Generating collaborative systems for digital libraries: A model-driven approach

This is an open access article shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Copyright @ 2010 The Authors.The design and development of a digital library involves different stakeholders, such as: information architects, librarians, and domain experts, who need to agree on a common language to describe, discuss, and negotiate the services the library has to offer. To this end, high-level, language-neutral models have to be devised. Metamodeling techniques favor the definition of domainspecific visual languages through which stakeholders can share their views and directly manipulate representations of the domain entities. This paper describes CRADLE (Cooperative-Relational Approach to Digital Library Environments), a metamodel-based framework and visual language for the definition of notions and services related to the development of digital libraries. A collection of tools allows the automatic generation of several services, defined with the CRADLE visual language, and of the graphical user interfaces providing access to them for the final user. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by presenting digital libraries generated with CRADLE, while the CRADLE environment has been evaluated by using the cognitive dimensions framework

Lowering the pirate flag: a TPB study of the factors influencing the intention to pay for movie streaming services

The launch of several movie streaming services has raised new questions about how online consumers deal with both legal and illegal options to obtain their desired products. This paper investigates the factors influencing consumers’ intentions to subscribe to online movie streaming services. These services have challenged the dramatic growth in their illegal counterpart in recent years. Taking the theory of planned behavior as a starting point, we extended existing models in the literature by incorporating factors that are specific to consumer behavior in this particular field. A quantitative survey was conducted for the Italian market, and structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Attitudes, involvement with products, moral judgement and frequency of past behavior were found to be the most important factors in explaining the intention to pay for movie streaming services. The paper provides insights for policy makers and industry managers on the marketing communication strategies needed to minimize the risk of digital piracy

Power-law decay in first-order relaxation processes

Starting from a simple definition of stationary regime in first-order relaxation processes, we obtain that experimental results are to be fitted to a power-law when approaching the stationary limit. On the basis of this result we propose a graphical representation that allows the discrimination between power-law and stretched exponential time decays. Examples of fittings of magnetic, dielectric and simulated relaxation data support the results.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. B; 4 figure

PMS15 Patterns of Care with Biological Drugs for Ankylosing Spondylitis: Real-World Data from the Private Healthcare Market in Brazil

novembre 19361936/11 (N407)

Electrochemical Characterization of Charge Storage at Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries Based on Corncob Waste-Derived Hard Carbon and Binder

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) represent a potential alternative to lithium-ion batteries in large-scale energy storage applications. To improve the sustainability of SIBs, the utilization of anode carbonaceous materials produced from biomass and the selection of a bio-based binder allowing an aqueous electrode processing are fundamental. Herein, corncobs are used as raw material for the preparation of hard carbon and it is also used as cellulose sources for the synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) binder. The corncob-derived electrodes deliver a high discharge capacity of around 264 mAhg(-1) at 1 C (300 mAg(-1)), with promising capacity retention (84 % after 100 cycles) and good rate capability. Additionally, this work expands the fundamental insight of the sodium storage behavior of Hard Carbons through an electrochemical approach, suggesting that the reaction mechanism is controlled by capacitive process in the sloping voltage region, while the diffusion-controlled intercalation is the predominant process in the low-voltage plateau

Platelet Count and Volume and Pharmacological Closure with Paracetamol of Ductus Arteriosus in Preterm Infants

Background: Low platelet count might promote resistance to pharmacological closure with indomethacin and ibuprofen of a hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (hsPDA). However, no studies have investigated if this occurs with paracetamol. Methods: We retrospectively assessed the correlation between platelet count, mean platelet volume (MPV), and plateletcrit (PCT), as well as the effectiveness of paracetamol in closing hsPDA in infants born at 23+0 –31+6 weeks of gestation who were treated with 15 mg/kg/6 h of i.v. paracetamol for 3 days. Results: We studied 79 infants: 37 (47%) Had closure after a course of paracetamol and 42 (53%) did not. Platelet count and PCT did not correlate with paracetamol success or failure in closing hsPDA, while MPV was lower at birth (10.7 ± 1.4 vs. 9.5 ± 1.1; p < 0.001) and prior to starting therapy (11.7 ± 1.9 vs. 11.0 ± 1.6; p = 0.079) in refractory infants. Regression analysis confirmed that the low MVP measured prior to starting the treatment increased the risk of hsPDA paracetamol closure failure (OR 1.664, 95% CI 1.153–2.401). Conclusions: The greater MPV correlated positively with the effectiveness of paracetamol in closing hsPDA, while platelet count and PCT did not influence closure rates. Additional studies are needed to confirm our results

Sub-tissue localization of phytochemicals in Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J. Presl. growing in Northern Italy

In the present paper, we focused our attention on Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J. Presl. (Lauraceae), studied at three levels: (i) micromorphological, with the analysis of the secretory structures and a novel in-depth histochemical characterization of the secreted compounds; (ii) phytochemical, with the characterization of the essential oils from young stems, fruits, and leaves, subjected to different conservation procedures (fresh, dried, stored at −20 °C, stored at −80 °C) and collected in two different years; (iii) bioactive, consisting of a study of the potential antibacterial activity of the essential oils. The micromorphological investigation proved the presence of secretory cells characterized by a multi-layered wall in the young stems and leaves. They resulted in two different types: mucilage cells producing muco-polysaccharides and oil cells with an exclusive terpene production. The phytochemical investigations showed a predominance of monoterpenes over sesquiterpene derivatives; among them, the main components retrieved in all samples were 1,8-cineole followed by α-terpineol and sabinene. Conservation procedures seem to only influence the amounts of specific components, i.e., 1,8-cineole and α-terpineol, while analyses on each plant part revealed the presence of some peculiar secondary constituents for each of them. Finally, the evaluation of the antibacterial activity of the essential oil showed a promising activity against various microorganisms, as Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In conclusion, we combined a micromorphological and phytochemical approach of the study on different plant parts of C. camphora, linking the occurrence of secretory cells to the production of essential oils. We compared, for the first time, the composition of essential oils derived from different plant matrices conserved with different procedures, allowing us to highlight a relation between the conservation technique and the main components of the profiles. Moreover, the preliminary antibacterial studies evidenced the potential activity of the essential oils against various microorganisms potentially dangerous for plants and humans

Probing the single-particle character of rotational states in 19^{19}F using a short-lived isomeric beam

A beam containing a substantial component of both the $J^{\pi}=5^+$, $T_{1/2}=162$ ns isomeric state of $^{18}$F and its $1^+$, 109.77-min ground state has been utilized to study members of the ground-state rotational band in $^{19}$F through the neutron transfer reaction $(d$,$p)$ in inverse kinematics. The resulting spectroscopic strengths confirm the single-particle nature of the 13/2$^+$ band-terminating state. The agreement between shell-model calculations, using an interaction constructed within the $sd$ shell, and our experimental results reinforces the idea of a single-particle/collective duality in the descriptions of the structure of atomic nuclei