18,364 research outputs found
Intelligent Management and Efficient Operation of Big Data
This chapter details how Big Data can be used and implemented in networking
and computing infrastructures. Specifically, it addresses three main aspects:
the timely extraction of relevant knowledge from heterogeneous, and very often
unstructured large data sources, the enhancement on the performance of
processing and networking (cloud) infrastructures that are the most important
foundational pillars of Big Data applications or services, and novel ways to
efficiently manage network infrastructures with high-level composed policies
for supporting the transmission of large amounts of data with distinct
requisites (video vs. non-video). A case study involving an intelligent
management solution to route data traffic with diverse requirements in a wide
area Internet Exchange Point is presented, discussed in the context of Big
Data, and evaluated.Comment: In book Handbook of Research on Trends and Future Directions in Big
Data and Web Intelligence, IGI Global, 201
Effects of Local Specialization of Investment Subsides in Italy
In Italy we currently have a lot of national and regional instruments for financial aids to enterprises. Most of them are not specialized, as syntethetized in the following points: 1. they are refferred to the whole Italian territory; 2. they have generic objects (increase of GNP, reduction of growth differences among regions, employment); 3. they are applied to all the sectors of production; 4. they have common methods of application (automatic, discretional,negotiated). This means that we establish general purposes without further specialization even if we fall into particular purposes.In addition to this types of subsides, there are anymore that are specialized both at territorial and at sectorial level. Among these, the most important are distributed by the Territorial Pacts that are one of the instruments of concerted planning. In this paper we firstly define the specialization of some forms of subsidies; then we analize the performance of two samples of enterprises, that are located in the Apulia Region (NUTS III), the first of which has been benefiting from the state support provided by law n.488/92 (Financial support of the productive activities in depressed zones), and the second one that has been benefiting from the support provided by Territorial Pacts. The enterprises performance have been assessed through quantitative index measured by three main relations: 1. Sales / Assets, that is an indicator measuring the firms efficiency. So it indicates if the total value of sales they?ve carried out, can account for the effectuated investments. 2. Profit / Sales, that estimate the enterprise ability to obtain profits, aging in the market, and let us having indications about prospects of success. 3. Profit / Assets, that assess, in a better way, the capacity in terms of global income of the enterprise. Comparing the average of the three indicators considered, related to supported enterprises, with the same indexes of Mediobanca sample about not-supported enterprises, we obtain interesting results. They have proved that: A. the enterprises having supports are, generally, less efficient than those having no support; B. the firms subsided by Territorial Pacts are more efficient than the other ones subsided by law n.488/92. From the investigation it emerges that the subsides territorially oriented are more efficient than the general support, referred to the same area. So, if we privilege efficiency results, putting the effectiveness ones in a secondary position, we probably should prefer an automatic but specialized aid system, at least from the territorial, dimensional and productive point of view according to preference scales. But, if we want to obtain effectiveness standards too, it is necessary to specialize the interventions and determine specific goals and result indicators.
A Review on the Application of Natural Computing in Environmental Informatics
Natural computing offers new opportunities to understand, model and analyze
the complexity of the physical and human-created environment. This paper
examines the application of natural computing in environmental informatics, by
investigating related work in this research field. Various nature-inspired
techniques are presented, which have been employed to solve different relevant
problems. Advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are discussed,
together with analysis of how natural computing is generally used in
environmental research.Comment: Proc. of EnviroInfo 201
Responsibility matters: putting illness back into the picture
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore specific instances of junior doctors’ responsibility.
Learning is often understood to be a prerequisite for managing responsibility and risk but this paper
aims to argue that this is insufficient because learning is integral to the management of responsibility
and risk.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a “collective” case study of doctors designed to focus on the
interrelationships between individual professionals and complex work settings. The authors focussed on
two key points of transition: the transition to beginning clinical practice which is the move from medical
student to foundation training (F1) and the transition from generalist to specialist clinical practice.
Findings – Responsibility in clinical settings is immediate, concrete, demands response and (in)
action has an effect. Responsibility is learnt and is not always apparent; it shifts depending on time of
day/night and who else is present. Responsibility does not necessarily increase incrementally and can
decrease; it can be perceived differently by different actors. Responsibility is experienced as personal
although it is distributed.
Originality/value – This detailed examination of practice has enabled the authors to foreground the
particularities, urgency and fluidity of everyday clinical practice. It recasts their understandings of
responsibility – and managing risk – as involving learning in practice. This is a critical insight
because it suggests that the theoretical basis for the current approach to managing risk and
responsibility is insufficient. This has significant implications for policy, employment, education and
practice of new doctors and for the management of responsibility and risk
Structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines: A review through the Statistical Pattern Recognition Paradigm
Offshore Wind has become the most profitable renewable energy source due to the remarkable development it has experienced in Europe over the last decade. In this paper, a review of Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHMS) for offshore wind turbines (OWT) has been carried out considering the topic as a Statistical Pattern Recognition problem. Therefore, each one of the stages of this paradigm has been reviewed focusing on OWT application. These stages are: Operational Evaluation; Data Acquisition, Normalization and Cleansing; Feature Extraction and Information Condensation; and Statistical Model Development. It is expected that optimizing each stage, SHMS can contribute to the development of efficient Condition-Based Maintenance Strategies. Optimizing this strategy will help reduce labor costs of OWTs׳ inspection, avoid unnecessary maintenance, identify design weaknesses before failure, improve the availability of power production while preventing wind turbines׳ overloading, therefore, maximizing the investments׳ return. In the forthcoming years, a growing interest in SHM technologies for OWT is expected, enhancing the potential of offshore wind farm deployments further offshore. Increasing efficiency in operational management will contribute towards achieving UK׳s 2020 and 2050 targets, through ultimately reducing the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE)
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