Multi User Context-Aware Service Selection for Mobile Environments - A Heuristic Technique

Modern service systems build on top of service dominant designs which encompass contextualization (value-in-context) and collaboration (value-in-use) between users and service providers. Processes in this domain often require the consideration of both context information (e.g., location or time of day) and multiple participating users where each user probably has its own preferences and constraints (e.g., restricted overall budget). However, selecting a suitable service provider for each action of a process, especially when some of these actions are conducted together by several users, can be a complex decision problem in multi user context-aware service systems. Consequently, exact approaches are not fit to solve such a service selection problem in appropriate time. Thus, the paper proposes a heuristic technique applying a decomposition of the users’ global constraints and a local service selection. In this way, the aim is to determine a feasible service composition for each participating user while taking the users’ individual preferences and constraints as well as context information into account. The evaluation of the heuristic technique shows, based on a real-world scenario in the tourism domain, that the proposed approach is able to achieve close-to-optimal solutions while efficiently scaling with problem size and therefore can support decision makers in multi user context-aware service Systems

Lycopene isomerisation takes place within enterocytes during absorption in human subjects

Lycopene in fruits and vegetables occurs mostly (80-97%) in the all-E configuration, whereas a considerable proportion of lycopene in the human body is present as Z-isomers. The Z-isomers offer potentially better health benefits and show improved antioxidant activity in vitro when compared with the all-E-isomer. The absorption of dietary lycopene is a complex process involving transfer of the carotenoid from the food matrix into micelles, uptake by enterocytes, packaging into chylomicrons and finally secretion into plasma. Isomerisation could take place at any of these individual steps. By exploiting in vitro and in vivo models, we traced lycopene isomerisation during absorption using various methods to mimic gastric and duodenal conditions, incorporation into mixed micelles, absorption and metabolism by various Caco-2 cell clones, and performed a postprandial study in human subjects to identify the profile of lycopene isomers in plasma chylomicrons. We demonstrate that all-E-lycopene remains unchanged during its passage in the gastrointestinal tract, including its incorporation into mixed micelles. The key site of lycopene isomerisation is inside the intestinal cells resulting in 29% of lycopene as Z-isomers. Lycopene isomerisation in the various Caco-2 cell clones is consistent with that observed in human chylomicrons formed in a postprandial state. There is no selection in the release of lycopene isomers from enterocytes. Although there is a huge inter-individual variability of total lycopene absorption reported both in in vitro intestinal cell lines as well as in human chylomicrons, the lycopene isomer profile is quite simila

Service Re-Selection for Disruptive Events in Mobile Environments: A Heuristic Technique for Decision Support at Runtime

Modern service-based processes in mobile environments are highly complex due to the necessary spatial–temporal coordination between multiple participating users and the consideration of context information. Due to the dynamic nature of mobile environments, disruptive events occur at runtime, which require a re-selection of the planned service compositions respecting multiple users and context-awareness. Thereby, when re-selecting services the features performance, solution quality, solution robustness and alternative solutions are essential and contribute to the efficacy of service systems. This paper presents an optimization-based heuristic technique based on a stateful representation that uses a region-based approach to re-select services considering multiple users, context information and in particular disruptive events at runtime. The evaluation results, which are based on a real-world scenario from the tourism domain, show that the proposed heuristic is superior compared to competing artifacts

The proportion of lycopene isomers in human plasma is modulated by lycopene isomer profile in the meal but not by lycopene preparation

Dietary lycopene consists mostly of the (all-E) isomer. Upon absorption, (all-E) lycopene undergoes isomerisation into various (Z)-isomers. Because these isomers offer potentially better health benefits than the (all-E) isomer, the aim of the present study was to investigate if the profile of lycopene isomers in intestinal lipoproteins is affected by the profile of lycopene isomers in the meal and by the tomato preparation. Six postprandial, crossover tests were performed in healthy men. Three meals provided about 70% of the lycopene as (Z)-isomers, either mainly as 5-(Z) or 13-(Z), or as a mixture of 9-(Z) and 13-(Z) lycopene, while three tomato preparations provided lycopene mainly as the (all-E) isomer. Consumption of the 5-(Z) lycopene-rich meal led to a high (60%) proportion of this isomer in TAG-rich lipoproteins (TRL), indicating a good absorption and/or a low intestinal conversion of this isomer. By contrast, consumption of meals rich in 9-(Z) and 13-(Z) lycopene isomers resulted in a low level of these isomers but high amounts of the 5-(Z) and (all-E) isomers in TRL. This indicates that the 9-(Z) and 13-(Z) isomers were less absorbed or were converted into 5-(Z) and (all-E) isomers. Dietary (Z)-lycopene isomers were, therefore, differently isomerised and released in TRL during their intestinal absorption in men. Consuming the three meals rich in (all-E) lycopene resulted in similar proportions of lycopene isomers in TRL: 60% (all-E), 20% 5-(Z), 9% 13-(Z), 2% 9-(Z) and 9% unidentified (Z)-isomers. These results show that the tomato preparation has no impact on the lycopene isomerisation occurring during absorption in human

