Traffic event detection framework using social media

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by IEEE in 2017 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities (ICSGSC) on 18/09/2017, available online: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8038595 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.© 2017 IEEE. Traffic incidents are one of the leading causes of non-recurrent traffic congestions. By detecting these incidents on time, traffic management agencies can activate strategies to ease congestion and travelers can plan their trip by taking into consideration these factors. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in Twitter because of the real-time nature of its data. Twitter has been used as a way of predicting revenues, accidents, natural disasters, and traffic. This paper proposes a framework for the real-time detection of traffic events using Twitter data. The methodology consists of a text classification algorithm to identify traffic related tweets. These traffic messages are then geolocated and further classified into positive, negative, or neutral class using sentiment analysis. In addition, stress and relaxation strength detection is performed, with the purpose of further analyzing user emotions within the tweet. Future work will be carried out to implement the proposed framework in the West Midlands area, United Kingdom.Published versio

Sibling relationships and family functioning in siblings of early adolescents, adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of the study was to investigate how family functioning (defined as the ability that family members hold to manage stressful events, and intimate and social relationships), the degree to which family members feel happy and fulfilled with each other (called family satisfaction), and the demographical characteristics of siblings (age and gender) impacted on sibling relationships. The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems and Behavioral Systems constituted the theoretical frameworks that guided our study. Eighty-six typically developing adolescents and young adults having a sister or a brother with autism spectrum disorder were enrolled. Results indicated that the youngest age group (early adolescents) reported to engage more frequently in negative behaviors with their siblings with ASD than the two older age groups (middle adolescents and young adults). No significant differences were found among the three age groups regarding behaviors derived from attachment, caregiving and affiliative systems. Family satisfaction and age significantly predicted behaviors during sibling interactions. Suggestions on prevention and intervention programs were discussed in order to prevent parentification among typically developing siblings and decrease episodes of quarrels and overt conflicts between brothers and sisters with and without AS

Comparison of two-phase pipe flow in openFOAM with a mechanistic model

Two-phase pipe flow is a common occurrence in many industrial applications such as power generation and oil and gas transportation. Accurate prediction of liquid holdup and pressure drop is of vast importance to ensure effective design and operation of fluid transport systems. In this paper, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study of a two-phase flow of air and water is performed using OpenFOAM. The two-phase solver, interFoam is used to identify flow patterns and generate values of liquid holdup and pressure drop, which are compared to results obtained from a two-phase mechanistic model developed by Petalas and Aziz (2002). A total of 60 simulations have been performed at three separate pipe inclinations of 0°, +10° and -10° respectively. A three dimensional, 0.052m diameter pipe of 4m length is used with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k - turbulence model to solve the turbulent mixtures of air and water. Results show that the flow pattern behaviour and numerical values of liquid holdup and pressure drop compare reasonably well to the mechanistic model

On a smoothed penalty-based algorithm for global optimization

This paper presents a coercive smoothed penalty framework for nonsmooth and nonconvex constrained global optimization problems. The properties of the smoothed penalty function are derived. Convergence to an ε -global minimizer is proved. At each iteration k, the framework requires the ε(k) -global minimizer of a subproblem, where ε(k)→ε . We show that the subproblem may be solved by well-known stochastic metaheuristics, as well as by the artificial fish swarm (AFS) algorithm. In the limit, the AFS algorithm convergence to an ε(k) -global minimum of the real-valued smoothed penalty function is guaranteed with probability one, using the limiting behavior of Markov chains. In this context, we show that the transition probability of the Markov chain produced by the AFS algorithm, when generating a population where the best fitness is in the ε(k)-neighborhood of the global minimum, is one when this property holds in the current population, and is strictly bounded from zero when the property does not hold. Preliminary numerical experiments show that the presented penalty algorithm based on the coercive smoothed penalty gives very competitive results when compared with other penalty-based methods.The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the paper. This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundac¸ao para a Ci ˜ encia e Tecnologia within the projects UID/CEC/00319/2013 and ˆ UID/MAT/00013/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Theoretical and practical convergence of a self-adaptive penalty algorithm for constrained global optimization

