A Networked Hybrid Interface for Audience Sonification and Machine Learning

Lick the Toad is an ongoing project developed as a web based interface that runs in modern browsers. It provides a custom made platform to collect user data accessed from mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets etc. The system offers a tool for interactive collective sonification supporting networked music performance. It can be used in various contexts, such as an onsite installation, or for the distribution of raw data for live coding performances making it a versatile component for an array of creative practices. Of these, live coding which is one of the author's artistic approach to create live performances is demonstrated in this article highlighting and elaborating on technical and musical aspects of this approach. Final sections outline the system as a tool for live coding performances and cover a series of potential interactions integrating audience and/or using it independently alike

Free as in BEER: Some Explorations into Structured Improvisation Using Networked Live-Coding Systems

Much improvised music that has developed since the advent of free jazz has been concerned with the imposition of structure, often through systems of directed improvisation, or through the use of rule-based approaches (e.g., game pieces). In this article, we explore the possibility of a networked live-coding system as a structural intervention mechanism par excellence, through the discussion of two pieces from the repertoire of the Birmingham Ensemble for Electroacoustic Researc

Fostering innovation in renewable energy technologies: Choice of policy instruments and effectiveness

This paper assesses the effectiveness of different types of renewable energy policies (REP) in fostering innovation activity in the OECD electricity sector over the period 1990-2014. More specifically, we collect and analyse data on policy intervention, innovation activity (patent counts per type of renewable technology) and performance for 21 OECD countries from 1990 to 2014. Using the specific characteristics of each policy, we identify all REP in our sample and categorise them to one of three distinct policy types: technology-push, demand-pull, and systemic policy instruments. We then analyse the effects of policy intervention on innovation, by type of policy instrument and by type of technology. Our results show very clearly that one size does not fit all. Innovation activity is found to be more responsive to demand-pull policy instruments only for some technologies (e.g. geothermal), whereas for others a more mixed approach maybe more effective (e.g. wind). And sometimes policies that are designed to target only one technology are more effective in fostering innovation than multi-technology ones (as in the case of solar). Overall, we find that demand-pull policies have been more effective than any other type of policy intervention in driving innovation in renewable energy technologies

Can Industrial Policy Foster Innovation in Renewable Energy Technologies in the OECD and in EU regions

We cross fertilise scholarship on industrial policy (IP) and renewable energy (RE) innovation and submit that RE serves as a General Purpose Technology that contains more specific RE technologies (RETs). We develop five Hypotheses and provide econometric evidence for the impact of demand-pull, technology-push and systemic IP instruments on different RETs. We test for the role of country experience, for EU North-South regional variations, and for the quality of RE innovations. We employ a large data set for thirty-four OECD countries and find support for our theory-derived hypotheses

Synergistic exploitation of geoinformation methods for post-earthquake 3D mapping of Vrisa traditional settlement, Lesvos Island, Greece

The aim of this paper is to present the methodology followed and the results obtained by the synergistic exploitation of geo-information methods towards 3D mapping of the impact of the catastrophic earthquake of June 12th 2017 on the traditional settlement of Vrisa on the island of Lesvos, Greece. A campaign took place for collecting: a) more than 150 ground control points using an RTK system, b) more than 20.000 high-resolution terrestrial and aerial images using cameras and Unmanned Aircraft Systems and c) 140 point clouds by a 3D Terrestrial Laser Scanner. The Structure from Motion method has been applied on the high-resolution terrestrial and aerial photographs, for producing accurate and very detailed 3D models of the damaged buildings of the Vrisa settlement. Additionally, two Orthophoto maps and Digital Surface Models have been created, with a spatial resolution of 5cm and 3cm, respectively. The first orthophoto map has been created just one day after the earthquake, while the second one, a month later. In parallel, 3D laser scanning data have been exploited in order to validate the accuracy of the 3D models and the RTK measurements used for the geo-registration of all the above-mentioned datasets. The significant advantages of the proposed methodology are: a) the coverage of large scale areas; b) the production of 3D models having very high spatial resolution and c) the support of post-earthquake management and reconstruction processes of the Vrisa village, since such 3D information can serve all stakeholders, be it national and/or local organizations

IP Over ICN Goes Live

Information-centric networking (ICN) has long been advocating for radical changes to the IP-based Internet. However, the upgrade challenges that this entails have hindered ICN adoption. To break this loop, the POINT project proposed a hybrid, IP-over-ICN, architecture: IP networks are preserved at the edge, connected to each other over an ICN core. This exploits the key benefits of ICN, enabling individual network operators to improve the performance of their IP-based services, without changing the rest of the Internet. We provide an overview of POINT and outline how it improves upon IP in terms of performance and resilience. Our focus is on the successful trial of the POINT prototype in a production network, where real users operated actual IP-based applications

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival