Distributed Platform Research Articles

Good practices in designing a communication channel architecture for secure async flexible distributed collaboration

Abstract In this paper we present a set of good practices in the design of a security-centric architecture for a Communication Channel that can be used to secure a Loosely-Coupled distributed platform, over unreliable communication mediums. The proposed practices are derived from designing a complete architecture that is modular and designed to support principles of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the common functional requirements of a wide range of applications, including cybersecurity, smart power grids and industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The architecture was developed and implemented as part of the BIECO project, and is based around open standards such as Open Platform Communications United Architecture (OPC-UA). The key feature of the architecture is that it enables secure asynchronous near-real-time communication between a large number of nodes in a multimodal setup, without the need of any Service to know its place within the tool-chain. Based on our experience with building this system and based on the good results obtained, we are presenting a list of lessons learnt, recommendations for better communication channel modules within loosely coupled distributed systems.

Educational affordances of music video games and gaming mobile apps

ABSTRACT The rapid advancement of mobile and computing technologies has made the enjoyment of music in the video gaming experience more accessible and affordable, and has raised the interest of educators in the affordances of music-related games for informal music learning. This study aimed to examine the educational affordances of music-related games through content analysis. User reviews of music gaming mobile apps and video games were collected from two major digital distribution platforms and analysed to identify patterns and meanings related to their educational affordances and learning design. The findings reflected a sense of competence, autonomy and engagement resulting from playing video games, which motivated players to become self-directed learners in the context of informal learning. Several bias and limitations were identified, suggesting that an overreliance on video games may lead to unbalanced musical growth and incomprehensive musicianship training.

Blockchain technology: A potential tool for the management of pharma supply chain

BackgroundThe pharma supply chain comprises various parties including distributors, manufacturers, raw material suppliers, regulators, pharmacies, hospitals, and patients. Due to the product's complexity and transaction flows, an efficient traceability system is needed in the pharma supply chain to identify the current and all previous product owners. Digitizing the track and trace process significantly improves regulatory oversight and guarantees product quality. A distributed platform for shared data that is immutable, trustworthy, accountable, and transparent in the pharmaceutical supply chain could be built using blockchain-based drug traceability. ObjectiveThis review aims to shed light on blockchain technology's significance and necessity for pharmaceutical supply chain management systems. MethodA comprehensive literature review was performed between January 2017 and September 2023. The search was conducted to elaborate on blockchain technology. Blockchain is a software-based technology that logs and records transactions using a block structure arranged chronologically. Cryptography technology links and secures these blocks on a peer-to-peer network. Blockchain is anticipated to transform the pharmaceutical supply chain by giving all participants access to a single, straightforward system that provides transparency, security, and oversight of the end-to-end delivery of goods. ResultIn all, various literature data were included in this review. Using a supply chain powered by blockchain has many benefits. To begin with, it gives a thorough account of the entire procedure from start to finish. A single piece of software can manage the entire supply chain. Additionally, it increases communication between parties with permission. The enhanced security and traceability that blockchain offers is another important benefit. A blockchain system can track, trace, and recall products. ConclusionBlockchain-based pharmaceutical supply chain management enables the tracking of medicinal drug transactions from raw materials suppliers to end consumers. The pharma blockchain has the potential to enhance the security, integrity, data provenance, and functionality of the supply chain due to its transparency, immutability, and auditability.

Broomrocket: Open Source Text-to-3D Algorithm for 3D Object Placement

Story writers and other creative professionals often rely on concept artists to visualize and then further iterate on their work during game development and other visualization processes. This exchange and its various stages are time-consuming, and there is no easy remedy for creating a walkable 3D concept art without involving a 3D artist yet. As a first step, we present Broomrocket, an open source text-to-3D algorithm for 3D concept art. Broomrocket’s contribution is an object relation and placement algorithm that transforms user input describing a 3D scene given in plain English language into actual models placed in a 3D scene. It runs locally using an existing downloaded natural language processing model and does not require third party services unless a connection to an online 3D model distribution platform is desired. In that case, Broomrocket will search for the keywords from the user’s narrative input and desired license, and place them in the 3D scene, adding each model’s individual license to a license file for further usage.