Social resistance: economic and political strikes in the Upper Silesian industrial district afterthe Second World War (1944–1970)

38Gesellschaftlicher Widerstand: die wirtschaftlichen und politischen Streiks in Polen und im oberschlesischen Industriebezirk nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (1944–1970)ARTICLES Ryszard KACZMAREK Kazimierz MIROSZEWSKIerwies. Giereks Herrschaftsmodell in Oberschlesien unterschied sich von den in anderen Teilen Polens geltenden Regierungsstrategien, in denen es aufgrund von Mangel an Finanzmitteln und politischer Willenskraft nicht möglich war, einen „Wohlfahrtsstaat“ aufzubauen. Es waren also erst die Ereignisse von 1980 an der polnischen Küste, die die Arbeiterstreiks in Oberschlesien mit seinen Kohlengruben und Eisenhütten wieder auslösten und sich rasch in die meisten Industrieanlagen in der Region ausbreiteten. In Anbetracht der Bedeutung, die der oberschlesische Industrieregion für ganz Polen hatte, wäre der Erfolg der Solidarität von 1980 ohne die oberschlesischen Streikaktionen nicht möglich gewesen.SchlüsselwörterOberschlesien, Streik, sozialer Widerstand, Volksrepublik Polen, Edward GierekAbstractThe backgrounds of workers strikes in the Polish communist era varied, depending on which historical period they were taking place in. In Upper Silesia, their specificity was additionally more acute due the heavy industry concentration in the region and vast numbers of workers. In Polish historiography of the post-1945 era it has become quite common to treat the strikes almost solely as elements of social resistance against the powers that be. What has frequently been overlooked is that social resistance is a broader phenomenon, as a rule defined as any spontaneous, unorganized and unguided protest against an imposed political and/or ideological order, usually bound up with defence of traditional values. Strikes constitute but one part of such protests; what is more, only a segment of them was of a political nature. The authors of the present article analyse the impact that workers strikes which had occurred in Poland’s largest industrial region exerted on the situation of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL).During the 1940s and at the beginning of the 1950s the Upper Silesian industrial region (Polish: GOP) was the centre of the resistance movement. The year 1956, when a special system of privileges and incentives was put forth for workers in the heavy industry sector, marked the end of social strikes in Upper Silesia for nearly two decades, in contrast to what was happening at the time in other parts of Poland. The system is now popularly identified with the figure of Edward Gierek, who was the first secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party. Gierek’s system can be compared to the Hungarian Kadarism or the GDR model proposed by Erich Honecker which proved quite effective up until the 1980s. Gierek’s model of rule in Upper Silesia differed from governmental strategies in force in other parts of Poland, where due to both a lack of financial means and political willpower it was not possible to build a veritable ‘welfare state’. It was only the 1980 events on the Polish coast that ignited the workers strikes in Upper Silesia and its coal mines and ironworks, quickly spreading to most of industrial plants in the region. Considering the significance of the Upper Silesian industrial region for the whole of Poland, without these Silesian strikes the 1980 success of Solidarity would not have been possible

Chlorophyll Catabolites – Chemical and Structural Footprints of a Fascinating Biological Phenomenon

Twenty years ago, the molecular basis for the seasonal disappearance of chlorophyll was still enigmatic. In the meantime, our knowledge on chlorophyll breakdown has grown considerably. As outlined here, it has been possible to decipher the basic transformations involved in natural chlorophyll breakdown by identification of chlorophyll catabolites in higher plants, and with the help of the synthesis of (putative) catabolic intermediates. In vascular plants, chlorophyll breakdown typically converts the green plant pigments efficiently into colorless and non-fluorescent tetrapyrroles. It involves colored intermediates only fleetingly and in an (elusive) enzyme-bound form. The non-fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites accumulate in the vacuoles of degreened leaves and are considered the products, primarily, of a detoxification process. However, they are effective antioxidants, and may thus also have physiologically beneficial chemical properties.(© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009