Demonstrating a unified ICN development and evaluation framework

Demo at ACM ICN conference 2014Information-Centric Networking solutions target world-wide deployment in the Internet. It is hence necessary to dispose of a development and evaluation environment which enables both controllable and realistic experimentation to thoroughly understand how ICN solutions would behave in real life deployment. In this demonstration, we present an ICN development and evaluation framework that combines emulation and live prototyping environments to provide ICN designers and implementers the means to build "beyond- prototype" ICN solutions. We will demonstrate the benefits of such integrated approach by showing how complete experimental studies can be carried out with minimum manual intervention and experiment setup overhead, in both emulation and live environments

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results

Nursing informatics: a personal review of the past, the present and the future

There is evidence that nurses have been involved in, or have been affected by health- related computer projects since the mid-1960's. Since those early years nurses have made many significant contributions to the wider bio-health informatics agenda. This article reflects on the evolution of Nursing Informatics, from attempts to define the discipline, through the development of support systems, to the current state-of-the-science for one particular and important field of study, namely clinical terminologies. The article concludes with a call for increased professionalisation of Nursing Informatics

Percurso metodológico para elaboração de subconjuntos terminológicos CIPE®: revisão integrativa

Objetivo Analisar os aspectos metodológicos utilizados para a elaboração de subconjuntos terminológicos da Classificação Internacional para a Prática de Enfermagem (CIPE®), em dissertações e teses da Enfermagem brasileira. Método Revisão integrativa das dissertações e teses brasileiras defendidas no período compreendido entre 2007 e 2013, das quais foram incluídas sete dissertações. Resultados A produção crescente de estudos acerca da temática pelos enfermeiros brasileiros evidencia uma preocupação por uma linguagem unificada para a profissão. Contudo, os resultados demonstram a ausência de uniformidade quanto à condução dos estudos, principalmente em relação às etapas de validação de conteúdo. Destacaram-se, também, as iniciativas de alguns autores para a sistematização de métodos alternativos para a confecção desses subconjuntos. Conclusão Sugere-se o desenvolvimento de novos subconjuntos terminológicos, seguindo padrões de rigor metodológico, como também sua aplicação e validação junto à clientela selecionada, a fim de garantir maior confiabilidade dos resultados e as mudanças almejadas para a profissão.

Objetivo Analizar los aspectos metodológicos utilizados para la elaboración de subconjuntos terminológicos de la Clasificación Internacional para la Práctica de Enfermería (CIPE®), en tesis de máster o doctorado de la Enfermería brasileña. Método Revisión integradora de las tesis de máster y doctorado brasileñas defendidas en el período comprendido entre 2007 y 2013, de las cuales fueron incluidas siete tesis de máster. Resultados La producción creciente de estudios acerca de la temática por los enfermeros brasileños evidencia una preocupación por un lenguaje unificado para la profesión. Sin embargo, los resultados demuestran la ausencia de uniformidad en cuanto a la conducción de los estudios, especialmente con respecto a las etapas de validación de contenido. Se destacaron también las iniciativas de algunos autores de sistematizar métodos alternativos para la confección de dichos subconjuntos. Conclusión Se sugiere el desarrollo de nuevos subconjuntos terminológicos, siguiendo estándares de rigor metodológico, así como su aplicación y validación junto a la clientela seleccionada, a fin de asegurar una mayor confiabilidad de los resultados y los cambios anhelados para la profesión.
Objective To analyze the methodological aspects used for the preparation of terminology subsets of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®), in dissertations and theses in the Brazilian nursing. Method This is an integrative review of the Brazilian dissertations and theses defended in the period from 2007 to 2013, which were included seven dissertations. Results The increasing production of studies on the theme by Brazilian nurses shows a concern for a unified language for the profession. However, the results demonstrate the lack of uniformity in the conduct of studies, especially in relation to the stages of content validation. The initiatives of some authors to systematize alternative methods for creating these subsets also stood out. Conclusion We suggest the development of new terminology subsets, following standards of methodological rigor, as well as its application and validation by the selected clientele, to ensure greater reliability of results and desired changes for the profession

