Research and Productivity Council

Mobile and wearable computers present input/output prob-lems due to limited screen space and interaction techniques. When mobile, users typically focus their visual attention on navigating their environment - making visually demanding interface designs hard to operate. This paper presents two multimodal interaction techniques designed to overcome these problems and allow truly mobile, 'eyes-free' device use. The first is a 3D audio radial pie menu that uses head gestures for selecting items. An evaluation of a range of different audio designs showed that egocentric sounds re-duced task completion time, perceived annoyance, and al-lowed users to walk closer to their preferred walking speed. The second is a sonically enhanced 2D gesture recognition system for use on a belt-mounted PDA. An evaluation of the system with and without audio feedback showed users' ges-tures were more accurate when dynamically guided by au-dio-feedback. These novel interaction techniques demon-strate effective alternatives to visual-centric interface de-signs on mobile devices.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the molecular basis for multiple antibiotic and mercury resistance in Canadian isolates of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida. METHODS: Phenotypic and genotypic methods were employed to identify plasmid-associated antibiotic and mercury resistance genes and to determine the organization of those genes in multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. salmonicida isolates. RESULTS: The MDR phenotype was transferable via conjugation using Escherichia coli, Aeromonas hydrophila and Edwardseilla tarda as recipients. Antibiotic and mercury resistance genes were carried by a conjugative IncA/C plasmid. Three distinct antibiotic resistance cassettes were characterized; first a class I integron containing an aadA7 gene encoding for an aminoglycoside-3'-adenyltransferase, the second cassette showed 99.9% nucleotide sequence homology to a cassette previously identified in the Salmonella enterica IncA/C plasmid pSN254, containing floR, tetA, sulII and strA/strB sequences. The third cassette showed 100% nucleotide sequence similarity to a transposon-like element, containing a bla(CMY-2) beta-lactamase in association with sugE and blc sequences. This element is known to be widely distributed among clinical and food-borne Salmonella and other Enterobacteriaceae throughout Asia and the United States. Mercury resistance was linked to the presence of a mer operon that showed 100% nucleotide sequence homology to the mer operon carried by plasmid pSN254. CONCLUSIONS: Each MDR A. salmonicida isolate carried the same plasmid, which was related to plasmid pSN254. This is the first report of plasmid-mediated florfenicol-resistant A. salmonicida in North America. In addition, it is the first report of a plasmid-associated AmpC beta-lactamase sequence in a member of the Aeromonadaceae.

Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics review for their evaluation or field trial protocol. Although this process varies by country, the underlying principles are universal. While this process is often a formality, for field research or lab-based studies with vulnerable users, formal ethics requirements can be challenging to navigate -- a common occurrence in the social sciences; yet, in many cases, foreign to HCI researchers. Nevertheless, with the increase in new areas of research such as mobile technologies for marginalized populations or assistive technologies, this is a current reality. In this paper we present our experiences and challenges in conducting several studies that evaluate interactive systems in difficult settings, from the perspective of the ethics process. Based on these, we draft recommendations for mitigating the effect of such challenges to the ethical conduct of research. We then issue a call for interaction researchers, together with policy makers, to refine existing ethics guidelines and protocols in order to more accurately capture the particularities of such field-based evaluations, qualitative studies, challenging lab-based evaluations, and ethnographic observations.

Analysis by ICP-MS of shallow groundwater collected at a field site in New York that had been heavily loaded with sewage sludge more than 15 years earlier revealed elevated concentrations of Cu, Zn, Sr, Rb, Mo, Cd, As, Cr, Ni, Sb, W, Ag, Hg, and Sn compared with a nearby control site. Enhanced leaching of some elements from this near-neutral, fine-textured (silty clay loam) soil could be explained by exchange of soil-bound elements by components of the added sludge. For most of the heavy metals, however, increased leaching was a response to the high metal loadings in the soil, probably facilitated by higher dissolved organic matter in the leachate. Laboratory-determined distribution coefficients, KD, for the metals in newly prepared sludge/soil mixtures were lower than KD values of the field-aged sludge-treated soil, suggesting that metal mobility may have been substantially higher shortly after sludge application than many years later. Cumulative losses of certain trace elements from the topsoil have been estimated relative to Cr, a comparatively immobile element. These suggest that relative long-term losses range from 20 to 80%, with the order being: Sr, Mo, Sb > Ni, Cd, Cu > Zn, Ag. Generally, those elements with the smallest KD values (most soluble) measured recently in the soil had the largest loss estimates. However, present leaching loss rates are too low to explain the estimated relative losses of several of these elements from the topsoil over the 15 or more years since sludge application.

Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) was isolated from mortalities occurring in populations of mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus, stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus aculeatus, brown trout, Salmo trutta, and striped bass, Morone saxatilis, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. The isolated viral strains produced a cytopathic effect on the epithelioma papillosum cyprini cell line. Serum neutralization indicated the virus was VHSV and sequencing identified the rhabdovirus isolates as the North American strain of VHSV. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the isolates are closely related and form a distinguishable subgroup of North American type VHSV. To our knowledge, this is the first report of VHSV in mummichog and striped bass.

Haemorrhagic kidney syndrome (HKS), a serious disease affecting Atlantic salmon on the east coast of Canada, was determined to be caused by infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) through the isolation of the pathogen on the SHK-1 (salmon head kidney) cell line and confirmation by ISAV-specific immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition, the defining histopathology of HKS could be reproduced following the injection of material that rendered challenged fish ISAV-positive by cell culture in the absence of any other detectable pathogen. Preliminary nucleotide sequence comparison does not suggest any direct epidemiological connection between the Canadian and Norwegian isolates.

Journal Article Sex Pheromone Chemistry of the Eastern Spruce Budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana Get access P. J. Silk, P. J. Silk 2 Research and Productivity Council, P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5H1, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar S. H. Tan, S. H. Tan 2 Research and Productivity Council, P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5H1, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar C. J. Wiesner, C. J. Wiesner 2 Research and Productivity Council, P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5H1, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar R. J. Ross, R. J. Ross 3 Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar G. C. Lonergan G. C. Lonergan 4 Department of Chemistry, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Environmental Entomology, Volume 9, Issue 5, 1 October 1980, Pages 640–644, https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/9.5.640 Published: 01 October 1980 Article history Received: 17 January 1980 Published: 01 October 1980

Networked multiplayer games must support a much wider variety of interactions than single-player games because networked games involve communication and coordination between players. This means that designers must consider additional usability issues that relate to group play - but there are currently no usability engineering methods that are specifically oriented towards the needs of multiplayer games. To address this problem, we developed a new set of usability heuristics, called Networked Game Heuristics (NGH), which can be used in the design and evaluation of networked multiplayer games. The new heuristics were identified by analyzing problem reports from 382 reviews of networked PC games, covering six main genres. We aggregated problem reports into ten problem categories (covering issues from session management to cheating to training for novice players) and developed heuristics that describe how these usability problems can be avoided. We tested the new heuristics by having evaluators use them and an existing set to assess the usability of two networked games. Evaluators found more usability problems with NGH, and stated that the new heuristics were better for evaluating multiplayer game usability. Our research is the first to present networked game heuristics that are derived from real problem reports, and the first to evaluate the heuristics' effectiveness in a realistic usability test.

The proliferation of heterogeneous Internet of things (IoT) devices connected to the Internet produces several operational and security challenges, such as monitoring, detecting, and recognizing millions of interconnected IoT devices. Network and system administrators must correctly identify which devices are functional, need security updates, or are vulnerable to specific attacks. IoT profiling is an emerging technique to identify and validate the connected devices’ specific behaviour and isolate the suspected and vulnerable devices within the network for further monitoring. This article provides a comprehensive review of various IoT device profiling methods and provides a clear taxonomy for IoT profiling techniques based on different security perspectives. We first investigate several current IoT device profiling techniques and their applications. Next, we analyzed various IoT device vulnerabilities, outlined multiple features, and provided detailed information to implement profiling algorithms’ risk assessment/mitigation stage. By reviewing approaches for profiling IoT devices, we identify various state-of-the-art methods that organizations of different domains can implement to satisfy profiling needs. Furthermore, this article also discusses several machine learning and deep learning algorithms utilized for IoT device profiling. Finally, we discuss challenges and future research possibilities in this domain.

