CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

Towards a Secure Smart Grid Storage Communications Gateway

This research in progress paper describes the role of cyber security measures undertaken in an ICT system for integrating electric storage technologies into the grid. To do so, it defines security requirements for a communications gateway and gives detailed information and hands-on configuration advice on node and communication line security, data storage, coping with backend M2M communications protocols and examines privacy issues. The presented research paves the road for developing secure smart energy communications devices that allow enhancing energy efficiency. The described measures are implemented in an actual gateway device within the HORIZON 2020 project STORY, which aims at developing new ways to use storage and demonstrating these on six different demonstration sites.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Enhancing ERP-Architectures for Business Networking - Case of Deutsche Telekom AG

Many organizations have ERP systems in place and are confronted with initiatives from their functional de- partments, consultants or software vendors that aim at im- plementing solutions for Business Networking. This con- cept includes the design and management of IT-enabled relationships between internal and external business part- ners. It provides a holistic perspective on strategies, such as electronic commerce, supply chain management, and customer relationship management. Since a new array of applications to address these inter-business relationships is swiftly implemented, architectural considerations are often left out. Reasons for this include time pressure, a lack of experience, methods, and concepts. Consequently, existing ERP-centric architectures are not modified or have to be modified after the fact. Using a case example from Deutsche Telekom, this article presents a possible proactive solution for a definition of a future application architecture as well as procedures to achieve a Business Networking architecture that meets business requirements

Multiplierz: An Extensible API Based Desktop Environment for Proteomics Data Analysis

BACKGROUND. Efficient analysis of results from mass spectrometry-based proteomics experiments requires access to disparate data types, including native mass spectrometry files, output from algorithms that assign peptide sequence to MS/MS spectra, and annotation for proteins and pathways from various database sources. Moreover, proteomics technologies and experimental methods are not yet standardized; hence a high degree of flexibility is necessary for efficient support of high- and low-throughput data analytic tasks. Development of a desktop environment that is sufficiently robust for deployment in data analytic pipelines, and simultaneously supports customization for programmers and non-programmers alike, has proven to be a significant challenge. RESULTS. We describe multiplierz, a flexible and open-source desktop environment for comprehensive proteomics data analysis. We use this framework to expose a prototype version of our recently proposed common API (mzAPI) designed for direct access to proprietary mass spectrometry files. In addition to routine data analytic tasks, multiplierz supports generation of information rich, portable spreadsheet-based reports. Moreover, multiplierz is designed around a "zero infrastructure" philosophy, meaning that it can be deployed by end users with little or no system administration support. Finally, access to multiplierz functionality is provided via high-level Python scripts, resulting in a fully extensible data analytic environment for rapid development of custom algorithms and deployment of high-throughput data pipelines. CONCLUSION. Collectively, mzAPI and multiplierz facilitate a wide range of data analysis tasks, spanning technology development to biological annotation, for mass spectrometry-based proteomics research.Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; National Human Genome Research Institute (P50HG004233); National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship grant (DGE-0654108

Technology standards and performance: the impact of social network service integration and open technology standards

For at least hundreds of years, if not longer, industries have been regularly transformed by the adoption of standards. Early examples from the early nineteenth century include the standardization of railroad track gauges and the introduction of interchangeable parts in the production of munitions. With the advent of the modern technology era, the introduction of standards has continued to transform industries that are now information technology driven. However, despite the broad consequences the introduction of standards presents, there remains a limited understanding of them. In this work we begin to build upon our understanding of the impact of standards by conducting a study on each of two distinct industries that have significant implications for society. The first industry considered is online services, focusing on an increasingly dominant subset that contains online communities. This industry is being transformed by the introduction of de facto standards for user profile management through social network service integration. The second industry studied is the defense avionics industry. This industry is positioned to potentially be transformed by the introduction of an open technology standard for software development. In the first study we investigate the impact of an increasingly common but understudied design option available to online communities: whether to integrate with a social network platform such as Facebook or Google+. Social network platform integration may provide several benefits to an online community, including creating more social interaction opportunities for members and helping members share personal information with each other to facilitate the creation of social bonds. Theory suggests that both of these factors (opportunities for interaction and disclosure of personal data) enhance the success of bond-based online communities, i.e., those in which member attachment to the community is driven by social bonds with other members. However, some elements of the theory have not been tested, and the theory does not consider the possibility that interaction opportunities and the disclosure of personal information might harm the online community by creating information privacy concerns among users. To address this gap, we tested the effect of implementing the “Login with Facebook” feature on new member registration and member social bond formation in an online virtual world community. Using a randomized field experiment as well as archival data analysis, we found that Facebook integration led to lower registration and lower social bond formation. I.e., it had a consistently negative effect on the online community. In addition to contributing to theory about the design of online communities, our results are also of practical interest to managers of online communities who have implemented or are planning to implement social network platform integration as well as to social network platforms who would like for their integration services to be more widely adopted. In the second study we examine the impact of introducing an open technology standard to the U.S. Defense Avionics industry. U.S. Defense Avionics is a multi-billion dollar industry featuring a monopoly buyer and pseudo-monopoly sellers, and its interplay of regulation and competition have traditionally favored secrecy and proprietary design as companies vie for huge multi-year contracts in a feast or famine market. Recognizing this, the U.S. government launched an initiative to develop an open technology standard jointly with industry, with the intention of using these standards to leverage the anticipated competition and efficiency benefits. Using a combination of interviews and a Delphi study, we examine the impact of this standard on software project effort across key industry firm archetypes. We find that experts anticipate a significant premium in the short term that transitions to cost reduction in the long term, with these expectations varying by firm type. This work contributes to the literature on open standards and learning by validating and quantifying the effect, and provides unique insights into U.S. Defense Avionics industry. This study also informs both expert and industry expectations as well as provides a best estimate of the actual impacts of adopting the standard.Ph.D

VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Knowledge-Based Design Patterns for Detailed Ship Structural Design

For detailed ship structural design standardization is a means to ensure a consistent build quality and to reduce design costs. With standards expressed electronically and using a knowledge-based approach, a rule-based system for the automatic design of standardized structural details is presented. For selected problems the corresponding rule formulations are developed; more advanced design tasks are solved by a bottom-up approach. As a result, the automatic, standards compliant design and validation is achieved, hence ensuring consistency as well as reducing the probability of design errors

On systematic approaches for interpreted information transfer of inspection data from bridge models to structural analysis

In conjunction with the improved methods of monitoring damage and degradation processes, the interest in reliability assessment of reinforced concrete bridges is increasing in recent years. Automated imagebased inspections of the structural surface provide valuable data to extract quantitative information about deteriorations, such as crack patterns. However, the knowledge gain results from processing this information in a structural context, i.e. relating the damage artifacts to building components. This way, transformation to structural analysis is enabled. This approach sets two further requirements: availability of structural bridge information and a standardized storage for interoperability with subsequent analysis tools. Since the involved large datasets are only efficiently processed in an automated manner, the implementation of the complete workflow from damage and building data to structural analysis is targeted in this work. First, domain concepts are derived from the back-end tasks: structural analysis, damage modeling, and life-cycle assessment. The common interoperability format, the Industry Foundation Class (IFC), and processes in these domains are further assessed. The need for usercontrolled interpretation steps is identified and the developed prototype thus allows interaction at subsequent model stages. The latter has the advantage that interpretation steps can be individually separated into either a structural analysis or a damage information model or a combination of both. This approach to damage information processing from the perspective of structural analysis is then validated in different case studies

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