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Objective: The authors evaluated the validity of trust in automation and information technology (IT) suspicion by examining their factor structure and relationship with decision confidence. Background: Research on trust has burgeoned, yet the dimensionality of trust remains elusive. Researchers suggest that trust is a unidimensional construct, whereas others believe it is multidimensional. Additionally, novel constructs, such as IT suspicion, have yet to be distinguished from trust in automation. Research is needed to examine the overlap between these constructs and to determine the dimensionality of trust in automation. Method: Participants (N = 72) engaged in a computer-based convoy scenario involving an automated decision aid. The aid fused real-time sensor data and provided route recommendations to participants who selected a route based on (a) a map with historical enemy information, (b) sensor inputs, and (c) automation suggestions. Measures for trust in automation and IT suspicion were administered after individuals interacted with the automation. Results: Results indicated three orthogonal factors: trust, distrust, and IT suspicion. Each variable was explored as a predictor of decision confidence. Distrust and trust evidenced unique influences on decision confidence, albeit at different times. Higher distrust related to less confidence, whereas trust related to greater confidence. Conclusion: The current study found that trust in automation was best characterized by two orthogonal dimensions (trust and distrust). Both trust and distrust were found to be independent from IT suspicion, and both distrust and trust uniquely predicted decision confidence. Application: Researchers may consider using separate measures for trust and distrust in future studies.

Purpose. Determine the proportion of adults aware of Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living (Guide) and its specific recommendations (objective 1); whether key demographic factors (objective 2a) and physical activity behavior (objective 2b) are associated with awareness and specific familiarity with the Guide; and if changes in awareness and specific recommendations with the Guide occurred over a 1-year period (objective 3a and 3b). Design. Random selection with computer-assisted telephone interviewing. Setting. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Subjects. A total of 2803 adults 18 years or older completed interviews from 4831 telephone contacts (response rate, 58.0%), and after 1 year, 1423 individuals (55%) completed interviews. Measures. Demographic, physical activity, Guide awareness. Analysis. Chi-square, analysis of variance. Results. At baseline, 27.3% were aware of the Guide, and 15.6% were familiar with the Guide's specific recommendations. Younger individuals (p = .01), women (p < .001), and those with a higher education (p < .001) were more likely to be generally aware of the Guide, and women were also more specifically aware (p = .01). Physical activity levels were positively associated with the general (p < .001) and specific (p < .001) awareness of the Guide. Changes in general familiarity and specific recommendations over 1 year were observed. Conclusions. The majority of those surveyed were not familiar with the Guide. Men, individuals with a lower education, and older individuals may need to be specifically targeted. (Am J Health Promot 2011;25[5]:294-297.)

Purpose. Examine the impact of "point of decision" messages on fruit selection in a single dining hall setting. Setting. Competitive undergraduate liberal arts college in the southeastern United States. Intervention. "Point of decision" messages were compiled into a 35-slide multimedia PowerPoint presentation. Messages were displayed on a computer screen at a "point of decision" between the cookie and fruit stations during lunch for a total of 9 days. Measures. Baseline cookie and fruit consumption was measured 9 days prebaseline and 9 days postbaseline. A random sample of students completed surveys 1 week after the intervention. Analysis. t-tests were used to examine differences between prelevels of fruit consumption and levels measured simultaneously during "point of decision" messages. Descriptive statistics were used to examine perceptions of survey items 1 week postintervention. Results. A significant mean difference in daily fruit consumption was found following the slide presentation (df-8, t = − 2.800; p = .023). Average daily fruit consumption at baseline was 408 (SD = 73.43). Postbaseline average daily fruit consumption significantly increased (533; SD = 102). No significant prebaseline and postbaseline cookie differences were found (p = .226). Approximately 71% of women and 68% of men noticed the "point of decision" messages. Nineteen percent of women and 10% of males reported modifying their food selection as a result of viewing the messages. Conclusion. The "point of decision" messaging significantly influenced fruit selection in a single dining hall setting. (Am J Health Promot 2011;25[5]:298-300.)

