Exploring Consumers’ Attitudes of Smart TV Related Privacy Risks

A number of privacy risks are inherent in the Smart TV ecosystem. It is likely that many consumers are unaware of these privacy risks. Alternatively, they might be aware but consider the privacy risks acceptable. In order to explore this, we carried out an online survey with 200 participants to determine whether consumers were aware of Smart TV related privacy risks. The responses revealed a meagre level of awareness. We also explored consumers’ attitudes towards specific Smart TV related privacy risks. We isolated a number of factors that influenced rankings and used these to develop awareness-raising messages. We tested these messages in an online survey with 155 participants. The main finding was that participants were generally unwilling to disconnect their Smart TVs from the Internet because they valued the Smart TV’s Internet functionality more than their privacy. We subsequently evaluated the awareness-raising messages in a second survey with 169 participants, framing the question differently. We asked participants to choose between five different Smart TV Internet connection options, two of which retained functionality but entailed expending time and/or effort to preserve privacy

Influence of some anticoagulants on dynamics of sugar concentration in the goats’ blood

Досліджено динаміку вмісту глюкози в крові кіз (у момент відбору проби, через 3, 6 та 24 години) під впливом чотирьох антикоагулянтів (розчини фториду та цитрату натрію, гепарину, комплек­сону III). При тривалому зберіганні проб крові відмічено зниження рівня глюкози, най­більше виражене при застосуванні цитрату натрію. Досліджено динаміку вмісту глюкози в крові кіз (у момент відбору проби, через 3, 6 та 24 години) під впливом чотирьох антикоагулянтів (розчини фториду та цитрату натрію, гепарину, комплек­сону III). При тривалому зберіганні проб крові відмічено зниження рівня глюкози, най­більше виражене при застосуванні цитрату натрію. Dynamics of the content in the goats’ blood (at the instant the sample was taken, and then after 3, 6 and 24 hours) under influence of 4 anticoagulants (sodium fluoride, sodium citrate, heparin and complexon III) were studied. Long term storage of the blood samples resulted in the glucose level decrease. It was mostly pronounced under the sodium citrate treatment.

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF LACTOBACILLUS PLANTARUM AGAINST PATHOGENIC AND FOOD SPOILAGE MICROORGANISMS: A REVIEW

One of the most important properties of probiotic bacteria is their antimicrobial activity against many species of microorganisms which could be useful to prevent food spoilage caused by certain sensitive bacteria and fungi as well as to control the speed of propagation of potentially pathogenic bacteria by probiotic application. Lactobacillus plantarum is considered one of the probiotic bacteria with broad-est spectrum of antibacterial activity which makes it useful in veterinary, human medicine and food industry. According to a number of studies Lactobacillus plantarum exerts inhibitory activity against ma¬ny Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria – Escherichia coli (including E. coli 0157:H7), Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Helicobacter pylori, Yersinia enterocolitica, Campylobacter jejuni, Lis-teria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella, Salmonella, Shigella, Bacillus, Clostridium, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus spp., etc. as well as a number of moulds and yeasts – Aspergillus, Fusa-rium, Mucor, Candida spp., etc. The main antibacterial compounds of Lactobacillus plantarum are the bacteriocins and organic acids whereas the antifungal compounds are the organic acids, hydroxy fatty acids and cyclic dipeptides. Because of the high antifungal activity of some L. plantarum strains against food spoilage microorganisms they can be used as effective biopreservatives in food industry. Also, some L. plantarum strains could be applied as supporting therapeutic agents in treatment of infections caused by the corresponding susceptible microorganisms

Privacy in crowdsourcing:a systematic review

The advent of crowdsourcing has brought with it multiple privacy challenges. For example, essential monitoring activities, while necessary and unavoidable, also potentially compromise contributor privacy. We conducted an extensive literature review of the research related to the privacy aspects of crowdsourcing. Our investigation revealed interesting gender differences and also differences in terms of individual perceptions. We conclude by suggesting a number of future research directions.</p

Concern for information privacy in South Africa: An empirical study using the OIPCI

Please follow the DOI link at the top of the record to access the published version of this article online on the website of the journal.The information privacy concern of consumers concerning the processing of their personal information by online organizations (websites) is investigated in this study by means of a quantitative approach. An overview of existing concerns about information privacy instruments are presented based on a literature review. The Online Information Privacy Concern Instrument (OIPCI) is used to study consumers’ expectations and experience regarding information privacy principles in order to identify their concerns about information privacy. The study was conducted in South Africa with a demographical representative sample of 1000 participants. Gaps were identified where consumers experienced that online organizations were not meeting their privacy expectations. This indicated that the regulatory requirements (in this case, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) are perceived as not being met. The results indicate that while consumers in South Africa have a high expectation for privacy, it is not met in practice. Corrective action and interventions are required from a government and online organization perspective.Women in Research Grant of UNISA.School of Computin

What About my Privacy, Habibi? Understanding Privacy Concerns and Perceptions of Users From Different Socioeconomic Groups in the Arab World

