38 research outputs found
Adaptive Process Management in Highly Dynamic and Pervasive Scenarios
Process Management Systems (PMSs) are currently more and more used as a
supporting tool for cooperative processes in pervasive and highly dynamic
situations, such as emergency situations, pervasive healthcare or domotics/home
automation. But in all such situations, designed processes can be easily
invalidated since the execution environment may change continuously due to
frequent unforeseeable events. This paper aims at illustrating the theoretical
framework and the concrete implementation of SmartPM, a PMS that features a set
of sound and complete techniques to automatically cope with unplanned
exceptions. PMS SmartPM is based on a general framework which adopts the
Situation Calculus and Indigolog
The State of the Art in Multilayer Network Visualization
Modelling relationships between entities in real-world systems with a simple
graph is a standard approach. However, reality is better embraced as several
interdependent subsystems (or layers). Recently the concept of a multilayer
network model has emerged from the field of complex systems. This model can be
applied to a wide range of real-world datasets. Examples of multilayer networks
can be found in the domains of life sciences, sociology, digital humanities and
more. Within the domain of graph visualization there are many systems which
visualize datasets having many characteristics of multilayer graphs. This
report provides a state of the art and a structured analysis of contemporary
multilayer network visualization, not only for researchers in visualization,
but also for those who aim to visualize multilayer networks in the domain of
complex systems, as well as those developing systems across application
domains. We have explored the visualization literature to survey visualization
techniques suitable for multilayer graph visualization, as well as tools,
tasks, and analytic techniques from within application domains. This report
also identifies the outstanding challenges for multilayer graph visualization
and suggests future research directions for addressing them
Characterization of Coastal Urban Watershed Bacterial Communities Leads to Alternative Community-Based Indicators
BACKGROUND: Microbial communities in aquatic environments are spatially and temporally dynamic due to environmental fluctuations and varied external input sources. A large percentage of the urban watersheds in the United States are affected by fecal pollution, including human pathogens, thus warranting comprehensive monitoring. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using a high-density microarray (PhyloChip), we examined water column bacterial community DNA extracted from two connecting urban watersheds, elucidating variable and stable bacterial subpopulations over a 3-day period and community composition profiles that were distinct to fecal and non-fecal sources. Two approaches were used for indication of fecal influence. The first approach utilized similarity of 503 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) common to all fecal samples analyzed in this study with the watershed samples as an index of fecal pollution. A majority of the 503 OTUs were found in the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. The second approach incorporated relative richness of 4 bacterial classes (Bacilli, Bacteroidetes, Clostridia and alpha-proteobacteria) found to have the highest variance in fecal and non-fecal samples. The ratio of these 4 classes (BBC:A) from the watershed samples demonstrated a trend where bacterial communities from gut and sewage sources had higher ratios than from sources not impacted by fecal material. This trend was also observed in the 124 bacterial communities from previously published and unpublished sequencing or PhyloChip- analyzed studies. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study provided a detailed characterization of bacterial community variability during dry weather across a 3-day period in two urban watersheds. The comparative analysis of watershed community composition resulted in alternative community-based indicators that could be useful for assessing ecosystem health
Microbial diversity and biogeochemical cycling in soda lakes
Soda lakes contain high concentrations of sodium carbonates resulting in a stable elevated pH, which provide a unique habitat to a rich diversity of haloalkaliphilic bacteria and archaea. Both cultivation-dependent and -independent methods have aided the identification of key processes and genes in the microbially mediated carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur biogeochemical cycles in soda lakes. In order to survive in this extreme environment, haloalkaliphiles have developed various bioenergetic and structural adaptations to maintain pH homeostasis and intracellular osmotic pressure. The cultivation of a handful of strains has led to the isolation of a number of extremozymes, which allow the cell to perform enzymatic reactions at these extreme conditions. These enzymes potentially contribute to biotechnological applications. In addition, microbial species active in the sulfur cycle can be used for sulfur remediation purposes. Future research should combine both innovative culture methods and state-of-the-art ‘meta-omic’ techniques to gain a comprehensive understanding of the microbes that flourish in these extreme environments and the processes they mediate. Coupling the biogeochemical C, N, and S cycles and identifying where each process takes place on a spatial and temporal scale could unravel the interspecies relationships and thereby reveal more about the ecosystem dynamics of these enigmatic extreme environments
