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The article focuses on the privacy implications of active sensors in today's technology-driven world. It discusses how active sensors, such as radar, LiDAR, and sonar, can significantly impact privacy and the need for regulations to address these concerns. It also explores the concept of "creepy" technologies, which are new technologies or uses of existing technologies that challenge traditional social norms and may not be adequately regulated by current privacy laws.

In the United States of America (USA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintains operational control of the national airspace and the aircraft in it – including small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). However, states and local jurisdictions can regulate collection of imagery/data and where the operator of the aircraft is located. Surprisingly, numerous states have enacted laws that impact unmanned aircraft operations in the national airspace. The proliferation of state statutes regulating sUAS operations and imagery/data collections has resulted in a patchwork quilt of laws affecting the academic or researcher using sUAS in the United States for image collections. These legal challenges are often known in a scientist's home state but unknown and challenging to operate in another state. This research examined the state-level statutes (currently as of 2020) that govern sUAS operation and associated image collection in the United States as they would apply to academic research/instruction, in particular. All state statutes were categorized into the preparatory, operations, image/data collection regulations and the geographic space affected. The chronology, of when and by state, the laws enacted were also examined. These regulations are presented with interpretation of how the sUAS operator is affected and the possible exemptions available for university personnel lawfully operating a sUAS in their home state and in a non-home state. Problematic issues, such as the restriction of overflights over critical facilities, when the locations of these type facilities are unknown (because of security), are also presented and discussed. Recommendations on how an academic/researcher can qualify for an exemption to statute restrictions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is intended to evaluate the suitability of a common-sense-based approach for providing causal explanations to power quality disturbances and, more specifically, to voltage-sage events, with the aim of improving the security and reliability of the electrical grid. Since voltage sags are one of the most common power-quality disturbance and may have a severe impact on sensitive loads and users, the case study presented is dedicated to find their causes as a prerequisite to prevent them. The main contribution presented in this work is in the knowledge management domain. However, the proposed architecture adopts a multi-layer approach that comprehensively faces all the necessary stages, comprising: measurement and data collection, filtering, distribution, homogenization, and integration up to the process of inference of the possible cause of the event. The architecture of the proposed system comprises three layers, namely: the information gathering, the information modeling and the information understanding layers. The proposed system has been evaluated using a synthetic dataset of simulated voltages sags. Information about weather conditions and different location features and environmental circumstances is aggregated to the electrical features of the voltage sag, in order to improve the inference of the external cause of the event. Even though a real-world dataset would be required to fully validate the proposed system and assess the benefits in a real scenario, the results obtained with the synthetic dataset are satisfactory and an overall accuracy above 90% of the cause identification is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an Internet of Things architecture for Smart Homes that specifically targets service composition and reconfiguration as enablers for the actuation and smart behavior capabilities. To this end, the main challenge that has to be addressed is the support to a seamless integration, composition, and reconfiguration of Internet of Things objects. Two enabling technologies are proposed here: a planning strategy based on a common-sense reasoning approach for service composition and a virtual-network protocol for Inter-Domain Messaging. The planner will identify the services that, properly connected, will cater for arisen, and therefore, unexpected needs. The virtual-network protocol will provide the support for this interconnection to take place in a transparent and orthogonal manner. This is particularly important to enable autonomous systems to instantiate composite services. To demonstrate the capabilities of the resulting framework, two use cases are presented, which under real circumstances demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensor networks are becoming an essential part of ubiquitous systems and applications. However, there are no well-defined protocols or mechanisms to access the sensor network from the enterprise information system. We consider this issue as a heterogeneous network interconnection problem, and as a result, the same concepts may be applied. Specifically, we propose the use of object-oriented middlewares to provide a virtual private network in which all involved elements (sensor nodes or computer applications) will be able to communicate as if all of them were in a single and uniform network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A solid and versatile communications platform is very important in modern Ambient Intelligence (AmI) applications, which usually require the transmission of large amounts of multimedia information over a highly heterogeneous network. This article focuses on the concept of Process-in-Network (PIN), which is defined as the possibility that the network processes information as it is being transmitted, and introduces a more comprehensive approach than current network processing technologies. PIN can take advantage of waiting times in queues of routers, idle processing capacity in intermediate nodes, and the information that passes through the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chromosomes architecture is viewed as a key component of gene regulation, but principles of chromosomal folding remain elusive. Here we used high-throughput live cell microscopy to characterize the conformation and dynamics of the longest chromosome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (XII). Chromosome XII carries the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) that defines the nucleolus, a major hallmark of nuclear organization. We determined intranuclear positions of 15 loci distributed every ~100 kb along the chromosome, and investigated their motion over broad time scales (0.2-400 s). Loci positions and motions, except for the rDNA, were consistent with a computational model of chromosomes based on tethered polymers and with the Rouse model from polymer physics, respectively. Furthermore, rapamycin-dependent transcriptional reprogramming of the genome only marginally affected the chromosome XII internal large-scale organization. Our comprehensive investigation of chromosome XII is thus in agreement with recent studies and models in which long-range architecture is largely determined by the physical principles of tethered polymers and volume exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]