Mobile Music Distribution: A Multichannel Approach

In contrast to what is happening in the Internet-based scenario, the music market in the mobile scenario is far from beingconsidered a large success. Several studies state that excessive downloading time and high cost are the main burdens.Motivated by the growth of social and mobile applications, in this paper we propose an approach that aims at reducing both the downloadingtime and the cost to get digital music when acquired in the mobile scenario. The proposed architecture exploits the usage ofpersonal communication technologies embedded in cellphones (e.g., Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) to couple the current distributionmodel (mainly based on 3G networks), so as to provide a multichannel distribution model where users are free to redistributedigitalmusic. The architecture includes a license-based securitymechanism that prevents unauthorized usage of digitalmusic, and makes use of an incentive mechanism to stimulate and reward the music distribution among customers. By analyzing pros and cons of the music distribution chain, results show that the proposed architecture might help in reducing both the downloading time and the cost to get digital music when acquired in the mobile scenario. Therefore, it might be helpful to the success of the mobile music scenario

A influência das alterações climáticas na escalada do conflito comunal entre pastores e agricultores: o caso da etnia Fulani na Nigéria

Current scientific evidence shows that human activities are causing interference at different levels in the global climate and availability of natural resources, and many authors already relate water scarcity to the increased risk of violent conflict, particularly i n rural societies on the African continent. Climate disruptions caused by climate change are reflected on a regional and local scale, and the greatest impacts are already being felt in the poorest areas of the planet. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has been facing environmental problems in its territory that can be associated with climate change, such as rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and advancing desertification. Considering that all these phenomena have been worsening since the early twentieth century in Nigeria and, due to the escalating of violent conflicts since the beginning of the current century, the objective of this paper is to analyse how climate change can interfere in the conflict between herdsmen and farmers, as well as the possible impact of seasonal variation in rainfall on the dynamics of these communal conflicts. The study focused on literature review and the case study took place in four Nigerian states (Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa) for the period 2010-2017, focusing on the communal conflict involving the Fulani ethnic group. The approach adopted was the inductive method in which the behaviour of rainfall in the study area was compared with the number of deaths resulting from the conflict, in addition to using geo-processing software to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of casualties. The theoretical framework used was that proposed by Thomas Homer-Dixon (1994) and the information was collected from primary sources, with consultation of qualitative and quantitative data, and from secondary sources through book reviews, publications and papers in scientific journals. While it is not yet possible to establish a direct and linear relationship between climate change and violent conflict, the revised literature indicates that competition for water and other natural resources in certain parts of Nigeria is increasing, and that the violent conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers are increasing due to the dispute over access to water sources and g razing lands. Data analysis shows that in the study area there are 46.4% more deaths in the dry season (November to April) than in the rainy season (May to October). While there are still not enough elements to conclude that climate change is the primary cause of the conflict, the analysis reinforces the need, in certain contexts, particularly in developing countries with populations highly dependent on the primary sector of the economy, for the impacts of climate change to be seriously considered as a risk to human security

Method for analyzing web space data

A method for analyzing data from the web that determine the importance that a chosen subject has in society, e.g., subject matter relating a concert, a scientific discovery, a football match, a person, a corporation, a brand, or a car, and analyze such data that can represent the entire society better than the known techniques. The method according to the invention can avoid malicious alterations and is able to measure and detect the temporal relations among all the web resources that talk about a particular topic or subject matter

Location privacy and public metadata in social media platforms: attitudes, behaviors and opinions

The highavailability of geolocation technologies is changing the social media mobile scenario and is exposing users to privacy risks. Different studies have focused on location privacy in the mobile scenario, but the results are conflicting: some say that users are concerned about location privacy, others say they are not. In this paper, we initially investigate attitudes and behaviors of people toward a location-aware scenario; then, we show users the amount of personal and sensitive data that can be extracted from contents publicly available in social platforms, and finally we ask for their opinions about a location-aware scenario. Results show that people who were not initially concerned about privacy are the most worried about the location-aware scenario; conversely, people who were initially concerned are less worried about the location-aware scenario and find the scenario interesting. A deeper analysis of the obtained results allows us to draw guidelines that might be helpful to build an effective location-aware scenario

