed constructions are equivalent, in the sense that a multiple contraction function is a system of spheres-based multiple contraction if and only if it is an epistemic entrenchment-based multiple contraction. In this paper we present two axiomatic characterizations for those multiple contraction functions which differ from the one mentioned above and, in particular, make use of some more intuitive postulates.     

Detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) antigen in the lungs of guinea pigs 6 weeks after experimental infection and despite of the production of neutralizing antibodies

Infections with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are characterized by frequently occurring reinfections and are regarded to be responsible for bronchial hyperreactivity. In this report we describe a small-animal model suited to study RSV-induced pathogenesis and immune response. Guinea pigs are infected by inhalation of an RSV-aerosol. Lungs of infected animals show signs of a bronchiolitis at 7 days after the initial infection. Although neutralizing serum antibodies are synthesized viral proteins are still detectable at 6 weeks post infection. Therefore, the presence of neutralizing antibodies is obviously not sufficient for rapid clearance of persistent RSV-proteins from the lungs of infected guinea pigs.     

A complexity perspective on entailment of parameterized linear constraints

Extending linear constraints by admitting parameters allows for more abstract problem modeling and reasoning. A lot of focus has been given to conducting research that demonstrates the usefulness of parameterized linear constraints and implementing tools that utilize their modeling strength. However, there is no approach that considers basic theoretical tools related to such constraints that allow for reasoning over them. Hence, in this paper we introduce satisfiability with respect to polyhedral sets and entailment for the class of parameterized linear constraints. In order to study the computational complexities of these problems, we relate them to classes of quantified linear implications. The problem of satisfiability with respect to polyhedral sets is then shown to be co- $\mathbb{NP}$ hard. The entailment problem is also shown to be co- $\mathbb{NP}$ hard in its general form. Nevertheless, we characterize some subclasses for which this problem is in ?. Furthermore, we examine a weakening and a strengthening extension of the entailment problem. The weak entailment problem is proved to be $\mathbb{NP}$ complete. On the other hand, the strong entailment problem is shown to be co- $\mathbb{NP}$ hard.     

Bromate determination in water after membrane complexation and total reflection X-ray fluorescence analysis

A new method for the determination of trace levels of bromates by selective membrane collection is presented. Various membranes containing a few micrograms of different complexing reagents in a poly(vinyl chloride) matrix were tested. These membranes were produced on the surface of quartz glass (reflectors), and they were immersed in solutions containing bromate and bromide ions. At the first stage the prepared membranes collected both bromate and bromide ions, so different bromide masking agents were put in the analyzed solutions to avoid bromide collection. By the end of the equilibration time, the reflectors were left to dry, and they were analyzed by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). The poly(vinyl chloride) with aliquat-336 membrane and o-dianisidin complexing agent gave the best results. The minimum detection limit was equal to 0.9 ng/mL for ultrapure water and 1.0 ng/mL for drinking water.     

International Entrepreneurial Culture and Growth of International New Ventures

A premise in the international new venture (INV) literature is that a strong entrepreneurial orientation distinguishes an INV’s behaviour over time. Employing the concept of international entrepreneurial culture (IEC), which provides a holistic operationalisation of international entrepreneurship, we provide evidence from a longitudinal case study of four Finnish INVs as they grow over time. The findings suggest that various IEC dimensions affect the growth of INVs across their different phases. Although international motivation, innovation propensity, risk attitude, market orientation and proactiveness positively affect advancement through the early INV growth phases, their effect is negative in the later phases. International learning and networking positively affect INV growth throughout all its phases. The motivation of INVs towards the global rather than the international marketplace largely dictates a born global instead of a born international path. The contribution of the study is that it suggests that the nature and intensity of the “entrepreneurialness” of INVs change during their growth. The findings challenge the implicit rationale in the literature, according to which INVs consistently exhibit a strong entrepreneurial orientation. It is advisable to harness most aspects of entrepreneurialness during the later phases of born global firms.