Usability- and Accessibility-Focused Requirements Engineering - First International Workshop, UsARE 2012, Held in Conjunction with {ICSE} 2012, Zurich, Switzerland, June 4, 2012 and Second International Workshop UsARE 2014, Held in Conjunction with {RE} 2014, Karlskrona, Sweden, August 25, 2014, Revised Selected Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of theFirst International Workshop on Usability and Accessibility focused RequirementsEngineering, UsARE 2012, held in Zurich, Switzerland, in June 2012 in conjunctionwith ICSE 2012, the 34th International Conference on Software Engineering, and theSecond International Workshop, UsARE 2014, held in Karlskrona, Sweden, in August2014, in the course of RE 2014, the 22nd International Requirements EngineeringConference.This book consists of 10 chapters of which 9 are extended versions of the paperspresented at the two UsARE events. Amongst them, 3 are extended versions of thepapers presented at UsARE 2012 and 6 are extended versions of papers presented atUsARE 2014 - rounded off by a new chapter that was added as authors are doingrelevant work on the same topic. The chapters are organized into three sectionsaccording to their main focus: usability and user experience, accessibility andapplications
First international workshop on usability and accessibility focused requirements engineering (UsARE 2012): summary report
Usability and accessibility issues are common causes why software fails to meet user requirements. However, requirements engineers still focus on functional requirements and might ignore to also elicit system usability and accessibility requirements. This is a high risk which can lead to project and software failure. Improving the usability and accessibility of a system in a later development stage is costly and time consuming. Targeting these concerns, the workshop envisioned that research must address the proper integration of system usability and accessibility requirements into the requirements engineering process and also must focus on how to manage and control the evaluation of these requirements in a systematic way.
UsARE 2012 provided a platform for discussing issues which are relevant for both fields, the Requirements Engineering (RE) and the Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The workshop aim was to bring\ together people from these two communities (RE and HCI) to explore this integration. Researchers and practitioners were invited to submit contributions including problem statements, technical solutions, experience reports, planned work and vision papers. Envisioned results may help aligning RE and HCI processes in order to overcome open issues in these fields
Prevalence and characterization of Escherichia coli isolated from the Upper Oconee Watershed in Northeast Georgia.
Surface waters are important sources of water for drinking, industrial, agricultural, and recreational uses; hence, contamination of water by fecal, pathogenic, or antimicrobial resistant (AR) bacteria is a major environmental and public health concern. However, very little data is available on prevalence of these bacteria in surface water throughout a watershed. This study aimed to characterize Escherichia coli present in the Upper Oconee Watershed, a mixed-use watershed in Athens, GA, USA for potential pathogenicity and AR. E. coli were enumerated by colony counts, cultured by enrichment and direct plating, and characterized by phylo-groups, diarrheagenic pathotypes, and antimicrobial susceptibility. From the analysis, 99.3% (455/458) of the total samples were positive for E. coli resulting in 496 isolates. E. coli counts were as high as 1.2×104 CFU/100 ml, which is above the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) threshold for recreational water (235 CFU/100 ml based on a one-time measurement). Phylo-groups B2 (31.7%; 157/496) and B1 (30.8%; 153/496) were the most prevalent among the isolates. Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) (19/496) and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) (1/496) were the only diarrheagenic pathotypes detected. AR was observed in 6.9% (34/496) of the isolates, 15 of which were multidrug resistant (MDR; resistance to two or more classes of antimicrobials). Tetracycline resistance was most often detected (76.5%; 26/34), followed by ampicillin (32.4%; 11/34), streptomycin (23.5%; 8/34), sulfisoxazole (23.5%; 8/34), and nalidixic acid (14.7%; 5/34). Results from this study showed that E. coli is prevalent in high levels in the Upper Oconee Watershed, suggesting possible widespread fecal contamination. The presence of pathogenic, AR E. coli in the watershed indicates that environmental water can serve as a reservoir of resistant bacteria that may be transferred to humans through drinking and recreational activities
Sites with <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> counts exceeding the U.S. EPA threshold for each sampling event<sup>a</sup>.
<p>Sites with <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> counts exceeding the U.S. EPA threshold for each sampling event<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0197005#t002fn001" target="_blank"><sup>a</sup></a>.</p
Antimicrobial resistant and pathogenic <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> isolated from surface water, phylo-group, and sample site location from Fig 1.
<p>Antimicrobial resistant and pathogenic <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> isolated from surface water, phylo-group, and sample site location from <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0197005#pone.0197005.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>.</p