Auto-ID enabled tracking and tracing data sharing over dynamic B2B and B2G relationships

RFID 2011 collocated with the 2011 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on Millimeter Wave Integration Technologies (IMWS 2011)Growing complexity and uncertainty are still the key challenges enterprises are facing in managing and re-engineering their existing supply chains. To tackle these challenges, they are continuing innovating management practices and piloting emerging technologies for achieving supply chain visibility, agility, adaptability and security. Nowadays, subcontracting has already become a common practice in modern logistics industry through partnership establishment between the involved stakeholders for delivering consignments from a consignor to a consignee. Companies involved in international supply chain are piloting various supply chain security and integrity initiatives promoted by customs to establish trusted business-to-customs partnership for facilitating global trade and cutting out avoidable supply chain costs and delays due to governmental regulations compliance and unnecessary customs inspection. While existing Auto-ID enabled tracking and tracing solutions are promising for implementing these practices, they provide few efficient privacy protection mechanisms for stakeholders involved in the international supply chain to communicate logistics data over dynamic business-to-business and business-government relationships. A unified privacy protection mechanism is proposed in this work to fill in this gap. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Motion Deblurring in the Wild

The task of image deblurring is a very ill-posed problem as both the image and the blur are unknown. Moreover, when pictures are taken in the wild, this task becomes even more challenging due to the blur varying spatially and the occlusions between the object. Due to the complexity of the general image model we propose a novel convolutional network architecture which directly generates the sharp image.This network is built in three stages, and exploits the benefits of pyramid schemes often used in blind deconvolution. One of the main difficulties in training such a network is to design a suitable dataset. While useful data can be obtained by synthetically blurring a collection of images, more realistic data must be collected in the wild. To obtain such data we use a high frame rate video camera and keep one frame as the sharp image and frame average as the corresponding blurred image. We show that this realistic dataset is key in achieving state-of-the-art performance and dealing with occlusions

To aggregate or not to aggregate high-dimensional classifiers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High-throughput functional genomics technologies generate large amount of data with hundreds or thousands of measurements per sample. The number of sample is usually much smaller in the order of ten or hundred. This poses statistical challenges and calls for appropriate solutions for the analysis of this kind of data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Principal component discriminant analysis (PCDA), an adaptation of classical linear discriminant analysis (LDA) for high-dimensional data, has been selected as an example of a base learner. The multiple versions of PCDA models from repeated double cross-validation were aggregated, and the final classification was performed by majority voting. The performance of this approach was evaluated by simulation, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics data sets.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The aggregating PCDA learner can improve the prediction performance, provide more stable result, and help to know the variability of the models. The disadvantage and limitations of aggregating were also discussed.</p

Identification of chromosomes responsible for crown rot resistance in durum wheat

