Mobile commerce adoption in India, a revised technology acceptance model

Nowadays, Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) is expected to make a substantial impact on the business landscape. In India, the mobile cellular market is the fastest growing telecommunication market in terms of subscribers and popularity and is expected to grow by 55% from its present size of $2 billion to$19 billion by 2019. This research presents an extended Technology Acceptance model (TAM) that integrates extracts from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Personal Innovativeness and Trust into the TAM to investigate what determines user Mobile Commerce (MC) acceptance in India. The proposed model was empirically tested using data collected from a survey of 249 Indian Mobile Commerce users. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the causal model. The findings demonstrate the applicability of the modified TAM in assessing Mobile Commerce acceptance in India. From the study it can be seen that Mobile Commerce acceptance in India is influenced directly by Perceived Usefulness (β=0.443, p<0.001) Perceived Ease of Use (β=0.442, p<0.001) less so by Social influence (β=0.086, p<0.05) and indirectly by Facilitating Conditions (β= 0.554, p<.001) and Trust (β=0.068, p<0.05). A Multi-Group analysis based on gender (exogenous) and Frequency of Use (endogenous) was also conducted to gain a better understanding of the underlying Sub-Group dynamics. The recommendations made for the Indian Mobile Commerce sector based on the implications of the research and the typology for future research are also outlined

Use of compost in urban greening to develop biodiverse herbaceous communities

Derelict urban soils are not suitable to grow ornamental traditional vegetation, but they can be effective in becoming areas of biodiversity and nature conservation. The compaction and very low quality of those soils, though do not enable a uniform covering and development of species and plant sizes, necessary to satisfy esthetical requests. Aim of our work was to evaluate the contribution of compost in improving the plant biodiversity and the self-sustainability in the cultivation of an herbaceous community sawn on derelict urban soil. The experimental study was carried out in eight, 2 m2 beds, filled with urban subsoil and sown with a mix of 29 autochthonous herbaceous species: annuals, biennials and perennials. The species selected for the trial are native in the surrounding countryside. We added compost, coming from selected municipal organic waste, in the first 15 cm of soil, then we sow the seed mixture on a thin layer (about 5-10 cm) of seeding substrate. The filling soil was poor in N (0.2 g kg-1) and Corg (4,3 g kg-1) and had alkaline pH (8.3), both this properties can affect negatively the growth of plants, the addition of compost could improve the content of N and Corg and decrease the value of pH. The vegetation was monitored every month since march, number of plants were counted inside a fixed quadrat. The plots with compost showed a more diverse vegetation in terms of species and a longer time of flowering

GNSS spoofing detection: Theoretical analysis and performance of the Ratio Test metric in open sky

Nowadays more and more applications rely on the information provided by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs), but the vulnerability of GNSS signals to interference, jamming and spoofing is a growing concern. Among all the possible sources of intentional interference, spoofing is extremely deceptive and sinister. In fact, the victim receiver may not be able to warn the user and discern between authentic and false signals. For this reason, a receiver featuring spoofing detection capabilities might become a need in many cases. Different types of spoofing detection algorithms have been presented in recent literature. One of the first, referred to as Ratio Metric, allows for the monitoring of possible distortions in the signal correlation. The effectiveness of the Ratio Test has been widely discussed and demonstrated, while in this paper we analyze its performance, proposing a mathematical model that is used to assess the false alarm and detection probabilities

Pseudomonas aeruginosa bloodstream infections: risk factors and treatment outcome related to expression of the PER-1 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase

BACKGROUND: Bloodstream infection (BSI) due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) has relevant clinical impact especially in relation to drug resistance determinants. The PER-1 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) is a common enzyme conferring high-level resistance to anti-pseudomonal cephalosporins. Risk factors and treatment outcome of BSI episodes caused by PER-1-positive Pa (PER-1-Pa) strains were compared to those caused by ESBL-negative Pa isolates (ESBL-N-Pa). METHODS: Twenty-six BSI cases due to ceftazidime-resistant Pa strains have been investigated. MIC values of anti-pseudomonal drugs were determined by the Etest method (AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden). The double-disk synergy test was used to detect ESBL production. PCR amplification and DNA sequencing were used to characterize ESBL types. Clinical records of BSI-patients were examined retrospectively. Demographic data, underlying diseases (McCabe-Jackson classification and Charlson weighted index), risk factors, antimicrobial therapy, and treatment outcome were evaluated in cases due to ESBL-positive and cases due to ESBL-N-Pa isolates. Unpaired Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, Fisher's exact test and the χ(2 )test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Nine Pa isolates expressed the PER-1 ESBL; the remaining 17 isolates did not produce ESBLs. Severe sepsis (P = 0.03), bladder and intravascular catheters (both P = 0.01), immunosuppressive therapy (P = 0.04), and mechanical ventilation (P = 0.03) were significantly associated with BSI due to PER-1-Pa. Empirical treatment (P = 0.02) and treatment after ID/AST (P < 0.01) were rarely adequate in PER-1-Pa cases. With regard to treatment outcome, 77.8% BSI cases due to PER-1-Pa vs. 28.6% cases due to ESBL-N-Pa isolates failed to respond (P < 0.03). All cases due to PER-1-Pa that were treated with carbapenems (alone or in combination with amikacin) failed to respond. In contrast, 7/8 cases due to ESBL-N-Pa given carbapenems were responders. CONCLUSION: Therapeutic failure and increased hospital costs are associated with BSI episodes caused by PER-1-Pa strains. Thus, recognition and prompt reporting of ESBL-production appears a critical factor for the management of patients with serious P. aeruginosa infections

