satin: A Component Model for Mobile Self Organisation

We have recently witnessed a growing interest in self organising systems, both in research and in practice. These systems re-organise in response to new or changing conditions in the environment. The need for self organisation is often found in mobile applications; these applications are typically hosted in resource-constrained environments and may have to dynamically reorganise in response to changes of user needs, to heterogeneity and connectivity challenges, as well as to changes in the execution context and physical environment. We argue that physically mobile applications benefit from the use of self organisation primitives. We show that a component model that incorporates code mobility primitives assists in building self organising mobile systems. We present satin, a lightweight component model, which represents a mobile system as a set of interoperable local components. The model supports reconfiguration, by offering code migration services. We discuss an implementation of the satin middleware, based on the component model and evaluate our work by adapting existing open source software as satin components and by building and testing a system that manages the dynamic update of components on mobile hosts

Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-yInformation systems success and failure are among the most prominent streams in IS research. Explanations of why some IS fulfill their expectations, whereas others fail, are complex and multi-factorial. Despite the efforts to understand the underlying factors, the IS failure rate remains stubbornly high. A Panel session was held at the IFIP Working Group 8.6 conference in Bangalore in 2013 which forms the subject of this Special Issue. Its aim was to reflect on the need for new perspectives and research directions, to provide insights and further guidance for managers on factors enabling IS success and avoiding IS failure. Several key issues emerged, such as the need to study problems from multiple perspectives, to move beyond narrow considerations of the IT artifact, and to venture into underexplored organizational contexts, such as the public sector. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Institutional investors and corporate governance

We provide a comprehensive overview of the role of institutional investors in corporate governance with three main components. First, we establish new stylized facts documenting the evolution and importance of institutional ownership. Second, we provide a detailed characterization of key aspects of the legal and regulatory setting within which institutional investors govern portfolio firms. Third, we synthesize the evolving response of the recent theoretical and empirical academic literature in finance to the emergence of institutional investors in corporate governance. We highlight how the defining aspect of institutional investors – the fact that they are financial intermediaries – differentiates them in their governance role from standard principal blockholders. Further, not all institutional investors are identical, and we pay close attention to heterogeneity amongst institutional investors as blockholders

Assessment of protein silver nanoparticles toxicity against pathogenic Alternaria solani

Mycogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was carried out in the present investigation using an aqueous extract of endophytic non-pathogenic Alternaria solani F10 (KT721914). The mycosynthesized AgNPs were characterized by means of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The surface plasmon resonance found at 430 nm confirmed the formation of stable AgNPs for several weeks at room temperature. Also, the results revealed the formation of spherical and monodispersed AgNPs with an average size of 14.8 +/- 1.2 nm. The FT-IR spectrum suggested that the fungal extracellular proteins and secondary metabolites had the role in Ag reduction and AgNPs capping of which protein Ag nanoconjugates were formed. Furthermore, the mycosynthesized AgNPs exhibited potent antifungal activity against different pathogenic isolates of the same Alternaria solani fungus, the causal pathogen of tomato early blight disease. The antifungal efficiency of the AgNPs at 1, 5 and 10 ppm were evaluated for 8 days after incubation by measuring the inhibition rate of fungal radial growth. The results were further supported by investigating fungal hyphae morphology alteration by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Treated fungal hyphae showed formation of pits and pores. Also, the mycosynthesized AgNPs were able to pass and distribute throughout the fungal cell area and interact with the cell components.A financial support from European Commission by Erasmus Mundus Scholarship-ACTION 2 WELCOME program is gratefully acknowledged. Work in JAD laboratory was supported by grant BIO2014-54269-R from the Ministerio de Economia y Competividad (Spain).Abdel-Hafez, SII.; Nafady, NA.; Abdel-Rahim, IR.; Shaltout, AM.; Daros Arnau, JA.; Mohamed, MA. (2016). 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Nearly-zero energy buildings: cost-optimal analysis of building envelope characteristics

Cnoference paper published in the Procedia Environmental Sciences, 2017, Volume 38, 2017, Pages 20-27Energy consumption in the building sector continues to increase in the entire world and therefore, the determination of costoptimal solutions towards nearly zero-energy buildings is a serious challenge. The present study is focused on the optimal thermal features of the building envelope, including thermal insulation on wall, roof and ground floor as well as the optimal window properties, in order to achieve nearly-zero energy buildings in the climate conditions of Cyprus. A systematic and robust scientific procedure was adapted in order to determine levels of energy performance leading to minimum life-cycle cost. Energy simulations of different reference test-cell buildings were performed, based on the external envelope’s surface to total building volume ratio, and the cost-optimal performance levels were calculated in accordance with Regulation 244/2012/EU, taking into consideration three different climate areas of Cyprus – the cities of Limassol and Nicosia and the mountainous area of Saittas. Both the optimal thermal transmittance coefficient of the external envelope elements and the optimal window properties for each reference test-cell building were calculated. The results demonstrate that the cost-optimal energy performance levels of reference test-cell buildings in Cyprus are considerably higher than the national minimum requirements. Moreover, a linear correlation was found between the optimal (mean) thermal transmission coefficient and the study area, a result that underlines the necessity of forming three independent climate zones in Cyprus instead of one that exists today

Heat related mortality in Cyprus under the A1B emissions scenario: Is additional air-conditioning an appropriate mitigation strategy?

While climate change is expected to increase average temperatures around the globe as well as the number of atypically hot days and nights, several studies had identified an increase in heat-related mortality during hot weather. Indoor cooling has been identified as an important protective factor against heat related mortality but could result in higher emissions from power plants and to increased air pollution related mortality. We aimed in calculating the impact of increasing temperatures on heat-related mortality in Cyprus for the present and the 2040-2050 decade and address the protective effect of air-conditioning as the main mitigation option