MyAds: A system for adaptive pervasive advertisements

In this paper we show how pervasive technologies can be employed on a public-display advertisement scenario to enable behavioral self-adaptation of content. We show this through MyAds, a system capable of exploiting pervasive technologies to autonomously adapt the advertisement process to the trends of interests detected among the audience in a venue. After describing the rationale, the architecture and the prototype of MyAds, we describe the advantages brought by the use of such a system, in terms of impact on the audience and economic efficiency. The comparison of MyAds performances with different advertisement selection techniques confirms the validity of our advertisement model, and our prototype in particular, as a means for maximising product awareness in an audience and for enhancing economic efficiency.     

Optimal strategies against a liar

We consider the following scenario: There are two individuals, say Q (Questioner) and R (Responder), involved in a search game. Player R chooses a number, say x, from the set S={1,…,M}. Player Q has to find out x by asking questions of type: “which one of the sets A₁,A₂,…,A_q, does x belong to?”, where the sets A₁,…,A_q constitute a partition of S. Player R answers “i” to indicate that the number x belongs to A_i. We are interested in the least number of questions player Q has to ask in order to be always able to correctly guess the number x, provided that R can lie at most e times. The case e=0 obviously reduces to the classical q-ary search, and the necessary number of questions is [log_qM]. The case q=2 and e1 has been widely studied, and it is generally referred to as Ulam's game. In this paper we consider the general case of arbitrary q2. Under the assumption that player R is allowed to lie at most twice throughout the game, we determine the minimum number of questions Q needs to ask in order to successfully search for x in a set of cardinality M=qⁱ, for any i1. As a corollary, we obtain a counterexample to a recently proposed conjecture of Aigner, for the case of an arbitrary number of lies. We also exactly solve the problem when player R is allowed to lie a fixed but otherwise arbitrary number of times e, and M=qⁱ, with i not too large with respect to q. For the general case of arbitrary M, we give fairly tight upper and lower bounds on the number of the necessary questions.     

A SOA statistical engine for biomedical data

Currently, large efforts are spent to develop standards and architectures useful to achieve more effective interoperability among medical information systems. Despite such efforts, there are no researches produced so far to directly analyse, with statistical methods, biomedical data represented as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents. Thus, the paper proposes an architecture which offers a twofold approach to the statistical analysis of XML data, i.e. via a web service and by extending the query languages used in XML databases. To show how the architecture can be used, a sample system is also reported. Finally, the paper ends by reporting the advantages and drawbacks of the proposed approach in comparison with classic statistical packages.     

Pediatric Celiac Disease Patients Show Alterations of Dendritic Cell Shape and Actin Rearrangement

Celiac disease (CD) is a frequent intestinal inflammatory disease occurring in genetically susceptible individuals upon gluten ingestion. Recent studies point to a role in CD for genes involved in cell shape, adhesion and actin rearrangements, including a Rho family regulator, Rho GTPase-activating protein 31 (ARHGAP31). In this study, we investigated the morphology and actin cytoskeletons of peripheral monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) from children with CD and controls when in contact with a physiological substrate, fibronectin. DCs were generated from peripheral blood monocytes of pediatric CD patients and controls. After adhesion on fibronectin, DCs showed a higher number of protrusions and a more elongated shape in CD patients compared with controls, as assessed by immunofluorescence actin staining, transmitted light staining and video time-lapse microscopy. These alterations did not depend on active intestinal inflammation associated with gluten consumption and were specific to CD, since they were not found in subjects affected by other intestinal inflammatory conditions. The elongated morphology was not a result of differences in DC activation or maturation status, and did not depend on the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQ2 haplotype. Notably, we found that ARH-GAP31 mRNA levels were decreased while RhoA-GTP activity was increased in CD DCs, pointing to an impairment of the Rho pathway in CD cells. Accordingly, Rho inhibition was able to prevent the cytoskeleton rearrangements leading to the elongated morphology of celiac DCs upon adhesion on fibronectin, confirming the role of this pathway in the observed phenotype. In conclusion, adhesion on fibronectin discriminated CD from the controls’ DCs, revealing a gluten-independent CD-specific cellular phenotype related to DC shape and regulated by RhoA activity.     