PurposeSwitzerland boasts arguably the highest density of green properties in the world. In 2008, more than 15 percent of total new construction received the Swiss energy building label Minergie. The spatial distribution of these green buildings, however, is highly heterogeneous. In some regions, more than half of the new dwellings are built according to the Swiss green building standard. In others, this share is still negligible. The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of the distribution of green housing.Design/methodology/approachFor 2,571 Swiss municipalities, the author computes the green building share of new residential buildings. Data are collected for several variables measuring demographic, geographic, social, cultural, and political aspects that – according to the authors' hypothesis – may influence green building activity. Count regression is used to estimate the impact of these variables on the demand for green buildings.FindingsIt is found that differences in income levels and cultural affiliation between Swiss municipalities account for the largest part of the variation in green building activity. The impact of homeowners' stance on environmentalism is highly significant but less important. Government subsidies do not seem to trigger additional green housing activity.Originality/valueThe paper presents one of the first empirical analyses regarding the determinants of green building activity. Thanks to a comprehensive dataset, the authors are able to investigate the impact of potential drivers of "green housing" construction activity. The regional variation in governmental incentives is analysed and delivers valuable insight for policymakers interested in spurring the development of green buildings.

Abstract. Drought events in the Mediterranean are likely to increase in frequency, duration and intensity due to climate change, thereby affecting crop production. Information about drought is valuable for river basin authorities and the farmers affected by their decisions. The economic value of this information and the resulting decisions are of interest to these two stakeholder groups and to the information providers. Understanding the dynamics of extreme events, including droughts, in future climate scenarios for the Mediterranean is being improved continuously. This paper analyses the economic value of information on drought events taking into account the risk aversion of water managers. We consider the effects of drought management plans on rice production in the Ebro river basin. This enables us to compute the willingness to compensate the river basin authority for more accurate information allowing for better decision-making. If runoff is reduced, river basin planners can consider the reduction of water allocation for irrigation in order to eliminate the risk of water scarcity. Alternately, river basin planners may decide to maintain water allocation and accept a reduction of water supply reliability, leaving farmers exposed to drought events. These two alternatives offer different risk levels for crop production and farmers' incomes which determine the value of this information to the river basin authority. The information is relevant for the revision of River Basin Management Plans of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) within the context of climate change.

In this paper, we investigate applications of access control to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Although access control was well established for traditional computer systems, it has not been studied thoroughly in WSN environments. We briefly provide the WSN specifications and then stress the constraints of the WSNs that would affect the access control implementation. We also provide a literature overview and discuss further possible solutions. Index Terms—wireless sensor networks, security, access control I. INTRODUCTION Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) continue to grow as one of the most exciting and challenging research areas of engineering. There are many applications of WSNs which are intended to monitor physical and environmental phenomena such as ocean and wildlife, earthquakes, pollution, wild fire, and water quality and also to gather information regarding human activities such as health care, manufac- turing machinery performance, building safety, military surveillance and reconnaissance, highway traffic, etc. WSNs are characterized by severely constrained computational and energy resources, and an ad hoc operational environment. They have unique characteristics such as limited power supplies, low transmission bandwidth, small memory sizes and limited energy; therefore security techniques used in traditional networks cannot be adopted directly. Access control in such a resource constrained WSN with minimum overhead provides significant challenges, and is an ongoing area of research. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II provides the challenges of access control research in WSNs. Section III reviews related works in the literature. Section IV presents further possible solutions. Finally Section V concludes the paper and outlines future work.

This article provides a detailed analysis of the trade-related aspects of economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations for the six Africa–Caribbean–Pacific (ACP) negotiation groups including ECOWAS, CEMAC+, COMESA, SADC, CARIFORUM and Pacific. We use a partial equilibrium model—focusing on the demand side—at the HS6 level (covering 5,113 HS6 products). Two lists of sensitive products are constructed: focusing on the agricultural sectors and tariff revenue preservation. For the European Union (EU), EPAs must translate into 90% fully liberalised bilateral trade to be World Trade Organisation compatible. We use this criterion to simulate EPAs for each negotiating regional block. ACP exports to the EU are forecast to be 10% higher with EPAs, than under the generalised system of preference 'Everything But Arms' option. ACP countries, especially African ones, are forecast to lose an average of 71% of tariff revenues on EU imports in the long run. Imports from other regions of the world will continue to provide tariff revenues. Thus, if we compute tariff revenue losses on total ACP imports, losses are only 25% on average over the long run and as low as 19% if the product lists are optimised. The final impact depends on the importance of tariffs in government revenue and on potential compensatory effects. However, this long-term and less visible effect will depend mainly on the capacity of each ACP country to reorganise its fiscal base. ; ISI; IFPRI3 ; MTID ; PR

