Cédric Dromzée
email: dromzee@aexium.com

Sébastien Laborie

Philippe Roose

Towards an Interoperable Device Profile Containing Rich User Constraints

Keywords: H.1.1 Systems and Information Theory Theory Context Modeling, Profile, Multimedia Documents, Devices and Users constraints

Currently, multimedia documents can be accessed at anytime and anywhere with a wide variety of mobile devices, e.g., laptops, smartphones, tablets. Obviously, platforms heterogeneity, user's preferences and context variations require documents adaptation according to execution constraints, e.g., audio contents may not be played while a user is participating at a meeting. Current context modeling languages do not handle such a real life user constraints. They generally list multiple information values that are interpreted by adaptation processes in order to deduce implicitly such highlevel constraints. This paper overcomes this limitation by proposing a novel context modeling approach based on services where context information are linked according to explicit highlevel constraints. In order to validate our proposal, we have used Semantic Web technologies by specifying RDF profiles and experiment their usage on several platforms.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, a huge amount of multimedia documents can be created and accessed by users. These documents may be composed of different types of contents, such as videos, audios, texts and images. Good examples of multimedia documents are, for instance, Web pages or SMIL presentations [START_REF] Bulterman | Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0), W3C Recommendation[END_REF]. In those documents, multimedia contents are synchronized and organized according to the graphical layout of the presentations. Moreover, users may be able to interact with presentations by selecting particular of its elements (e.g., a click on a picture plays a video).

Besides, many mobile devices (e.g., laptops, smartphones and tablets) are able to display multimedia documents. This universal access allows users to consult documents anytime and anywhere. However, such devices have heterogeneous capabilities and characteristics in terms of hardware (e.g., screen size, battery) and software (e.g., players, codecs) characteristics. Moreover, user's preferences or handicaps may prevent from playing specific multimedia contents. For instance, a user may avoid reading texts written in French and/or avoid playing audio contents while he is participating at a meeting. All these restrictions introduce constraints that have to be specified with a profile.

In a profile, various categories of information have to be managed: (1) device characteristics (hardware and software), [START_REF] Laborie | Semantic Adaptation of Multimedia Documents[END_REF] context information related to interactions between the user and the device, such as the preferred languages or the surrounding devices and (3) document structure, like the types of contents which are played or the presentation organization (e.g., layout, multimedia contents synchronization, hypermedia links). Consequently, if a multimedia document does not comply with some constraints that are specified inside a target profile, the document may not be correctly executed on the target device. Thus, in order to display documents on any devices, these ones have to be adapted, i.e., transformed in order to comply with the target profiles.

Since the last decade, a fair amount of research has been conducted on multimedia document adaptation, e.g., [START_REF] Laborie | Semantic Adaptation of Multimedia Documents[END_REF], [START_REF] Lemlouma | Content Adaptation and Generation Principles for Heterogeneous Clients[END_REF], [START_REF] Asadi | Context-aware Semantic Adaptation of Multimedia Presentations[END_REF]. Considering some target profiles, these approaches combined multiple operators: transcoding (e.g., AVI to MPEG), transmoding (e.g., text to speech) and transformation (e.g., text summarization). Of course, each profile expressiveness is exploited by these approaches in order to determine a combination of these operators, e.g., [START_REF] Lemlouma | NAC: A Basic Core for the Adaptation and Negotiation of Multimedia Services[END_REF], or their deployments (e.g., for saving battery energy), e.g., [START_REF] Laplace | Kalinahia: Considering quality of service to design and execute distributed multimedia applications[END_REF] and [START_REF] Girma | Planning-Based Multimedia Adaptation Services Composition for Pervasive Computing[END_REF].

However, each proposition exploits specific profile format, which usually contains a list of multiple information values, such as the screen size, the user language and the battery power. Consequently, an adaptation process has to interpret such profiles and to deduce implicitly some constraints. For instance, if the battery power is lower than 10%, avoid playing hi-quality videos. Obviously, each adaptation mechanism may deduce different constraints that in many situations might be wrong, thus providing incorrect adapted documents. Furthermore, current context modeling languages do not consider expressing such high-level constraints, e.g., [START_REF] Bolchini | A Dataoriented Survey of Context Models[END_REF] and [START_REF] Forough | A Comparative Study of Context Modeling Approches and Applying in an Infrustructure[END_REF], while they might be very useful to guide the adaptation process.

In this paper, we propose to overcome this limitation by defining a new profile description model where (1) profile information are organized into facets (e.g., device characteristics, context information and document structure) and composed of services that either provide data or require modifications, and (2) some profile information are linked by explicit high-level constraints. Thanks to this proposal, our profiles may migrate from one platform to another one while preserving the specified constraints, thus ensuring interoperability. In order to validate our proposal, we encode profiles in RDF/XML [START_REF] Klyne | Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax[END_REF] and evaluate several query executions on different platforms. Experimental results confirm that adaptation processes can access our profile descriptions efficiently.

This paper is organized as follows. Firstly, the related work section gives an overview of the current existing profiles and context modeling approaches. Then, we detail our service-based profile specification and we illustrate it through real-life examples. Thereafter, we propose a corresponding model, named Semantic Generic Profile (SGP), and some instantiations encoded in RDF/XML. Some queries that may be used by adaptation processes are presented in order to show how they may exploit our profile descriptions. Experiment results have been also conducted on several platforms to measure query efficiency. Finally, in the last section, we conclude and present some future work.

RELATED WORK

Since the last decade, a fair amount of research has been proposed in order to model devices characteristics and users contexts [START_REF] Viviani | A Survey on User Modeling in Multi-Application Environments[END_REF] [8] that are further exploited by multimedia document adaptation processes. We have noticed that some of these approaches provide exclusively a descriptive view of context information (e.g., CC/PP, UAProf, WURFL), while others propose enhancements with some constraints expressions (e.g., CSCP, Context-ADDICT). In this section, we present an overview of these approaches.

CC/PP

CC/PP (Composite Capability / Preference Profiles) is a W3C recommendation for specifying device capabilities and user preferences. This profile language is based on RDF and is maintained by the W3C Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group (UWAWG) [START_REF] Klyne | Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0[END_REF]. The profile structure is very descriptive since it lists sets of values which could correspond to the screen size, the browser version, etc. Indulska et al. [START_REF] Indulska | Experiences in Using CC/PP in Context-Aware Systems[END_REF] have expanded the vocabulary of CC/PP to describe the location, network characteristics and application dependencies. However, the CC/PP structure lacks functionality, e.g., it limits complex structure description by forcing a strict hierarchy with two levels. Furthermore, it does not consider the description of relationships and constraints between some context information. Finally, it is necessary to extend the vocabulary used in CC/PP to include new elements corresponding to hardware profile [START_REF] Girma | Content adaptation in distributed[END_REF].

UAProf

UAProf [START_REF] Forum | WAG UAProf, Wireless Application Protocol[END_REF] is based on RDF and is a specialization of CC/PP for mobile phones. More precisely, its vocabulary elements use the same basic format as the ones used in CC/PP for describing capabilities and preferences for wireless devices. Thus, it describes specific items, such as the screen size, the supported media formats, etc. UAProf is a standard adopted by a wide variety of mobile phones and provides detailed lists of information about the terminal characteristics. However, this standard is limited to the description of wireless telephony equipment characteristics. Hence, it does not allow users to express requirements.

CSCP

CSCP (Comprehensive Structured Context Profiles) uses RDF and is also based on CC/PP. In contrast to CC/PP, CSCP has a multilevel structure and is expandable. Even if CSCP provides a description of the context, which is not limited to two hierarchical levels, this proposal does not describe relationships, constraints and dependencies between context information. CSCP models the constraints but does not define any action that have to be taken into account by adaptation processes [START_REF] Buchholz | Comprehensive Structured Context Profiles (CSCP): Design and Experiences[END_REF]. Indulska et al. concluded that this model is not intuitive and difficult to use in order to describe complex information [START_REF] Indulska | Experiences in Using CC/PP in Context-Aware Systems[END_REF]. It is developed as a proprietary model for specific domains [START_REF] Tarak | A comprehensive approach to model and use context for adapting applications in pervasive environments[END_REF].

Context-ADDICT

Context-aware Data Integration Customization and Tailoring proposes the Context Dimension Tree. The context can be represented with hierarchical structure composed of a root and some level nodes. The authors propose constraints and relationships among values [START_REF] Bolchini | Context-ADDICT[END_REF]. In Context-ADDICT, the data sources are generally dynamic, transient and heterogeneous in both their data models (e.g., relational, XML, RDF) and schemas [START_REF] Bolchini | Context Modeling and Context Awareness: steps forward in the Context-ADDICT project[END_REF]. The Context-ADDICT approach lacks the features not relevant for the data tailoring problem such as Context History, Context Quality Monitoring, Context Reasoning and Ambiguity and Incompleteness Management [START_REF] Bolchini | A Dataoriented Survey of Context Models[END_REF]. This model is not generic since it depends on the application used. Hence, the data are structured according to the application requirements. It isis therefore necessary to know in advance the considered context.