Integration schemes for von‐Mises plasticity models based on exponential maps: numerical investigations and theoretical considerations

We consider three different exponential map algorithms for associative von‐Mises plasticity with linear isotropic and kinematic hardening. The first scheme is based on a different formulation of the time continuous plasticity model, which automatically grants the yield consistency of the method in the numerical solution. The second one is the quadratically accurate but non‐yield consistent method already proposed in Auricchio and Beirão da Veiga (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2003; 56 : 1375–1396). The third method is an improved version of the second one, in which the yield consistency condition is enforced a posteriori. We also compare the performance of the three methods with the classical radial return map algorithm. We develop extensive numerical tests which clearly show the main advantages and disadvantages of the three methods. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sequential Motion of 4D Printed Photopolymers with Broad Glass Transition

The term “4D printing” refers to the development of stimulus‐responsive structures through 3D printing of active smart materials, typically shape memory polymers. A noteworthy aim of this research field is to obtain objects able to display complex shape‐shifting motions, such as sequential transformations over time. In this work, this peculiar response is studied on a commercial photopolymer, printed by stereolithography and featuring, on the basis of its inherent broad glass transition, the so‐called “temperature‐memory effect” (TME). The TME, that is, a response in which the shape memory effect occurs on a region controlled by the deformation temperature, is studied in shape memory cycles where the deformation temperature is systematically varied, so to provide a correlation between deformation and recovery temperatures. This also allows to properly select two temperatures at which deforming a specimen along a multistep history, so as to finally separate each recovery process on the temperature and time scales. This sequential recovery is studied in double folded bars, with arms deformed at different temperatures, and on a properly designed self‐locking clamp. The obtained results are promising for the realization of smart temperature‐responsive structures printed with one single polymer and capable of multiple shape transformations.     

Compression and decompression of images with discrete fuzzy transforms

In foregoing papers we have used the compression/decompression method of images based on the concept of discrete fuzzy transform (and its inverse) of a function f defined on a real interval with respect to the fuzzy sets A₁,…,A_n forming a fuzzy partition of such interval. Here we make a detailed experimental comparison with the similar method based on the fuzzy transforms F^↑ and F^↓ of f defined via a continuous triangular norm and its corresponding residuum, respectively. We consider some images of sizes 256 × 256 (pixels) extracted from the well-known database Corel Galery (Arizona Directory). By using the same compression rate in both methods, we have that the PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) obtained with the discrete fuzzy transform (and its inverse) of f is more higher than the PSNR determined with the operators F^↑ and F^↓ defined via the usual Lukasiewicz, product and minimum triangular norms. Moreover, we compare our results with the classical JPEG method for values of compression rate approximately equal to those used in the previous methods.     

Efficient light-scattering calculations for aggregates of large spheres

Calculation of the scattering pattern from aggregates of spheres through the T-matrix approach yields high-precision results but at a high-computational cost, especially when the aggregate concerned is large or is composed of large-size spheres. With reference to a specific but representative aggregate, we discuss how and to what extent the computational effort can be reduced but still preserve the qualitative features of the signature of the aggregate concerned.     

Aerosol lidar intercomparison in the framework of the EARLINET project. 2. Aerosol backscatter algorithms

An intercomparison of aerosol backscatter lidar algorithms was performed in 2001 within the framework of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network to Establish an Aerosol Climatology (EARLINET). The objective of this research was to test the correctness of the algorithms and the influence of the lidar ratio used by the various lidar teams involved in the EARLINET for calculation of backscatter-coefficient profiles from the lidar signals. The exercise consisted of processing synthetic lidar signals of various degrees of difficulty. One of these profiles contained height-dependent lidar ratios to test the vertical influence of those profiles on the various retrieval algorithms. Furthermore, a realistic incomplete overlap of laser beam and receiver field of view was introduced to remind the teams to take great care in the nearest range to the lidar. The intercomparison was performed in three stages with increasing knowledge on the input parameters. First, only the lidar signals were distributed; this is the most realistic stage. Afterward the lidar ratio profiles and the reference values at calibration height were provided. The unknown height-dependent lidar ratio had the largest influence on the retrieval, whereas the unknown reference value was of minor importance. These results show the necessity of making additional independent measurements, which can provide us with a suitable approximation of the lidar ratio. The final stage proves in general, that the data evaluation schemes of the different groups of lidar systems work well.     

Theoretical and Experimental Study of the Shape Memory Effect of Beams in Bending Conditions

In this study, the shape memory effect of SMA beams under complex stress conditions is studied by means of a finite element model. The 1D version of a well-established SMA constitutive model is utilized in the numerical computations and the required parameters are obtained experimentally starting from thermal cycling tests in tension under different constant loads. After being calibrated, the model is used to compute the deformation of beams loaded in bending and undergoing thermal cycling; three-point bending and cantilever configurations are considered in this stage. Finally, the response predicted by the model is compared to experimental results and model capabilities are discussed. In particular, insight of the stress and strain evolution in bending is provided.