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In this paper, we present a method for segmenting lung lobe regions and segmental lobe regions from 3D CT datasets. In a CAD system for the chest, it is very important to understand structures of the chest by a computer. It is required to develop algorithms that automatically segment organ regions of the chest area from input 3-D chest CT datasets. This paper tries to divide lung regions into lung lobe regions and segmental lobe regions by the figure decomposition process and the Voronoi division process. In this method, we enhance sheet structures on CT images by using eigenvalues of a Hessian matrix. Also, the lung regions are segmented by simple thresholding and morphological filtering. Then, we subtract sheet structures from the lung regions. By applying the figure decomposition process, we obtain each lung lobe region. Segmental lobe regions are obtained by the Voronoi division process using bronchial branch information The proposed method was applied to thirteen cases of 3-D chest CT images. Experimental results showed that the proposed method can extract lung lobe regions and segmental lobe regions even for cases of incomplete fissure or over-extraction of interlobar pleura.

The detailed description about the OMIS (One Machine-Infinite Bus) and the SLIS(Single Load -Infinite Bus)will be done in this paper and the detailed introduction of these two concepts(the coherent generators and the coherent buses) and their aggregation. Based on the new OMIS model, the new methods of identifying the coherent generators and aggregating the coherent generators will be advanced. Based on the coherent generators, the new algorithm for the reserving coefficient of the steady angular stability will comes into being. Based on the new SLIS model, the new methods of identifying the coherent buses and aggregating the coherent buses will be put forward. Based on the coherent buses, the new algorithm for the reserving coefficient of the steady voltage stability will be brought about. A real example is used to validate the idea in this paper. A discussion on the angular references between the online data and the offline data will be done when the phases from the WAMS are used. The steady stability of two generators model will be acquired.

Background Epigenetic dysregulation has been increasingly proposed as a hallmark of cancer. Here, the aim of this study is to establish an epigenetic-related signature for predicting the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. Results Five epigenetic-related genes (ERGs) (ARRB1, PARP1, PKM, TFDP1, and YWHAZ) were identified as prognostic hub genes and used to establish a prognostic signature. According our risk score system, LUAD patients were stratified into high and low risk groups, and patients in the high risk group had a worse prognosis. ROC analysis indicated that the signature was precise in predicting the prognosis. A new nomogram was constructed based on the five hub genes, which can predict the OS of every LUAD patients. The calibration curves showed that the nomogram had better accuracy in prediction. Finally, candidate drugs that aimed at hub ERGs were identified, which included 47 compounds. Conclusions Our epigenetic-related signature nomogram can effectively and reliably predict OS of LUAD patients, also we provide precise targeted chemotherapeutic drugs. Methods The genomic data and clinical data of LUAD cohort were downloaded from the TCGA database and ERGs were obtained from the EpiFactors database. GSE31210 and GSE50081 microarray datasets were included as independent external datasets. Univariate Cox, LASSO regression, and multivariate Cox analyses were applied to construct the epigenetic-related signature.

It is still important and difficult for a biped robot to optimally generate the stable walking trajectory, because the mechanical limitations of the given biped robot should be also considered carefully. In this paper, we assume that different walking trajectories enable to be generated according to various set of weights of torques loaded in each partial joint (e.g., ankle, knee, and hip joint). We present a method for generating various bipedal walking trajectories corresponding to a set of weighted torques. For this purpose, Tchebychev method and sequential quadratic programming are employed to optimize single cost functions consisting in a set of weight torques. Some notations and constraints introduced in [1] are used and modified in this paper.

Data on financial challenges in intercollegiate athletics consistently show that expenses are outpacing new revenues. Since 2004, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions’ median revenues increased 94 percent while expenses increased 120 percent during the same time period (Fulks, 2015). As such, institutions face tough decisions about the possible elimination of sport teams to control costs. Current accounting methods in intercollegiate athletics, however, make it difficult for leaders to deliver informed decisions concerning sport sponsorship, Title IX compliance, and overall program operations. Institutional leaders, the NCAA, reform groups such as the Knight Commission, and the federal government, are calling for athletic departments to report more consistent and accurate financial data. The purpose of this paper is to respond to the call for accounting reform in intercollegiate athletics; specifically, to create a better representation of the costs associated with each sport and to show how accurate costing provides insight for Title IX compliance. By applying activity-based costing (ABC) to a budget from one NCAA FBS university, this research revealed the accurate cost of sport sponsorship varied greatly in comparison with institutional reporting. ABC application eliminated the expense category of unallocated (i.e., marketing, compliance, general administration, etc.) and distributed expenses back to each sport. Results showed women’s sports increased from 24 percent of total costs to 32 percent of total costs within the activity-based costing application (data relevant to prong three of Title IX). Institutional leaders should be encouraged to use ABC to better understand department operational costs.

China is the most productive seaweed farming country in the world and her seaweed imports and exports have a significant impact on global seaweed trade commodities and food security. Nevertheless, few studies had delved into the main characteristics and development of China's seaweed farming industry. This paper aims to narrow this research gap by analyzing trade patterns in China's seaweed products and the international competitiveness of seaweed product by using the international market share index (IMS), the trade competitiveness index (TC), and revealed comparative advantage index (RCA) from 2002 to 2017. The results showed that Japan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Chile, Peru, and the Republic of Korea are China's main trade partners, the total trade value of China's seaweed products has grown rapidly, its imports have gradually exceeded exports, the trade deficit continues to expand, and its competitiveness keeps decreasing. The reasons for this trend may include the changing seaweed trade commodity structure, product differentiation, increased government support in competing countries, and trade barriers among the trade partners. We propose actively expanding international trade markets, establishing a strong seaweed product processing industry to develop high value-added seaweed products, optimizing the trade commodity structure, and differentiating of seaweed products to improve the competitiveness of China's seaweed products.

