SOLAM: A Novel Approach of Spatial Aggregation in SOLAP Systems

In the context of a data driven approach aimed to detect the real and responsible factors of the transmission of diseases and explaining its emergence or re-emergence, we suggest SOLAM (Spatial on Line Analytical Mining) system, an extension of Spatial On Line Analytical Processing (SOLAP) with Spatial Data Mining (SDM) techniques. Our approach consists of integrating EPISOLAP system, tailored for epidemiological surveillance, with spatial generalization method allowing the predictive evaluation of health risk in the presence of hazards and awareness of the vulnerability of the exposed population. The proposed architecture is a single integrated decision-making platform of knowledge discovery from spatial databases. Spatial generalization methods allow exploring the data at different semantic and spatial scales while reducing the unnecessary dimensions. The principle of the method is selecting and deleting attributes of low importance in data characterization, thus produces zones of homogeneous characteristics that will be merged

Gerenciamento de restrições de integridade para dados geoespaciais multi-escala

Orientador: Claudia Maria Bauzer MedeirosDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Trabalhar em questões relativas a dados geoespaciais presentes em múltiplas escalas apresenta inúmeros desafios que têm sido atacados pelos pesquisadores da área de GIS (Sistemas de Informação Geográfica). De fato, um dado problema do mundo real deve frequentemente ser estudado em escalas distintas para ser resolvido. Outro fator a ser considerado é a possibilidade de manter o histórico de mudanças em cada escala. Além disso, uma das principais metas de ambientes multi-escala _e garantir a manipulação de informações sem qualquer contradição entre suas diferentes representações. A noção de escala extrapola inclusive a questão espacial, pois se aplica também, por exemplo, _a escala temporal. Estes problemas serão analisados nesta dissertação, resultando nas seguintes contribuições: (a) proposta do modelo DBV (Database Version) multi-escala para gerenciar de forma transparente dados de múltiplas escalas sob a perspectiva de bancos de dados; (b) especificação de restrições de integridade multi-escala; (c) implementação de uma plataforma que suporte o modelo e as restrições, testados com dados reais multi-escalaAbstract: Work on multi-scale issues concerning geospatial data presents countless challenges that have been long attacked by GIScience (Geographic Information Science) researchers. Indeed, a given real world problem must often be studied at distinct scales in order to be solved. Another factor to be considered is the possibility of maintaining the history of changes at each scale. Moreover, one of the main goals of multi-scale environments is to guarantee the manipulation of information without any contradiction among the different representations. The concept of scale goes beyond issues of space, since it also applies, for instance, to time. These problems will be analyzed in this thesis, resulting in the following contributions: (a) the proposal of the DBV (Database Version) multi-scale model to handle data at multiple scales from a database perspective; (b) the specification of multi-scale integrity constraints; (c) the implementation of a platform to support model and constraints, tested with real multi-scale dataMestradoCiência da ComputaçãoMestre em Ciência da Computaçã

Micro-and macromechanics of single crystal and polygrannular lamellar block copolymers

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-186).Block copolymers (BCPs) are a relatively new class of thermoplastic elastomers. Their macromolecular chain consists of covalently bonded repeating blocks of thermoplastic and elastomeric molecular chains. When given the thermodynamic freedom, the chain constituents phase separate into domains of various morphologies with sizes that can range between ten to hundreds of nanometers. BCPs are in essence nanocomposites with chemically bonded interfaces. As such, their mechanical behavior is consistent both with that of elastomers, and of thermoplastics. Due to this unique behavior, BCPs are among the most popular polymeric materials with diverse commercial applications that cover a number of industries. Furthermore, BCPs are emerging as instrumental for the future of nanotechnology as an increasing number of new techniques and applications seek to utilize their nanostructural features. BCPs, whether as polycrystalline configurations or as "highly" oriented single-crystals, attract an accumulating number of applications, and the increasing demand for efficient material design and product development extends over a range of length scales. Hence, there exists a need for continuum models that will predict both the oriented as well as the polycrystalline response of block-polymer materials to generic loading conditions. This thesis presents a general micromechanical framework for the derivation of large-strain continuum constitutive models for hyperelastic materials with layered micro- or macro-structures. The framework was implemented for the case of oriented (single-crystal) lamellar BCPs with Neo-Hookean phase behavior, and an analytical continuum model was derived for their large-strain hyperelastic response.(cont.) The model was used to study the behavior of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) triblock polymers, the behavior and micromechanics of which have been extensively investigated experimentally. Micromechanical unit-cell calculations were used as direct parallels to experimental (x-ray, microscopy, and stress-strain) data in order to verify the model's predictions. The presented continuum model describes the stress and deformation response of an oriented microstructure accurately, and was further implemented in multigranular numerical studies for the mechanical behavior of polycrystalline lamellar configurations. Simulations of the polycrystal structures reveal the manner in which the individual grains collectively deform and interact with each other to accommodate the macroscopic deformation. These results reveal the key roles of interlamellar shearing, lamellar dilation, rotation, and buckling.by Theodora Tzianetopoulou.Ph.D