Nodaviruses (NNV) are responsible for causing disease outbreaks mainly in hatchery-reared larvae and juveniles of a wide variety of fishes throughout the world. This disease has seriously limited the culture of marine fishes over the last decade. In the Atlantic provinces of Canada, disease caused by a nodavirus was first reported in juvenile Atlantic cod being reared in Nova Scotia, in 1999. More recently, disease outbreaks caused by nodavirus have been identified in hatchery-reared Atlantic cod and haddock in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, respectively, and along the east coast of the USA. The presence of NNV in wild Atlantic cod adults and wild winter flounder has also been reported. Nodaviruses were isolated from cultured Atlantic cod and haddock, as well as from wild winter flounder from a variety of geographical localities, and their virus coat (capsid) protein genes were partially sequenced. An analysis of the data indicates that all of the nodaviruses isolated from eastern North America were closely related to one another, but that they were distinct from the European isolates already sequenced. Regardless of host species, isolates from close geographical localities were more similar than those from distant geographical areas. At the protein level, differences in coat protein sequences were seen only for strains isolated from Atlantic cod originating from Newfoundland. Our results suggest that NNV may have been present in the Atlantic off Canada and on the east coast of the USA for some time, and has evolved to form a monophyletic group, distinct from other isolates found in cold-water species. Non-lethal methods for detection of NNV are necessary to develop management strategies for this disease, and would be an asset to diagnosticians and producers. Based on the results of this study, new primers were designed and developed for an improved RT-PCR assay able to detect North Atlantic nodaviruses in ovarian fluids, eggs and other tissues. The application of this test to field samples is discussed.

Trust is a critical component of successful e-Commerce. Given the impersonality, anonymity, and automation of transactions, online vendor trustworthiness cannot be assessed by means of body language and other environmental cues that consumers typically use when deciding to trust offline retailers. It is therefore essential that the design of e-Commerce websites compensate by incorporating circumstantial cues in the form of appropriate trust triggers. This paper presents and discusses the results of a study which took an initial look at whether consumers with different personality types (a) are generally more trusting and (b) rely on different trust cues during their assessment of first impression vendor trustworthiness in B2C e-Commerce.

This workshop will seek to understand the roles and demands placed on users of security systems, and explore design solutions that can assist in making security systems usable and effective. In addition to examining end-users, this workshop will also examine the issues faced by security system developers and operators. The goal of the workshop is to build a network of interested people, share research activities and results, discuss high priority areas for research and development, and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Abstract Molybdenum (Mo) is a plant‐available element in soils that can adversely affect the health of farm animals. There is a need for more information on its uptake into forage crops from waste materials, such as sewage sludge, applied to agricultural land. Field and greenhouse experiments with several crops grown on long‐term sewage sludge‐amended soils as well as soils recently amended with dewatered (DW) and alkaline‐stabilized (ALK) sludges indicated that Mo supplied from sludge is readily taken up by legumes in particular. Excessive uptake into red clover ( Trifolium pratense L.) (>30 mg/kg) was seen in a soil that had been heavily amended with sewage sludge 20 yr earlier, where the soil contained about 3 mg Mo/kg soil, three times the background soil concentration. The greenhouse and field studies indicated that Mo can have a long residual availability in sludge‐amended soils. The effect of sludge application was to decrease Cu to Mo ratios in legume forages, canola ( Brassica napus var. napus ) and soybeans [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] below the recommended limit of 2:1 for ruminant diets, a consequence of high bioavailability of Mo and low uptake of Cu added in sludge. Molybdenum uptake coefficients (UCs) for ALK sludge were higher than for DW sludge, presumably due to the greater solubility of Mo measured in the more alkaline sludges and soils. Based on these UCs, it is tentatively recommended that cumulative Mo loadings on forages grown on nonacid soils should not exceed 1.0 kg/ha from ALK sludge or 4.0 kg/ha from DW sludge.

Learning objects strive for reusability in e‐Learning to reduce cost and allow personalization of content. We show why learning objects require adapted Information Retrieval systems. In the spirit of the Semantic Web, we discuss the semantic description, discovery, and composition of learning objects. As part of our project, we tag learning objects with both objective (e.g., title, date, and author) and subjective (e.g., quality and relevance) metadata. We present the RACOFI (Rule‐Applying Collaborative Filtering) Composer prototype with its novel combination of two libraries and their associated engines: a collaborative filtering system and an inference rule system. We developed RACOFI to generate context‐aware recommendation lists. Context is handled by multidimensional predictions produced from a database‐driven scalable collaborative filtering algorithm. Rules are then applied to the predictions to customize the recommendations according to user profiles. The RACOFI Composer architecture has been developed into the contextaware music portal inDiscover.

In 1999, disease outbreaks in juvenile Atlantic cod Gadus morhua that showed the classic signs of viral encephalopathy and retinopathy (VER) were reported in Nova Scotia. Brain and retinal tissues from moribund cod showed diffuse degenerative vacuolative encephalopathy and degenerative histiocytic retinitis. The affected brain and retinal tissues were observed to be positive for nodaviral antigens by means of immunohistochemical techniques. We partially characterized a nodavirus-like agent from brain and eye tissues and cell culture using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and primer sets originally designed for amplification of white trevally Caranx dentex (also known as striped jack Pseudocaranx dentex) and Atlantic halibut Hippoglossus hippoglossus nervous necrosis virus coat (capsid) proteins. Sequencing of the T2 region of the coat protein revealed high similarities (>85% nucleotide identity) to the coat protein genes of other fish nodavirus strains, especially those of Atlantic halibut and barfin flounder Verasper moseri, which possessed 92% nucleotide identity. Based upon the sequence of its T4 region, this nodavirus is a member of the barfin flounder nervous necrosis virus clade. This is the first report of VER in Atlantic cod and the first report of this disease agent on the Atlantic coast of North America.

