Enhancing shopping experiences in smart retailing

The retailing market has undergone a paradigm-shift in the last decades, departing from its traditional form of shopping in brick-and-mortar stores towards online shopping and the establishment of shopping malls. As a result, “small” independent retailers operating in urban environments have suffered a substantial reduction of their turnover. This situation could be presumably reversed if retailers were to establish business “alliances” targeting economies of scale and engage themselves in providing innovative digital services. The SMARTBUY ecosystem realizes the concept of a “distributed shopping mall”, which allows retailers to join forces and unite in a large commercial coalition that generates added value for both retailers and customers. Along this line, the SMARTBUY ecosystem offers several novel features: (i) inventory management of centralized products and services, (ii) geo-located marketing of products and services, (iii) location-based search for products offered by neighboring retailers, and (iv) personalized recommendations for purchasing products derived by an innovative recommendation system. SMARTBUY materializes a blended retailing paradigm which combines the benefits of online shopping with the attractiveness of traditional shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. This article provides an overview of the main architectural components and functional aspects of the SMARTBUY ecosystem. Then, it reports the main findings derived from a 12 months-long pilot execution of SMARTBUY across four European cities and discusses the key technology acceptance factors when deploying alike business alliances

Preparation of fluorine-doped TiO2 photocatalysts with controlled crystalline structure

Recommended by M. Sabry Abdel-Mottaleb Nanocrystalline F-doped TiO 2 powders were prepared by sol-gel route. The thermal behavior of the powders was recorded by DTA/TG technique. The crystalline phase of the fluorinated TiO 2 powders was determined by X-ray diffraction technique. It was demonstrated that F-doping using CF 3 COOH favors the formation of rutile along with anatase phase even at low temperature. Moreover, the rutile's phase content increases with the increase of the quantity of the fluorine precursor in the starting solution. The surface area of the powders and the pore size distribution were studied by N 2 adsorption-desorption using BET and BJH methods. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that the fluorine is presented in the TiO 2 powders mainly as metal fluoride in quantities ∼16 at %. The F-doped TiO 2 showed a red-shift absorption in UV-vis region which was attributed to the increased content of rutile phase in the powders. The powders exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity in decomposition of acetone

Emerging oomycete threats to plants and animals

Oomycetes, or water moulds, are fungal-like organisms phylogenetically related to algae. They cause devastating diseases to both plants and animals. Here, we describe seven oomycete species that are emerging or re-emerging threats to agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, and natural ecosystems. They include the plant pathogens Phytophthora infestans, Phytophthora palmivora, Phytophthora ramorum, Plasmopara obducens, and the animal pathogens Aphanomyces invadans, Saprolegnia parasitica, and Halioticida noduliformans. For each species, we describe its pathology, importance, and impact, discuss why it is an emerging threat, and briefly review current research activities

Improving knowledge discovery from synthetic aperture radar images using the linked open data cloud and Sextant

In the last few years, thanks to projects like TELEIOS, the linked open data cloud has been rapidly populated with geospatial data some of it describing Earth Observation products (e.g., CORINE Land Cover, Urban Atlas). The abundance of this data can prove very useful to the new missions (e.g., Sentinels) as a means to increase the usability of the millions of images and EO products that are expected to be produced by these missions. In this paper, we explain the relevant opportunities by demonstrating how the process of knowledge discovery from TerraSAR-X images can be improved using linked open data and Sextant, a tool for browsing and exploration of linked geospatial data, as well as the creation of thematic maps

The influence of CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 genetic variation on diabetes mellitus risk in people taking antidepressants and antipsychotics

CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 enzymes are essential in the metabolism of antidepressants and antipsychotics. Genetic variation in these genes may increase risk of adverse drug reactions. Antidepressants and antipsychotics have previously been associated with risk of diabetes. We examined whether individual genetic differences in CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 contribute to these effects. We identified 31,579 individuals taking antidepressants and 2699 taking antipsychotics within UK Biobank. Participants were classified as poor, intermediate, or normal metabolizers of CYP2D6, and as poor, intermediate, normal, rapid, or ultra-rapid metabolizers of CYP2C19. Risk of diabetes mellitus represented by HbA1c level was examined in relation to the metabolic phenotypes. CYP2D6 poor metabolizers taking paroxetine had higher Hb1Ac than normal metabolizers (mean difference: 2.29 mmol/mol; p < 0.001). Among participants with diabetes who were taking venlafaxine, CYP2D6 poor metabolizers had higher HbA1c levels compared to normal metabolizers (mean differences: 10.15 mmol/mol; p < 0.001. Among participants with diabetes who were taking fluoxetine, CYP2D6 intermediate metabolizers and decreased HbA1c, compared to normal metabolizers (mean difference −7.74 mmol/mol; p = 0.017). We did not observe any relationship between CYP2D6 or CYP2C19 metabolic status and HbA1c levels in participants taking antipsychotic medication. Our results indicate that the impact of genetic variation in CYP2D6 differs depending on diabetes status. Although our findings support existing clinical guidelines, further research is essential to inform pharmacogenetic testing for people taking antidepressants and antipsychotics