Data Collection and Node Counting by Opportunistic Communication

Ever more powerful mobile devices are nowadays capable of collectively carrying out reasonably demanding computational tasks without offloading the processing to an edge server or a distant cloud-computing service. In this work, we explore such distributed computing and study how it is affected by the mobility as well as the number of nodes that collaborate. We choose distributed counting of a number of nodes in an enclosed area as application. Such application is useful for estimating attendance at events and measuring occupancy for facility management, as needed for monitoring of crowdedness with respect to safety and evacuation, climate control and comfort. For this application, we are interested in determining the time until all nodes know the correct number of nodes in the space where they reside. Our study shows the effect of mobility on the distributed process. We find that the process of collecting data opportunistically from a closed set of nodes is well described by empirical laws that we derive. We discuss the results and suggest further work needed to understand opportunistic computation and to develop it as a new model of computation among collectives of mobile nodes.Peer reviewe

Role clarification for local institutions:a missing link in multi-level adaptation planning? Insights from a multiple case study in Botswana

The meaningful engagement of community-based actors in climate change adaptation planning is crucial for effective plans, but achieving it is an ongoing challenge, even with participatory methods. In this paper we explore very different approach, using shared-values crystallization as a pre-process to standard vulnerability risk assessments (VRAs), which recently reported significant impacts on plans produced. We posit this could be due to learning via changed local perceptions of roles, and we use multiple-case study work with five Village Development Committees (VDCs) in North East District, Botswana, and examine VRA outputs, and pre- and post-VRA interview transcripts, for evidence. Findings indicate that VDC members who took part in the shared-values pre-process significantly clarified and prioritized their general roles, and subsequently engaged more deeply in the planning process, taking more responsibility and ownership for the final adaptation plans. They related climate risks to their local lived-realities better, producing quality action plans, funding innovations and mainstreaming of adaptation into wider local plans, alongside an eagerness to present ideas to higher-governance levels. These findings suggest the shared-values pre-process could be immediately valuable for multilevel adaptation planning practices, and that the concept of role clarification deserves more specific consideration in academic studies on participation.</p

Костюшко – гражданин мира

Материалы X Международной научной конференции

Последипломная подготовка на факультете подготовки иностранных граждан ВГМУ

ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ МЕДИЦИНСКОЕМЕДИЦИНСКИЕ УЧЕБНЫЕ ЗАВЕДЕНИЯВУЗЫИНОСТРАННЫЕ СТУДЕНТЫИНОСТРАННЫЕ ГРАЖДАНЕОБРАЗОВАНИЕ МЕДИЦИНСКОЕ ПОСЛЕДИПЛОМНОЕ НЕПРЕРЫВНО

Разработка комплекса мероприятий, направленных на популяризацию белорусского спорта

Материалы XVIII Междунар. науч.-техн. конф. студентов, аспирантов и молодых ученых, Гомель, 26–27 апр. 2018 г

Multi-exon COL5A1 deletion in a child with classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome : A case report expanding the allelic spectrum and showing evidence of parental gonosomal mosaicism

Classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (cEDS) is a rare inherited autosomal dominant connective tissue disorder with core clinical features including skin hyperextensibility, abnormal scarring, and generalized joint hypermobility. Classical EDS is predominantly caused by small pathogenic variants in the genes COL5A1 and COL5A2 and occasionally by a COL1A1 point mutation p.(Arg312Cys), while gross deletions or duplications are uncommon. Gonosomal mosaicism is thought to be exceedingly rare with only two cases reported in the literature. We report a child with cEDS due to a rare gross deletion of exons 2-65 in the COL5A1 gene, inherited from an unaffected mosaic father. The level of mosaicism in the father was approximately 43% in leucocyte cells and 30% in DNA extracted from skin. Our results expand the allelic spectrum of cEDS variants and suggest that parental mosaicism needs to be considered in patients with suspected cEDS, given its implication for genetic counseling.Peer reviewe

Nuances of fragmentation, (mis)recognition and closeness: Narratives of challenges and support during resettlement