Generic profiles for the personalization of Information Access

Chevalier [START_REF] Chevalier | Semantics-based Profiles Modeling and Matching for Resources Access[END_REF] proposes a generic UML profile for describing the structure and semantics of any type of user profile information. This contribution is used to describe the semantic links between elements and incorporate the weighting of the elements. The semantic graph is described thanks to a logic-oriented approach [START_REF] Jouanot | Context Comparison for Object Fusion[END_REF] with RDF, RDFS and OWL. However, this model does not express actions under conditions (e.g., increase audio volume according to a specific situation).

WURFL

WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource File) is an XML description of mobile devices resources. WURFL contains information about the capabilities and functionality of mobile devices with more than 500 "capabilities" for each device (divided into 30 groups). This project is intended to adapt Web pages on mobile devices [START_REF] Passani | Wurfl (Wireless Universal Resource File)[END_REF], [START_REF] Veaceslav | Applying Next Generation Web Technologies in the Configuration of Customer Designed Products[END_REF]. But, unfortunately, the user cannot specify explicit constraints (e.g., decrease screen luminosity if battery level is below 10%).

SPICE

The European project SPICE1 (Service Platform for Innovative Communication Environment) has specified a user profile structure that considers the creation of different sub-profiles for different services and enables the inclusion of contextual constraints which specify specific usage conditions. They have proposed an RDF/XML description of such profiles. Nevertheless, this approach requires a new sub-profile creation each time some conditions have to be considered.

Others approaches

Alternative approaches to design profiles with markup languages exist, such as PPDL (Pervasive Profile Description Language) [START_REF] Ferscha | Context-Aware Profiles[END_REF] or CCML (Centaurus Capability Markup Language). However, these frameworks are most of the time domain specific and limited to a set of aspects of the context (e.g., location, environment) [START_REF] Kagal | Centaurus : a framework for intelligent services in a mobile environment[END_REF], [START_REF] Kagal | Centaurus: An Infrastructure for Service Management in Ubiquitous Computing Environments[END_REF].

Other projects have been proposed for user and context modeling, such as E2R2 and MAGNET Beyond3 . However, they do not consider the specific aspects for multimedia documents, and especially the document structure dimension inside profile.

In the next section, we present step by step how we have built an independent user profile by integrating rich explicit constraints.

FACETS AND CONSTRAINTS

In order to display a multimedia document on multiple devices, several constraints described in a profile have to be satisfied. A profile is usually composed of some characteristics and some constraints that will be used by an adaptation process in order to compute an adapted document complying with all the specified restrictions.

In this section, we present our Semantic Generic Profile (SGP) and illustrate it with some real life oriented examples.

Facet

A profile should provide information on some devices capabilities, user context and documents characteristics that the target device is able to take into account. Currently, profile descriptions contain description values, such as screen size, preferred language, device model, etc. However, if this profile migrates on different platforms, many profiles characteristics have to be reconfigured. An easy evolving characteristic is for instance a screen resolution or some available codecs. Therefore, to ensure profile portability our profile structure is composed of service descriptions.

A profile is most of the time designed as a hierarchical descriptions and data outputs. Figure 1 illustrates an example of a hierarchy which is composed of services descriptions concerning the context of a specific user.

In Figure 1, each service s i of the hierarchy is identified by a resource name, e.g., Language, Age, etc. Each potential value v j corresponds to a potential parameter value of the related service.

For instance, the Language service has two potential values: French and English. Of course, this means that the user may understand both languages, i.e., French and English.

The whole hierarchy of service descriptions and data values is called a facet. The root node, i.e., the service name on top of the hierarchy, will be the name of the facet. In Figure 1, the name of the facet is "Context".

A service may provide some data, i.e., it will be in charge of giving information about a current situation. A service may also require some parameters in order to update its status.

Figure 1. A facet example describing a user context

In Figure 2, on one hand, the Battery service provides some data, here 15, meaning 15% of the remaining battery level. On the other hand, the Luminosity service may require a parameter value in order to update the screen luminosity, here 70 means that the luminosity intensity has to be set to 70%.

Figure 2. A service-based profile

Naturally, as shown in the next section, it may be interesting to consider other facets.

Multi-facets

A profile has to describe different categories of information: (1) Device characteristics (hardware and software), (2) Context information related to the user and the device and (3) Document structures that can be executed by the target device. Consequently, profiles may be composed of several facets.

Figure 3 illustrates the descriptions of three facets that correspond to the three previously mentioned categories. In this figure, the contextual facet describes some user information, such as its neighbors, its location and its preferred languages. The document facet specifies the types of multimedia contents that the device is able to execute and particularly video decoding. The hardware facet collects physical and technical characteristics of the device (e.g., RAM available, Battery level, etc.).

Constraints

At this point, even if profile information is hierarchically structured, it provides only raw data that have to be analyzed further by adaptation processes in order to deduce implicit constraints. For example, considering that a profile specifies a specific smartphone screen size, the adaptation processes have to deduce if they have to transform the document or not. Moreover, based on the user language information, adaptation processes also have to deduce if they have to translate other media, like texts, sounds, etc.

However, deducing implicit constraints from profiles may lead to adapted multimedia documents that do not comply with the real user needs. For example, it is possible that a user would like a picture in a native resolution display and not the screen resolution display. Furthermore, it is sometimes impossible to deduce some implicit constraints. For instance, adaptation processes cannot deduce what to do if the user is in a specific situation, like in a train. In such a situation, does the user want to allow the execution of videos or not?

To solve such situations, we propose to design explicit constraints. Using facet descriptions, these constraints will associate different categories of profile information.

Explicit constraints

In order to define explicit constraints between facets, we need to specify conditions and actions. For example, if a user is located in his car (i.e., the condition), he may not want to see videos (i.e., the action).

Hence, we propose to design explicit constraints by associating several facet services to some conditions that have to be satisfied.

Obviously, if all conditions are satisfied, an action will be triggered on a facet service.

Figure 4 illustrates the specification of an explicit constraint by using the terms that have been defined above. In this figure, an explicit constraint may involve several potential values of a service. Each value v i will be checked with a comparator c i . A comparator is a binary relation, such as equal, less than, greater than, etc. The comparator compares a potential value with the current situation value provided by the related service. If all (i.e., AND) or one (i.e., OR) conditions are satisfied, it triggers an action which is associated to a service. Of course, several types of actions may be specified depending on the targeted service.

Figure 4. General scheme of an explicit constraint

Figure 5 presents a multi-facets profile, which contains an explicit constraint. The contextual facet is composed of information related to the user's location. Let suppose that the user is located in a car, this information will be provided by the method getUserLocation associated to the UserLocation service. Moreover, the hardware facet of the target device defines some battery power levels, e.g., in the figure the BatteryLevel service may provide a remaining battery level of 50%. Finally, the document facet specifies that different sound levels may be set.

As shown in Figure 5, an explicit constraint has been defined (see the arrows in the figure). It specifies that if the user is located in a car and if the battery power is greater than 50%, we should set the audio level of all audio media in a multimedia document to 70 %.

Figure 5. An explicit constraint example

Naturally, a profile may not contain an explicit constraint. Hence, the profile will only describe information about the three facets: Device characteristics, Context information and Document structures. Each service may be invoked independently in order to collect some data. If no constraints are specified or if none of the conditions are satisfied, any action will be specified for some adaptation processes. In this case, it is up to each process to make implicitly the adaptation.

Formally, an explicit constraint is: Ce=<Sc, St> with Sc a set of conditions and St a set of targets. The set of conditions Sc={C1,...,Cn} is composed of some conditions Ci=<vi,ci> with vi a potential value of a service and ci a comparator. A condition Ci is satisfied if the value of vi complies with ci and the value provided by the related service. An explicit constraint triggers an action on a service if all Ci are valid.

Advanced explicit constraints

A set of conditions may trigger different actions on some services. For instance, Figure 6 shows that actions may be related to several services. Moreover, different actions may be related to the same service (e.g., read text and translate text to French).

Figure 6. An explicit constraint with multiple actions

Figure 7 illustrates such an example of an explicit constraint triggering several actions. In this example, if the available CPU power is less than 50%, audio are played and the text content is read, while videos are forbidden/removed. As you may see, for a given condition, we may trigger several actions related to different facet services.

Priorities inside explicit constraints

Priorities between actions may be defined in explicit constraints by specifying a weight value. This is useful when a constraint triggers alternative actions. Indeed, it indicates a preference between concurrent actions of explicit constraints (Figure 8). Each weight is an integer between 0 and 1. The more the weight value is close to 1 the more the action of the corresponding explicit constraint is important.

Figure 8. Priorities between actions of explicit constraints

Figure 9 shows an example that illustrates potential weights on actions. Especially, it specifies the understanding level of a language according to the type of a media.

Figure 9. Priorities between actions

For example, in Figure 9, John is better in French than in English for reading texts. Of course, these weights cannot be set directly by the user. John may specify in advance that he prefers texts written in French than in English, and these weights are then computed automatically during the profile creation.

We have specified facets and constraints. In the next section, we propose to integrate these notions into a global profile.