This paper contributes an in-depth understanding of privacy concerns and perceptions of Arab users. We report on the first comparison of privacy perceptions among (1) users from high socioeconomic groups in Arab countries (HSA), (2) users from medium to low socioeconomic groups in Arab countries (LSA), and (3) as a baseline, users from high socioeconomic groups in Germany (HSG). Our work is motivated by the fact that most research in privacy focused on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. This excludes a segment of the population whose cultural norms and socioeconomic status influence privacy perception and needs. We report on multiple novel findings and unexpected similarities and differences across the user groups. For example, shoulder surfing is more common across LSA and HSG, and defamation is a major threat in LSA. We discuss the implications of our findings on the design of privacy protection measures for investigated groups

Critical analysis of information security culture definitions

This article aims to advance the understanding of information security culture through a critical reflection on the wide-ranging definitions of information security culture in the literature. It uses the hermeneutic approach for conducting literature reviews. The review identifies 16 definitions of information security culture in the literature. Based on the analysis of these definitions, four different views of culture are distinguished. The shared values view highlights the set of cultural value patterns that are shared across the organization. An action-based view highlights the behaviors of individuals in the organization. A mental model view relates to the abstract view of the individual’s thinking on how information security culture must work. Finally, a problem-solving view emphasizes a combination of understanding from shared value-based and action-based views. The paper analyzes and presents the limitations of these four views of information security culture definitions

Soil Contamination Interpretation by the Use of Monitoring Data Analysis

The presented study deals with the interpretation of soil quality monitoring data using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal components analysis (PCA). Both statistical methods contributed to the correct data classification and projection of the surface (0–20 cm) and subsurface (20–40 cm) soil layers of 36 sampling sites in the region of Burgas, Bulgaria. Clustering of the variables led to formation of four significant clusters corresponding to possible sources defining the soil quality like agricultural activity, industrial impact, fertilizing, etc. Two major clusters were found to explain the sampling site locations according to soil composition—one cluster for coastal and mountain sites and another—for typical rural and industrial sites. Analogous results were obtained by the use of PCA. The advantage of the latter was the opportunity to offer more quantitative interpretation of the role of identified soil quality sources by the level of explained total variance. The score plots and the dendrogram of the sampling sites indicated a relative spatial homogeneity according to geographical location and soil layer depth. The high-risk areas and pollution profiles were detected and visualized using surface maps based on Kriging algorithm

Discovery of Inhibitors of Leishmania β-1,2-Mannosyltransferases Using a Click-Chemistry-Derived Guanosine Monophosphate Library

Leishmania spp. are a medically important group of protozoan parasites that synthesize a novel intracellular carbohydrate reserve polymer termed mannogen. Mannogen is a soluble homopolymer of β-1,2-linked mannose residues that accumulates in the major pathogenic stages in the sandfly vector and mammalian host. While several steps in mannogen biosynthesis have been defined, none of the enzymes have been isolated or characterized. We report the development of a simple assay for the GDP-mannose–dependent β-1,2-mannosyltransferases involved in mannogen synthesis. This assay utilizes octyl α-d-mannopyranoside to prime the formation of short mannogen oligomers up to 5 mannose residues. This assay was used to screen a focussed library of 44 GMP-triazole adducts for inhibitors. Several compounds provided effective inhibition of mannogen β-1,2-mannosyltransferases in a cell-free membrane preparation. This assay and inhibitor compounds will be useful for dissecting the role of different mannosyltransferases in regulating de novo biosynthesis and elongation reactions in mannogen metabolism

Calcium Regulation of EGF-Induced ERK5 Activation: Role of Lad1-MEKK2 Interaction

The ERK5 cascade is a MAPK pathway that transmits both mitogenic and stress signals, yet its mechanism of activation is not fully understood. Using intracellular calcium modifiers, we found that ERK5 activation by EGF is inhibited both by the depletion and elevation of intracellular calcium levels. This calcium effect was found to occur upstream of MEKK2, which is the MAP3K of the ERK5 cascade. Co-immunoprecipitation revealed that EGF increases MEKK2 binding to the adaptor protein Lad1, and this interaction was reduced by the intracellular calcium modifiers, indicating that a proper calcium concentration is required for the interactions and transmission of EGF signals to ERK5. In vitro binding assays revealed that the proper calcium concentration is required for a direct binding of MEKK2 to Lad1. The binding of these proteins is not affected by c-Src-mediated phosphorylation on Lad1, but slightly affects the Tyr phosphorylation of MEKK2, suggesting that the interaction with Lad1 is necessary for full Tyr phosphorylation of MEKK2. In addition, we found that changes in calcium levels affect the EGF-induced nuclear translocation of MEKK2 and thereby its effect on the nuclear ERK5 activity. Taken together, these findings suggest that calcium is required for EGF-induced ERK5 activation, and this effect is probably mediated by securing proper interaction of MEKK2 with the upstream adaptor protein Lad1