ebarts - democratic money

Conventional money depends upon scarcity to maintain its value and for this reason there will never be enough CM to do all the things that we need to do, for example provide education, care and opportunities. To do this, a new kind of money is needed. ebarts is a multiplatform, global digital currency. ebarts is based on barter, and is created by the users as they buy and sell from one another. It is a system of transferrable IOUs. Because ebarts is created by the users, there will always be enough currency to facilitate exchange, potentially opening up a new social economy. ebarts is the basis of democratic money

A Framework to Support Collaborative Software Development and Reusability

This paper motivates and sets out a framework for a high-level approach to software component integration. The approach provisions for smooth integration, management and scalability. It builds on the concept of SaaS (Software as a Service) and the annotation of software components with formal specifications that instruct interoperability through a unified interface. This work is part of ongoing research on the Pandora project [http://www.pandoraproject.eu/]

The Pandora Project: Advanced Training Environment for Crisis Scenarios

This paper describes a technical framework for the development of near real-life training environments for collaborative learning activities suitable for various training scenarios in different domains. The context in focus here is workplace learning that requires the training of collaborative as well as independent decision making among crisis managers in potential crisis situations. The training takes into consideration both the pragmatic nature of responding to crisis and human-behavioural factors involved in dealing with situations of chaos and uncertainty. This work is part of ongoing research on the Pandora1 project, which aims to provide a near-real training environment at affordable cost

Multi-scale attention network for diabetic retinopathy classification

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a highly prevalent complication of diabetes mellitus, which causes lesions on the retina that affect vision which may lead to blindness if it is not detected and diagnosed early. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) are becoming the state-of-the-art approach for automatic detection of DR by using fundus images. The high-level features extracted by CNN are mostly utilised for the detection and classification of lesions on the retina. This high-level representation is capable of classifying different DR classes; however, more effective features for detecting the damages are needed. This paper proposes the multi-scale attention network (MSA-Net) for DR classification. The proposed approach applies the encoder network to embed the retina image in a high-level representational space, where the combination of mid and high-level features is used to enrich the representation. Then a multi-scale feature pyramid is included to describe the retinal structure in a different locality. Furthermore, to enhance the discriminative power of the feature representation a multi-scale attention mechanism is used on top of the high-level representation. The model is trained in a standard way using the cross-entropy loss to classify the DR severity level. In parallel as an auxiliary task, the model is trained using the weakly annotated data to detect healthy and non-healthy retina images. This surrogate task helps the model to enrich its discriminative power for distinguishing the non-healthy retina images. The proposed method when implemented has achieved outstanding results on two public datasets: EyePACS and APTOS

The BCS appathon challenge at Greenwich

The BCS Appathon set out to engage during one hour as many people as possible in the UK in programming an app for their mobile phones. It took place on the 9th June 2015, between 10.30 and 11.30, at a number of UK venues, one of which was the University of Greenwich. Many people now rely on their mobile phones and, daily, use a variety of apps on them, but few have any knowledge of how an app has been developed. The Appathon aimed not merely to give participants an understanding of app development - its ambitious aim was to get participants to create their own simple app during a one-hour, highly-interactive workshop. The workshop then continued on into the afternoon, allowing Appathon attendees to work individually or in small groups, developing apps of their own design. In the concluding session, participants had the opportunity to present their apps in a recorded show-and-tell activity. The apps developed ranged from simple games to such novel applications as an app to count the number of revolutions completed by a figure skater. The success of the Appathon has encouraged staff in the Department of Computing and Information Sciences at Greenwich to consider how it could be deployed to first-year students, who, although they may well be active smart phone users, may also find programming difficult and lack confidence when starting to learn how to do it. We are also investigating how the Appathon can be used to engage students in schools and develop their interest in studying Computer and Information Sciences. By putting first-year students through the Appathon experience, we hope to create a large pool of student ambassadors who can work with us in taking the Appathon to local schools and using it as a taster event at our open days

A High Level Service-Based Approach to Software Component Integration

This paper motivates and sets out a framework for a high-level approach to software component integration. The framework builds on the concept of SaaS (Software as a Service) and uses a service ontology for the annotation of software components with formal specifications. The ontology is used to instruct interoperability between software components through a unified API interface. The impetus for this approach is to provision for smooth integration, management and scalability in a collaborative and distributed development environment

