Software-Unterstützung für die Bereitstellung klassischer Medienprodukte und -dienstleistungen

CMS sind der technische Kern der Bereitstellung von Medienprodukten. Sie dienen effizienten Herstellungsprozessen und können neuerdings durch Systeme zur Personalisierung und zum Rechteschutz erweitert werden. Eine Öffnung von CMS und Personalisierungssystem macht eine stärkere Einbindung des Nutzers möglich. Aktuell sind Bemühungen um neue Formen der Personalisierung zu erkennen. Ein schon länger diskutierter Ansatzpunkt ist die Berücksichtigung der Emotionen des potentiellen Nutzers. Neuer ist die Idee, Daten zur sozialen Einbindung zur Personalisierung zu nutzen, wie sie neuerdings über soziale Netzwerke vorliegen. Ebenfalls diskutiert wird die Nutzung von Cloud-Diensten. Dies hätte für den Nutzer den Vorteil, dass er Inhalte unabhängig vom Endgerät (weiter) hören kann. Zudem wäre die Personalisierung und der Rechteschutz deutlich einfacher zu lösen. Desweiteren führen soziale Netzwerke wie z.B. Facebook zu einer immer stärkeren Verlinkung von Inhalten im Internet. So integrieren auch Anbieter mit professionellen Inhalten Angebote von fremden Webseiten. Ebenfalls sehr interessant ist die Entwicklung bei der Software-Unterstützung für die Bereitstellung nicht-redaktioneller Inhalte. Im Zentrum steht dort nicht die arbeitsteilige Erstellung von Inhalten, sondern vielmehr die Gestaltung intuitiv verständlicher Schnittstellen für die Abfrage und auch die Erfassung von Inhalten sowie die Definition der Datenstruktur für den Datenbestand und von Algorithmen für dessen Auswertung. Im Extremfall (so etwa bei Suchmaschinen) werden die Inhalte sogar ganz von Algorithmen bereitgestellt. Die Fragen nach Personalisierung sowie Rechteschutz stellen sich bei Systemen zur Unterstützung neuer Inhalte zudem in ganz anderer Form. Im erstgenannten Fall fällt die 'Vorauswahl' durch redaktionelle Mitarbeiter in der Regel ganz weit. Im zweiten Fall geht es u.a. um den Schutz der Rechte der Nutzer

Music as a Service as an Alternative to Music Piracy? - An Empirical Investigation of the Intention to Use Music Streaming Services

Despite increasing acceptance of digital channels, total sales in the music business decreased by 31 % from 2004 to 2010. Music piracy is still considered one of the main causes for this. However, several studies found no effects or even positive effects of illegal downloading on record sales. In the past, piracy has been counteracted especially by prosecution and legal offers. Music as a Service (MaaS) represents a new, differing distribution approach in digital music. In contrast to the wellknown music platforms for so-called àla- carte downloads, such as the iTunes Store, MaaS possesses two important characteristics: transmission (streaming instead of downloading) and pricing model (flat rate instead of pay-perdownload). Therefore, the consumption of music by means of purchasing and downloading is replaced by a monthly payment service (paid MaaS) and an ad-supported (free MaaS) service. First user surveys suggest that many music pirates are making use of these offers. To find out if MaaS is an attractive distribution channel for music pirates, we developed a model to explain the intention to use MaaS based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. To empirically test this model, we surveyed 132 music pirates. Among others, the outcome shows that the intention to use free MaaS is mainly affected by the attitude towardsMaaS, while using paid MaaS is predominantly a result of the influence of users’ closest peers. The attitude towards MaaS is positively influenced by the desire to receive music recommendations, the payment type (in the form of a flat rate model), and the relative advantage of MaaS compared to illegal choices

MUSIKDISTRIBUTION OHNE DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT – EINE EMPIRISCHE ANALYSE DER LOCK-IN- UND NETZEFFEKTE IM ECOSYSTEM ITUNES

Das Ecosystem iTunes, bestehend aus iTunes Store und iPod, gehört mit einem Marktanteil von über 70 Prozent zu den bekanntesten und mächtigsten seiner Art. Doch was passiert wenn das Bindeglied zwischen diesen Komponenten, nämlich das Digital Rights Management (DRM), wegfällt? Mit Hilfe von Lock-in- und Netzeffekttheorie haben wir die Wechselwirkungen im Ecosystem theoretisch analysiert und Verhaltenshypothesen für den Wegfall von DRM aufgestellt. Die Hypothesen wurden anschließend in einer empirischen Untersuchung mit 275 Teilnehmern validiert. Dabei sind wir zu dem Ergebnis gekommen, dass die Abschaffung von DRM zu einer Kundenumverteilung zwischen den Musikdownloadplattformen führt und zusätzlich neue Kunden gewonnen werden können

The changing landscape of membrane protein structural biology through developments in electron microscopy

