Topology-aware indexing system for Urban Knowledge

Maps are being widely used as tools for presenting or retrieving information with spatial attributes. Existing map-based applications do not use the full potential of digital maps and geographical data: social media are disconnected from the underlying geographical entities; maps as visualization tools do not use the urban topology to cluster point of interest; maps as input systems are intrinsically ambiguous. This work presents a topology-aware indexing system supporting a new metaphor for a real integration between social media and digital maps. The methodology and technical solutions required to build and populate the indexing table starting from OpenStreetMap spatial primitives are introduced

Tracking azimuthons in nonlocal nonlinear media

We study the formation of azimuthons, i.e., rotating spatial solitons, in media with nonlocal focusing nonlinearity. We show that whole families of these solutions can be found by considering internal modes of classical non-rotating stationary solutions, namely vortex solitons. This offers an exhaustive method to identify azimuthons in a given nonlocal medium. We demonstrate formation of azimuthons of different vorticities and explain their properties by considering the strongly nonlocal limit of accessible solitons.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Collaborative Multi-Perspective Urban Knowledge and Civic Media: A Never-Ending Design Challenge

Developing a civic social network requires to consider users meeting in real life, collaborating on digital entries related to real urban entities. This makes necessary to think about collaboration tools in a new perspective: ensuring the participation of users with different levels and forms of legitimacy to represent complex relations among entities, and ensuring the accountability of each contributor. We present a set of technical solutions allowing the collaboration on complex entities, keeping interactions simple, and representing multiple perspectives about shared entities

Bimodal Spectroscopy of Formalin Fixed Samples to Discriminate Dysplastic and Tumor Brain Tissues

Biomedical spectroscopy has gained attention in the past few years for disease diagnosis. Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopies provide finger-print information related to biochemical and morphological alterations when tissues progress from the normal to a malignant stage. Usually, freshly excised tissue specimens are preferred for bio-spectroscopic studies. However, ethical issues, sample availability and distance between the surgery room and the laboratory provide an impelling restriction for in-vitro spectroscopic studies using freshly excised samples. After surgical resection tissues are fixed in 4% formalin for histological studies under a light microscope. The process of fixation prevents degradation of tissues. In this study, we probe the use of formalin fixed sample for differentiating normal and dysplastic brain tissues using fluorescence and Raman spectroscopies. It was found that fluorescence spectral profile changes in the wavelength range from 550-750 nm between dysplastic and tumor samples. Also, significant differences were found in the Raman spectral profiles of such samples. The results indicate a potential diagnostic application of spectroscopy in formalin fixed brain samples for differentiating dysplastic and tumor brain tissues