Unsupervised anomaly detection of retail stores using predictive analysis library on SAP HANa XS advanced

The retail industry is quite exposed to fraudulent situations. Daily, thousands of transactions are processed, which may include some frauds difficult to detect, mainly when the perpetrators are the own employees at the retail stores. Large retailers with several stores across different locations may have considerable difficulty in detecting frauds involving their cashiers since they have to take into account different contexts of operation. To reduce fraud losses, retailers get an overview of the transactions in each store to filter the ones that look suspicious deviating from what would be normal. Data mining algorithms can be useful to detect anomalies, differentiating the normal from the abnormal. This study adopted the k-Means clustering algorithm for anomaly detection on a sample of 90 stores in a large food retail chain, revealing the existence of some outliers in the data. The anomaly detection process was fully implemented in SAP HANA XS Advanced using the Predictive Analysis Library (PAL). In the end, it was possible to identify the stores with abnormal behavior and conclude for the usefulness and ease of use of such a library, despite some lack of documentation to use it.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020

The Impact of Genital Ulcers on HIV Transmission Has Been Underestimated—A Critical Review

Funding Information: Funding: V.M.’s work in this study has been completed as part of the ELTE Thematic Excellence Programme 2020 supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (TKP2020-IKA-05). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.In the early 1990s, several observational studies determined that genital ulcer disease (GUD), in either the index or the exposed person, facilitates HIV transmission. Several meta-analyses have since presented associated risk ratios (RR) over the baseline per-act transmission probability (PATP) usually in the range of 2–5. Here we review all relevant observational studies and meta-analyses, and show that the estimation of RRs was, in most cases, biased by assuming the presence of GUD at any time during long follow-up periods, while active genital ulcers were present in a small proportion of the time. Only two studies measured the GUD co-factor effect in PATPs focusing on acts in which ulcers were present, and both found much higher RRs (in the range 11–112). We demonstrate that these high RRs can be reconciled with the studies on which currently accepted low RRs were based, if the calculations are restricted to the actual GUD episodes. Our results indicate that the effect of genital ulcers on the PATP of HIV might be much greater than currently accepted. We conclude that the medical community should work on the assumption that HIV risk is very high during active genital ulcers.publishersversionpublishe

Régime alimentaire de Dasyatis pastinaca et Myliobatis aquila (Elasmobranchii: Myliobatiformes) des Açores, Atlantique NE

This paper describes and discusses the feeding ecology of two stingray species that occur in the Azores: Dasyatis pastinaca and Myliobatis aquila. Both are common coastal species associated with sandy, muddy and rocky bottoms, from surface waters to depths of over 200 m. The diet described here is based on the stomach content analysis from 33 specimens (23 D. pastinaca, 10 M. aquila) collected by spearfishing between June and October 2010 at three different locations along the coast of Terceira Island, Azores. Food habits of D. pastinaca consist mainly of Decapod crustaceans (with a relevance for Pachygrapsus marmoratus) followed by other groups with high representativeness: Polychaeta and Mysidacea. The diet of M. aquila consists mainly of Calliostoma lusitanicum and Stramonita haemastoma. Both species from our sample proved to be generalist predators with different feeding habits. The diet of D. pastinaca is characterized by Crustacea (81% IRI) and that of M. aquila characterized by Mollusca (82% IRI).RÉSUMÉ: Cet article décrit et analyse l’écologie alimentaire de deux raies des Açores : Dasyatis pastinaca et Myliobatis aquila. Ce sont deux espèces côtières communes associées à des fonds sableux, vaseux et rocheux, se trouvant depuis les petits fonds jusqu’à plus de 200 m de profondeur. Le régime décrit ici est basé sur l’analyse du contenu stomacal de 33 spécimens (23 D. pastinaca, 10 M. aquila) récoltées en chasse sous-marine entre juin et octobre 2010 à trois endroits différents le long de la côte de l’île Terceira, aux Açores. Le régime alimentaire de D. pastinaca se compose principalement de crustacés décapodes (avec une préférence pour Pachygrapsus marmoratus), suivis par d’autres groupes fortement représentés: polychètes et mysidacés. Le régime de M. aquila se compose principalement de Calliostoma lusitanicum et Stramonita haemastoma. Les deux espèces sont des prédateurs généralistes avec des habitudes alimentaires différentes. Le régime alimentaire de D. pastinaca est caractérisé par les crustacés (81% IRI) et celui de M. aquila par les mollusques (82% IRI).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sexually transmitted infections, their treatment and urban change in colonial Leopoldville, 1910–1960