Few Internet security organizations provide comprehensive, detailed, and reliable quantitative metrics, especially in the international perspective across multiple countries, multiple years, and multiple categories. As common refrain to justify this situation, organizations ask why they should spend valuable time and resources collecting and standardizing data. This report aims to provide an encouraging answer to this question by demonstrating the value that even limited metrics can provide in a comparative perspective. We present some findings generated through the use of a research tool, the Explorations in Cyber Internet Relations (ECIR) Data Dashboard. In essence, this dashboard consists of a simple graphing and analysis tool, coupled with a database consisting of data from disparate national-level cyber data sources provided by governments, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), and international organizations. Users of the dashboard can select relevant security variables, compare various countries, and scale information as needed. In this paper, using this tool, we present an example of observations concerning the fight against cybercrime, along with several hypotheses attempting to explain the findings. We believe that these preliminary results suggest valuable ways in which such data could be used and we hope this research will help provide the incentives for organizations to increase the quality and quantity of standardized quantitative data available. ; This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

The new wave of computer and communication systems has opened a new stage in the development of the information society; the Internet, one of the symbols of globalization, is developing into the main virtual arena of international business. In the developed countries, the mechanisms of state administration and politics, along with the basic technologies designed to maintain stability and organize a dialog between the ruling structures and society, are undergoing qualitative changes: politics inevitably blends with technology, thus accelerating the development of electronic democracy. The state is rapidly losing its former monopoly on every kind of information; it is no longer capable of controlling the social and political processes unfolding on the Internet. Today, society is free to discuss any problem in virtual space; if it spilled over into real life, any such problem might trigger an avalanche of unpredictable events. Today, the global processes are gradually making the Internet part of the political process of Kazakhstan; it has become an important arena of interaction of opinions and clashes of interests in the multi-pluralistic virtual community. New mechanisms of cooperation with public opinion are taking shape together with forms of self-organization of citizens and interest groups, namely, the electronic media, web portals used for political discussions, and virtual communities and groups united by shared goals, including political goals. Today, the state structures, political parties, public movements, associations, NGOs, media, and private citizens of Kazakhstan are demonstrating a lot of dynamism in mastering virtual space.

"The globalization of science and technology can be conceptualized on different levels: as the spread of scientific and research institutions (Drori et al 2003), the diffusion of technologies throughout the world - and perhaps especially the developing world, (Inkster 1991), or the increasingly dense interconnections which characterize contemporary research collaborations. At the root of these three levels, however, is a fundamental question as to whether science and technology transcend - and thus shape - social change, irrespective of local contexts. On the side of those who argue against such a transcendence, instances of 'local knowledge' have been invoked, as well as practices of using technologies differently in different parts of the world. These counterexamples are important, but they also overlook wider macro-level changes. This essay will consider globalization on all three levels. First, it will trace the emergence of international science policy and scientific communication. Second, it will examine the diffusion of new technologies at the hand of the examples of information and communication technologies, specifically television and telephony - including mobile telephony (Schroeder 2007; World Bank 2008). Finally, it will illustrate the increasing connectivity of global research in the 21st century with reference to knowledge production that is supported by computer networks, not just for communication, but also in the new electronic infrastructures for research dissemination and collaborative data resources and tools. The essay will conclude with some reflections about how scientific knowledge and technology can meet global challenges, especially in relation to the increasing resource scarcity and instability of the environment, in the 21st century." (author's abstract)

