39 research outputs found
Hydrophilic solvents Correspondence to Author:
No full textadministration possesses many advantages including decreased or loss of first-pass drug metabolism, no gastro-intestinal degradation, long time delivery (especially for transdermal patches)
Unmasking the Power of Trigger Intensity in Federated Learning: Exploring Trigger Intensities in Backdoor Attacks
No full textFederated learning allows a multitude of contributors to collaboratively build a deep learning model, all while keeping their individual training data private from one another. However, it is not immune to security flaws such as backdoor attacks in which malevolent adversaries manipulate the global model to trigger specific behaviors. In this paper, we investigate the impact of trigger intensity in backdoor attacks within the federated learning setting. We challenge the conventional requirement of training and testing on the same trigger intensity and propose a novel approach of training on a weak trigger and testing on a stronger trigger. Our experiments demonstrate that this technique proves capable of enhancing backdoor attack performance and robustness and might open the possibility for invisible backdoors during the testing phase. The ability to customize trigger visibility empowers attackers to craft stealthier and more potent attacks, making trigger detection challenging. Our findings complement existing state-of-the-art attacks, providing attackers with greater options to tailor their attack to their intended target. We discuss the implications of our research and highlight the importance of developing effective defense mechanisms to counter backdoor vulnerabilities in federated learning systems. Overall, our study contributes to the advancement of backdoor attack understanding in FL and provides valuable insights into trigger intensity as a critical factor for attack customization and resilience. By exploring new avenues for stronger and more stealthy attacks, we contribute to the ongoing efforts to safeguard AI systems’ privacy and reliability in real-world applications.Computer Science | Software Technolog
Do Malaysian motorcyclists concern to safety helmet usage: a cross-sectional survey
No full textThe study was carried out to examine percentage of compliance rate regarding helmet used and to identify their characteristics. An observational method and a questionnaire survey were conducted among a group of motorcyclists in Selangor, Malaysia. The observations of 1150 motorcyclists show that only 46.6% used helmets properly, 10.6% untied helmet and 42.8% without-helmet. A random of 300 respondents those improper wearing helmet (either untied helmet or unhelmeted) were interviewed and asked to fill-up a questionnaire. The findings were discussed on background, motorcycling experience, knowledge and attitude of the respondents in details. The percentage of improper helmet usage in the locations of study was considered high and it seem those helmet initiative programs are insufficient to overcome the problem. Also, the characteristics of motorcyclist who did not wearing helmet properly (either unfastened or not wearing helmet) were identified. Therefore, there is need to introduce a new mechanism or method that can be utilized to incorporate behavior adaptation toward safety concern among motorcycle users. Finally, the direction of this study was explained in section of future work
Multi-Population Aggregative Games: Equilibrium Seeking via Mean-Field Control and Consensus
No full textIn this article, we extend the theory of deterministic mean-field/aggregative games to multipopulation games. We consider a set of populations, each managed by a population coordinator (PC), of selfish agents playing a global noncooperative game, whose cost functions are affected by an aggregate term across all agents from all populations. In particular, we impose that the agents cannot exchange information between themselves directly; instead, only a PC can gather information on its own population and exchange local aggregate information with the neighboring PCs. To seek an equilibrium of the resulting (partial-information) game, we propose an iterative algorithm where each PC broadcasts a mean-field signal, namely, an estimate of the overall aggregative term, to its own population only. In turn, we let the local agents react with the best response and the PCs cooperate for estimating the aggregative term. Our main technical contributions are to cast the proposed scheme as a fixed-point iteration with errors, namely, the interconnection of a Krasnoselskij–Mann iteration and a linear consensus protocol, and, under a nonexpansiveness condition, to show convergence towards an ε -Nash equilibrium, where ε is inversely proportional to the population size.Accepted Author ManuscriptTeam Bart De Schutte
To Bid or not to Bid: that is the Question: Relating Contractor Bid Decisions to Tender Design Related Attributes
No full textThe construction industry has always been an important driver of the economy. An important part of the projects in this industry is commissioned by public entities. However, recently a trend can be observed in which the procurement process fails more often than before. Due to the current times of economic expansion in the Netherlands contractors are more selective in project selection. Failed procurement processes are however undesirable since the transaction costs and time invested in such a process can mount up. Many scholars have investigated the bid decision of contractors (Bagies & Fortune, 2006; Shokri-Ghasabeh & Chileshe, 2016). Yet, in order to contribute to solving the issue mentioned above not all considerations of contractors are relevant. Therefore, this research specifically focused on those considerations, or decision attributes, that a client can influence during the tender design phase. Resulting in the following research question: “What tender design related attributes are key decision drivers in the contractor’s bid decision and how do these key decision drivers influence the bid decision in economic times of expansion for publicly procured non-residential construction projects in the Netherlands?”Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineerin
Green implementation of Lean Six Sigma projects in the manufacturing sector
No full textPurpose – Historically, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation has demonstrated a great deal of enhancement to process efficiency, profitability and customer satisfaction. The emerging market pressure for developing better quality, cheaper and greener products invokes a change of view in LSS economical
effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to identify under which condition the final output of LSS projects with traditional strategic benefits are more environmentally friendly.
Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the choice of different types of LSS projects, the environmental impact under different conditions and the comparison of those conditions, the author developed an analytical mathematical model and analysed four different propositions.
Findings – The final price and production volume were recommended as mediating factors to leverage an LSS project to achieve a greener, customised and finance-oriented outputs.
Research limitations/implications – This research contributes to existing LSS research and knowledge development via promoting the different perspectives of LSS and environmental sustainability integration.
Practical implications – This study further enables managers to identify the cut-off point in relation to the production volume and finished prices to leverage the expected financial outputs and environmental impact of the LSS project. This would potentially promote a green LSS project in both implementation and output, alongside its traditional values.
Originality/value – This study uses a modelling approach to identify the conditions under which the actual methodology of the LSS project could be green via less energy consumption with consideration of expected LSS values and outcomes
Prevalence of Hemiplegic Shoulder Pain in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
No full textContext: Hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP) is one of the complications of a stroke. Objectives: This study aimed to determine shoulder pain prevalence in cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patients. Methods: This meta-analysis study searched English and Persian descriptive or descriptive-analytical full-text studies on CVA pa-tients. The search was carried out in all databases by two researchers using keywords such as stroke, pain, CVA, hemiplegic, and shoulder pain. Data analysis was done with the software CMA3. Results: In the initial search, 109 articles were found, and finally, the data from four articles were analyzed. The prevalence of HSP was 23 (confidence interval (CI) = 10.3-43.5). Conclusions: Considering the HSP prevalence (28.1) among CVA patients, it is necessary to carry out rehabilitation interventions to prevent such pain in these patients. It is also suggested that rehabilitation interventions be included in the patient education of the healthcare system. © 2023, Author(s)
The Comparison of Mode Choice Sensitivity to the Reduction of Travel Time and Cost in Multimodal Trip
No full textAn Overview of Interchanges and Ramps in Case of Sabzevar
No full textpeer reviewedDue to increase of the urbanization and raising the number of the vehicles road traffic incident and delay time in traffic jam are the main concern of countries in all over the world. Due to this problem drivers face an elevated crash risk especially when drivers on freeway ramp interchanges compared with other sections of freeways. The definition of ramp was based on the type and number of lanes used by traffic to freeways. The vehicle accidents are prevalent on highway ramps because of over-speeding, related to the characteristics and circumstances of ramps. Site survey and observation has been done for each location to identify the road condition, adjacent environment and vehicle operations. SPSS is used to analysis the accidents that they are collected data from case study. Descriptive analyses are performed by output of the analyzing data of accident. Differences in accident rates are due to driver behavior, weather potential safety issues were identified at interchanges. Ramps are scheduled for auditing based on descending road speed limits
The comparison of mode choice sensitivity to the reduction of travel time and cost in multimodal trip
No full textpeer reviewedNowadays, with the extension of travel distances and accessibility to the various commuting options, multimodal trip proposes as the most competent travelling strategy. However, with increasing in demand by using these options as well as metro, subway, buses, cycles and sidewalk, some problems arose. The import of this quantitative study is to sympathize with the significance of the multimodal as a novel factor in the transportation. In this study, we discussed about cost and time as two significant factors, which affect everybody's life. While improving these two factors have a meaningful effect on encouraging/discouraging private vehicle commuters to switch to public transport. The methodology of this study is an empirical research in which a survey was conducted among the students at The National University of Malaysia with a numeric sample. Hence, a case study based on areas around UKM campus is used to emonstrate the results. What were investigated in this study were the attributes of a reduction in either travel cost or time to promote people who use their own vehicles to shift toward public transportation. The results show that the two factors: time and cost made a significant contribution in motivating private vehicle users to switch public transport. However, the most important purpose of this study was determining the most effective factor (at least based on our condition) since it's not practically possible to have the travel time and cost reduction togethe
