Guest Editorial: Social and human aspects of cyber-physical systems

open6siIn the vision of Industry 4.0, the new industrial revolution is a revolution of cyber-physical systems, of which the Internet of Things forms a key foundation that has a great impact on the way people live, and the way businesses are organised. Cyber-physical systems are often considered feedback systems that integrate computation, networking, and physical processes, and more recently with ‘human-in-the-loop’ as one of the key research topics. The advances in social computing have connected human-inthe-loop in cyber-social systems such as Facebook and Twitter, while their social-physical activities are supported by the cyberphysical systems on or near their bodies and in their interconnected environments. Cyber-physical systems become an integral part of social-cyber-physical systems (SCPS) that weave into the sociotechnical fabric of human society. These hybrid systems, exhibiting both continuous (in physical and social spaces) and discrete (in cyberspaces) dynamic behaviour, give rise to not only new opportunities but also new challenges in designing products and services where human and technical aspects are massively intertwined. This Special Issue aims to present state-of-the-art research attempts and results on the topic of SCPS.openopenHu J.; Liang R.-H.; Shih C.-S.; Catala A.; Marcenaro L.; Osawa H.Hu, J.; Liang, R. -H.; Shih, C. -S.; CATALA MALLOFRE, Andreu; Marcenaro, L.; Osawa, H

Challenges and Main Results of the Automated Negotiating Agents Competition (ANAC) 2019

The Automated Negotiating Agents Competition (ANAC) is a yearly-organized international contest in which participants from all over the world develop intelligent negotiating agents for a variety of negotiation problems. To facilitate the research on agent-based negotiation, the organizers introduce new research challenges every year. ANAC 2019 posed five negotiation challenges: automated negotiation with partial preferences, repeated human-agent negotiation, negotiation in supply-chain management, negotiating in the strategic game of Diplomacy, and in the Werewolf game. This paper introduces the challenges and discusses the main findings and lessons learnt per league

Bile Acid-Induced Virulence Gene Expression of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Reveals a Novel Therapeutic Potential for Bile Acid Sequestrants

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacterial pathogen, causes human gastroenteritis. A type III secretion system (T3SS2) encoded in pathogenicity island (Vp-PAI) is the main contributor to enterotoxicity and expression of Vp-PAI encoded genes is regulated by two transcriptional regulators, VtrA and VtrB. However, a host-derived inducer for the Vp-PAI genes has not been identified. Here, we demonstrate that bile induces production of T3SS2-related proteins under osmotic conditions equivalent to those in the intestinal lumen. We also show that bile induces vtrA-mediated vtrB transcription. Transcriptome analysis of bile-responsive genes revealed that bile strongly induces expression of Vp-PAI genes in a vtrA-dependent manner. The inducing activity of bile was diminished by treatment with bile acid sequestrant cholestyramine. Finally, we demonstrate an in vivo protective effect of cholestyramine on enterotoxicity and show that similar protection is observed in infection with a different type of V. parahaemolyticus or with non-O1/non-O139 V. cholerae strains of vibrios carrying the same kind of T3SS. In summary, these results provide an insight into how bacteria, through the ingenious action of Vp-PAI genes, can take advantage of an otherwise hostile host environment. The results also reveal a new therapeutic potential for widely used bile acid sequestrants in enteric bacterial infections

E-gaze : create gaze communication for peoplewith visual disability

\u3cp\u3eGaze signals are frequently used by the sighted in social interactions as visual cues. However, these signals and cues are hardly accessible for people with visual disability. A conceptual design of E-Gaze glasses is proposed, assistive to create gaze communication between blind and sighted people in face-to-face conversations. We interviewed 20 totally blind and low vision participants to envision the use of the E-Gaze. We explained four features of E-Gaze to participants using persona and use scenarios. Participants discussed the features on their usefulness, efficiency and interest. The results helped us clarify the design direction and further research.\u3c/p\u3

HCI design for people with visual disability in social interaction

\u3cp\u3eIn the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) field, it has been a long tradition of concern of accessing computer systems by people with visual impairments. It is important to develop high quality user interfaces, accessible, usable, and desirable for these people. In this paper, we first report a preliminary background review about HCI design for people with visual disability. The review of the problems in social interaction the blind people may encounter, are also presented. Further, we narrow down our research scope and focus on gaze and eye contact, which have important social meaning in face-to-face communication. We then identify our research objective that is to design gaze simulation for people with visual impairments. Finally, we report the prototypes of our research project and the progress made so far.\u3c/p\u3

E-gaze glasses:simulating natural gazes for blind people

\u3cp\u3eGaze and eye contact are frequently in social occasions used among sighted people. Gaze is considered as a predictor of attention and engagement between interlocutors in conversations. However, gaze signals from the sighted are not accessible for the blind person in face-to-face communication. In this paper, we present functional work-in-progress prototype, E-Gaze glasses, an assistive device based on an eye tracking system. E-Gaze simulates natural gaze for blind people, especially establishing the eye contact between blind and sighted people to enhance their engagement in face-to-face conversations. The gaze behavior is designed based on a turn-taking model, which interprets the corresponding relationship between the conclusive gaze behavior and the interlocutors' conversation flow.\u3c/p\u3

Model-driven gaze simulation for the blind person in face-to-face communication

In face-to-face communication, eye gaze is integral to a conversation to supplement verbal language. The sighted often uses eye gaze to convey nonverbal information in social interactions, which a blind conversation partner cannot access and react to them. In this paper, we present E-Gaze glasses (E-Gaze), an assistive device based on an eye tracking system. It simulates gaze for the blind person to react and engage the sighted in face-to-face conversations. It is designed based on a model that combines eye-contact mechanism and turn-taking strategy. We further propose an experimental design to test the E-Gaze and hypothesize that the model-driven gaze simulation can enhance the conversation quality between the sighted and the blind person in face-to-face communication