Designing the social Internet of Things

Copyright © 2017 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM). What role do people have in the Internet of Things? Compared to the impressive body of research that is currently tackling the technical issues of the Internet of Things, social aspects of agency, engagement, participation, and ethics, are receiving less attention. The goal of this 'Designing the Social Internet of Things' workshop is to contribute by shedding light on these aspects. We invite prospective participants to take a humanistic standpoint, explore people's relations with 'things' first, and then build on such relations so as to support socially relevant goals of engagement, relatedness, participation, and creativity

A User-Centered Evaluation of a University Website

Abstract-Usability of a website used to be of very little or no weight at all for the company or academe it represents. With the changing time and increase of Internet users, usability is now a major consideration as website, though virtual, plays an important role for the company or university it represents. This study illustrates the process of assessing a university website. The value of doing usability testing and how it enriches the user experience is presented. Learning about the user and their satisfaction in all aspects of the website is learned through the testing process. A fivephased usability testing methodology is discussed that resulted into qualitative and quantitative data for the researchers study. These data were transformed into information through analysis in accordance to the type of data collected. These findings were then interpreted into concrete website usability assessment. The result showed that the methodology chosen and the test plan it produced was able to output website usability problems that can help assess and greatly improve a university website's usability. Lastly, study recommendations were presented being that usability should be a never ending endeavor for a userconcerned university. Index Terms-human computer interaction, user-centered evaluation, usability testing, user satisfaction, web usability, user-centered desig

Seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 and its clinical effect among anaemic SCA patients in Northeastern Nigeria

ABSTRACT Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is a globally widespread genetic disorder affecting 5% of the world's over 6 billion people. Parvovirus infection and the resulting aplastic crisis is a recognised complication in individuals with SCA. Aplastic crisis increases the need for blood transfusion and its attendant risk of Transfusion Transmissible Infection (TTI). Hence there is a vicious cycle in which Parvovirus B19 causes aplastic crisis which in turn causes increased transfusion need; and transfusion increases risk of transfusion transmissible infection in which parvovirus B19 is included in certain parts of the world. Sickle cell anaemia is associated with foetal death and infection with parvovirus B19 increases the risk to early mortality. The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 among SCA and compare with that of controls in the study area. Furthermore clinical and laboratory profile of subjects were analysed to identify possible correlation with parvovirus B19 seropositivity and explore the possibility of involvement of white cell and platelets. A total of 90 subjects comprising 45 consecutive SCA case subjects and 45 age-and sex-matched non SCA controls were studied in a cross sectional comparative study. Ten millilitres of blood was drawn from the antecubital fossa of each subject after obtaining informed consent. The 10mls of blood was divided into two aliquots, 4.5 mls was added into EDTA anticoagulated bottle and was used for basic complete blood count (CBC), while the remaining 5mls was added into a plain specimen container allowed to clot and serum obtained to test for anti-parvovirus B19 IgG and IgM using an immunochromatography based technique specifically BIOCARD TM Parvo B19 diagnostic test kit. There was male preponderance in the study. The SCA subjects comprised 26 males and 19 females (male to female ratio = 1.4:1), while the non-SCA controls comprised 25 males and 20 females (male to female ratio 1.3:1).. The analysis of anti-parvovirus B19 IgG antibody revealed a prevalence of 23.3% among SCA cases with 18.9% among controls. The haematological profile is not affected by IgG seropositivity. However pregnancy outcome revealed that the total number of stillbirths is 12 among IgG seropositive SCA cases which is higher than the 6 encountered in IgG seronegative SCA subjects; the difference is statistically significant (p=0.04)

Alarming rates of virological failure and HIV-1 drug resistance amongst adolescents living with perinatal HIV in both urban and rural settings: evidence from the EDCTP READY-study in Cameroon

