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Adding context-awareness capabilities to modern mobile and pervasive computing applications is becoming a mainstream activity in the software engineering community. In this respect, many context models and middleware architectures have been proposed with the aim to provide the developers with tools and abstractions that make it easier to produce context-aware applications. However, current solutions suffer from relatively low reusability and lack ease-of-use. In this paper, we propose a two-layer approach based on model-driven development: at the higher layer we introduce the design of reusable context plug-ins which can be used to monitor low-level context data and to infer higher-level information about the users, their computing infrastructure and their interaction. At the lower layer, the plug-ins themselves are synthesized using more elementary, reusable components. We argue that this development approach provides significant advantages to the developers, as it enables them to design, implement, re-use and maintain the code-base of context-aware apps more efficiently. To evaluate this approach, we demonstrate it in the context of a two-part case-study and assess it both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Background and aims Most studies reporting alcohol use among fatally injured victims are subject to bias, particularly that related to sample selection and to absence of injury context data. We developed a research method to estimate the prevalence of alcohol consumption and test correlates of alcohol use prior to fatal injuries. Design, Setting and Participants Cross-sectional study based on a probability sample of fatally injured adult victims (N = 365) autopsied in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Victims were sampled within systematically selected 8-hour sampling blocks, generating a representative sample of fatal injuries occurring during all hours of the day for each day of the week between June 2014 and December 2015. Measurements The presence of alcohol and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) were the primary outcomes evaluated according to victims’ socio-demographic, injury context data (type, day, time and injury place), and criminal history characteristics. Findings Alcohol was detected in 30.1% (CI 95%; 25.6-35.1) of the victims, with a mean BAC level of 0.11% w/v (CI 95%; 0.09-0.13) among alcohol-positive cases. Black and mixed race victims presented a higher mean BAC than white victims (p = 0.03). Fewer than one in every six suicides tested positive for alcohol, while almost half of traffic-related casualties were alcohol-positive. Having suffered traffic-related injuries, particularly those involving vehicle crashes, and injuries occurring during weekends and at night were significantly associated with alcohol use before injury (p

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) undertake one of the longest migrations of any animal and while on a broad-scale this journey appears direct, on a fine-scale, behaviors associated with socializing and breeding are regularly observed. However, little is known about which social and environmental factors influence behavior during this time. Here we examined the effect of multiple factors on the movement (speed and course) and diving behavior (dive and surfacing duration) of humpback whales during migration off the eastern coast of Australia. Focal data (202 h) were collected on 94 different whale groups with simultaneous social and environmental context data. The environmental factors water depth and wind speed were found to be important predictors of dive and movement behavior, whereas social factors were less influential at this site. Groups tended to dive for longer with increased water depth but traveled more slowly in increasing wind speeds. These baseline studies are crucial when examining the effect of anthropogenic disturbance. Determining which natural factors significantly affect behavior ensures any observed behavioral changes are correctly attributed to the disturbance and are not a result of other factors. In addition, any responses observed can be put into biological context and their relative magnitude determined.

In the last years, context awareness, namely the provisioning of the current execution context to the application level, has received an increasing attention up to becoming a core capability in next generation mobile scenarios. Context awareness intrinsically forces a continuous delivery of context data to resource-constrained mobile devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants, to allow application adaptation, and that can become too severe a constraint even for modern platforms (Android, iOS, etc.). This paper focuses on the realization of a context data distribution support for Android-based mobile phones with guaranteed quality levels on the context data delivery time. Android, notwithstanding its great potential, puts harsh constraints on the implementation of specific context distribution primitives, thus preventing the realization of a wide set of significant deployment scenarios. At this stage, we face that a large campaign of tests are necessary. We have collected main experimental results in a real testbed to highlight noteworthy details on the runtime performance obtainable with a real Android deployment. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This Campbell systematic review examines the empirical research on the effectiveness of female genital mutilation/cutting (‘FGM/C’) interventions to reduce the occurrence of FGM/C practices in the 28 African countries that carry out FGM/C practices. The review also examines the empirical research on contextual factors that may help explain the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of such interventions. It summarises findings from 8 effectiveness studies and 27 context studies conducted in seven different African countries: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia/Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. Interventions to encourage the abandonment of FGM/C have positive effects on attitudes, but no effect was found on the practice of FGM/C itself. The lack of effects may be due to weak study design, including small samples, and high heterogeneity among the included studies. The main factors that supported FGM/C were tradition, religion, and reduction of women's sexual desire. The main factors that hindered FGM/C were medical complications and prevention of sexual satisfaction. Key messages This systematic review aimed to answer the following research questions: 1.What is the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) compared to no or other active intervention? 2.How do factors related to the continuance and discontinuance of FGM/C help explain the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of FGM/C? We used an integrative evidence approach, whereby analyses of effectiveness data and context data were completed in separate streams, but where we in the final step integrated the results from the two sets of data in a realist synthesis approach. We included eight effectiveness studies (research question 1). All employed a controlled before‐and‐after study design. The quality assessment resulted in a final decision of weak study quality for all eight studies, which involved 7,042 participants residing in seven different African countries: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia/Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. We could perform four meta‐analyses but there was doubt about the validity of all results. The results showed that the effectiveness of the included interventions was limited, although they pointed to potential advantageous developments, such as positive changes in attitudes and knowledge regarding FGM/C, as a result of the FGM/C abandonment interventions. We included 27 context studies (research question 2) from the countries where an effectiveness study had taken place (we did not identify any studies from Ethiopia). The synthesis of context studies showed that the factors related to the continuance and discontinuance of FGM/C varied across contexts, but the main factors that supported FGM/C were tradition, religion, and reduction of women's sexual desire. The main factors that hindered FGM/C were medical complications and prevention of sexual satisfaction. Our ability to conclude regarding both the question of effectiveness of FGM/C abandonment interventions and how factors related to FGM/C help explain the effectiveness of interventions was hampered by a general lack of information. However, through the realist synthesis we identified that all of the interventions were based on a theory that dissemination of information improves cognitions about FGM/C, but the interventions' success was contingent upon a range of contextual factors. Executive summary/Abstract BACKGROUND Female Genital Mutilation/ Cutting (FGM/C) is a traditional practice that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non‐medical reasons. FGM/C is mainly practiced on prepubescent girls in 28 countries in Africa. Recent figures for African countries show a prevalence of FGM/C of more than 70% in Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Northern Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Somalia. However, there is considerable variation in prevalence between and within countries, reflecting ethnicity and tradition. The practice is also rooted in religio‐social beliefs within a frame of psycho‐sexual and personal reasons such as control of women's sexuality and family honour, which is enforced by community mechanisms. Girls exposed to FGM/C are at risk of immediate physical consequences, such as severe pain, bleeding, and shock, difficulty in passing urine and faeces, and infections. Long term consequences can include chronic pain and infections. For many girls and women, undergoing FGM/C is a traumatic experience that may adversely affect their mental health. OBJECTIVES We aimed to review the empirical research on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce the prevalence of FGM/C in African countries (question 1), and the empirical research on contextual factors that may help explain the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of such interventions (question 2). SEARCH STRATEGY The primary method of study identification was electronic searches in 13 international databases up to March 2011: African Index Medicus, Anthropology Plus, British Nursing Index and Archive, the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL, CDR, DARE), EMBASE, EPOC, MEDLINE, PILOTS, POPLINE, PsychINFO, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and WHOLIS. Databases for grey literature included the Demographic and Health Surveys, British Library for Development Studies, IDEAS, JOLIS, Google Scholar, and Google. The electronic searches were supplemented with searches in databases of six international organizations that are engaged in projects regarding FGM/C, communication with FGM/C experts, forward citation tracking through ISI Web of Knowledge, and bibliographic back‐referencing. Lastly, we conducted a manual search of the journal Social Science & Medicine covering the years 1993 to 2003. SELECTION CRITERIA The inclusion criteria for question 1 were: Population: girls and/or young women at risk of FGM/C and other members of communities practicing FGM/C. Intervention: any intervention intended to prevent, or reduce the prevalence of, FGM/C. Comparison: no FGM/C intervention, wait list, or other active FGM/C intervention. Outcomes: rates of FGM/C as well as behaviours, intentions, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of FGM/C, and awareness of rights. Study designs: randomized controlled trials, quasi‐randomized trials, controlled before‐and‐after studies, and interrupted time series designs. The inclusion criteria for question 2 were: Population: members of communities practicing FGM/C. Interest: factors related to the continuance and discontinuance of FGM/C. Context: geographical context was African countries in which controlled studies of interventions to reduce the prevalence of FGM/C had been carried out. Historical context meant that the context studies had to have collected data no more than five years prior to the intervention to be relevant. Study designs: cross‐sectional quantitative study designs, qualitative study designs, or a combination of the two (mixed‐methods studies). DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The data collection and analysis processes proceeded in several steps. We used an integrative evidence approach, whereby data extraction and analyses of effectiveness data and context data were completed in separate streams. Two reviewers extracted data from the included sources using a pre‐designed data extraction form for each of the two review questions. The same reviewers assessed the quality of studies, using appropriate checklists for included study designs. For effectiveness data, we estimated effects of interventions by the adjusted absolute risk difference and the relative risk and 95% confidence interval. For continuous outcomes, we calculated mean difference and 95% confidence interval. We used Mantel‐Haenszel random effects meta‐analysis for dichotomous outcomes and inverse‐variance random effects meta‐analysis for continuous outcomes. Analysis of context data was based on published examples and guidelines from the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co‐ordinating Centre. For quantitative context studies we used a generic inverse variance approach. We had planned to use thematic analysis for qualitative context data but only one qualitative study was included. In the final step of the integrative evidence approach, the results from the effectiveness studies were integrated with the results from the context studies in a realist synthesis. This realist synthesis approach addressed context‐mechanisms‐outcome configurations that underlie interventions. RESULTS We included eight effectiveness studies (research question 1) and 27 context studies (research question 2). Regarding the effectiveness studies, all employed a controlled before‐and‐after study design. The quality assessment resulted in a final decision of weak study quality for all eight studies, which involved 7,042 participants residing in seven different African countries: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia/Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. We could perform four meta‐analyses, each with two studies synthesised, but there was doubt about the validity of all results. The results showed that the effectiveness of the included interventions was limited but they pointed to potential advantageous developments as a result of the FGM/C abandonment interventions. Once we had identified that controlled effectiveness studies had taken place in seven contexts, we searched for and included a total of 27 eligible studies from these contexts (we did not identify any studies from Ethiopia). We judged that nine of the context studies had high methodological quality, 12 had moderate and six had low methodological quality. The synthesis of context studies showed that the factors related to the continuance and discontinuance of FGM/C varied across contexts, but the main factors that supported FGM/C were tradition, religion, and reduction of women's sexual desire. The main factors that hindered FGM/C were medical complications and prevention of sexual satisfaction. The extent to which we could conclude regarding how factors related to the continuance and discontinuance of FGM/C help explain the effectiveness of interventions was limited. However, based on the context‐mechanism‐outcome configurations we identified that all of the interventions were based on a theory that dissemination of information improves cognitions about FGM/C, but the interventions' success was contingent upon a range of contextual factors. For example, in contexts where FGM/C and Islam were closely related, the failure to involve religious leaders and base the program on the beneficiary community's needs and wants triggered low attendance and program drop‐out. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Our ability to conclude regarding both the question of effectiveness of FGM/C abandonment interventions and how factors related to FGM/C help explain the effectiveness of interventions was hampered by a general lack of information. The findings show that much work remains to be conducted regarding the evaluation of FGM/C abandonment efforts. There is a need to conduct methodologically rigorous intervention evaluations. Such studies should address the local communities' enforcement systems that support FGM/C and be based on a sound theory of behaviour change.

The purpose of this observational study of the activity context in which preschool children engaged in positive social interactions was to produce a data source that could be used to assist in the identification of socially withdrawn children, and to select efficient training contexts in which to develop the social behavior repertoire of withdrawn youngsters. Eleven high-rate and 10 low-rate social interactors, ranging in age from 36 to 72 months, were observed for 12 10-minute sessions across a 3-month period. Six activity contexts were coded by trained observers: Observer, Isolate, Parallel, Game, Cooperative, and Fantasy. The results indicated that: (a) Low-rate children engaged in significantly more Isolate and Observer activity than did high-rate children. (b) High-rate children engaged in significantly more Cooperative and Fantasy activity than did low-rate children. (c) There were no significant differences between groups for Game and Parallel activities. Results are discussed in terms of the concurrent validity between frequency of interaction measures and the activity context data, the developmental progression of social skills acquisition, and the selection of treatment contexts for withdrawn children.