A Dynamic Credit Index System for TSMEs in China Using the Delphi and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Methods

A high-quality credit index system is essential for technological small and medium-sized enterprises (TSMEs) to obtain financing from various institutions, such as banks, venture capital. Some attempts have made to construct the credit index system for TSMEs. However, the current credit index systems for TSMEs have placed too much emphasis on their financial ability with few prominent technological and talent indicators. Therefore, this study has proposed a dynamic credit index system for TSMEs in China using the Delphi and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods. This credit index system covers a wide range of indicators to measure the enterprises’ controller ability, operation and management ability, financial ability, and innovation capacity. This study made some contributions in the following aspects: (1) This study proposed a credit index system for TSMEs that highlights the main characteristics of technological innovation and talents of enterprises in China. (2) The credit index system is also highly adaptable as it can dynamically adjust the index weight according to the life cycles of TSMEs. (3) A case study of evaluating the credit of three TSMEs in China was selected to verify the feasibility and the effectiveness of this system. The results show that the credit index system constructed in this study provides a comprehensive and systematic model for evaluating the credit of TSMEs in China.The research was funded by Sichuan University and Chengdu Administration China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone. And the APC was funded by Sichuan University

Energy system optimisation and smart technologies - a social sciences and humanities annotated bibliography

The challenge: * Systems perspectives on energy involve a holistic view on balancing demand and supply; system optimisation can support security of supply, affordability, sustainability and profitability. * A central, and relatively recent, element of system optimisation is the move towards smart grids, and smart technologies, which concern interconnection of system elements usually through the internet. As well as increasing the resilience of the network, it is hoped this will help “citizens take ownership of the energy transition [and] benefit from new technologies”. * ‘Smartification’ of the energy system introduces a range of new societal conditions and consequences. The aim: * European energy policy has so far mainly relied on research from Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities (energy-SSH) have been significantly underrepresented. The aim of this bibliography is to give policymakers a selected yet broad impression of the SSH research community focusing on ‘energy system optimisation and smart technologies’. Wherever possible, policy deductions or research and innovation recommendations are mentioned. Coverage: * Disciplines covered in this bibliography are broadly representative of the current SSH research community in the area, with a slight bias towards Economics, Sociology and Science & Technology Studies. Nevertheless, robust accounts from Psychology, Politics, Ethnography, Development, Environmental Social Science, Geography, Planning, Law, History and other fields are also included. * Geographically, research presented is primarily from Western and Northern Europe, but with diversity across these regions, and inclusion of some Eastern European and non-European contributions. * Techno-economic accounts are very highly represented in the field of energy system optimisation and smart technologies, a fact highlighted by researchers themselves. Much of this research concentrates on financial cost/benefit of smart grid and technical design, while approaches focusing on social practices or user-centric design are increasing but still underrepresented. The latter were deliberately given higher visibility in this bibliography. Key findings: * Numerous papers presented here focus on how questions of smart technology diffusion, innovation, and adoption might be shifted away from monetary incentives or cost/benefit analyses of technologies. * A unifying message across many topics and disciplines - from energy justice or socio-technical scenarios, to Economics or Ethnography - is that co-operation between techno-economic and SSH approaches needs more attention and is crucial for successful smart grid realisation. * Another important debate for SSH researchers is the deconstruction of overly optimistic visions of smart societies. Many authors urge caution in considering the (financial and social) costs and benefits of smart technologies for all of society, including issues of privacy intrusion. There are calls for more research on both policy initiatives, preferably targeting the community level, and clear communication strategies which fully consider these aspects

Ontology-Based Consistent Specification of Sensor Data Acquisition Plans in Cross-Domain IoT Platforms

Nowadays there is an high number of IoT applications that seldom can interact with each other because developed within different Vertical IoT Platforms that adopt different standards. Several efforts are devoted to the construction of cross-layered frameworks that facilitate the interoperability among cross-domain IoT platforms for the development of horizontal applications. Even if their realization poses different challenges across all layers of the network stack, in this paper we focus on the interoperability issues that arise at the data management layer. Specifically, starting from a flexible multi-granular Spatio-Temporal-Thematic data model according to which events generated by different kinds of sensors can be represented, we propose a Semantic Virtualization approach according to which the sensors belonging to different IoT platforms and the schema of the produced event streams are described in a Domain Ontology, obtained through the extension of the well-known Semantic Sensor Network ontology. Then, these sensors can be exploited for the creation of Data Acquisition Plans by means of which the streams of events can be filtered, merged, and aggregated in a meaningful way. A notion of consistency is introduced to bind the output streams of the services contained in the Data Acquisition Plan with the Domain Ontology in order to provide a semantic description of its final output. When these plans meet the consistency constraints, it means that the data they handle are well described at the Ontological level and thus the data acquisition process over passed the interoperability barriers occurring in the original sources. The facilities of the StreamLoader prototype are finally presented for supporting the user in the Semantic Virtualization process and for the construction of meaningful Data Acquisition Plans

Endothelial cell culture in microfluidically perfused biochips enables the recreation of microphysiological conditions of the human vasculature in vitro

The endothelium lines the inner surface of all blood vessels representing an important tissue with vital functions to mediate tissue homeostasis. Tissue-tissue interfaces play a critical role throughout the human body where endothelial cells (ECs) contribute by creating vital barriers with tight and adherens junctions to regulate permeability of macromolecules and fluids while protecting and nourishing adjacent tissue. They are the most prominent cell type to experience physical forces of shear, stretch and strain through the laminar pulsatile nature of the bloodstream. Alterations in physiological flow profiles have a strong impact on EC pathology contributing to diseases like atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease as well as inflammatory conditions. Further, they are among the first cell types to interact with xenobiotics. Endothelial endocytosis and barrier regulation have profound impact on drug-tissue interactions. There is the need for technological innovations and improvements to study EC biology, EC-epithelial and EC-nanocarrier interactions in more complex settings that take physiological biophysical and biochemical cues into account. For this purpose, the Multi-Organ-Tissue-Flow (MOTiF) biochip has been invented and its design has been finalised during the beginning of this thesis. The objective was to develop handling and cellular seeding protocols for the biochip to establish more in vivo-like and more complex in vitro EC culture approaches. Within the scope of this thesis, the biochip has been characterised for perfused EC culture. Complex co-cultures with tissue resident macrophages and further with murine cortical spheroids present in liver sinusoidal structures and at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) have been established, respectively. Additionally, first applications under physiological parameters of shear stress have been made. The focus was on nanocarrier uptake profiles and microvascular endothelial barrier interaction

