A web-based platform for biosignal visualization and annotation

With the advent of wearable sensing and mobile technologies, biosignals have seen an increasingly growing number of application areas, leading to the collection of large volumes of data. One of the difficulties in dealing with these data sets, and in the development of automated machine learning systems which use them as input, is the lack of reliable ground truth information. In this paper we present a new web-based platform for visualization, retrieval and annotation of biosignals by non-technical users, aimed at improving the process of ground truth collection for biomedical applications. Moreover, a novel extendable and scalable data representation model and persistency framework is presented. The results of the experimental evaluation with possible users has further confirmed the potential of the presented framework.     

The Building Blocks of a PaaS

Traditional cloud computing providers enable developers to program and deploy applications in the cloud by using platform as a service (PaaS) providers. Despite the benefits of such an approach, this service model usually comes with a high level of the lock in effect into the service provider. The lock in effect occurs when a software developer needs to change its cloud provider. When this happens, it usually means a major application rewrite, specific for the new PaaS. This paper details the initial results of a project whose goal is to build a PaaS where vendor lock in does not occur. With this PaaS, developers wishing to deploy their applications into the cloud may continue to program using their usual development environments. There are no necessary changes required to make the application PaaS compatible. As a proof of concept, we developed an open source PaaS management application as a regular web application and then deployed it on the cloud.     

The ring transformations of 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (2,2′-bioxirane) catalysed by various aluminosilicates

The transformations of a molecule containing two adjacent epoxide rings, 2,2-bioxirane that is, were studied over various acidic aluminosilicates (HZSM-5, HY-FAU, AlMCM-41), for the first time, In the 373–473 K temperature range, in a pulse reactor, a ring-opening–ring-enlargment reaction producing furan only occured over the zeolites and it was the predominant reaction on AlMCM-41 as well. The driving force of this transformation route is water formation via elimination from 2,2-bioxirane. Suprising is the lack of the mono- or dialdehyde, the would-be products of the cleavage of the sterically more hindered C–O bonds – an acid-catalysed reaction typical for alkyl-substituted oxiranes.     

Correction to: How to model and prove hybrid systems with KeYmaera: a tutorial on safety

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer -     

Influence of deposited amine-functionalized Si-MCM-41 in polyacrylonitrile electrospun membranes applied for separation of water in oil emulsions

Among several oil/water emulsion separation technologies, the utilization of nanoparticle-decorated membranes with diverse functionalities has received considerable attention in recent years, particularly if the antifouling capacity can be improved. In this article, we propose a new membrane based on surface-hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile electrospun membranes and/or decorated with amine-functionalized Si-MCM-41 nanoparticles to be used as oil/water emulsion separation treatment and to determine their antifouling ability. X-Ray photoelectron spectrometry, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and toluidine blue O assay, scanning electron microscopy, contact angle measurements for oil under water and thermogravimetry were used for characterizing the membranes and an assay of permeability was developed to quantify the diffusion of oil molecules across the electrospun membrane. The electrospun and/or decorated membranes showed an underwater oleophobic wettability, which can separate oil-in-water emulsions with 87% separation efficiency, results of fouling experiments, evaluated in terms of rejection and flux recovery ratio, exhibited good antifouling ability, but the membrane decoration process did not lead to superior outcomes compared with undecorated membranes.     

纵向旋转切削加工对环形零件畸变的影响

通过旋转试验和有限元分析介绍了工件在切削加工过程中产生的畸变情况，分析了工件的装夹方式、切削速度、切削深度和进刀量对100Cr6钢环圆度的影响。通过去应力退火释放冷加工诱发的残余应力后工件的圆度与切削参数有关。另外测试了被试验环的表面残余应力，其表面残余应力与装夹方式有关。将测量的装夹力作为计算参数输入，通过有限元分析方法测试了装夹方式对工件变形的影响。协同测量结果示出了装夹方式影响工件变形的一个主要因素，表面残余应力与工件的径向变形有关，最大的拉伸应力位于夹口位置。旋转切削试验结果表明，提高切削速度圆度会稍有增加；随着切削深度的加大，圆度呈下降趋势，尽管切削力增加了；进给量的增加会导致更高的切削力，因此圆度值也增加；常规的去应力退火可使被加工环的圆度值增加。     

Probabilistic consensus clustering using evidence accumulation

Machine Learning - Clustering ensemble methods produce a consensus partition of a set of data points by combining the results of a collection of base clustering algorithms. In the evidence...     

Quantum commitments from complexity assumptions

Bit commitment schemes are at the basis of modern cryptography. Since information-theoretic security is impossible both in the classical and in the quantum regime, we examine computationally secure commitment schemes. In this paper we study worst-case complexity assumptions that imply quantum bit commitment schemes. First, we show that QSZK \({\not\subseteq}\) QMA implies a computationally hiding and statistically binding auxiliary-input quantum commitment scheme. We then extend our result to show that the much weaker assumption QIP \({\not\subseteq}\) QMA (which is weaker than PSPACE \({\not\subseteq}\) PP) implies the existence of auxiliary-input commitment schemes with quantum advice. Finally, to strengthen the plausibility of the separation QSZK \({\not\subseteq}\) QMA, we find a quantum oracle relative to which honest-verifier QSZK is not contained in QCMA, the class of languages that can be verified using a classical proof in quantum polynomial time.     

Design complexity control in truss optimization

Truss optimization based on the ground structure approach often leads to designs that are too complex for practical purposes. In this paper we present an approach for design complexity control in truss optimization. The approach is based on design complexity measures related to the number of bars (similar to Asadpoure et al. Struct Multidisc Optim 51(2):385–396 2015) and a novel complexity measure related to the number of nodes of the structure. Both complexity measures are continuously differentiable and thus can be used together with gradient based optimization algorithms. The numerical examples show that the proposed approach is able to reduce design complexity, leading to solutions that are more fit for engineering practice. Besides, the examples also indicate that in some cases it is possible to significantly reduce design complexity with little impact on structural performance. Since the complexity measures are non convex, a global gradient based optimization algorithm is employed. Finally, a detailed comparison to a classical approach is presented.     

Application execution path analysis for the automatic parallelisation of binary codes in the Intel x86 platform

Traditionally, computer programs have been developed using the sequential programming paradigm. With the advent of parallel computing systems, such as multicore processors and distributed environments, the sequential paradigm became a barrier to the utilisation of the available resources, since the program is restricted to a single processing unit. To address this issue, we propose a transparent automatic parallelisation tool with a binary rewriter. The steps of our approach are: the disassembly of the Intel x86 application, its transformation into an intermediary language; the analysis of this intermediary representation to obtain the flow and dependency graphs; the partitioning of the application into parallel units, using the obtained graphs; and, finally, the reassembly of the application back into the original Intel x86 architecture. By transforming the compiled application software, we aim at obtaining a program which can better explore the parallel resources, with no extra effort required from users or developers.