Push & Pull: autonomous deployment of mobile sensors for a complete coverage

Mobile sensor networks are important for several strategic applications devoted to monitoring critical areas. In such hostile scenarios, sensors cannot be deployed manually and are either sent from a safe location or dropped from an aircraft. Mobile devices permit a dynamic deployment reconfiguration that improves the coverage in terms of completeness and uniformity. In this paper we propose a distributed algorithm for the autonomous deployment of mobile sensors called Push&Pull. According to our proposal, movement decisions are made by each sensor on the basis of locally available information and do not require any prior knowledge of the operating conditions or any manual tuning of key parameters. We formally prove that, when a sufficient number of sensors are available, our approach guarantees a complete and uniform coverage. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the algorithm execution always terminates preventing movement oscillations. Numerous simulations show that our algorithm reaches a complete coverage within reasonable time with moderate energy consumption, even when the target area has irregular shapes. Performance comparisons between Push&Pull and one of the most acknowledged algorithms show how the former one can efficiently reach a more uniform and complete coverage under a wide range of working scenarios.Comment: Technical Report. This paper has been published on Wireless Networks, Springer. Animations and the complete code of the proposed algorithm are available for download at the address: http://www.dsi.uniroma1.it/~novella/mobile_sensors

A nonlinear, data-driven, ANNs-based approach to culture-led development policies in rural areas: The case of Gjakove and Pee districts, Western Kosovo

We develop a computational approach to the analysis of cultural vibrancy and to the role of the cultural and cre-ative sectors in the socio-economic organization of two districts of Western Kosovo, Gjakove and Pee. Our anal-ysis is built on a geolocalized mapping of the cultural activities and facilities, and on the main socio-economic variables for the two districts, and makes use of innovative data analysis techniques: Theory of Impossible Words (TIW), the Topological Weighted Centroid (TWC), and the AutoCM ANN. We find that the dynamics of cul-tural vibrancy of the territory is mainly driven by the competing attraction pulls of the nearby countries of Serbia and Albania, that also form the region's main and often conflicting ethnicities, and that such dynamics are likely to further polarize in the future. We also find that the cultural system plays a marginal role in the territory's socio-economic organization. This situation makes a case for a more active role of cultural policy in shaping future local developmental models in rural areas and in acting as an agent of social cohesion.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Reconstructing the Emergent Organization of Information Flows in International Stock Markets: A Computational Complex Systems Approach

In this paper we study the interdependences between the dynamics of the stock market indexes of 30 different stock markets across 29 different countries to analyze the nonlinear dynamics of their information flows. We find that the system exhibits complex dynamic properties that go beyond what has been generally found in the previous literature, suggesting that the structure of information flows is regulated by subtle homeostatic forces that cause the roles of the single markets in the whole network to evolve in unexpected ways. We present a toolkit of ANN-based methods that can be systematically deployed to analyze different aspects of such dynamics

Neural network topology for wind turbine analysis

In this work Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used for a multi-target optimization of the aerodynamics of a wind turbine blade. The Artificial Neural Network is used to build a meta-model of the blade, which is then optimized according to the imposed criteria. The neural networks are trained with a data set built by a series of CFD simulations and their configuration (number of neurons and layers) selected to improve performances and avoid over-fitting. The basic configuration of the airfoil is the profile S809, which is commonly used in horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT), equipped with a Coanda jet. The design position and momentum of the jet are optimized to maximize aerodynamic efficiency and minimize the power required to activate the Coanda Jet

Indicadores de risco do desenvolvimento das nanotecnologias: uma ferramenta de apoio à decisão.

Resumo: A nanotecnologia representa atualmente um negócio mundial que movimenta mais de 100 bilhões de dólares e atrai cada vez mais recursos humanos e financeiros, devido ao seu enorme potencial de aplicação. Assim, metodologias que permitam avaliar a segurança dos nanoprodutos, especialmente aqueles que já encontram-se no mercado, são de fundamental importância. No entanto, a área do conhecimento que envolve as avaliações de riscos das nanotecnologias encontra-se ainda bastante incipiente no Brasil. A criação de uma metodologia para a Avaliação dos Riscos das nanotecnologias representa uma medida mitigatória eficaz para enfrentar os desafios cada vez maiores identificados pelos cientistas e legisladores, podendo atuar em três momentos: prevenindo, monitorando e restaurando. Desta forma, são apresentados nesse trabalho 14 indicadores para a avaliar o potencial de risco. Esses foram validados pelos especialistas da área de nanotecnologia por meio da Técnica Delphi de consulta aos especialistas. Segundo eles, esses indicadores representam de modo mais completo os aspectos mais críticos relacionados ao desenvolvimento da Nanotecnologia. Estes indicadores, de modo geral, têm a finalidade de auxiliar os desenvolvedores desta tecnologia para que reavaliem as metodologias empregadas para o desenvolvimento das nanotecnologias com a finalidade de mitigar um provável risco

Linguistic prejudice and discrimination in Brazilian Portuguese and beyond : suggestions and recommendations

In this article we make a distinction between the prejudice and discrimination towards (a) different languages and their speakers and (b) different non-standard varieties of the same language and their speakers, and argue that while the discrimination and prejudice towards (a) have been denounced by international institutions and both national and international laws are in place to guarantee the rights of speakers of different languages, the same protection has not been afforded to speakers of non-standard varieties of a language. We examine a specific case of this type of linguistic prejudice in Brazil. We discuss the effectiveness of efforts of linguists to combat linguistic prejudice based on the principle of error correction (Labov 1982) and, drawing on work by Cameron (2012) and Bourdieu (1986), suggest that linguistic prejudice cannot be disentangled from other types of prejudice and that linguists need to have a much deeper understanding of and engagement with the values attached to linguistic forms. We conclude with a number of suggestions and recommendations in order to effectively combat linguistic prejudice