Increasing New Orienting Emergency Department Nurses\u27 Awareness of Mass Casualty Incident Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response Core Competencies to Improve Mass Casualty Incident Response

Mass casualty incidents (MCI) impose a substantial threat to healthcare. Despite the increasing frequency of MCIs many healthcare organizations and nursing programs do not adequately prepare nurses to be effective responders during an MCI. This evidence-based practice pilot project was purposed to increase new orienting emergency department nurses’ confidence and ability to effectively respond to an MCI. This project involved implementing an MCI educational program consisting of a disaster nursing framework to educate new orienting emergency department nurses on emergency preparedness and disaster response core competencies. The project leader utilized a quasi-experimental design to collect data pre- and post-intervention utilizing a modified Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ). The measurable outcomes for the project included improvement in awareness of competencies relate to MCI emergency preparedness, awareness of competencies related to disaster response, and level of self-reported confidence to respond to MCIs. This project revealed a statistically significant improvement in the awareness of emergency preparedness and disaster response core competencies among new orienting emergency department nurses as well as enhanced self-reported confidence to respond to an MCI. The results of this project have important implications for enhancing MCI education for nurses to develop prepared and effective responses to MCIs

Global partnerships to strengthen the evidence base for nursing

There is a growing emphasis on building the evidence base as governments, health systems, practitioners, and consumers, nationally and globally, search for ways to improve health care outcomes and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health services. Nurses and midwives constitute the largest group of health service providers in the majority of health systems around the globe. The WHO Global Advisory Group on Nursing and Midwifery recommended that WHO should form strategic alliances with partners to identify uniform core indicators and build a solid body of evidence to inform national health policies, particularly in the area of cost-effective nursing and midwifery services such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Creating an international digital library has the potential to make a significant impact on global health

Efficient Opportunistic Sensing using Mobile Collaborative Platform MOSDEN

Mobile devices are rapidly becoming the primary computing device in people's lives. Application delivery platforms like Google Play, Apple App Store have transformed mobile phones into intelligent computing devices by the means of applications that can be downloaded and installed instantly. Many of these applications take advantage of the plethora of sensors installed on the mobile device to deliver enhanced user experience. The sensors on the smartphone provide the opportunity to develop innovative mobile opportunistic sensing applications in many sectors including healthcare, environmental monitoring and transportation. In this paper, we present a collaborative mobile sensing framework namely Mobile Sensor Data EngiNe (MOSDEN) that can operate on smartphones capturing and sharing sensed data between multiple distributed applications and users. MOSDEN follows a component-based design philosophy promoting reuse for easy and quick opportunistic sensing application deployments. MOSDEN separates the application-specific processing from the sensing, storing and sharing. MOSDEN is scalable and requires minimal development effort from the application developer. We have implemented our framework on Android-based mobile platforms and evaluate its performance to validate the feasibility and efficiency of MOSDEN to operate collaboratively in mobile opportunistic sensing applications. Experimental outcomes and lessons learnt conclude the paper

Incrementando as redes centradas à informaçãopara uma internet das coisas baseada em nomes

