Hierarchical Federated Learning (HFL) extends conventional Federated Learning (FL) by introducing intermedi ate aggregation layers, enabling distributed learning in geograph ically dispersed environments, particularly relevant for smart IoT systems, such as remote monitoring and battlefield operations, where cellular connectivity is limited. In these scenarios, UAVs serve as mobile aggregators, dynamically connecting terrestrial IoT devices. This paper investigates an HFL architecture with energy-constrained, dynamically deployed UAVs prone to communication disruptions. We propose a novel approach to minimize global training costs by formulating a joint optimization problem that integrates learning configuration, bandwidth allocation, and device-to-UAV association, ensuring timely global aggregation before UAV disconnections and redeployments. The problem accounts for dynamic IoT devices and intermittent UAV con nectivity and is NP-hard. To tackle this, we decompose it into three subproblems: (i) optimizing learning configuration and bandwidth allocation via an augmented Lagrangian to reduce training costs; (ii) introducing a device fitness score based on data heterogeneity (via Kullback-Leibler divergence), device-to UAV proximity, and computational resources, using a TD3-based algorithm for adaptive device-to-UAV assignment; (iii) developing a low-complexity two-stage greedy strategy for UAV redeployment and global aggregator selection, ensuring efficient aggregation despite UAV disconnections. Experiments on diverse real-world datasets validate the approach, demonstrating cost reduction and robust performance under communication disruptions.

The land surface temperature (LST) in the central urban area has shown a consistent upward trend over the years, exacerbating the surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect. Therefore, this study focuses on the central urban area of Chengdu, using blocks as the research scale. The Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) model and SHAP values are employed to explore the nonlinear effects of human settlements (HS) on LST across different seasons. The results show that (1) At the block scale, the overall impact of HS on LST across all four seasons tracks the following order: built environment (BE) > landscape pattern (LP) > socio-economic development (SED). (2) LP is the most important factor affecting LST in summer, while the BE has the greatest influence on LST during spring, autumn, and winter. (3) Most HS indicators exhibit seasonal variations in their impact on LST. The impervious surface area (ISA) exhibits a significant positive impact on LST during spring, summer, and autumn. In contrast, the nighttime light index (NTL) and functional mix degree (FMD) exert a significant negative influence on LST in spring, autumn, and winter. Additionally, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) negatively affects LST in both spring and summer. Moreover, connectivity (CNT) and functional density (FPD) demonstrate notable threshold effects in their influence on LST. (4) Certain HS indicators exhibit interaction effects, and some combinations of these indicators can effectively reduce LST. This study reveals HS–LST interactions through multidimensional analysis, offering block-scale seasonal planning strategies for sustainable urban thermal optimization.

In this study, the results of functional connectivity between various areas were extracted when flexion and extension of the elbow were repeatedly performed with 500 g and 1000 g balls in hand. All subjects performed elbow bending and stretching at an angle of 90 degrees with the right back of their hand facing down. A total of 30 bending and stretching exercises were performed for 1 minute. At this time, the experiment was carried out under 2 conditions: (500 g motion) when performing the exercise with a 500-g object in the right hand and a 1000 g object (1000 g motion). To process functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we used the Functional Connectivity (CONN) toolbox, which was implemented in Statistical Parametric Mapping software version 12. Visual.lateral (right, R)-Visual.medial, Visual.medical-Visual.occipital, SensoriMotor.superior-SensoriMotor.lateral (left, L), FrontoParital.lateral prefrontal cortex (R)-FrontoParital.posterior cingulate cortex (R), and DorsalAttention.intraparietal sulcus (R)-SensoriMotor.superior connection reduced the effect size when flexion and extension of the elbow joint with 1000 g objects more than 500 g objects were carried out. On the other hand, when the task was performed with 1000 g objects rather than 500 g, the effect size of Visual.lateral (L)-Visual.medial, Salience.supramarginal gyrus (L)-DorsalAttention.intraparietal sulcus (R), Language.posterior superior temporal gyrus (L)-Language.inferior frontal gyrus (L), and Salience.AInsula (L)-Salience.AInsula (R) connection increased. The connection that showed the highest correlation coefficient when performing elbow exercise with a 500 g object was DorsalAttention.frontal eye fields (L)-SensoriMotor.superior, Language.inferior frontal gyrus (L)-Language.inferior frontal gyrus (R), and DorsalAttention.intraparietal sulcus (R)-SensoriMotor.lateral. On the other hand, when performing elbow exercises with 1000 g of objects, the highest correlation coefficients were Language.posterior superior temporal gyrus (L)-Language.posterior superior temporal gyrus (R), and Salience.supramarginal gyrus (R)-DorsalAttention.intraparietal sulcus (R). In conclusion, these findings suggest that the brain adapts its functional connectivity patterns in response to changes in physical load during motor tasks, potentially implicating different cognitive and sensorimotor processes depending on the exertion level required by the task. This has implications for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying motor control and could inform rehabilitation strategies for motor impairments.

The subject of this study is the augmentation of portrayal of reality in fiction films by inclusion of documentary sequences. This article explores a hypothesis that in the spacetime continuum, film borders of cinematic genres, the divide between documentary and fiction cinema is disregarded. This divide appears if not artificial, then subordinated to the unity of each particular film as a text. The concept of con- nectivity can be applied to describe the relation of spaces of the documentary and the fictional sequences in a film. The Latvian cinema offers a wide range of instances for the generic fusion of the documentary and the fiction film as genre. The practice of including documentary sequences into the fiction films – in a tradition of the Riga poetic documentary school in the case of this study – (re)presents historical dynamics in film poetics. The appearance of several genre s paces in one spacetime continuum of a film (re)constructs the social space of film’s production momentum. The documentary sequences in the fiction film function both as an added and illustrative value to the main fictional visual narrative, and gradually become a meaning-making element in the wholeness of this cinematic text. Initially in the short film Divi (“Two”, 1965), directed by Mihails Bogins, filmed by Rihards Pīks, and later by Henrihs Pilipsons the documentary sequences were employed to (re)create the modern urban space. Later, as the practice of documentary inclusion became common in the middle of 1960s, the documentary sequences appeared in the musical film Elpojiet dziļi (“Breathe Deeply”, 1967, directed by Rolands Kalniņš, cinematographed by Miks Zvirbulis) to construct multiplicity of spaces, uniting creative and factual realities in the narrated space of the film. The film Elpojiet dziļi demonstrates that the merger of genres, styles and spaces is creative to the extent of spilling off the screen and into the non-cinematic reality. The film is a story of a fictional boy band. It inspired formation of the band Menuets to re-enact the songs written for and performed in the film. The con nectivity of the documentary and the fiction sequences in this film achieve a level of connection where it is no longer possible to speak of subjugation of one genre to the other. It can be described as a construction of a new connected and permeable cinematic space. A further instance of the connectivity of documentary and fiction generic spaces in a film is the film Ābols upē (“Apple in the River”, 1974, directed by Aivars Freimanis, cinematographed by Dāvis Sīmanis (sen)). This film represents a stream of multiple genres and a flow of various citations, inspirations and ideas featuring the cultural space of late Soviet republic of Latvia. In this film the connectivity of the documentary and the fictional episodes becomes rhetorical means of cinematic expression.

Automating t-SNE parameterization with prototype-based learning of manifold connectivity

Painful diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a common, distressing complication of diabetes that is discordant with the degree of peripheral nerve pathology. Very little is known about the cerebral processes involved in pain processing in painful DN. Here we investigated resting-state brain connectivity associated with prolonged pain in DN. Methods: 58 subjects and 36 matched controls were compared with regard to both behavioural measures of pain perception and resting-resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The resting-state fMRI brain connectivity was investigated using 20 seed regions located in cardinal pain processing brain regions. Resting-state fMRI analysis was performed using the NITRC Functional Connectivity (CONN) Toolbox and SPM8 (welcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging London, UK) in Matlab 2014a (the MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA). Functional connectivity matrices between the pre-specified seeds were calculated and the HV versus painful DN phenotype interaction examined. Results: Relative to controls, painful DPN patients displayed increased brain connectivity predominately for the supplementary motor areas (p<0.01) and the primary sensorimotor cortex (p<0.001). Similar results were found when painful DPN subjects were compared with those with No DPN. Conversely, we observed an increase in brain connectivity between the primary somatosensory cortex and cingulate cortex (p<0.01), prefrontal cortex (p<0.01) and amygdala (p<0.01) between painful and painless DPN patients. Conclusion: Our study provides experimental evidence of increased connectivity between frontal midline regions that are implicated in affective pain processing and bilateral sensorimotor regions in painful DPN patients. Disclosure K. Teh: None. I. D. Wilkinson: None. P. Shillo: None. G. P. Sloan: None. S. Tesfaye: Advisory Panel; Self; Angellini, Bayer AG, Eva Pharma, Wörwag Pharma, Speaker’s Bureau; Self; Abbott, AstraZeneca, Grunenthal Group, MSD Corporation, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer Inc. D. Selvarajah: None. Funding Health Education England/University of Sheffield Knowledge Exchange Fund; National Institute for Health Research; EME

Preterm birth is a major pediatric health problem that perturbs the genetically determined program of corticogenesis of the developing brain. As a consequence, prematurity has been strongly associated with adverse long-term neurodevelopmental outcome that may persist even into adulthood. Early characterization of the underlying neuronal mechanisms and early identification of infants at risk is of paramount importance since it allows better development of early therapeutic interventions aiming to prevent adverse outcomes through resilience. This dissertation aims to investigate the consequences of preterm birth on brain function and structure and their relation to adverse neurodevelopmental outcome, as well as to unveil the effect of an early music intervention on brain function. Research to date has mainly focused on the effect of early interventions on the long-term outcome but not on the effect of those interventions on brain function in preterm populations. Moreover, a clear consensus about the predictive utility of MRI volumetric data for long-term outcomes is still missing. This dissertation consists of three main parts. First, we investigate the effects of an early musical intervention in preterm infants using a task-based and resting-state fMRI paradigm. We explore brain effective connectivity changes during task and functional connectivity (FC) modulations at rest. We show that music exposure during hospitalization promotes brain auditory processing maturation. We find increased FC between the auditory cortex and regions involved in familiarity and music processing, such as the thalamus and caudate nucleus. Moreover, we report increased rs-FC in regions involved in associative memory and multisensory processing, such as the calcarine and angular gyrus with a dosage-dependent effect on this modulation. Secondly, we examine brain volumetric development and whether brain volumes are associated with cognitive and behavioural long-term outcomes. We find that perinatal risk factors, such as asphyxia and sepsis have an impact on brain tissue volume. We also find that cognitive and behavioural outcomes are strongly associated with parental SES and that brain tissue volumes at TEA have moderate predictive power. Next, inspired by studies that have characterized the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, we employ an advanced technique to unveil the sequence of biological events along the course of prematurity. Our novel findings might be of clinical use as they allow more targeted early interventions aiming to improve long-term outcomes. Finally, we propose a framework that enables the spectral graph theory analysis of the functional connectome at the voxel level. Our results indicate the presence of both functional gradients and community structure revealing fine-grained connectivity patterns. The proposed framework opens a new avenue for spectral graph theory research at the voxel level.

Loss of connectivity caused by anthropogenic barriers is a key threat for migratory freshwater species, barriers on streams can decrease the amount of habitat available for spawning and rearing. To set appropriate targets for restoration it is important to know how different populations have been impacted in terms of the location and extent of historically available habitat that has been lost or has become inaccessible. I mapped and predicted barriers to fish passage in streams and diking infrastructure to estimate the amount of floodplain and stream habitat that remains for 14 populations of salmon in the Lower Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada’s most productive salmon river. To place these estimates within a historical context, the floodplain area was estimated using vegetation records from the 1850’s, and lost streams were estimated. Accessibility to floodplain was poor across the entire region with only 15% of the historical floodplain remaining accessible. Linear stream habitat ranged in accessibility from 28-99% across populations. I used conservation planning software to maximize the amount and quality of stream habitat that can be restored across a range of budgets. An estimated 75% of habitat blocked by barriers could have access restored with an investment of 200 million dollars. With small budgets it was more efficient to remove a high number of culverts, but when budgets were larger, restoration included restoring passage past dams and flood infrastructure. The amount of habitat restored for each species varied depending on whether habitat quality was also prioritized, highlighting where restoration of freshwater habitat requires more than the removal of barriers.

This is the first release.

In the present day scenario in colleges and schools we use a costly interface just to access library and process the attendance system. But to satisfy these requirements we don’t require such costly interfaces. Generally RFID tags are used as the interface between the stored database and the students. But we have brought a cost efficient system excluding the RFID usage and providing a photographic interface to the students. The main idea of this project is to apply the software knowledge of LabVIEW and image processing. LabVIEW plays the major role in acquiring real time data and processing it as an image. As an Instrumentation Engineer, we use LabVIEW as the tool for building, testing and deployment of Virtual Instruments that can be further developed into fully functional blocks. These Functional blocks comprise of NI-VISION and MOTION modules that aid in the precise processing of image data and image acquisition. A USB2.0 PC camera is used to capture the image of the identity card and the access code printed on the book. The captured image from the camera is subjected to a series of computation in Vision Assistant module and the machine training details are saved. The processed data is linked with the database using suitable connectivity techniques. To make it more innovative, database connectivity is ensured using MS SQL, an online server which holds the data of the books and the details of the students. This online server provides an additional advantage of accessing the database throughout the connected devices. Also a dual interface approach is carried out which provides the librarian end and thee student end of access to the system. This makes the processing and the usage very easy and simple to the student.

Hanno Mögenburg‘s essay speaks to urban politics of imagination by describing how artefacts of abandoned infrastructure development projects become objects of critical, mundane archiving of a city’s (dis)connectivity across the periphery of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Geomorphic systems, sediment connectivity and geomorphodiversity: relations within a small mountain catchment in the Lepontine Alps

India became an observer in Arctic Council in 2013 and has three research stations operational in the poles, including “Maitri” commissioned in 1989 and “Bharati” commissioned in 2012 at Antarctic and “Himadri” at Arctic. Though the Government of India has consistently been extending full support to the research endeavours yet the same is bogged by inadequate research output, lack of dedicated polar research vessel and other bureaucratic bottlenecks. A massive void in the Indian scientific pursuits is that India does not possess a polar research vessel or an icebreaker and has to rely on chartered vessels, seriously limiting its research timeframe as well as huge economic drain and thus compromising the scientific research. This cleft in the professed research narrative despite having a physical presence for over 3 decades in the polar regions and the proposal for acquisition of a polar research vessel having been approved in Jun 2010 yet the same is yet to be operationalised which is seriously impinging the scientific research as well as the professed commitment to Arctic research.Recently, India has released its draft Arctic Policy and had sought public comments thereon till 26 Jan 21 before its finalisation. India’s draft policy reiterates the oft stated goals of scientific research, connectivity, global governance and international cooperation, and human development with emphasis on Indian human resource pool. The inspiration of a delayed Indian policy on the High North appears to be the Chinese white paper of 2018. The scientific pursuits can propel the strategic engagement in the region to greater levels by extensive collaboration and cooperation with several other nations present there. Indian attempts so far have remained acutely short of the promise and India should build on its strengths for obtaining a leadership position in this strategically vital and economically lucrative region. Citation: Pareek N. Assessment on India’s involvement and capacity-building in Arctic Science. Adv Polar Sci, 2021, 32(1): 50-66, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2020.0027

The paper first examines the current situation for the port of Thessaloniki. Reference is made to the important role of the port and the historical interdependence that exists between the city of Thessaloniki and its port. The following paper is an overview of the current condition of the portand the important project that is in progress for the expansion of its 6th pier. Moreover, this is an assessment of the current situation for the hinterland of the port of Thessaloniki. The definition of the hinterland, where the port operates, is given and the types of connections maintained in the relationship between the port of Thessaloniki and its hinterland are analyzed. The characteristics, in terms of connectivity and the movement of general cargo and containers, for the competing ports located in the Balkan hinterland of the port of Thessaloniki are examined and analyzed. In addition, the economic data of these Balkan countries are reviewed in order to give a more complete overview of their economic size in order to highlight the most competitive economies. An important report is made on the connectivity indicators of a port with its hinterland and the relevant implementation of these indicators in the port of Thessaloniki. These rates prove the accuracy of the design and operation of dry port by the O.L.T.H. SA in Bulgaria, FYROM and Serbia. The following paper is an overview of the freight centers located in the hinterland of the port of Thessaloniki as well as the European and National programs that aim to develop and configure connectivity networks. Finally, a field research is carried out that aims to highlight and compare the views of users of the port of Thessaloniki and its connectivity networks with the Balkan Peninsula.

This study explored the use of deliberate practice and Internet-supported technology to continue numeracy intervention during a pandemic which limits a face–to–face classroom set–up. This study utilized pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest research design. Participants were grade 10 students who were considered not numerate using the modified ASER tool, has internet connection within their homes and has the necessary device needed. The numeracy is an 8-week program using the same intervention materials across all students. Results showed significant improvement after the intervention and there were 14 out of 26 students considered numerates based from the modified ASER tool. Additionally, distribution of number of numerates according to grouped-pretest grade tends to be directly proportional. On a survey conducted online using online forms, students generally agree that the numeracy program they participated helped them improve their numeracy skills and conducting it online is appropriate. The conduct of online numeracy is perceived to help them learn while having fun and at the same time helped them become more confident in using technology. However, it must be noted that during the focus – group discussion conducted online, while students generally agree the appropriateness of doing the numeracy online, they were apprehensive of doing it at home because of their poor internet connectivity but will opt to do numeracy program online in school instead of paper and pen.