Embedded software is at the core of current and future telecommunication, automotive, multimedia, and industrial automation systems. The success of practically any industrial application depends on the embedded software system's dependability, and one method to verify the dependability of a system is testing its robustness. The motivation behind this paper is to provide a knowledge base of the state of the practice in robustness testing of embedded software systems and to compare this to the state of the art. We have gathered the information on the state of the practice in robustness testing from seven different industrial domains (telecommunication, automotive, multimedia, critical infrastructure, aerospace, consumer products, and banking) by conducting 13 semi-structured interviews. We investigate the different aspects of robustness testing, such as the general view of robustness, relation to requirements engineering and design, test execution, failures, and tools. We highlight knowledge from the state of the practice of robustness testing of embedded software systems. We found different robustness testing practices that have not been previously described. This paper shows that the state of the practice, when it comes to robustness testing, differs between organizations and is quite different from the state of the art described in the scientific literature. For example, methods commonly described in the literature (e.g., the fuzzy approach) are not used in the organizations we studied. Instead, the interviewees described several ad hoc approaches that take specific scenarios into account (e.g., power failure or overload). Other differences we found concern the classification of robustness failures, the hypothesized root causes of robustness failures, and the types of tools used for robustness testing. This paper is a first step in capturing the state of the practice of robustness testing of embedded software systems. The results can be used by both researchers and practitioners. Researchers can use our findings to understand the gap between the state of the art and the state of the practice and develop their studies to fill this gap. Practitioners can also learn from this knowledge base regarding how they can improve their practice and acquire other practices. TOCSYC

Optimal pressure regulation to reduce water losses in water distribution systems (WDSs) becomes an important concern due to the increasing water demand and the threat of drought in many areas of the world. The leakage amount in a WDS depends heavily on its operating pressure and thus can be minimized by implementing optimal pressure strategies through pressure reducing valves (PRVs). To achieve this, a model-based optimization is necessary, where an accurate model of the PRVs is required. The PRV models having been used until now for pressure regulations are two-mode models which cannot circumstantiate many situations occurring in WDSs. In this paper, we extend the existing model by a three-mode one for PRVs which is able to describe the required circumstances of pressure regulations in WDSs. The non-smoothness of this model is smoothed by an approximation approach, thus allowing the formulation and solution of a continuous nonlinear optimization problem for optimal pressure regulation. Two benchmark WDSs are used to verify our approach and it can be shown from the results that our PRV model outperforms the existing models in terms of the quality and accuracy of the optimal solutions.

This paper proposes a static modeling and power flow calculation of the More Electric Aircraft (MEA) power system to study the stability and the fault analysis. Combined with the common land power system, the structure and characteristics of MEA power system are firstly illustrated and the static models are built. Then, on the basis of the alternate iteration method, the method to calculate and analysis the AC/DC hybrid MEA power system is described. Finally, the power flow calculation results and adjust strategy under different working period are showed with an example of Boeing 787. The simulation results showed that the programmed algorithm can accord with the characteristics of MEA power system and the power flow distribution and adjustment strategy are simple and clear.

Many research projects and implementations related to QoS (Quality of Service) management technologies for providing stable network services have been undertaken. To perform QoS management, traffic classes are required. Generally, traffic is classified by setting priorities for packets, and the methods of setting those priorities include passive admission control in which clients set priorities and active admission control in which network edge routers check traffic and set priorities. To perform active admission control, identification information such as a TCP or UDP header must be inspected. However, with existing security protocols such as ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) or SSH (Secure Shell), these kinds of information cannot be inspected because they are encrypted. Based on the point of view that active admission control should be performed to simplify QoS management of IP networks, the authors of this paper propose a security protocol named ESPQ (ESP considered QoS) for constructing active admission controllable packets and investigate the stability of that protocol. They also perform implementation experiments to show that existing control equipment such as routers can perform QoS management of ESPQ packets. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 87(2): 47–58, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.10215

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine differences between urban and rural primary care clinics in the use of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening methods and evidence-based interventions to promote CRC screening. METHODS This was a cross-sectional survey of primary care clinics in Nebraska. Surveys in paper form were sent out and followed up with telephone interviews to nonrespondents. Of the 375 facilities, 263 (70.1%) responded to the survey. FINDINGS Over 30% of urban clinics indicated that 80% or more of their patients were meeting the CRC guidelines compared to 18.3% of rural clinics (P = .03). Rural clinics were more likely than urban clinics to prefer the use of colonoscopy alone or in combination with stool tests (P = .02). The most common interventions for CRC screening included one-on-one patient education and use of computer-based pop-ups to remind providers. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we found some important differences between rural and urban primary care clinics in the implementation of CRC screening. Given that there is evidence for differences in preference for CRC screening methods (colonoscopy vs stool-based tests) between rural and urban community members, it is important to assess the effectiveness of different types of CRC screening interventions by comparing rural and urban primary care clinic patient populations.