A Framework for Developing a Collaborative Training Environment for Crisis Management

This paper describes the technical framework of a near real-life training environment for learning activities suitable for training in crisis scenarios. The context in focus here is to make provision for a learning environment that requires the training of collaborative, as well as independent, decision making among strategic crisis managers in potential crisis situations. Modelling the training scenarios takes into consideration both the pragmatic nature of responding to crisis, as well as the human-behavioural factors involved in dealing with situations of chaos and uncertainty. This work is part of ongoing research on the Pandora1 project, which aims to provide a near-real training environment at affordable cost

An Approach to Investigate the Relationship between Spatial Configurational Pattern and Heritage Classification: Case study Alexandria City

Heritage buildings are an important aspect of any city in terms of their capacity to provide cultural reference points. The significance of heritage buildings to a city is profound and encompasses a range of cultural, historical, economic, and social dimensions. These buildings represent the city's cultural identity, embodying architectural styles and design principles from specific historical periods. Preserving heritage buildings is essential for maintaining a connection between the past and the present, fostering a collective cultural memory that contributes to the city's overall identity. Preservation strategies entail different levels of physical intervention ranging from the most conservative strategy to the most transformative. Thus, preserving heritage buildings involves a careful approach that respects and safeguards their significant elements, ensuring the enhancement of their memory rather than compromising or losing it. The adaptive reuse strategy is an example of strategic initiatives aimed at preserving heritage buildings' significance while aligning their functions with contemporary needs. In Alexandria, heritage buildings serve as invaluable cultural assets that embody a city's heritage legacy. Defining the urban center requires a crucial examination of the interplay between urban spatial morphology and the functions of heritage buildings, posing a critical challenge to the survival of such buildings. This paper aims to investigate the correlation between the spatial configurational patterns of the urban network and heritage buildings situated in the historical business district of Alexandria, a Mediterranean city in Egypt. This paper adopts a methodology based on examining the spatial configuration pattern using space syntax with different radii. Analytical methods within space syntax will be used to classify and arrange heritage buildings according to their spatial patterns providing a deeper understanding of their heritage attributes. The applied methodology will be employed within the heritage core of Alexandria. This study primarily concentrated on assessing key metrics of Space Syntax: integration and choice, which are considered crucial indicators of the efficiency of the urban fabric based on three radii: local 400m low intermediate800m, and high intermediate 2000. Moreover, connectivity measures and patchwork will be integral components within the framework of space syntax, serving as essential tools to analyze and understand spatial configurations in urban environments. The base map underwent on-site refinement before being imported into Depthmap for conversion into an operational spatial model. The study's findings reveal well-defined and distinct heritage sets among the identified landmarks, determined by the integration and choice measures of space syntax, according to certain radii. This investigation can help in the understanding of conservation approaches. Heritage buildings sharing the same spatial features and within the same heritage set will be subjected to an adaptive reuse strategy, this will ensure seamless integration of their new functions. This approach ensures a cohesive and purposeful transformation that enhances the overall functionality and utility of a harmonious built environment

Blockchain and IoT-based Secure Multimedia Retrieval System for a Massive Crowd: Sharing Economy Perspective

Blockchain’s properties in addressing trust in highly decentralized environments can make it an enabler for novel sharing economy services. In this paper, we demonstrate the practicality of blockchain-based Secure IoT as a Service (SIoTaaS), where an IoT device can be rented from a service provider, securely and in a privacy-preserving fashion. Our framework allows the simultaneous operations of distinct providers of IoT-based sharing economy services at a large scale. Multiple parties can securely share text and multimedia in the context of location and point-of-interest sharing, perform financial transactions by hiding true identity of parties involved in various online transactions, perform user and IoT registration, transfer value transactions via Ethereum tokens between providers and consumers, as well as raw IoT data payload. This can turn smart room IoT devices, such as smart locks, light bulbs, air conditioning and fans into rentable business entities within a secure sharing economy platform. We will demonstrate such a proof of concept IoT sharing economy framework, which is specifically designed to support the temporary IoT needs of very large numbers of users, such as Hajj pilgrims concentrating for a short period of time at a single area in Saudi Arabia

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030