A Case Study on Academic Services Application Using Agile Methodology for Mobile Cloud Computing

Recently, Mobile Cloud Computing reveals many modern development areas in the Information Technology industry. Several software engineering frameworks and methodologies have been developed to provide solutions for deploying cloud computing resources on mobile application development. Agile methodology is one of the most commonly used methodologies in the field. This paper presents the MCCAS a Web and Mobile application that provide feature for the Palestinian higher education/academic institutions. An Agile methodology was used in the development of the MCCAS but in parallel with emphasis on Cloud computing resources deployment. Also many related issues is discussed such as how software engineering modern methodologies (advances) influenced the development process

Unikat cikánství: práce, moc a identita v marginalizaci Romů

Na základě dlouhodobého etnografického výzkumu mezi Romy v Tercově tato dizertační práce zkoumá otázky identity a chudoby. Konstantní prolínání cikánství a chudoby se projevuje jak ve způsobech, jimiž se Romové vypořádávají se sociální marginalizací, tak v dominantních představách o nich. V důsledku toho si Romové osvojují různé strategie přežití, jejichž prostřednictvím unikají takové identifikaci. Podoby cikánství jsou přitom zkoumány na třech úrovních. V první části je pozornost věnována vnitřnímu členění Romů v Tercově na dvě frakce. Toto dělení je zkoumáno na mikroúrovni, která odhaluje, že jedné z frakcí se úspěšně daří uvrhnout obraz cikánství na druhou frakci tak, aby se sama vymanila z tohoto hegemonního uchopení. Ve druhé části je cikánství zkoumáno v oblasti zaměstnanosti. Vzájemné doplňování cikánství a chudoby se zde projevuje v diskurzu záslužnosti, který efektivně přetavuje sociální kategorie na kulturní schémata, a tím zakládá vyloučení Romů z "morálního souručenství". V třetí a čtvrté části jsou prezentovány příklady dočasně úspěšných praktik Romů při překonávání dominantních reprezentací a nastolování takových sociálních vztahů na lokální úrovni, ve kterých mají Romové navrch.Based on an ethnographic fieldwork among Roma in Tercov this dissertation explores questions of identity and poverty. It is argued that Gypsyness and poverty constantly mingle in both how the Roma cope with their social marginalization and how they are perceived. In consequence the Roma adopt strategies of survival whereby they attempt to escape identification as Gypsies. The facets of Gypsyness are explored on three levels. In Part 1 attention is paid to the internal cleavage that separates the Roma in Tercov in two fractions. The cleavage is analyzed on the microscopic level which reveals that one of the fractions is efficient in imposing the view of the other as more Gypsy like and thus establishes itself as immune to Gypsy perception. In Part 2 Gypsyness is explored in the realm of employment. Here the mutual complementarity of Gypsyness and poverty is recast in the discourse of deservingness which efficiently transforms social categories into cultural schemata and creates in the negative sense the exclusion of the Roma from the "moral community". In Part 3 and 4 are presented examples of how the Roma in Tercov temporarily outwit dominant representations and gain the upper hand in the local social interaction.Institute of EthnologyÚstav etnologieFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Domain Adaptation for Inertial Measurement Unit-based Human Activity Recognition: A Survey

Machine learning-based wearable human activity recognition (WHAR) models enable the development of various smart and connected community applications such as sleep pattern monitoring, medication reminders, cognitive health assessment, sports analytics, etc. However, the widespread adoption of these WHAR models is impeded by their degraded performance in the presence of data distribution heterogeneities caused by the sensor placement at different body positions, inherent biases and heterogeneities across devices, and personal and environmental diversities. Various traditional machine learning algorithms and transfer learning techniques have been proposed in the literature to address the underpinning challenges of handling such data heterogeneities. Domain adaptation is one such transfer learning techniques that has gained significant popularity in recent literature. In this paper, we survey the recent progress of domain adaptation techniques in the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based human activity recognition area, discuss potential future directions