Profile

A profile is a set of facets that can be enriched by constraints. In this paper, we promote the use of three facets: device characteristics, context information and document structures. As we have shown previously, complex and rich high-level constraints may be specified. For instance, we may compose several conditions with conjunction and disjunction operators and we may trigger several actions with priorities. Moreover, actions parameters may be fixed values or may refer to values provided by the profile services. For example, Figure 10 specifies a constraint that set the image resolution of documents to the same resolution of terminal screen if its resolution is between 800x600 and 1480x1200.

THE SEMANTIC GENERIC PROFILE 4.1 UML modeling of our Semantic Generic Profile (SGP)

Figure 11 presents the meta-model of our Semantic Generic Profile. This meta-model is general enough to suit to various adaptation processes that transform multimedia documents.

In such a meta-model, we identify two categories of information: facets, which consist of a hierarchy of reusable services, and constraints that represent associations between the facets and services. Of course, one may specify new kind of facets.

This model is generic because it allows expressing constraints and information profile regardless of the application using it. Thus, it is not limited to specific functions or applications.

Figure 11. Our Semantic Generic Profile (SGP) model

In the next section, we propose to encode SGP profiles using RDF/XML. Indeed, it will allow us to query profile descriptions with semantic queries.

Strang et al. [START_REF] Strang | A Context Modeling Survey[END_REF] analyze six context modeling approaches (i.e., Key-value modeling, markup scheme modeling, object oriented modeling, graphical modeling, logic based modeling and ontology based modeling approaches). Authors have shown that the ontology based context modeling was the most appropriate. In the next section, we encode our SGP profile with an ontology adapted language.

4.2 SGP profiles encoded in RDF/XML RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a standard model for data interchange on the Web [START_REF] Klyne | Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax[END_REF]. Several reasons motivate us to use this formalism: Firstly, RDF allows us to perform aggregations of descriptions, which can be useful if several services describe a profile. Secondly, RDF can handle semantic concepts described in ontologies, thus enhancing the SGP semantics. For instance, semantics allow us to state that "Sensor" is equivalent to "Captor". Hence, a semantic query on "Captor" will also refer to "Sensor". Thirdly, RDF does not force us to express hierarchies of data as defined in other languages (it has a graph-based structure thanks to triples). Finally, other languages and proposals whose objectives are to describe profiles are based on this formalism (e.g., CC/PP or CSCP). We evaluate whether it is possible to execute those queries on different mobile devices. In the xnext section, we detailthedetail the tests that we have performed on two different platforms.

Experimentation

Using the JENA library, we have tested the performance of several SPARQL queries on some SGP profiles encoded in RDF/XML. We have performed these experiments on two heterogeneous mobile configurations. In Figure 13, we compare the execution time of queries on both platforms. We have also performed repeated loops (10, 50, 100, 500, 1000) of query 1 (R1), query 2 (R2) and a five different query sequences (R1, R2, R3, R4, R5).

Figure 13. Query execution time comparison

We find that query execution on SGP profiles is on average 14 times slower on the first platform to the second. However, query execution time on Android remains below 8 ms against under 1.6 ms on Windows. The difference between two requests is up to double in time, thus, we must create a strategy to optimize performance querying.

In Figure 14, we compare the execution time of 100 R1 queries on different profiles composed by 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100 triples. Our objective in figure 14 is to identify performance differences between profiles with different sizes.

We note that the query execution is nine times faster in conf1. However, the profile size seems to have a low impact on processing time.

Those experiments allow us to consider the processing of queries on configurations 1 and 2 in order to check performances. We find that the profile size (triplet) has low impacts on the query execution performance. We want to continue the evaluation of queries on profiles, and especially semantic queries, in order to design an optimized strategy.

considered three kind of facets which are related to the device characteristics, the context information and the document structure. Moreover, we have proposed to link these profile information with the specification of high-level explicit constraints. These constraints enable to model different types of actions under rich conditions. Naturally, the main objective of our profile structure is to better guide the adaptation process in order to compute valid adapted multimedia documents.

In the future, we plan to develop a global framework that will use our SGP profile structure. Firstly, this framework will exploit the profile semantics in order to exploit other information which are contained into other types of profile, such as CC/PP, CSCP, etc. Furthermore, we will develop some efficient methods that will compare some initial multimedia documents with our profile structures. Finally, we will experiment in a real adaptation architecture the benefits of using our profile descriptions. For instance, we will evaluate the user feedback on the adaptation of multimedia documents which have been made on different platforms with and without our profile structure.

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. A multi-facet example

Figure 7 .

 7 Figure 7. Explicit constraint triggering several actions

Figure 10 .

 10 Figure 10. Multiple conditions constraint exampleIn the next section, we model our proposal, entitled SGP, with a UML diagram and we propose an encoding of such profiles in RDF / XML. Then, we propose some query examples in order to show how to exploit our profile structure. Finally, we evaluate query performance on different mobile platforms.

Figure 12

 12 Figure 12 is an example of a SGP profile encoded in RDF/XML. It is composed of a RDF header, some services descriptions (i.e., Screen, ScreenResolution, ScreenLuminosity, and Battery) of the hardware facet and an explicit constraint. The ScreenResolution service is composed by input (i.e., SetScreenResolution) and output (GetScreenResolution) functions with parameters (e.g., string). The explicit constraints is composed of the following condition: if the battery level is less than 0.1 (for 10%); and the following action : set the screen luminosity level to the value 0.3 for 30 % . <?xml version="1.0"?> <rdf:RDF xmlns:sgp="http://SGP#" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"> <sgp:Profile rdf:about="http://SGP#Profil_1"> <sgp:name>John's profile</sgp:name> <sgp:describes> <sgp:Facet rdf:about="http://SGP#Hardware"> <sgp:contains> <sgp:Service rdf:about="http://SGP#Screen"> <sgp:contains> <sgp:Service rdf:about="http://SGP#ScreenResolution"> <sgp:in> <sgp:InputFunction rdf:about="http://SGP#SetScreenResolution"> <sgp:param rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"/> </sgp:InputFunction> </sgp:in> <sgp:out> <sgp:OutputFunction rdf:about="http://SGP#GetScreenResolution"> <sgp:return rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"/> </sgp:OutputFunction>

Configuration 1 :

 1 A Laptop running Windows 7 (x64) with 6GB of RAM and i7-2630QM quadruple core processor (2 GHz). Configuration 2 : A Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 3.2 with 1 GB of RAM and a double core Tegra 2 processor (1 GHz).

Figure 14 .

 14 Figure 14. Query execution time based on the size of a profile

http://www.ist-spice.org

https://ict-e3.eu

http://www.neclab.eu/Projects/Magnet.htm

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work has been partially supported by the ANR MOANO Project "Models and tools for mobile applications discovery of territory" [28].

</sgp:contains> <sgp:contains> <sgp:Service rdf:about="http://SGP#ScreenLuminosity"> <sgp:in> <sgp:InputFunction rdf:about="http://SGP#SetScreenLuminosity"> <sgp:param rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"/> </sgp:InputFunction> </sgp:in> </sgp:Service> </sgp:contains> </sgp:Service> </sgp:contains> <sgp:contains> <sgp:Service rdf:about="http://SGP#Battery"> <sgp:out> <sgp:OutputFunction rdf:about="http://SGP#GetBatteryLevel"> <sgp:return rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#int"/> </sgp:OutputFunction> </sgp:out> </sgp:Service> </sgp:contains> </sgp:Facet> </sgp:describes> <sgp:handles> <sgp:Constraint rdf:about="http://SGP#C1"> <sgp:contains> <sgp:Condition> <sgp:on rdf:resource=http://SGP#GetBatteryLevel /> <sgp:comparator><</sgp:comparator> <sgp:value>0,1</sgp:value> </sgp:Condition> </sgp:contains> <sgp:trigger> <sgp:Action> <sgp:over rdf:resource="http://SGP#SetScreenLuminosity" /> <sgp:param>0,3</sgp:param> </sgp:Action> </sgp:trigger> </sgp:Constraint> </sgp:handles> </sgp:Profile> </rdf:RDF> >

Figure 12. An SGP profile encoded in RDF/XML

In the next section, we briefly introduce some query examples that may be used to retrieve some information contained in our profile SGP structure.

SPARQL Queries

SPARQL is a RDF query oriented language able to retrieve and manipulate data stored in RDF descriptions. It was made a standard by the RDF Data Access Working Group (DAWG) of the W3C, and considered as one of the key technologies of the Semantic Web.

In the following, we present several SPARQL queries as examples that may be specified in order to retrieve important information contained in a SGP profile. Note that these queries may be used by adaptation processes in order to extract explicit constraints. R1 is the most simple query: it return triples PREFIX sgp: <http://SGP#> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> SELECT * WHERE {?x ?y ?z .}).

Query R1. List all triples

The query R2 returns a list containing all SGP services. PREFIX sgp: <http://SGP#> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/ </sgp:out> </sgp:Service>

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

In order to concretely exploit our SGP profile descriptions, it is necessary to use a software layer which is able to (1) integrate and complete the profile and verify the constraints, (2) provide information for different adaptation processes.

