Engineering Multimedia-Aware Personalized Ubiquitous Services

Ubiquitous computing focusing on users and tasks instead of devices and singular applications is an attractive vision for the future. Especially the idea of nomadic, mobile users poses new challenges on hardware and software. Mobile devices provide vastly different presentation capabilities and need to integrate into heterogeneous environments. Network bandwidth is far from being constant and services may be available only when online. This paper presents MUNDO, an infrastructure for ubiquitous computing that addresses these challenges. The infrastructure is intended to be non-monolithic with its parts supporting mobile computing using multi-modal user interfaces, mobile data delivery, and ad-hoc communication and networking

Rapid evolution in crop-weed hybrids under artificial selection for divergent life histories

When species hybridize, offspring typically exhibit reduced fitness and maladapted phenotypes. This situation has biosafety implications regarding the unintended spread of novel transgenes, and risk assessments of crop-wild hybrids often assume that poorly adapted hybrid progeny will not evolve adaptive phenotypes. We explored the evolutionary potential of early generation hybrids using nontransgenic wild and cultivated radish (Raphanus raphanistrum, Raphanus sativus) as a model system. We imposed four generations of selection for two weedy traits – early flowering or large size – and measured responses in a common garden in Michigan, USA. Under selection for early flowering, hybrids evolved to flower as early as wild lineages, which changed little. These early-flowering hybrids also recovered wild-type pollen fertility, suggesting a genetic correlation that could accelerate the loss of crop traits when a short life cycle is advantageous. Under selection for large size at reproduction, hybrids evolved longer leaves faster than wild lineages, a potentially advantageous phenotype under longer growing seasons. Although early generation hybrid offspring have reduced fitness, our findings provide novel support for rapid adaptation in crop-wild hybrid populations. Biosafety risk assessment programs should consider the possibility of rapid evolution of weedy traits from early generations of seemingly unfit crop-wild hybrids

The genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes

The genetic architecture of common traits, including the number, frequency, and effect sizes of inherited variants that contribute to individual risk, has been long debated. Genome-wide association studies have identified scores of common variants associated with type 2 diabetes, but in aggregate, these explain only a fraction of heritability. To test the hypothesis that lower-frequency variants explain much of the remainder, the GoT2D and T2D-GENES consortia performed whole genome sequencing in 2,657 Europeans with and without diabetes, and exome sequencing in a total of 12,940 subjects from five ancestral groups. To increase statistical power, we expanded sample size via genotyping and imputation in a further 111,548 subjects. Variants associated with type 2 diabetes after sequencing were overwhelmingly common and most fell within regions previously identified by genome-wide association studies. Comprehensive enumeration of sequence variation is necessary to identify functional alleles that provide important clues to disease pathophysiology, but large-scale sequencing does not support a major role for lower-frequency variants in predisposition to type 2 diabetes

Towards Personalized Ubiquitous Computing Services

This technical report introduces goals and early findings of a multi-year multi-party project MUNDO. MUNDO is a pool of services and enablers for mobile and ubiquitous computing. It emphasizes easy global evolutionary deployment as a migration path for the Internet as a whole towards a nomadic computing economy. The nomadic users access the network via personal devices and associated public and private appliances. The network is liberated from common constraints such as central operators and fixed home bases of users. It hosts services which are by themselves migratable and highly adaptive with respect to region and context-awareness, quality variations, and terminal characteristics. Migration and adaptation may be realized by different implementations of the same service. An underlying general cost model helps to mediate user desires and service offerings. A number of scenarios and corresponding MUNDO application pools are described in order to motivate the features and scope of MUNDO. We describe a "radio on steroids" application pool called DACAR in more detail. We outline the architecture of MUNDO and elaborate its system services

Cohort Description of the Madagascar Health and Environmental Research–Antongil (Mahery–Antongil) Study in Madagascar

The Madagascar Health and Environmental Research-Antongil (MAHERY-Antongil) study cohort was set up in September 2015 to assess the nutritional value of seafood for the coastal Malagasy population living along Antongil Bay in northeastern Madagascar. Over 28 months of surveillance, we aimed to understand the relationships among different marine resource governance models, local people’s fish catch, the consumption of seafood, and nutritional status. In the Antongil Bay, fisheries governance takes three general forms: traditional management, marine national parks, and co-management. Traditional management involves little to no involvement by the national government or non-governmental organizations, and focuses on culturally accepted Malagasy community practices. Co-management and marine national parks involve management support from either an non-govermental organization (NGO) or the national government. Five communities of varying governance strategies were enrolled into the study including 225 households and 1031 individuals whose diets, resource acquisition strategies, fisheries and agricultural practices, and other social, demographic and economic indicators were measured over the span of 3 years. Clinical visits with each individual were conducted at two points during the study to measure disease and nutritional status. By analyzing differences in fish catch arising from variation in governance (in addition to intra-annual seasonal changes and minor inter-annual changes), the project will allow us to calculate the public health value of sustainable fisheries management approaches for local populations. There is hope that coastal zones that are managed sustainably can increase the productivity of fisheries, increasing the catch of seafood products for poor, undernourished populations