Systematic online academic resource (SOAR) review: Pediatric respiratory infectious disease.

Free open access medical education (FOAM) resources have become increasingly popular in graduate medical education. Despite their accessibility, the assessment of FOAM resources' quality is challenging due to their decentralized nature and the diverse qualifications of their authors and distribution platforms. In this first pediatric systematic online academic resource (SOAR) review, we utilized a systematic methodology to aggregate and assess the quality of FOAM resources on pediatric respiratory infectious disease topics. We searched 177 keywords using FOAMSearch, the top 50 FOAM websites on the Social Media Index, and seven additional pediatric emergency medicine-focused blogs. Following a basic initial screen, resources then underwent full-text quality assessment utilizing the revised Medical Education Translational Resources: Impact and Quality (rMETRIQ) tool. The search yielded 44,897 resources. After 44,456 were excluded, 441 underwent quality assessment. A total of 36/441 posts (8% of posts) reached the high-quality threshold score (rMETRIQ ≥ 16). The most frequent topics overall were pneumonia and bronchiolitis. A total of 67/441 posts (15% of posts) were found to have a rMETRIQ score of less than or equal to 7, which may indicate poor quality. We systematically identified, described, and performed quality assessment on FOAM resources pertaining to the topic of pediatric respiratory infectious disease. We found that there is a paucity of high-quality posts on this topic. Despite this, the curated list of high-quality resources can help guide trainees and educators toward relevant educational information and suggest unmet needs for future FOAM resources.

Analisis Sentimen Ulasan Pengguna Tiktok pada Google Play Store Berbasis TF-IDF dan Support Vector Machine

The rapid development of information and communication technology, particularly in social media platforms, has created an environment where users actively share their experiences and opinions related to various services and applications. One platform that has gained significant popularity is TikTok, a video-sharing application that has become a global phenomenon. With the increasing number of TikTok users, user reviews on distribution platforms such as the Google Play Store have become a crucial source of information. Sentiment analysis of these reviews can provide deep insights into how users respond to the application, while also offering valuable feedback for developers. The research aims to conduct sentiment analysis of TikTok user reviews on the Google Play Store using the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) weighting method and the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm as a classification method to achieve optimal results. There are three main stages: the initial stage involves data collection and data pre-processing, followed by the pattern recognition stage, which includes TF-IDF weighting and SVM classification. The final stage consists of evaluation and analysis. The opinion classification obtained includes three categories: positive, negative, and neutral. Based on the evaluation results, the proposed method successfully achieved high accuracy for the 70-30% training-testing split, reaching 84%. The conclusion drawn from these evaluation results indicates that the proposed method can be utilized in the sentiment analysis process of TikTok user reviews.

Improving efficiency in supply chains with a capital-constrained app developer under the agency contract

We investigate a supply-chain model with a capital-constrained app developer. The developer interacts with a distribution platform via an agency contract, and the demand is uncertain and dependent on the app’s quality level and selling price. Given the amount of capital that the developer commits to investing in the creation of quality, the platform offers the developer a loan at a certain interest rate, based on which the developer determines the app’s quality level and subsequently also the selling price. We analytically prove that: (i) the interest rate offered by the platform decreases in the developer’s capital and, interestingly, the platform subsidizes the developer’s efforts either when the platform’s share of the revenue or the developer’s capital are sufficiently large; (ii) there is an amount of capital assigned to the creation of quality that is optimal in terms of maximizing the developer’s expected profit; and (iii) the total channel’s expected profit increases in the developer’s capital, which enables us to propose an improved contract leading to Pareto improvement and full coordination by using a side payment that compensates the developer for his loss of profit. In addition, we compare the supply-chain measures of the platform-financing model with those of four common benchmark models: a self-financing developer, a centralized system, no financing, and bank financing. Finally, we extend the analysis in three directions: setting price under demand uncertainty; analyzing a multiplicative demand form with regard to price and quality; and exploring the case of bank financing in addition to platform financing.

Drawing hearts in the air within new African diaspora spaces: selling Nollywood and consuming nostalgia in London

ABSTRACT Nigerian video films circulate transnationally across various African diaspora communities, including London, England. This article explores conversations concerning the experience of both real and faux nostalgia regarding Blackness and the African diaspora as expressed through Nollywood cinema in London. Within these diaspora communities, Nigerian venders sell Nollywood DVDs as physical commodities from their homeland, triggering sensations of nostalgia and transporting audiences to experience pleasurable and painful emotions. By consuming these cultural products, Nollywood audiences may yearn for an actual African home or experience longing for a village life they have never truly experienced (Krings and Okome 2013, pp. 5–6). Nollywood DVDs serve as modern cultural artefacts containing a ‘record’, both literally and figuratively, transmitting a ‘‘communication’ of black nostalgia’ (Edwards 2009, p. 145) to consumers by providing imaginative sensory spatial representations of Nigeria and Africa. This article explores research from the liminal temporal space of 2013 London, where Nigerian consumption patterns shifted from a thriving market of Nollywood video-film consumers renting or purchasing DVDs – in ‘brick and mortar’ shops – to streaming these cultural commodities online. Viewer responses reveal the importance of physical and online movie distribution platforms as pan-African content providers, connecting virtual homeland spaces of nostalgia to the African diaspora. Thus, from the comfort of their homes, audiences conveniently accessed Black African representations of Nigeria. This investigation captures transnational socio-cultural exchanges in survey research, through questionnaires, and online social media research. Black venders and consumers reveal their experiences with Nollywood as a means to sustain nostalgic homeland bonds, cultural norms, customs, language, religion, and tradition (Krings and Okome, pp. 5–6). The findings elucidate the psychological importance of maintaining homeland connections through buying, selling, and consuming Nollywood experientially. Therefore, a social mechanism of nostalgia allows consumers and venders to retain and sustain Black African cultural identity abroad.

Cell-Free Systems for the Production of Glycoproteins.

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS), whereby cell lysates are used to produce proteins from a genetic template, has matured as an attractive alternative to standard biomanufacturing modalities due to its high volumetric productivity contained within a distributable platform. Initially, cell-free lysates produced from Escherichia coli, which are both simple to produce and cost-effective for the production of a wide variety of proteins, were unable to produce glycosylated proteins as E. coli lacks native glycosylation machinery. With many important therapeutic proteins possessing asparagine-linked glycans that are critical for structure and function, this gap in CFPS production capabilities was addressed with the development of cell-free expression of glycoproteins (glycoCFE), which uses the supplementation of extracted lipid-linked oligosaccharides and purified oligosaccharyltransferases to enable glycoprotein production in the CFPS reaction environment. In this chapter, we highlight the basic methods for the preparation of reagents for glycoCFE and the protocol for expression and glycosylation of a model protein using a more productive, yet simplified, glycoCFE setup. Beyond this initial protocol, we also highlight how this protocol can be extended to a wide range of alternative glycan structures, oligosaccharyltransferases, and acceptor proteins as well as to a one-pot cell-free glycoprotein synthesis reaction.

Increasing the Value of Real-World Crowdsourcing Health Data with e-MetaBio, a Novel Patient-Centric IT Infrastructure

ABSTRACT Introduction Digital health and evolutionary medicine create new insights of mediation and health treatment plan support, introducing crowdsourcing and patients’ real-world data records, so as to promote the development of high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone. Within the scope of its activities Metabio’s team has developed an interoperable unified method and technology for crowd-generated databases, creating a user-friendly platform for data collection, processing, and distribution among stakeholders within the global healthcare system in real time. Methods In this paper we describe standard methodologies, requirements, issues, and challenges for the design and deployment of an advanced IT infrastructure for longitudinal structured patient-related data records, based on a patient-centric model of operation, as well as the difficulties for the development of disease-specific user-prefixed interface for real-world data collection. Results Through a dynamic real-time (DRT) e-consent module and digital rights management protocols, the overall platform enables patients to monitor and manage their disease-related conditions, as well as for healthcare providers and/or research entities to have access to valuable biomedical patient data, not recorded so far. Conclusion The project introduces novel perspectives for future evidence-based practices, promoting research and development and improving current healthcare systems, by using crowd-generated data sources that bring a much higher degree of accuracy and value for the entire healthcare system.

