User generated content for IMS-based IPTV

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Web 2.0 services have been on the rise due to improved bandwidth availability. Users can now connect to the internet with a variety of portable devices which are capable of performing multiple tasks. Due to this, services such as Voice over IP (VoIP), presence, social networks, instant messaging (IM) and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) to mention but a few, started to emerge...This thesis proposed a framework that will offer user-generated content on an IMS-Based IPTV and the framework will include a personalised advertising system..

Development and analysis of a homogeneous long-term precipitation network (1850-2015) and assessment of historic droughts for the island of Ireland

Long-term precipitation series are critical for understanding emerging changes to the hydrological cycle. Given the paucity of long-term quality assured precipitation records in Ireland this thesis expands the existing catalogue of long-term monthly precipitation records for the Island by recovering and digitising archived data. Following bridging and updating, 25 stations are quality assured and homogenised using state-of-the-art methods and scrutiny of station metadata. Assessment of variability and change in the homogenised and extended precipitation records for the period 1850-2010 reveals positive (winter) and negative (summer) trends. Trends in records covering the typical period of digitisation (1941 onwards) are not always representative of longer records. Using this quality assured network of precipitation stations together with proxy rainfall reconstructions a 250-year historic drought catalogue is established using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI). Documentary sources, particularly newspaper archives, spanning the last 250 years are used to (i) add confidence to the quantitative detection of drought episodes and (ii) gain insight to the socio-economic impacts of historic droughts. During the years 1850-2015 seven major drought rich periods with an island wide fingerprint are identified in 1854-1860, 1884-1896, 1904-1912, 1921-1924, 1932-1935, 1952-1954 and 1969-1977. These events exhibit substantial diversity in terms of drought development, severity and spatial occurrence. Results show that Ireland is drought prone but recent decades are unrepresentative of the longer-term drought climatology. Finally, long-term homogenous precipitation records are further utilised to reconstruct river flows at twelve study catchments to 1850. Reconstructed flows are analysed to identify periods of hydrological drought and the potential of different SPI accumulations to forecast severe drought are explored. Results demonstrate the importance of catchment characteristics in moderating the effects of meteorological drought and highlight the potential for drought forecasting in groundwater dominated catchments. The body of work presented considerably advances understanding of the long-term hydro-climatology of a sentinel location in Europe and provides datasets and tools for more resilient water management

Development and analysis of a homogeneous long-term precipitation network (1850-2015) and assessment of historic droughts for the island of Ireland

Long-term precipitation series are critical for understanding emerging changes to the hydrological cycle. Given the paucity of long-term quality assured precipitation records in Ireland this thesis expands the existing catalogue of long-term monthly precipitation records for the Island by recovering and digitising archived data. Following bridging and updating, 25 stations are quality assured and homogenised using state-of-the-art methods and scrutiny of station metadata. Assessment of variability and change in the homogenised and extended precipitation records for the period 1850-2010 reveals positive (winter) and negative (summer) trends. Trends in records covering the typical period of digitisation (1941 onwards) are not always representative of longer records. Using this quality assured network of precipitation stations together with proxy rainfall reconstructions a 250-year historic drought catalogue is established using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI). Documentary sources, particularly newspaper archives, spanning the last 250 years are used to (i) add confidence to the quantitative detection of drought episodes and (ii) gain insight to the socio-economic impacts of historic droughts. During the years 1850-2015 seven major drought rich periods with an island wide fingerprint are identified in 1854-1860, 1884-1896, 1904-1912, 1921-1924, 1932-1935, 1952-1954 and 1969-1977. These events exhibit substantial diversity in terms of drought development, severity and spatial occurrence. Results show that Ireland is drought prone but recent decades are unrepresentative of the longer-term drought climatology. Finally, long-term homogenous precipitation records are further utilised to reconstruct river flows at twelve study catchments to 1850. Reconstructed flows are analysed to identify periods of hydrological drought and the potential of different SPI accumulations to forecast severe drought are explored. Results demonstrate the importance of catchment characteristics in moderating the effects of meteorological drought and highlight the potential for drought forecasting in groundwater dominated catchments. The body of work presented considerably advances understanding of the long-term hydro-climatology of a sentinel location in Europe and provides datasets and tools for more resilient water management