The transition from prison to society tends to be tough and painful for people in resettlement and challenging to facilitate for professionals. The Norwegian Correctional Services aim for a continuous reentry focus throughout the prison sentence. Norway has been presented as one of the Nordic exceptional penal states, partly based on ‘the encouraging pattern of officer-inmate interactions’. However, this exceptional picture has been criticized for paying more attention to discourse than to lived experiences. As newly released persons’ experiences of interaction and relationships with staff and of how these facilitate and frustrate their reentry processes have largely been ignored, this article draws attention to their perspectives. Inspired by narrative analysis, in cooperation with persons with lived experience, we constructed three stories of challenges and support during resettlement. Through these in-depth presentations of frustrating misrecognition, ignorance and fragmentation, but also of closeness, continuity, recognition, belonging and de-stigmatization, this study provides important insights into how interaction and relationships with staff enable and constrain reentry to society. By bringing lived experience into the discourse of Nordic exceptionalism, this article adds valuable perspectives to this still ongoing debate. Overall, we argue for a revitalization of the primary officer role and a broader approach to resettlement to facilitate support throughout the prison sentence

Quantitative analysis of manual annotation of clinical text samples

International audienceBackground: Semantic interoperability of eHealth services within and across countries has been the main topic in several research projects. It is a key consideration for the European Commission to overcome the complexity of making different health information systems work together. This paper describes a study within the EU-funded project ASSESS CT, which focuses on assessing the potential of SNOMED CT as core reference terminology for semantic interoperability at European level.Objective: This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the results obtained in ASSESS CT to determine the fitness of SNOMED CT for semantic interoperability.Methods: The quantitative analysis consists of concept coverage, term coverage and inter-annotator agreement analysis of the annotation experiments related to six European languages (English, Swedish, French, Dutch, German and Finnish) and three scenarios: (i) ADOPT, where only SNOMED CT was used by the annotators; (ii) ALTERNATIVE, where a fixed set of terminologies from UMLS, excluding SNOMED CT, was used; and (iii) ABSTAIN, where any terminologies available in the current national infrastructure of the annotators' country were used. For each language and each scenario, we configured the different terminology settings of the annotation experiments.Results: There was a positive correlation between the number of concepts in each terminology setting and their concept and term coverage values. Inter-annotator agreement is low, irrespective of the terminology setting.Conclusions: No significant differences were found between the analyses for the three scenarios, but availability of SNOMED CT for the assessed language is associated with increased concept coverage. Terminology setting size and concept and term coverage correlate positively up to a limit where more concepts do not significantly impact the coverage values. The results did not confirm the hypothesis of an inverse correlation between concept coverage and IAA due to a lower amount of choices available. The overall low IAA results pose a challenge for interoperability and indicate the need for further research to assess whether consistent terminology implementation is possible across Europe, e.g., improving term coverage by adding localized versions of the selected terminologies, analysing causes of low inter-annotator agreement, and improving tooling and guidance for annotators. The much lower term coverage for the Swedish version of SNOMED CT compared to English together with the similarly high concept coverage obtained with English and Swedish SNOMED CT reflects its relevance as a hub to connect user interface terminologies and serving a variety of user needs

Whisker spot patterns: a noninvasive method of individual identification of Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea)

Reliable methods for identification of individual animals are advantageous for ecological studies of population demographics and movement patterns. Photographic identification, based on distinguishable patterns, unique shapes, or scars, is an effective technique already used for many species. We tested whether photographs of whisker spot patterns could be used to discriminate among individual Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea). Based on images of 53 sea lions, we simulated 5,000 patterns before calculating the probability of duplication in a study population. A total of 99% (± 1.5 SD) of patterns were considered reliable for a population of 50, 98% (± 1.7 SD) for 100, 92% (± 4.7 SD) for 500, and 88% (± 5.7 SD) for 1,000. We tested a semiautomatic approach by matching 16 known individuals at 3 different angles (70°, 90°, and 110°), 2 distances (1 and 2 m), and 6 separate times over a 1-year period. A point-pattern matching algorithm for pairwise comparisons produced 90% correct matches of photographs taken on the same day at 90°. Images of individuals at 1 and 2 m resulted in 89% correct matches, those photographed at different angles and different times (at 90°) resulted in 48% and 73% correct matches, respectively. Our results show that the Chamfer distance transform can effectively be used for individual identification, but only if there is very little variation in photograph angle. This point-pattern recognition application may also work for other otariid species