A novel technique to enhance throughput and fairness over wireless mesh networks

This extended abstract was submitted to and published in the ReSCon '12 Book of Abstracts. The fifth SED Research Student Conference (ReSCon2012) was hosted over three days, 18-20 June 2012, in the Hamilton Centre at Brunel University

Combination of nanophotonic biosensors and light-assisted immobilization procedures for the detection of cardiac biomarkers

[ES] El cuidado de la salud es un campo en el que la detección precoz de enfermedades está cobrando cada vez más importancia. Hoy en día, profesionales y ciudadanos demandan que las técnicas de diagnóstico sean de alta calidad, tanto para el sistema de sanidad privado como para el público. Cuando se utilizan técnicas de diagnóstico de manera inadecuada, eso puede acarrear bastantes consecuencias, tales como un serio peligro sobre la salud y la sobrecarga técnica y económica de los servicios de salud. Eso es debido a que las técnicas de diagnóstico disponibles hoy en día son demasiado costosas, centralizadas en laboratorios y necesitan profesionales altamente cualificados para poder llevar a cabo dichas tareas, lo que conllevaría una demora en el tiempo, siendo este muchas veces vital para los enfermos. Es muy necesario, por lo tanto, reflexionar sobre la necesidad y emergencia de tales prácticas preventivas, especialmente para enfermedades de alto riesgo como el cáncer, el Alzheimer o la primera causa de muerte en el mundo, las enfermedades cardiovasculares. En este contexto, el objetivo principal del trabajo realizado durante esta Tesis Doctoral es ayudar a superar estos problemas mediante la exploración de la posibilidad de utilizar tecnología fotónica para el desarrollo de sistemas de análisis que puedan ser utilizados para el diagnóstico y pronóstico de las enfermedades cardiovasculares. Este objetivo se ha abordado mediante la combinación de la tecnología nanofotónica, consistiendo en la nanofabricación de las estructuras PBG de sensado que ofrece varios beneficios, como una alta sensibilidad, una extrema reducción de tamaño y un proceso de fabricación compatible con el de la industria microelectrónica, con un método de biofuncionalización obteniendo una capa de bioreconocimiento estable y selectiva mediante el uso de la reacción TEC asistida por luz capaz de proporcionar unas capas de bio-reconocimiento extremadamente finas con una inmovilización espacialmente selectiva.[CA] L'atenció a la salut és un camp en què la detecció precoç de malalties està cobrant cada vegada més importància. Hui en dia, professionals i ciutadans demanen que les tècniques de diagnòstic siguin d'alta qualitat, tant per al sistema de sanitat privat com per al públic. Quan s'utilitzen tècniques de diagnòstic de manera inadequada, això pot comportar bastants conseqüències, com ara, un seriós perill sobre la salut i la sobrecàrrega tècnica i econòmica dels serveis de salut. Això és degut al fet que les tècniques de diagnòstic disponibles hui en dia són molt costoses, centralitzades en laboratoris i necessiten professionals altament qualificats per poder realitzar aquestes tasques, lo que comportaria a una demora en el temps que moltes vegades es vital pels malalts. És molt necessari, per tant, reflexionar sobre la necessitat i emergència de tals practiques preventives, especialment per a malalties d'alt risc com el càncer, l'Alzheimer o la primera causa de mort al món, les malalties cardiovasculars. En aquest context, l'objectiu principal del treball realitzat durant aquesta Tesi Doctoral és ajudar a superar aquests problemes mitjançant l'exploració de la possibilitat d'utilitzar tecnologia fotònica per al desenvolupament de sistemes d'anàlisis que puguin ser