Technologies and Applications for Big Data Value

This open access book explores cutting-edge solutions and best practices for big data and data-driven AI applications for the data-driven economy. It provides the reader with a basis for understanding how technical issues can be overcome to offer real-world solutions to major industrial areas. The book starts with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of the book by positioning the following chapters in terms of their contributions to technology frameworks which are key elements of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the upcoming Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. The remainder of the book is then arranged in two parts. The first part “Technologies and Methods” contains horizontal contributions of technologies and methods that enable data value chains to be applied in any sector. The second part “Processes and Applications” details experience reports and lessons from using big data and data-driven approaches in processes and applications. Its chapters are co-authored with industry experts and cover domains including health, law, finance, retail, manufacturing, mobility, and smart cities. Contributions emanate from the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the Big Data Value Association, which have acted as the European data community's nucleus to bring together businesses with leading researchers to harness the value of data to benefit society, business, science, and industry. The book is of interest to two primary audiences, first, undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in various fields, including big data, data science, data engineering, and machine learning and AI. Second, practitioners and industry experts engaged in data-driven systems, software design and deployment projects who are interested in employing these advanced methods to address real-world problems

Velocity, temperature, and electric field measurements on a plasma-assisted hydrogen diffusion flame

A plasma-assisted hydrogen diffusion flame, denoted as a coaxial AC DBD burner, was designed and analyzed for comparisons with simulations and to better understand the coupling of the plasma and reacting flow. Emission, PLIF, and schlieren imaging of the burner revealed three distinct operating regimes of the flame, from a reference flickering flame with no applied potential, through a regime of wide flames at moderate potentials from 4-7 kV peak, to the fully collapsed or flattened flame at the highest potentials considered in this work at 9 kV peak voltage all at 18 kHz. Particle image velocimetry measurements revealed the formation of a toroidal vortex within the flame, beginning as an internal toroidal vortex in the wide flame regime, and switching to an outer toroidal vortex in the collapsed flame regime, producing a near counter flow flat diffusion flame on the burner surface that is ventilated by this toroidal vortex. Thermal and species measurements of the flame, by means of Rayleigh or Raman scattering techniques, in different regimes demonstrated a change in the fuel mixing structure and location of the reaction zone due to the position and intensity of the plasma-induced toroidal vortex. Finally, optical electric field measurements, from an electric field induced second harmonic generation technique, revealed the spatial-temporal structure of the horizontal and vertical components of the electric field over the top surface of the burner, thus completing the velocity, temperature, and electric field measurements on this plasma assisted burner. These electric field measurements, coupled with PIV measurements, produced new insight into the body force effect of AC DBD discharges. The electric field measurements revealed period-averaged biases in the electric field as a function of position above the burner surface. Mapping the response of positively charged ions to this period biased electric field showed the ions travelled in the same direction as the bulk flow measured with PIV, suggesting the period-averaged momentum transfer of the ions to the neutral molecules integrated over many AC periods is the leading cause of this induced flow velocity. This was true for both quiescent air operation of the DBD, as well as cold flow operation which resulted in a complete reversal of the bulk flow direction. The specific diagnostic tools utilized to examine the fundamental characteristics of the DBD burner are not new techniques, but the application of them to the complex environment of the burner led to additional developments that allowed for the actual measurement of the quantities of interest. For the PIV measurements, the collapsed flame configuration led to issues with the alumina solid particle seeding momentum dominating the flowfield. This led to utilizing flame synthesis of silica to seed the flame, thus having a self-seeding collapsed flame for velocity measurements. Filtered Rayleigh scattering signals were a combination of species and temperature, thus relying on spontaneous Raman measurements to correct for the species contribution to back out temperatures from Rayleigh scattering. Hybrid fs/ps CARS measurements at long probe delays led to issues with the dephasing of O2 molecules, leading to a new model incorporating finely split Raman transitions to account for the non-trivial decay. Finally, single-shot simultaneous temperature, species, and electric field measurements were demonstrated in a flame for the first time by means of coupled CARS-EFISHG, allowing for corrections to the EFISHG signal to be made for temperature and species concentrations of the measurement region

Analytics and Intuition in the Process of Selecting Talent

In management, decisions are expected to be based on rational analytics rather than intuition. But intuition, as a human evolutionary achievement, offers wisdom that, despite all the advances in rational analytics and AI, should be used constructively when recruiting and winning personnel. Integrating these inner experiential competencies with rational-analytical procedures leads to smart recruiting decisions

Investigating the interplay between morphology, phonology and phonetics

In English, phonological double consonants only occur across morphological boundaries, for example, in affixation (e.g. in unnatural, innumerous). There are two possibilities for the phonetic realization of these morphological geminates: Either the phonological double is realized with a longer duration than a phonological singleton (gemination), or it is of the same duration as a singleton consonant (degemination). The present book provides the first large-scale empirical study on the gemination with the five English affixes un-, locative in-, negative in-, dis- and -ly. Using corpus and experimental data, the predictions of various approaches to the morpho-phonological and the morpho-phonetic interface are tested. By finding out which approach can account best for the gemination pattern of English affixed words, important implications about the interplay between morphology, phonology and phonetics are drawn

Sorghum in the Eighties Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sorghum Volume 1

In October 1971 in Hyderabad. India an international symposium on sorghum was held which examined and reviewed the then scientific, production, and nutritional knowledge of sorghum as a crop and as a human food. Almost exactly 10 years later, ICRISAT hosted Sorghum in the Eighties—an international symposium sponsored by USAID Title XII Collaborative Research Support Program on Sorghum and Pearl Millet (INTSORMIL); the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR); and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It was felt by the organizers that because so much knowledge and information had been attained in the intervening 10 years, scientists should meet again. Consequently, 245 scientists from 37 countries attended the Symposium from 2 to 7 November 1981 at ICRISAT Center near Hyderabad. They examined and evaluated the achievements made in the last decade, discussed the current problems, and made recommendations for future research and other activities. The participants showed a critical awareness of sorghum's role as an important cereal for food, feed, construction material, and fuel in the developed and the developing countries. On a world production and utilization basis, sorghum ranks fifth after wheat, rice, maize and barley. About 90% of the total production and 90% of the harvested area are located in 12 countries in Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. Sorghum is one of the main staple food grains of the world's poorest people, particularly in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). Over 55% of world sorghum production is in the SAT. Of the total SAT production, Asia and Africa contribute about 65%, of which 34% is harvested in India. Matters of considerable concern are that sorghum production is growing more slowly than population and that the food situation in parts of Africa is rapidly deteriorating. Situations such as these clearly indicate that more socioeconomic factors will need to be taken into account to guide and influence the direction of future scientific research on sorghum. The deliberations and discussions during the Symposium on factors related to sorghum and its environment, including climate, insects, fungi, and birds; the genetic resources; breeding for improvement; production technology; food quality and utilization; and the socioeconomic issues showed that many studies will still have to be made to further unravel the potentialities of this cereal. Sharp notice has been taken of research fields where there has been little progress in the last 10 years. A main value of the Symposium has been to determine work priorities for ICRISAT and the national programs in the SAT, and to emphasize the need for continued cooperation with other institutions. Sorghum in the Eighties has been a rewarding Symposium which has not lost sight of the basic objective to increase the yield and production of better sorghum to feed people