A web ontologies framework for digital rights management

In order to improve the management of copyright in the Internet, known as Digital Rights Management, there is the need for a shared language for copyright representation. Current approaches are based on purely syntactic solutions, i.e. a grammar that defines a rights expression language. These languages are difficult to put into practise due to the lack of explicit semantics that facilitate its implementation. Moreover, they are simple from the legal point of view because they are intended just to model the usage licenses granted by content providers to end-users. Thus, they ignore the copyright framework that lies behind and the whole value chain from creators to end-users. Our proposal is to use a semantic approach based on semantic web ontologies. We detail the development of a copyright ontology in order to put this approach into practice. It models the copyright core concepts for creation, rights and the basic kinds of actions that operate on content. Altogether, it allows building a copyright framework for the complete value chain. The set of actions operating on content are our smaller building blocks in order to cope with the complexity of copyright value chains and statements and, at the same time, guarantee a high level of interoperability and evolvability. The resulting copyright modelling framework is flexible and complete enough to model many copyright scenarios, not just those related to the economic exploitation of content. The ontology also includes moral rights, so it is possible to model this kind of situations as it is shown in the included example model for a withdrawal scenario. Finally, the ontology design and the selection of tools result in a straightforward implementation. Description Logic reasoners are used for license checking and retrieval. Rights are modelled as classes of actions, action patterns are modelled also as classes and the same is done for concrete actions. Then, to check if some right or license grants an action is reduced to check for class subsumption, which is a direct functionality of these reasoners.

Beyond the net generation debate: A comparison of digital learners in face-to-face and virtual universities

In the last decade, an important debate has arisen about the characteristics of today"s students due to their intensive experience as users of ICT. The main belief is that frequent use of technologies in everyday life implies that competent users are able to transfer their digital skills to learning activities. However, empirical studies developed in different countries reveal similar results suggesting that the"digital native" label does not provide evidence of a better use of technology to support learning. The debate has to go beyond the characteristics of the new generation and focus on the implications of being a learner in a digitalised world. This paper is based on the hypothesis that the use of technology to support learning is not related to whether a student belongs to the Net Generation, but that it is mainly influenced by the teaching model. The study compares behaviour and preferences towards ICT use in two groups of university students: face-to-face students and online students. A questionnaire was applied to a sample of students from five universities with different characteristics (one offers online education and four offer face-to-face education with LMS teaching support). Findings suggest that although access to and use of ICT is widespread, the influence of teaching methodology is very decisive. For academic purposes, students seem to respond to the requirements of their courses, programmes, and universities. There is a clear relationship between students" perception of usefulness regarding certain ICT resources and their teachers" suggested uses of technologies. The most highly rated technologies correspond with those proposed by teachers. The study shows that the educational model (face-to-face or online) has a stronger influence on students" perception of usefulness regarding ICT support for learning than the fact of being a digital native.

Incidence and consequence of major bleeding in primary percutaneous intervention for ST-elevation myocardial infarction in the era of radial access: an analysis of the international randomized Acute myocardial infarction Treated with primary angioplasty and intravenous enoxaparin Or unfractionated heparin to Lower ischemic and bleeding events at short- and Long-term follow-up trial.

AIMS: The aims of the study are to compare the outcome with and without major bleeding and to identify the independent correlates of major bleeding complications and mortality in patients described in the ATOLL study. METHODS: The ATOLL study included 910 patients randomly assigned to either 0.5 mg/kg intravenous enoxaparin or unfractionated heparin before primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Incidence of major bleeding and ischemic end points was assessed at 1 month, and mortality, at 1 and 6 months. Patients with and without major bleeding complication were compared. A multivariate model of bleeding complications at 1 month and mortality at 6 months was realized. Intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses were performed. RESULTS: The most frequent bleeding site appears to be the gastrointestinal tract. Age >75 years, cardiac arrest, and the use of insulin or >1 heparin emerged as independent correlates of major bleeding at 1 month. Patients presenting with major bleeding had significantly higher rates of adverse ischemic complications. Mortality at 6 months was higher in bleeders. Major bleeding was found to be one of the independent correlates of 6-month mortality. The addition or mixing of several anticoagulant drugs was an independent factor of major bleeding despite the predominant use of radial access. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that major bleeding is independently associated with poor outcome, increasing ischemic events, and mortality in primary percutaneous coronary intervention performed mostly with radial access.

Impact of platelet rich plasma and adipose stem cells on lymphangiogenesis in a murine tail lymphedema model.

BACKGROUND: Lymphedema is an underdiagnosed pathology which in industrialized countries mainly affects cancer patients that underwent lymph node dissection and/or radiation. Currently no effective therapy is available so that patients' life quality is compromised by swellings of the concerned body region. This unfortunate condition is associated with body imbalance and subsequent osteochondral deformations and impaired function as well as with an increased risk of potentially life threatening soft tissue infections. METHODS: The effects of PRP and ASC on angiogenesis (anti-CD31 staining), microcirculation (Laser Doppler Imaging), lymphangiogenesis (anti-LYVE1 staining), microvascular architecture (corrosion casting) and wound healing (digital planimetry) are studied in a murine tail lymphedema model. RESULTS: Wounds treated by PRP and ASC healed faster and showed a significantly increased epithelialization mainly from the proximal wound margin. The application of PRP induced a significantly increased lymphangiogenesis while the application of ASC did not induce any significant change in this regard. CONCLUSIONS: PRP and ASC affect lymphangiogenesis and lymphedema development and might represent a promising approach to improve regeneration of lymphatic vessels, restore disrupted lymphatic circulation and treat or prevent lymphedema alone or in combination with currently available lymphedema therapies.

A System-Level Simulation Model for a Protocol Processor

As the development of integrated circuit technology continues to follow Moore’s law the complexity of circuits increases exponentially. Traditional hardware description languages such as VHDL and Verilog are no longer powerful enough to cope with this level of complexity and do not provide facilities for hardware/software codesign. Languages such as SystemC are intended to solve these problems by combining the powerful expression of high level programming languages and hardware oriented facilities of hardware description languages. To fully replace older languages in the desing flow of digital systems SystemC should also be synthesizable. The devices required by modern high speed networks often share the same tight constraints for e.g. size, power consumption and price with embedded systems but have also very demanding real time and quality of service requirements that are difficult to satisfy with general purpose processors. Dedicated hardware blocks of an application specific instruction set processor are one way to combine fast processing speed, energy efficiency, flexibility and relatively low time-to-market. Common features can be identified in the network processing domain making it possible to develop specialized but configurable processor architectures. One such architecture is the TACO which is based on transport triggered architecture. The architecture offers a high degree of parallelism and modularity and greatly simplified instruction decoding. For this M.Sc.(Tech) thesis, a simulation environment for the TACO architecture was developed with SystemC 2.2 using an old version written with SystemC 1.0 as a starting point. The environment enables rapid design space exploration by providing facilities for hw/sw codesign and simulation and an extendable library of automatically configured reusable hardware blocks. Other topics that are covered are the differences between SystemC 1.0 and 2.2 from the viewpoint of hardware modeling, and compilation of a SystemC model into synthesizable VHDL with Celoxica Agility SystemC Compiler. A simulation model for a processor for TCP/IP packet validation was designed and tested as a test case for the environment.

Monte Carlo derivation of filtered tungsten anode X-ray spectra for dose computation in digital mammography

Abstract Objective: Derive filtered tungsten X-ray spectra used in digital mammography systems by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Materials and Methods: Filtered spectra for rhodium filter were obtained for tube potentials between 26 and 32 kV. The half-value layer (HVL) of simulated filtered spectra were compared with those obtained experimentally with a solid state detector Unfors model 8202031-H Xi R/F & MAM Detector Platinum and 8201023-C Xi Base unit Platinum Plus w mAs in a Hologic Selenia Dimensions system using a direct radiography mode. Results: Calculated HVL values showed good agreement as compared with those obtained experimentally. The greatest relative difference between the Monte Carlo calculated HVL values and experimental HVL values was 4%. Conclusion: The results show that the filtered tungsten anode X-ray spectra and the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code can be used for mean glandular dose determination in mammography.

Factors Affecting Consumer’s Illicit Purchase of Copyrighted Digital Work

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology has revolutionized file exchange activities besides enhancing processing power distribution. As such, this technology which is nowadays made freely available to all internet users also imposes a threat as it enables the illegal distribution of copyrighted digital work. P2P technology continuously evolves in a greater pace than copyright legislation, leading to compatibility gaps between the applicability of copyright law and the illicit file sharing and downloading. Such issues give high incentives to consumers to practise piracy using P2P systems with a low perception of risk towards prosecution, leading to substantial losses for copyright owners. This study focuses on developing insights for content owners on consumer behaviour towards piracy in Finland, where quantitative analyses are assessed using a data set based on a survey conducted by the Helsinki Institute for IT. The research approach investigates the significance of three fundamental areas in relation to evaluate consumer behaviour as: environmental-related factors, innovation-related factors and consumer-related. each of these are integrates concepts derived in previous theoretical models such as the technology acceptance model, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behaviour, the issue-risk-judgement model and the Hunt & Vitell’s model.

L'hospital de Santa Caterina de Girona: un model de racionalització de la caritat (de mitjan segle XIV al segle XV)

Es presenta el dibuix d’un centre assistencial que ha crescut i canviat amb la seva ciutat: ahir a la vora de l’Onyar, avui a tocar de la Gran Via i demà a Salt, l’hospital encara es mostra lligat a les necessitats socials d’aquells qui li donen raó de ser, els ciutadans

Digital learner portfolio as a tool for inovating assessment in the European Higher Education Area

The present article comes from a doctoral thesis that turns on digital learner portfolio, which is an innovating methodology from the perspective of European Higher Education Area. First, the educative concept of eportfolio is described in the sense of its procedure and its structure, by means of the technological support of a platform of virtual campus. Second, it is shown the pedagogical model of an eportfolio that adapts subjects with an instrumental character to one organization based on tasks and reflections. This design of virtual learning environment is based on a teaching- learning methodology sustained in the activity of the student, which tries to give support to the management of his or her own process of learning and assessment. Finally, the article illustrates the experience of implementation of the first digital learner portfolios in the University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with the objective of reflecting about the pedagogical consequences that this assessment model with technological support has in a traditional higher education institution.

Special issue on evolving the e-marketing mindset towards the social web model - Editorial Part 2

In the previous issue of IJEMR, we introduced the general framework and the main ideas justifying this special editorial project. To avoid repetition of the background themes to the current issue, the reader should consult the previous edition. Here, we present the second part of contributions selected for publication.

Special issue on evolving the e-marketing mindset towards the social web model - Editorial Part 1

Con este proyecto editorial nuestro objetivo es promover un campo de investigación clave en la comercialización de hoy, es decir, la evolución de la mentalidad e-marketing hacia el nuevo modelo de web social.

Reise durch Schweden, Schwedisch-Lapland, Finland und Dänemark : von Matthaus Consett, esq. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt. Mit Kupfern.

Bound with: Reise durch Russland wie auch durch unterschiedliche europäische und assiatische Provinzen von 1770-1780 / Jacob Fries. [Leipzig], 1790.

Reise durch Schweden und Finnland, bis an die äussersten Gränzen von Lappland, in den Jahren 1798 und 1799 : von Joseph Acerbi. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Ch. Weyland. Nebst berichtigenden Bemerkungen eines sachkundigen Gelehrten. Mit zwei Kupfern und einer Landkarte.

Digital reproduction, The National Library of Finland, Centre for Preservation and Digitisation, Mikkeli

Erdbeschreibung der Königreihe Dänemark, Norwegen und Schweden, des Herzogtbums Finnland, Liesland und der Provinz Ingermannland. Ein Auszug, zum Gebrauch bey dem gegenwärtigen Kriege zwischen Russland und Sweden

Author: Anton Friedrich Büsching.

Herrn Johann Gerhard Schellers, ehemaligen Pastoris zu Hermstedt und Stobra Reise-Beschreibung nach Lappland und Bothnien : worinnen sowohl die dasige Landes-Art in deutlichen Abtheilungen und nöthigen Figuren aus eigenem Augenschein, gezeiget, als auch die Gelegenheit zur Reise und Rückreise kürtzlich angeführet wird : abermahls dem Druck übergeben von Gottlieb David Friedrich Scheller Rev. Min. Candid.

Digital reproduction, The National Library of Finland, Centre for Preservation and Digitisation, Mikkeli