Characteristics of Mobile Payment Procedures

Companies are not going to invest into the development of innovative applications or services unless these can be charged for appropriately. Thus, the existence of standardized and widely accepted mobile payment procedures is crucial for successful business-to-customer mobile commerce. The acceptance of mobile payment procedures depends on costs, security and convenience issues. For the latter, it is important that a procedure can be used over the different payment scenarios mobile commerce, electronic commerce, stationary merchant and customer-to-customer. Current payment procedures can be categorized with strategic, participation and operational criteria, using the morphological method. The proposed scheme allows to unambiguously identify and characterize any given mobile payment procedure. The design of today's mobile payment procedures should less try to optimize on the future mobile commerce problems but focus on the ease of spreading in the electronic commerce setting as lead-in scenario.

Standardized Payment Procedures as Key Enabling Factor for Mobile Commerce

Companies are not going to invest into the development of innovative applications or services unless these can be charged for appropriately. Thus, the existence of standardized and widely accepted mobile payment procedures is crucial for successful business-to-customer mobile commerce. In this paper we reflect on the acceptance of mobile payment and examine the characteristics of current mobile payment procedures. The outcomes of the paper are a categorization of current mobile payment procedures with strategic, participation and operational criteria and, based on these results, the derivation of the five mobile payment standard types prepaid, mobile money, conventional settlement, premium rate number and dual-card. Finally, a prospect is given to possible further development of mobile payment procedures in the direction of an integrative universal mobile payment system (UMPS).

Collaborating neuroscience online: The case of the Human Brain Project forum

This paper analyzes user interactions on the public-access online forum of the Human Brain Project (HBP), a major European Union-funded neuroscience research initiative, to understand the utility of the Forum for collaborative problem solving. We construct novel data using discussion forum posts and detailed user profiles on the HBP Forum. We find that HBP Forum utilization is comparable to that of a leading general-interest coding platform, and that online usage metrics quickly recovered after an initial Covid-19-related dip. Regression results show that user interactions on the Forum are more active for questions on programming and in HBP core areas. Further, Cox proportional hazard analyses show that such problems are solved faster. Forum posts with users from different countries tend to be discussed more actively but solved slower. Higher shares of administrator support tend to solve problems faster. There are no clear patterns regarding gender and seniority. Our results suggest that building novel collaborative forums can support researchers working on complex topics in challenging times

Health monitoring and medicinal plant use by bonobos at LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Infectious diseases are a major threat to the survival and fitness of all great ape species. Because of their close genetic relatedness, great apes share human susceptibility to a variety of viral, bacterial and parasitic infections. In the context of a growing human population and increasing habitat encroachment, pathogen transmission is of great concern for both humans and great apes. Therefore, monitoring great ape health status is key to understanding pathogen-host dynamics. Here, I studied two communities of habituated bonobos (Pan paniscus) at the LuiKotale field site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between December 2018 and July 2020. I first looked at health impairments and how they influence feeding behaviour and food choice in bonobos. I then investigated the consumption of Manniophyton fulvum leaves and stem bark by bonobos, and its association with parasite presence in faeces. Lastly, I measured individual urinary neopterin levels as a marker for the activation of cellular immunity, and studied how urinary neopterin varied with season, individual age, sex, reproductive status, and the presence of visual sickness symptoms. I found the presence of health impairments predicted neither a change in feeding behaviour nor an increased consumption of medicinal plant candidates. I hypothesized that bonobos used medicinal plant candidates as prophylaxis rather than cures. The consumption of M. fulvum leaves and stem bark was not associated with the presence of strongyle worms and cestode proglottids in faeces. My results suggest alternative triggers of the consumption of M. fulvum, including intestinal pain and discomfort. Finally, I found urinary neopterin levels increased with the presence of respiratory symptoms and fluctuated over a one-year period. I discussed the possible link to malaria and other infectious diseases in bonobo’s neopterin variation. This study highlights the extent of medicinal plant use by bonobos at LuiKotale and sheds light on ecoimmunological aspects of the species. Further research is needed to understand the nature of diseases and infections carried by and affecting bonobos in order to better understand how individuals use medicinal plant candidates to maintain and restore health in the wild

Experimentelle Überprüfung psychophysiologischer Prozesse im EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Ein Beitrag zur psychotherapeutischen Grundlagenforschung.

