Analysis of deployment techniques for webbased applications in SMEs

The Internet is no longer just a source for accessing information; it has become a valuable medium for social networking and software services. Web-browsers can now access entire software systems available online to provide the user with a range of services. The concept of software as a service(SAAS) was born out of this. The number of development techniques and frameworks for such web-applications has grown rapidly and much research and development has been carried out on advancing the capability of web scripting languages and web browsers. However a key part of the life-cycle of web-applications that has not received adequate attention is deployment. The deployment techniques chosen to deploy a web application can have a serious affect on the cost of maintenance and the quality of service for the end user. A SAAS modelled web application attempts to emulate a desktop software package experience. If a deployment process affects the availability and quality of service of a web-application then the core concept of this model is broken. This dissertation identifies approaches to designing a deployment process and the aspects that influence the quality of a deployment technique. A survey was circulated to a number of Irish small to medium sized enterprises (SME) that develop web-based software. The survey shows an overview of multiple deployment processes used by these SMEs. Using this information, along with a review of the available literature and a detailed case study of a typical SME deploying SAAS based products, the dissertation provides a critical analysis and evaluation of the current deployment techniques being used

Dublin City University video track experiments for TREC 2001

Dublin City University participated in the interactive search task and Shot Boundary Detection task* of the TREC Video Track. In the interactive search task experiment thirty people used three different digital video browsers to find video segments matching the given topics. Each user was under a time constraint of six minutes for each topic assigned to them. The purpose of this experiment was to compare video browsers and so a method was developed for combining independent users’ results for a topic into one set of results. Collated results based on thirty users are available herein though individual users’ and browsers’ results are currently unavailable for comparison. Our purpose in participating in this TREC track was to create the ground truth within the TREC framework, which will allow us to do direct browser performance comparisons

Dublin City University video track experiments for TREC 2002

Dublin City University participated in the Feature Extraction task and the Search task of the TREC-2002 Video Track. In the Feature Extraction task, we submitted 3 features: Face, Speech, and Music. In the Search task, we developed an interactive video retrieval system, which incorporated the 40 hours of the video search test collection and supported user searching using our own feature extraction data along with the donated feature data and ASR transcript from other Video Track groups. This video retrieval system allows a user to specify a query based on the 10 features and ASR transcript, and the query result is a ranked list of videos that can be further browsed at the shot level. To evaluate the usefulness of the feature-based query, we have developed a second system interface that provides only ASR transcript-based querying, and we conducted an experiment with 12 test users to compare these 2 systems. Results were submitted to NIST and we are currently conducting further analysis of user performance with these 2 systems

Dublin City University video track experiments for TREC 2003

In this paper, we describe our experiments for both the News Story Segmentation task and Interactive Search task for TRECVID 2003. Our News Story Segmentation task involved the use of a Support Vector Machine (SVM) to combine evidence from audio-visual analysis tools in order to generate a listing of news stories from a given news programme. Our Search task experiment compared a video retrieval system based on text, image and relevance feedback with a text-only video retrieval system in order to identify which was more effective. In order to do so we developed two variations of our Físchlár video retrieval system and conducted user testing in a controlled lab environment. In this paper we outline our work on both of these two tasks

Analysis of deployment techniques for webbased applications in SMEs

The Internet is no longer just a source for accessing information; it has become a valuable medium for social networking and software services. Web-browsers can now access entire software systems available online to provide the user with a range of services. The concept of software as a service(SAAS) was born out of this. The number of development techniques and frameworks for such web-applications has grown rapidly and much research and development has been carried out on advancing the capability of web scripting languages and web browsers. However a key part of the life-cycle of web-applications that has not received adequate attention is deployment. The deployment techniques chosen to deploy a web application can have a serious affect on the cost of maintenance and the quality of service for the end user. A SAAS modelled web application attempts to emulate a desktop software package experience. If a deployment process affects the availability and quality of service of a web-application then the core concept of this model is broken. This dissertation identifies approaches to designing a deployment process and the aspects that influence the quality of a deployment technique. A survey was circulated to a number of Irish small to medium sized enterprises (SME) that develop web-based software. The survey shows an overview of multiple deployment processes used by these SMEs. Using this information, along with a review of the available literature and a detailed case study of a typical SME deploying SAAS based products, the dissertation provides a critical analysis and evaluation of the current deployment techniques being used

Film & Broadcasting Graduate Showreel 2020

In June every year, the graduate class of Film and Broadcasting at TU Dublin is usually preparing to premiere their final-year work, but as with all aspects of life today in 2020, this year’s cohort of students faced a unique set of challenges. Covid-19 restricted group activity, so the BA in Film & Broadcasting final-year group had to make entirely solo projects that conformed to government guidelines on social distancing. The result is this showreel of six extraordinary films made during the Covid-19 crisis

Multi-layered repair of high-flow CSF fistulae following endoscopic skull base surgery without nasal packing or lumbar drains: technical refinements to optimise outcome

Aims: Post-operative CSF leak remains a significant problem following endoscopic skull base surgery, particularly when there is a high-flow intra-operative CSF leak. Most skull base repair techniques are accompanied by the insertion of a lumbar drain and/or the use of nasal packing which have significant shortcomings. Our aim was to review the results of a large series of endoscopic skull base cases where a high-flow intra-operative CSF leak rate was encountered and repaired to assess if modifications in technique could reduce the post-operative CSF leak rate. Methods: A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database of skull base cases performed by a single surgeon over a 10-year period was performed. Data regarding patient demographics, underlying pathology, skull base repair techniques and post-operative complications were analysed. Results: One hundred forty-two cases with high-flow intra-operative CSF leak were included in the study. The most common pathologies were craniopharyngiomas (55/142, 39%), pituitary adenomas (34/142, 24%) and meningiomas (24/142, 17%). The CSF leak rate was 7/36 (19%) when a non-standardised skull base repair technique was used. However, with the adoption of a standardised, multi-layer repair technique, the post-operative CSF leak rate decreased significantly (4/106, 4% vs. 7/36, 19%, p = 0.006). This improvement in the rate of post-operative CSF leak was achieved without nasal packing or lumbar drains. Conclusion: With iterative modifications to a multi-layered closure technique for high-flow intra-operative CSF leaks, it is possible to obtain a very low rate of post-operative CSF leak, without lumbar drains or nasal packing.</p

Impact of serum sodium concentrations, and effect modifiers on mortality in the Irish Health System

Abstract Background Abnormalities of serum sodium are associated with increased mortality risk in hospitalised patients, but it is unclear whether, and to what extent other factors influence this relationship. We investigated the impact of dysnatraemia on total and cause-specific mortality in the Irish health system while exploring the concurrent impact of age, kidney function and designated clinical work-based settings. Methods A retrospective cohort study of 32,666 participants was conducted using data from the National Kidney Disease Surveillance System. Hyponatraemia was defined as  145 mmol/L with normal range 135–145 mmol/L. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR’s) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) while penalised spline models further examined patterns of risk. Results There were 5,114 deaths (15.7%) over a median follow up of 5.5 years. Dysnatraemia was present in 8.5% of patients overall. In multivariable analysis, both baseline and time-dependent serum sodium concentrations exhibited a U-shaped association with mortality. Hyponatremia was significantly associated with increased risk for cardiovascular [HR 1.38 (1.18–1.61)], malignant [HR: 2.49 (2.23–2.78)] and non-cardiovascular/non-malignant causes of death [1.36 (1.17–1.58)], while hypernatremia was significantly associated with cardiovascular [HR: 2.16 (1.58–2.96)] and non-cardiovascular/ non-malignant deaths respectively [HR: 3.60 (2.87–4.52)]. The sodium-mortality relationship was significantly influenced by age, level of kidney function and the clinical setting at baseline (P < 0.001). For hyponatraemia, relative mortality risks were significantly higher for younger patients (interaction term P < 0.001), for patients with better kidney function, and for patients attending general practice [HR 2.70 (2.15–3.36)] than other clinical settings. For hypernatraemia, age and kidney function remained significant effect modifiers, with patients attending outpatient departments experiencing the greatest risk [HR 9.84 (4.88–18.62)] than patients who attended other clinical locations. Optimal serum sodium thresholds for mortality varied by level of kidney function with a flattening of mortality curve observed for patients with poorer kidney function. Conclusion Serum sodium concentrations outside the standard normal range adversly impact mortality and are associated with specific causes of death. The thresholds at which these risks appear to vary by age, level of kidney function, and are modified in specific clinical settings within the health system

Impact of serum sodium concentrations, and effect modifers on mortality in the Irish Health System

Background Abnormalities of serum sodium are associated with increased mortality risk in hospitalised patients, but it is unclear whether, and to what extent other factors infuence this relationship. We investigated the impact of dysnatraemia on total and cause-specifc mortality in the Irish health system while exploring the concurrent impact of age, kidney function and designated clinical work-based settings. Methods A retrospective cohort study of 32,666 participants was conducted using data from the National Kidney Disease Surveillance System. Hyponatraemia was defned as145 mmol/L with normal range 135–145 mmol/L. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR’s) and 95% Confdence Intervals (CIs) while penalised spline models further examined patterns of risk. Results There were 5,114 deaths (15.7%) over a median follow up of 5.5 years. Dysnatraemia was present in 8.5% of patients overall. In multivariable analysis, both baseline and time-dependent serum sodium concentrations exhibited a U-shaped association with mortality. Hyponatremia was signifcantly associated with increased risk for cardiovascular [HR 1.38 (1.18–1.61)], malignant [HR: 2.49 (2.23–2.78)] and non-cardiovascular/non-malignant causes of death [1.36 (1.17–1.58)], while hypernatremia was signifcantly associated with cardiovascular [HR: 2.16 (1.58–2.96)] and non-cardiovascular/ non-malignant deaths respectively [HR: 3.60 (2.87–4.52)]. The sodium-mortality relationship was signifcantly infuenced by age, level of kidney function and the clinical setting at baseline (P Conclusion Serum sodium concentrations outside the standard normal range adversly impact mortality and are associated with specifc causes of death. The thresholds at which these risks appear to vary by age, level of kidney function, and are modifed in specifc clinical settings within the health system.</p

Serum uric acid and mortality thresholds among men and women in the Irish health system: A cohort study

Background: Elevation of serum uric acid (SUA) is associated with increased mortality; however, controversy exists regarding the nature of the relationship and differences between men and women. We explored relationships of SUA levels with all-cause mortality in a large cohort of patients within the Irish health system. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 26,525 participants was conducted using data from the National Kidney Disease Surveillance System. SUA was modelled in increments of 59.48 µmol/L (1 mg/dL), Cox’s proportional hazards model estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI), median lifetimes were also computed separately for men and women. Mortality patterns were further explored using penalised splines. Results: There were 1,288 (4.9%) deaths over a median follow-up of 5.1 years. In men, the risk of mortality was greatest for the lowest (535 µmol/L) categories [HR 2.35 (1.65–3.14) and HR 2.52 (1.87–3.29) respectively]; the corresponding median lifetimes for men were reduced by 9.5 and 11.7 years respectively compared to the referent. In women, mortality risks were elevated for SUA >416 mol/L [HR 1.69 (1.13–2.47) and beyond; the corresponding median lifetime for women were reduced by 5.9 years compared to the referent. Spline analysis revealed a U-shaped association between SUA and mortality in men, while for women, the pattern of association was J-shaped. Conclusion: Mortality patterns attributed to SUA differ between men and women. Optimal survival was associated with SUA concentrations of 304–454 µmol/L for men and < 409 µmol/L for women