Textual Analysis of Virtual Reality Game Reviews

Virtual reality systems are complex and made of various parts. Since a person is an integral component of such systems, virtual reality technologies also have a cognitive aspect. As such, these technologies engage with the perceptual, attentional, and decision-making processes of users. Consequently, they can be considered cognitive tools. Thus, it is imperative to understand what people think of such environments. To take a step towards this understanding, textual reviews of virtual reality games made for entertainment were investigated using text mining methods. Thus, 1,635,919 textual reviews were scraped from the Steam digital video game distribution platform in the spring of 2023. The reviews were grouped by whether they were positive or negative. According to the results, the following conclusions can be made regarding virtual reality games: 1) Negative reviews are significantly longer than positive ones. 2) Negative reviews are written significantly earlier than positive ones, although no correlation was found between the review type and the playtime before writing the review. 3) The most frequent words and word correlations are different between review types since negative reviews are more focused on game mechanics and bugs. Due to the results, insights can be provided to virtual reality game developers to help them refine their games. Index Terms—computer games; game review; player experi ence; Steam; textual analysis Abstract—Virtual reality systems are complex and made of various parts. Since a person is an integral component of such systems, virtual reality technologies also have a cognitive aspect. As such, these technologies engage with the perceptual, attentional, and decision-making processes of users. Consequently, they can be considered cognitive tools. Thus, it is imperative to understand what people think of such environments. To take a step towards this understanding, textual reviews of virtual reality games made for entertainment were investigated using text mining methods. Thus, 1,635,919 textual reviews were scraped from the Steam digital video game distribution platform in the spring of 2023. The reviews were grouped by whether they were positive or negative. According to the results, the following conclusions can be made regarding virtual reality games: 1) Negative reviews are significantly longer than positive ones. 2) Negative reviews are written significantly earlier than positive ones, although no correlation was found between the review type and the playtime before writing the review. 3) The most frequent words and word correlations are different between review types since negative reviews are more focused on game mechanics and bugs. Due to the results, insights can be provided to virtual reality game developers to help them refine their games.

Fostering urban short food supply chains: Evidence from the Netherlands

Short urban agri-food supply chains are an effective way to promote sustainability, viability, local economy and food security. This venture requires collaboration and knowledge from different disciplines, such as agriculture, food processing, logistics, sustainable economy, social innovation, engineering and ICT. However, there are many gaps in this research field, and many grey areas in government policy and regulations. The scope of this research is to explore the concept of short urban agri-food supply chains through case-study analysis and discussion. A case study was conducted based on a Breda (The Netherlands) municipal urban farming development, which included field observation, in-depth interviews with technical and knowledge experts, and detailed examination of present developments in short urban agri-food supply chains. Currently, urban farms operate in rather small scales, partly due to limited resources, sustainability requirements, lack of infrastructure, and deficiencies in regulatory compliance policy, food quality assurance system implementation guidance, local distribution platforms, etc. Moreover, urban farming’s small-scale operation form, combined with seasonal distribution patterns result in very high operational and distribution costs. Supply chain partners need targeted support in order to support and improve urban farming business operations. Emerging local-to- local business models are expected to facilitate contemporary needs and promote sustainability.

Minimal Clinically Important Differences for a Weight Distribution Platform in Dogs with Osteoarthritis.

In this retrospective study to determine the optimal method of evaluating static weight-bearing distribution to assess response to treatment in dogs with osteoarthritis using a weight distribution platform, data from the Clinica Veterinária de Cães (Portuguese Republican National Guard) clinical records were extracted. At baseline and at 15 days post-treatment, follow-up data from 80 dogs treated for bilateral hip osteoarthritis were categorized based on an anchor question. Estimates of minimal clinically important differences were calculated with distribution-based and anchor-based methods for deviation from normal weight-bearing and a symmetry index (SI). For deviation, the anchor-based methods provided a range from -0.3 to -3.1, and the distribution-based methods from 0.16 to 0.29. For SI, the anchor-based methods provided a range from -10.0 to -23.9, and the distribution-based methods from 1.31 to 2.88. Receiver operator characteristic curves provided areas under the curve >0.7, indicating an acceptable cut-off point. We presented estimates of -1 for deviation and -10 for SI in dogs with OA. These estimates can be used for research and patient monitoring. Future studies should include OA from other joints and animals from a broader clinical context.