Dataset to assess the shadow effect of an outdoor microalgae culture

[EN] This data in brief (DIB) article is related to a Research article [1]. Microalgae biomass absorb the light photons that are supplied to the culture, reducing the light availability in the inner parts of the photobioreactors. This is known as self-shading or shadow effect. This effect has been widely studied in lab conditions, but information about self-shading in outdoor photobioreactors is scarce. How this shadow effect affects the light availability in an outdoor photobioreactor was evaluated. In addition, advantages and disadvantages of different artificial light sources which can overcome light limitation are described.This research work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, Projects CTM2014-54980-C2-1-R and CTM2014-54980-C2-2-R) jointly with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), both of which are gratefully acknowledged. It was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport via a pre doctoral FPU fellowship to author J. Gonzalez-Camejo (FPU14/05082).Gonzalez-Camejo, J.; Viruela, A.; Ruano, MV.; Barat, R.; Seco, A.; Ferrer, J. (2019). Dataset to assess the shadow effect of an outdoor microalgae culture. Data in Brief. 25:1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2019.104143S142

A survey on deep transfer learning and edge computing for mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Journal of Systems Architecture on 30/06/2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sysarc.2020.101830 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Global Health sometimes faces pandemics as are currently facing COVID-19 disease. The spreading and infection factors of this disease are very high. A huge number of people from most of the countries are infected within six months from its first report of appearance and it keeps spreading. The required systems are not ready up to some stages for any pandemic; therefore, mitigation with existing capacity becomes necessary. On the other hand, modern-era largely depends on Artificial Intelligence(AI) including Data Science; and Deep Learning(DL) is one of the current flag-bearer of these techniques. It could use to mitigate COVID-19 like pandemics in terms of stop spread, diagnosis of the disease, drug & vaccine discovery, treatment, patient care, and many more. But this DL requires large datasets as well as powerful computing resources. A shortage of reliable datasets of a running pandemic is a common phenomenon. So, Deep Transfer Learning(DTL) would be effective as it learns from one task and could work on another task. In addition, Edge Devices(ED) such as IoT, Webcam, Drone, Intelligent Medical Equipment, Robot, etc. are very useful in a pandemic situation. These types of equipment make the infrastructures sophisticated and automated which helps to cope with an outbreak. But these are equipped with low computing resources, so, applying DL is also a bit challenging; therefore, DTL also would be effective there. This article scholarly studies the potentiality and challenges of these issues. It has described relevant technical backgrounds and reviews of the related recent state-of-the-art. This article also draws a pipeline of DTL over Edge Computing as a future scope to assist the mitigation of any pandemic

Case Report: Pediatric myeloid/lymphoid neoplasm with eosinophilia and PDGFRA rearrangement: The first case presenting as B-lymphoblastic lymphoma

According to the latest WHO classification of hematopoietic malignancies, myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms with eosinophilia and gene rearrangements include three specific rare diseases and one provisional entity. Myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA) rearrangements are the most frequent of these disorders and are usually present in adult males with a median age of the late 40s. Patients usually have chronic eosinophilic leukemia but can occasionally manifest as acute myeloid leukemia or extramedullary T- or B-lineage lymphoblastic lymphoma. We report a case of a previously healthy 2-year-old girl who presented with a right supraorbital swelling with no associated lymphadenopathy. Peripheral blood smear evaluation at initial presentation revealed microcytic hypochromic red blood cells and leukocytosis with marked eosinophilia, occasional myelocytes, and occasional blasts. Whole-body CT scans and PET scans revealed hypermetabolic potentially lymphomatous mass in the superior medial aspect of the right orbit in addition to splenomegaly but no evidence of hypermetabolic mediastinal, hilar, abdominal, or pelvic lymph nodes. Bone marrow aspirate and biopsy revealed hypercellular bone marrow with quantitatively decreased erythroid precursors and increased granulocytic precursors with 60% of the cells being eosinophilic cells in different stages of maturation. The diagnosis of myeloid neoplasm with eosinophilia and rearrangement of PDGFRA was made following confirmation by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) test for FIP1L1-PDGFRA gene fusion. An incisional biopsy of the supraorbital mass revealed B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (B-LBL). FISH test for FIP1L1-PDGFRA gene fusion was positive in 70% of the cells studied. Thus, the final diagnosis was B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma arising in the setting of myeloid/lymphoid neoplasm with eosinophilia and PDGFRA rearrangement. The patient was started on imatinib with concomitant therapy for B-LBL per the Children Oncology Group (COG) standard therapy for localized B-LBL and demonstrated a favorable outcome in the 2.5-year follow-up period. To our knowledge, this is the first pediatric case of myeloid/lymphoid neoplasm with PDGFRA rearrangement presenting with synchronous myeloproliferative disease and B-LBL. We present our diagnostic and management approach of this patient and review prior relevant pediatric cases of myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with PDGFRA rearrangement