Vesicouterine fistula is one of the rare varieties of urogenital fistula. Type I urogenital fistula or Youssef syndrome is characterised by menouria, amenorrhoea and urinary continence and it mostly follows lower segment caesarean delivery. There are only scattered case reports to help guide diagnostic and therapeutic options for this condition. These patients mostly need a combination of diagnostic modalities to confirm the diagnosis. Here, we present one such case of para 4 live 4 with classical symptoms of Youssef syndrome following a laparotomy for uterine rupture repair. CT urography confirmed the diagnosis and cystoscopy helped localise the exact location. Transabdominal fistula excision and repair was done. The paper also presents a summary of diagnostic and therapeutic options for this condition as reported in previous case reports for easy reference for practising gynaecologists and urologists.

The conventional wisdom is that American universities transfer technologies more rapidly and more effectively than their European counterparts. While this appears to be true, it is important to note that there are substantial cultural, legal, and regulatory differences between the two regions, and even within Europe. We believe that European universities can enhance their effectiveness in technology transfer if this function is given more visibility and prestige, enhanced public support, and formal procedures are implemented to facilitate benchmarking. In this paper, we examine some of the differences in university technology transfer in Europe and the U.S., and discuss these new approaches, which have recently been fully supported by the European Commission.

Evolution of software often decreases desired properties like readability and maintainability of the evolved code. The process of refactoring aims at increasing the same desired properties by restructuring the code. New paradigms like AOP allow aspect-oriented refactorings as counterparts of object-oriented refactoring with the same aim. However, it is not obvious to the user, when to use which paradigm for achieving certain goals. In this paper we present an approach of code clone classification, which advises the developer when to use a respective refactoring technique or concept.

Background: The TAPUAKI programme aimed to improve Pacific women’s, their partners and families’ knowledge and confidence about pregnancy and parenting so they can make informed choices about their health and that of their infants. The programme consisted of six two-hour blocks of antenatal classes run over six consecutive weeks.Aim: To evaluate the TAPUAKI programme for the effectiveness and delivery of its curriculum to pregnant mothers.Methods: Both paper survey questionnaires and focus group interviews (talanoa) were used for the evaluation. Out of 32 participants who attended the TAPUAKI programme, 13 agreed to take part in the evaluation (a response rate of 41%). There were 3 sites (from 2013-2014) where the programme was piloted: Henderson, Onehunga and Otara. The 13 participants were Samoan, Cook Islands Māori or Tongan ethnicity, all aged between 17 and 40 years old. In addition, there were 2 female facilitators at each site who delivered the curriculum. All six facilitators agreed to take part in the evaluation. Findings: Participants reported that their knowledge about pregnancy and parenting had increased as a result of the programme. Specifically, these topics were nutrition, giving birth, breastfeeding and safe sleeping practices. The programme helped to change some incorrect practices and beliefs that were held by those participants who already had children.Conclusion: The TAPUAKI programme increased the women’s knowledge and confidence about pregnancy and parenting.

This paper presents a new transistor self-oscillating inverter suitable for high efficiency switch mode power supplies, which can operate directly from high voltages and is free from output transformer saturation problems due to transistor characteristic mismatch. It uses a half-bridge power circuit, consisting of two transistors in one limb and two capacitors in the other. Amongst several advantages of this configuration, the switching transistors need to withstand a minimum voltage equal to the dc supply only and not higher as in conventional circuits, while using only two transistors.

Aim: of this paper is to review the recent literature on the relationship between ectopic fat accumulation and cardiovascular disease. Data synthesis: Ectopic fat is an important predictor of metabolic (in particular insulin resistance) and cardiovascular disease, carrying more risk than general fat accumulation. Recent studies have shown a link between ectopic fat accumulation, as cardiac (epicardial or intra-myocardial fat) and/or visceral and/or hepatic fat, and development of atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease and hypertension. Conclusions: Ectopic fat accumulation is not only a marker of cardiometabolic disease, since through the release of adipocitokines, lipotoxic and glucotoxic agents, participates in the crosstalk with insulin-sensitive organs leading to metabolic, cardiac and vascular dysfunctions., This article version may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with CC BY-NC-ND license terms and conditions.

This is the unformatted version of the accepted review paper manuscript "Extended criteria grafts and emerging therapeutics strategy in liver transplantation. The unstable balance between damage and repair" published on Transplant Rev (Orlando)2021 Dec;35(4):100639. doi: 10.1016/j.trre.2021.100639., by Ghinolfi D, Melandro F, Torri F, Martinelli C, Cappello V, Babboni S, Silvestrini B, De Simone P, Basta G,Del Turco S. Due to increasing demand for donor organs, "extended criteria" donors are increasingly considered for liver transplantation, including elderly donors and donors after cardiac death. The grafts of this subgroup of donors share a major risk to develop significant features of ischemia reperfusion injury, that may eventually lead to graft failure. Ex-situ machine perfusion technology has gained much interest in liver transplantation, because represents both a useful tool for improving graft quality before transplantation and a platform for the delivery of therapeutics directly to the organ. In this review, we survey ongoing clinical evidences supporting the use of elderly and DCD donors in liver transplantation, and the underlying mechanistic aspects of liver aging and ischemia reperfusion injury that influence graft quality and transplant outcome. Finally, we highlight evidences in the field of new therapeutics to test in MP in the context of recent findings of basic and translational research.

Traditional supervised keyphrase extraction models depend on the features of labeled keyphrases while prevailing unsupervised models mainly rely on global structure of the word graph, with nodes representing candidate words and edges/links capturing the co-occurrence between words. However, the local context information of the word graph can not be exploited in existing unsupervised graph-based keyphrase extraction methods and integrating different types of information into a unified model is relatively unexplored. In this paper, we propose a new word embedding model specially for keyphrase extraction task, which can capture local context information and incorporate them with other types of crucial information into the low-dimensional word vector to help better extract keyphrases. Experimental results show that our method consistently outperforms 7 state-of-the-art unsupervised methods on three real datasets in Computer Science area for keyphrase extraction.