Ungeachtet der zunehmenden Verbreitung und der empirisch belegten Effizienz von EMDR bei der Behandlung der Posttraumatischen Belastungsstoerung ist der Wirkmechanismus der bilateralen Stimulation, der ebenso zentralen wie spezifischen Komponente dieser Therapieform, trotz einer Vielzahl veroeffentlichter Thesen und Hypothesen nach wie vor ungeklaert. Auf der Basis einer in Umfang und Gruendlichkeit bisher einmaligen Analyse der veroeffentlichten Vorstellungen zur Wirkweise der bilateralen Stimulation im EMDR und des diesbezueglichen Forschungsstandes wurden die psychophysiologischen Hypothesen der Orientierungs- und Entspannungsreaktion empirisch getestet, indem erstmals die vegetative Wirkung verschiedener Frequenzen der bilateralen Stimulation waehrend belastender autobiographischer Erinnerungen experimentell erforscht wurde. In einem Messwiederholungsdesign wurden bei 42 Studentinnen waehrend der Erinnerung an belastende Lebensereignisse jeweils sieben 24-sekuendige Phasen mit schnellen Augenbewegungen von 1 Hz und langsamen Augenbewegungen von 0.3 Hz sowie Augenfixierung durchgefuehrt. Die Abfolge der Bedingungen wurde permutiert. Elektrokardiogramm, Elektrookulogramm (EOG), elektrodermale Aktivitaet und distale Pulsdruckkurve wurden kontinuierlich aufgezeichnet. Hautleitfaehigkeitsniveau, Herzrate, Herzratenvariabilitaet (RMSSD) und Pulswellenlaufzeit wurden graphisch sowie inferenzstatistisch ausgewertet. Das EOG diente der Kontrolle der Augenbewegungen. Als Kontrollvariable wurde weiterhin die durch die jeweilige Erinnerung empfundene Belastung erhoben. Zusaetzlich bewerteten die Probandinnen ihre grundsaetzliche posttraumatische Belastung anhand einer deutschen Uebersetzung der revidierten Impact of Event Scale. Die visuelle Stimulation fuehrte zu einer eindeutigen Entspannungsreaktion in allen Abhaengigen Variablen, welche auf eine sympathische Deaktivierung bei gleichzeitiger parasympathischer Aktivierung hindeutete (Abnahme der Hautleitfaehigkeit und der Herzrate sowie Zunahme des RMSSD und der Pulswellenlaufzeit). Die drei Stimulationsbedingungen (schnelle Augenbewegungen, langsame Augenbewegungen sowie Augenfixierung) waren dabei gleichermaßen wirksam. Das Ergebnis spricht, insbesondere wenn es in Folgestudien repliziert werden kann, gegen die Gueltigkeit der Hypothese der Orientierungsreaktion. Die nachgewiesene Wirksamkeit der Augenfixierung deutet zudem auf die Notwendigkeit einer Weiterentwicklung der theoretischen Modelle zur Wirkweise der bilateralen Stimulation im EMDR hin. Unter Beruecksichtigung der eigenen Ergebnisse wird ein Modell auf Basis der dualen Aufmerksamkeit und der Barorezeptorentheorie von Lacey vorgeschlagen

Improved Sensitivity of Allergen Detection by Immunoaffinity LC-MS/MS Using Ovalbumin as a Case Study

Vitamin D deficiency due to, e.g., nutritional and life style reasons is a health concern that is gaining increasing attention over the last two decades. Vitamin D3, the most common isoform of vitamin D, is only available in food derived from animal sources. However, mushrooms and yeast are rich in ergosterol. This compound can be converted into vitamin D2 by UV-light, and therefore act as a precursor for vitamin D. Vitamin D2 from UV-irradiated mushrooms has become an alternative source of vitamin D, especially for persons pursuing a vegan diet. UV-irradiated baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for the production of fortified yeast-leavened bread and baked goods was approved as a Novel Food Ingredient in the European Union, according to Regulation (EC) No. 258/97. The Scientific Opinion provided by the European Food Safety Authority Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition, and Allergies has assessed this Novel Food Ingredient as safe under the intended nutritional use. However, recent findings on the formation of side products during UV-irradiation, e.g., the photoproducts tachysterol and lumisterol which are compounds with no adequate risk assessment performed, have only been marginally considered for this EFSA opinion. Furthermore, proceedings in analytics can provide additional insights, which might open up new perspectives, also regarding the bioavailability and potential health benefits of vitamin D-fortified mushrooms and yeast. Therefore, this review is intended to give an overview on the current status of UV irradiation in mushrooms and yeast in general and provide a detailed assessment on the potential health effects of UV-irradiated baker’s yeast

Optically trapped Feshbach molecules of fermionic 161Dy and 40K

We report on the preparation of a pure ultracold sample of bosonic DyK Feshbach molecules, which are composed of the fermionic isotopes 161Dy and 40K. Employing a magnetic sweep across a resonance located near 7.3 G, we produce up to 5000 molecules at a temperature of about 50 nK. For purification from the remaining atoms, we apply a Stern-Gerlach technique based on magnetic levitation of the molecules in a very weak optical dipole trap. With the trapped molecules we finally reach a high phase-space density of about 0.1. We measure the magnetic field dependence of the molecular binding energy and the magnetic moment, refining our knowledge of the resonance parameters. We also demonstrate a peculiar anisotropic expansion effect observed when the molecules are released from the trap and expand freely in the magnetic levitation field. Moreover, we identify an important lifetime limitation that is imposed by the 1064-nm infrared trap light itself and not by inelastic collisions. The light-induced decay rate is found to be proportional to the trap light intensity and the closed-channel fraction of the Feshbach molecule. These observations suggest a one-photon coupling to electronically excited states to limit the lifetime and point to the prospect of loss suppression by optimizing the wavelength of the trapping light. Our results represent important insights and experimental steps on the way to achieve quantum-degenerate samples of DyK molecules and novel superfluids based on mass-imbalanced fermion mixtures

Standardized Payment Procedures as Key Enabling Factor for Mobile Commerce

Companies are not going to invest into the development of innovative applications or services unless these can be charged for appropriately. Thus, the existence of standardized and widely accepted mobile payment procedures is crucial for successful business-to-customer mobile commerce. In this paper we reflect on the acceptance of mobile payment and examine the characteristics of current mobile payment procedures. The outcomes of the paper are a categorization of current mobile payment procedures with strategic, participation and operational criteria and, based on these results, the derivation of the five mobile payment standard types prepaid, mobile money, conventional settlement, premium rate number and dual-card. Finally, a prospect is given to possible further development of mobile payment procedures in the direction of an integrative universal mobile payment system (UMPS)