Membrane proteins are ubiquitous in biology and are key targets for therapeutic development. Despite this, our structural understanding has lagged behind that of their soluble counterparts. This review provides an overview of this important field, focusing in particular on the recent resurgence of electron microscopy (EM) and the increasing role it has to play in the structural studies of membrane proteins, and illustrating this through several case studies. In addition we examine some of the challenges remaining in structural determination, and what steps are underway to enhance our knowledge of these enigmatic proteins

Gene-gene Interaction Analyses for Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a heritable disease that affects more than thirty million individuals worldwide. Extensive efforts have been devoted to the study of genetic determinants of AF. The objective of our study is to examine the effect of gene-gene interaction on AF susceptibility. We performed a large-scale association analysis of gene-gene interactions with AF in 8,173 AF cases, and 65,237 AF-free referents collected from 15 studies for discovery. We examined putative interactions between genome-wide SNPs and 17 known AF-related SNPs. The top interactions were then tested for association in a

Exome-chip meta-analysis identifies novel loci associated with cardiac conduction, including ADAMTS6.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies conducted on QRS duration, an electrocardiographic measurement associated with heart failure and sudden cardiac death, have led to novel biological insights into cardiac function. However, the variants identified fall predominantly in non-coding regions and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. RESULTS: Here, we identify putative functional coding variation associated with changes in the QRS interval duration by combining Illumina HumanExome BeadChip genotype data from 77,898 participants of European ancestry and 7695 of African descent in our discovery cohort, followed by replication in 111,874 individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank and deCODE cohorts. We identify ten novel loci, seven within coding regions, including ADAMTS6, significantly associated with QRS duration in gene-based analyses. ADAMTS6 encodes a secreted metalloprotease of currently unknown function. In vitro validation analysis shows that the QRS-associated variants lead to impaired ADAMTS6 secretion and loss-of function analysis in mice demonstrates a previously unappreciated role for ADAMTS6 in connexin 43 gap junction expression, which is essential for myocardial conduction. CONCLUSIONS: Our approach identifies novel coding and non-coding variants underlying ventricular depolarization and provides a possible mechanism for the ADAMTS6-associated conduction changes.BH

Cystatin C and Cardiovascular Disease

Background Epidemiological studies show that high circulating cystatin C is associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), independent of creatinine-based renal function measurements. It is unclear whether this relationship is causal, arises from residual confounding, and/or is a consequence of reverse causation. Objectives The aim of this study was to use Mendelian randomization to investigate whether cystatin C is causally related to CVD in the general population. Methods We incorporated participant data from 16 prospective cohorts (n = 76,481) with 37,126 measures of cystatin C and added genetic data from 43 studies (n = 252,216) with 63,292 CVD events. We used the common variant rs911119 in CST3 as an instrumental variable to investigate the causal role of cystatin C in CVD, including coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and heart failure. Results Cystatin C concentrations were associated with CVD risk after adjusting for age, sex, and traditional risk factors (relative risk: 1.82 per doubling of cystatin C; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.56 to 2.13; p = 2.12 × 10−14). The minor allele of rs911119 was associated with decreased serum cystatin C (6.13% per allele; 95% CI: 5.75 to 6.50; p = 5.95 × 10−211), explaining 2.8% of the observed variation in cystatin C. Mendelian randomization analysis did not provide evidence for a causal role of cystatin C, with a causal relative risk for CVD of 1.00 per doubling cystatin C (95% CI: 0.82 to 1.22; p = 0.994), which was statistically different from the observational estimate (p = 1.6 × 10−5). A causal effect of cystatin C was not detected for any individual component of CVD. Conclusions Mendelian randomization analyses did not support a causal role of cystatin C in the etiology of CVD. As such, therapeutics targeted at lowering circulating cystatin C are unlikely to be effective in preventing CVD

Genetic Interactions with Age, Sex, Body Mass Index, and Hypertension in Relation to Atrial Fibrillation: The AFGen Consortium

It is unclear whether genetic markers interact with risk factors to influence atrial fibrillation (AF) risk. We performed genome-wide interaction analyses between genetic variants and age, sex, hypertension, and body mass index in the AFGen Consortium. Study-specific results were combined using meta-analysis (88,383 individuals of European descent, including 7,292 with AF). Variants with nominal interaction associations in the discovery analysis were tested for association in four independent studies (131,441 individuals, including 5,722 with AF). In the discovery analysis, the AF risk associated with the minor rs6817105 allele (at the PITX2 locus) was greater among subjects ≤ 65 years of age than among those > 65 years (interaction p-value = 4.0 × 10-5). The interaction p-value exceeded genome-wide significance in combined discovery and replication analyses (interaction p-value = 1.7 × 10-8). We observed one genome-wide significant interaction with body mass index and several suggestive interactions with age, sex, and body mass index in the discovery analysis. However, none was replicated in the independent sample. Our findings suggest that the pathogenesis of AF may differ according to age in individuals of European descent, but we did not observe evidence of statistically significant genetic interactions with sex, body mass index, or hypertension on AF risk