Recent Applications in Graph Theory

Graph theory, being a rigorously investigated field of combinatorial mathematics, is adopted by a wide variety of disciplines addressing a plethora of real-world applications. Advances in graph algorithms and software implementations have made graph theory accessible to a larger community of interest. Ever-increasing interest in machine learning and model deployments for network data demands a coherent selection of topics rewarding a fresh, up-to-date summary of the theory and fruitful applications to probe further. This volume is a small yet unique contribution to graph theory applications and modeling with graphs. The subjects discussed include information hiding using graphs, dynamic graph-based systems to model and control cyber-physical systems, graph reconstruction, average distance neighborhood graphs, and pure and mixed-integer linear programming formulations to cluster networks

Brain-Computer Interface

Brain-computer interfacing (BCI) with the use of advanced artificial intelligence identification is a rapidly growing new technology that allows a silently commanding brain to manipulate devices ranging from smartphones to advanced articulated robotic arms when physical control is not possible. BCI can be viewed as a collaboration between the brain and a device via the direct passage of electrical signals from neurons to an external system. The book provides a comprehensive summary of conventional and novel methods for processing brain signals. The chapters cover a range of topics including noninvasive and invasive signal acquisition, signal processing methods, deep learning approaches, and implementation of BCI in experimental problems

Social marketing in contexts of uncertainty: An analysis of social capital and health social support in online health communities facing treatment uncertainty

