7,331 research outputs found
A component-based model and language for wireless sensor network applications
Wireless sensor networks are often used by experts in many different fields to gather data pertinent to their work. Although their expertise may not include software engineering, these users are expected to produce low-level software for a concurrent, real-time and resource-constrained computing environment. In this paper, we introduce a component-based model for wireless sensor network applications and a language, Insense, for supporting the model. An application is modelled as a composition of interacting components and the application model is preserved in the Insense implementation where active components communicate via typed channels. The primary design criteria for Insense include: to abstract over low-level concerns for ease of programming; to permit worst-case space and time usage of programs to be determinable; to support the fractal composition of components whilst eliminating implicit dependencies between them; and, to facilitate the construction of low footprint programs suitable for resource-constrained devices. This paper presents an overview of the component model and Insense, and demonstrates how they meet the above criteria.Preprin
Detection of REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder by Automated Polysomnography Analysis
Evidence suggests Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD) is
an early predictor of Parkinson's disease. This study proposes a
fully-automated framework for RBD detection consisting of automated sleep
staging followed by RBD identification. Analysis was assessed using a limited
polysomnography montage from 53 participants with RBD and 53 age-matched
healthy controls. Sleep stage classification was achieved using a Random Forest
(RF) classifier and 156 features extracted from electroencephalogram (EEG),
electrooculogram (EOG) and electromyogram (EMG) channels. For RBD detection, a
RF classifier was trained combining established techniques to quantify muscle
atonia with additional features that incorporate sleep architecture and the EMG
fractal exponent. Automated multi-state sleep staging achieved a 0.62 Cohen's
Kappa score. RBD detection accuracy improved by 10% to 96% (compared to
individual established metrics) when using manually annotated sleep staging.
Accuracy remained high (92%) when using automated sleep staging. This study
outperforms established metrics and demonstrates that incorporating sleep
architecture and sleep stage transitions can benefit RBD detection. This study
also achieved automated sleep staging with a level of accuracy comparable to
manual annotation. This study validates a tractable, fully-automated, and
sensitive pipeline for RBD identification that could be translated to wearable
take-home technology.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure
Multiscale Soil Investigations: Physical Concepts And Mathematical Techniques
Soil variability has often been considered to be composed of “functional” (explained) variations plus random fl uctuations or noise. However, the distinction between these two components is scale dependent because increasing the scale of observation almost always reveals structure in the noise (Burrough, 1983). Soils can be seen as the result of spatial variation operating over several scales, indicating that factors infl uencing spatial variability differ with scale. Th is observation points to variability as a key soil attribute that should be studied
Systems, Resilience, and Organization: Analogies and Points of Contact with Hierarchy Theory
Aim of this paper is to provide preliminary elements for discussion about the
implications of the Hierarchy Theory of Evolution on the design and evolution
of artificial systems and socio-technical organizations. In order to achieve
this goal, a number of analogies are drawn between the System of Leibniz; the
socio-technical architecture known as Fractal Social Organization; resilience
and related disciplines; and Hierarchy Theory. In so doing we hope to provide
elements for reflection and, hopefully, enrich the discussion on the above
topics with considerations pertaining to related fields and disciplines,
including computer science, management science, cybernetics, social systems,
and general systems theory.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of ANTIFRAGILE'17, 4th International
Workshop on Computational Antifragility and Antifragile Engineerin
On environments as systemic exoskeletons: Crosscutting optimizers and antifragility enablers
Classic approaches to General Systems Theory often adopt an individual
perspective and a limited number of systemic classes. As a result, those
classes include a wide number and variety of systems that result equivalent to
each other. This paper introduces a different approach: First, systems
belonging to a same class are further differentiated according to five major
general characteristics. This introduces a "horizontal dimension" to system
classification. A second component of our approach considers systems as nested
compositional hierarchies of other sub-systems. The resulting "vertical
dimension" further specializes the systemic classes and makes it easier to
assess similarities and differences regarding properties such as resilience,
performance, and quality-of-experience. Our approach is exemplified by
considering a telemonitoring system designed in the framework of Flemish
project "Little Sister". We show how our approach makes it possible to design
intelligent environments able to closely follow a system's horizontal and
vertical organization and to artificially augment its features by serving as
crosscutting optimizers and as enablers of antifragile behaviors.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Reliable Intelligent
Environments. Extends conference papers [10,12,15]. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40860-015-0006-
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