A multimodal semantic location service for intelligent environments: an application for Smart Hospitals

This paper presents semantic models, mechanisms and a service to locate mobile entities in Smart and Intelligent Environments. The key feature of the service is the semantic integration of different positioning systems that not only enables the environment to handle transparently such physical positioning systems, but also to reason on location information coming from different systems and to combine it to obtain higher context information. Indeed, the service relies on the use of ontologies and rules to define a uniform, unambiguous and well-defined model for the location information, independently of the particular positioning system. Moreover, the location service performs logic and reasoning mechanisms to provide both physical and semantic locations of mobile objects and to infer the finest granularity in the case when a mobile object is located by more than one positioning system. Finally, we present an application of the proposed approach to the case of a Smart Hospital.     

Facilitating the migration to the microservice architecture via model-driven reverse engineering and reinforcement learning

The microservice architecture has gained remarkable attention in recent years. Microservices allow developers to implement and deploy independent services, so they are a naturally effective architecture for continuously deployed systems. Because of this, several organizations are undertaking the costly process of manually migrating their traditional software architectures to microservices. The research in this paper aims at facilitating the migration from monolithic software architectures to microservices. We propose a framework which enables software developers/architects to migrate their software systems more efficiently by helping them remodularize the source code of their systems. The framework leverages model-driven reverse engineering to obtain a model of the legacy system and reinforcement learning to propose a mapping of this model toward a set of microservices.

     

Twin mirrors for laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors

Gravitational-wave detectors such as Virgo and the laser interferometric gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) use a long-baseline Michelson interferometer with Fabry-Perot cavities in the arms to search for gravitational waves. The symmetry between the two Fabry-Perot cavities is crucial to reduce the interferometer's sensitivity to the laser amplitude and frequency noise. To this purpose, the transmittance of the mirrors in both cavities should be as close as possible. This paper describes the realization and the characterization of the first twin large low-loss mirrors with transmissions differing by less than 0.01%.     

The ANNS approach to DEM reconstruction

This research has 6 fundamental aims: (i) to present a modified version of Taylor's interpolation, one that is more effective and faster than the original; (ii) outline the capability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to perform an optimal functional approximation of the digital elevation model reconstruction from a satellite map, using a small and independent sample of Global Positioning System observations; (iii) demonstrate experimentally how ANNs outperform the traditional and most used algorithm for the height interpolation (Taylor's interpolation); (iv) introduce a new ANN, the Conic Net, able to outperform the results of the classic and more known multilayer perceptron; (v) determine that Conic Nets, even when using Taylor's modified interpolation as input features, are able to optimally approximate the heights with one order of magnitude more than the original satellite map; and (vi) make evident the possibility to interpolate the DEM heights through an ANN, which learns a data set of known points.     

Implementation of a real option in a sustainable supply chain: an empirical study of alkaline battery recycling

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has emerged as a key approach for enterprises seeking to become environmentally sustainable. This paper aims to evaluate and describe the advantages of a GSCM approach by analysing practices and performance consequences in the battery recycling sector. It seeks to integrate works in supply chain management (SCM), environmental management, performance management and real option (RO) theory into one framework. In particular, life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied to evaluate the environmental impact of a battery recycling plant project, and life cycle costing (LCC) is applied to evaluate its economic impact. Firms, also understanding the relevance of GSCM, have often avoided applying the green principles because of the elevated costs that such management involved. Such costs could also seem superior to the potential advantages since standard performance measurement systems are internally and business focused; for these reasons, we consider all the possible value deriving also by uncertainty associated to a green project using the RO theory. This work is one of the few and pioneering efforts to investigate GSCM practices in the battery recycling sector.     

A multi-objective evolutionary approach to image quality/compression trade-off in JPEG baseline algorithm

The JPEG algorithm is one of the most used tools for compressing images. The main factor affecting the performance of the JPEG compression is the quantization process, which exploits the values contained in two tables, called quantization tables. The compression ratio and the quality of the decoded images are determined by these values. Thus, the correct choice of the quantization tables is crucial to the performance of the JPEG algorithm. In this paper, a two-objective evolutionary algorithm is applied to generate a family of optimal quantization tables which produce different trade-offs between image compression and quality. Compression is measured in terms of difference in percentage between the sizes of the original and compressed images, whereas quality is computed as mean squared error between the reconstructed and the original images. We discuss the application of the proposed approach to well-known benchmark images and show how the quantization tables determined by our method improve the performance of the JPEG algorithm with respect to the default tables suggested in Annex K of the JPEG standard.     

The impact of anthocyanin-rich red raspberry extract (ARRE) on the properties of edible soy protein isolate (SPI) films

To modify the properties of edible soy protein isolate (SPI) films, 0.5% anthocyanin-rich red raspberry (Rubus strigosus) extract (ARRE) (0.5 g raspberry powder in 95% ethyl alcohol/water/85% lactic acid [80:19:1. v/v/v]) was incorporated into film-forming solutions. ARRE resulted in an SPI film having significantly enhanced tensile strength (P < 0.05) and % elongation at break (P < 0.05), as well as increased water swelling ratio (P < 0.05) and in vitro pepsin digestibility (P < 0.05). The resultant films also showed significantly decreased water solubility and water vapor permeability (P < 0.05). In addition, ARRE increased darkness, redness, and yellowness film appearance as evidenced by a lower L* (P < 0.05), greater positive a* (P < 0.05), and a higher b* (P < 0.05) than the control film. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that extract-added films had denser and more compact cross-section microstructure. Fourier transform infrared spectra illustrated that ARRE-created hydrogen bonding involved conformational changes of soy protein without destroying its backbone structure. SDS-PAGE electrophoretograms revealed that the extract induced intermolecular interaction of the soy protein monomers. Natural plant extracts would be a promising ingredient to make SPI films with different physicochemical properties and applications. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study characterizes the potential physicochemical changes of SPI film with incorporated raspberry extract. Upon the above modification, the resultant film was found to enhance the applications of pure SPI film in food packaging. For example, SPI-ARRE film could prolong the usage life of SPI film due to increased strength, or could be useful as a desiccant (drying agent) such as a water-absorbing sheet for preserving dried foods due to its increased hydrophilic surface and water-swelling ratio. SPI-ARRE film could also be alternately used as a food wrap with unique color.     

Onion under Microscope: An in-depth analysis of the Tor Web

World Wide Web - Tor is an open source software that allows accessing various kinds of resources, known as hidden services, while guaranteeing sender and receiver anonymity. Tor relies on a free,...