Development and implementation of the frog-in-maze game to study upper limb movement in people with Parkinson’s disease

Upper-limb bradykinesia occurs early in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and bradykinesia is required for diagnosis. Our goal was to develop, implement and validate a game “walking” a frog through a maze using bimanual, alternating finger-tapping movements to provide a salient, objective, and remotely monitorable method of tracking disease progression and response to therapy in PD. Twenty-five people with PD and 16 people without PD participated. Responses on 5 different mazes were quantified and compared to spatiotemporal gait parameters and standard disease metrics in these participants. Intertap interval (ITI) on maze 2 & 3, which included turns, was strongly inversely related to stride-length and stride-velocity and directly related to motor UPDRS scores. Levodopa decreased ITI, except in maze 4. PD participants with freezing of gait had longer ITI on all mazes. The responses quantified on maze 2 & 3 were related to disease severity and gait stride-length, were levodopa responsive, and were worse in people with freezing of gait, suggesting that these mazes could be used to quantify motor dysfunction in PD. Programming our frog-in-maze game onto a remotely distributable platform could provide a tool to monitor disease progression and therapeutic response in people with PD, including during clinical trials.

Parenting: There is an app for that. A systematic review of parenting interventions apps

BackgroundTechnology is widely used by people of various ages and backgrounds. It has become an easy, affordable, and discrete means to learning and development. Parenting apps can be easily accessed through digital distribution platforms, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for technology users when it comes to choosing the right app for their needs. The present review aims at summarizing the characteristics of parenting apps available online and identifying the areas where improvement is needed to deliver the best services for parents in need of guidance. MethodA systematic search of parenting apps that targeted parents of children aged between 2 and 12 years old was carried out on the Google Play and Apple App stores. The characteristics of the apps were verified based on previously set inclusion criteria in two steps: using in-platform descriptions and by downloading and testing the in-app features. ResultsOut of 522 apps that were relevant to our search, only 53 apps met our criteria to provide parenting interventions. Although 86.7% could be downloaded for free, 32% of them required subscription and payment after the trial version. Most of the apps were dedicated to the assessment of children’s development, rewards usage, or behavior tracking. Only a few apps offered features such as personalized content, parent mood tracking, and action planning. Most of the apps relied on behavior therapy techniques or positive psychology and none of the apps employed studies to investigate their effects.

Does Impaired Plantar Cutaneous Vibration Perception Contribute to Axial Motor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease? Effects of Medication and Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation.

To investigate whether impaired plantar cutaneous vibration perception contributes to axial motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) and whether anti-parkinsonian medication and subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) show different effects. Three groups were evaluated: PD patients in the medication "on" state (PD-MED), PD patients in the medication "on" state and additionally "on" STN-DBS (PD-MED-DBS), as well as healthy subjects (HS) as reference. Motor performance was analyzed using a pressure distribution platform. Plantar cutaneous vibration perception thresholds (VPT) were investigated using a customized vibration exciter at 30 Hz. Motor performance of PD-MED and PD-MED-DBS was characterized by greater postural sway, smaller limits of stability ranges, and slower gait due to shorter strides, fewer steps per minute, and broader stride widths compared to HS. Comparing patient groups, PD-MED-DBS showed better overall motor performance than PD-MED, particularly for the functional limits of stability and gait. VPTs were significantly higher for PD-MED compared to those of HS, which suggests impaired plantar cutaneous vibration perception in PD. However, PD-MED-DBS showed less impaired cutaneous vibration perception than PD-MED. PD patients suffer from poor motor performance compared to healthy subjects. Anti-parkinsonian medication in tandem with STN-DBS seems to be superior for normalizing axial motor symptoms compared to medication alone. Plantar cutaneous vibration perception is impaired in PD patients, whereas anti-parkinsonian medication together with STN-DBS is superior for normalizing tactile cutaneous perception compared to medication alone. Consequently, based on our results and the findings of the literature, impaired plantar cutaneous vibration perception might contribute to axial motor symptoms in PD.