Dissertação de mestrado em Saúde Ocupacional, apresentada á Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de CoimbraA Segurança, Higiene e Saúde no Trabalho (SHST) tem como objetivo conservar o bem-estar físico, mental e social dos trabalhadores, para isso, é necessário adotar medidas que exigem a interação de várias áreas como a medicina do trabalho, a higiene do trabalho, a engenharia de segurança, a ergonomia, a psicologia, entre outras. Este assunto começou a ser tido em conta, em meados do Séc. XX. Até aí o único aspeto importante relacionado com o trabalho era a produtividade, não havendo preocupação com lesões, doenças nem mesmo se essas situações conduzissem à morte do trabalhador. Tem-se verificado que os riscos psicossociais são riscos emergentes de saúde ocupacional, ou seja, são riscos novos, que estão a aumentar e cujos efeitos sobre a saúde dos trabalhadores estão a agravar-se. As novas formas de contratos de trabalho e insegurança no emprego, a mão-de-obra em envelhecimento, a intensificação do trabalho, as exigências emocionais elevadas no trabalho e a difícil conciliação entre a vida profissional e pessoal são os principais geradores de consequências negativas para os trabalhadores, para as organizações e para a sociedade. Estes riscos requerem grande preocupação por parte das empresas, no entanto devido à delicadeza necessária para abordar esta temática, à escassez dos recursos e à falta de sensibilização, muitas vezes não lhe é dada a devida importância. Os objetivos deste estudo são analisar o nível de exposição da população ativa aos riscos psicossociais, avaliar a capacidade para o trabalho e analisar os efeitos dos riscos psicossociais no trabalho na capacidade para o trabalho. Para atingir os objetivos anteriormente referidos, a metodologia utilizada foram dois questionários, autoadministrados, numa amostra de 140 trabalhadores residentes na localidade de Outil. Com os dados obtidos, foi possível inferir que a população se encontra numa situação de risco intermédio relativamente à exposição aos riscos psicossociais. Este facto não se deve ao sexo do trabalhador nem ao setor em que exerce a sua atividade profissional. Concluiu-se também que a população em estudo apresenta, de um modo geral um bom Índice de Capacidade para o Trabalho (ICT). Este índice vai diminuindo com o avançar Riscos Psicossociais e Capacidade no Trabalho na população de Outil (Cantanhede) XV da idade do trabalhador. O ICT não está correlacionado linearmente com o sexo nem com o setor profissional. Com este estudo verifica-se também que o nível de exposição aos riscos psicossociais se relaciona com a capacidade para o trabalho na medida em que alguns aspetos psicossociais do trabalho potenciam ou inibem a capacidade para o trabalho. Os aspetos que inibem a capacidade para o trabalho são: as exigências quantitativas, os conflitos laborais, a confiança horizontal e vertical, o compromisso face ao local de trabalho, a saúde em geral e os problemas em dormir. Já pelo contrário, o significado do trabalho, a importância que o trabalhador atribui ao trabalho é um fator que potencia a capacidade para o trabalho. A crise económico-financeira atravessada pelo país, e um pouco por toda a Europa, neste momento origina muitas alterações organizacionais e estruturais nas empresas, o que potencia o aparecimento dos riscos psicossociais afetando a saúde física e mental do trabalhador e consequentemente a sua capacidade para o trabalho. O reconhecimento e a gestão dos riscos psicossociais a que estão sujeitos os trabalhadores e a avaliação da sua capacidade para o trabalho tornam mais fácil e eficaz a tomada de decisão e o desenrolar de programas de ação que ajudem as empresas a ultrapassar este momento conturbado a nível socioeconómico e financeiro, mantendo os trabalhadores saudáveis física e mentalmente.The Safety and Health at Work aims to conserve the physical well-being, mental and social workers, for that is necessary to adopt measures that require the interaction of several areas such as occupational medicine, hygiene at work safety engineering, ergonomics, psychology, among others. This issue began to be taken into account in the mid-century. XX, until then the only important aspect related to the work was productivity, with no concern for injury, illness or even if these situations would lead to the death of the workers. It has been found that psychosocial risks are emerging risks to occupational health, it means that they are new risks that are increasing and whose effects on the health of workers are getting worse. The new forms of contracts of work and job insecurity, the hand labor aging, work intensification, high emotional demands at work and the difficult balance between work and personal life are the main triggers of negative consequences for workers, to organizations and to society. These risks require major concern of companies, however because of the sensitivity needed to approach this issue, resources are scarce and the lack of awareness often not been given due importance. The objectives of this study are analyze the level of exposure of the workforce to psychosocial risks, assessing the ability to work and analyze the effects of psychosocial risks at work in the capacity for work. To achieve the above objectives, the methodology used were two questionnaires, self-administered on a sample of 140 workers living in Outil. With the data obtained, it was possible to infer that the population is at an intermediate risk for exposure to psychosocial risks. This is not due to the sex of the worker or the sector where he is pursuing his professional activity. It was also concluded that the study population has, in general a good Work Ability Index (WAI). This ratio decreases with advancing age of the worker. The WAI is not correlated linearly with sex or with the professional sector. The level of exposure to psychosocial risk relates to the ability to work in so far some psychosocial aspects of the work potentiate or inhibit the ability to work. The aspects that inhibit the ability to work are: quantitative requirements, labor disputes, the horizontal and vertical trust, commitment towards the workplace, health in general and trouble sleeping. Already the contrary, the meaning of work, the importance that the worker attaches to the work is a factor that enhances the ability to work. The economic and financial crisis experienced by the country, and almost everywhere in Europe at this time gives many organizational and structural changes in companies, which enhances the appearance of psychosocial risks affecting the physical and mental health of the worker and consequently their ability to the work. Riscos Psicossociais e Capacidade no Trabalho na população de Outil (Cantanhede) XVII The recognition and management of psychosocial risks to which they are subject workers and the evaluation of their ability to make work easier and more effective decision-making and the development of programs which help companies overcome this troubled time the level socio-economic and financial, keeping the physical and mentally healthy worker

Two-dimensional amine and hydroxy functionalized fused aromatic covalent organic framework

Ordered two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have generally been synthesized using reversible reactions. It has been difficult to synthesize a similar degree of ordered COFs using irreversible reactions. Developing COFs with a fused aromatic ring system via an irreversible reaction is highly desirable but has remained a significant challenge. Here we demonstrate a COF that can be synthesized from organic building blocks via irreversible condensation (aromatization). The as-synthesized robust fused aromatic COF (F-COF) exhibits high crystallinity. Its lattice structure is characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray diffraction pattern. Because of its fused aromatic ring system, the F-COF structure possesses high physiochemical stability, due to the absence of hydrolysable weak covalent bonds

Recent changes of water discharge and sediment load in the Yellow River basin, China

The Yellow River basin contributes approximately 6% of the sediment load from all river systems globally, and the annual runoff directly supports 12% of the Chinese population. As a result, describing and understanding recent variations of water discharge and sediment load under global change scenarios are of considerable importance. The present study considers the annual hydrologic series of the water discharge and sediment load of the Yellow River basin obtained from 15 gauging stations (10 mainstream, 5 tributaries). The Mann-Kendall test method was adopted to detect both gradual and abrupt change of hydrological series since the 1950s. With the exception of the area draining to the Upper Tangnaihai station, results indicate that both water discharge and sediment load have decreased significantly (p&lt;0.05). The declining trend is greater with distance downstream, and drainage area has a significant positive effect on the rate of decline. It is suggested that the abrupt change of the water discharge from the late 1980s to the early 1990s arose from human extraction, and that the abrupt change in sediment load was linked to disturbance from reservoir construction.Geography, PhysicalGeosciences, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)43ARTICLE4541-5613

Mathematical modelling of polyamine metabolism in bloodstream-form trypanosoma brucei: An application to drug target identification

© 2013 Gu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.We present the first computational kinetic model of polyamine metabolism in bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis. We systematically extracted the polyamine pathway from the complete metabolic network while still maintaining the predictive capability of the pathway. The kinetic model is constructed on the basis of information gleaned from the experimental biology literature and defined as a set of ordinary differential equations. We applied Michaelis-Menten kinetics featuring regulatory factors to describe enzymatic activities that are well defined. Uncharacterised enzyme kinetics were approximated and justified with available physiological properties of the system. Optimisation-based dynamic simulations were performed to train the model with experimental data and inconsistent predictions prompted an iterative procedure of model refinement. Good agreement between simulation results and measured data reported in various experimental conditions shows that the model has good applicability in spite of there being gaps in the required data. With this kinetic model, the relative importance of the individual pathway enzymes was assessed. We observed that, at low-to-moderate levels of inhibition, enzymes catalysing reactions of de novo AdoMet (MAT) and ornithine production (OrnPt) have more efficient inhibitory effect on total trypanothione content in comparison to other enzymes in the pathway. In our model, prozyme and TSHSyn (the production catalyst of total trypanothione) were also found to exhibit potent control on total trypanothione content but only when they were strongly inhibited. Different chemotherapeutic strategies against T. brucei were investigated using this model and interruption of polyamine synthesis via joint inhibition of MAT or OrnPt together with other polyamine enzymes was identified as an optimal therapeutic strategy.The work was carried out under a PhD programme partly funded by Prof. Ray Welland, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgo