Optimization of hybrid Raman-Brillouin-EDF amplification fiber laser in long distance FBG sensor system

We present a hybrid Raman-Brillouin-Erbium Doped Fiber (EDF) amplification based Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor system capable of transmitting over long reach Single Mode Fiber (SMF). The performance of output spectra has been optimized and realized by the best effective placement of EDF and Raman pump power. An optimized combination of Raman, Brillouin and Erbium gain brings forth an optical signal-to-noise ratio of 16.34 dB in 100 km long distance FBG sensor system

Simultaneous vibration and humidity measurement using a hybrid WDM/OCDMA sensor network

In this paper a hybrid Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and Optical Code Division Multiple Access (OCDMA) sensor network is proposed to detect vibration and humidity simultaneously. Evaluation of the results for the proposed system is demonstrated using simulation setup. OCDMA is used for detection of vibration levels while WDM is for sensing humidity changes. Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is used in both systems. In OCDMA FBGs were used as filter to form the OCDMA code and sensors to senses the vibration. In WDM FBGs were used as sensor alone to sense the humidity

A VIABILIDADE DO USO DAS TECNOLOGIAS BLOCKCHAIN E SMART CONTRACTS NA LICITAÇÃO E CONTRATOS ADMINISTRATIVOS A PARTIR DA LEI 14.133/2021

A licitação e a contratação pública constituem formas essenciais para o fornecimento de bens e serviços aos cidadãos por parte do Governo, e o sucesso desse procedimento no formato eletrônico possui capacidade de potencializar progresso e crescimento econômico. O problema deste artigo versa sobre o potencial das tecnologias blockchain e smart contract para aumentar a eficácia, facilidade e transparência nestes procedimentos a partir da Lei n. 14.133/2021, objetivando vencer desafios atuais que tradicionalmente são enfrentados no Brasil, como o tempo e burocracia dispendidos, a falta de confiança sobre a transparência entre as partes interessadas, essencialmente sobre registro e documentação de transações, estruturas do procedimento, denúncias de corrupção de instituições envolvidas no processo de aquisição dentre outros. Objetiva-se demonstrar como essas tecnologias podem fornecer elementos estruturais a partir da análise de casos experimentados no mundo para que se possa debater sobre a automação da licitação e contratação pública reduzindo o tempo de aquisição, melhorando o desempenho do contrato e diminuindo de forma sustentável custos de transação. O tipo de pesquisa é predominantemente teórico com uso de elementos de empiria. Os métodos possuem abordagem quanti-qualitativa de natureza aplicada e objetivos prescritivos, utilizando-se da lógica indutiva embora a hipotético-dedutiva também se faça necessária, em procedimento de levantamento bibliográfico e estudo de casos. Identificou-se a estrutura com relação à identificação de atividades na cadeia que permitem a interoperabilidade do sistema, viabilizando a participação eletrônica e aumentando não apenas a participação do cidadão no certame como um monitoramento e auditoria mais transparente e sustentável.

A GESTÃO DEMOCRÁTICA DO FUTURO: BLOCKCHAIN E SMART CITIES

This paper questions how the use of blockchain technology can make democratic management effective in the scope of municipal public administration on the context of the growing phenomenon of implementation smart cities, thus realizing not only what is foreseen in the City Statute but also in the Constitution of the Republic of 1988. The objective is to show technology in the context of a Digital Public Administration, as well as to demonstrate how technology can make democratic management possible in an unbureaucratic way. It starts from a theoretical research within the procedure of bibliographic and documental survey, applying methods of basic nature and qualitative approach, from objectives of exploratory analysis, interpreted from a predominantly deductive logic, although the inductive logic is necessary in certain aspects. The theoretical discussion is based on the analysis of national and foreign doctrine, concluding that technology has the possibility to effect participatory democracy in a safe and transparent way.Esta investigación se basa en la cuestión de cómo el uso de la tecnología blockchain puede llevar a cabo una gestión democrática en la administración pública municipal en el contexto del actual y creciente fenómeno de la implementación de las llamadas ciudades inteligentes, cumpliendo así no sólo las disposiciones del Estatuto de la Ciudad, sino también la Constitución de la República de 1988. El objetivo es presentar la tecnología en el contexto de una Administración Pública Digital, así como demostrar cómo la tecnología es capaz de permitir una gestión democrática de forma no burocrática. Parte de una investigación teórica dentro del procedimiento de relevamiento documental bibliográfico, aplicando métodos de naturaleza básica y enfoque cualitativo, a partir de objetivos de análisis exploratorio, interpretados desde una lógica predominantemente deductiva, aunque la lógica inductiva es necesaria en ciertos aspectos. La discusión teórica parte del análisis de la doctrina nacional y extranjera, concluyendo que la tecnología tiene la posibilidad de efectuar la democracia participativa de forma segura y transparente.A pesquisa parte do questionamento sobre como o uso da tecnologia blockchain pode efetivar a gestão democrática no âmbito da Administração Pública municipal no contexto do atual e crescente fenômeno da implementação das chamadas smart cities, realizando-se assim não apenas o previsto no Estatuto da Cidade como na própria Constituição da República de 1988. Objetiva-se apresentar a tecnologia no contexto de uma Administração Pública Digital, bem como demonstrar de que maneira a tecnologia é apta a viabilizar a gestão democrática de maneira desburocratizada. Parte-se de uma pesquisa teórica dentro do procedimento de levantamento bibliográfico documental, aplicando métodos de natureza básica e abordagem qualitativa, a partir de objetivos de análise exploratória, interpretados a partir de uma lógica predominantemente dedutiva, embora a lógica indutiva seja necessária em determinados aspectos. A discussão teórica parte de análise de doutrina nacional e estrangeira, concluindo-se que a tecnologia tem possibilidade de efetivar de forma segura e transparente a democracia participativa

Improving sentiment classification using a RoBERTa-based hybrid model

IntroductionSeveral attempts have been made to enhance text-based sentiment analysis’s performance. The classifiers and word embedding models have been among the most prominent attempts. This work aims to develop a hybrid deep learning approach that combines the advantages of transformer models and sequence models with the elimination of sequence models’ shortcomings.MethodsIn this paper, we present a hybrid model based on the transformer model and deep learning models to enhance sentiment classification process. Robustly optimized BERT (RoBERTa) was selected for the representative vectors of the input sentences and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model in conjunction with the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) model was used to improve the suggested model’s ability to comprehend the semantics and context of each input sentence. We tested the proposed model with two datasets with different topics. The first dataset is a Twitter review of US airlines and the second is the IMDb movie reviews dataset. We propose using word embeddings in conjunction with the SMOTE technique to overcome the challenge of imbalanced classes of the Twitter dataset.ResultsWith an accuracy of 96.28% on the IMDb reviews dataset and 94.2% on the Twitter reviews dataset, the hybrid model that has been suggested outperforms the standard methods.DiscussionIt is clear from these results that the proposed hybrid RoBERTa–(CNN+ LSTM) method is an effective model in sentiment classification

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

peer reviewe

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Performance Analysis of Optical Packet Switching

This thesis concentrated on the switches for Optical Packets and tried to evaluate the performance of Optical Packet Switches and improve the switch architecture. At the first phase of the project the performance of the particular Multi-fiber optical packet switches (MOPS) is evaluated