2886 2898 55 13 ; S ; Opportunistic Routing (OR) has been investigated in recent years as a way to increase the performance of multihop wireless networks by exploiting its broadcast nature. In contrast to traditional routing, where traffic is sent along pre-determined paths, in OR an ordered set of candidates is selected for each next-hop. Upon each transmission, the candidates coordinate such that the most priority one receiving the packet actually forwards it. Most of the research in OR has been addressed to investigate candidate selection algorithms. In this paper we propose a discrete time Markov chain to assess the improvement that may be achieved using opportunistic routing. We use our model to compare a selected group of candidate selection algorithms that have been proposed in the literature. Our main conclusion is that optimality is obtained at a high computational cost, with a performance gain very similar to that of much simpler but non-optimal algorithms. Therefore, we conclude that fast and simple OR candidate selection algorithms may be preferable in dynamic networks, where the candidates sets are likely to be updated frequently. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This work was supported by the Spanish government through projects TIN2010-21378-C02-01 and TIN2010-21378-C02-02, by the Generalitat de Catalunya through project 2009-SGR-1167, and by the European Commission through the NoE EuroNF. Darehshoorzadeh, A.; Cerdà-Alabern, L.; Pla, V. (2011). Modeling and comparison of candidate selection algorithms in opportunistic routing. Computer Networks. 55(13):2886-2898. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2011.06.009

Initially created for interaction between professionals, Internet became accessibleto billions of people in a matter of a few decades (by some criteria in less than 20years), and special structures with various functionality began to appear inside it.All of this represents just another cycle of the permanent information revolution,a complicated concept with all the positive and negative ramifications stemmingfrom it. It has to be noted that Internet, especially with its embedded social networksand blogosphere, is no longer a passive information/communication, sociopsychologicaland business service phenomenon. It gradually crosses the boundariesof our computer screens and becomes a real, crucially important societal, politicaland military factor.We believe the World Wide Web has become an integral part of the environmentaround us, and hence it would not be quite appropriate to pass unequivocaljudgments on this or that happening in the Internet. Researchers should widen theirunderstanding of this phenomenon and try to figure out its dynamic mechanisms. Tosome extent this would enable supporting the desirable trends and/or countering thedetrimental ones, from perspective of the public interests protection.In this paper we contemplate the Internet (along with social networking communityand blogosphere) as a new, virtual, but effective form of democracy, whichclashes in social sense with the realities of the modern democracy quite aptly definedby the term "post-democracy." We shall also examine the role of Internet and socialnetworks in terms of information security, since this system is a rather powerfulweapon in modern network-centric information warfare, as well as in geopoliticalconfrontation as a whole.

54 64 16 17 ; SWORD ; [EN] A comparative analysis is made between photography and infographics, proceeding from the basis of Renaissance and camera obscura perspectives. Other less successful forms of perspective are analysed, such as curvilinear perspectives and their computing and optical counterparts. The feature of photography whereby it permits remembrance of the past is examined here, as is its nature, according to Barthes, as a "noesis without noema". This is linked to Hegel's analysis of knowledge, where he indicates that "mere knowledge does not demonstrate that one is actually present". Finally we consider and discuss the scope of computer graphics as the descendant of the viewpoint of the Renaissance perspective. ; [ES] Se plantea un análisis comparado entre fotografía e infografía, a partir de la perspectiva renacentista y de la cámara oscura. Se analizan otras formas de perspectiva menos exitosas, como las perspectivas curvilíneas y sus correlatos informáticos y ópticos. Se examina el carácter de rememoración de la fotografía y su naturaleza -según Barthes- de "noesis sin noema". Se enlaza con el análisis del conocimiento en Hegel, cuando señala que "el simple conocimiento no muestra que se está realmente presente". Finalmente se plantea el alcance -y se discute- de las infografías como herederas del punto de vista de la perspectiva renacentista. Franco Taboada, JA. (2011). SOBRE PERSPECTIVA, FOTOGRAFÍA E INFOGRAFÍA Apuntes para una fenomenología de la representación. EGA. Revista de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica. 16(17):54-64. doi:10.4995/ega.2011.883