Cross inoculation of rumen fluid to improve dry matter disappearance and its effect on bacterial composition using an in vitro batch culture model

Environmental pressures of ruminant production could be reduced by improving digestive efficiency. Previous in vivo attempts to manipulate the rumen microbial community have largely been unsuccessful probably due to the influencing effect of the host. Using an in vitro consecutive batch culture technique, the aim of this study was to determine whether manipulation was possible once the bacterial community was uncoupled from the host. Two cross inoculation experiments were performed. Rumen fluid was collected at time of slaughter from 11 Holstein-Friesian steers from the same herd for Experiment 1, and in Experiment 2 were collected from 11 Charolais cross steers sired by the same bull and raised on a forage only diet on the same farm from birth. The two fluids that differed most in their in vitro dry matter disappearance (IVDMD; “Good,” “Bad”) were selected for their respective experiment. The fluids were also mixed (1:1, “Mix”) and used to inoculate the model. In Experiment 1, the mixed rumen fluid resulted in an IVDMD midway between that of the two rumen fluids from which it was made for the first 24 h batch culture (34, 29, 20 g per 100 g DM for the Good, Mix, and Bad, respectively, P < 0.001) which was reflected in fermentation parameters recorded. No effect of cross inoculation was seen for Experiment 2, where the Mix performed most similarly to the Bad. In both experiments, IVDMD increased with consecutive culturing as the microbial population adapted to the in vitro conditions and differences between the fluids were lost. The improved performance with each consecutive batch culture was associated with reduced bacterial diversity. Increases in the genus Pseudobutyrivibrio were identified, which may be, at least in part, responsible for the improved digestive efficiency observed, whilst Prevotella declined by 50% over the study period. It is likely that along with host factors, there are individual factors within each community that prevent other microbes from establishing. Whilst we were unable to manipulate the bacterial community, uncoupling the microbiota from the host resulted in changes in the community, becoming less diverse with time, likely due to environmental heterogeneity, and more efficient at digesting DM

A batch culture study of the rumen bacterial community and the fermentative digestion of forage in cattle

Environmental pressures of ruminant livestock production could be lessened by improving feed digestion efficiency. As most feed is digested by the rumen microbial community there is interest in its manipulation. Attempts at doing so in vivo have largely been unsuccessful. The aim of this thesis was to determine if, by uncoupling the rumen bacterial community from its host, manipulation would be possible. Experiments were conducted using an in vitro batch culture fermentation model using cattle rumen fluid as inoculum. Parameters of fermentative digestion were measured, and the bacterial community studied using next generation sequencing methodology, the pipeline for which was tested. The role of epiphytic bacteria and concentration of rumen fluid within the model were also explored. Rumen fluids differing in their ability to digest dry matter in vitro (IVDMD; Good, Bad) were cross inoculated (1:1 Mix). After 24 hours of fermentation the IVDMD of the Mix (0.29) was intermediate (P<0.001) of the Good (0.34) and Bad (0.20), a result supported by the measured fermentation parameters. However, by the end of the sixth consecutive batch culture (CBC6) there was no difference in IVDMD between rumen fluid treatments, but the overall IVDMD had significantly (P<0.001) improved; compared to the average 24 hr IVDMD of CBC1 that of CBC9 was 69% higher. When this experiment was repeated there was no effect of cross inoculation on IVDMD, but again overall IVDMD significantly improved with each consecutive batch culture. Surprisingly there were no differences in bacterial community composition between the rumen fluids, however, the diversity of the community decreased significantly (P<0.001) with time. Differences in IVDMD performance in the absence of differences in bacterial community composition would suggest either differences in community function or differences in communities not studied here. The improved performance with time, associated with reduced bacterial diversity, may indicate bacterial activity within the rumen is restrained

Gut microbial taxonomy and metabolism in paediatric Crohn's disease during exclusive and maintenance enteral nutrition using OMICS technologies

Objectives: Treatment with exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) is an effective therapy, successfully helping children with Crohn's disease achieve remission without the need for corticosteroids. The use of maintenance enteral nutrition (MEN) following induction of remission using EEN, is thought to help maintain clinical remission. Although the efficacy of EEN is well established, the mechanism remains unknown. There is now strong evidence to support an aetiopathogenesis in Crohn's disease which implicates an interaction between environmental factors and the indigenous gut microbiota in genetically susceptible individuals. The aim of this prospective observational study was to test the hypothesis that clinical response to EEN and reduction of colonic inflammatory markers are associated with a characteristic bacterial taxonomy (composition) and short/medium chain fatty acids (C2-C8) (functionality); and that maintenance of these proles with MEN, while returning to habitual diet, reduces the risk of relapse. The idea that gut bacteria can be altered using diet, is an important area of research in paediatric Crohn's disease, hence this study also aimed to link the gut microbiota with dietary intake. Methods: Thirty-four children with Crohn's disease; 10 with ulcerative colitis (UC); 11 patients without inflammatory bowel disease (non-IBD); and 25 healthy controls were asked to provide faecal samples. Children with Crohn's disease also provided samples at 4-weeks, and 8-weeks of treatment with EEN; and then at 2-weeks and 8-weeks of MEN. Dietary intake was estimated using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), at week-0 and at 2-weeks and 8-weeks post-EEN. Post-EEN, children were treated with either 20% MEN, an immunosuppressant, or both. Bacterial DNA was extracted using the chaotropic method followed by amplification of the 16s rRNA gene (V4) for Illumina MiSeq sequencing. SCFA extraction was carried out with diethyl ether followed by gas chromatography. Results: Baseline. Children with Crohn's disease had retarded growth and weight gain compared with healthy children (p<0.01). BMI z-scores correlated with inflammatory markers: albumin (rho=0.611; p<0.001), CRP (rho=-0.536; p<0.001) and ESR (rho=-0.407; p<0.03), showing disease severity led to an increased risk of poor growth outcomes. Faecal calprotectin was higher in children with Crohn's disease and UC than non-IBD patients and healthy children (p<0.001). Multi-dimensional scaling using euclidean distance of white blood cell counts; ALT/AST; CRP; ESR and albumin, shows children with Crohn's disease have a blood marker prole which has 20% variance from children with UC and non-IBD conditions (R2=0.197; p<0.001). Patients with Crohn's disease and UC had reduced microbiota diversity compared with healthy children (p<0.001). Many gram-positive commensal bacteria, including butyrate producing species of Firmicutes (particularly Clostridiales) were decreased; while gram-negative potential pathobionts including Gamma-proteobacteria; Fusobacterium and Veillonella increased in children with Crohn's disease compared with healthy children. Akkermansia, a genus associated with healthy gut mucosa, was also reduced in Crohn's disease patients (mean log2 difference p<0.05). The faecal short chain fatty acid valerate (p=0.02) and medium chain fatty acids, hexanoate and octanoate (p<0.001), were reduced in children with Crohn's disease compared with healthy children. The profile of short/medium chain fatty acids in children with Crohn's disease differed from healthy children (p=0.01). Reduced hexanoate was associated with reductions in a number of Firmicutes in children with Crohn's disease (p<0.05). Estimated dietary intake suggested children with Crohn's disease also had reduced fibre intake, particularly fruit, along with reduced intake of vitamins (A, E, B7 and C) (p<0.05). EEN. Of 32 children who took EEN, 23 (72%) went into remission (wPCDAI <12.5). Nine (28%) failed to respond and went on to corticosteroids. No differences were seen for baseline faecal calprotectin or blood markers, between children who responded to EEN and those who failed EEN. In children who responded to 8-weeks of EEN calprotectin, ESR and CRP were reduced (p<0.001, p=0.002 and p=0.02 respectively); mirrored by an increase in albumin (p<0.001). Blood inflammatory marker profiles after treatment with EEN were similar to non-IBD controls (R2=0.225; p<0.001). Although 25 bacterial species discriminated responders from non-responders at baseline, there was no pattern of taxonomic relatedness between these. Successful treatment with EEN changed the microbiota community structure further from that of healthy children (R2=0.070; p<0.001). During EEN gram-negative bacteria including Pasteurellaceae, Bacteroidales S24-7, Fusobacteriaceae and Veillonellaceae (Negativicutes) were reduced, while increases mostly came from gram-positive Clostridiales (p<0.05). During EEN short/medium chain fatty acid proles moved towards that of healthy children (R2=108; p=0.002), while the concentration of short/medium chain fatty acids decreased, particularly butyrate (p=0.001). Neither energy intake nor composition of diet at baseline predicted response to EEN. MEN. Of the 23 children who responded to EEN, 17 (74%) were treated with MEN post-EEN. Although children responding to treatment had age appropriate growth during EEN (p=0.056), growth velocity was not maintained once children went back onto normal diet (p=0.96). No differences in growth were seen between types of maintenance therapy. The use of MEN was not associated with an increase in length of remission, however the number of children in the non-MEN group was too small (n=6) to reject the null hypothesis. Faecal calprotectin returned to near pre-treatment levels, having a significant increase after only 8-weeks post-EEN (p=0.004), showing MEN failed to maintain the reduction of inflammation achieved during EEN. Bacterial changes during EEN, were also not maintained post-EEN. Patients using MEN, had increases in gram-negative bacteria (Veillonellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroidaceae, Prevotellaceae and Verrucomicrobiaceae). Within 2-weeks post-EEN, short chain fatty acids including butyrate returned towards pre-treatment levels (p<0.001). The use of MEN did not appear to prevent the ratio of short/medium chain fatty acids returning to pre-treatment levels. One year after the start of treatment with EEN, only 8/23 (35%) original respondents had maintained remission. Conclusions: Reduced fibre intake in children with Crohn's disease appears to lead to reduced diversity of Firmicutes, particularly Clostridiales. This reduction in commensal bacteria opens a niche for gram-negative bacteria like the Enterobacteriaceae. These changes could lead to decreased short/medium chain fatty acids, valerate, hexanoate and octanoate, which provide antimicrobial protection against gram-negative bacteria; again opening a niche for Enterobacteriaceae and other gram-negative pathobionts. Decreased intake of fibre may trigger some bacteria to switch from fermenting fibre to feeding on mucin glycans, consequently damaging the protective layer of the gut mucosa. It is thus possible that low fibre intake, under certain conditions, drives increased gut inflammation. Malabsorption, of vitamins A, C, D and E, which have immunoregulatory roles, could further exacerbate inflammation. As faecal calprotectin levels rise this limits bacterial access to zinc, manganese and iron, thus further depleting Clostridiales and increasing dysbiosis. Therefore a chronic escalation of calprotectin, could contribute in part to increased inflammation. This study does not support the hypothesis that 20% MEN can extend remission times in children with Crohn's disease. The fact that 74% of children went onto MEN post-EEN, but only 35% remained in disease remission after 1-year, suggests that either MEN is dose dependent or that exclusion of the normal diet leads to reduced inflammation. Altering normal diet in order to induce and maintain remission in children with Crohn's disease is an attractive option, for both patients and treatment centres. Further studies are needed to explore whether increased fibre or vitamin intake can protect against inflammation and relapse in Crohn's disease. Studies also need to examine the role calprotectin plays in modifying the gut microbiota

Diet, Microbiota and Metabolic Health

Diabetes is one of the largest global health crises, affecting some 415 million adults worldwide, with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) accounting for at least 90% of all cases of diabetes. In line with international statistics, New Zealand has a high prevalence of diabetes with around 240,000 New Zealanders living with diabetes. However, therapeutic options for T2DM have limited success in restoring normal physiology. The human colon is colonised by some 20 trillion bacterial cells, collectively referred to as the gut microbiota. Recent research implicates the gut microbiota in energy balance and metabolism, and differences in the gut microbiota have been demonstrated between healthy individuals and those with T2DM. However, studies to date have not reported consistent changes in the gut microbiota composition across the glycaemic spectrum. The aim of this thesis was to further investigate the relationship between the gut microbiota, diet and glucose tolerance across the glycaemic spectrum. As part of the dietary analysis, associations between dietary vitamin C intakes, plasma vitamin C status and glycaemic control were also investigated. Findings from baseline data of the Canterbury Health, Ageing and Lifecourse (CHALICE) study were used to characterise the metabolic profile and self-reported dietary intake of 49-51 year-olds from Canterbury, New Zealand. Results from this study showed the mean plasma vitamin C concentration to decrease with deterioration in blood glucose, despite no significant differences in self-reported dietary vitamin C intake. A cross-sectional observational pilot study involving well characterised participants was undertaken to investigate associations between the gut microbiota, glycaemic control, self-reported dietary intake, and other indicators of metabolic health. Multiple regression analysis showed the class Actinobacteria was independently positively associated with fasting glucose and negatively associated with plasma vitamin C concentrations. Congruent with the CHALICE results, this study also showed plasma vitamin C concentrations to be significantly lower in individuals with T2DM compared to those with normal glucose tolerance (NGT). In the search for a novel therapy for T2DM, a logical extension from the observational study was to investigate if the gut microbiota could be manipulated by dietary change in people with prediabetes. SunGold kiwifruit is both high in vitamin C and is known to alter microbial ecology and metabolism in vitro, and therefore, could potentially impact human health. A pilot exploratory study was carried out where participants were asked to consume two SunGold kiwifruit daily as part of their usual diet for 12 weeks. Results showed a significant increase in the relative abundance (RA) of the class Coriobacteriia with no deterioration in HbA1c. It is hypothesised that the polyphenols in the SunGold kiwifruit act as an energy source for this class of bacteria. Supplementation with two SunGold kiwifruit per day also significantly increased participants’ plasma vitamin C concentrations. This thesis posits that the class Actinobacteria is associated with glycaemic control and the class Coriobacteriia can be manipulated by SunGold kiwifruit. However, as the study cohorts in this thesis were small, findings need to be replicated in larger populations. Furthermore, the implications of these results need to be investigated

ECLAP 2012 Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access and Entertainment

It has been a long history of Information Technology innovations within the Cultural Heritage areas. The Performing arts has also been enforced with a number of new innovations which unveil a range of synergies and possibilities. Most of the technologies and innovations produced for digital libraries, media entertainment and education can be exploited in the field of performing arts, with adaptation and repurposing. Performing arts offer many interesting challenges and opportunities for research and innovations and exploitation of cutting edge research results from interdisciplinary areas. For these reasons, the ECLAP 2012 can be regarded as a continuation of past conferences such as AXMEDIS and WEDELMUSIC (both pressed by IEEE and FUP). ECLAP is an European Commission project to create a social network and media access service for performing arts institutions in Europe, to create the e-library of performing arts, exploiting innovative solutions coming from the ICT

Information of social media platforms: the case of Last.fm

Social media has become a global phenomenon. Currently, there are 2 billion active users on Facebook. However, much of the research on social media is about the consumption side of social media rather than the production or operational aspects of social media. Although research on the production side is still relatively small, it is growing, indicating that it is a fruitful area to study. This thesis attempts to contribute to this area of research to unravel the inner operations of social media with one key research question: How does social media platform organize information? The theory of digital object of Kallinikos et al. (2013) is used to investigate this question. Information display that users of a social media platform interact with is a digital object and it is constructed by two key components which are a database and algorithms. The database and the algorithms shape how information is being organized on information displays, and these influence user behaviors which are then captured as social data in the database. This thesis also critically examines the technology of recommender system by importing engineering literature on information filtering and retrieval. While newsfeed algorithm such as EdgeRank of Facebook has already been critically examined, information systems and media scholars have yet to investigate recommendation algorithms, despite the fact that they have been widely deployed all over the Internet. It is found that the key weakness of recommendation algorithms is their inability to recommend novel items. This is because the main tenet of any recommender system is to “recommend similar items to those that users already like”. Fortunately, this problem can be alleviated when recommender system is being deployed in the digital information environment of social media platforms. In turn, seven theoretical conjectures can be postulated. These are (1) navigation of information display as assembled by social media is highly interactive, (2) information organization of social media is highly unstable which would also render user behaviors unstable, (3) quality of data aggregation casts significant implications on user behaviors, (4) the amount of data captured by social media platforms limits the usefulness of their information displays, (5) output from the recommendation algorithm (recommendation list) casts real implications on user behaviors, (6) circle of friends on a social network can influence user behaviors, and (7) metadata attached to items being displayed casts influence on user behaviors. Data from Last.fm, a social media for music discovery, is used to evaluate these conjectures. The analysis supported most of the conjectures except the instability of information display and the importance of metadata attached to items being displayed. Some kinds of information organization are more stable than initially expected and some kinds of user generated contents are not so important for user behaviors