SETI scientific activities in Sardinia: Search for ET, pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts

The Sardinia Radio Telescope, which was inaugurated in 2013, is getting ready to participate in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) observations. This involves, in collaboration with the SETI collaboration and the ``Breakthrough Listen initiative", the onsite installation of the SERENDIP VI setup for SETI observations. In parallel, a scientific team at the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory is becoming acquainted with SETI search algorithms: both standard algorithms using the Fast Fourier Transform; and more versatile algorithms using the Kahrunen-Loève Transform (KLT) as well as Wavelets. The team is also investigating the possibility to pursue, with the SERENDIP VI setup, the simultaneous search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts

SETI in Sardinia: status of scientific and technological developments

Since 2013, several staff members of the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory have been involved with SETI activities, both from a technological and a scientific perspective. One major asset related to this research area is the presence, in the territory, of one of the most modern single-dish antennas: the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). In this paper, we outline all aspects of our initiatives in the framework of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. We describe the development of SRT instrumentation for the purpose of receiving data that could potentially contain signs of life, as well as the directions that we are investigating for studying and analyzing these data, including in an international context

ICO Evaluation Websites Analysis

The evaluation websites of ICO (Initial coin offering) a way to raise funds for creating a new coin, app, or service launches, represent the main source where investors can find interesting information about their investments on one or more ICOs. In the last years many websites offered the possibility to evaluate ICOs. Among all, we chose 8 significant websites where rating, team, socials, platform, country and many other properties are shown for each ICO. These properties can be very helpful to figure out whether an ICO might be a good opportunity or a scam. Analyzing data found on ICOBench website using APIs, we found the same data for 7 other websites using the scraper. Then, we compared the gathered data in order to be able to define the quality of the evaluation websites regarding completeness and clarity of the shown information, finding several differences in rating parameters and ICO distribution. For this purpose we developed an ad-hoc scraping tool to collect in a common data structure the information shown in each website. Thanks to the data obtained with the tool we made interesting analysis, showing the differences between the ICO parameters of the different websites and defining completeness and clarity of the information

The Lean Strategies: A tale of user-driven innovation processes

Since 1978 several Lean Strategies have been defined and nowadays companies are increasing the adoption of them. However, there are still several practitioners that face some issues in understanding which practice is most suitable for their context and how to apply the practice in the correct way. In order to help practitioners to select which practice to adopt, in this work we provide a systematic comparison of the most common Lean Strategies based on a structured literature review. We compared the process models of the six most common Lean Strategies including: Lean Design, Lean Innovation, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Thinking, Lean SixSigma and Lean Startup

Bitcoin spread prediction using social and web search media

In the last decade, Web 2.0 services such as blogs, tweets, forums, chats, email etc. have been widely used as communication media, with very good results. Sharing knowledge is an important part of learning and enhancing skills. Furthermore, emotions may affect decision-making and individual behavior. Bitcoin, a decentralized electronic currency system, represents a radical change in financial systems, attracting a large number of users and a lot of media attention. In this work, we investigated if the spread of the Bitcoin’s price is related to the volumes of tweets or Web Search media results. We compared trends of price with Google Trends data, volume of tweets and particularly with those that express a positive sentiment. We found significant cross correlation values, especially between Bitcoin price and Google Trends data, arguing our initial idea based on studies about trends in stock and goods market

Using measurement and simulation for understanding distributed development processes in the cloud

Organizations increasingly develop software in a distributed manner. The Cloud provides an environment to create and maintain software-based products and services. Currently, it is widely unknown which software processes are suited for Cloud-based development and what their effects in specific contexts are. This paper presents a process simulation to study distributed development in the Cloud. We contribute a simulation model, which helps analyzing different project parameters and their impact on projects carried out in the Cloud. The simulator helps reproducing activities, developers, issues and events in the project, and it generates statistics, e.g., on throughput, total time, and lead and cycle time. The aim of this simulation model is thus to analyze the tradeoffs regarding throughput, total time, project size, and team size. Furthermore, the modified simulation model aims to help project managers select the most suitable planning alternative. Based on observed projects in Finland and Spain, we simulated a distributed project using artificial and real data. Particularly, we studied the variables project size, team size, throughput, and total project duration. A comparison of the real project data with the results obtained from the simulation shows the simulation producing results close to the real data, and we could successfully replicate a distributed software project. By improving the understanding of distributed development processes, our simulation model thus supports project managers in their decision-making

Knowledge Management using Open Source Repository

The Institutional Repositories (IRs) based on Open Archives represent one of the main free access tools for the results of scientific research, and their diffusion is continuously growing. In the context of the “Analytic Sound Archive of Sardinia” project, that aims to create an institutional archive with a linguistically annotated electronic corpus, this work proposes a new approach for management of knowledge using the tool DSpace (an open source software package developed in 2000 in the context of a joint project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Hewlett-Packard): the purpose is to offer an original way to associate linguistic annotations (information associated to specific text portions) to the corpus by treating them as metadata, so as to insert and manage them in the archive of choice after formalizing them in XML. There is, thus, the need to have an efficient tool that could classify and store the vast amount of knowledge contained in an electronic corpus of Sardinian language, and that could, at the same time, allow a high usability in terms of ease of reference as well as ease of query and communication

Evaluation of initial cryptoasset offerings: The state of the practice

Initial Cryptoasset Offering (ICO), also often called Initial Coin Offering or Initial Token Offering (ITO) is a new means of fundraising through blockchain technology, which allows startups to raise large amounts of funds from the crowd in an unprecedented speed. However it is not easy for ordinary investors to distinguish genuine fundraising activities through ICOs from scams. Different websites that gather and evaluate ICOs at different stages have emerged as a solution to this issue. What remains unclear is how these websites are evaluating ICOs, and consequently how reliable and credible their evaluations are. In this paper we present the first findings of an analysis of a set of 28 ICO evaluation websites, aiming at revealing the state of the practice in terms of ICO evaluation. Key information about ICOs collected by these websites are categorised, and key factors that differentiate the evaluation mechanisms employed by these evaluation websites are identified. The findings of our study could help a better understanding of what entails to properly evaluate ICOs. It is also a first step towards discovering the key success factors of ICOs

A blockchain architecture for industrial applications

Blockchain and the programs running on it, called smart contracts, are increasingly applied in all fields where trust and strong certifications are required. Our work focuses on industrial applications of blockchains and not on cryptocurrencies or tokens. We use frameworks to compare public and permissioned blockchains specifically suited for industrial applications. We also propose a complete solution based on Ethereum to implement a decentralized application, putting together in an original way, components and patterns already used and proven. This solution is characterized by a set of validator nodes running the blockchain using Proof-of-Authority or similar efficient consensus algorithms, by the use of an explorer enabling users to check the blockchain state, and the source code of the smart contracts running on it. From time to time, the hash digest of the last mined block is written into a public blockchain to guarantee immutability. The right to send transactions is granted by validator nodes to users by endowing them with the Ethers mined locally. Overall, the proposed approach has the same transparency and immutability as a public blockchain, largely reducing its drawbacks