Design of Nonlinear Backstepping Double-Integral Sliding Mode Controllers to Stabilize the DC-Bus Voltage for DC–DC Converters Feeding CPLs

This paper proposes a composite nonlinear controller combining backstepping and double-integral sliding mode controllers for DC–DC boost converter (DDBC) feeding by constant power loads (CPLs) to improve the DC-bus voltage stability under large disturbances in DC distribution systems. In this regard, an exact feedback linearization approach is first used to transform the nonlinear dynamical model into a simplified linear system with canonical form so that it becomes suitable for designing the proposed controller. Another important feature of applying the exact feedback linearization approach in this work is to utilize its capability to cancel nonlinearities appearing due to the incremental negative-impedance of CPLs and the non-minimum phase problem related to the DDBC. Second, the proposed backstepping double integral-sliding mode controller (BDI-SMC) is employed on the feedback linearized system to determine the control law. Afterwards, the Lyapunov stability theory is used to analyze the closed-loop stability of the overall system. Finally, a simulation study is conducted under various operating conditions of the system to validate the theoretical analysis of the proposed controller. The simulation results are also compared with existing sliding mode controller (ESMC) and proportional-integral (PI) control schemes to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed BDI-SMC

Association between Helicobacter pylori infection and primary open-angle glaucoma

The pathological processes of primary open-angle glaucoma is unknown. Several studies show the relation between Helicobacter pylori infection and primary open-angle glaucoma. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between H. pylori infection and primary open-angle glaucoma. Forty patients of diagnosed primary open-angle glaucoma were selected as case and 40 participants without primary open-angle glaucoma were selected as control as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. Complete clinical evaluation including history, physical examination, relevant ocular examinations and laboratory investigations were performed. Serologic evidence of H. pylori infection was found in 75% of patients with primary open-angle glaucoma and 30% of patients without primary open-angle glaucoma which achieved statistically significant difference (p=0.000, OR=7.00 and CI 95% =2.61-18.74). 13C urea breath test was positive in 70% in case group and 37.5% in control group which also achieved statistically significant difference  (p=0.003, OR=3.89 and CI 95% =1.53-9.87). The findings revealed significant association between H. pylori infection and primary open-angle glaucoma.

A nonlinear double‐integral sliding mode controller design for hybrid energy storage systems and solar photovoltaic units to enhance the power management in DC microgrids

In this paper, a nonlinear decentralized double‐integral sliding mode controller (DI‐SMC) is designed along with an energy management system (EMS) for the DC microgrid (DCMG). This DCMG includes having a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) that incorporates a battery energy storage system (BESS) and supercapacitor energy storage system (SCESS) while the load demand is met through the power generated from solar photovoltaic (SPV) units. First, dynamical models of each subsystem of DCMGs such as the SPV system, BESS, and SCESS are developed to capture highly nonlinear behaviors of DCMGs under various operating conditions. The proposed nonlinear DI‐SMC is then designed for each power unit in DCMGs to ensure the desired voltage level at the common DC‐bus and appropriate power dispatch of different components to fulfill the load requirement of the DCMG. On the other hand, an energy management system (EMS) is designed to determine the set point for the controller with an aim of ensuring the power balance within DCMGs under various operating conditions where the overall stability is assessed using the Lyapunov theory. Simulation studies along with the processor‐in‐loop validation, including a comparative study with a proportional‐integral (PI) controller, verify the applicability and effectiveness of the EMS‐based DI‐SMC under different operating conditions of the DCMG