SPinDP: A High-Speed Distributed Processing Platform for Sampling and Filtering Data Streams

Recently, there has been an explosive generation of streaming data in various fields such as IoT and network attack detection, medical data monitoring, and financial trend analysis. These domains require precise and rapid analysis capabilities by minimizing noise from continuously generated raw data. In this paper, we propose SPinDP (Stream Purifier in Distributed Platform), an open source-based high-speed stream purification platform, to support real-time stream purification. SPinDP consists of four major components, Data Stream Processing Engine, Purification Library, Plan Manager, and Shared Storage, and operates based on open-source systems including Apache Storm and Apache Kafka. In these components, stream processing throughput and latency are critical performance metrics, and SPinDP significantly enhances distributed processing performance by utilizing the ultra-high-speed network RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access). For the performance evaluation, we use a distributed cluster environment consisting of nine nodes, and we show that SPinDP’s stream processing throughput is more than 28 times higher than that of the existing Ethernet environment. SPinDP also significantly reduces the processing latency by more than 2473 times on average. These results indicate that the proposed SPinDP is an excellent integrated platform that can efficiently purify high-speed and large-scale streams through RDMA-based distributed processing.

Digital Rhetoric: Harnessing the Language of Media in Hispanic Studies

Abstract: This article explores perspectives from language pedagogy, writing and rhetoric, and media studies to analyze the implications and implementations of video essay assignments in intermediate and advanced Spanish language courses. The field of Hispanic Studies has largely accepted film as a useful pedagogical tool with broad student appeal. Yet while instructors often include film and other visual media in their courses, modes of critical analysis are still largely entrenched in literary studies methodologies and constrained by written language. The expansion of multimedia materials in language and literature departments has been coupled with cinema's own shift from analog film to the more dialogic digital video. During this time, video production has become accessible through more widely available filming devices, editing tools, and distribution platforms, transforming the one-way channel between filmmakers and their audiences. The incorporation of these technologies into the classroom through digital rhetoric assignments allows students to harness the visual, textual, and aural language of media in language learning. Providing examples from my own teaching, I demonstrate how such assignments not only work to boost students' fluency across registers, but also to develop the crucial analytical framework necessary for interpreting and engaging with today's complex and shifting media landscape.

Analysis of McDonald's Marketing Strategy During the COVID-19

At the end of 2019, when the outbreak of COVID-19 brought a huge blow to the world economy, many catering enterprises took measures to save themselves and deal with the global public health emergency. Taking McDonald's (China) as an example, this paper uses literature analysis and the case study method to study and analyze its cooperation with third-party platforms while simultaneously operating its own takeout platform, and calmly responding to the non-contact delivery strategy and digital restaurant operation mode during the epidemic. In this period, McDonald's (China) took the initiative to shoulder its social responsibilities. It not only responded quickly to the government's epidemic control and timely implemented adjustment strategies, but also used cooperation with third-party distribution platforms to synchronize the development strategy of its own distribution construction and digital restaurant strategy. It minimized losses, stabilized corporate income during the epidemic, and successfully saved itself.At the same time, this paper also provides the correct guidance for future catering enterprises to adjust their marketing strategies in response to emergencies.

Undergraduate students’ perceptions of using videoconferencing for EFL learning: Evidence from Tencent Meeting application

This paper examined Chinese undergraduate students' perceptions of using videoconferencing in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected among 348 Chinese university students who attended sixteen-week learning of Integrated English Course through Tencent Meeting, the most widely used videoconferencing application in China. We adopted voluntary response sampling method in this cross-sectional study. Students completed an online survey on “Wenjuanxing”, China's biggest online questionnaire distribution platform. A structural equation model (SEM) was constructed and analyses revealed that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were significant predictors of students' satisfaction and participation intention. Students' computer self-efficacy had a positive effect on their perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and participation intention while their frequency of using videoconferencing did not influence these variables. This study contributes to the existing literature on the acceptance of videoconferencing in the context of EFL learning and offers insights for developing up-to-date videoconferencing teaching strategies.