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During the development of context aware applications a context management component must traditionally be created. This task requires specialist context lifecycle management expertise and hence can be a significant deterrent to application development. It also removes the developers focus from differentiation of their application to an oft repeated development task. This issue can be addressed by encapsulating the context management lifecycle within a web-service, thus providing applications with a low-overhead alternative to managing their context data. The adoption of a web-based approach maximizes the potential number of interacting applications, including smart spaces, web and mobile applications, due to ease of access and widespread support of web technologies. The contribution of this paper is the development of a lifecycle, based on existing work on enterprise data and context aware lifecycles, which is optimized for web-based context management services (WCXMS) and the provision of a web-service implementation of the lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the degree of agility in the pre-implementation software process phases within three Canadian organizations. Our results show that although the organizations studied have adopted an agile process, they still do substantial amount of planning upfront, which is typical for heavyweight processes. They claim that this planning is obligatory for carrying out subsequent development effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society and business are demanding systems that can securely and cost-effectively exploit opportunities presented by an Internet of Services. To achieve this goal a system must dynamically adapt to its environment and consider multiple and shifting stakeholder concerns such as application functionality, policies and business processes. In this paper we describe a dynamic orchestration model called the Virtual Infrastructure Model (VIM) which allows consumers to develop service-oriented systems that adapt to the needs of different business actors. It is based on the idea that adaptive workflow and dynamic binding to services can facilitate abstraction of both business processes and requisite interactions with the underlying infrastructure. Key requirements for federated orchestration are addressed including runtime service binding, secure and accountable dynamic procurement, infrastructure adaption, and separation of stakeholder concerns. The VIM is a fundamental component of the Next Generation Grid Architecture developed in the context of the EU funded NextGRID project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain that is caused by a viral infection. Several viruses, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), Varicella zoster virus (VZV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), West Nile virus, and certain members of the Flavivirus family or Bunyavirus genus for example, can cause encephalitis. Although these viruses have very different biological properties, they have the ability to enter the central nervous system, replicated in neurons, and can all cause encephalitis. In general, patients with encephalitis suffer from fever, headache, seizures, and photophobia. Less commonly, stiffness of the neck can occur with rare cases of patients also suffering from stiffness of the limbs, slowness in movement and clumsiness depending on which part of the brain is involved. Encephalitis is not a typical outcome of viral infections, but it is life threatening and difficult to treat. This chapter discusses the properties of the viruses that cause encephalitis, how they cause clinical disease, and the available therapeutic strategies that are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]