The Monkey, the Ant, and the Elephant:Addressing Safety in Smart Spaces

Smart spaces deliver digital services to optimize space use and enhance user experience. The impact of ill-programmed applications in such spaces goes beyond loss of data or a computer crash; there is the potential risk of physical harm to the space and its users. Ensuring safety in this type of cyberphysical system is critically important

The Crisis of World Order and the Constitutive Regime of the International System

Statespersons, scholars, and commentators of every political persuasion agree that we are currently witnessing a crisis of world order. It is widely assumed that the so-called Liberal World Order that the United States constructed in the post-World War II years is collapsing. This Article interrogates and challenges this claim. This Article examines what it means to speak of world order. It argues that to understand the notion of world order, it is necessary to investigate the normative foundations of the international system. Therefore, this Article develops a theoretical construct that I call the Constitutive Regime of the International System to conceptualize the notion of world order. It argues that the international system is predicated on and governed by a Constitutive Regime that embodies a grand worldview-i.e., a theory of world order-that prescribes policies, practices, and rules of international law that are considered necessary for maintaining global order and stability. This regime, which is designed by the Great Powers of each historical epoch, shapes international and domestic politics. It determines the criteria and preconditions of statehood, thereby affecting how societies are organized and governed. It promotes certain methods for the conduct of world politics, and it establishes mechanisms for international lawmaking, thus providing the constitutive foundation of international law. A crisis of world order occurs when these basic normative assumptions about the nature of the international system and the processes of global governance are challenged. Having provided a conceptual framework for understanding the notion of world order, this Article then challenges the claim that the post-World War II Liberal World Order is currently in a period of crisis. It argues that, beginning in the 1970s, the Liberal World Order of the post-World War II era was replaced by a neoliberal world order-in other words, a neoliberal Constitutive Regime. This Article shows how this neoliberal Constitutive Regime shaped virtually every aspect of world politics and provided the normative foundation ofglobalization during the closing decades of the twentieth century. This Article concludes with a discussion of the origins of the current crisis of world order and a reflection on the future of world order in an era of increased Great Power competition

Effect of Culturing Time and Hormonal Combinations on Organogenesis of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L., CV. Khnazi) In Vitro

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) monocotyledon dioecious tree is one of the most important fruit crop trees in the Arabian Gulf region in general and in the UAE in particular. Date palm is propagated sexually by seeds or vegetative by offshoots. Seed propagation is not appropriate for commercial production because of the high genetic heterozygosity, which resulted in not true-to-type male and female seedlings. The vegetative propagation utilizing offshoots is slow and inefficient for rapidly growing demands of the date industry. Therefore, it seems essential to use plant tissue culture techniques for propagating and producing date palms. The present study included three experiments that were conducted through three successive seasons (1996- 1998). The first experiment included the effect of 18 different media developed from various combinations of different auxin and concentrations, in addition to the control (no hormones at all), on shoot bud generation from shoot tip of Khnazi cultivar. Maximum percentage of explants formed bud generative tissue were induced by the addition of 1.6mg/l lAA or 0.4mg/l of both lAA and NAA to the initiation medium. Maximum number of differentiated buds per bud generative tissue resulted from the addition of 0.8 mg/l lAA to initiation medium. The initiation medium contained Murashige and Skoog inorganic salts and supplemented with 100mg/l myo-inositol, 0.5mg/l nicotinic acid, 0.5 mg/l pyridoxine, 0.1 mg/l thiamine-HCI, 2 mg/l Glycine, 40mg/l adenine sulfate, 2g/l polyvinile pyrolidon (PVP 40000), 3mg/l activated charcoal, and 40mg/l sucrose. In the second experiment, 23 different media were developed from the combinations of different cytokines and concentrations. Maximum percentage of explants formed bud generative tissue was induced by the addition of 3.2 mg/l 2iP or 1.6 mg/l BAP. Maximum number of generated buds per explants was induced by the addition of 3.2 mg/l 2iP to initiation medium. Both auxins and cytokines proved to be essential for the induction of bud generative tissue and for differentiation of shoot buds from cultured explants. In the third experiment, shoot tips of the tested cultivar were cultured monthly beginning from September 5, and continued for successive 12 months, on two different types of medium. Maximum percentage of explants formed bud generative tissue was attained during spring season, especially in March. Similarly, maximum number of buds was produced during the spring, and in particular at the month of April regardless of medium types. The hot environment in summer inhibited the formation bud generative tissues, and the differentiation of shoot bud per generative tissue

Self-Medication in University Students from the City of Mansoura, Egypt

Background. Self-medication is a common practice in developed and developing countries. Objectives. To explore the prevalence of self-medication practices among university students, probable reasons, symptoms requiring self-medication, and sources of advice. Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Mansoura University, Egypt, and included 1st and last year students of both medical and nonmedical faculties. Results. Prevalence of self-medication was 62.9%. Younger age, female, medical, and ever-married students and those having home pharmacy tended to self-medicate more than their peers with significant difference between them. Being medical student, being from urban area, having good current health condition, being careless about health, and having drugs stored at home pharmacy were independently associated with the likelihood of self-medicating. Conclusion. Prevalence of self-medication among university students is high which constitutes a health problem that needs intervention