For several medical treatments there is considerable scientific and medical uncertainty about the relative benefits and risks they imply. The literature indicates social support as an important factor in health uncertainty management. The concept of social support has gained considerable interest in the areas of behavioral medicine and health psychology research. Despite such interest, it is still not clear how it can be approached in social marketing interventions since there is a lack of conceptual and empirical literature discussing the concept from a social marketing perspective. The present thesis aims to explore how the social support concept can be better approached in social marketing interventions targeting contexts of treatment uncertainty. To attain this objective, first a scoping review of social marketing interventions in the health area operationalizing the concept of social support was undertaken. Results indicated that interventions have operationalized the concept in connection with all the key aspects of social marketing, including behavioral change, consumer research, segmentation and targeting, and exchange, as well as marketing mix and competition. However, the findings also indicated poor conceptualizations of social support and the underreporting of the theoretical rationale for the operationalization of the concept. Second, the study adopted a mixed-methods approach that involved netnography and social network analysis, to examine the nature of online social support, understood as a resource generated through social capital, using two distinct case studies: i) an online forum focused on health discussion about electronic cigarettes; ii) an online forum dedicated to menopausal hormone replacement therapy. Findings indicate that online health communities can be a place for extending the support networks of people facing treatment uncertainty as multiple typologies of peer-to-peer social support are remotely exchanged in the virtual communities. Both online health communities were found to have similar network structures characterized by small-world and scale free properties and reduced levels of reciprocity. Results also indicate that users mostly search for informational types of support in the online health communities and that they can be segmented based on the structural positions they occupy in the networks and patterns of support interaction. However, it was found that the information available in these forums can be subject to imprudent processes of selection by forum participants who try to conform online discussion to suit the forums’ shared and accepted narratives that highlight the benefits of these uncertain treatments, while minimizing the respective risks. From a theoretical perspective, this study has relevant implications for health uncertainty management literature by putting in evidence collective processes of information selection in the online health communities, that can hinder the main objective of these virtual spaces, that is to function as platforms for knowledge acquisition. Second it deepens understanding about the interconnected relations between the concepts of social capital and social support. The study also brings innovation in methods by combining social network analysis and netnography, two naturalistic and online-suited research methods to study online health communities. For practionaires, the results of the study provide significant insights that can be used to program social marketing interventions intended to increase and enhance the quality of social support available in these types of online health communities.Para vários tratamentos médicos existe considerável incerteza médica e científica sobre os benefícios e riscos relativos. A literatura indica o apoio social como um importante fator na gestão de incertezas na saúde. O conceito de apoio social despertou muito interesse nas áreas de medicina comportamental e psicologia. No entanto, não é clara a forma como o conceito pode ser abordado em intervenções de marketing social uma vez que existem poucos estudos conceptuais e empíricos focados neste tópico na literatura de marketing social. A presente tese investiga a forma como o conceito de apoio social pode ser aplicado a contextos caracterizados por incerteza nos tratamentos médicos. Para atingir este objetivo, em primeiro lugar procedeu-se a uma revisão da literatura focada em intervenções de marketing social na área da saúde que reportam a utilização do conceito de apoio social. Os resultados indicam que as intervenções de marketing social analisadas operacionalizaram o conceito de apoio social em conexão com as dimensões chave do marketing social, incluindo os princípios de mudança comportamental, investigação sobre o consumidor, segmentação e targeting, o princípio do intercâmbio, bem como o marketing mix e análise da competição. Contudo, também se concluiu que a generalidade das intervenções abordam o conceito de forma pouco rigorosa e que não reportam o racional teórico para a operacionalização do conceito. Em segundo lugar, o estudo adota uma abordagem mista envolvendo netnografia e análise de redes sociais, para examinar a natureza do apoio social virtual, entendido como um recurso gerado através de capital social, em comunidades de saúde virtuais sujeitas a incerteza nos tratamentos, usando dois casos de estudo: um fórum online dedicado à discussão de cigarros eletrónicos e um fórum online focado no tema do tratamento hormonal para mulheres em menopausa. Concluiu-se que estas comunidades online podem servir como um espaço de extensão às redes de suporte de indivíduos sujeitos a incerteza nos tratamentos uma vez que múltiplas tipologias de apoio social parceiro-a-parceiro são prestadas remotamente nas comunidades virtuais. Ambas as comunidades analisadas apresentam uma estrutura de rede semelhante, caracterizada por propriedades de “pequeno-mundo”, propriedades de “escala livre” e reduzidos índices de reciprocidade. Os resultados também indicam que a generalidade dos utilizadores procura apoio do tipo informacional nas comunidades e que estes podem ser segmentados tendo por base as posições estruturais que ocupam nas redes e os respetivos padrões de apoio social. No entanto, foi igualmente descoberto que a informação disponível nestes fóruns pode estar sujeita a processos imprudentes de seleção pelos participantes nos fóruns, que tentam conformar as discussões online por forma a servirem as narrativas aceites e amplamente difundidas que realçam os benefícios destes tratamentos incertos enquanto minimizam os respetivos riscos. Do ponto de vista teórico, este estudo apresenta implicações importantes para a literatura sobre gestão de incerteza ao colocar em evidência processos coletivos de seleção de informação nas comunidades online que podem prejudicar a função primordial destes espaços online, que é funcionarem como plataformas para a aquisição de conhecimento. Em segundo lugar, o estudo aprofunda o conhecimento sobre as relações interdependentes entre os conceitos de capital social e apoio social. O estudo também apresenta inovação em termos metodológicos ao combinar analise se redes sociais com netnografia, duas metodologias naturalistas e perfeitamente adaptadas ao ambiente online, para estudar comunidades de saúde online. Para a prática, os resultados deste estudo oferecem conhecimentos significativos que podem ser usados para a programação de ações de marketing social destinadas a melhorar a qualidade e quantidade do apoio social disponível neste tipo de comunidades online

Public Health

Public health can be thought of as a series of complex systems. Many things that individual living in high income countries take for granted like the control of infectious disease, clean, potable water, low infant mortality rates require a high functioning systems comprised of numerous actors, locations and interactions to work. Many people only notice public health when that system fails. This book explores several systems in public health including aspects of the food system, health care system and emerging issues including waste minimization in nanosilver. Several chapters address global health concerns including non-communicable disease prevention, poverty and health-longevity medicine. The book also presents several novel methodologies for better modeling and assessment of essential public health issues

Proceedings of the International Workshop on 'Combined Environmental Exposure: Noise, Air Pollutants and Chemicals'

The issue of combined exposure to noise, air pollution and chemicals has raised recently the interest of several bodies of the European Commission such as DG Environment, DG SANCO and DG Research in the context of the EC 7th Framework Programme. There are open questions whether prevailing environmental concentrations of air pollutants and chemicals can lead to ototoxic health impacts. Therefore this issue needs to be thoroughly explored and investigated to help the EC to revise the existing standards and guidelines concerning combined exposure to noise, air pollutants and chemicals. The aim of the workshop was to review and discuss the existing scientific evidence whether prevailing environmental exposures to single and concomitant agents together with noise could lead to ototoxic or other health impacts. The final aim was to identify the research needs and to give recommendations for research and policy making in the EU level. It was agreed that research in the future should be focused on really established combinations (high correlations) and interactions (known effect) with main perspective on the traffic bundle of exposure. It was also discussed and agreed upon that the best knowledge exists on the health effects due to combined exposure to noise and solvents or heavy metals in occupational environments, especially on most of the auditory and non-auditory effects. Possible factors that may have confounding or aggravating effects on the results of noise studies were identified. Such factors are: age, gender, smoking, obesity, alcohol, socio-economic status, occupation, education, family status, active military, experience, hereditary disease, medication, medical status, race and ethnicity, physical activity, noisy leisure activities, stress reducing activities, diet & nutrition, housing condition (crowding), and residential status. Research priorities and recommendations for the future. The highest priority was given to issues related to research on noise and outdoor air pollutants. This is due to the fact that it may concern the largest population compared to the other stressors in this analysis and there is some evidence of serious health outcomes such as cardiovascular effects. The next priority was given to the research on the effects of noise and solvents in occupational settings and to research on noise and organophosphates. In the future research, priority should be given to: 1. evaluation of existing data collections whether re-analyses are possible with respect to combined exposure from traffic sources (road, rail and air), 2. analyses of existing data concerning noise and other stressors interactions in both occupational and environmental settings, 3. detailed assessment of combined exposures to noise, vibrations and PM, CO, NOx, and VOCs with specific studies in urban areas and, especially, cardiovascular health endpoints should be studied as priority health endpoints, 4. identification of causal mechanisms through careful review of toxicological experimental studies.JRC.I.5-Physical and chemical exposure

Intelligent Circuits and Systems

ICICS-2020 is the third conference initiated by the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Lovely Professional University that explored recent innovations of researchers working for the development of smart and green technologies in the fields of Energy, Electronics, Communications, Computers, and Control. ICICS provides innovators to identify new opportunities for the social and economic benefits of society.　 This conference bridges the gap between academics and R&D institutions, social visionaries, and experts from all strata of society to present their ongoing research activities and foster research relations between them. It provides opportunities for the exchange of new ideas, applications, and experiences in the field of smart technologies and finding global partners for future collaboration. The ICICS-2020 was conducted in two broad categories, Intelligent Circuits & Intelligent Systems and Emerging Technologies in Electrical Engineering

Working towards improved conceptualisation and identification of gaming disorder and co-occurring addictions in gamers

This doctoral research thesis investigated the neurophysiological underpinnings of gaming disorder (GD), and the way in which co-occurrence can influence and correlate with GD in a clinical and a multi-cultural context. The unique contribution of knowledge was (i) the assessment of the neurophysiological expression of gamers using a novel spiking neural network (SNN) methodology; (ii) exploring co-occurrence in gamers and substance abstinent gamers; and (iii) exploring co-occurrence in gamers across three different individualistic countries (i.e., Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom). The conceptualisation of GD and related methodologies were explored using multiple systematic research methods. A number of methodologies were then employed, including the use of electroencephalographic (EEG) data, a machine learning (ML) approach which utilised a novel SNN architecture (i.e., the NeuCube), and the use of surveys to reach a clinical cohort and three cohorts spanning three different countries in an effort to investigate the way in which co-occurrence may influence gamers and at-risk gamers. The results of the empirical studies indicated that: (i) problematic gamers experience different neurophysiological expression than those who recreational game and that ML methodologies are an effective method of classifying recreational and problematic gamers when using EEG data; (ii) maladaptive coping strategies were significantly associated to gaming scores, and that gamers appeared to experience co-occurrence more so than their non-gamer counterparts; (iii) at-risk and high-risk gamers may utilise gaming as a maladaptive coping strategy and other accompanying potentially addictive behaviour, or substance use may be influenced as a result; (iv) the manifestation of maladaptive coping strategies and potentially addictive behaviours can be influenced by the country in which an individual resides. Taken together, the present doctoral project further clarified the conceptualisation of GD, utilising a neurophysiological underpinning, which is further supported with observed behaviour as suggested by the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition, it places an emphasis on the importance of understanding co-occurrence and specific at-risk factors (e.g., coping) which may contribute to the development and maintenance of problematic or disordered gaming in both a clinical sample and general population samples

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality