Aggregate System Research Articles

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN EVALUATION – INTEGRATION OF SUSTAINABILITY IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

AbstractTo develop sustainable products, product developers must be able to incorporate sustainability into individual decision processes during product development. In doing so, they are faced with the conflicting demands of time and cost pressure and the growing complexity caused by the many requirements and (sustainability) criteria.The Sustainable Design Evaluation, which is presented in this publication, is a method to enable product developers to estimate the impact of their product-related decisions along the three dimensions of sustainability across all phases of the product life cycle. The core of the Sustainable Design Evaluation is a two-stage assessment technique enabling a relative and comparable quantification of ecological, economic, and social criteria. Furthermore, an aggregation scheme for those criteria is introduced. Based on the two-stage assessment technique and the system of aggregation, the results of the Sustainable Design Evaluation can be displayed clearly and interpreted easily by product developers to assess the impacts of their product-related decisions.Thus, in contrast to existing methods, the SDE combines ease of use and interpretation with a sufficiently holistic sustainability assessment.

The influence of environmental regulation on high-quality development of marine economy from different subjects’ perspectives

As the high-quality development of marine economy cannot be separated from the improvement of marine ecological environment quality, it is of great importance to clarify the relationship between environmental regulation and the high-quality development of marine economy. In this paper, firstly, an aggregative indicator system of high-quality development of marine economy was constructed to dynamically describe and analyze the overall and provincial trends of high-quality development indicators of marine economy from two dimensions: time trend and spatial pattern. Then, a theoretical analysis framework of environmental regulation affecting the high-quality development of marine economy was constructed, and the theoretical explanation and hypotheses were put forward and tested from the action mechanism of different types of environmental regulation affecting the high-quality development of marine economy, such as command control, market incentive and public participation. At last, the paths and countermeasures of environmental regulation to promote the high-quality development of marine economy were put forward combined with the theoretical analysis and empirical test results.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CREATIVE ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FORMATION OF AN INNOVATIVE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM

The aim of the study is to analyze the theoretical basis of creative economy and its development trends in the context of innovative business ecosystems formation. The scientific novelty of the research consists in solving the most important scientific and applied problem - further development of theoretical provisions of creative economy, ecosystems, as well as substantiation of the conceptual approach to the formation of innovative business ecosystem as a coherent management model. In the process of research, general scientific and special methods were used: scientific abstraction, deduction, analysis and synthesis, system and critical analysis, structural-logical, ascending from the abstract to the concrete, and statistical analysis. It has been substantiated that the priority development of creative economy as a strategic driver of sustainable development is the formation of an ecosystem conducive to the development of complex non-linear dynamic innovation processes, development of value propositions and value chain. The analysis of theoretical and methodological aspects of formation and functioning of ecosystems indicates the lack of development of this problem and the need to develop scientific approaches to their identification. Generalization of the results of theoretical analysis allowed us to group ecosystems according to the identified attributes into five main types. It was substantiated that a sustainable business ecosystem is a favorable environment for innovation to increase its value and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals. It is proposed to consider a sustainable "business ecosystem" as a coherent management model with established characteristics, which describes an aggregate system of business ecosystem modules that interact with each other and are focused on co-creation and co-production of value.

Benchmarking of Heuristic Algorithms for Energy Router-Based Packetized Energy Management in Smart Homes

This article presents an ER-based PEM strategy for PV integrated smart homes to jointly optimize their load scheduling delays, energy transactions cost, and battery degradation cost. The proposed approach incorporates a MA case, where, the ER acts as a main selecting agent realized by all other system elements. This leads to a combinatorial optimization problem, which can be effectively solved by heuristic optimization methods (HOMs), namely, genetic algorithm (GA), binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO), differential evolution (DE) algorithm, and harmony search algorithm (HSA). Specifically, we investigate the impact of the hyperparameters of the HOMs on the designed ER-based PEM system. Simulations are carried out for multiple smart homes under varying weather conditions to evaluate the effectiveness of HOMs in terms of selected performance metrics. Results show that the ER-based PEM reduces the average aggregated system cost, ensures economic benefits by selling surplus energy, while meeting customers energy packet demand, satisfying their quality-of-service, and operational constraints.

DDoS Attack Detection Using Enhanced Neural Network Algorithm in Software-Defined Networks

With the uncommon advancement of technology and networking, the world today is totally relying on it. The most obvious drawback of this technical progress resulted in several possible dangers. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is one in which a large number of compromised systems work together to prevent service from being provided to the targeted system. Consequently, to protect network servers, attack detection systems must be very effective. The proposed architecture has Software Defined Networks (SDN) which comprise controllers and SFlow agents. According to the article, the anomaly detection of statistical traffic, which is performed on both normal and pathological anomaly traces in the packet header, as well as traffic volume detection, is based on the suggested work provided in this study. The k-means clustering technique is used by the statistical anomaly detection system and the attack alert aggregation system. Low-level attack detection systems are used to generate cluster dissimilar warnings, which are then investigated further. Clusters generate meta-alerts based on the information they have gathered. After that, the report of meta-alerts is sent to the security specialists. The online alert aggregation technique, which is also known as the probabilistic model, is used to identify new assaults on a system. The k-means clustering method is used to improve the quality of the traffic data streams. The Enhanced Neural Network Algorithm (ENNA) is being used to advance the intelligent attack detection system, which is currently under development. It is utilized in open-day controllers to identify attacks with a 99.7% accuracy by using Mininet and the Python simulation tool (ODL). In future work, it is possible to evaluate how the suggested detection method would be used in the event of subnet attacks and its mitigation.

Hybrid-Mux Signal Structure and Resource Allocation for In-Band Distribution Link and ITND Transmission in SFN Environment

This paper investigates the multiplexing and resource allocation to improve the spectrum efficiency and reduce demultiplexing complexity and latency in the wireless in-band distribution link (IDL) and inter-tower networks and datacasting (ITND) for terrestrial broadcasting systems. A novel Hybrid-Mux technology is proposed, which combines orthogonal multiplexing (TDM/FDM), non-orthogonal multiplexing (NOM, or LDM), and hierarchical modulation (HM) with the non-uniform constellation (NUC). Hybrid-Mux technology can achieve high spectrum efficiency, low complexity, and low latency to provide versatile services of mobile/fixed broadcast services, inter-tower communication networks and datacasting, as well as the in-band distribution link to support SFN operation. Two Hybrid-Mux signal structures with 2-layer and 3-layer power-based non-orthogonal multiplexing of different broadcast and network data services are introduced. The throughput optimization of each Hybrid-Mux structure is formulated and resolved under the constraint of ITND and IDL data capacity, SNR requirement, and optimized NUC HM. Simulation results show that, by properly implementing resource allocation and constellation design, the proposed 3-layer Hybrid-Mux structures can achieve higher capacity than the simple 2-layer Hybrid-Mux structure, while the demodulation and demultiplexing complexity is not much increased. A 2-tier ITND service is proposed. It consists of a robust control and datacasting (ITCD) tier and a high data rate intertower networking (ITCN) link. This design can increase the total aggregated system data rate substantively. MIMO structures supporting ITND and IDL transmission are also proposed to further improve the spectrum efficiency.

Guest Editorial AIoPT (Artificial Intelligence of Paediatric Things): Informatics in Meeting Paediatric Needs and Patient Monitoring

Medical (health) informatics broadly encompasses the cognitive, information processing, and communication tasks inherent in medical practice, education, and research, with a particular emphasis on the development of computer-based patient records, decision support systems, information standards, data aggregation systems, communication systems, and educational programs for patients and health providers. In addition, this rapidly growing area is confronted with developing technological solutions sensitive to special populations' specific requirements, i.e., <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Preventive, Assistive, and Medical Children Health Informatics</b> . First, children have distinct physiology, come from diverse backgrounds, and are disproportionately affected by illnesses. Thus, children are not little adults, as a famous adage among child health experts. These distinctions have been extensively discussed and are frequently called the four D's. Second, children depend on their parents and extended relatives to access necessary health care. Thus, plans must include gathering and distributing information to many patients. Third, childhood is defined by a developmental trajectory marked by fast change and the emergence of capacities for health information utilization. Fourth, children's health is defined by distinct epidemiology characterized by fewer significant chronic diseases, a high prevalence of acute illnesses, and reliance on preventative interventions. Finally, since children are the poorest and most varied in our society, they exhibit distinct demographic trends.

A Framework for Decentralized, Real-Time Reputation Aggregation in IoV

With the rapid increase in the number of connected and autonomous vehicles, there is a growing concern about the potential road accidents and collisions caused by malicious vehicles. A reputation system can help to mitigate these concerns and allow users to have safe journeys by providing a way to identify and estimate the behaviour of individual vehicles and to take appropriate actions in case of any malicious behaviour. Centralised reputation systems are widely used for reputation aggregation, but this setup requires Peer trust and could be a single point of attack. The alternative to a centralised system is the decentralised reputation system for IoV, in which the reputation information is collected and maintained by the vehicles rather than a central authority. There are several key considerations when designing a secure reputation aggregation system for the IoV. These include: i) It should ensure that vehicle feedback about other vehicles is kept private; ii) vehicles' interaction networks and positions should be protected; and iii) computations should be decentralised and not resource-intensive. Adopting a decentralised reputation system within IoV using blockchain can enhance security and privacy and mitigate many security concerns. In this article, we proposed a blockchain-based reputation system which ensures the privacy of participants and provides secure and resilient reputation computation. The reputation value reflects the aggregate trustworthiness of vehicles and this is computed via feedback provided by the vehicles in a decentralized way. We analysed the security and privacy of the proposed system and provided the computation and communication performance.