This paper proposes a self-adaptive penalty function and presents a penalty-based algorithm for solving nonsmooth and nonconvex constrained optimization problems. We prove that the general constrained optimization problem is equivalent to a bound constrained problem in the sense that they have the same global solutions. The global minimizer of the penalty function subject to a set of bound constraints may be obtained by a population-based meta-heuristic. Further, a hybrid self-adaptive penalty firefly algorithm, with a local intensification search, is designed, and its convergence analysis is established. The numerical experiments and a comparison with other penalty-based approaches show the effectiveness of the new self-adaptive penalty algorithm in solving constrained global optimization problems.The authors would like to thank the referees, the Associate Editor and the Editor-in-Chief for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the paper. This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia e Tecnologia within the projects UID/CEC/00319/2013 and UID/MAT/00013/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SEAWATER INTRUSION IN COASTAL AQUIFERS AND METHODS OF PREVENTION IN GREECE AND OTHER COUNTRIES

Το φαινόμενο της θαλάσσιας διείσδυσης απειλεί τους παράκτιους γλυκούς υπόγειους υδατικούς πόρους σε ολόκληρο τον κόσμο αλλά και στην Ελλάδα. Στην εργασία αυτή γίνεται μια προσπάθεια αξιολόγησης των διαθέσιμων βασικών εργαλείων για τον έλεγχο της υπόγειας υδροστατικής ή πιεζομετρικής στάθμης και για την αύξηση του όγκου του διαθέσιμου υπόγειου νερού σε καταστάσεις υψηλού κινδύνου (ξηρασία), που είναι απαραίτητα στη δημιουργία φραγμών στη διείσδυση της θάλασσας μέσα σε παράκτιους υδροφορείς. Η εργασία εστιάζει το ενδιαφέρον κυρίως στις μεθόδους παρεμπόδισης της θαλάσσιας διείσδυσης. Η αξιοποίηση και η αποκατάσταση του γλυκού υπόγειου νερού μέσα σε παράκτια υπόγεια υδροφόρα συστήματα πρέπει να αποτελεί αναπόσπαστο τμήμα της ολοκληρωμένης διαχείρισης του νερού και απαιτεί συνεργασία, πληροφορίες, σχεδιασμό και νομοθεσία.Seawater intrusion threatens coastal groundwater resources and limits their use all over the world, even in Greece. In this work an attempt is made to evaluate all the tools available to control the groundwater table or the piezometric level and to increase the volume of fresh groundwater available for emergencies, which are necessary in creating barriers against inflow of seawater into the coastal aquifers. This work especially focuses on different methods of seawater intrusion prevention. The exploitation and restoration of fresh groundwater in coastal aquifer systems should form part of integrated water management and requires cooperation, information, planning and legislation

Efficacy and safety of mometasone furoate vs nedocromil sodium as prophylactic treatment for moderate/severe seasonal allergic rhinitis

Background: The preventive use of medications has been proposed to be effective in the treatment of seasonal rhinitis. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of mometasone furoate and nedocromil sodium nasal sprays as prophylactic treatment for moderate to severe seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR). Patients: Sixty-one patients were recruited from 3 referral allergy centers. Inclusion criteria were history of SAR for 2 years or longer, sensitization to relevant local pollen (grasses, Parietaria, and olive), and age older than 12 years. Methods: An open-label, randomized, parallel-group, "real-life" study design was used. Patients received mometasone furoate nasal spray once daily or nedocromil sodium nasal spray 3 times daily starting 2 to 4 weeks before the pollen season and continuing for up to 4 months. Instructions regarding the use of additional medications were given. Diary cards recording symptoms, use of medication, and adverse events were kept by the patients. Results: All 61 patients completed the study. The prophylactic use of mometasone furoate vs nedocromil sodium led to significantly more days without symptoms (75.1% vs 54.5%; P < .001). The mometasone furoate group also had lower nasal symptom scores (mean, 1.4 vs 2.9; median, 0 vs 2; P < .001) and was more satisfied (93.1% vs 43.5%; P < .001). No serious adverse event was recorded, and there was no difference between the treatments in any adverse event. Conclusions: Prophylactic administration of mometasone furoate before the pollen season is safe and may lead to improved control of SAR compared with the use of nedocromil sodium