Drug susceptibility testing of clinical isolates of streptococci and enterococci by the Phoenix automated microbiology system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Drug resistance is an emerging problem among streptococcal and enterococcal species. Automated diagnostic systems for species identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) have become recently available. We evaluated drug susceptibility of clinical isolates of streptococci and enterococci using the recent Phoenix system (BD, Sparks, MD). Diagnostic tools included the new SMIC/ID-2 panel for streptococci, and the PMIC/ID-14 for enterococci. Two-hundred and fifty isolates have been investigated: β-hemolytic streptococci (n = 65), <it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>(n = 50), viridans group streptococci (n = 32), <it>Enterococcus faecium </it>(n = 40), <it>Enterococcus faecalis </it>(n = 43), other catalase-negative cocci (n = 20). When needed, species ID was determined using molecular methods. Test bacterial strains were chosen among those carrying clinically-relevant resistance determinants (penicillin, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, glycopeptides). AST results of the Phoenix system were compared to minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values measured by the Etest method (AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Streptococci: essential agreement (EA) and categorical agreement (CA) were 91.9% and 98.8%, respectively. Major (ME) and minor errors (mE) accounted for 0.1% and 1.1% of isolates, respectively. No very major errors (VME) were produced. Enterococci: EA was 97%, CA 96%. Small numbers of VME (0.9%), ME (1.4%) and mE (2.8%) were obtained. Overall, EA and CA rates for most drugs were above 90% for both genera. A few VME were found: a) teicoplanin and high-level streptomycin for <it>E. faecalis</it>, b) high-level gentamicin for <it>E. faecium</it>. The mean time to results (± SD) was 11.8 ± 0.9 h, with minor differences between streptococci and enterococci.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Phoenix system emerged as an effective tool for quantitative AST. Panels based on dilution tests provided rapid and accurate MIC values with regard to clinically-relevant streptococcal and enterococcal species.</p

Compost and Wildflowers for the Management of Urban Derelict Soils

The aim of this study was to verify whether the use of source-separated municipal waste compost could improve the physical quality of urban soils and create better conditions for their management when planted with herbaceous species. A sandy soil in traffic islands was tilled to a depth of 10 cm, and half of the surface was treated with compost (3 kg/m 2 ). A mixture of 25 herbaceous annuals was then sown in the entire area. Organic carbon content and physical characteristics were determined at different times in the soil treated and not treated with compost. The vegetation was monitored in terms of its growth and flowering. The composttreated soil showed an increase in organic carbon content. Total porosity increased with time in the compost-treated soil, due to a higher volume of transmission pores, which play a role in water movement. Soil aggregate stability also improved in the compost-treated soil. The duration of flowering of the individual species and the overall quantity of flowers were greater in the compost-treated soil

Investigation of Real Interference Effects on Conventional GNSS Receivers

One of the main characteristics of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals is the low level of the received signal strength. For the signals of both the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Galileo the power spectral density of the received signal is approximately 20 dB/Hz below the thermal noise floor and using conventional receiving antennas and hardware, the signal at the front end output is masked by noise. Given this scenario, the presence of interfering sources in the operating scenario bounds the achievable accuracy performance, limiting also the development of effective applications. For these reasons the interest towards interference monitoring techniques is growing, also for mass-market applications in urban environments. Several different electromagneticsources, that populate the crowded radio frequency spectrum might be potential interferers on the GNSS bandwidths. Due to their different characteristics (i.e.: transmitting power, bandwidth, carrier frequency), these interference signals can affect the regular signal processing within the navigation receiver in different ways. This paper describes the impact ofa real interference on a conventional GPS receivers. Several data sets have been collected in a harsh environment sited approximately 1.5 km away from two transmitting antenna used to broadcast analog and digital TV. The paper aims at describing the experimental setup and the data collection campaign analysing how strong out-of-band signals placed in Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) bands, since they can produce secondary harmonics which fall into the GPS bands, lead to a degradation of the receiver performanc