Die Arbeit setzt sich mit der Entwicklung der Lebensversicherung in Indien seit ihrer frühesten Etablierung auseinander. Dabei zeigt sich ; dass der erste Wissenstransfer von Großbritannien durch eine Gruppe schottischer Geschäftsleute geleistet wurde. Erst die Etablierung von Sterblichkeitsklassen ; die nicht von rassischen Kriterien geprägt waren ; ermöglichte die Versicherung Einheimischer. Prägende Versicherung war bis in die 1950er Jahre die Oriental Governmental Security Life Assurance Company. Indizien dafür sind die von ihr erstellten Sterbetabellen ; als auch die besondere Bedeutung ; die dem Bericht Cowasjee Jehangirs beigemessen wurde. Bis in die Zwischenkriegszeit hatten die indischen Versicherungen britische Angebote sich zu versichern vom Markt verdrängt. Durch das Versicherungsgesetz von 1938 ; das sich stark am Vorbild Kanadas orientierte ; erhielt Indien einen autonomen legislativen Rahmen. Hier hatte eine ökonomische Dekolonialisierung bereits vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg stattgefunden. Die Verstaatlichung der Lebensversicherung 1956 erfolgte nicht ; um ausländische Konkurrenz vom Markt auszuschließen ; vielmehr war sie Reaktion auf das unseriöse Geschäftsgebaren einer Minderzahl indischer Lebensversicherungsunternehmen. In ihrer Folge führte die Verstaatlichung zum Ausbleiben notwendiger Erneuerungs- und Erweiterungsschritte der indischen Lebensversicherungsbranche. Zu nennen sind die Nicht-Einführung neuer Versicherungsarten (Gesundheitsversicherung) ; die ausbleibende Ausweitung der Lebensversicherung auf andere Zielgruppen (Personen mit besonders hohem Risiko ; arme Gesellschaftsschichten ; Frauen) und die fehlende Etablierung von Computern. Der nach der Verstaatlichung gegründeten Life Insurance Corporation of India gelang es nicht ein dauerhaftes Gleichgewicht zwischen den Bedürfnissen des Marktes ; den Erwartungen der Politik und den Interessen ihrer Angestellten herzustellen. Im Zweifelsfall folgte das Management den Erwartungen der Politik und vermied Konfrontationen mit den Angestellten. Erst in den 1980er Jahren wurden die Bedürfnisse des Marktes wieder verstärkt in den Vordergrund gerückt. Nur nach außen schien die Life Insurance Corporation of India ein einheitliches Gebilde zu sein ; im Inneren entwickelten die einzelnen Ebenen ein beträchtliches Maß an Autonomie. Obwohl es ein Ziel der Verstaatlichung gewesen war ; Lebensversicherung auf ländlichere Gebiete auszubreiten ; gelang dies nicht. Zwar eröffnete das staatliche Versicherungsunternehmen zahlreiche Zweigstellen ; der Anteil ländlicher Regionen am Gesamtgeschäft nahm aber sukzessive ab. Die privaten Lebensversicherungsunternehmen hatten das ländliche Geschäft weniger forciert ; waren aber hierin erfolgreicher gewesen. Für einen Großteil der indischen Versicherungsnehmer war die Vorsorge für die Ausbildung der Söhne ein wesentlicher Grund sich zu versichern. Zunächst konnte die Lebensversicherung diesem speziellen Vorsorgegedanken nicht gerecht werden. Erstmals wurde durch das 'Money-Back-Schema' der 1970er Jahre ; das Todes- und Erlebensfallversicherung kombinierte ; eine speziell auf dieses indische Bedürfnis zugeschnittene Versicherungsart angeboten. Die in den 1990er Jahren erfolgte Liberalisierung der Versicherungsbranche geschah nicht als Reaktion auf Bemühungen des IWF ; sondern aufgrund eines Drucks aus der Branche selber. Eine stärkere Orientierung an den Vereinigten Staaten war wesentlicher Auslöser der Reformen.

Serious games : exploration of an oxymoron.

The first decade of the 2000s has seen the success of the denomination serious games to designate computer applications for useful purposes using the scope of videogames. The term covers very diverse situations, such as game based educational software, simulation exercises for a given activity (driving a vehicle, surgical operations, company management), and the use of videogames for advertising, militant, informational and brain training purposes. All these applications have a point in common, in that they act as a vector for useful content by calling on motivations to play and playful mechanisms. From many points of view, the term of serious game seems to be new packaging for déjà-vu achievements, especially in terms of simulation exercises and game-based educational activities. By using a new terminology, it gives a more encompassing legitimacy to new, more controversial applications, in particular advertising, militant and ideological applications, but it also opens up new markets for the videogame industries. This article explores what is at stake with this new terminology and examines its relevance beyond simple marketing. In particular the expression "serious game" is only an oxymoron in a society which resolutely opposes "game" and "serious", stressing the value of work rather than amusement and therefore making it a paradox for the futile to become useful. The development of such games demonstrates that the frontiers of play have become blurred today, referring to a change in the status of games in our societies, which itself goes hand-inhand with the transformation of societies overall.