1,721,092 research outputs found
Software-defined Control of Emergency Vehicles in Smart Cities
No full textOne of the most fundamental challenges in nowadays transportation systems is the appropriate management of emergencies resulting from accidents. The purpose of this paper is to utilize vehicular communication technologies and integrate them with the software defined idea to reduce the time required by the emergency vehicle to arrive at the accident scene from the emergency center (i.e., rescue time). In this context, one of the main approaches is traffic light preemption in favor of emergency vehicles: the timing of traffic lights along the rescue route is dynamically adjusted to minimize the number of RED lights met by the emergency vehicles. Most of existing methods of preemption are based on local decision making at each individual traffic light. However, in this paper, the use of a central controller for traffic light scheduling leads to higher efficiency due to the higher knowledge of street traffic and intersection conditions. The proposed method is evaluated using the OMNET++ and SUMO tools over part of the city of Tabriz, Iran. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the average rescue time even by more than 50% in some cases
Software-defined traffic light preemption for faster emergency medical service response in smart cities
No full textProper management of rescue operations following an accident is one of the most fundamental challenges faced by today's smart cities. Taking advantage of vehicular communications, in this paper we propose novel mechanisms for the acceleration of the rescue operation resulting in a reduction in fatalities in accidents. We propose a Software-Defined Traffic Light Preemption (SD-TLP) mechanism that enables Emergency Medical Vehicles (EMVs) to travel along the rescue route with minimal interruptions. The SD-TLP makes preemption decisions based on global knowledge of the traffic conditions in the city. We also propose mechanisms for the selection of the nearest emergency center and fast discharge of the route of EMVs. Furthermore, depending on the dynamic traffic conditions on the streets at the time of the accident, an appropriate rescue route is selected for the EMV before its departure. The proposed approach is evaluated using the OMNET++ and SUMO tools over part of the Megacity of Tabriz, Iran. The simulation results demonstrate that the method can reduce the average rescue time significantly. The proposed approach keeps the resulting disruption in city traffic acceptably low while trying to shorten the rescue time as much as possible
Multi-array wax paper-based platform for the pre-concentration and determination of silver ions in drinking water
No full textIn this work, a wax-patterned chromatographic paper has been utilized as a holistic platform to 1) synthesize Prussian Blue Nanoparticles (sensing species), 2) load the reagents for the assay, 3) concentrate the sample through multistep, and 4) visualize the determination of silver ions. Waters are continuously affected by changes in the composition, thus the utilization of reagent-free analytical tools is of huge interest for smart drinking water monitoring. Herein, we report the characterization and application of a multi-array paper-based platform for the colorimetric determination of silver ions based on the conversion from Prussian Blue to its silver-based analogue, namely Ag4[Fe(CN)6]. In particular, the platform highlights the increase of sensitivity due to paper pre-concentration of sample, that can be easily adapted to the analytical necessities. Within the proposed experimental setup, Ag+ is visualized down to a detection limit of 0.9 μM, with high repeatability and satisfactory recoveries in the range comprised between 90 and 113%
Multi-array wax paper-based platform for the pre-concentration and determination of silver ions in drinking water
No full textIn this work, a wax-patterned chromatographic paper has been utilized as a holistic platform to 1) synthesize Prussian Blue Nanoparticles (sensing species), 2) load the reagents for the assay, 3) concentrate the sample through multistep, and 4) visualize the determination of silver ions. Waters are continuously affected by changes in the composition, thus the utilization of reagent-free analytical tools is of huge interest for smart drinking water monitoring. Herein, we report the characterization and application of a multi-array paper-based platform for the colorimetric determination of silver ions based on the conversion from Prussian Blue to its silver-based analogue, namely Ag4[Fe(CN)6]. In particular, the platform highlights the increase of sensitivity due to paper pre-concentration of sample, that can be easily adapted to the analytical necessities. Within the proposed experimental setup, Ag+ is visualized down to a detection limit of 0.9 μM, with high repeatability and satisfactory recoveries in the range comprised between 90 and 113%
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
A 96-well wax printed Prussian Blue paper for the visual determination of cholinesterase activity in human serum
Full text linkIn the last decades, there is a growing search for analytical strategies to ensure clinical analysis without the need of laboratory set-up and skilled personnel. Indeed, user-friendly and low-cost devices are highly valued in the era of sustainability for their capability to be applied in low-resource contexts, such as developing countries. To address this issue, herein we report a 96-well paper-based and laboratory setup-free optical platform for the detection of butyrylcholinesterase enzyme (BChE) activity in human serum. We used chromatographic paper to realize a novel analytical tool exploiting its porous structure for reagentless synthesize Prussian Blue Nanoparticles (the sensing element), as well to load all the reagents required for the measurement. The principle of BChE activity detection relies on the reaction between the enzymatic product thiocholine and Prussian Blue, giving the Prussian White with subsequently Prussian Blue's fading, detected by a common office scanner supported by ImageJ software. Using this novel paper-based optical platform, BChE activity was linearly detected in the 2-15 U/mL range with a detection limit down to 0.8 U/mL. The accuracy was successfully demonstrated by recovery study with spiked serum and by comparing the data with the gold standard method
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