We conducted an online survey and interviews amongst mental health workers in Canada who reported experience in working with rural and remote First Nations (although not necessarily telemental health). Sixty-three respondents (of the 164) to the online survey reported experience in working with clients in remote and rural First Nations. Only 16 of the online survey respondents with remote and rural First Nations experience reported having received training in videoconferencing use. When asked how frequently they used videoconferencing with clients, 51% reported never using it, 19% used it once every few months and 10% reported using it a few times a month. Approximately 50% of participants reported finding it useful. Approximately 38% found the technology easy or very easy to use, and 15% found it very difficult. Individual in-depth interviews were also conducted with professionals who had First Nations telemental health experience specifically (n = 5). A quantitative data analysis was used to explore their perceptions of usefulness and ease of use of telemental health, as well as the relationships among these constructs. Advantages, disadvantages and challenges in using the technology were identified from the qualitative data. Promising ways forward include incorporating traditional practices and the Seven Teachings into telemental health services.

Piscine nodaviruses (Betanodaviridae) are frequently reported from a variety of cultured and wild finfishes. These non-enveloped, single-stranded RNA virions cause viral encephalopathy and retinopathy (VER), also known as viral nervous necrosis (VNN) or fish encephalitis. Recently, nodavirus infections have posed serious problems for larval and juvenile cultured halibut Hippoglossus hippoglossus in Norway and Scotland. To date, no such viruses have been described from any cultured or wild pleuronectid in Atlantic Canada. Obviously, there exists a need to survey wild populations of pleuronectids to assess the risk of potential transfer of nodavirus from wild to caged fishes. This paper presents the results of monthly surveys (April 2000 to March 2001) of viruses from wild winter flounder Pleuronectes americanus collected from Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada. Tissue samples from wild flounder were screened initially on commercial cell lines (EPC, SSN-1, SHK and CHSE-214) for any evidence of cytopathic effect (CPE). After confirmation of CPE, nodavirus identification was achieved using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. We detected nodavirus from only 1 out of 440 flounder (0.23%) examined. This is the first report of piscine nodavirus isolated from wild winter flounder in Atlantic Canada, and although this prevalence may seem low, we discuss the implications of this finding for Canada's emerging halibut aquaculture industry.

Food and interaction design presents an interesting challenge to the HCI community in attending to the pervasive nature of food, the socio-cultural differences in food practices and a changing global foodscape. To design for meaningful and positive interactions it is essential to identify daily food practices and the opportunities for the design of technology to support such practices. This workshop brings together a community of researchers and practitioners in human-food interaction to attend to the practical and theoretical difficulties in designing for human-food interactions in everyday life. Through a practical field study and workshop we explore themes of food experiences, health and wellbeing, sustainability and alternative food cultures.

The problems of obesity and overweight are commonly cited as the motivation behind recent efforts to develop technology that promotes physical activity. Prompted by the social nature of many of the emerging applications, this paper presents our investigation of the sociality of weight management as experienced by a broad demographic of individuals. Our findings highlight the broad scope of peer involvement, and provide insight into the context and mechanics of related interaction that may prove valuable in informing the next generation of peer-based weight management technology for use in everyday life.

The Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been integrated into almost all everyday applications of human life such as healthcare, transportation and agriculture. This widespread adoption of IoT has opened a large threat landscape to computer networks, leaving security gaps in IoT-enabled networks. These resource-constrained devices lack sufficient security mechanisms and become the weakest link in our in computer networks and jeopardize systems and data. To address this issue, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) have been proposed as one of many tools to mitigate IoT related intrusions. While IDS have proven to be a crucial tools for threat detection, their dependence on labeled data and their high computational costs have become obstacles to real life adoption. In this work, we present IoT-PRIDS, a new framework equipped with a host-based anomaly-based intrusion detection system that leverages “packet representations” to understand the typical behavior of devices, focusing on their communications, services, and packet header values. It is a lightweight non-ML model that relies solely on benign network traffic for intrusion detection and offers a practical way for securing IoT environments. Our results show that this model can detect the majority of abnormal flows while keeping false alarms at a minimum and is promising to be used in real-world applications.