IoTility:Architectural Requirements for Enabling Health IoT Ecosystems

The increasing ubiquity of the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to drastically alter the way healthcare systems are utilized at home or in a care environment. Smart things offer new ways to assist in general patient wellness, such as promoting an active and healthy lifestyle and simplifying treatment management. We believe smart health things bring new requirements not typically addressed in traditional IoT systems, and that an architecture targeting these devices must address such requirements to fully utilize their potential and safe usage. We believe such an architecture will help improve adoption and efficacy, closing gaps between the variety of emerging health IoT systems. In this paper, we present a number of requirements we consider integral to the continued expansion of the digital health IoT ecosystem (Health IoT). We consider the current landscape of IoT in relation to these requirements and present solutions that address two pressing requirements: 1) democratizing mobile health apps (giving users control and ownership over their app and data), and 2) making mobile apps act and behave like any other thing in an IoT. We present an implementation and evaluation of these Health IoT requirements to show how health-specific solutions can drive and influence the design of more generalized IoT architectures

Effect of Fermentation with Streptococcus thermophilus Strains on In Vitro Gastro-Intestinal Digestion of Whey Protein Concentrates

Three Streptococcus thermophilus strains, namely RBC6, RBC20, and RBN16, were proven to release bioactive peptides during whey protein concentrate (WPC) fermentation, resulting in WPC hydrolysates with biological activities. However, these bioactive peptides can break down during gastro-intestinal digestion (GID), hindering the health-promoting effect of fermented WPC hydrolysates in vivo. In this work, the effect of simulated GID on three WPC hydrolysates fermented with S. thermophilus strains, as well as on unfermented WPC was studied in terms of protein hydrolysis, biological activities, and peptidomics profiles, respectively. In general, WPC fermentation enhanced protein hydrolysis compared to unfermented WPC. After in vitro GID, WPC fermented with S. thermophilus RBC20 showed the highest antioxidant activity, whereas WPC fermented with strain RBC06 displayed the highest angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)- and dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV)-inhibitory activities. Peptidomics analysis revealed that all digested WPC samples were highly similar to each other in peptide profiles, and 85% of the 46 identified bioactive peptides were shared among fermented and unfermented samples. However, semi-quantitative analysis linked the observed differences in biological activities among the samples to differences in the amount of bioactive peptides. The anti-hypertensive peptides VPP and IPP, as well as the DPP-IV-inhibitory peptide APFPE, were quantified. In conclusion, WPC fermentation with S. thermophilus positively impacted protein hydrolysis and bioactive peptide release during GID

The Unruly World of Tax: A Proposal for an International Tax Cooperation Forum

International cooperation in tax policy is deeply fractured. Inconsistencies, loopholes, and ineffective mechanisms—which could be avoided if real collaboration among countries existed—have created significant inefficiency losses for decades. This Article focuses on the institutional infrastructure underlying international cooperation in tax issues and argues that the current forums in which such cooperation is encouraged do not provide an adequate platform in which countries with similar interests can effectively make a collaborative effort. To facilitate cooperation, this Article proposes to create a new institution currently missing from the international tax policy-setting arena: an informal forum for coordination among countries that share similar interests in tax policy, inspired by the model of “Like Minded Groups” in international organizations. This forum will enable countries that share similar interests to cooperate and reach understandings about necessary policy adaptations. We identify two major projects that this forum could promote—efforts to curtail tax evasion and efforts to harmonize various aspects of tax policy. We argue that this model might have significant advantages in promoting cooperation, reducing the “competitiveness” threat, advocating coordinated policies, and overcoming external and domestic pressures. In light of the current challenges in the field of tax policy, and the difficulties in forming international cooperation within the current institutional framework, the proposed model is worth serious discussion and consideration

Wave propagation over a beach within a nonlinear theory

Wave propagation over a beach is considered within a nonlinear theory in shallow water. Lagrangian coordinates are used to describe the problem. The solution is expanded in double series involving a small parameter and local oscillations. Two cases are treated: The beach with appreciable inclination on the horizontal (cliff) and the beach of small inclination. We show that finite solutions are obtained, in contrast to the linear theory which involves a logarithmic singularity at the shoreline. For the cliff, it is shown that local oscillations do not appear in the first two orders of approximation, and the incident wave is totally reflected without loss of energy at this order of approximation. The case of an incident wave on the beach is considered. The deformation of this wave is investigated and explicit formulae are obtained for the reflected wave and for the local oscillations, to shed light on the energy transfer due to interaction with the beach