Figure 15 illustrates how our SGP proposal may be included into an adaptation use case. More precisely, from an initial multimedia document and our profile, the software layer will indicate to an adaptation process a set of transformations that have to be executed in order to provide an adapted document.

Furthermore, we will enhance our SGP structure with semantic information by specifying an SGP ontology. Obviously, our RDF/XML descriptions will use the vocabulary defined in such an ontology. Moreover, thanks to this ontology, it will enable the integration of other profile descriptions, e.g., CC/PP, UaProf.


Ulrich Keil
email: keilu@uni-muenster.de

Peter Schönhöfer

Angela Spelsberg

Dr Med Ulrich Keil

The Invention of the Swine-Flu Pandemic

Figure: 1 Introduction

The hype about the swine-flu pandemic is over. Should we, therefore, forget about this episode? We feel that there is a need to evaluate on a national as well as international level the events which have occurred and the mistakes which have been made.

The announcement of the swine-flu pandemic on June 11, 2009 by the World Health Organization (WHO) was a real precedent. In May 2009 WHO eliminated the severity of disease from the definition of stage six of a pandemic and demanded as sole criterion the swift and worldwide spread of a new virus against which the population has no immunity.

For the first time expensive measures against a pandemic such as the production of vaccines and mass vaccination were initiated worldwide. The pandemic stage six has been kept until August 2010, although there was neither any indication for serious health threats from A/H1N1 influenza, nor was the virus "new".

A historical perspective

Neither WHO nor national pandemic expert committees nor governments have informed the public that the A/H1N1 virus has been known for decades. In the 1970ies soldiers coming from Vietnam brought the virus as the so called Asian swine flu to the US. In 1976 a vaccination campaign was started and about 40 million US-citizens were vaccinated, because the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) feared, that the A/H1N1 virus might be similar to the virus of the Spanish influenza in 1918-1920 with 25-40 million deaths. 1 The A/H1N1 vaccination campaign was stopped abruptly when it was realized that the virus produced only a mild disease, while the vaccine produced a number of severe neurological side effects, namely Guillain-Barre-Syndrome. [START_REF] Kindy | Officials are urged to heed lessons of 1976 flu outbreak[END_REF] In their report "The epidemic that never was" Neustadt and Fineberg [START_REF] Neustadt | The epidemic that never was. Policy making and the swine flu scare[END_REF][START_REF] Fineberg | Swine flu of 1976: lessons from the past[END_REF] concluded that  " overconfidence by specialists in theories extrapolated from meagre evidence  conviction fuelled by a conjunction of some pre-existing personal agendas  premature commitment to deciding more than had to be decided  failure to address uncertainties in such a way as to prepare for reconsideration  insufficient questioning of scientific logic and of implementation prospects " were all points that were detrimental in the decision making process in 1976. Obviously, these lessons were not learned.

The 2009/2010 A/H1N1 pandemic A similarly benign evolvement of the 2009/2010 A/H1N1 pandemic has been observed around the world. In Germany about 260 000 people were supposed to be infected and only a very small number of deaths could be attributed to the A/H1N1 pandemic, namely 258, [START_REF]Arbeitsgemeinschaft Influenza[END_REF] which corresponds to a case fatality of 0,1 % (see table ). Hardly any infection with A/H1N1 has been found among people aged 60 and over, a clear indication that older people had already been in contact with the A/H1N1 virus and/or with vaccines containing A/H1N1 virus antigen. [START_REF] Nn | Im Blickpunkt Schweinegrippe: Alles im Griff? arznei-telegramm[END_REF] In spite of unconvincing data from Mexico, WHO followed the advice of its emergency committee and declared the A/H1N1 pandemic on June 11, 2009, thus triggering a cascade of national actions that had been prepared after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and avian flu pandemic fears.

In Germany 50 million doses of vaccine were ordered by the government costing more than 500 million Euro. Finally, less than 7 million doses were used for vaccination. Interestingly, the contracts with the vaccine manufacturer for Germany, "GlaxoSmithKline", were signed already in 2007 after a new pandemic mock-up vaccine (Pandemrix), based on the avian flu A/H5N1 viral antigen, had been licensed. There were no changes made to the contract for the swine flu pandemic in 2009.

WHO based its evaluations merely on the re-assortment theory promoted by molecular virologists, specifically that two different viruses infecting a host at the same time may merge (= re-assort) into a new highly pathogenic killer virus. These killer virus scenarios, first propagated by government agencies and vaccine producers for SARS, avian flu, and swineflu, and predicting millions of deaths, call on deeply rooted fears in humans with respect to plagues, such as the Spanish Influenza (1918-1920). They never became true and not a single death from SARS or avian flu occurred in Germany, and the swine flu pandemic (258 deaths) did by far not reach the usual death toll of the seasonal flu epidemics.

A decade of angst campaigns

In recent years we have been witnessing angst campaigns with regard to SARS in 2002/3, with regard to avian flu in 2005/6 and now we have experienced the so called swine flu pandemic. The probable worldwide toll for SARS amounts to 8098 cases of which 774 died (case fatality 9,6 %). [START_REF]WHO SARS assessment and preparedness framework[END_REF] Avian flu so far has affected some 496 individuals, killing 293 of them. 8 (see table ) It is important to know that avian flu is only contracted by close contact between birds and humans and therefore remains a regional zoonosis. Nevertheless, avian flu became the model for pandemic flu scenarios.

What have we learned from the swine-flu-affair? What needs to be done ? Firstly: The current concept of pandemics has to be reconsidered and it should be accepted that the spread and severity of infectious diseases is generally more dependent on social conditions of populations than on the properties of the infectious agent. [START_REF] Ackerknecht | Chapter: Epidemiology and Public Health[END_REF] Most people including scientists and politicians are hardly aware of the fact, that the A/H1N1 virus of the Spanish Influenza has hit populations stricken by war and hunger: Poor, frail and undernourished people paid the highest death toll. According to Murray, Lopez et al [START_REF] Murray | Estimation of potential global pandemic influenza mortality on the basis of vital registry data from the 1918-20 pandemic: a quantitative analysis[END_REF] mortality figures from the Spanish flu showed a 31-fold variability according to the nutritional-and social status of the respective populations; in a hypothetical re-occurrence of the Spanish Influenza pandemic, 96% of all deaths would occur in the developing countries and only 4% in the developed world. [START_REF] Murray | Estimation of potential global pandemic influenza mortality on the basis of vital registry data from the 1918-20 pandemic: a quantitative analysis[END_REF] Therefore, the swine-flu vaccination campaigns in Europe and North America were especially inappropriate.

Obviously, the most effective way to prevent any infectious disease pandemic is to invest in the improvement of social conditions. [START_REF] Ackerknecht | Chapter: Epidemiology and Public Health[END_REF][START_REF]Commission on Social Determinants of Health Final Report. Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health[END_REF] Tuberculosis is an excellent example. This major scourge was very prevalent and produced a high death toll at the time, when the mycobacterium tuberculosis was detected by Robert Koch (1882). Although there was no effective treatment, the disease declined dramatically with the improvement of social conditions. When streptomycin appeared on the scene (1952) the epidemic in Europe had nearly disappeared.

Secondly: Sound infectious disease epidemiology must be applied to the surveillance of influenza epidemics, e.g. define the target population, draw appropriate random samples from the respective population to obtain unbiased estimates of the incidence of flu like symptoms and of the viral status of the sample. Such methodology allows for proper inference of the spread and the virulence of the respective infectious agent. Data currently provided by the Global Influenza Surveillance Network are insufficient; they are not population based and therefore do not provide reliable data on disease severity, nor on case fatality. The data on the seasonal influenza show similar weaknesses and the estimates of disease frequency, mortality, and case fatality are similarly vague. 12 Consequently, the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination campaigns and of anti-viral medication is more than questionable. 12 Thirdly: Conflicts of interest of scientific advisors to WHO or to other international and national public health institutions regarding connections with the respective pharmaceutical industry must be disclosed and acted upon in a similar fashion as is the case for employees of and advisors to WHO regarding the tobacco industry. 13 Fourthly: To blame the media alone for the horror scenarios pertaining to the swine-flu pandemic is too simple. The media most often conveyed messages they received from scientists (with hidden links to vaccine producers), representatives of government agencies close to those experts, and WHO. However, contrary to WHO and its experts there were a number of critical journalists questioning the pandemic scenarios. Also not all countries in Europe were following WHO´s advice: The minister of health of Poland decided not to buy any swine-flu vaccine. Consequently, there was no vaccination campaign against A/H1N1 in Poland; however, the course of the disease there was similarly mild as in the other European countries.