During the colonial period sexually transmitted infections (STIs) came to be recognised as a major public health problem in African cities. Thus, STI control and urban modernisation became deeply entangled as authorities redrew spatial and social boundaries to manage populations and their cross-cultural interaction. Public health measures, urban planning and policing were part of a coordinated effort to neutralise the potential impact of rapidly growing African urban migration on the Belgian Congo’s ‘model’ capital Leopoldville. While STI control was facilitated by new drugs (arsenicals, sulfonamides and antibiotics) to treat syphilis, chancroid, gonorrhoea and chlamydia (bacterial STIs), the effects of the 1929 economic crisis and urban social change illustrated the limits of colonial authority. Redesigning urban spaces and repressive measures to curb polygyny and prostitution operated in a parallel fashion with the expansion of health coverage, new treatments and awareness campaigns. To gain a better understanding of the evolution of STI incidence among African urban populations during the colonial period between 1910 and 1960, extensive archival records and secondary literature were consulted to assess the interplay between improved screening, diagnostic and therapeutic methods with demographic and social change. They show that STI rates, probably peaked during the pre-1929 period and apart from a short period in the early 1930s associated with mass screening, declined until becoming residual in the 1950s. Reflecting upon sanitary interventions and their broader dimensions, the article analyses the evolution of treatment regimes and their impact in the changing urban organisation and environment of the colony’s capital.publishersversionpublishe

Newly discovered archival data show coincidence of a peak of sexually transmitted diseases with the early epicenter of pandemic hiv-1

Funding Information: The research done by J.D.S. and A.-M.V. in this study has been supported in part by grant G.0692.14, funded by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek?Flanders (FWO, http://www.fwo.be/en/ (accessed on 28 July 2021)), Belgium. V.M.?s work in this study has been completed as part of the ELTE Thematic Excellence Programme 2020 supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (TKP2020-IKA-05). Funding Information: Funding: The research done by J.D.S. and A.-M.V. in this study has been supported in part by grant G.0692.14, funded by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek—Flanders (FWO, http://www.fwo.be/en/ (accessed on 28 July 2021)), Belgium. V.M.’s work in this study has been completed as part of the ELTE Thematic Excellence Programme 2020 supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (TKP2020-IKA-05). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.To which extent STDs facilitated HIV-1 adaptation to humans, sparking the pandemic, is still unknown. We searched colonial medical records from 1906–1958 for Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, which was the initial epicenter of pandemic HIV-1, compiling counts of treated STD cases in both Africans and Europeans. Almost all Europeans were being treated, while for Africans, generalized treatment started only in 1929. Treated STD counts in Europeans thus reflect STD infection rates more accurately compared to counts in Africans. In Africans, the highest recorded STD treatment incidence was in 1929–1935, declining to low levels in the 1950s. In Europeans, the recorded treatment incidences were highest during the period 1910–1920, far exceeding those in Africans. Europeans were overwhelmingly male and had frequent sexual contact with African females. Consequently, high STD incidence among Europeans must have coincided with high prevalence and incidence in the city’s African population. The data strongly suggest the worst STD period was 1910–1920 for both Africans and Europeans, which coincides with the estimated origin of pandemic HIV-1. Given the strong effect of STD coinfections on HIV transmission, these new data support our hypothesis of a causal effect of STDs on the epidemic emergence of HIV-1.publishersversionpublishe

Biotic and Abiotic factors in the distribution of resident fish species : a case study from two islets and an adjacent shoreline in Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal

XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015.With this poster we aim to disclose the ecological characteristics of the resident ichthyofauna in three distinct SE- NW aligned sites off the S coast of Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal. We collected both direct and indirect data about those species near the shoreline – Serretinha, in a close by islet complex – Cabras and over an offshore rocky outcrop – Fradinhos. [...]

Information systems development course: integrating business, IT and IS competencies

Information systems development (ISD) is a capstone course in the Information Systems and Technology undergraduate program at School of Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal. ISD is viewed as an organizational change project that aims at improving an organization through the adoption of IT applications. The course is designed following a project led approach. The project involves describing an organization as a system, describing its information handling activities and proposing a set of IT applications that could be adopted and used. Students are guided by a ISD methodology that demands the application of previous developed competencies in areas such as: organization theory, accounting, marketing, information systems fundamentals, data bases, software engineering, computer networks and several other IT courses. Together with the ISD course, students are also taking courses on organizational behavior and data-warehousing. Students are organized into large teams of 10 to 12 members. Several roles are distributed among team members: e.g., team leader, analyst, document officer, technology officer, methodologist, development tools specialist, IT specialist. Students are suggested a fictional organization in a specific business area. Ideally students should deal with a real organization. As the course is having around 100 students enrolled this is not possible. However it is common that each project team finds an organization in the proposed business area where they go and have actual contact with an organization. The main outputs of the project include: project plan; organization description including - purpose, environment, main activities, business ontology, main performance indicators; general information systems description using UML; requirements for an IT application; IT architecture. One of the most important steps of the project is to decide on what IT to suggest to the organization. The decision should take into consideration the capability of current IT, the specifics of the business area and its current practices. Besides the reports, each team makes two public presentations. The first one is to present the organization description making sure business is clearly understood. The final one is to present the solution in terms of information systems and IT architecture. These presentations are attended by industry guests that focus their attention on the students' communication skills from the perspective of a manager. The evaluation of students' performance is based on: reports corresponding to the outputs mentioned above; public presentations; weekly assessments of the teams' progress. The final mark attributed to each team (a numerical value from 0 to 20, where above 10 is a pass) can be re-distributed among team members, by themselves, in order to account for different levels of commitment or effort within the team. Several other rules are set in order to promote professional behavior.(undefined

Business process models for process management

A discussion of some perspectives on process models so they can be useful for intervention activities that introduce change in organizations

How vulnerable are cetaceans to climate change? Developing and testing a new index

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lidando com a lacuna: o papel moderador da educação na relação entre a perceção subjetiva da saúde e da vida social e o tempo de utilização da Internet

Introduction: Internet addiction results in intense and frequent use. There is a gap in the literature in relation to the unawareness of problematic Internet use (PIU) in predicting Internet use time (IUT). Objective: To identify sociodemographic/psychological variables contri-buting and moderating IUT. Participants: 1,270 participants of the European Social Survey (EES), Round 8. Instruments: EES variables assessing Internet use (IU), health perception, well-being, social life, and sociodemographic variables, underlying the construct. Results: Age, education, sources of household income, social activities compared to others of the same age and subjective general health explain IU per day; and age, years of education, domicile and socially meeting with other people with whom to discuss intimate matters explain IU per week. Education was found to be a significant moderator in the relationship between subjective general health and IU per week; and in the relationship between socially meeting with other people and IU per day. Discussion: Maladaptive IU, when the perception of health is worse, and adaptive IU, when the perception of social life is better, are both suggested, depending on education. Conclusions: These findings point to the need to study IUT involving educational level, keeping in mind that what may be PIU at one educational level may not be the case at another.Introdução: O vício da Internet traduz-se numa utilização intensa e frequente. Existe uma lacuna na literatura sobre o desconhecimento dos preditores do uso problemático da Internet (PIU) do tempo de utilização da Internet (IUT). Objetivo: Identificar as variáveis sociodemográficas/psicológicas que contribuem e moderam o IUT. Participantes: 1270 participantes da European Social Survey (EES), Round 8. Instrumentos: Variáveis ESS que avaliam a utilização da Internet (IU), perceção de saúde, bem-estar, vida social e variáveis sociodemográficas, subjacentes ao construto. Resultados: Idade, escolaridade, fontes de renda familiar, atividades sociais em comparação com outras da mesma idade e saúde geral subjetiva explicam IU por dia e idade, anos de escolaridade, domicílio, convívio social com outras pessoas e quem para discutir assuntos íntimos explicam IU por semana. A escolaridade mostrou-se um moderador significativo na relação entre saúde geral subjetiva e IU por semana; e na relação entre encontro social com outras pessoas e IU por dia. Discussão: IU desadaptativa, quando a perceção de saúde é pior, e IU adaptativa, quando a perceção de vida social é melhor, dependem da escolaridade. Conclusões: Os resultados sugerem o estudo do IUT de acordo com o nível educacional, pois o que pode ser um PIU num nível educacional pode não ser noutro.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio