The collective consciousness of Information Technology research: The significance and value of research projects. A. The views of IT researchers

This research seeks to reveal the different perceptual worlds in a research community, with the longterm intent of fostering increased understanding and hence collaboration. In the relatively new field of information technology (IT) research, available evidence suggests that a shared understanding of the research object or territory does not yet exist. This has led to the development of different perceptions amongst IT researchers of what constitutes significant and valuable research. A phenomenological approach is used to elicit data from a diverse range of IT researchers in semistructured interviews. This data is presented to show (1) the variation in meaning associated with the idea of significance and value and (2) the awareness structures through which participants experience significance and value. An Outcome Space represents the interrelation between those different ways of seeing, revealing a widening awareness. Five categories of ways of seeing the significance and value of research projects were found: The Personal Goals Conception, The Research Currency Conception, The Design of the Research Project Conception, The Outcomes for the Technology End User Conception and The Solving Real-World Problems Conception. These are situated within three wider perceptual boundaries: The Individual, The Research Community and Humankind. The categories are described in detail, demonstrated with participants’ quotes and illustrated with diagrams. A tentative comparison is made between this project and a similar investigation of IT professionals’ ways of seeing the significance and value of IT research projects. Finally, some recommendations for further research are made

The collective consciousness of Information Technology research: The significance and value of research projects. B. The views of IT industry professionals

This research seeks to reveal the different perceptual worlds in a research community, with the longterm intent of fostering increased understanding and hence collaboration. In the relatively new field of information technology (IT) research, available evidence suggests that a shared understanding of the research object or territory does not yet exist. This has led to the development of different perceptions amongst IT researchers of what constitutes significant and valuable research. Phenomenological methodology is used to elicit data from a diverse range of IT industry professionals in semi-structured interviews. This data is presented to show (1) the variation in meaning associated with the idea of significance and value and (2) the awareness structures through which participants experience significance and value. An Outcome Space represents the interrelation between those different ways of seeing, revealing a widening awareness. Five categories of ways of seeing the significance and value of research projects were found: The Personal Goals Conception, The Commercial Goals Conception, The Outcomes for the Technology End User Conception, The Solving Real-World Problems Conception and The Design of the Research Project Conception. These are situated within three wider perceptual boundaries: The Individual, The Enterprise and Society. The categories are described in detail, demonstrated with participants’ quotes and illustrated with diagrams. A tentative comparison is made between this project and a similar investigation of IT researchers’ ways of seeing the significance and value of IT research projects. Finally, some recommendations for further research are made

The Collective Consciousness of Information Technology Research: Ways of seeing Information Technology Research: Its Objects and Territories

The collective consciousness of effective groups of researchers is characterised by shared understandings of their research object or territory. In the relatively new field of information technology research, rapid expansion and fragmentation of the territory has led to different perceptions about what constitutes information technology research. This project explores a facet of the collective consciousness of disparate groups of researchers and lays a foundation for constructing shared research objects. Making IT researchers’ ways of seeing explicit may help us understand some of the complexities associated with inter and intra disciplinary collaboration amongst research groups, and the complexities associated with technology transfer to industry. This report analyses IT research, its objects and territories, as they are constituted by IT researchers associated with the sub-disciplines of information systems, computer science and information security. A phenomenographic approach is used to elicit data from a diverse range of IT researchers in semistructured interviews. This data is analysed to show (1) the variation in meaning associated with the idea of IT research and (2) the awareness structures through which participants experience variation in ways of seeing the object and territories of IT research. An Outcome Space represents the interrelation between different ways of seeing the territory. Eight ways of seeing IT research, its objects and territories, were found: The Technology Conception, The Information Conception, The Information and Technology Conception, The Communication Conception, The Ubiquitous Conception, The Sanctioned Conception, The Dialectic Conception and The Constructed Conception. These are described in detail and illustrated with participants’ quotes. Finally, some recommendations for further research are made

