Publish/Subscribe Communication for Crowd-sourcing Based Smart City Applications

Collecting data and monitoring our environment give the basis for smart city applications which are getting popular today. However, the traditional approach to deploy a sensing and monitoring infrastructure is usually expensive and not always practical. Mobile crowd-sourcing can open new ways for data collection and smart city services. In this case, mobile devices with their built-in sensors and their owners are used to monitor the environment. For instance, the timetable of a smart travel planner service can be updated in real-time based on the continuously monitored time gap by passengers between consecutive buses on a public transportation route. This requires a common communication model facilitating crowd-sourced data collection. In this paper, we overview the design considerations of crowd-sourcing based smart city applications, propose data collection via using the publish/subscribe communication model and investigate the possible use of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for such applications

A Publish-Subscribe Scheme Based Open Architecture for Crowd-Sourcing

Participatory sensing, when a crowd of users collaborate to collect useful information, based applications are getting popular these days thanks to the proliferation of powerful mobile devices. The built-in sensors of smartphones offer an easy and handy way to monitor the environment and collect data which can serve as the basis of smart applications. However, the quick and flexible development and deployment of these applications call for a unifying open architecture. In this paper we propose a publish-subscribe based open participatory sensing architecture

Classification of Hungarian medieval silver coins using x-ray fluorescent spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis

A set of silver coins from the collection of Déri Museum Debrecen (Hungary) was examined by X-ray fluorescent elemental analysis with the aim to assign the coins to different groups with the best possible precision based on the acquired chemical information and to build models, which arrange the coins according to their historical periods. Results: Principal component analysis, linear discriminant analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis, classification and regression trees and multivariate curve resolution with alternating least squares were applied to reveal dominant pattern in the data and classify the coins into several groups. We also identified those chemical components, which are present in small percentages, but are useful for the classification of the coins. With the coins divided into two groups according to adequate historical periods, we have obtained a correct classification (76-78%) based on the chemical compositions. Conclusions: X-ray fluorescent elemental analysis together with multivariate data analysis methods is suitable to group medieval coins according to historical periods. Keywords: X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Multivariate techniques, Coin, Silver, Middle age

Model of spatial differentation of temperature in Kolozsvár (Románia)

Összefoglalás - A cikk Kolozsvár területének höháztartás-modelljét mutatja be. A szerzők a különböző városi felszínek (beton, aszfalt, víz- és zöldterület) eltérő termikus tulajdonságait alapul véve. a nap négy jellegzetes idöpillanatjának ábrázolására vállalkoztak. A modell megszerkesztésére a végesdifferencia módszerét használták. Mindez ideális meteorológiai körülményeket, egy hidegfront elvonulása utáni nyári napot feltételez. Ilyen ideális körülmények voltak 1997. június 6-án, amikorra a tanulmány vonatkozik. A modell szerint napközben a város leghidegebb felszíneit a vízfolyás és azöldterületek képezik. Ezzel szemben a legmagasabb hőmérsékletű térségeket a beton- és az aszfaltfelszínekjelentik. A legnagyobb hőmérsékletű eltérések este és éjszakamérhetök. Summary - The structure of urban area may give some different effects on the surface radiation the heat budget and also the heat island phenomenon. The aim of the paper is to study how the urban climate is influenced by different surfaces which characterise the city area. In order to receive a more comprehensive understanding of the thermal patterns in and around urban areas in a themperate climate, the present study was carried out in a different urban areas (e.g. green and water surfaces, streets). Important obj ectures are: - to study if the diversified size of the multivarious urban influences the magnitude of the temperature difference between the different style of built-up area; - to study in what way the density and the structure of the built-up area respectively influences temperature pattern; -to study the alternation of upwarming and cooling rate in the green and built-up area and its dependence on changes in cloud cover. The city of Kolozsvár (Cluj, Romania) has been chosen as study area. The study is caried out with the help of physical model using computer simulations

Nonlinear Normal Modes of a Piecewise Linear Continuous Structure with a Regular State

In this paper, the dynamic behaviour of a family of piecewise linear structures, namely the vibration of beams on block-and-tackle suspension system is analysed. The regularity of the vibration modes in one of the linear states induces non-harmonic, yet periodic free vibration modes. The periodicity constraint of the continuous structure is formulated using modal analysis in the regular state. The required number of modes in the finite modal analysis is specified so that the numerical damping caused by the omitted modes does not change the periodic or non-periodic nature of the free vibration of the continuous structure. It is shown, that the application of five excess passive modes allows to draw conclusions about the behaviour of the continuous structure. The periodic behaviour depends on the number and position of the suspension points and the number of the active vibration modes. Analysis of the limits of the periodic behaviour reveals that suspension points close to the middle of the beam, or first few active vibration modes result in periodic vibration of the nonlinear system

