Unifying Functional User Interface Design Principles

ABSTRACT

Many designers and User Interface (UI) educators discuss principles to be followed when designing the functional aspects of a UI. However, many UI principles have been proposed, scattered in scientific papers and teaching books. Some principles are different, and many are somehow similar or overlapping with others. This makes it very difficult to comprehend where to pay attention to when designing a UI. In this paper, we perform a systematic literature review to first identify the most relevant authors in the domain of functional UI design principles. Focusing on the three most cited works of these authors, we extracted 257 principles. We next analyzed all these principles, unified their variants, and, considering their scientific influence, finally derived a shorter and core selection of 36 principles. This core selection provides educators and UI designers with a clear path to teach, evaluate, learn and improve the UI functional design.     

Pre-Omicron Vaccine Breakthrough Infection Induces Superior Cross-Neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 Compared to Infection Alone

SARS-CoV-2 variants raise concern because of their high transmissibility and their ability to evade neutralizing antibodies elicited by prior infection or by vaccination. Here, we compared the neutralizing abilities of sera from 70 unvaccinated COVID-19 patients infected before the emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) and of 16 vaccine breakthrough infection (BTI) cases infected with Gamma or Delta against the ancestral B.1 strain, the Gamma, Delta and Omicron BA.1 VOCs using live virus. We further determined antibody levels against the Nucleocapsid (N) and full Spike proteins, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the Spike protein. Convalescent sera featured considerable variability in the neutralization of B.1 and in the cross-neutralization of different strains. Their neutralizing capacity moderately correlated with antibody levels against the Spike protein and the RBD. All but one convalescent serum failed to neutralize Omicron BA.1. Overall, convalescent sera from patients with moderate disease had higher antibody levels and displayed a higher neutralizing ability against all strains than patients with mild or severe forms of the disease. The sera from BTI cases fell into one of two categories: half the sera had a high neutralizing activity against the ancestral B.1 strain as well as against the infecting strain, while the other half had no or a very low neutralizing activity against all strains. Although antibody levels against the spike protein and the RBD were lower in BTI sera than in unvaccinated convalescent sera, most neutralizing sera also retained partial neutralizing activity against Omicron BA.1, suggestive of a better cross-neutralization and higher affinity of vaccine-elicited antibodies over virus-induced antibodies. Accordingly, the IC50: antibody level ratios were comparable for BTI and convalescent sera, but remained lower in the neutralizing convalescent sera from patients with moderate disease than in BTI sera. The neutralizing activity of BTI sera was strongly correlated with antibodies against the Spike protein and the RBD. Together, these findings highlight qualitative differences in antibody responses elicited by infection in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. They further indicate that breakthrough infection with a pre-Omicron variant boosts immunity and induces cross-neutralizing antibodies against different strains, including Omicron BA.1.     

Domain Modelling and the Co-Design of Business Rules in the Telecommunication Business Area

This paper discusses the development of an enterprise domain model in an environment where part of the domain knowledge is vague and not yet formalised in company-wide business rules. The domain model was developed for a young company starting in the telecommunications sector. The company relied on a number of stand-alone business support systems and sought for a manner to integrate them. There was opted for the development of an enterprise-wide domain model that had to serve as an integration layer to coordinate the stand-alone applications. A specific feature of the company was that it could build up its information infrastructure form scratch, so that many aspects of its business were still in the process of being defined. The paper will highlight parts of the Enterprise Model where there was a need for co-designing business rules together with the domain model. A result of this whole effort was that the company got more insight into important domain knowledge and developed a common understanding across functional areas of the way of doing business.     

Crystal growth of bullet-shaped magnetite in magnetotactic bacteria of the Nitrospirae phylum

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are known to produce single-domain magnetite or greigite crystals within intracellular membrane organelles and to navigate along the Earth''s magnetic field lines. MTB have been suggested as being one of the most ancient biomineralizing metabolisms on the Earth and they represent a fundamental model of intracellular biomineralization. Moreover, the determination of their specific crystallographic signature (e.g. structure and morphology) is essential for palaeoenvironmental and ancient-life studies. Yet, the mechanisms of MTB biomineralization remain poorly understood, although this process has been extensively studied in several cultured MTB strains in the Proteobacteria phylum. Here, we show a comprehensive transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study of magnetic and structural properties down to atomic scales on bullet-shaped magnetites produced by the uncultured strain MYR-1 belonging to the Nitrospirae phylum, a deeply branching phylogenetic MTB group. We observed a multiple-step crystal growth of MYR-1 magnetite: initial isotropic growth forming cubo-octahedral particles (less than approx. 40 nm), subsequent anisotropic growth and a systematic final elongation along [001] direction. During the crystal growth, one major {111} face is well developed and preserved at the larger basal end of the crystal. The basal {111} face appears to be terminated by a tetrahedral–octahedral-mixed iron surface, suggesting dimensional advantages for binding protein(s), which may template the crystallization of magnetite. This study offers new insights for understanding magnetite biomineralization within the Nitrospirae phylum.     