utilitzats per al diagnòstic i pronòstic de les malalties cardiovasculars. Aquest objectiu s'ha abordat mitjançant la combinació de la tecnologia nanofotònica, consistint en la nanofabricació de les estructures de detecció de PBG fotòniques que ofereix diversos beneficis, com una alta sensibilitat, una extrema reducció de mida i un procés de fabricació compatible amb el de la indústria microelectrònica, amb un mètode de biofuncionalització obtenint una capa de bio-reconeixement estable i selectiva mitjançant l'ús de la reacció TEC assistida per llum capaç de proporcionar unes capes de bioreconeixement extremadament fines amb una immobilització espacialment selectiva. preventives, especialment per a malalties d'alt risc com el càncer, l'Alzheimer o la primera causa de mort al món, les malalties cardiovasculars. En aquest context, l'objectiu principal del treball realitzat durant aquesta Tesi Doctoral és ajudar a superar aquests problemes mitjançant l'exploració de la possibilitat d'utilitzar tecnologia fotònica per al desenvolupament de sistemes d'anàlisis que puguin ser utilitzats per al diagnòstic i pronòstic de les malalties cardiovasculars. Aquest objectiu s'ha abordat mitjançant la combinació de la tecnologia nanofotònica, consistint en la nanofabricació de les estructures de detecció de PBG fotòniques que ofereix diversos beneficis, com una alta sensibilitat, una extrema reducció de mida i un procés de fabricació compatible amb el de la indústria microelectrònica, amb un mètode de biofuncionalització obtenint una capa de bio-reconeixement estable i selectiva mitjançant l'ús de la reacció TEC assistida per llum capaç de proporcionar unes capes de bioreconeixement extremadament fines amb una immobilització espacialment selectiva.[EN] Healthcare is a field where the early detection of diseases is becoming more and more important. Nowadays, professionals and citizens demand high quality diagnosis techniques offered by both private and public health systems. When the application of diagnostic tests is not adequate, different consequences can be observed such as health hazard and technical and economic overload of health services. This is due to the fact that the diagnostic techniques available are expensive, centralized in laboratories and with the need for highly qualified professionals to carry out these tasks, what can fundamentally lead to delays in time, being critical for the patient's health. It is very necessary, therefore, to reflect on the need and emergency of such preventive practices, especially for high-risk diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer or the first cause of death in the world, the cardiovascular diseases. Within this context, the main objective of the work done during this PhD Thesis is to help on overcoming these problems by exploring the possibility of using photonic technology for the development of analysis devices which might be used for the early diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. This objective has been addressed by combining nanophotonic technology, by the nanofabrication of the photonic PBG sensing structures, which provides several benefits such as a high sensitivity, an extreme size reduction and a fabrication process being compatible with that from the microelectronics industry, with a light-assisted biofunctionalization method forming a stable and selective biorecognition layer using TEC reaction able to provide extremely thin biorecognition layers with a spatially-selective immobilization.Sabek, J. (2019). Combination of nanophotonic biosensors and light-assisted immobilization procedures for the detection of cardiac biomarkers [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/124821TESI

Critical Factors Affecting the Implementation of Total Quality Management in the Construction Industry in U.A.E

The Purpose of the paper is to examine the most critical and important factor which will affect the implementation of Total Quality Management TQM in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates It also examines the most effected Project outcome from implementing TQM A framework was also proposed depending on the literature studies The method used in this paper is a quantitative study A survey with a sample of 60 respondents was created and distributed in a construction company in Abu Dhabi which includes 15 questions to examine the most critical factor that will affect the implementation of TQM in addition to the most effected project outcome from implementing TQM The survey showed that management commitment is the most important factor in implementing TQM in a construction company Also it showed that Project cost is most effected outcome from the implementation of TQM Management commitment is very important for implementing TQM in any company If the management loose interest in quality then everyone in the organization will do so The success of TQM will depend mostly on the top of the pyramid Also cost is reduced and money is saved when the project team implement TQM While if no quality measures are present within the team the project will suffer a commercial failure Based on literature more factors can be examined and added to the model In addition more construction companies could be surveyed in order to obtain more accurate results Also this study could be conducted outside the United Arab Emirates for further enchantmen

Optimización de hiperparámetros de regresión del proceso gaussiano para predecir problemas financieros

Predicting financial distress has become one of the most important topics of the hour that has swept the accounting and financial field due to its significant correlation with the development of science and technology. The main objective of this paper is to predict financial distress based on the Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) and then compare the results of this model with the results of other deep learning models (SVM, LR, LD, DT, KNN). The analysis is based on a dataset of 352 companies extracted from the Kaggle database. As for predictors, 83 financial ratios were used. The study concluded that the use of GPR achieves very relevant results. Furthermore, it outperformed the rest of the deep learning models and achieved first place equally with the SVM model with a classification accuracy of 81%. The results contribute to the maintenance of the integrated system and the prosperity of the country’s economy, the prediction of the financial distress of companies and thus the potential prevention of disruption of the given system.La predicción de las dificultades financieras se ha convertido en uno de los temas más importantes en el área contable y financiera debido a su correlación significativa con el desarrollo de la ciencia y la tecnología. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es predecir la dificultad financiera con base en la Regresión de Procesos Gaussianos (GPR) y luego comparar los resultados de este modelo con los resultados de otros modelos de aprendizaje profundo (SVM, LR, LD, DT, KNN). El análisis se basa en un conjunto de datos de 352 empresas extraídos de la base de datos de Kaggle. En cuanto a los predictores, se utilizaron 83 ratios financieros. El estudio concluyó que el uso de la GPR logra resultados muy relevantes. Además, superó al resto de los modelos de aprendizaje profundo y logró el primer lugar por igual con el modelo SVM con una precisión de clasificación del 81 %. Los resultados contribuyen al mantenimiento del sistema integrado y a la prosperidad de la economía del país, a la predicción de las dificultades financieras de las empresas y, por lo tanto, a la posible prevención de perturbaciones del sistema en cuestión

Local Assortativity in Weighted and Directed Complex Networks

Assortativity, i.e. the tendency of a vertex to bond with another based on their similarity, such as degree, is an important network characteristic that is well-known to be relevant for the network's robustness against attacks. Commonly it is analyzed on the global level, i.e. for the whole network. However, the local structure of assortativity is also of interest as it allows to assess which of the network's vertices and edges are the most endangering or the most protective ones. Hence, it is quite important to analyze the contribution of individual vertices and edges to the network's global assortativity. For unweighted networks M. Piraveenan, M. Prokopenko, and A. Y. Zomaya (2008, 2010) and Guo-Qing Zhang, Su-Qi Cheng, and Guo- Qiang Zhang (2012) suggest two allegedly different approaches to measure local assortativity. In this paper we show their equivalence and propose generalized local assortativity measures that are also applicable to weighted (un)directed networks. They allow to analyze the assortative behavior of edges and vertices as well as of entire network components. We illustrate the usefulness of our measures based on theoretical and real-world weighted networks and propose new local assortativity profiles, which provide, inter alia, information about the pattern of local assortativity with respect to edge weight.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, 5 table

Critical Factors Affecting the Implementation of Total Quality Management in the Construction Industry in U. A. E.

The Purpose of the paper is to examine the most critical and important factor which will affect the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates. It also examines the most effected Project outcome from implementing TQM. A framework was also proposed depending on the literature studies. The method used in this paper is a quantitative study. A survey with a sample of 60 respondents was created and distributed in a construction company in Abu Dhabi, which includes 15 questions to examine the most critical factor that will affect the implementation of TQM in addition to the most effected project outcome from implementing TQM. The survey showed that management commitment is the most important factor in implementing TQM in a construction company. Also it showed that Project cost is most effected outcome from the implementation of TQM. Management commitment is very important for implementing TQM in any company. If the management loose interest in quality then everyone in the organization will do so. The success of TQM will depend mostly on the top of the pyramid. Also cost is reduced and money is saved when the project team implement TQM. While if no quality measures are present within the team, the project will suffer a commercial failure. Based on literature, more factors can be examined and added to the model. In addition, more construction companies could be surveyed in order to obtain more accurate results. Also this study could be conducted outside the United Arab Emirates for further enchantment

Computational binding study of cardiac troponin I antibody towards cardiac versus skeletal troponin I

[EN] A computational study of the interaction of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) with its specific antibody and of that antibody with skeletal troponin I (sTnI), the principal interferon of cTnI, is carried out. Computational and simulation tools such as FTSite, FTMap, FTDock and pyDock are used to determine the binding sites of these molecules and to study their interactions and molecular docking performance, allowing us to obtain relevant information related with the antigen-antibody interaction for each of the targets. In the context of the development of immunosensing platforms, this type of computational analysis allows performing a preliminary in-silico affinity study of the available bioreceptors for a better selection when moving to the experimental stage, with the subsequent saving in cost and time.Cardiac troponin I (cTnI); Skeletal troponin I (sTnI); Immunosensing; Binding site; Molecular docking; FTSite; FTMap; FTDock; pyDockSabek, J.; Martinez-Perez, P.; García-Rupérez, J. (2019). Computational binding study of cardiac troponin I antibody towards cardiac versus skeletal troponin I. Computational Biology and Chemistry. 80:147-151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2019.04.002S1471518