A new perspective of e-trust in the era of social media: insights from customer satisfaction data

Managerial relevance: In this competitive business world, social media penetrates online sales very rapidly. Businesses operating online are required to provide a safe and secured environment for customers to ensure their satisfaction. Our research results confirm that in addition to social media advertising, guaranteed 'e-safety' for customers will help establishing trust between the customer and the online businesses; it is also viewed important for present and future sales. The social media reviews need to be incorporated in managerial decision making. We try to analyse how these reviews are changing over the period of time and what are the ways to enhance customer satisfaction using information on customer expectations. This paper can help service companies to position their websites to compete in the market. Abstract In this era of social media, products and services are sold globally using a few simple clicks online. In such online purchases, trust and familiarity are considered two important driving forces of consumer decision making. While online sales advocate high levels of flexibility and choices for consumers, they also hold the online service provider responsible for ensuring the security of the online user's data. Using a Structural Equation Model (SEM) with data collected from the online service industry, we test the direct effects of 'social media-induced purchase intention' on customer satisfaction. We also test the mediating role of e-commerce/online sales (e-advertisement, e-safety and e-information) on customer satisfaction. In addition to social media advertising and information sharing, we find that a new factor-'e-safety'-mediates the relationship between customer purchase intention and customer satisfaction. Our analysis indicates that online e-trust can be established between the customer and the service company when online purchases are made. At the same time, the quality of online information and e-safety of online payments make the service company trustworthy for future purchases. We relate data analysis directly to managerial decision making to avoid any delay in online customer services in the era of social media

Coevolutionary architectures with straight line programs for solving the symbolic regression problem

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the International Conference on Evolutionary Computation (ICEC), held in Valencia (Spain) on 2010To successfully apply evolutionary algorithms to the solution of increasingly complex problems we must develop effective techniques for evolving solutions in the form of interacting coadapted subcomponents. In this paper we present an architecture which involves cooperative coevolution of two subcomponents: a genetic program and an evolution strategy. As main difference with work previously done, our genetic program evolves straight line programs representing functional expressions, instead of tree structures. The evolution strategy searches for good values for the numerical terminal symbols used by those expressions. Experimentation has been performed over symbolic regression problem instances and the obtained results have been compared with those obtained by means of Genetic Programming strategies without coevolution. The results show that our coevolutionary architecture with straight line programs is capable to obtain better quality individuals than traditional genetic programming using the same amount of computational effort.This work is partially supported by spanish grants TIN2007-67466-C02-02, MTM2004-01167 and S2009/TIC-165

EXECUÇÃO E ESTRATÉGIAS PARA MITIGAÇÃO DE ATAQUES DE NEGAÇÃO DE SERVIÇO EM SERVIDORES WEB: UM RELATO DE EXPERIÊNCIA

This paper describes the execution of denial of service attacks performed on web servers configured with different Apache versions, trying to reflect scenarios commonly found in Federal Institutions of Higher Education in Brazil. The approach consisted of the following steps: (i) tool selection for the experiment; (ii) definition of attack parameters; (iii) execution of attack with a selected tool in (i) on servers with similar characteristics to those in production; and (iv) execution of an attack with changes in the firewall as a strategy to mitigate the attack. Based on the observed result, the default configuration does not protect servers from simple denial of service attacks, but the settings implemented in (iv) were sufficient to prevent similar attacks from being successful in future executions.Este artigo descreve a execução de ataques de negação de serviço realizados em servidores web configurados com diferentes versões do Apache, buscando refletir cenários comumente encontrados em Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior do Brasil. A abordagem consistiu nas seguintes etapas: (i) seleção de ferramenta para o experimento; (ii) definição de parâmetros de ataque; (iii) execução de ataque com uma ferramenta selecionada em (i), em servidores com caracterı́sticas semelhantes aos em produção; e (iv) execução de ataque com alterações no firewall como estratégia para mitigação do ataque. Com base no resultado observado, a configuração padrão não protege os servidores de ataques de negação de serviço simples, mas as configurações implementadas em (iv) foram suficientes para impedir que ataques semelhantes aos que foram realizados obtenham sucesso em execuções futuras

Larval development and allometric growth of the black-faced blenny Tripterygion delaisi

Larval development and allometric growth patterns of the black-faced blenny Tripterygion delaisi are described from a larval series (body length, L-B = 3.30-12.10 mm) caught by light traps at the Arrabida Marine Park, Portugal. Larvae of T. delaisi possess distinctive morphometric and meristic characteristics which can be used to identify this species from related taxa. Pigmentation is sparse but characteristic, consisting of pigmented eyes, gas bladder pigmentation in the dorsal region, anal pigmentation and a row of regularly spaced postanal ventral melanophores. This pattern is present from as early as the yolk-sac stage and persists throughout all stages with just the addition of head and caudal pigmentation during the flexion and postflexion stages, respectively. The majority of fin development (with the exception of the caudal fin), occurs in the later stages of development. Myomere counts range between 37 and 45 for all stages. Growth is allometric during larval development. When inflexion points of growth were detected, growth was found to be biphasic with the inflexion points occurring within a very narrow range of L-B (8.70-8.90 mm) close to the mean +/- S.D. (9.44 +/- 1.48 mm LB) of postflexion larvae. Considering allometric growth patterns and ontogenetic descriptions together, the first developmental phase includes the preflexion and flexion stage larvae, while the second phase characterises the postflexion larvae prior to the transition from larvae to juvenile. (C) 2017 The Fisheries Society of the British IslesMARES; Erasmus Mundus [FPA 2011-0016]; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [POCTI/MAR/57934/2004, PTDC/MAR/115226/2009, PTDC/MAR-EST/4356/2012, 331/94, PEST-OE/MAR/UI0331/2011, UID/MAR/04292/2013, Multi/04326/2013]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of patients confirmed with COVID-19 in an area of health

Introducción: la rápida expansión de la enfermedad y el incremento exponencial de casos confirmados con COVID-19, obligó a la Organización Mundial de la Saluda declararla como pandemia. Objetivo: caracterizar clínica y epidemiológicamente los pacientes confirmados con COVID-19 en un área de salud. Método: estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal, en pacientes confirmados con COVID-19, de todos los consultorios pertenecientes al Policlínico "Santa Cruz", de enero de 2020 a abril de 2021. El universo estuvo constituido por 99 pacientes, todos fueron estudiados. Las variables fueron: edad, sexo, fuente de infección, manifestaciones clínicas, enfermedades asociadas y evolución. Se procesaron mediante estadígrafos descriptivos. Resultados: predominaron los pacientes entre 41 y 60 años (33,3 %) y sexo femenino (56,6 %), con una media de 43,2 +- 21,1 años; se precisó la fuente de infección en el 68,7 %. El 88,9 % fue transmisión autóctona y predominó la rinorrea (42,4 %) y la tos (35,4 %). La hipertensión arterial (12,1 %) fue la principal enfermedad asociada. Se obtuvo que el 98 % respondió favorablemente al tratamiento. Conclusiones: los pacientes de edad media, las féminas y pacientes hipertensos fueron más propensas a enfermar por COVID-19 con fuente de infección autóctona. Estos se presentaron con rinorrea y tos fundamentalmente. El cuadro clínico poco aparatoso evidenció adecuada respuesta al tratamiento médico en todos los casos.Introduction: the quick expansion of the illness and the exponential increment of cases confirmed with COVID-19, forced to that the World Organization of the Health declared as pandemic.Objective: to characterize clinic-epidemic of the patients confirmed with the COVID-19, Policlinic Santa Cruz, March 2020 to April 2021.Method: It was carried out an observational, descriptive and traverse study, in patients confirmed with COVID-19 of all doctor’s office of Policlinic Santa Cruz, January 2020 - April 2021. Universe: 99 patients; all the patients were studied. The epidemic surveys were used. The variables were: age, sex, infection source, clinical manifestations, associate pathologies and evolution. It was used the percentage and the absolute frequency; as well as the arithmetic stocking and standard deviation for quantitative variables.Results: they prevailed the ages of 41 and 60 years (33.3 %) and feminine sex (56.6 %), with a stocking of 43.2 +- 21.1 years; it was necessary the infection source in 68.7 %, where 88.9 % was autochthonous transmission, the rhinorrhea prevailed as clinical manifestation (42.4 %) and the cough (35.4 %), being identified the arterial Hypertension in 12.1% of the patients and it was obtained that 98% responded favorably to the treatment.Conclusions: the patients of middle age, female and hipertensives were more prevail to sick of COVID-19 with the autochthonous transmission. They were presented with rhinorrhea and cough and responded favorably to the treatment

Association of Self-Reported Physical Fitness during Late Pregnancy with Birth Outcomes and Oxytocin Administration during Labour—The GESTAFIT Project

We explored (a) the associations between self-reported maternal physical fitness and birth outcomes; (b) whether self-reported maternal physical fitness (PF) is related to the administration of oxytocin to induce or stimulate labour. Pregnant women from the GESTAFIT project randomized controlled trial (n = 117) participated in this prospective longitudinal study. Maternal physical fitness was assessed through the International Fitness Scale at the 34th gestational week. Maternal and neonatal birth outcomes and oxytocin administration were collected from the obstetric medical records. Umbilical arterial and venous cord blood gas were analysed immediately after birth. Selfreported overall fitness, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and flexibility were not related to any maternal and neonatal birth outcomes (all p > 0.05). Greater speed-agility was associated with a more alkaline arterial (p = 0.04) and venous (p = 0.02) pH in the umbilical cord blood. Women who were administered oxytocin to induce or stimulate labour reported lower cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.013, Cohen’s d = 0.55; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14, 0.93) and flexibility (p = 0.040, Cohen´s d = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.89) compared to women who were not administered oxytocin. Greater maternal physical fitness during pregnancy could be associated with better neonatal birth outcomes and lower risk of needing oxytocin administration.Regional Ministry of Health of the Junta de Andalucía (PI-0395-2016)Research and Knowledge Transfer Fund (PPIT) 2016, Excellence Actions Programme: Scientific Units of Excellence (UCEES)Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, EnterprisesUniversity, European Regional Development Funds (ref. SOMM17/6107/UGR)Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Grant number FPU17/03715