Accounting for adaptation and its effectiveness in International Environmental Agreements

This paper analyses, within a standard International Environmental Agreement game, the effect of the introduction of adaptation on climate negotiation. The model expands the existing literature by considering a double relation between the two strategies. The common assumption that higher mitigation decreases the marginal benefit of adaptation and vice versa is enriched allowing for the possibility that mitigation, leading to lower and more manageable damages, determines a greater effectiveness of adaptive measures. We find the possibility for adaptation and mitigation to be strategic complements and not, as commonly believed, substitutes. Yet, as already known from the literature, the presence of adaptation can determine upward-sloping mitigation reaction functions regardless of the strategic relationship between mitigation and adaptation. When this is the case, the grand coalition can form. Nonetheless, large participation can induce substantive welfare gains only if adaptation and mitigation are strategic complements

SIWeb: understanding the Interests of the Society through Web data Analysis

The high availability of user-generated contents in the Web scenario represents a tremendous asset for understanding various social phenomena. Methods and commercial products that exploit the widespread use of the Web as a way of conveying personal opinions have been proposed, but a critical thinking is that these approaches may produce a partial, or distorted, understanding of the society, because most of them focus on definite scenarios, use specific platforms, base their analysis on the sole magnitude of data, or treat the different Web resources with the same importance. In this paper, we present SIWeb (Social Interests through Web Analysis), a novel mechanism designed to measure the interest the society has on a topic (e.g., a real world phenomenon, an event, a person, a thing). SIWeb is general purpose (it can be applied to any decision making process), cross platforms (it uses the entire Webspace, from social media to websites, from tags to reviews), and time effective (it measures the time correlatio between the Web resources). It uses fractal analysis to detect the temporal relations behind all the Web resources (e.g., Web pages, RSS, newsgroups, etc.) that talk about a topic and combines this number with the temporal relations to give an insight of the the interest the society has about a topic. The evaluation of the proposal shows that SIWeb might be helpful in decision making processes as it reflects the interests the society has on a specific topic

A computational model of gene expression in an inducible synthetic circuit

Synthetic biology aims to the rational design of gene circuits with predictable behaviours. Great efforts have been done so far to introduce in the field mathematical models that could facilitate the design of synthetic networks. Here we present a mathematical model of a synthetic gene-circuit with a negative feedback. The closed loop configuration allows the control of transcription by an inducer molecule (IPTG). Escherichia coli bacterial cells were transformed and expression of a fluorescent reporter (GFP) was measured for different inducer levels. Computer model simulations well reproduced the experimental induction data, using a single fitting parameter. Independent genetic components were used to assemble the synthetic circuit. The mathematical model here presented could be useful to predict how changes in these genetic components affect the behaviour of the synthetic circuit

Early Steps in C-Type Inactivation of the hERG Potassium Channel

Fast C-type inactivation confers distinctive functional properties to the hERG potassium channel, and its association to inherited and acquired cardiac arrythmias makes the study of the inactivation mechanism of hERG at the atomic detail of paramount importance. At present, two models have been proposed to describe C-type inactivation in K+-channels. Experimental data and computational work on the bacterial KcsA channel support the hypothesis that C-type inactivation results from a closure of the selectivity filter that sterically impedes ion conduction. Alternatively, recent experimental structures of a mutated Shaker channel revealed a widening of the extracellular portion of the selectivity filter, which might diminish conductance by interfering with the mechanism of ion permeation. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of the wild-type hERG, a non-inactivating mutant (hERG-N629D), and a mutant that inactivates faster than the wild-type channel (hERG-F627Y) to find out which and if any of the two reported C-type inactivation mechanisms applies to hERG. Closure events of the selectivity filter were not observed in any of the simulated trajectories but instead, the extracellular section of the selectivity filter deviated from the canonical conductive structure of potassium channels. The degree of widening of the potassium binding sites at the extracellular entrance of the channel was directly related to the degree of inactivation with hERG-F627Y > wild-type hERG > hERG-N629D. These findings support the hypothesis that C-type inactivation in hERG entails a widening of the extracellular entrance of the channel rather than a closure of the selectivity filter