WSIS+10 Series: Reflections on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

With the mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) up for renewal in December this year, the 10th annual IGF taking place this week in João Pessoa, Brazil, is happening at an interesting time for the future of the Internet governance landscape. While ongoing deliberations seem to support the extension of the IGF’s mandate for another ten years, there will only be certainty about the IGF’s future at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+10 High Level Meeting in New York, a UN-led review of the progress made on internet governance issues in the decade since WSIS

Fold-Hopf Bursting in a Model for Calcium Signal Transduction

We study a recent model for calcium signal transduction. This model displays spiking, bursting and chaotic oscillations in accordance with experimental results. We calculate bifurcation diagrams and study the bursting behaviour in detail. This behaviour is classified according to the dynamics of separated slow and fast subsystems. It is shown to be of the Fold-Hopf type, a type which was previously only described in the context of neuronal systems, but not in the context of signal transduction in the cell.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Ambient Intelligence

Not availabl

PPARs in Alzheimer's Disease

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are well studied for their peripheral physiological and pathological impact, but they also play an important role for the pathogenesis of various disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) like multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease. The observation that PPARs are able to suppress the inflammatory response in peripheral macrophages and in several models of human autoimmune diseases lead to the idea that PPARs might be beneficial for CNS disorders possessing an inflammatory component. The neuroinflammatory response during the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is triggered by the neurodegeneration and the deposition of the β-amyloid peptide in extracellular plaques. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been considered to delay the onset and reduce the risk to develop Alzheimer's disease, while they also directly activate PPARγ. This led to the hypothesis that NSAID protection in AD may be partly mediated by PPARγ. Several lines of evidence have supported this hypothesis, using AD-related transgenic cellular and animal models. Stimulation of PPARγ receptors by synthetic agonist (thiazolidinediones) inducing anti-inflammatory, anti-amyloidogenic, and insulin sensitising effects may account for the observed effects. Several clinical trials already revealed promising results using PPAR agonists, therefore PPARs represent an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of AD

The Influence of Situation-Dependent Factors on Mobile Shopping Usage

Although situations influence the use of a technology, this field has been largely neglected in mobile shopping. Therefore, this paper aims to identify situational factors impacting on the intention to use a mobile device for actual purchase transactions, as actual purchases were found to be the least adapted shopping activity conducted via mobile devices. This study contributes to the field of mobile shopping behavior by being the first to simultaneously investigate the influence of various situational factors on the intention to shop mobile. Based on Belk’s five categories of situational factors, we perform a conjoint analysis to explore the relevance of different situational characteristics for low and high involvement products. The results indicate that particularly the product price, the internet connection, and the mobile shop layout determine mobile shopping behavior. Practical actions to strengthen the mobile channel and increase consumers’ intentions to purchase via mobile devices, can be derived from the findings

On the Importance of National Culture for the Design of Information Systems

In this contribution a literature review is conducted to illustrate how national culture influences phases of the design of information systems. For this purpose, we review the literature in order to identify reliable and commonly approved findings as well as still open remaining questions. Fundamentally, our literature review is a comprehensive framework that sets typical dimensions of system design as well as main types of cultural research in relation to each other. The existing research results in the area of national culture are classified along the levels of system design and attributed to typical phases of the design of information systems. It thus becomes apparent that in the domain of culture and information system design it is often only the design subject or the design object that is addressed. Contributions that connect both levels rarely exist. In our review, only a limited number of publications could be identified that covered concrete phases of the development providing system design, implementation, as well as verification and validation. From a theoretical perspective, there is an obvious dominance of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions that well address single topics of the design, such as user interface and inter cultural problems in development teams. Other domains, however (e.g., technology and architecture), are inadequately explained. Further, a predominantly phenomenological focus becomes obvious. The observed cultural phenomena and the connected interpretations are usable in a limited way for concrete development initiatives. The contribution ends with the vision of a theory for the culturally sensitive design of socio-technical information systems that absorbs current scientific knowledge and unites it in a structured approach

Franchising bei Verkehrsbetrieben

--

Impact and Therapeutic Potential of PPARs in Alzheimer's Disease

Peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are well studied for their role of peripheral metabolism, but they also may be involved in the pathogenesis of various disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) including multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's and, Parkinson's disease. The observation that PPARs are able to suppress the inflammatory response in peripheral macrophages and in several models of human autoimmune diseases, lead to the idea that PPARs might be beneficial for CNS disorders possessing an inflammatory component. The neuroinflammatory response during the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is triggered by the deposition of the β-amyloid peptide in extracellular plaques and ongoing neurodegeneration. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been considered to delay the onset and reduce the risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease, while they also directly activate PPARγ. This led to the hypothesis that NSAID protection in AD may be partly mediated by PPARγ. Several lines of evidence have supported this hypothesis, using AD related transgenic cellular and animal models. Stimulation of PPARγ by synthetic agonist (thiazolidinediones) inducing anti-inflammatory, anti-amyloidogenic and insulin sensitizing effects may account for the observed effects. Several clinical trials already revealed promising results using PPARγ agonists, therefore PPARγ represents an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of AD