This paper discusses the digital automation workflows and co-design methods that made possible the comprehensive robotic prefabrication of the BUGA Wood Pavilion - a large-scale production case study of robotic timber construction. Latest research in architectural robotics often focuses on the advancement of singular aspects of integrated digital fabrication and computational design techniques. Few researchers discuss how a multitude of different robotic processes can come together into seamless, collaborative robotic fabrication workflows and how a high level of interaction within larger teams of computational design and robotic fabrication experts can be achieved. It will be increasingly important to discuss suitable methods for the management of robotics and computational design in construction for the successful implementation of robotic fabrication systems in the context of the industry. We present here how a co-design approach enabled the organization of computational design decisions in reciprocal feedback with the fabrication planning, simulation and robotic code generation. We demonstrate how this approach can implement direct and curated reciprocal feedback between all planning domains - paving the way for fast-paced integrative project development. Furthermore, we discuss how the modularization of computational routines simplify the management and computational control of complex robotic construction efforts on a per-project basis and open the door for the flexible reutilization of developed digital technologies across projects and building systems., European Regional Development Fund, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg, Projekt DEAL, Bundesgartenschau Heilbronn 2019 GmbH, GETTYLAB

The Republic of Croatia, as a Mediterranean country with an indented coast has an archipelago with more than a thousand islands which is a recognizable market potential of the Croatian tourism. Because of the natural values, a particularly valuable and successful part of the Croatian tourism and the potential of islands development is the development of nautical tourism. The indicators of the quality of nautical tourism and the nautical tourism quality management system have not been sufficiently studied yet. The basic principle of nautical tourism development management is the principle of sustainable development, which in a compromised and balanced manner is pre-condition for analyses of the need to preserve the natural environment and the need for economic development. Strategic documents of the Republic of Croatia define “nautical tourism as a special type of tourism which apart from navigation in private organization – cruising by one’s own or leased vessel with onboard accommodation and/or sleeping of tourists, includes also cruises in the organization of vessel owners and travel agencies with accommodation and/or sleeping of tourists onboard these vessels, and navigation of tourists onboard vessels for the purpose of other forms of holidays and recreation (fishing, diving).” The paper will implement the multi-criteria decision-making methodology in selecting the criteria and sub-criteria of the nautical tourism development model. The influence of criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives on the function of objective i.e. the development function of islands and the assessment of influence of factors will be determined. The research results are based on the expert assessment and input data on the system (elements, characteristics) of nautical tourism of the Republic of Croatia.

Purpose Many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria have initiated programmes targeted at addressing food insecurity, but without any major significant breakthrough. This necessitates the call for inclusion of social network institutional framework into the food and nutrition security policy of many developing countries. This is touted as an important social safety net needed for farming households’ economic advancement and welfare. Consequent on this, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of social networks in building resilience against food insecurity among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Data collected from a sample of 297 smallholder farmers during 2015/2016 agricultural production season were analysed using descriptive statistics to describe farmers’ notable characteristics. However, Foster–Greer–Thorbecke indices vis-à-vis food consumption expenditure-metrics technique was used to evaluate the food security profile of the respondents. Similarly, ordinary least square and two-stage least square (2SLS) models were applied to investigate the effects and “reverse causality” in the social networks food security model. Findings The study findings indicated that about 48.15 per cent of the smallholder farmers are food insecure. Similarly, the study revealed that age (ppppppp Social implications There is an urgent need for pragmatic policies that support systematic and organized social groups and networks formation in the rural/agrarian areas across Nigeria. Originality/value A widely accepted view of economic theory posits that traditional capitals (physical, economic/financial and human) drive households’ welfare including food security status. However, this study has established the relevance of social networks as an important component of human well-being. Apparently, this study also established the exogeneity of social networks in the framework of households’ food security status.

This research opinion paper advocates for a new system of treating viral infections and diseases, it lays more emphasis on the current virus called Covid -19 virus (Corona Virus), it is a new innovation different from the known methods of treating viral infections and diseases. Some of the known methods include use of vaccines, anti -viral medication, monoclonal, serology. Most recently, stem cells have proved to be very effective in solving complex medical diseases such as leukemia, cancer and a host of other medical diseases that pose difficult challenges to the medical field. This method could be used to cure covid-19 permanently and then simulated to solve and cure other viral infections such as HIV and AIDS, Ebola, Hanta Virus and a host of other diseases like Malaria, Chicken-Pox, Small Pox, Measles etc. It is worthy to note that viruses are always evolving by way of mutation and are developing intelligent and strategic ways to beat or avoid being detected by the immune system, this can be seen in HIV and AIDS virus which attacks CD4 cells and even goes as far as engaging and fighting to wear down the T-Cells. Also, Covid -19 tries to proofread the cells to counter anti-viral drugs such as Ribavirin. Although Remdesivir anti-viral medication which has proven to work on some covid-19 patients, cannot be proofread by the corona virus. More insight about this "Autologous stem cells trapping mechanism" is discussed under conceptual framework of this research paper and attention should also be given to the suggestions and recommendations as they hold potential methods to permanently stop the actions of viruses in invading the human cells.

This paper proposes a design method of the feed- forward controller to improve on the non-interference control performance of a single-phase AC/DC PWM converter in parallel for high speed trains. The feed-forward controller compensates interference phenomenon generated by switching converter in parallel. As the secondary leakage inductance in transformer is changed by operating conditions of the trans- former, the gain value of feed-forward controller is calculated by estimating the changed leakage inductance. The estimation procedure of the boost inductance is only based on the variation of input current and the input AC voltage measurement. The estimated boost inductance is optimized by the least square method. Then the controller with gain value can exactly compensate the interference phenomenon. The validity of proposed technique is verified through the MATLAB Simulink simulation results.

In this paper we present a new classification method based on Dictionary Learning (DL). The main contribution consists of a kernel version of incoherent DL, derived from its standard linear counterpart. We also propose an improvement of the AK-SVD algorithm concerning the representation update. Our algorithms are tested on several popular databases of classification problems.

Large-scale, multi-point, multimedia conferencing applications designed to facilitate long-distance collaboration are enjoying growing popularity. Usually composed of real-time audio, video and shared-drawing applications, these collaborative environments help render the geographical location of collaborators irrelevant. To complement these existing collaborative applications, it would be useful to have the ability to distribute documents synchronously over the World Wide Web (WWW). One model for synchronized information dissemination within the Web is webcasting in which data are simultaneously distributed to multiple destinations. The WWW's traditional unicast client/server communication model suffers, however, when applied to webcasting; solutions which require many clients to simultaneously fetch data from the origin server using the client/server model will likely cause server and link overload.A number of webcasting solutions have been proposed. Many have limited scalability because they are based on unicast while others use multicast for more scalable data delivery but require server modification or have rigid architectures. We believe that successful webcasting solutions will provide scalable, reliable delivery yet still be compatible with the existing Web infrastructure.In this paper we describe a webcast design that improves upon previous designs by leveraging application level framing (ALF) design methodology. We build upon the Scalable Reliable Multicast (SRM) framework, which is based upon ALF, to create a custom protocol to meet webcast's scalability needs. We employ the protocol in an architecture consisting of two reusable components: a webcache component and a browser control component. We have implemented our design using the MASH multimedia application toolkit and a SRM protocol module called libsrm. We present the results of a simple performance evaluation and report on lessons learned while using MASH and libsrm.

The Linear Mixing Model (LMM) of hyperspectral images asumes that pixel spectra are affine combinations of basic spectral signatures, called endmembers, which are the vertices of a convex polytope covering the image data. Endmember induction algorithms (EIA) extract the endmembers from the image data, obtaining a precise spectral characterization of the image. The WM algorithm assumes that a set of Affine Independent vectors can be extracted from the rows and columns of dual Lattice Autoassociative Memories (LAAM) built on the image spectra. Indeed, the set of endmembers induced by this algorithm defines a convex polytope covering the hyperspectral image data. However, the number of induced endmembers obtained by this procedure is too high for practical purposes, besides they are highly correlated. In this paper, we apply a greedy sparsification algorithm aiming to select the minimal set of endmembers that explains the data in the image. We report results on a well known benchmark image.

Edge computing is projected to become the dominant form of cloud computing in the future because of the significant advantages it brings to both users (less latency, higher throughput) and telecom operators (less Internet traffic, more local management). However, to fully unlock its potential at scale, system designers and automated optimization systems alike will have to monitor closely the dynamics of both processing and communication facilities. Especially the latter is often neglected in current systems since network performance in cloud computing plays only a minor role. In this paper, we propose the architecture of MECPerf, which is a solution to collect network measurements in a live edge computing domain, to be collected for offline provisioning analysis and simulations, or to be provided in real-time for on-line system optimization. MECPerf has been validated in a realistic testbed funded by the European Commission (Fed4Fire+), and we describe here a summary of the results, which are fully available as open data and through a Python library to expedite their utilization. This is demonstrated via a use case involving the optimization of a system parameter for migrating clients in a federated edge computing system adopting the GSMA platform operator concept.

The wide availability of embedded sensor platforms and lowcost cameras—together with the developments in wireless communication—make it now possible the conception of pervasive intelligent systems based on vision. Such systems may be understood as distributed and collaborative sensor networks, able to produce, aggregate and process images in order to understand the observed scene and communicate the relevant information found about it. In this paper, we investigate the peculiarities of visual sensor networks with respect to standard vision systems and we identify possible strategies to accomplish image processing and analysis tasks over them. Although the rather strong constraints in computational and transmission power of embedded platforms that may prevent the use of state of the art computer vision and pattern recognition methods, we argue that multinode processing methods may be envisaged to decompose a complex task into a hierarchy of computationally simpler problems to be solved over the nodes of the network. These ideas are illustrated by describing an application of visual sensor network to infomobility. In particular, we consider an experimental setting in which several views of a parking lot are acquired by the sensor nodes in the network. By integrating the various views, the network is capable to provide a description of the scene in terms of the available spaces in the parking lot.

Short-range wireless technologies will enable vehicles to communicate and coordinate their actions, thus improving people's safety and traffic efficiency. Whereas IEEE 802.11p (and related standards) had been the only practical solution for years, in 2016 a new option was introduced with Release of 14 long-term evolution (LTE), which includes new features to enable direct vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. LTE-V2V promises a more efficient use of the channel compared to IEEE 802.11p, thanks to an improved PHY layer and the use of orthogonal resources at the MAC layer. In LTE-V2V, a key role is played by the resource allocation algorithm and increasing efforts are being made to design new solutions to optimize the spatial reuse. In this context, an important aspect still little studied, is therefore that of identifying references that allow, first, to have a perception of the space in which the resource allocation algorithms move and, second, to verify the performance of new proposals. In this paper, we focus on a highway scenario and identify two algorithms to be used as a minimum and maximum reference in terms of the packet reception probability (PRP). The PRP is derived as a function of various parameters that describe the scenario and settings, from the application to the physical layer. Results, obtained both in a simplified Poisson point process scenario and with realistic traffic traces, show that the PRP varies considerably with different algorithms and that there is room for the improvement of current solutions.

Secondary arc extinction time is an important factor, which influences system stability because it directly affects the reclosing time. However, few reports exist on a field data of the secondary arc extinction time on transmission lines. This paper describes the investigation results of secondary arc extinction characteristics by analyzing voltage wave shapes during the lightning faults on 550 kV transmission lines. Recovery voltages and secondary arc currents on each transmission line during faults were calculated to consider correlation with the secondary arc extinction time. The secondary arc extinction time is estimated by the existing formula, the secondary arc current and the recovery voltage required for one second reclosing are evaluated.

The UMTS/LTE protocol for mobile phone networks has been designed to offer a limited form of anonymity for mobile phone users. In this paper, we quantify precisely what this limited form of anonymity actually provides via a formal security model. The model considers an execution where the home and roaming network providers are considered as one entity. We consider two forms of anonymity, one where the mobile stations under attack are statically selected before the execution, and a second where the adversary selects these stations adaptively. We prove that the UMTS/LTE protocol meets both of these security definitions. Our analysis requires new assumptions on the underlying keyed functions for UMTS, namely that a set of pseudorandom functions are "agile". This assumption, while probably true, has not previously been brought to the fore.

none 12 si In this paper we present D.A.V.I.D.E. (Development for an Added Value Infrastructure Designed in Europe), an innovative and energy efficient High Performance Computing cluster designed by E4 Computer Engineering for PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe). D.A.V.I.D.E. is built using best-in-class components (IBM’s POWER8-NVLink CPUs, NVIDIA TESLA P100 GPUs, Mellanox InfiniBand EDR 100 Gb/s networking) plus custom hardware and an innovative system middleware software. D.A.V.I.D.E. features (i) a dedicated power monitor interface, built around the BeagleBone Black Board that allows high frequency sampling directly from the power backplane and scalable integration with the internal node telemetry and system level power management software; (ii) a custom-built chassis, based on OpenRack form factor, and liquid cooling that allows the system to be used in modern, energy efficient, datacenter; (iii) software components designed for enabling fine grain power monitoring, power management (i.e. power capping and energy aware job scheduling) and application power profiling, based on dedicated machine learning components. Software APIs are offered to developers and users to tune the computing node performance and power consumption around on the application requirements. The first pilot system that we will deploy at the beginning of 2017, will demonstrate key HPC applications from different fields ported and optimized for this innovative platform. open Abu Ahmad, Wissam; Bartolini, Andrea; Beneventi, Francesco; Benini, Luca; Borghesi, Andrea; Cicala, Marco; Forestieri, Privato; Gianfreda, Cosimo; Gregori, Daniele; Libri, Antonio; Spiga, Filippo; Tinti, Simone Abu Ahmad, Wissam; Bartolini, Andrea; Beneventi, Francesco; Benini, Luca; Borghesi, Andrea; Cicala, Marco; Forestieri, Privato; Gianfreda, Cosimo; Gregori, Daniele; Libri, Antonio; Spiga, Filippo; Tinti, Simone

In framed buildings, the application of high strength (HS) steel in composite beams is not only beneficial in reducing the self-weight of the structure, but the increased-strength attribute of HS steel is also utilised because most of the steel section in composite beams is in tension and buckling is not an issue. Despite this, published research of HS steel–concrete composite beams is quite limited, and it is not yet considered in current national design standards. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed in this paper to investigate the bending behaviour of simply supported HS steel–concrete composite beams. Both geometric and material non-linear behaviour are taken into account. The numerical model is validated by using a number of existing experimental results, and then employed to undertake a parametric analysis. Forty beams with various steel grades and degrees of shear connection are modelled, and the results are compared with those obtained utilising current design standards. The bending strength, stiffness and slip at the interface are investigated, and the effects of the steel grade and degree of shear connection are elucidated. New design approaches are proposed in order to estimate the bending behaviour of simply supported composite beams with HS steel, providing more reliable and economical design solutions for such members.

The Brazilian Government has adhered to the Linked Open Government Data publication policy. Thus, promoting a more transparent and open administration, allowing greater participation of society, the strengthening of democracy, and combating corruption. All of these matters can be affected by how open data is published. Beyond the data itself, data provenance allows aggregate metadata such as when, how, and why the data were created and published. Given this scenario, we consider that the combination of data and its provenance enriches the traceability of the data exposing the methods and agents involved in its creation. This paper presents a technological solution in the context of Linked Open Government Data to enhance the public open government data publishing. It is delivered employing an information architecture that can provide the data provenance of public open government data using the PROV-DM and a graph database. In addition, we also present an implementation of the proposed information architecture for a public open linked data as a case study.

To find a partner company is a critical element of benchmarking, partly because it requires the establishment of a win-win situation, partly because of the magnitude of resources and effort needed. In this paper we propose to use the results of an international survey as a basis for reference points and to use the questionnaire as an instrument for assessing the company’s goals, performance and practice. A benchmarking system is proposed which indicate relevant factors to benchmark. The way in which reference points are established is demonstrated by means of examples.

Background Workplace absenteeism increases significantly during influenza epidemics. Sick leave records may facilitate more timely detection of influenza outbreaks, as trends in increased sick leave may precede alerts issued by sentinel surveillance systems by days or weeks. Sick leave data have not been comprehensively evaluated in comparison to traditional surveillance methods. The aim of this paper is to study the performance and the feasibility of using a detection system based on sick leave data to detect influenza outbreaks. Methods Sick leave records were extracted from private French health insurance data, covering on average 209,932 companies per year across a wide range of sizes and sectors. We used linear regression to estimate the weekly number of new sick leave spells between 2016 and 2017 in 12 French regions, adjusting for trend, seasonality and worker leaves on historical data from 2010 to 2015. Outbreaks were detected using a 95%-prediction interval. This method was compared to results from the French Sentinelles network, a gold-standard primary care surveillance system currently in place. Results Using sick leave data, we detected 92% of reported influenza outbreaks between 2016 and 2017, on average 5.88 weeks prior to outbreak peaks. Compared to the existing Sentinelles model, our method had high sensitivity (89%) and positive predictive value (86%), and detected outbreaks on average 2.5 weeks earlier. Conclusion Sick leave surveillance could be a sensitive, specific and timely tool for detection of influenza outbreaks.

This paper presents the results of cement-based mortars characterizations that were taken from rendered layers of military bunkers in the Rupnik Line. The Rupnik Line was conceived as a part of the fortified defence system protecting the Rapallo Border between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, established in 1920. The bunkers were built between 1938 and 1941, and the renders of various compositions were applied as a camouflage layer that merged the bunkers with the environment. Results of petrographic examination and microstructural and chemical analysis of the samples confirmed that locally available crushed dolomite or limestone sands were used as an aggregate in the mortars. As binders, pure Portland cement or a mixture of cement and ground granulated blast furnace slag were used. The selection of the aggregate and binder type in a particular mortar was based on the colour of the artificial stone produced. All samples with the dolomite aggregate show the presence of alkali-aggregate reactions, dedolomitization of the grains and secondary calcite formation in the cement binder, along with the Mg-Al, Mg-Si and Mg-Al-Si phase formations. In mortar compositions with a high Portland cement content, the presence of delayed ettringite formation was also confirmed.

This demo paper presents a new sensor focusing on the measurement of real time foot plantar pressure distribution. IEE S.A. releases a single insole-solution for daily usage in order to acquire information on the plantar load dispersion in a large range of shoe configurations. The new High-Dynamic Force-Sensing Resistor (HD-FSR) multi-cell smart insole sensor enables advanced real-time gait analysis applications.

An alternative integration scheme for a half-bridge switch using 70 μm thin Si IGBTs and diodes is presented. This flat switch, which is designed for high-frequency application with high power density, exhibits high strength, high toughness, low parasitic inductance and high thermal conductivity. Such a novel assembly approach is suitable to optimize performance, reliability and availability of the power system in which it is used. The paper focuses on the thermal performance of this assembly at normal and extreme operating conditions, studied by means of FEM thermo-fluidynamic simulations of the module integrated with connectors and liquid cooler, and thermal measurement performed on an early prototype. Improved solutions are also investigated by the FE model.

Background: In a previous paper, we have demonstrated that: (1) local injection of corticosteroids for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is as effective as decompressive surgery, at 1-year follow-up; and (2) surgery has an additional benefit in the 2-year follow-up. In this study, we assess the long-term outcomes of both therapies in an observational extension of the patients originally enrolled in our randomized clinical trial. Methods: Patients were included in an open, randomized clinical trial, comparing injections versus surgery in CTS. After the end of the clinical trial, patients received the treatment prescribed by their general practitioner or specialist. Therapeutic failure was defined as the need of any new therapeutic intervention on the involved wrist. Comparison between groups was made using Cox multiple regression analysis. Estimation of the accumulated incidence of new therapeutic failure was made considering the withdrawal as a competitive risk (Gooley’s test). Results: Of 163 randomized wrists at the beginning of the study, only 148 were available at the final follow-up. The mean follow-up was 6.3 and the median was 5.9 years. In the long-term follow-up, the accumulated incidence of therapeutic failure in the surgery group was 11.6% versus 41.8% in the injection group. The Cox multiple regression analysis showed a risk of failure associated with injection group of 4.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1-9.8; P < .0001). Conclusions: In long-term follow-up, surgery seems more effective than local corticosteroid injections in primary CTS. Nonetheless, about 58% of the patients in the injection group will not need further therapeutic interventions during the follow-up.

Shariah screening discards the firms that belong to impermissible business sectors (or sin industries) and follow capital structure with high debt and current assets. This study tests whether the firms passing Shariah screening have better (or worse) governance quality as compared to firms not subjected to Islamic screening. The screened firms may have lesser governance quality as they cannot use debt to discipline managers or achieve optimal capital structure. On the contrary, they may be better governed as these firms get higher presence of institutional investors and better analyst coverage. This paper provides comparison of governance quality of Shariah compliant (SC) firms in United States by using proprietary dataset of Dow Jones US Indices. The screened firms offer ground for a natural experiment as they pass negative ethical screening and meet financial criteria for the inclusion in the index. The findings suggest that the SC firms have lesser governance quality than Shariah Non-Compliant firms. The lower level of governance can be attributed to lower Size, lower Profitability, higher Dividend Payout, higher Total Risk and lower Free Cash Flow. Various robustness tests are performed to validate the findings and the results remained robust. These findings provide useful insights about the governance mechanism of SC firms that are emerging as an important alternative investment class in the last two decades.

This paper presents a novel shape descriptor to effectively and efficiently characterize the local image statistics. The proposed descriptor, termed contour covariance (CC), characterizes covariance features driven by a moving point on the shape contour at multiple scales. To calculate the covariance matrices, three basic features including texture, intensity and distance map, are extracted from the object image. Based on coefficients of the obtained covariance matrices, the proposed CC descriptor is compact yet informative, as well as invariant to rotation, translation and scale. The experimental results on two databases demonstrate the superiority and efficiency of the proposed method among the state-of-the-art methods for shape classification.

Hierarchical clustering is one of effective methods in creating a phylogenetic tree based on the distance matrix between DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) sequences. One of the well-known methods to calculate the distance matrix is k-mer method. Generally, k-mer is more efficient than some distance matrix calculation techniques. The steps of k-mer method are started from creating k-mer sparse matrix, and followed by creating k-mer singular value vectors. The last step is computing the distance amongst vectors. In this paper, we analyze the sequences of MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - Coronavirus) DNA by implementing hierarchical clustering using k-mer sparse matrix in order to perform the phylogenetic analysis. Our results show that the ancestor of our MERS-CoV is coming from Egypt. Moreover, we found that the MERS-CoV infection that occurs in one country may not necessarily come from the same country of origin. This suggests that the process of MERS-CoV mutation might not only be influenced by geo...

A novel combination forecasting model is presented in this paper, which combines single ones based on machine learning. The model has been applied to the prediction of five cities' election in Taiwan with combining the exposure rate and the approval rate, which obtains good results. The exposure rate is the frequency of a candidate's appearances in the news and approval rate is the proportion of the positive information of a candidate. And the polarity of a review is predicted by sentiment classification based on machine learning techniques. A novel method of feature extraction is used in sentiment classification, which makes the classifier effectively assign the review a type of polarity. Meanwhile, this paper proposes a method of feature clustering and extending based on the synonym dictionary, which obviously reduces the dimension of feature vector and improve the F-score of sentiment classification.

Input is considered one of the most important factors in the acquisition of lexical and grammatical skills. Input has been found to interact with other factors, such as learner cognitive skills and the circumstances where language is heard. Language learning itself has sometimes been found to enhance cognitive skills. Indeed, intensive contact with another language has been found to sometimes boost cognitive skills, even in intensive instructed settings, such as immersion programs (bilingual advantage hypothesis). In this paper, we report a cross-sectional study to assess grammar learning of 79 fourth grade German students learning L2 English in two immersion schools. Verbal teacher input was assessed using the Teacher Input Observation Scheme (TIOS, Items 14–25), and the learners’ L2 grammar comprehension was tested with the ELIAS Grammar Test II. Cognitive skills, including phonological awareness, working memory, and non-verbal intelligence, were determined using standardized assessment procedures. The results show that verbal input quantity and quality correlated significantly with the learners’ L2 grammar comprehension. None of the cognitive skills moderated the effect of input on grammar comprehension but all predicted it independently. The combination of L2 input and phonological awareness was found to be the most robust predictor of L2 grammar comprehension.

This Innovative Practice Work in Progress presents progress in developing exercises for high school students incorporating level-appropriate mathematics into robotics activities. We assume mathematical foundations ranging from algebra to precalculus, whereas most prior work on integrating mathematics into robotics uses only very elementary mathematical reasoning or, at the other extreme, is comprised of technical papers or books using calculus and other advanced mathematics. The exercises suggested are relevant to any differential-drive robot, which is an appropriate model for many different varieties of educational robots. They guide students towards comparing a variety of natural navigational strategies making use of typical movement primitives. The exercises align with Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

The neural control system of a high speed monocular camera head for the tracking of real-world targets is presented in this paper. The tracking system consists of four subsystems: monocular camera head. adaptive image processing system for estimation of the momentary position of object, neural network predictor and PID-controller, controlling motors of the camera head. The designed neural network tracking system performs smooth pursuit of slow objects (50°) with a foveal error less than 0.7° and is able to track objects up to a maximum speed of 320° with foveal error less than 4.5°.

Extant research suggests that the most significant elements of a family firm’s socioemotional wealth (SEW) can drive financial reporting decisions. This paper explores this empirically by analyzing corporate disclosures of a case organization – Guinness, a multinational family brewing firm – over an extended period. We identify the presence of the SEW dimensions in the firm’s corporate disclosures and explore the relationship between the most salient SEW dimension (family identity) and readability, measured by the Bog index. The analysis finds a positive association between family identity and readability in the period when the firm under study can be defined as a family firm. Other SEW dimensions do not appear to have an influence on readability. In addition, at the end of the period of study, when the firm under study ceased to be a family firm, the SEW dimensions failed to have an effect on readability.

Integrated mechanical resonators with high quality factors (Q) made in high acoustic velocity materials are essential for a wide range of applications, including chemical sensors, timing resonators, and high-performance inertial sensors for navigation in GPS-occluded environments. While silicon is the most popular substrate for the implementation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators, SiC exhibits an exceptionally small intrinsic phononic dissipation due to its low Akhiezer damping limit. This paper reports on the latest developments of precision deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) of monocrystalline 4H SiC-on-Insulator (SiCOI) substrates with the aim to fully take advantage of the exquisite mechanical properties of crystalline SiC. To wit, capacitive Lamé mode micromechanical resonators exhibit ƒ·Q products beyond 1 × 1014 Hz independent of crystalline orientation. The contribution of surface roughness to dissipation and practical considerations to etch mirror-polished trenches in SiCOI substrates are discussed, paving the way towards micromechanical monocrystalline SiC resonators with Qs beyond 100 Million.