DelosDLMS: From the DELOS vision to the implementation of a future digital library management system

DelosDLMS is a novel digital library management system (DLMS) that has been developed as an integration effort within the DELOS Network of Excellence, a European Commission initiative funded under its fifth and sixth framework programs. In this paper, we describe DelosDLMS that takes into account the recommendations of several activities that were initiated by DELOS including the DELOS vision for digital libraries (DLs). A key aspect of DelosDLMS is its novel generic infrastructure that allows the generation of digital library systems out of a set of basic system services and DL services in a modular and extensible way. DL services like feature extraction, visualization, intelligent browsing, media-type-specific indexing, support for multilinguality, relevance feedback and many others can easily be incorporated or replaced. A further key aspect of DelosDLMS is its robustness against failures and its scalability for large collections and many parallel user requests. We discuss the current status of an effort to build DelosDLMS, a Digital Library Management System that integrates in various ways several components developed by DELOS members and showcases a great variety of functionality that is outlined as part of the DELOS visio

Design and Implementation of a Peer-to-Peer Data Quality Broker

Abstract Data quality is becoming an increasingly important issue in environments characterized by extensive data replication. Among such environments, this paper focuses on Cooperative Information Systems (CISs), for which it is very important to declare and access quality of data. Indeed, a system in the CIS will not easily exchange data with another system without a knowledge on its quality, and cooperation becomes dicult without data exchanges. Also, when poor quality data are exchanged, there is a progressive deterioration of the quality of data stored in the whole CIS. In this paper, we describe the detailed design and implementation of a peer-to-peer service for exchanging and improving data quality in CISs. Such a service allows to access data and related quality distributed in the CIS and improves quality of data by comparing dierent copies of the same data. Some experiments on real data will show the eectiveness of the service and the performance behavior

Magnetotransport properties of Fe0.8Ga0.2 films with stripe domains

Magnetotransport properties of Fe0.8Ga0.2 films with stripe domains are studied. The anisotropic magnetoresistance dominates the low field behavior, which is extremely dependent on the magnetic domains configuration. The magnetoresistance measured at different temperatures displays qualitatively different behaviors depending on the measurement configuration. When the stripes are oriented along the electric current, the low-field magnetoresistance changes sign with temperature, while when the stripes are perpendicular to the electric current the magnetoresistance curves are nearly temperature independent. A simple model considering parallel (series) conduction along (across) the stripes, plus the temperature dependence of anisotropic magnetoresistance and domains configuration, accounts for these experimental results.Fil: Granada, Mara. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Bustingorry, Sebastián. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Pontello, Diego Esteban. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Barturen, Mariana. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. LIFAN, Laboratorio Internacional Franco-Argentino en Nanociencia; ArgentinaFil: Eddrief, M.. Laboratorio Internacional Franco-Argentino en Nanociencia; Argentina. Sorbonne University; Francia. Universite de Paris VI. Institut des Nanosciences de Paris; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Marangolo, M.. LIFAN, Laboratorio Internacional Franco-Argentino en Nanociencia; Argentina. Sorbonne University; Francia. Universite de Paris VI. Institut des Nanosciences de Paris; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Milano, Julian. Laboratorio Internacional Franco-Argentino en Nanociencia; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentin

Mythical numbers and the proceeds of organised crime: estimating mafia proceeds in Italy

Organised crime is a field vulnerable to mythical numbers, i.e. exaggerated estimates lacking empirical support, but acquiring acceptance through repetition. The figures on mafia proceeds in Italy are a striking example of this problem. This study proposes an estimation of mafia proceeds in Italy from nine criminal activities (sexual exploitation of women, illicit firearms trafficking, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, the illicit cigarette trade, illicit gambling, illicit waste disposal, loan sharking, and extortion racketeering) by region and type of mafia (Cosa Nostra, Camorra,\u2018Ndrangheta, Apulian mafias, and other mafias). The results estimate yearly mafia proceeds at approximately \u20ac10.7 bn (0.7% of the Italian GDP), discussing the impact on the regional and national economies and the differences among the types of mafias as to their geographical sources of revenue

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

How future surgery will benefit from SARS-COV-2-related measures: a SPIGC survey conveying the perspective of Italian surgeons

COVID-19 negatively affected surgical activity, but the potential benefits resulting from adopted measures remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in surgical activity and potential benefit from COVID-19 measures in perspective of Italian surgeons on behalf of SPIGC. A nationwide online survey on surgical practice before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic was conducted in March-April 2022 (NCT:05323851). Effects of COVID-19 hospital-related measures on surgical patients' management and personal professional development across surgical specialties were explored. Data on demographics, pre-operative/peri-operative/post-operative management, and professional development were collected. Outcomes were matched with the corresponding volume. Four hundred and seventy-three respondents were included in final analysis across 14 surgical specialties. Since SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, application of telematic consultations (4.1% vs. 21.6%; p < 0.0001) and diagnostic evaluations (16.4% vs. 42.2%; p < 0.0001) increased. Elective surgical activities significantly reduced and surgeons opted more frequently for conservative management with a possible indication for elective (26.3% vs. 35.7%; p < 0.0001) or urgent (20.4% vs. 38.5%; p < 0.0001) surgery. All new COVID-related measures are perceived to be maintained in the future. Surgeons' personal education online increased from 12.6% (pre-COVID) to 86.6% (post-COVID; p < 0.0001). Online educational activities are considered a beneficial effect from COVID pandemic (56.4%). COVID-19 had a great impact on surgical specialties, with significant reduction of operation volume. However, some forced changes turned out to be benefits. Isolation measures pushed the use of telemedicine and telemetric devices for outpatient practice and favored communication for educational purposes and surgeon-patient/family communication. From the Italian surgeons' perspective, COVID-related measures will continue to influence future surgical clinical practice