The way we use the Internet has been evolving since its origins. Nowadays, users are more interested in accessing contents and services with high demands in terms of bandwidth, security and mobility. This evolution has triggered the emergence of novel networking architectures targeting current, as well as future, utilisation demands. Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is a prominent example of these novel architectures that moves away from the current host-centric communications and centres its networking functions around content. Parallel to this, new utilisation scenarios in which smart devices interact with one another, as well as with other networked elements, have emerged to constitute what we know as the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is expected to have a significant impact on both the economy and society. However, fostering the widespread adoption of IoT requires many challenges to be overcome. Despite recent developments, several issues concerning the deployment of IPbased IoT solutions on a large scale are still open. The fact that IoT is focused on data and information rather than on point-topoint communications suggests the adoption of solutions relying on ICN architectures. In this context, this work explores the ground concepts of ICN to develop a comprehensive vision of the principal requirements that should be met by an IoT-oriented ICN architecture. This vision is complemented with solutions to fundamental issues for the adoption of an ICN-based IoT. First, to ensure the freshness of the information while retaining the advantages of ICN’s in-network caching mechanisms. Second, to enable discovery functionalities in both local and large-scale domains. The proposed mechanisms are evaluated through both simulation and prototyping approaches, with results showcasing the feasibility of their adoption. Moreover, the outcomes of this work contribute to the development of new compelling concepts towards a full-fledged Named Network of Things.A forma como usamos a Internet tem vindo a evoluir desde a sua criação. Atualmente, os utilizadores estão mais interessados em aceder a conteúdos e serviços, com elevados requisitos em termos de largura de banda, segurança e mobilidade. Esta evolução desencadeou o desenvolvimento de novas arquiteturas de rede, visando os atuais, bem como os futuros, requisitos de utilização. As Redes Centradas à Informação (Information-Centric Networking - ICN) são um exemplo proeminente destas novas arquiteturas que, em vez de seguirem um modelo de comunicação centrado nos dispositivos terminais, centram as suas funções de rede em torno do próprio conteúdo. Paralelamente, novos cenários de utilização onde dispositivos inteligentes interagem entre si, e com outros elementos de rede, têm vindo a aparecer e constituem o que hoje conhecemos como a Internet das Coisas (Internet of Things - IoT ). É esperado que a IoT tenha um impacto significativo na economia e na sociedade. No entanto, promover a adoção em massa da IoT ainda requer que muitos desafios sejam superados. Apesar dos desenvolvimentos recentes, vários problemas relacionados com a adoção em larga escala de soluções de IoT baseadas no protocolo IP estão em aberto. O facto da IoT estar focada em dados e informação, em vez de comunicações ponto-a-ponto, sugere a adoção de soluções baseadas em arquiteturas ICN. Neste sentido, este trabalho explora os conceitos base destas soluções para desenvolver uma visão completa dos principais requisitos que devem ser satisfeitos por uma solução IoT baseada na arquitetura de rede ICN. Esta visão é complementada com soluções para problemas cruciais para a adoção de uma IoT baseada em ICN. Em primeiro lugar, assegurar que a informação seja atualizada e, ao mesmo tempo, manter as vantagens do armazenamento intrínseco em elementos de rede das arquiteturas ICN. Em segundo lugar, permitir as funcionalidades de descoberta não só em domínios locais, mas também em domínios de larga-escala. Os mecanismos propostos são avaliados através de simulações e prototipagem, com os resultados a demonstrarem a viabilidade da sua adoção. Para além disso, os resultados deste trabalho contribuem para o desenvolvimento de conceitos sólidos em direção a uma verdadeira Internet das Coisas baseada em Nomes.Programa Doutoral em Telecomunicaçõe

Detection of Anticompetitive Horizontal Mergers

The paper develops a four-step framework to detect anticompetitive horizontal mergers. In the first step, an estimate of the impact of the merger on the market price needs to be derived. Subsequent, the second step of the framework has to assess whether such a predicted price increase would be sustainable post-merger. The third step needs to assess whether the identified efficiencies are substantial enough to at least hold the premerger price level. Finally, the fourth step has to consider the effects of a horizontal merger on other competition variables such as product variety, marketing as well as R&D post-merger. --Competition policy,antitrust enforcement,mergers,unilateral effects

Information protection in content-centric networks

Information-centric networks have distinct advantages with regard to securing sensitive content as a result of their new approaches to managing data in potential future internet architectures. These kinds of systems, because of their data-centric perspective, provide the opportunity to embed policy-centric content management components that can address looming problems in information distribution that both companies and federal agencies are beginning to face with respect to sensitive content. This information-centricity facilitates the application of security techniques that are very difficult and in some cases impossible to apply in traditional packetized networks. This work addresses the current state of the art in both these kinds of cross-domain systems and information-centric networking in general. It then covers other related work, outlining why information-centric networks are more powerful than traditional packetized networks with regard to usage management. Then, it introduces a taxonomy of types of policy-centric usage managed information network systems and an associated methodology for evaluating the individual taxonomic elements. It finally delves into experimental evaluation of the various defined architectural options and presents results of comparing experimental evaluation with anticipated outcomes