Microfluidic device for continuous magnetophoretic separation of white blood cells

This paper presents a microfluidic device for magnetophoretic separation of red blood cells from blood under continuous flow. The separation method consists of continuous flow of a blood sample (diluted in PBS) through a microfluidic channel which presents on the bottom “dots” of ferromagnetic layer. By applying a magnetic field perpendicular on the flowing direction, the ferromagnetic “dots” generate a gradient of magnetic field which amplifies the magnetic force. As a result, the red blood cells are captured on the bottom of the microfluidic channel while the rest of the blood is collected at the outlet. Experimental results show that an average of 95% of red blood cells is trapped in the device.     

Ordinal regression by a gravitational model in the field of educational data mining

Educational data mining (EDM) is a research area where the goal is to develop data mining methods to examine data critically from educational environments. Traditionally, EDM has addressed the following problems: clustering, classification, regression, anomaly detection and association rule mining. In this paper, the ordinal regression (OR) paradigm, is introduced in the field of EDM. The goal of OR problems is the classification of items in an ordinal scale. For instance, the prediction of students' performance in categories (where the different grades could be ordered according to A ? B ? C ? D) is a classical example of an OR problem. The EDM community has not yet explored this paradigm (despite the importance of these problems in the field of EDM). Furthermore, an amenable and interpretable OR model based on the concept of gravitation is proposed. The model is an extension of a recently proposed gravitational model that tackles imbalanced nominal classification problems. The model is carefully adapted to the ordinal scenario and validated with four EDM datasets. The results obtained were compared with state‐of‐the‐art OR algorithms and nominal classification ones. The proposed models can be used to better understand the learning–teaching process in higher education environments.     

A novel model for arc territory design: promoting Eulerian districts

The problem of district design for the implementation of arc routing activities is addressed. The aim is to partition a road network into a given number of sectors to facilitate the organization of the operations to be implemented within the region. This problem arises in numerous applications such as postal delivery, meter readings, winter gritting, road maintenance, and municipal solid waste collection. An integer linear programming model is proposed where a novel set of node parity constraints to favor Eulerian districts is introduced. Series of instances were solved to assess the impact of these parity constraints on the objective function and deadhead distance. Networks with up to 401 nodes and 764 edges were successfully solved. The model is useful at a tactical level as it can be used to promote workload balance, compactness, deadhead distance reduction and parity in districts.     

Stability of Local On‐Ramp Metering Control Laws

A framework for stability analysis of local on‐ramp metering control strategies based on the cell transmission model is presented. Within this framework, it is possible to formulate Lyapunov and input‐state stability results for on‐ramp metering control strategies in an open section of highway with on‐ramps. Using this analysis, recommendations for the design of on‐ramp metering control laws set points are derived. Two examples on the use of such analysis are presented. One deals with the stability analysis of a local on‐ramp metering control law and the other with the design of a disturbance observer that, used in combination with the local on‐ramp metering control law, provides a more robust response to traffic regulation. Simulation results are included that confirm the possibility of using this framework to test the impact of local on‐ramp metering control strategies.     

On location observability notions for switching systems

The focus of this paper is on the analysis of initial discrete state distinguishability notions for switching systems, in a discrete time setting. Moreover, the relationship between initial discrete state distinguishability and the problem of reconstructing the current discrete state is addressed.     

Illustrating volume data sets and layered models with importance-aware composition

Non-photorealistic (illustrative) rendering augments typical rendering models to selectively emphasize or de-emphasize specific structures of rendered objects. Illustrative techniques may affect not only the rendering style of specific portions of an object but also their visibility, ensuring that less important regions do not occlude more important ones. Cutaway views completely remove occluding, unimportant structures—possibly also removing valuable context information—while existing solutions for smooth reduction of occlusion based on importance lack precise visibility control, simplicity and generality. We introduce a new front-to-back fragment composition equation that directly takes into account a measure of sample importance and allows smooth and precise importance-based visibility control. We demonstrate the generality of our composition equation with several illustrative effects, which were obtained by using a set of importance measures calculated on the fly or defined by the user. The presented composition method is suitable for direct volume rendering as well as rendering of layered 3D models. We discuss both cases and show examples, though focusing mainly on illustration of volumetric data.     

Selfish Bin Packing

Following recent interest in the study of computer science problems in a game theoretic setting, we consider the well known bin packing problem where the items are controlled by selfish agents. Each agent is charged with a cost according to the fraction of the used bin space its item requires. That is, the cost of the bin is split among the agents, proportionally to their sizes. Thus, the selfish agents prefer their items to be packed in a bin that is as full as possible. The social goal is to minimize the number of the bins used. The social cost in this case is therefore the number of bins used in the packing.     

Realizability models and implicit complexity

New, simple, proofs of soundness (every representable function lies in a given complexity class) for Elementary Affine Logic, LFPL and Soft Affine Logic are presented. The proofs are obtained by instantiating a semantic framework previously introduced by the authors and based on an innovative modification of realizability. The proof is a notable simplification on the original already semantic proof of soundness for the above mentioned logical systems and programming languages. A new result made possible by the semantic framework is the addition of polymorphism and a modality to LFPL, thus allowing for an internal definition of inductive datatypes. The methodology presented proceeds by assigning both abstract resource bounds in the form of elements from a resource monoid and resource-bounded computations to proofs (respectively, programs).     

Utilizing national public-key infrastructure in mobile payment systems

Payments are the locomotive behind any business domain. It has been predicted that mobile payments will become one of the most successful mobile services, and the security of payments is an important requirement. However, it is difficult to strongly authenticate mobile users remotely and provide an adequate level of non-repudiation of transactions. In this article, we argue that a nationwide public-key infrastructure supported by governmental bodies can be used in a mobile payment system. Not only does it provide strong security, but it also makes the system open to any mobile user, merchant, or financial service provider. Two payment protocols are described: one for virtual point-of-sale payments, and one for vending machine payments. We argue that such a system can be implemented using open development platforms, and its performance is adequate for enabling swift transactions. A prototype of a system which accepts virtual point-of-sale payments is implemented, and its performance and usability are evaluated.