Objectives: Adolescents living with perinatal HIV infection (ALPHI) experience persistently high mortality rates, particularly in resource-limited settings. It is therefore clinically important for us to understand the therapeutic response, acquired HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) and associated factors among ALPHI, according to geographical location. Methods: A study was conducted among consenting ALPHI in two urban and two rural health facilities in the Centre Region of Cameroon. World Health Organization (WHO) clinical staging, self-reported adherence, HIVDR early warning indicators (EWIs), immunological status (CD4 count) and plasma viral load (VL) were assessed. For those experiencing virological failure (VF, VL ≥ 1000 copies/mL), HIVDR testing was performed and interpreted using the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database v.8.9-1. Results: Of the 270 participants, most were on nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based regimens (61.7% urban vs. 82.2% rural), and about one-third were poorly adherent (30.1% vs. 35.1%). Clinical failure rates (WHO-stage III/IV) in both settings were < 15%. In urban settings, the immunological failure (IF) rate (CD4  < 250 cells/μL) was 15.8%, statistically associated with late adolescence, female gender and poor adherence. The VF rate was 34.2%, statistically associated with poor adherence and NNRTI-based antiretroviral therapy. In the rural context, the IF rate was 26.9% and the VF rate was 52.7%, both statistically associated with advanced clinical stages. HIVDR rate was over 90% in both settings. EWIs were delayed drug pick-up, drug stock-outs and suboptimal viral suppression. Conclusions: Poor adherence, late adolescent age, female gender and advanced clinical staging worsen IF. The VF rate is high and consistent with the presence of HIVDR in both settings, driven by poor adherence, NNRTI-based regimen and advanced clinical staging

Dendritic cell density and activation status in human breast cancer – CD1a, CMRF-44, CMRF-56 and CD-83 expression

Low CD1a-positive putative dendritic cell numbers in human breast cancer has recently been described and may explain the apparent ‘poor immunogenicity’ previously reported in breast cancer. Little attention has been given to dendritic cell activation within the tumour microenvironment, which is another reason why the in-situ immune response may be severely deficient. We have therefore examined CD1a expression as a marker for dendritic cells, together with CMRF-44 and -56 as markers of dendritic cell activation status, in 40 human breast cancers. The results demonstrate few or no CD1a-positive putative dendritic cells and minimal or no expression of the dendritic cell activation markers. Both dendritic cell number and dendritic cell activation appear substantially deficient in human breast cancers, regardless of tumour histological grade

CD1a-positive infiltrating-dendritic cell density and 5-year survival from human breast cancer

© Churchill LivingstoneInfiltrating CD1a+ dendritic cells (DCs) have been associated with increased survival in a number of human cancers. This study investigated DC infiltration within breast cancers and the association with survival. Classical established prognostic factors, of tumour size, lymph node status, histological grade, lympho-vascular invasion, the KI-67 (MIB-1) fraction and the Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) were also compared. A total of 48 breast cancer patients were followed from the time of surgery and CD1a density analysis for 5 years or until death. Our data set validated previous studies, which show a relationship between survival and the NPI (P<0.001), tumour size (P<0.01) and lymph node status (P<0.05). Although more patients were alive at the 5-year time point in the group with higher CD1a DC density than the lower CD1a DC group, this failed to reach statistical significance at the P=0.05 level. Analysis at 10 years postsurgery is required to investigate the association further.B.J.Coventry and J. Morto

FasL is more frequently expressed in liver metastases of colorectal cancer than in matched primary carcinomas

Colorectal carcinoma cells have recently been shown to express Fas ligand (FasL). This ligand could allow the tumour cells to evade activated tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) by inducing their apoptosis and would thus promote tumour survival and possibly metastasis formation. To test this hypothesis in vivo we analysed the expression of FasL mRNA and protein in paired tissue samples of normal colonic mucosa (N), primary colorectal carcinomas (T) and their metastases (M) from a total of 21 patients by four different methods. Additionally, the presence and activation status of infiltrating lymphocytes, which might contribute to the total amount of FasL in the tissue, was determined by semiquantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) in the same samples. The frequency of FasL detection was 30–40% in T and was 60–100% in M, depending on the sensitivity of the method. Simultaneously, the amount of CD25 mRNA, used as a measure of the number of activated TILs, was in 90% of patients lower in M than in T. The increased frequency of FasL detection in liver metastases was therefore not due to the presence of activated TILs. We conclude that metastasizing subpopulations of colorectal tumour cells express FasL more frequently than the primary carcinomas and may be able to eliminate activated TILs in vivo via Fas/FasL-induced apoptosis or other hitherto unknown mechanisms. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig