Application of calorimetric measurements for biokinetic characterisation of nitrifying population in activated sludge

A preliminary investigation is described on the application of calorimetry as a sensitive technique to evaluate nitrifying activity in activated sludge. Calorimetric profiles (thermograms) related to heat dissipation due to biological nitrification reactions (ammonia or nitrite consumption) have been interpreted. Correlations between calorimetric data and the main process variables, i.e. ammonia and nitrite concentration and oxygen uptake, have been verified, and confirm the potential of calorimetry to investigate, monitor and control even weakly exothermic biological processes like autotrophic nitrification. Heat yields (Y(Q/i)) for ammonia, nitrite, and oxygen, defined as the heat released per unit amount of converted reactant, have been separately evaluated. Moreover, calorimetric experiments on activated sludge from a full-scale nitrogen removal wastewater treatment plant have been carried out and kinetic parameters for both ammonia and nitrite oxidising bacteria have been estimated.     

Finite element simulations of laser refractive corneal surgery

We setup a mechanically based finite element model to evaluate the change in the shape of the human cornea induced by ablation of stromal tissue. By considering the deformability of the cornea, the model computes the change of the dioptric power resulting from ablative laser surgery. We use a previously developed 3-D finite element model of the human cornea (Pandolfi and Manganiello in Biomech Model Mechanobiol 5:237–246, 2006). The solid geometry is discretized into finite elements by an automatic procedure which recovers the unloaded configuration. The geometry is defined in parametric form and can be characterized by individual geometrical data when available. A two-fiber reinforced hyperelastic material model, which accounts for the organization of the anisotropic collagen structure, is adopted to describe the stromal tissue. For the simulation of laser refractive surgery of myopic and astigmatic eyes, a geometrical correction of the corneal profile is included into the code. We show two examples of application of the model to the reshaping of a myopic and an astigmatic eye. Numerical results provide the postoperative shape of the cornea, the corrected refractive power, and the distribution of the stress throughout the stromal tissue.     

Indexing quantized ensembles of exemplar-SVMs with rejecting taxonomies

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Ensembles of Exemplar-SVMs have been introduced as a framework for Object Detection but have rapidly found a large interest in a wide variety of computer vision...     

��Remain Faithful to the Earth!��*: Reporting Experiences of Artifact-Centered Design in Healthcare

In this paper we report about two design experiences in the domain of healthcare information technology that shed light on the advantages of getting rid of complex and abstract representations of hospital work and of concentrating on the artifacts that practitioners habitually use in their daily practice. We ground our approach in the recent literature on the often unintended shortcomings exhibited by healthcare information systems and propose a lightweight method to support the phases of requirement elicitation and functional design. We then discuss the main requirements expressed in our recent research activity and provide examples of how to address them in terms of modular and reusable design solutions.     

Implementation of an LED backlight for avionics displays

Abstract— The replacement of conventional light sources used to backlight displays with LEDs is very attractive in avionics. Today's LED technology provides devices suitable to implement display backlight sources but specific requirements need to be satisfied for avionics displays. This paper covers the development of an innovative LED backlight dedicated to avionics displays, realized in a new box geometry in order to generate more than 10,000 cd/m² on a 6 × 5‐in. active area using less than 28 W of power.     

OpenMP parallelization of agent-based models

Agent-based models, an emerging paradigm of simulation of complex systems, appear very suitable to parallel processing. However, during the parallelization of a simulator of financial markets, we found that some features of these codes highlight non-trivial issues of the present hardware/software platforms for parallel processing. Here we present the results of a series of tests, on different platforms, of simplified codes that reproduce such problems and can be used as a starting point in the search of a possible solution.     

The impact of the national assessment exercises on self-citation rate and publication venue: an empirical investigation on the engineering academic sector in Italy

Thelwall (J Informetr 11(1):128–151, 2017a.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2016.12.002; Web indicators for research evaluation: a practical guide. Morgan and Claypool, London, 2017b) proposed a new family of field- and time-normalized indicators, which is intended for sparse data. These indicators are based on units of analysis (e.g., institutions) rather than on the paper level. They compare the proportion of mentioned papers (e.g., on Twitter) of a unit with the proportion of mentioned papers in the corresponding fields and publication years. We propose a new indicator (Mantel–Haenszel quotient, MHq) for the indicator family. The MHq is rooted in the Mantel–Haenszel (MH) analysis. This analysis is an established method, which can be used to pool the data from several 2?×?2 cross tables based on different subgroups. We investigate using citations and assessments by peers whether the indicator family can distinguish between quality levels defined by the assessments of peers. Thus, we test the convergent validity. We find that the MHq is able to distinguish between quality levels in most cases while other indicators of the family are not. Since our study approves the MHq as a convergent valid indicator, we apply the MHq to four different Twitter groups as defined by the company Altmetric. Our results show that there is a weak relationship between the Twitter counts of all four Twitter groups and scientific quality, much weaker than between citations and scientific quality. Therefore, our results discourage the use of Twitter counts in research evaluation.