End-user Empowerment in the Digital Age

End-user empowerment (or human empowerment) may be seen as an important aspect of a human-centric approach towards the digital economy. Despite the role of end-users has been recognized as a key element in information systems and end-user computing, empowering end-users may be seen as a next evolutionary step. This minitrack aims at advancing the understanding of what end-user empowerment really is, what the main challenges to develop end-user empowering systems are, and how end-user empowerment may be achieved in specific domains

What you will gain by rounding : theory and algorithms for rounding rank

When factorizing binary matrices, we often have to make a choice between using expensive combinatorial methods that retain the discrete nature of the data and using continuous methods that can be more efficient but destroy the discrete structure. Alternatively, we can first compute a continuous factorization and subsequently apply a rounding procedure to obtain a discrete representation. But what will we gain by rounding? Will this yield lower reconstruction errors? Is it easy to find a low-rank matrix that rounds to a given binary matrix? Does it matter which threshold we use for rounding? Does it matter if we allow for only non-negative factorizations? In this paper, we approach these and further questions by presenting and studying the concept of rounding rank. We show that rounding rank is related to linear classification, dimensionality reduction, and nested matrices. We also report on an extensive experimental study that compares different algorithms for finding good factorizations under the rounding rank model

Analyse physiologischer Gesetzmäßigkeiten zu den Themenbereichen "Ausbelastungskriterien" und "Nachbelastungsverhalten" anhand der Ergebnisse ausdauerleistungsdiagnostischer Untersuchungen am Institut für Sport und Sportwissenschaft des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) im Zeitraum 2007-2010

Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit besteht einerseits darin gängige Ausbelastungskriterien in der physiologischen Ausdauerleistungsdiagnostik anhand einer umfassenden Literaturrecherche aufzuzeigen und diese mittels eigener Daten zu überprüfen. Zum anderen werden physiologische Gesetzmäßigkeiten verschiedener Parameter in der Nachbelastung aufgearbeitet, um eine Schätzung der aeroben Ausdauerleistungsfähigkeit über das Nachbelastungsverhalten - der Herzfrequenz - vorzunehmen

Modulation of Suppressor Mechanisms in Allergic Contact Dermatitis: 5. Evidence That Inhibition of Suppressor T Lymphocytes by Corynebacterium parvum Is Mediated by Interferon

Using a contact hypersensitivity model in BALB/c mice we have previously been able to show that Corynehacterium parvum or C. parvum serum (C.p.s.) of mice treated 24hr before with C. parvum inhibited the suppressor T-lyrnphocyte (TScell) response induced by epicutaneous antigen overload with 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) or by i.v. injection of 2,4-dinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (DNBSO3) without inhibition of the T effector cell response (TDH-cell). In the present investigation we further analyzed the factor responsible for TS-cell inhibition. Treatment of the C.p.s. with sheep-antimouse interferon (IFN) globulin neutralized its TS-cell inhibitory effect. Intravenous (i.v.) injection of a crude mouse fibroblast IFN (340 U per mouse) 2hr after i.v. application of a dose of DNBSO3 inducing tolerance had a similar TS-cell inhibitory effect as observed with C.p.s. Injection of an electrophoretically pure α- and β-IFN preparation (1000 U per mouse) increased contact sensitivity in mice sensitized with an antigen overload and inhibited the induction of TS-cells by DNBSO3 i.v. This result is highly suggestive that the TS-cell inhibitory factor in serum of C. parum-treated mice is IFN and it shows that TS-cells as compared to TDH-cells are susceptible to the inhibitory effect of highly purified IFN. This finding suggests that IFN may be an important immunoregulatory factor of delayed hypersensitivity not only in contact allergy but also in bacterial and viral defense

Endurance Capacities in Professional Soccer Players: Are Performance Profiles Position Specific?

The aim of this study was to investigate position-specific endurance performance of soccer players. 136 professional players competing in the 1st and 2nd division in Germany were divided into the positional groups goalkeepers (GK), central defenders (CD), wingers (WI), central midfielders (CM), and forwards (FW). All players performed an incremental treadmill test with blood lactate sampling until exhaustion with the following endurance parameters being obtained: Fixed aerobic threshold (v2mmol/l), fixed anaerobic threshold (v4mmol/l), individual aerobic threshold (vLT), individual anaerobic threshold (vIAT), and maximum velocity (vmax). Results revealed significant differences between GK and all outfield playing positions for all endurance parameters (p ≤ 0.03; ES 0.87–2.19). No significant differences among outfield playing positions were evident for any of the parameters. However, trends were found in favor of the CM compared to the WI (p = 0.11; ES = 0.68) and the FW (p = 0.06; ES = 0.47) relating to vLT as well as in favor of the CM compared to the WI (p = 0.10; ES = 0.56) relating to vIAT. Findings suggest that goalkeepers possess the lowest endurance capacity compared to other playing positions. While outfield players in general showed similar endurance performance, CM seem to possess the highest aerobic capacity of all positions as indicated by all lactate-based thresholds, however, with only small to moderate ES. These findings could lead one to question the appropriateness of current endurance training regimes to prepare all players adequately for their positional match-running demands. Indeed, endurance training of players should be specific to their match-running demands. However, it remains unknown to what extent these demands are position or player specific

Human-centric Personal Data Protection and Consenting AssistantSystems: Towards a Sustainable Digital Economy

With the growing digital transformation, increasingly more personal data is produced, collected, shared, and used. Online privacy has become one of the most significant challenges for co-creating digital artefacts in a sustainable digital world. This paper presents the results of a representative study on online privacy conducted in Austria, which shows a growing need for personalized and human-centric sociotechnical solutions which empower humans to exercise their rights to online privacy, consenting and agency. We call such systems Personal Data Protection and Consenting Assistant Systems (PDPCAS). Using a human-centric perspective on privacy and consenting, which is inspired by recent advancements in cognitive sciences and sociology of science and technology, as well as the results of our representative study, combined with the results of a set of interdisciplinary expert interviews, we provide a reflection on PDPCASs, which mainly includes the functional and non-functional requirements of such systems. Based on the results of our studies, we reflect on the main challenges for the development and adaptation of PDPCASs. We argue that besides the absence of supporting automation standards, the lack of enforceability, and the technical complexities of developing human-centric PDPCASs, the user-acceptance and user experience design pose significant challenges to realizing these systems in practice. Finally, the paper provides a short reflection on the importance of human-centric PDPCASs for the co-creation of a sustainable digital economy