Management and enterprise architecture click: The FAD(E)E framework

Enterprises are living things. They constantly need to be (re-)architected in order to achieve the necessary agility, alignment and integration. This paper gives a high-level overview of how companies can go about doing ‘enterprise architecture’ in the context of both the classic (isolated) enterprise and the Extended Enterprise. By discussing the goals that are pursued in an enterprise architecture effort we reveal some basic requirements that can be put on the process of architecting the enterprise. The relationship between managing and architecting the enterprise is discussed and clarified in the FAD(E)E, the Framework for the Architectural Development of the (Extended) Enterprise. Frank G. Goethals completed his Master studies in economics (option informatics), at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, in 2000. He is presently researching for a Ph.D. under the theme of `Managing data in the Extended Enterprise'. This research is conducted at the K.U.Leuven under the guidance of professor J. Vandenbulcke, and is financed by SAP Belgium. Frank has a strong interest in coordination and dependency theory and Enterprise Architecture. Monique Snoeck obtained her Ph.D. in May 1995 from The Department of Computer Science of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with a thesis that lays the formal foundations of the object-oriented business modelling method MERODE. Since then she has done further research in the area of formal methods for object-oriented conceptual modelling. She now is Full Professor with the Management Information Systems Group of the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. She has been involved in several industrial conceptual modelling projects. Her research interests are object oriented conceptual modelling, software architecture and software quality. Wilfried Lemahieu holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Economic Sciences of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (1999). At present, he is associate professor at the Management Informatics research group of the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics. His teaching includes Database Management, Data Storage Architectures and Management Informatics. His research interests comprise distributed object architectures and web services, object-relational and object-oriented database systems and hypermedia systems. Jacques A. Vandenbulcke is professor at the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His main research interests are in Database management, Data modelling, and Business Information Systems. He is co-ordinator of the Leuven Institute for Research on Information Systems (LIRIS) and holder of the SAP-chair on ‘Extended enterprise infrastructures’. He is president of ‘Studiecentrum voor Automatische Informatieverwerking (SAI)’, the largest society for computer professionals in Belgium, and co-founder of the ‘Production and Inventory Control Society (PICS)’ in Belgium.     

From β-amino-γ-sultone to unusual bicyclic pyridine and pyrazine heterocyclic systems: synthesis and cytostatic and antiviral activities

Herein we describe the first successful application of the β-amino-γ-sultone system as an intermediate for the synthesis of hitherto virtually unknown 3H-[1,2]-oxathiole [4,3-b]pyridine and pyrazine 1,1-dioxide bicyclic heterocyclic systems. All novel compounds were evaluated for their antiviral and cytostatic activities. Compounds 3?a, 15?a, and 21?a inhibited HIV-1-induced cytopathicity. Compound 7 showed remarkable cytostatic activity, and can be regarded as a potential antitumor candidate for further exploration.     

Synthesis and Anti‐herpetic Activity of Phosphoramidate ProTides

Among the many prodrug approaches aimed at delivering nucleoside monophosphates into cells, the phosphoramidate ProTide approach is one that has shown success, which has made it possible for some of the phosphoramidates to enter into clinical trials. Herein, we report the synthesis and antiviral activity of a series of phosphoramidate ProTides designed to bypass the thymidine kinase (TK) dependence of the parent nucleoside analogues. Phosphoramidate derivatives of (E)‐5‐(2‐bromovinyl)‐2′‐deoxyuridine (BVDU) that contain L ‐alanine or pivaloyloxymethyl iminodiacetate (IDA‐POM) exhibit anti‐HSV‐1 and anti‐VZV activity in cell cultures, but they largely lost antiviral potency against TK‐deficient virus strains. Among deazapurine nucleosides and their phosphoramidate derivatives, the 7‐deazaadenine containing nucleosides and their phosphoramidate triester derivatives showed weak antiviral activity against VZV. Apparently, intracellular nucleotide delivery with these phosphoramidates is partly successful. However, none of the compound prodrugs showed superior activity to their parent drugs.     

CHOOSE: Towards a metamodel for enterprise architecture in small and medium-sized enterprises

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and IT infrastructure. Recent research indicates the need for EA in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), important drivers of the economy, as they struggle with problems related to a lack of structure and overview of their business. However, existing EA frameworks are perceived as too complex and, to date, none of the EA approaches are sufficiently adapted to the SME context. Therefore, this paper presents the CHOOSE metamodel for EA in SMEs that was developed and evaluated through action research in an SME and further refined and validated through case study research in five other SMEs. This metamodel is based on the essential dimensions of EA frameworks and is kept simple so that it may be applied in an SME context. The final CHOOSE metamodel includes only four essential concepts (i.e. goal, actor, operation, object), one for each most frequently used EA focus. As an example, an extract is included from the specific model that was created for the SME used in our action research. Finally, the CHOOSE metamodel is evaluated according to the dimensions essential in EA and the requirements for EA in an SME context.     

Dark-field electron holography for the measurement of geometric phase

The genesis, theoretical basis and practical application of the new electron holographic dark-field technique for mapping strain in nanostructures are presented. The development places geometric phase within a unified theoretical framework for phase measurements by electron holography. The total phase of the transmitted and diffracted beams is described as a sum of four contributions: crystalline, electrostatic, magnetic and geometric. Each contribution is outlined briefly and leads to the proposal to measure geometric phase by dark-field electron holography (DFEH). The experimental conditions, phase reconstruction and analysis are detailed for off-axis electron holography using examples from the field of semiconductors. A method for correcting for thickness variations will be proposed and demonstrated using the phase from the corresponding bright-field electron hologram.     

MgO-Based Epitaxial Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Using Fe-V Electrodes

To examine the influence of the barrier quality in fully epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe(001) magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), we propose to use Fe-V alloys as magnetic electrodes. This leads to a reduced misfit with MgO. We actually observe, by high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) and local strain measurements, that the misfit dislocations density in the MgO barrier is lower when it is grown on Fe-V(001). This improvement of the crystalline quality of the MgO barrier actually leads to a significant increase of the tunnel magneto-resistance (TMR), despite the loss of spin polarization (SP) in these alloys, which was measured by spin-polarized X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SR-XPS).