Measurements of a Real-time Transit Feed Service Architecture for Mobile Participatory Sensing

Abstract—We spend a substantial part of our time with traveling, in crowded cities usually taking public transportation. It is important, making travel planning easier, to have accurate information about vehicle arrival times at the stops. Most of the public transport operators make their timetables freely available either on the web or in some special format, like GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification). However, they contain static information only, not reflecting the actual traffic conditions. Mobile participatory sensing can help extend the basic service with real-time updates letting the crowd collect the required data. With this respect we believe that such participatory sensing based application must offer a day zero service following incremental service extension. In this paper, we discuss how to realize real-time refinements to static GTFS data based on mobile participatory sensing. We show how this service can be implemented by an XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) based mobile participatory sensing architecture and we evaluate its performance

Protein foszfatázok szerepe az endoteliális nitrogén-monoxid szintáz és az endotél barrier funkció szabályozásában

Az endoteliális nitrogén monoxid szintáz (eNOS) számos kardiovaszkuláris funkció szabályozásában fontos szerepet játszik. Az eNOS aktivitásának szabályozásában a Thr495 oldalláncon történő gátló foszforiláció kitüntetett szereppel bír. Munkánk során különböző biokémiai és molekuláris biológiai technikák alkalmazásával kimutattuk, hogy a miozin foszfatáz (MP) holoenzim, amely egy protein foszfatáz-1 (PP1c) katalitikus és egy MP regulátor alegységből (MYPT1) áll, az eNOSpT495 oldalláncot defoszforilálló foszfatáz. Foszfatáz gátlószerek alkalmazása csökkentette a NO képződést valamint az endotél barrier funkciót, amely az erek homeosztázisának fenntartása szempontjából kulcsfontosságú. Ezzel ellentétben, az (-)-epigallokatekin-3-gallát (EGCG) kezelés protein kináz A (PKA) által mediált protein foszfatáz 2A (PP2A) aktivációt eredményezett. Ennek hatására növekedett a MP aktivitása és csökkent az eNOSpThr495, valamint a 20 kDa molekulatömegű miozin II könnyűláncot (MLC20) a pThr18/pSer19 foszforilációs szintje, amely az endotél sejtek kontraktilis apparátusának relaxációját idézte elő. Az endotél sejtek barrier funkciójának elvesztése az erek permeabilitásának növekedéséhez vezet, amely gyakran súlyos következményekkel jár. Kimutattuk, hogy a két barrier protektív vegyület, az adenozin (Ado) és ATPγS különböző jelátviteli útvonalakon fejtik ki hatásukat a HLMVEC sejteken. Az ATPγS a P2Y4 és P2Y12 receptorok közvetítésével cAMP független útvonalon PKA aktivációt idéz elő, amely a ppMLC20 foszforilációs szintjének csökkenéséhez vezet. Ezzel szemben az Ado indukálta endotél barrier funkció növekedéséhez a PKA és EPAC1 koordinált cAMP függő aktivációja szükséges. Eredményeink kulcsfontosságú endotél fehérjék receptor-mediált foszforilációs-defoszforilációs folyamataira, valamint ezek szabályozásában szerepet játszó kinázok, foszfatázok és jelátviteli útvonalak szerepére derítenek fényt.The importance of eNOS to cardiovascular homeostasis has been well established. A major regulator of the activity of eNOS is post-translational phosphorylation and in particular the inhibitory phosphorylation at Thr495. Using various biochemical and molecular biological techniques we have demonstrated that the myosin phosphatase (MP) holoenzyme, comprised of protein phosphatase-1 catalytic subunit (PP1c) and the MP target subunit-1 (MYPT1), is a bona fide eNOSpThr495 phosphatase. Furthermore, phosphatase inhibitors were shown to suppress NO production and decrease barrier function, both of which are important functions in ECs. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) treatment induced protein kinase A (PKA) -dependent activation of protein phosphatase-2A (PP2A) which increased MP activity. Activated MP dephosphorylated both eNOSpThr495 and the 20 kDa myosin II light chains at Thr18/Ser19 (ppMLC20) which resulted in relaxation of ECs. Loss of EC barrier integrity results in increased vascular permeability, which often has severe consequences including the flooding of alveolar space that occurs in pneumonia. We have shown that adenosine (Ado) and ATPγS, two EC barrier protective agents, exert their profound barrier protecting effects on HLMVEC via distinct signaling mechanisms. ATPγS induced P2Y4 and P2Y12 mediated cAMP independent PKA activation, resulting in MP activation and ppMLC20 dephosphorylation. However, Ado-induced strengthening of the HLMVEC barrier required the coordinated activation of PKA and EPAC1 in cAMP-dependent manner. In summary our studies shed light on the receptor-mediated phosphorylation-dephosphorylation of key endothelial proteins and identified kinases and phosphatases as well as the signaling pathways implicated in these modifications