POWER - A methodology for predicting offshore wind energy resources

An accurate estimate of the long-term wind speed is essential to site an offshore wind park effectively. Unfortunately measured wind speed data at potential offshore wind farm sites are currently sparse. A major European Commission funded project called ‘POWER ’ aims to develop a methodology for predicting the long-term wind resource that does not rely directly on offshore anemometry mast data

A more relaxed model for graph-based data clustering: s-plex editing

Abstract. We introduce the s-Plex Editing problem generalizing the well-studied Cluster Editing problem, both being NP-hard and both being motivated by graph-based data clustering. Instead of transforming a given graph by a minimum number of edge modifications into a disjoint union of cliques (Cluster Editing), the task in the case of s-Plex Editing is now to transform a graph into a disjoint union of so-called s-plexes. Herein, an s-plex denotes a vertex set inducing a (sub)graph where every vertex has edges to all but at most s vertices in the s-plex. Cliques are 1-plexes. The advantage of s-plexes for s ≥ 2 is that they allow to model a more relaxed cluster notion (s-plexes instead of cliques), which better reflects inaccuracies of the input data. We develop a provably efficient and effective preprocessing based on data reduction (yielding a so-called problem kernel), a forbidden subgraph characterization of s-plex cluster graphs, and a depth-bounded search tree which is used to find optimal edge modification sets. Altogether, this yields efficient algorithms in case of moderate numbers of edge modifications.

Editing Graphs into Disjoint Unions of Dense Clusters

In the Π-Cluster Editin gproblem, one is given an undirected graph G, a density measure Π, and an integer k ≥ 0, and needs to decide whether it is possible to transform G by editing (deleting and inserting) at most k edges into a dense cluster graph. Herein, a dense cluster graph is a graph in which every connected component K = (VK,EK) satisfies Π. The well-studied Cluster Editing problem is a special case of this problem with Π:=“being a clique”. In this work, we consider three other density measures that generalize cliques: 1) having at most s missing edges (sdefective cliques), 2) having average degree at least |VK | − s (average-splexes), and 3) having average degree at least µ · (|VK | −1) (µ-cliques), where s and µ are a fixedinteger and a fixedrational number, respectively. We first show that the Π-Cluster Editing problem is NP-complete for all three density measures. Then, we study the fixed-parameter tractability of the three clustering problems, showing that the first two problems are fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the parameter (s,k

Cost-Utility of the eHealth Application ‘Oncokompas’, Supporting Incurably Ill Cancer Patients to Self-Manage Their Cancer-Related Symptoms: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Evidence on the cost-effectiveness of eHealth in palliative care is scarce. Oncokompas, a fully automated behavioral intervention technology, aims to support self-management in cancer patients. This study aimed to assess the cost-utility of the eHealth application Oncokompas among incurably ill cancer patients, compared to care as usual. In this randomized controlled trial, patients were randomized into the intervention group (access to Oncokompas) or the waiting-list control group (access after three months). Healthcare costs, productivity losses, and health status were measured at baseline and three months. Intervention costs were also taken into account. Non-parametric bootstrapping with 5000 replications was used to obtain 95% confidence intervals around the incremental costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). A probabilistic approach was used because of the skewness of cost data. Altogether, 138 patients completed the baseline questionnaire and were randomly assigned to the intervention group (69) or the control group (69). In the base case analysis, mean total costs and mean total effects were non-significantly lower in the intervention group (−€806 and −0.01 QALYs). The probability that the intervention was more effective and less costly was 4%, whereas the probability of being less effective and less costly was 74%. Among patients with incurable cancer, Oncokompas does not impact incremental costs and seems slightly less effective in terms of QALYs, compared to care as usual. Future research on the costs of eHealth in palliative cancer care is warranted to assess the generalizability of the findings of this study