Blockchain-Based Decentralized Cab Aggregator

Abstract: A Blockchain-based decentralized cab aggregator system that aims to revolutionize the traditional ride-hailing industry. The system leverages the transparency and security features of blockchain technology to create a thrustless environment where riders and drivers can connect without the need for intermediaries. The decentralized platform also eliminates the problem of surge pricing and ensures that drivers are paid fairly. In addition, the use of smart contracts ensures that all parties fulfil their obligations, thereby reducing the risk of fraud and disputes. The project promises to create a more equitable and efficient cab aggregation system that benefits all stakeholders involved.

Implementing an electronic public health record for policy planning in the UK military sector: Validation of a secure hashing algorithm

The digitalisation of healthcare services is a major resource to inform policy-makers. However, the availability of data and the establishment of a data flow present new issues to address, such as data anonymisation, records' reliability, and data linkage. The veterans' population in the UK presents complex needs and many organisations provide social and healthcare support, but their databases are not linked or aggregated to provide a comprehensive overview of service planning. This study aims to test the sensitivity and specificity of a Secure Hashing Algorithm to generate a unique anonymous identifier for data linkage across different organisations in the veterans' population. A Secure Hashing Algorithm was performed by considering two input variables from two different datasets. The uniqueness of the identifier was compared against the single personal key adopted as a current standard identifier. Chi-square, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated. The results demonstrated that the unique identifier generated by the Secure Hashing Algorithm detected more unique records when compared to the current gold standard. The identifier demonstrated optimal sensitivity and specificity and it allowed an enhanced data linkage between different datasets. The adoption of a Secure Hashing Algorithm improved the uniqueness of records. Moreover, it ensured data anonymity by transforming personal information into an encrypted identifier. This approach is beneficial for big data management and for creating an aggregated system for linking different organisations and, in this way, for providing a more comprehensive overview of healthcare provision and the foundation for precision public health strategies.

“Lab of the Future”─Today: Fully Automated System for High-Throughput Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Biotherapeutics

Here we describe a state-of-the-art, integrated, multi-instrument automated system designed to execute methods involved in mass spectrometry characterization of biotherapeutics. The system includes liquid and microplate handling robotics and utilities, integrated LC-MS, along with data analysis software, to perform sample purification, preparation, and analysis as a seamless integrated unit. The automated process begins with tip-based purification of target proteins from expression cell-line supernatants, which is initiated once the samples are loaded onto the automated system and the metadata are retrieved from our corporate data aggregation system. Subsequently, the purified protein samples are prepared for MS, including deglycosylation and reduction steps for intact and reduced mass analysis, and proteolytic digestions, desalting, and buffer exchange via centrifugation for peptide map analysis. The prepared samples are then loaded into the LC-MS instrumentation for data acquisition. The acquired raw data are initially stored on a local area network storage system that is monitored by watcher scripts that then upload the raw MS data to a network of cloud-based servers. The raw MS data are processed with the appropriately configured analysis workflows such as database search for peptide mapping or charge deconvolution for undigested proteins. The results are verified and formatted for expert curation directly in the cloud. Finally, the curated results are appended to sample metadata in the corporate data aggregation system to accompany the biotherapeutic cell lines in subsequent processes.

Potential energy of a pair of identical coplanar uniformly charged circular rings

We study the features of the potential energy function for a system consisting of a pair of identical uniformly charged circular rings that are coplanar with each other. This model may emerge as a legitimate semi-classical approximation for a realistic two-dimensional electron system in a weak perpendicular magnetic field. An exact integral expression for the potential energy of the system is obtained as a function of the separation distance between the centers of the respective uniformly charged circular rings. It is found that the potential energy develops a cusp at a particular distance that corresponds to the two uniformly charged circular rings touching each other at one point. This observation has important implications for formation of clusters and/or aggregate systems.

Aggregation of Italian Lichen Data in ITALIC 7.0.

The creation of a coordinated publishing and aggregation system of biodiversity data is a challenging task, which calls for the adoption of open data standards. ITALIC, the information system on Italian lichens, originated from the conversion of the first Italian checklist into a database. While the first version was "frozen", the present version is continuously updated and provides access to several other data sources and services, such as ecological indicator values, ecological notes and information, traits, images, digital identification keys, etc. The identification keys especially are an ongoing work that will lead to a complete national flora by 2026. Last year, new services were added, one for aligning lists of names with the national checklist, the other for aggregating occurrence data deriving from the digitization of 13 Italian herbaria, forming a total of ca. 88,000 records, which are distributed under a CC BY license and can be exported as CSV files in the Darwin Core format. An aggregator for lichen data will encourage the national community of lichenologists to produce and aggregate further data sets, and it will stimulate data reuse according to the paradigms of open science.

Socio-economic inequality and healthcare costs over the life course – A dynamic microsimulation approach

ObjectivesAlthough there is well-established evidence for the existence of socio-economic inequalities in virtually all dimensions of health, little is known about the implications of these socio-economic disparities for healthcare costs from a cumulative life course perspective. Accounting for differentials in healthcare use patterns and mortality, we assess how lifetime costs differ between socio-economic groups. Study designThis study used dynamic microsimulation modelling. MethodsCombining price weights for healthcare services with information on healthcare consumption from the 2014 Austrian Health Interview Survey (n = 15,771), we calculated average cost profiles by gender, age and education consistent with aggregate System of Health Accounts. A dynamic microsimulation model was used to project cumulative healthcare costs over the entire lifecycle for the 2019 birth cohort in four different scenarios to illustrate the influence of the different cost determinants on lifetime costs. ResultsBefore considering social inequalities in mortality, men with compulsory education have close to 66% higher lifetime costs than men with tertiary education; for women, the difference is close to 20%. Accounting for longevity differentials reduces this gap to approximately 40% for men and 10% for women. Closing the gap in healthcare use and in longevity between socio-economic groups would reduce lifetime healthcare expenditure by 4.1% in the 2019 birth cohort and by 19% in the whole population. ConclusionsAccounting for mortality differentials between socio-economic groups has a large impact on estimated lifetime healthcare costs. Reducing social inequalities in health can contribute to containing healthcare expenditures against the backdrop of rising life expectancy.

Pressure dependent analysis in premise plumbing system modeling.

Modeling premise plumbing systems requires accurate treatment of fixture-specific pressure and flow rate relationships. Each fixture in a building may experience different flow rates based on variable service pressure, its unique pressure-flow behavior, and demands throughout the building. Unique experimentally derived pressure-flow parameters for four faucets, a shower/tub fixture, and toilet were developed. The Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) was also used to explore the impact of premise plumbing systems on water distribution systems through two simple skeletonization cases. Minimum pressures for nodes in water distribution system models that represent demand aggregated premise plumbing systems will likely be non-zero and must capture additional pressure drop or elevation differences at the building scale and associated components, such as water meters or backflow preventers. Results showed that flow rates are impacted by pressure in these systems in complex ways, and usage and system characteristics must be considered to be modeled accurately.

Predicting the Friction Coefficient of High-Friction Surface Treatment Application Aggregates Using the Aggregates’ Characteristics

Providing sufficient pavement surface friction (i.e., skid resistance) between vehicle tires and pavement surface throughout the pavement service life is considered to be one of the main objectives of highway design. Moreover, vehicle safety, the amount of consumed fuel, and the wearing rate of vehicle tires generally are influenced by pavement surface friction. In this study, a comprehensive experimental testing program was conducted on different aggregate sources, including calcined bauxite and five alternative local sources, to assess their friction characteristics. The testing program included a British pendulum tester (BPT) and a dynamic friction tester (DFT), which were used to evaluate the friction characteristics of the proposed aggregates, along with basic and durability properties tests. The aggregate imaging measurement system (AIMS) technique was applied to evaluate the aggregate characteristics due to Micro-Deval degradation. This study provides two empirical models for the friction characteristics of high-friction surface treatment (HFST)-application aggregates based on the experimental results. The first model correlates the friction coefficient at 20 km/h (DFC20) with the British pendulum number (BPN). The second model expresses DFC20 as a function of polishing resistance of aggregates, which is represented by the initial and terminal aggregate texture and angularity values measured using the AIMS device with an overall coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.949. The aggregate characteristics (i.e., particle angularity and surface texture) align well with the microtexture characteristics of the investigated sources.

Making cyber security more resilient: adding social considerations to technological fixes

How can a focus on socio-technical vulnerability and uncertainty make cyber security more resilient? In this article, we provide a conceptual discussion of how to increase cyber resilience. First, we show how cyber security and resilience thinking co-evolved through their connection to critical infrastructures, and how the ensuing dominant technical focus inevitably always falls short due to the diverse societal values that underpin their critical social functions. We argue that a sole focus on aggregate systems neglects the important differences in how cyber threats are experienced and dealt with by individuals. Second, we draw on insights from social resilience and disaster management literature to establish a better link between individuals and cyber systems. We focus on two key aspects of cyber security that highlight its social nature: vulnerability and uncertainty. Instead of thinking of cyber security as a “technical problem + humans,” we suggest cyber security should be conceptualized as a “social problem + technology.” We conclude by highlighting three ways forward for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners: interdisciplinary research, public debate about a set of normative questions, and the need for an uncertainty discourse in politics and policymaking.

Особенности анализа конкурентоспособности гостиничного предприятия

Article is focused on factors influencing competition and competitiveness of a hotel. In contrast to other different approaches, author describe the range of factors affecting the hotel at the highly competitive and unstable demand environment, based on her professional experience and deep knowledge of economics and marketing of hospitality industry. The main factors and indicators that are vital in the competition were analyzing. Main focus was given to the environment changed last years. Epidemiological situation changes links with the COVID-19, chillness in foreign affairs, sanctions are the drivers in a large extent impacted the hospitality industry. International flight restrictions and tourist flow down, leaving of international hotel enterprises, supplier companies, stop of booking and aggregation systems servicing, logistic chains changes were leaving to significant consequence as for the services market and for especial companies. Main features, criteria and factors company needs to be taken into account for successful company positioning on the market were given based on the example of the hotel sector of the hospitality industry. The article is very practical, since systematic approach was developed based on factors affecting the competitiveness of a hotel was successfully used in on the real company working on competitive environment. Approach has theoretical significance due to focus on scientific ideas development on hospitality industry environment analysis using integrated approach can be used by future scientist. Article can help beginners and experienced entrepreneurs in systematization and hotel competitiveness factors analysis taking into account it’s specifics.

Digital humanities on the Semantic Web: Sampo model and portal series

Cultural heritage (CH) contents are typically strongly interlinked, but published in heterogeneous, distributed local data silos, making it difficult to utilize the data on a global level. Furthermore, the content is usually available only for humans to read, and not as data for Digital Humanities (DH) analyses and application development. This application report addresses these problems by presenting a collaborative publication model for CH Linked Data and six design principles for creating shared data services and semantic portals for DH research and applications. This Sampo model has evolved gradually in 2002–2021 through lessons learned when developing the Sampo series of linked data services and semantic portals in use, including MuseumFinland (2004), CultureSampo (2009), BookSampo (2011), WarSampo (2015), Norssit Alumni (2017), U.S. Congress Prosopographer (2018), NameSampo (2019), BiographySampo (2019), WarVictimSampo 1914–1922 (2019), MMM (2020), AcademySampo (2021), FindSampo (2021), WarMemoirSampo (2021), and LetterSampo (2022). These Semantic Web applications surveyed in this paper cover a wide range of application domains in CH and have attracted up to millions of users on the Semantic Web, suggesting feasibility of the proposed Sampo model. This work shows a shift of focus in research on CH semantic portals from data aggregation and exploration systems (1. generation systems) to systems supporting DH research (2. generation systems) with data analytic tools, and finally to automatic knowledge discovery and Artificial Intelligence (3. generation systems).

Mixed-species groups and aggregations: shaping ecological and behavioural patterns and processes

Mixed-species groups of birds, fishes and mammals have traditionally been described in taxa-specific journals. However, mixed-species systems are actually more widely found when one includes aggregative (non-moving) systems, such as those common in amphibians and invertebrates. The objective of this special issue is to dispel the idea that mixed-species phenomena are a 'niche topic' to ecology and instead explore how taking a mixed-species perspective can change our conception of important ecological patterns and processes. A mixed-species perspective starts by understanding the relative abundance and positioning of individuals of different species and their behavioural synchrony; it is enriched by understanding differences between species in their vulnerability/attractiveness to predators, their potential for competing with other group participants and their use as a source of public information. Contributions to the special issue show how the mixed-species perspective can change our ideas about invasion ecology, island biogeography, keystone species, mimicry, predator eavesdropping and more. Rather than seeking synthesis, the special issue celebrates the taxonomic and conceptual breadth of the field of mixed-species groups, with detailed descriptions of many distinctive systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Mixed-species groups and aggregations: shaping ecological and behavioural patterns and processes'.