Endothelium—role in regulation of coagulation and inflammation

By its strategic position at the interface between blood and tissues, endothelial cells control blood fluidity and continued tissue perfusion while simultaneously they direct inflammatory cells to areas in need of defense or repair. The endothelial response depends on specific tissue needs and adapts to local stresses. Endothelial cells counteract coagulation by providing tissue factor and thrombin inhibitors and receptors for protein C activation. The receptor PAR-1 is differentially activated by thrombin and the activated protein C/EPCR complex, resulting in antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory effects. Thrombin and vasoactive agents release von Willebrand factor as ultra-large platelet-binding multimers, which are cleaved by ADAMTS13. Platelets can also facilitate leukocyte-endothelium interaction. Platelet activation is prevented by nitric oxide, prostacyclin, and exonucleotidases. Thrombin-cleaved ADAMTS18 induces disintegration of platelet aggregates while tissue-type plasminogen activator initiates fibrinolysis. Fibrin and products of platelets and inflammatory cells modulate the angiogenic response of endothelial cells and contribute to tissue repair

Empirical evaluation of a process to increase consensus in group architectural decision making

CONTEXT : Many software architectural decisions are group decisions rather than decisions made by individuals. Consensus in a group of decision makers increases the acceptance of a decision among decision makers and their confidence in that decision. Furthermore, going through the process of reaching consensus means that decision makers understand better the decision (including the decision topic, decision options, rationales, and potential outcomes). Little guidance exists on how to increase consensus in group architectural decision making. OBJECTIVE : We evaluate how a newly proposed process (named GADGET) helps architects increase consensus when making group architectural decisions. Specifically, we investigate how well GADGET increases consensus in group architectural decision making, by understanding its practical applicability, and by comparing GADGET against group architectural decision making without using any prescribed approach. METHOD : We conducted two empirical studies. First, we conducted an exploratory case study to understand the practical applicability of GADGET in industry. We investigated whether there is a need to increase consensus, the effort and benefits of GADGET, and potential improvements for GADGET. Second, we conducted an experiment with 113 students from three universities to compare GADGET against group architectural decision making without using any prescribed approach. RESULTS : GADGET helps decision makers increase their consensus, captures knowledge on architectural decisions, clarifies the different points of view of different decision makers on the decision, and increases the focus of the group discussions about a decision. From the experiment, we obtained causal evidence that GADGET increases consensus better than group architectural decision making without using any prescribed approach. CONCLUSIONS : There is a need to increase consensus in group architectural decisions. GADGET helps inexperienced architects increase consensus in group architectural decision making, and provides additional benefits, such as capturing rationale of decisions. Future work is needed to understand and improve other aspects of group architectural decision making.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/infsof2017-04-30hb2016Computer Scienc

Single cell analysis by capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced native fluorescence detection

Individual mammalian cells were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF). This technique was chosen due to its high separation efficiencies, small sample volumes and sensitive detection. Native fluorescence was used, in which the analyte was not tagged with a fluorophore. 275-nm excitation gave attomole (amol = 10-18 mol) detection limits for the intracellular species of interest. Two projects are described in which hemoglobin (Hb) variants were determined in single red blood cells. In the third experiment, individual mast cells were degranulated on-column, and exocytosis and serotonin release were monitored temporally;First, single red blood cells, in which Hb molecules exist in their native, tetrameric states were analyzed. Upon injection and lysis of a cell, the tetramers were dissociated on-column into their respective polypeptide chains, separated and detected. Adult (normal and elevated A1) and fetal erythrocytes were analyzed. The amounts of glycated and total Hb were found to be uncorrelated;Second, an injection-based capillary isoelectric focusing technique was developed to separate Hb variants in single cells. Using dilute buffer conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) for Hb was 4 amol. In addition, a linear pH gradient was established along the capillary, which allowed variants differing by as little as 0.025 pI units to be resolved. The identification of variants with unknown pI values was also possible with this system;Third, the temporal evolution of on-column exocytotic release of serotonin from individual rat peritoneal mast cells (RPMCs) was monitored. The LOD for serotonin was 1.7 amol (S/N = 3; rms) with this system. The secretagogue was Polymyxin B sulfate, and was electromigrated into the capillary following injection of a single RPMC. Degranulation was induced and serotonin was released, the time courses of which were registered in the electropherograms. Following release, SDS was injected into the capillary to lyse the cell completely and to determine residual serotonin. With this procedure, events that are consistent with released serotonin from single sub-micron granules (250 aL each) were evident, which, to our knowledge, represent the smallest entities that have been analyzed with CE to date