Privacy and Identity Management in a Layered Pervasive Service Platform

Making pervasive computing reality is a challenging task mainly due to the multitude of functional requirements and technological constraints. In parallel to the honourable research progress in specific technologies, the Daidalos project assessed that in future there will be the need for a pervasive service platform with open interfaces in order to simplify service development and provisioning. The success of such a platform depends on the balance of different aspects, e.g. operational costs with revenue potentials, collection of personal data for context-awareness with privacy protection, manual control and transparency with enhanced user experience and simplicity. In this paper we show the Daidalos approach to privacy protection and identity management for a future pervasive service platform and its architecture. We show how user identities are structured to support dynamic context information while following regulations for privacy protection in Europe. Special focus is put on the trade-off between access control for privacy protection and user experience. This is achieved by automated identity selection, automatic derivation of fine-grained access control policies and their deployment. We also present gathered performance data and implementation details of our ID Broker concept

Nonergodicity in protective factors of resilience in athletes

Resilience is a key construct to understand when athletes continue to perform optimally, or when they break down. Although there is consensus that resilience can be conceptualized as a dynamic process, it remains an open question whether studying such a process on a group level adequately represents the individuals within a given sample. As a first step to answer this question, we designed a diary study to test whether the statistics for repeated assessments of protective factors and resilience can be generalized from group-level trajectories to the individuals. By tracking resilience and the protective factors over 21 days in athletes, we found divergent patterns of group-level and individual-level statistics for the repeated assessments. This so-called "ergodicity problem" implies that the individual, rather than the group, should be placed at the level of analysis to avoid wrong conclusions and ineffective interventions on their resilience

Nernst branes in gauged supergravity

We study static black brane solutions in the context of N = 2 U(1) gauged supergravity in four dimensions. Using the formalism of first-order flow equations, we construct novel extremal black brane solutions including examples of Nernst branes, i.e. extremal black brane solutions with vanishing entropy density. We also discuss a class of non-extremal generalizations which is captured by the first-order formalism.Comment: 44 pages, 3 figures, v2: added appendix B and references, minor typographic changes, v3: added some clarifying remarks, version published in JHE

In vivo biomolecular imaging of zebrafish embryos using confocal Raman spectroscopy

Zebrafish embryos provide a unique opportunity to visualize complex biological processes, yet conventional imaging modalities are unable to access intricate biomolecular information without compromising the integrity of the embryos. Here, we report the use of confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging for the visualization and multivariate analysis of biomolecular information extracted from unlabeled zebrafish embryos. We outline broad applications of this method in: (i) visualizing the biomolecular distribution of whole embryos in three dimensions, (ii) resolving anatomical features at subcellular spatial resolution, (iii) biomolecular profiling and discrimination of wild type and ΔRD1 mutant Mycobacterium marinum strains in a zebrafish embryo model of tuberculosis and (iv) in vivo temporal monitoring of the wound response in living zebrafish embryos. Overall, this study demonstrates the application of confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging for the comparative bimolecular analysis of fully intact and living zebrafish embryos

Mycobacterium marinum antagonistically induces an autophagic response while repressing the autophagic flux in a TORC1- and ESX-1-dependent manner.

Autophagy is a eukaryotic catabolic process also participating in cell-autonomous defence. Infected host cells generate double-membrane autophagosomes that mature in autolysosomes to engulf, kill and digest cytoplasmic pathogens. However, several bacteria subvert autophagy and benefit from its machinery and functions. Monitoring infection stages by genetics, pharmacology and microscopy, we demonstrate that the ESX-1 secretion system of Mycobacterium marinum, a close relative to M. tuberculosis, upregulates the transcription of autophagy genes, and stimulates autophagosome formation and recruitment to the mycobacteria-containing vacuole (MCV) in the host model organism Dictyostelium. Antagonistically, ESX-1 is also essential to block the autophagic flux and deplete the MCV of proteolytic activity. Activators of the TORC1 complex localize to the MCV in an ESX-1-dependent manner, suggesting an important role in the manipulation of autophagy by mycobacteria. Our findings suggest that the infection by M. marinum activates an autophagic response that is simultaneously repressed and exploited by the bacterium to support its survival inside the MCV

Big issues for small feet : developmental, biomechanical and clinical narratives on children's footwear

The effects of footwear on the development of children's feet has been debated for many years and recent work from the developmental and biomechanical literature has challenged long-held views about footwear and the impact on foot development. This narrative review draws upon existing studies from developmental, biomechanical and clinical literature to explore the effects of footwear on the development of the foot. The emerging findings from this support the need for progress in [children's] footwear science and advance understanding of the interaction between the foot and shoe. Ensuring clear and credible messages inform practice requires a progressive evidence base but this remains big issue in children's footwear research