Survivability of underwater communication system based on node connectivity

Both biodiversity conservation and the construction of biological habitat networks are key components of territorial spatial planning in China. Improving the landscape functional connectivity of biological habitat networks plays a vital role in biodiversity conservation. Although biological habitat network planning is a hot topic in literature, there is still lack of operable technological and methodological support in practical planning. According to the graph theory, the following three different aspects of biodiversity conservation and ecological network construction should be addressed in territorial spatial planning. First, the importance of biological habitat patches should be evaluated to determine the priority of patch protection. Second, the best locations for adding new elements should be identified to increase landscape functional connectivity of biological habitat network. Third, the impacts of construction projects should be judged and the potential impact of new construction projects according to the reduction of landscape function connectivity should be evaluated. We applied such framework to the network planning of amphibian (Pelophylax nigromaculata) habitat in Xiong'an New Area. The results showed that graph theory approach effectively met the requirements of those three aspects. The identification of the five optimal locations of new habitats of P. nigromaculata improved the overall landscape functional connectivity of habitat network by 19%. Four optimal locations of cross passage were identified to reduce the impacts of G45 expressway by assessing its impacts on functional connectivity of the amphibian habitat network.

76 of Philosophy of Education went to press, the Polar Vortex 1 moved farther south than it has in a generation. It brough snow and ice

Remotely-based Library service users - principally comprising students, but also other types of user, such as post-graduate researchers, PhD students and staff members - will typically rely on personal computer equipment and network infrastructure. ‘Internet Control’ refers to measures imposed on Internet infrastructure for restriction/ blocking, filtering (selective access) or surveillance. This can occur at a national, organisational or Internet provider (ISP) level (or may impact nearby regions/countries). Internet Control is often not well attested by governments or telecommunications organisations and is poorly researched in industry or scholarly literature. Typical Internet technologies (such as SSL for secure network traffic) can be obstructed - disabling or otherwise impacting access to learning or Library systems. Wide-scale Internet Control can have a serious impact on the integrity, speed or security of network traffic, often due to channelling of traffic via a central point for surveillance and filtering purposes. This report is drawn from a University of Liverpool Learning and Teaching Conference presentation ‘Providing Library support and teaching for online international students in the context of Internet Control, censorship and surveillance’ (04/07/19), a Northern Collaboration presentation (06/09/19) and an article: ‘Internet Control in World Regions for Information and Education’, Information for Social Change, No. 38, June 2019.

This dissertation describes a set of experiments with the goal of creating a super-conductor-semiconductor hybrid circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture with single electron spins. Single spins in silicon quantum dots have emerged as attractive qubits for quantum computation. However, how to scale up spin qubit systems remains an open question. The hybrid architecture considered here could provide a route to realizing large networks of quantum dot–based spin qubit registers. The first experiment in this thesis is aimed at achieving strong coupling between a single electron spin and a single microwave photon. The electron is trapped in a gate-defined double quantum dot in a Si/SiGe heterostructure and the photon is stored in an on-chip superconducting high-impedance NbTiN cavity. The photon is coupled directly to the electron charge, and indirectly to the electron spin, mediated through a synthetic spin-orbit field. We observe a vacuum Rabi splitting that depends on the spin-charge hybridization. The ratio of spin-photon coupling strength to decoherence rates of the spin and cavity combined is larger than unity, confirming the strong coupling regime has been reached. In addition, we find an optimal degree of spin-charge hybridization for which this ratio is maximized. The demonstration of strong spin-photon coupling not only opens a new range of physics experiments, but fulfills also a crucial requirement for coupling spin qubits at a distance via a cavity. The second experiment is focused on spin readout with the on-chip cavity. Instead of the direct dispersive readout of a single spin, we use the cavity to detect whether the electron is allowed to tunnel between the two dots or not. We benchmark the charge sensitivity and bandwidth of the detector and find that rapid detection of the electron charge with high SNR is possible. In the two-electron regime, electron tunneling is contingent on the total spin state (Pauli spin blockade). This spin-to-charge conversion scheme enables single-shot detection of singlet states with high-fidelity. The demonstration of single-shot spin readout with a cavity is an essential step towards readout in dense spin qubit arrays, such as the crossbar network, where it is not possible to integrate electrometers and accompanying reservoirs adjacent to the qubit dots. In the third experiment, we develop on-chip microwave filters to suppress microwave photon leakage from the cavity through the gate electrodes that are necessary to form quantum dots. We introduce a new cavity design that is compatible with long-distance connectivity between spins, but is also more susceptible to microwave leakage. We test and compare two low-pass filter variations in terms of performance, footprint and integrability. They use the same nanowire inductor, but different implementations of the capacitor: one with a planar interdigitated capacitor and one novel design with an overlapping thin-film capacitor. We find that both approaches are effective against microwave leakage. However, the large footprint of the interdigitated capacitor makes this solution inconvenient as the number of gate lines increases. The thin-film capacitor, with its much smaller footprint, is better suited for our devices. The final part of this dissertation contains concluding remarks and possible future directions are proposed.