Scalable network-wide anomaly detection using compressed data

Detecting network traffic volume anomalies in real time is a key problem as it enables measures to be taken to prevent network congestion which severely affects the end users. Several techniques based on principal component analysis (PCA) have been outlined in the past which detect volume anomalies as outliers in the residual subspace. However, these methods are not scalable to networks with a large number of links. We address this scalability issue with a new approach inspired from the recently developed compressed sensing (CS) theory. This theory induces a universal information sampling sheme right at the network sensory level to reduce the data overhead. Specifically, we address exploit the compressibility characteristics of the network data and describe a framework for anomaly detection in the compressed domain. Our main theoretical contribution is a detailed theoretical analysis of the new approach which obtains the probabilistic bounds on the principal eigenvalues of the compressed data. Subsequently, we prove that volume anomaly detection using compressed data can achieve equivalent performance as it does using the original uncompressed and reduces the computational cost significantly. The experimental results on both the Abiliene and synthetic datasets support our theoretical findings and demonstrate the advantages of the new approach over the existing methods

The Distribution of Dengue Virus Serotype in Quang Nam Province (Vietnam) during the Outbreak in 2018

Objectives: Quang Nam province in the Centre of Vietnam has faced an outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) in 2018. Although DHF is a recurrent disease in this area, no epidemiological and microbiological reports on dengue virus serotypes have been conducted mainly due to lack of facilities for such a kind of advanced surveillance. The aim of this study was to detect different dengue virus serotypes in patients’ blood samples. Design and Methods: Suspected cases living in Quang Nam province (Vietnam) and presenting clinical and hematological signs of dengue hemorrhagic fever were included in the study. The screening was performed, and the results were compared by using two methodologies: RT real-time PCR (RT-rPCR) and the Dengue NS1 rapid test. Results: From December 2018 to February 2019, looking both at RT-rPCR [+] and NS1 [+] methodologies, a total of 488 patients were screened and 336 were positive for dengue virus detection (74 children and 262 adults); 273 of these patients (81.3%) underwent viral serotype identification as follows: 12.82% (35/273) D1 serotype, 17.95% (49/273) D2, 0.37% (1/273) D3, 68.50 (187/283) D4, and 0.37% (1/273) D2+D4 serotypes. The RT-rPCR outcomes showed higher sensitivity during the first three days of infection compared to NS1 (92.3% vs. 89.7%). The NS1 increased sensitivity after the first 3 days whilst the RT-rPCR decreased. Conclusions: Advanced surveillance with dengue virus serotypes identification, if performed routinely, may help to predict and prevent further DHF epidemics based on the exposure of the different serotypes during different periods that lead to the intensification of disease severity as a consequence of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE)

ηc\eta_c mixing effects on charmonium and BB meson decays

We include the $\eta_c$ meson into the $\eta$-$\eta'$-$G$ mixing formalism constructed in our previous work, where $G$ represents the pseudoscalar gluball. The mixing angles in this tetramixing matrix are constrained by theoretical and experimental implications from relevant hadronic processes. Especially, the angle between $\eta_c$ and $G$ is found to be about $11^\circ$ from the measured decay widths of the $\eta_c$ meson. The pseudoscalar glueball mass $m_G$, the pseudoscalar densities $m_{qq,ss,cc}$ and the U(1) anomaly matrix elements associated with the mixed states are solved from the anomalous Ward identities. The solution $m_G\approx 1.4$ GeV obtained from the $\eta$-$\eta'$-$G$ mixing is confirmed, while $m_{qq}$ grows to above the pion mass, and thus increases perturbative QCD predictions for the branching ratios $Br(B\to\eta'K)$. We then analyze the $\eta_c$-mixing effects on charmonium magnetic dipole transitions, and on the $B\to\eta^{(\prime)}K_S$ branching ratios and CP asymmetries, which further improve the consistency between theoretical predictions and data. A predominant observation is that the $\eta_c$ mixing enhances the perturbative QCD predictions for $Br(B\to\eta'K)$ by 18%, but does not alter those for $Br(B\to\eta K)$. The puzzle due to the large $Br(B\to\eta'K)$ data is then resolved.Comment: 12 pages, version to appear in PR