Fifthly: WHO failed to give appropriate guidance in the swine flu pandemic. To prevent this from recurring, new strategies for the evaluation of the impact of new infectious diseases are needed. According to the figure by Doshi [START_REF] Doshi | How should we plan for pandemics?[END_REF] four scenarios are conceivable: a severe disease infecting many (Type 1), a severe disease infecting few (Type 2), a mild disease infecting many (Type 3) and a mild disease infecting few (Type 4). So far WHO has misclassified SARS, avian flu and swine flu as Type 1 diseases, which produced a hat trick of false alarms within less than a decade. [START_REF] Hawkes | Why we went over the top in the swine flu battle[END_REF] Future WHO emergency committees must comprise scientists from a wide range of disciplines thus diminishing the chance of misclassification of future infectious disease epidemics. Advice from disease experts, e.g. molecular virologists, is important, but final policy recommendations must come from scientists trained in evaluation, priority setting, and public health and being fully independent. [START_REF] Bonneux | Preventing pandemics of panic in a NICE way[END_REF]

Resume

In light of the fact, that life expectancy in the western world has been increasing by 2-2.5 years per decade for the last halve century, the angst campaigns concerning influenza pandemics triggered by virologists are out of range and irresponsible. It is ironic, that during the decade of continuous alarms for pandemics, with millions of deaths predicted from SARS, avian flu and swine-flu, life expectancy e.g. in Germany increased by nearly three years for both men and women, reaching more than 77 and 82 years for men and women, respectively. 17

Public Health Perspective

It is now time to re-evaluate public health strategies and to ask the question what really helps to reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality in Europe and worldwide? Fortunately, we know the great killers, namely cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases [START_REF]2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases[END_REF] (plus malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis in a number of developing countries). And we also know that 90% of diabetes mellitus type II, 85% of lung cancer, 80% of coronary heart disease, 70% of stroke and 70% of colon cancer are preventable by life style modification and public health measures 19 such as improved social conditions, healthy nutrition, increased physical activity and a strict ban on smoking. [START_REF]2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases[END_REF] However, governments and public health services are often paying only lip service to the prevention of these great killers and are instead wasting money on pandemic scenarios whose evidence base is weak. According to the pharmaceutical industry, their worldwide earnings from selling vaccines against the swine flu pandemic amounted to 18 billion Euro. [START_REF] Hassel | Hearing on "The handling of the H1N1 pandemic:more transparency needed? Council of Europe[END_REF]

Scientific Comments on Article by Keil et al

Pag

  That is true up to a point in 19 th and early 20 th century Europe (the McKeown observation) deaths from Tb declined. That was when there was no effective treatments. But its not very scientific to conclude that therefore that case finding and treatment (the mainstays of contemporary Tb control) would have made no difference if they had been present also. When the data are available on both social change and case finding and treatment are available (e.g. from China and India) it seems that the effects are additive. Certainly the authorities in those countries and Europe are not intending to abandon case finding and treatment. Agreed, but its not easy. However though that is difficult especially in a timely manner that is what has been done and published including by WHO. Some examples opposite. The authors seem not to be aware of the literature. This rather straying off the points of pandemics but the evidence is that in the 2009 pandemic the vaccines were effective and that the most widely used antiviral (oseltamivir) was beneficial.

	e No: 1, 2 3 6 6 3 5-6	Par a No 2 2 3 1 2 3 2 2	Comment It is stated: In May 2009 WHO eliminated the severity of disease from the definition of stage six of a pandemic and demanded as sole criterion the swift and worldwide spread of a new virus against which the population has no immunity. That is not the case and that will be confirmed by the Fineberg Report the Preview of which is now available That is critical of WHO on a number of points What Keil et al are doing is mixing up the criteria of a pandemic with descriptions of severe pandemics . To use an analogy -if mild earthquakes do not result in what has happened in Christchurch and NE Japan that does not stop them being earthquakes. WHO is criticised in the Fineberg report mishandling of its web-site but not for emphasising the more severe pandemics as that is a correct application of the precautionary principle. Severity has never been part of the criteria of a pandemic and the criterion stated by Keil et al incorrect. Indeed the opposite is the case. For the first time WHO in 2009 (following international expert advice over the period 2007-9) introduced severity into its description into its pandemic characteristics. The criteria used by WHO and the international community is shown opposite: the scientific literature. they all got this wrong . I do not know from the article whether the authors are ignorant of the way things of vaccine reactions Guillain Barre Syndrome and narcolepsy that are being scientifically and rapidly In Germany about 260 000 people were supposed to be infected and only a very needed, be certain of receiving enough (in Supporting Reference WHO Definition of 2005 From WHO frequently asked questions http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_in fluenza/avian_faqs/en/index.html See http://www.who.int/ihr/note_chairman_ review_committee_mar2011_en.pdf http://www.who.int/ihr/preview_report_ review_committee_mar2011_en.pdf The criteria used by WHO and the international community is shown below: The emergence of an influenza A virus significant different genetically from circulating human influenza A viruses Cluster analysis of the origins of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus. Euro Surveill. 2009;14(21):pii=19224. Experts advise WHO on pandemic vaccine policies and strategies October 2009 ECDC Reports of cases of narcolepsy and cataplexy in children and adolescents in Finland, Iceland, and A discussion on the issues when estimating mortality Osterholm M, Simonsen L. Preliminary estimates of mortality and years of life lost its view)vaccine. That opposite is for example the Robert Koch"s Institute "Situation in Deutschland -25.04.2009 including several deaths. H and N are the abbreviations of take into account re-assortment and the possibility of a new pathogenic flu virus would be to ignore history. The critique of toll at the time, when the mycobacterium tuberculosis was detected by Robert Koch (1882). Although there was no effective Sep;82(9):716. Trends in the prevalence of TB anti-viral medication is more than questionable. Hongjie Yu, Qiaohong Liao, Yuan Yuan, Lei Zhou, Nijuan Xiang, Yang Huai et al (i.been observed and reported before in There was some cross immunity for older people (thank goodness -declaration of interest I am age 60) because another A(H1N1) virus had been circulating in the period up to 1957 which had some antigenic similarity. So people with immunity to those older viruses had protection against the new virus. This is not the first time this has happened. When the 1957 pandemic occurred very old people, born before 1918 who had been exposed to the A(H2N2) which circulated 1918 experienced lower amounts of disease Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewA rticle.aspx?ArticleId=19224 Cross-immunity in older people Hancock K, Veguilla V, Lu X, Zhong W, Butler EN, Sun H, et al. Cross-reactive antibody responses to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus. The New England journal of medicine. 2009 Nov 12;361(20):1945-52. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/36 1/20/1945.pdf In the 1970ies soldiers coming from Vietnam brought the virus as the so called Asian swine flu to the US. Fascinating. I have never heard that before so it really needs to be supported by some form of a reference. All that is cited is a Washington Post link that seems to be defunct. However I have checked with heads of two of the five global Collaborating Centres (UK-Alan Hay and USA-CDC Nancy Cox, both of whom were active in 1970s ) and they independently confirmed that the 1976 virus did not come from SE Asia, It was close in its origins to US swine (pig) influenza viruses, though the actual virus was never found in pigs. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsid er/2009/04/retrospective-w.html not supportive Kindy, K. Officials are urged to heed lessons of 1976 flu outbreak. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/ -does not work Gaydos JC, Top FH, Hodder RA, Russell PK. Swine influenza A outbreak, Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1976. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2006 Jan [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol1 2no01/05-0965.htm Obviously these were lessons that were not learnt … (referring to the Neustadt-Fineberg book) This is not the case at Global, European or national levels -especially in the USA where the event of 1976 cast an especially long shadow but also in EU countries. The implication of Keil et al is that World Health Organisation International Health Regulations (2005). Source page http://www.who.int/csr/ihr/en/ Full text (English) http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_fil es/WHA58/WHA58_3-en.pdf WHO SAGE Vaccine Policy on pandemic vaccines WHO SAGE work or simply find the detail undermines their thesis. However here are some examples of ways that 2009 was handled better than 1976. (though I would not defend the handling as in any way perfect -see References at the end by Leung & Nicoll and Nicoll & McKee. Under the 2005 International Health Regulations it was no longer being possible for a single country (the US) to effectively declare and act as if a pandemic was underway (as happened in 1976). At a global level there was work by the independently chaired WHO SAGE (Immunisation) Committee and the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. These are especially important for when WHO oversees use of vaccine in resource poor countries, Equally in Europe there were EU level checks built into the process at European and national levels with . Also there were formal re-evaluations en route by the EU Health Security / EWERS Committee, and the EMA Advisory Committees the CHMP and Vaccine Safety Committee These do not replace the committees. In in Germany where Keli et al are based (see next point) There was very specific EU pharmacoepidemiologial efforts evaluating vaccine safety and looking for unusual vaccine reactions by national / EU agencies which were highly successful both in overall showing that the vaccine was effective and very safe. At the same time there were "signals" http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swi neflu/notes/briefing_20091030/en/ -meeting report http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swi neflu/meetings/sage_oct_2009/en/i ndex.html WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/ EMA Pandemic Pharmacovigilance Summaries http://www.ema.europa.eu/influenza/up dates.html The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMA). Note for guidance on harmonisation of requirements for influenza vaccines. Committee for proprietary medicinal products 1997; CPMP/BWP/214/96. http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/ document_library/Scientific_guideline/2 009/09/WC500003945.pdf EU Scientific evaluation of vaccine effectiveness Valenciano M Kissling E, Cohen J-M, Oroszi B, Barret AS, Rizzo C et al Estimates of Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in Europe, 2009-2010: Results of Influenza Monitoring Vaccine Effectiveness in Europe (I-MOVE) Multicentre Case-Control Study. Plos Medicine PLoS Med 8(1): e1000388. doi:10.1371/ journal.pmed.1000388 http://www.plosmedicine.org/article /info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal .pmed.1000388 Investigation of narcolepsy cases: simplistic multiplier to the reported deaths in the EU countries. However it is more important to acknowledge the difference in the pattern of deaths in the pandemic. To put it simplistically with the old seasonal flu (1968 to 2008) about 90% of the deaths were in people aged 65 years and above. While in the pandemic 80-90% of the reported deaths were in people under age 65 years (because of the many older people with cross-immunity). One way around that is to calculate Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) which the first author will be familiar with. When that has been done in the Netherlands (Wilders) old seasonal and pandemic flu 2009 came out with similar YPLLs while in the USA the pandemic flu came out as considerably higher YPLL (Viboud et al). Estimated pandemic deaths in the USA were 12 469 deaths (CI 8868-18 306) Shrestha S, Swerdlow D, Borse R, Prabhu VS, Finelli L, Atkins, Owusu-Edusei K, Bell B, Mead P Biggerstaff M, Brammer L, Davidson H, Jernigan D, Jhung M, Kamimoto L, Merlin T, Nowell M, Redd S, Reed C, Schuchat A, Meltzer M Estimating the Burden of 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) in the United States (April 2009-April 2010) Clinical Infectious Diseases 2011;52(S1):S75-S82 /content/early/2010/12/22/eurpu USA YPLL comparison Viboud C, Miller M, Olson D, That was the whole point of the mock-up vaccines that you could make commitments ahead of time so that a country could, if Situation/Schweineinfluenza__Sit uation-090425.html?__nnn=true comepletely. According to media reports several hundred cases of swine flu have occured in Mexico, but WHO and its advisers do not judge whether or not these will be more or less transmissible or more pathogenic. Not to Tuberculosis is an excellent example. This major scourge was very prevalent and produced a high death Health Organ. 2004 influenza vaccination campaigns and of in China after DOTS. Bull World Consequently, the effectiveness of seasonal Valenciano et al (see above) Anon TB prevalence down 30% b.ckq187.full.pdf+html pandemic in 2009. 60670/DE/Content/InfAZ/I/Influe nza/IPV/Archiv-patient was treated in the hospital, but all recoved from other viruses as well as more gradual evolution. Those observations are a reality the improvement of social conditions. Wu JT, et al see above infectious disease pandemic is to invest in http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org made to the contract for the swine flu http://www.rki.de/cln_178/nn_19 similar to seasonal influenza. One (like A(H1N1) 2009) with obvious "bits" ways of mitigating the effects of any in the Netherlands EJPH . been licensed. There were no changes symptoms of those cases are radically distinct flu viruses on occasion Obviously, one of a number of effective 6736(09)62126-7/fulltext pandemic influenza A(H1N1) the avian flu A/H5N1 viral antigen, had in the second paragraph: detected in humans. The antigenic drift it explains the observation of What could have been accurately said is als/lancet/article/PIIS0140-MAB. The burden of 2009 mock-up vaccine (Pandemrix), based on 25 and available on the web says of Swine flu A/H1N1 have been accepted scientific theory. Along with http://www.thelancet.com/journ Kretzschmar M, van der Sande already in 2007 after a new pandemic A situation report published April "In the United states a few cases Re-assortment of flu viruses is a valid and would prevent (my emphasis) pandemics. 6736(09)62126-7 der Hoek W, Lugnér AK, Germany, "GlaxoSmithKline", were signed work out how improving social condition doi:10.1016/S0140-JA, Donker GA, Meijer A, van with the vaccine manufacturer for pandemic -see… Inofficial Translation: Influenza (1918-1920). That statement is simply wrong. Its hard to Publication, 21 January 2010 den Wijngaard CC, Haagsma vaccination. Interestingly, the contracts estimates of the severity of the respect to plagues, such as the Spanish Lancet, Early Online Gageldonk-Lafeber AB, van than 7 million doses were used for on was very conservative in its schwer zu bewerten......" on deeply rooted fears in humans with conditions. sectional serological study The van "t Klooster TM, van more than 500 million Euro. Finally, less Robert Koch Institute from early Fälle aus Mexiko sind derzeit flu, and predicting millions of deaths call to invest in the improvement of social infection in England: a cross-Wielders CCH, van Lier EA, were ordered by the government costing public health leading body the krankmachende Wirkung, die producers for SARS, avian flu, and swine-prevent any infectious disease pandemic is pandemic influenza A H1N1 Netherlands YPLL comparison In Germany 50 million doses of vaccine It is worth noting that the German government agencies and vaccine Obviously, the most effective way to Zambon M Incidence of 2009 sprechen nicht für eine besonders tml killer virus scenarios, first propagated by accordingly the viral status of the sample. P, Stanford E, Andrews N, Virus. Die Befunde aus den USA ntent/52/suppl_1/S75.full.pdf+h new highly pathogenic killer virus. These 152-79. and are the reasons that countries invested the incidence of flu like symptoms and of Miller E, Hoschler K, Hardelid sich um ein verändertes H1N1-http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/co Diseases 2010 51:10, 1184-1191 http://www.journals.uchica go.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/65 6740 Jahrzehnten vorkommenden und in der Bevölkerung zirkulierenden Influenzaviren gehören zum Subtyp H1N1 und H3N2, beides Influenza-A-Viren, oder es sind Influenza B-Viren. Bei dem Schweinegrippen-Virus handelt es WHO based its evaluations merely on the re-assortment theory promoted by molecular virologists, specifically that two different viruses infecting a host at the same time may merge (= re-assort) into a Webster R, Bean W, Gorman O, Chambers TM, Kawaoka Y Evolution and Ecology of Influenza A Viruses Microbiologic Reviews 1992; 56: hunger. Yet still there were large excess mortality in the USA (would have produced 380,000 deaths in a 2004 population adjusting for improvements in health and health care -Murray et al). While Viboud et al estimates 1,27million deaths at the time . Those are big numbers Mortality estimate from Viboud et al: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc /articles/PMC2843747/figure/fig-3/ Secondly: Sound infectious disease population to obtain unbiased estimates of er8446.pdf random samples from the respective http://www.who.int/wer/2009/w appropriate 481-484 define the target population, draw 2009 virus WER 2009, 84, surveillance of influenza epidemics, e.g. pandemic influenza A (H1N1) epidemiology must be applied to the WHO Dynamics and impact of Clinical Infectious sind. Die in den letzten principle not have populations stricken by war and Influenza in Hong Kong davon, die "durchnummeriert" the basis of the precautionary rates remained high in the USA which did 2009 Pandemic H1N1 unterschiedliche Ausprägungen supportive of ordering vaccine on countries eg India vs USA. But the fatality Attack Rate and Severity of Tierreich existieren While at the same RKI was fatality rates were higher in poorer Peiris JSM The Infection Neuraminidase) abgekürzt. Im article) that where they were recorded YL, Leung GM, Cowling BJ, Virushülle (Hämagglutinin und difficult to assess....." documented by Murray (cited in the Keil CK, Tsang T, Lo S-V, Lau wichtigsten Eiweiße der cases from Mexico are more do well. For example in 1918 it is well IFN, Riley S, Ho LM, Lin Mit H und N werden die beiden particularily pathogenic effect, to then suggest that well-nourished people P-L, Shen AL, Ho A, Hung from the'US do not indicate a in flu epidemics pandemics but it incorrect ESK, Lee CK, Chu DKW, Ho Reihe von Todesfällen. It is true that poor populations suffer more variation of the H1N1 virus. Data fatality rate is Wu JT, Ma aufgetreten, dort gab es auch eine Influenza B. Swineflu is a 6;364(9432):417-22. en/ evaluated. small number of deaths could be attributed from seasonal and associated with the 2009 In den USA sind einige Fälle von the two most important outer molecular virologists reads as being anti-treatment, the disease declined infection and ARTI after Effectiveness of oseltamivir on Sweden ECDC public health development 02 Mar 2011 to the A/H1N1 pandemic, namely 258. Nobody is disputing that the infection fatality rate for the 2009 pandemic was low, But the reported deaths will always be an underestimate and that should be acknowledged. For example in the US the estimates of deaths from the pandemic are 5 to 6 times the reported deaths . I would not recommend using this or any other A/H1N1 pandemic in the US The German strategy was agreed by the Schweine-Influenza A/H1N1 beim proteins of the virus science. dramatically with the improvement of implementation of a DOTS disease progression and viral pandemic influenza and comparison with past independently chaired national committee Menschen entdeckt worden. Die (Hämagglutinin und social conditions. When streptomycin programme in south India. Gopi RNA shedding in patients with ECDC Mortality from Influenza seasons PLoS Curr which is STIKO German Standing Symptomatik dieser Fälle ist Neuraminidase). In animal world appeared on the scene (1952) the epidemic PG, Subramani R, Narayanan PR. mild pandemic 2009 influenza A influenza: Comparing Influenza. 2010 March 20: Committee on Vaccination (STIKO): and ähnlich wie bei saisonaler several kinds of them exist and Most people including scientists and in Europe had nearly disappeared. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2006 H1N1: opportunistic retrospective deaths from seasonal and RRN1153 its strange the authors do not refer to it. Influenza; ein Patient wurde im are identified by different politicians are hardly aware of the fact, Mar;10(3):346-8. study of medical charts in China pandemic influenza http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm Krankenhaus behandelt, aber alle numbers. The flu viruses that that the A/H1N1 virus of the Spanish BMJ 341:doi:10.1136/bmj.c4779 http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/ c/articles/PMC2843747/ erholten sich vollständig. In circulated in the recent decades in Influenza has hit populations stricken by The effect of tuberculosis control (Published 28 September 2010) healthtopics/H1N1/basic_f Mexiko sind laut Medienberichten human populations belong to the war and hunger: Poor, frail and in China. China Tuberculosis http://www.bmj.com/content/341/ acts/Pages/mortality_from estimate of the infection Schweinegrippe bei Menschen Influenza A viruses, and to death toll . 2004 Jul 31-Aug _influenza.aspx A good if conservative mehrere hundert Fälle von suptype H1N1 and H3N2, both undernourished people paid the highest Control Collaboration. Lancet. bmj.c4779.full.pdf+html

e. many or most of the population are non-immune to the new virus) with the following three characteristics.

• Able to infect humans,

•

Able to cause disease in humans, • Able to spread from human to human quite easily. WHO 2005 3. It is stated by Keil et al that the virus was not "new". It certainly was new in the sense that the virus had never Origins of the A(H1N1) 2009 virus from reassortment. Solovyov A, Palacios G, Briese T, Lipkin WI, Rabadan R.

Case fatality of known influenza viruses

Influenza Type

Case Fatality %


Sonia Boscolo
email: s.a.boscolo@aston.ac.uk

Christophe Finot

Nonlinearly Generated Advanced Pulse Waveforms for Optical Signal Processing

Keywords: nonlinear fibre optics, nonlinear pulse shaping, all-optical signal processing

Nonlinear phenomena occurring in optical fibres have many attractive features and great, but not yet fully explored potential in signal processing. Here, we review recent progress on the use of fibre nonlinearities for the generation and shaping of optical pulses, and on the applications of advanced pulse waveforms in all-optical signal processing. Among other topics, we will discuss ultrahigh repetition-rate pulse sources, the generation of parabolic-shaped pulses in active and passive fibres, the generation of pulses with triangular temporal profiles, and coherent supercontinuum sources. The signal processing applications will span optical regeneration, linear distortion compensation, optical decision at the receiver in optical communication systems, spectral and temporal signal doubling, and frequency conversion.

INTRODUCTION

The development of new photonic technologies for data processing in the all-optical domain is a field of growing importance with a strong potential for numerous applications in such diverse areas as optical telecommunications, metrology, optical sensing, microwave engineering, image processing, and optical computing, to name a few. Advantages of processing the information in the all-optical domain include the large available bandwidth and the (potential) parallelism intrinsic to the optical approach, which translate into highprocessing speeds. The third-order optical nonlinearity in silica-based single-mode (SM) fibres is one of the most important effects that can be used for all-optical signal processing. This happens not only because the third-order nonlinearity provides ultra-fast response times in the femtosecond range, but also because it is responsible for a wide range of phenomena such as third-harmonic generation, nonlinear refraction (Kerr nonlinearity), and stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering. The rapid recent developments of microstructured fibres with extremely small effective core areas and exhibiting enhanced nonlinear characteristics and of fibres using materials with refractive indexes higher than that of the silica glass have enabled dramatic reduction of the required fibre lengths for nonlinear processing compared to conventional fibres. Such progress has paved the way for the integration of fibre-based nonlinear processing functions on photonic chips.

In this paper, we provide a snapshot of recent results and advances in the use of nonlinear effects in optical fibres for optical waveform generation and pulse shaping, and in the applications of advanced pulse profiles in all-optical signal processing. The main attention in this paper will be focused on results obtained in our groups.

OPTICAL PULSE GENERATION AND SHAPING USING FIBRE NONLINEARITIES

Techniques for the generation, control, and manipulation of ultrashort optical pulses and specialized waveforms have become increasingly important as a scientific technique and tool. Conventional and recently developed linear solutions for picosecond and femtosecond pulse shaping in the optical domain [START_REF] Weiner | Femtosecond pulse processing[END_REF] are based on the socalled Fourier-domain approach, where the spectral-domain features of the input pulse are properly manipulated to obtain the spectral profile that corresponds to the desired temporal profile. However, a linear manipulation cannot increase the pulse bandwidth, and so to create shorter pulses nonlinear effects must be used. Moreover, in those applications that require spectral narrowing, linear filtering introduces a power penalty that is at least proportional to the ratio of the target spectrum to the input one. The pulse-shaping examples discussed in this section highlight some of the advantages offered by a passive, all-optical nonlinear fibre-based approach to pulse shaping.

As a first illustration of the possible nonlinear pulse shaping mechanisms in optical fibres, we review here the generation of ultrashort pulse trains with very high repetition rates exploiting the effect of temporal pulse compression in a nonlinear and anomalously dispersive fibre medium. Several works have demonstrated the gradual transformation of a sinusoidal beat-signal into well-separated pulses, the pulse repetition rate being simply determined by the frequency separation between the two continuous-wave laser sources. More recently, this nonlinear compression effect has been observed through a multiple four-wave mixing process in a single anomalously dispersive fibre, and has been proved to be an attractive and efficient technique to generate very high-repetition rate (up to 1THz) pulse trains, combining both stability and simplicity of the experimental setup, and tunability in wavelength, pulse duration and repetition rate [START_REF] Fatome | Multiple four-wave mixing in optical fibers : 1.5-3.4-THz femtosecond pulse sources and real-time monitoring of a 20-GHz picosecond source[END_REF][START_REF] Pitois | Generation of 20-Ghz picosecond pulse trains in the normal and anomalous dispersion regimes of optical fibers[END_REF]. From a fundamental point of view, the reshaping of a sinusoidal beat-signal into ultrashort localized structures is explained in terms of the dynamics of Akhmediev breathers as a result of the formation of Peregrine solitons [START_REF] Hammani | Peregrine soliton generation and breakup in standard telecommunications fiber[END_REF][START_REF] Hammani | Spectral dynamics of modulation instability described using Akhmediev breather theory[END_REF].

An important example of pulse reshaping in the normal dispersion regime of a fibre that has generated a great deal of attention in the last decade, is the formation of a particular class of pulses with a parabolic intensity profile and a linear frequency chirp in normally dispersive (ND), nonlinear fibre amplifying media. These pulses, so-called "similaritons", propagate in a self-similar manner, and can tolerate strong nonlinearity without wave breaking [START_REF] Fermann | Self-similar propagation and amplification of parabolic pulses in optical fibers[END_REF]. Alongside solitons in passive fibre, similaritons in fibre amplifiers are the most well-known classes of nonlinear attractors for pulse propagation in optical fibre. Experimental demonstrations relying on amplification from either rare-earth doping [START_REF] Fermann | Self-similar propagation and amplification of parabolic pulses in optical fibers[END_REF] or Raman scattering have been achieved [START_REF] Finot | Optical parabolic pulse generation and applications[END_REF]. Experimental interest has been strongly driven by the possibility of fully cancelling the linear chirp and thus generating ultrashort high-power pulses with very low substructures [START_REF] Finot | Optical parabolic pulse generation and applications[END_REF]. Moreover, self-similar pulse evolution in the ND passive or gain fibre of a fibre laser has been observed [START_REF] Wise | High-energy femtosecond fiber lasers based on pulse propagation at normal dispersion[END_REF][START_REF] Aguergaray | Experimental realization of a mode-locked parabolic Raman fiber oscillator[END_REF], and leads to major performance increases in pulse energy compared to previously-studied evolutions. In addition to single-pass fibre amplifiers and lasers, similaritons can be generated in passive fibres with dispersion-decreasing profiles [START_REF] Hirooka | Parabolic pulse generation by use of a dispersion-decreasing fiber with normal groupvelocity dispersion[END_REF], the longitudinal decrease of the normal dispersion being formally equivalent to linear gain. A simple approach to the generation of parabolic pulses that uses progressive nonlinear pulse reshaping in a ND fibre with fixed dispersion has been demonstrated in [START_REF] Finot | Parabolic pulse generation through passive nonlinear pulse reshaping in a normally dispersive two segment fiber device[END_REF]. In contrast with the asymptotic similariton solutions obtained in gain fibres, the generated parabolic waveforms represent transient states of the nonlinear pulse evolution in the passive fibre medium [START_REF] Boscolo | Passive nonlinear pulse shaping in normally dispersive fiber systems[END_REF]. As such, they have a finite life distance that depends on the initial pulse features (shape, energy, and chirp profile).

In the normal dispersion regime of a passive fibre, starting from a conventional initial field distribution, e.g., from a Gaussian pulse, besides parabolic waveforms it is possible to generate other advanced field distributions, such as flat-top-and triangular-profiled pulses with a linear chirp [START_REF] Boscolo | Passive nonlinear pulse shaping in normally dispersive fiber systems[END_REF]. A necessary condition for triangular pulse formation in the fibre is that the initial pulse has a nonzero, positive chirp (using the definition ibt 2 for the phase profile). These theoretical results have been confirmed experimentally by intensity and phase measurements of the generated pulses [START_REF] Wang | Generation of triangular-shaped optical pulses in normally dispersive fibre[END_REF] (Fig. 1(b)). An alternative method for the generation of triangular-shaped pulses in a passive ND fibre is based on the progressive reshaping of initially parabolic pulses driven by the fourth-order dispersion of the fibre [START_REF] Bale | Effects of fourth-order fiber dispersion on ultrashort parabolic optical pulses in the normal dispersion regime[END_REF]. Furthermore, the generation of linearly chirped pulses with a triangular distribution of the intensity has been recently demonstrated numerically as a novel type of nonlinear pulse-shaping regime in a mode-locked fibre laser [START_REF] Boscolo | Intermediate asymptotics in nonlinear optical systems[END_REF]. [START_REF] Wang | Generation of triangular-shaped optical pulses in normally dispersive fibre[END_REF].

(b) Experimental and numerical temporal intensity and chirp profiles retrieved from second-harmonic generation (SHG) frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) (left) and optical spectra (right) of the generated pulses for an example length of prechirping fibre. (c) SHG-FROG spectrogram of the pulse in (b). Results adapted from

One of the most well-known examples of pulse reshaping in the spectral domain is supercontinuum generation [START_REF] Dudley | Supercontinuum generation in optical fibers[END_REF]. The nonlinear pulse evolution in ND fibres leads to flatter spectra and improved temporal coherence compared to the case of continuum generated in the anomalous dispersion regime in the presence of solitonic effects and modulation instability. These features are attractive for various applications, such as in optical telecommunications where the broadened spectrum can be spectrally sliced to generate wavelength multiplexed pulse trains. The spectral ripple arising from self-phase modulation (SPM) of conventional laser pulses and the effects of optical wave breaking, which are the main limits to spectral pulse quality in the normal dispersion regime, can be avoided by using preshaped input pulses with a parabolic temporal intensity profile [START_REF] Parmigiani | Ultra-flat SPM-broadened spectra in a highly nonlinear fiber using parabolic pulses formed in a fiber Bragg grating[END_REF]. Low-noise multiwavelength picosecond sources covering the whole C-band of optical telecommunications have been demonstrated based on this technique.

APPLICATIONS OF PARABOLIC AND TRIANGULAR PULSES IN SIGNAL PROCESSING

Application of parabolic pulses have not been limited to ultrashort high-power pulse generation and highly coherent continuum sources, but several optical processing techniques have taken advantage of their specific features [START_REF] Finot | Optical parabolic pulse generation and applications[END_REF]. In an extension of the technique proposed by Mamyshev [START_REF] Mamyshev | All-optical data regeneration based on self-phase modulation effect[END_REF], spectral filtering of similariton pulses generated through distributed Raman amplification in a ND fibre has been shown to improve the ability of a 2R signal regenerator to eliminate spurious noise pulses as well as to simultaneously reduce any fluctuations in the signal one-bit level [START_REF] Finot | Regenerative 40-Gb/s wavelength converter based on similariton generation[END_REF]. The frequency-chirping of signal pulses by using cross-phase modulation (XPM) with parabolic control pulses is of great interest for various high-speed processing applications where electro-optic phase modulators are not available, or cannot provide sufficient phase shift. Indeed, the chirp induced by XPM on the target pulse is proportional to the gradient of the parabolic control pulse intensity profile, so it is exactly linear. This method has been demonstrated to increase the level of tolerable timing jitter that an optical retiming system can accommodate [START_REF] Parmigiani | Pulse retiming based on XPM using parabolic pulses formed in a fiber Bragg grating[END_REF]. Moreover, a near complete time-domain optical Fourier transformation can be obtained by using XPM with parabolic pulses as a time lens, and mitigation of the signal waveform distortion caused by linear perturbations in optical fibres has been successfully experimentally demonstrated with this technique [START_REF] Hirooka | All-optical 40-GHz Time-Domain Fourier Transformation using XPM with a dark parabolic pulse[END_REF]. A promising application of parabolic or flat-top pulses to the improvement of the signal bit-error rate in an optical communication system by using optical decision before the conventional receiver has been proposed in [START_REF] Boscolo | Time domain all-optical signal processing at a RZ optical receiver[END_REF][START_REF] Nasieva | Bit error rate improvement by nonlinear optical decision element[END_REF].

The simple intensity profile of triangular pulses is also highly desired for a range of processing applications, including time-domain add-drop multiplexing [START_REF] Parmigiani | Time domain add-drop multiplexing scheme enhanced using a saw-tooth pulse shaper[END_REF], wavelength conversion [START_REF] Parmigiani | An efficient wavelength converter exploiting a grating based saw-tooth pulse shaper[END_REF], doubling of optical signals [START_REF] Latkin | Doubling of optical signals using triangular pulses[END_REF], and time-to-frequency mapping of multiplexed signals. Here we discuss the use of triangular pulses in the context of signal doubling and frequency conversion. A technique of copying optical pulses in both the frequency and time domains based on a combination of either XPM with a triangular pump pulse or SPM of a triangular pulse in a nonlinear Kerr medium and subsequent propagation in a dispersive medium was introduced in [START_REF] Latkin | Doubling of optical signals using triangular pulses[END_REF] and experimentally demonstrated in [START_REF] Verscheure | Pulse doubling and wavelength conversion through triangular nonlinear pulse reshaping[END_REF]. In this scheme, spectral doubling of an optical signal is made possible by the XPM or SPM phase shift generated by a temporal intensity profile with a linear gradient, which translates into a constant and distinct (opposite sign) frequency chirp induced onto the leading (down-shifted) and trailing (up-shifted) edges of the signal pulse. Under subsequent propagation of the modulated signal pulse in a linear dispersive medium, the produced spectral separation of the pulse components leads to their subsequent separation in time, thus allowing temporal replication of the pulse. Applying spectral filtering to the XPM/SPM modulated signal is also possible to realize efficient and clean frequency conversion [START_REF] Parmigiani | An efficient wavelength converter exploiting a grating based saw-tooth pulse shaper[END_REF][START_REF] Verscheure | Pulse doubling and wavelength conversion through triangular nonlinear pulse reshaping[END_REF]. Figure 2 shows results of the experiment reported in [START_REF] Verscheure | Pulse doubling and wavelength conversion through triangular nonlinear pulse reshaping[END_REF]. Similarly to [START_REF] Wang | Generation of triangular-shaped optical pulses in normally dispersive fibre[END_REF], triangular pulses were generated by passive nonlinear reshaping in a ND fibre. Spectral pulse doubling was realized through the SPM experienced by the triangular pulses over their life distance in a highly nonlinear (HNL) fibre. The output SPM-shaped spectrum from the HNL fibre was sent into either a linear standard SM fibre segment to realize temporal pulse doubling or a wavelength demultiplexer filter for frequency conversion processing.

CONCLUSIONS

We have provided an overview of several recent examples of the use of nonlinear phenomena in optical fibres for the generation and shaping of optical pulses. Examples of new techniques or improvements in existing techniques of all-optical nonlinear fibre-based signal processing enabled by specialized pulse waveforms have been discussed. Details and further developments of these approaches will be presented at the conference.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. (a) Experimental setup for triangular pulse generation. (b) Experimental and numerical temporal intensity and chirp profiles retrieved from second-harmonic generation (SHG) frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) (left) and optical spectra (right) of the generated pulses for an example length of prechirping fibre. (c) SHG-FROG spectrogram of the pulse in (b). Results adapted from[START_REF] Wang | Generation of triangular-shaped optical pulses in normally dispersive fibre[END_REF].

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2. (a) Temporal (top) and spectral (bottom) intensity profiles after the ND reshaping fibre (left) and after the HNL fibre (right). (b) Top, evolution of the output spectrum from the HNL fibre with the input power (left),and dependence of the frequency spacing between the two spectral peaks on the input power (right). Bottom, evolution of the temporal intensity profile at the output of the linear SM fibre with the input power to the HNL fibre (left), and eye diagrams of a 10-Gbit/s pulse train obtained after spectral filtering for the ITU channels 34 and 42. Results adapted from[START_REF] Verscheure | Pulse doubling and wavelength conversion through triangular nonlinear pulse reshaping[END_REF].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank our co-authors of the publications that form a basis for the mini-review paper presented here, and acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust, the EPSRC, the British Council, the Région Bourgogne, and the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes.