Operation Whenever Research Articles

An Agent-Based Traffic Recommendation System: Revisiting and Revising Urban Traffic Management Strategies

Strategic traffic management is crucial for combating traffic congestion at the macroscopic level. However, such a field is still relatively unexplored, particularly for microscopic control objects, such as intersections and coordinated intersection groups. This article proposes a human-in-the-loop recommendation system for strategic urban traffic management, which follows an agent-based structure. A regional agent dispatcher is defined to assign agents for operation whenever “operation on-demand” is required. Such a requirement is identified by a daily-dependent operational mode on strategic traffic operations at a control object level. The strategic management scheme for each control object is guided by a strategic agent (customized), which is essentially a deep recommender model with a specific architecture. By featuring the multiagent design, a customized operational scheme can be generated at the intersection level, which instructs the corresponding controller to take specific operations. The utility of the recommendation system is demonstrated via a case study using real-world traffic data. In both offline and online evaluations, the system performs consistently at traffic operational recommendations in different scenarios and has the potential to provide more reasonable traffic operational strategies than a human-operated system.

On the edge‐biclique graph and the iterated edge‐biclique operator

AbstractA biclique of a graph is a maximal induced complete bipartite subgraph of . The edge‐biclique graph of , , is the edge‐intersection graph of the bicliques of . A graph diverges (resp. converges or is periodic) under an operator whenever (resp. for some or for some and ). The iterated edge‐biclique graph of , , is the graph obtained by applying the edge‐biclique operator successive times to . In this article, we first study the connectivity relation between and . Next, we study the iterated edge‐biclique operator . In particular, we give sufficient conditions for a graph to be convergent or divergent under the operator , we characterize the behavior of burgeon graphs and we propose some general conjectures on the subject.

Almost BS-Compact Operators and Domination Problem

Let X and Y be two Banach spaces. A bounded operator $$T: X \longrightarrow Y$$ is said to be a BS-compact operator whenever T sends Banach-Saks subsets of X onto norm compact sets of Y. In this paper, our central focus is upon introducing the class of almost BS-compact operators. The paper rests essentially on two parts. The first is devoted to the connection of this new class of operators with classical notions of operators, such as BS-compact operators, AM-compact operators, and Dunfort-Pettis operators. The second part is dedicated to the domination problem within the framework of (almost) BS-compact operators.

Development of smart parking management system

As the usage of vehicles is increasing day by day, it became difficult to identify a proper parking space for every vehicle. Smart Parking System deals with development of mobile application, that is useful for user to access detailed information about parking space and managing it efficiently in parking lot. Smart Parking System uses Image Processing technique to identify registration plate of a vehicle and also provides autonomous door opening and closing operation whenever it detects a vehicle at entrance of a parking lot. The mobile application provides information about available parking spaces, security and safety features of parking lot like fire and gas leakages alert. Raspberry Pi is the control unit which controls and processes the whole operation of the system. Liquid crystal display (LCD) display is located at entry point of the parking lot to display current parking space availability. Infrared (IR) proximity sensors are employed to identify the existence of vehicle at the entry gate of parking lot. From the captured image, characters from vehicle registration plate can be identified, and then Raspberry Pi sends a signal to servo motor to open the gate for a specified interval of time. The user will then park the vehicle in the available parking slot. When the user wants to leave the space and moved the vehicle, the date and time information will be captured which will be further used for processing the bill.

Some consequences of quasicentral approximate units modulo Hilbert-Schmidt class

Abstract Conjecture 4 of Voiculescu implies that almost normal operators must satisfy a Fuglede-Putnam theorem, namely [T ∗, X] is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator whenever [T, X] is in the same class for an arbitrary operator X. In this note, a partial answer to this question is given, namely when X ∈ 𝓒4, the Fuglede-Putnam theorem holds.

Diagnostic Perturbations.

Diagnostic Perturbations.

Home telemonitoring for patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundAlthough a number of studies have suggested that the use of Telemonitoring (TM) in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) can be useful and efficacious, its real utility in detecting Acute Exacerbation (AE) signaling the need for prompt treatment is not entirely clear. The current study aimed to investigate the benefits of a TM system in managing AE in advanced-stage COPD patients to improve their Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL) and to reduce utilization of healthcare services.MethodsA 12-month Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) was conducted in the Veneto region (Italy). Adult patients diagnosed with Class III-IV COPD in accordance with the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) classification were recruited and provided a TM system to alert the clinical staff via a trained operator whenever variations in respiratory parameters fell beyond the individual’s normal range. The study’s primary endpoint was HRQL, measured by the Italian version of the two Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF36v2). Its secondary endpoints were: scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); the number and duration of hospitalizations; the number of readmissions; the number of appointments with a pulmonary specialist; the number of visits to the emergency department; and the number of deaths.ResultsThree hundred thirty-four patients were enrolled and randomized into two groups for a 1 year period. At its conclusion, changes in the SF36 Physical and Mental Component Summary scores did not significantly differ between the TM and control groups [(-2.07 (8.98) vs -1.91 (7.75); p = 0.889 and -1.08 (11.30) vs -1.92 (10.92); p = 0.5754, respectively]. Variations in HADS were not significantly different between the two groups [0.85 (3.68) vs 0.62 (3.6); p = 0.65 and 0.50 (4.3) vs 0.72 (4.5); p = 0.71]. The hospitalization rate for AECOPD and/or for any cause was not significantly different in the two groups [IRR = 0.89 (95% CI 0.79–1,04); p = 0.16 and IRR = 0.91 (95% CI 0,75 – 1.04); p = 0.16, respectively]. The readmission rate for AECOPD and/or any cause was, however, significantly lower in the TM group with respect to the control one [IRR = 0.43 (95% CI 0.19–0.98); p = 0.01 and 0.46 (95% CI 0.24–0.89); p = 0.01, respectively].ConclusionStudy results showed that in areas where medical services are well established, TM does not significantly improve HRQL in patients with COPD who develop AE. Although not effective in reducing hospitalizations, TM can nevertheless facilitate continuity of care during hospital-to-home transition by reducing the need for early readmission.Trial registrationRetrospectively registered on January 2012, ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01513980.

Early surgical intervention versus watchful waiting and outcomes for asymptomatic severe aortic regurgitation

ObjectivesThe management of asymptomatic patients with severe aortic regurgitation remains controversial. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to assess the long-term outcomes and incidence of cardiac complications among asymptomatic patients with severe aortic regurgitation who underwent operation early, in the absence of any class I or class IIa guideline triggers, or were managed conservatively and eventually underwent operation whenever these triggers appeared. MethodsA total of 160 consecutive asymptomatic patients (50 ± 17 years) with severe aortic regurgitation were prospectively followed up for a median of 7.2 years. Overall and cardiovascular survivals and the need for repeat aortic regurgitation surgery were evaluated in an “early surgery” group (n = 91) and a “conservatively managed” group (n = 69). ResultsTen-year overall (91% ± 4% vs 89% ± 5%, P = .87) and cardiovascular (96% ± 2% vs 96% ± 3%, P = .79) survivals were similar among the early surgery and conservatively managed groups. Conservatively managed patients were further sub-stratified according to the regularity and quality of their follow-up. Patients who were regularly followed up by a certified cardiologist had a better 10-year overall survival than patients undergoing no or a looser follow-up (95% ± 5% vs 79% ± 10%, P = .045). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis identified age (P = .003) and male gender (P = .024) as independent predictors of survival. Early surgical management was not a predictor of outcome (P = .45). ConclusionsOur results show that the outcome of asymptomatic patients with severe aortic regurgitation is not different between an early surgical and a more conservative strategy, provided that the conservatively managed patients are regularly followed up and timely referred to surgery as soon as operative triggers develop. This suggests that surgery should not be recommended in patients with aortic regurgitation who do not meet current guidelines for intervention.

Nonlinear maximal monotone extensions of symmetric operators

Given a linear semi-bounded symmetric operator $S\ge -\omega$, we explicitly define, and provide their nonlinear resolvents, nonlinear maximal monotone operators $A_\Theta$ of type $\lambda>\omega$ (i.e. generators of one-parameter continuous nonlinear semi-groups of contractions of type $\lambda$) which coincide with the Friedrichs extension of $S$ on a convex set containing ${\mathscr D}(S)$. The extension parameter $\Theta\subset{\mathfrak h}\times{\mathfrak h}$ ranges over the set of nonlinear maximal monotone relations on an auxiliary Hilbert space $\mathfrak h$ isomorphic to the deficiency subspace of $S$. Moreover $A_\Theta+\lambda$ is a sub-potential operator (i.e. is the sub-differential of a lower semicontinuos convex function) whenever $\Theta$ is sub-potential. Examples describing Laplacians with nonlinear singular perturbations supported on null sets and Laplacians with nonlinear boundary conditions on a bounded set are given.

Parallelizing RSA Algorithm on Multicore CPU and GPU

Public key algorithms are extensively known to be slower than symmetric key alternatives in the a r e a of cryptographic algorithms for the reason of their basis in modular arithmetic. The most public key algorithm widely used is the RSA. Therefore, how to enhance the speed of RSA algorithm has been the research significant topic in the computer security as well as in computing fields. With remarkable increase in the computing capability of the modern Graphics Processing Unit's (GPUs) as a co-processor of the CPU, one can significantly benefit from the Single Instruction Multiple Thread (SIMT) style of computing. This paper proposes a hybrid system to parallelize the RSA for multicore CPU and many cores GPUs with variable key size. In doing so, three variants implementation for the RSA algorithm are done to facilitate the performance comparison against Crypto++ library and sequential counterpart. The GPU implementation gained approximately 23 speed up factor over the sequential CPU implementation; while the multithread CPU implementation gained only 6 speed up factor over the sequential CPU implementation as far as the latency is concerned. Furthermore, additional speedup could be gained as far as the throughput is concerned; the throughput gained for 1024 bits is ~1800 msg/sec; as for 2048 bits is ~250 msg/sec. Due to overlapping of multithread operation whenever free resources are available. The experiments are conducted on a laptop with Intel Core I7-2670QM, 2.20 GHz CPU and Nvidia GeForce GT630M GPU. Results reveal that the GPU is appropriate to speed up the RSA algorithm. General Terms Parallel Processing, Parallel Computing, RSA Algorithm, SIMT, Multithreading and Concurrent Computing, Heterogeneous computing.

Regulating biohydrogen production from wastewater by applying organic load-shock: Change in the microbial community structure and bio-electrochemical behavior over long-term operation

Abstract Detailed experiments were designed to evaluate the function of load-shock treatment strategy (50 g COD/l; 3 days) for selective enrichment of acidogenic hydrogen (H2) producing consortia in comparison with untreated anaerobic consortia. Experiments performed in suspended-batch mode bioreactors for 520 days illustrated the relative efficiency of load-shock treated consortia in enhancing H2 production (16.64 mol/kg CODR) compared to untreated-parent consortia (3.31 mol/kg CODR). On the contrary, substrate degradation was higher with control operation (ξCOD, 62.86%; substrate degradation rate (SDR), 1.10 kg CODR/m3-day) compared to load-shock culture (52.33%; 0.78 kg CODR/m3-day). Fatty acid composition documented a shift in the metabolic pathway towards acetate formation after applying load-shock, which manifests higher H2 production. Microbial profiling documented a significant alteration in species composition of microbial communities after repeated load-shock applications specific to enrichment of Firmicutes which are favourable for H2 production. Dehydrogenase activity was stabilized with each re-treatment, signifying the adaptation inclination of the biocatalyst towards increased proton shuttling between metabolic intermediates, leading to higher H2 production. Voltammograms of load-shock treated cultures showed a marked shift in oxidation and reduction catalytic currents towards more positive and negative values respectively with increasing scan rate evidencing simultaneous redox-conversion reactions, facilitating proton gradient in the cell towards increased H2 production. Load-shock treatment facilitates direct cultivation of inoculums at higher substrate load without any chemical pretreatment. This study documented the feasibility of controlling microbial metabolic function by application of load-shock treatment either for preparing inoculum for startup of the reactor or to the reactor resident microflora (in situ) during operation whenever required to regain the process performance.

능동 데이터베이스 기반 무효전력 보상장치 감시제어 시스템

The main purpose of reactive power compensation monitoring system is to manage factory electrical installation efficiently by On-Off switching reactive power compensation equipment. The existing reactive power compensation monitoring system is only able to be managed by operator whenever electrical installation needed reactive power. Therefore, it may be possible for propagating the installation`s faults when operator make the unexpected mistakes. To overcome the unexpected mistakes, in this paper, the author presents a reactive power compensation monitoring system for factory electrical installation using active database. by using active database production rule, stated system can minimize unexpected mistake and can operate centralized monitoring system efficiently. Test results on the five factory electrical installations show that performance is efficient and robust.

Acidic and alkaline shock pretreatment to enrich acidogenic biohydrogen producing mixed culture: long term synergetic evaluation of microbial inventory, dehydrogenase activity and bio-electro kinetics

Comprehensive experiments were designed to evaluate the function of acid-shock (pH 3; orthophosphoric acid; 24 h) and alkaline-shock (pH 11; NaOH; 24 h) pretreatment methods for the selective enrichment of an acidogenic culture to enhance H2 production efficiency of mixed anaerobic consortia. Long term (520 days) operation in suspended-batch mode bioreactors illustrated the relative efficiency and feasibility of redox pretreated cultures against an untreated parent culture in enhancing H2 production. Relatively higher H2 production was observed with an acid pretreated mixed culture (15.78 mol kg−1 CODR) over alkaline pretreated (9.8 mol kg−1 CODR) and untreated mixed cultures (3.31 mol kg−1 CODR). On the contrary, substrate degradation was higher with untreated culture (ξCOD, 62.86%; substrate degradation rate (SDR), 1.10 kg CODR/m3-day) and alkaline-shock pretreated mixed culture (ξCOD, 59.93%; SDR, 1.22 kg CODR/m3-day) compared to the acid-shock culture (ξCOD, 53.4%; SDR, 0.705 kg CODR/m3-day). Synergetics of microbial inventory, dehydrogenase activity and bio-electro kinetics in association with H2 production and substrate degradation were also evaluated in detail throughout the operation. Acid pretreatment of the parent culture has resulted in a shift in the fermentation pathway towards acetic acid production, while alkaline pretreatment showed a mixed type fermentation (acetic, butyric, propnoic acids) similar to an untreated parent mixed culture. Dehydrogenase activity of the biocatalyst showed a significant improvement after applying acid pretreatment indicating the increased redox inter-conversion reactions leading to the higher proton gradient in the cell that resulted in higher H2 production. The redox catalytic currents observed from the cyclic voltammograms (CV) and the output from the Tafel analysis also strongly supported the increased biocatalyst performance after pretreatment, especially at acid-shock. The shift in oxidative and reductive Tafel slopes towards a lower value after applying acid-shock treatment supports the redox inter-conversion reactions required for proton conservation. Microbial profiling revealed that the pretreatment method in the long term operation substantially affected the species composition of microbial communities. Dominance of Clostridia and Bacilli classes were observed in the pretreated culture and indicates their positive role in the H2 production process. This study shows the feasibility of controlling microbial metabolic functions by repeated application of the pretreatment to the reactor native microflora (in situ) during operation whenever required to regain or modify the process performances.

Dynamic Traffic Assignment Evaluation of Hurricane Evacuation Strategies for the Houston–Galveston, Texas, Region

The Houston–Galveston, Texas, region has experienced several major hurricanes in recent years. During the evacuation for Hurricane Rita in 2005, the Texas Department of Transportation (DOT) decided to implement contraflow operations on I-45 to relieve massive evacuee congestion departing Houston to the north. The decision to implement contraflow was a difficult one because it involved multiple jurisdictions and required extensive coordination of manpower and resources from various entities. After the Hurricane Rita experience, the Texas DOT implemented a new strategy, referred to as “evaculane,” in which evacuation traffic could use the outside paved shoulder as a traveling lane when an evacuation was under way and evaculane signing beacons were activated. The objective is to increase capacity along key evacuation routes while avoiding the need for full-scale contraflow operation whenever possible. The evaculane on I-10 was successfully put into use during the Hurricane Ike evacuation in 2008. With the widening and completion of evaculanes on I-10 and US-290 as well as a partial contraflow plan for the I-45 corridor, the Texas DOT sponsored a study to develop a decision support tool to help determine whether these strategies would adequately handle the evacuation demand for various Houston–Galveston region evacuation scenarios. This paper describes the quantitative assessment of the performance of alternative evacuation strategies using a dynamic traffic assignment model, DynusT. The evaluation results indicated the evaculanes on I-10 and US-290 can sufficiently handle high evacuation demand on both routes without contraflow operation. In addition, a partial contraflow plan for I-45 was shown to provide sufficient capacity to handle high evacuation demand in lieu of full-scale contraflow operation.

Q-switched resonantly diode-pumped Er^3+:YAG laser with fiberlike geometry

Crystalline fiberlike diode-pumped laser systems offer a convenient way to obtain compact, robust, and efficient operation whenever long active media are required. One of these cases is the diode-pumped Er(3+):YAG laser emitting at 1.6 microm, where long crystals are needed to avoid the upconversion processes. By resonantly pumping the (4)I(13/2) level around 1.53 microm, and by confining the pump radiation into the crystal by total internal reflection, a maximum output power of 14.5 W in cw mode is reached when pumped with approximately 40 W of absorbed power. In Q-switching mode, pulse energies of more than 8 mJ were obtained at a repetition rate of 90 Hz, limited by coating damage.

Prophylaxis of Heterotopic Ossification in Patients Sedated after Polytrauma

Heterotopic ossification (HO) often follows acetabular fractures after multitrauma. Irradiation is a mean for prophylaxis. We established a standard procedure in our hospital for patients under sedation, when obtaining informed consent for HO prophylaxis is impossible.We reviewed current scientific evidence, calculated the risks of radiation and presented the ethical and legal framework. The subject was scrutinised by an interdisciplinary panel.Irradiation is the most effective means for prophylaxis and has few adverse effects in adult patients with fractures of the acetabulum. The lifetime risk of radiation-induced cancer or infertility are insignificant.Informed consent for irradiation should be obtained before operation whenever possible. When this cannot be done prophylaxis can be postponed for a maximum of 3 days in order to obtain consent. If the patient is not able to communicate within this period, prophylactic irradiation should be given after consulting the relatives. The patient must be informed as soon as possible.

On the essential spectrum of a class of singular matrix differential operators. II. Weyl's limit circles for the Hain–Lüst operator whenever quasi-regularity conditions are not satisfied

On the essential spectrum of a class of singular matrix differential operators II. Weyl's limit circles for Hain-Lust operator whenever quasiregularity conditions are not satisfied

Posttraumatic intratumoural haemorrhage: an unusual presentation of spinal ependymoma

Ependymomas presenting with intratumoural and/or subarachnoid haemorrhages are seen rarely. These haemorrhages are mostly due to anticoagulation, epidural analgesia or pregnancy. A 62-year-old male farmer with cauda equina syndrome after a work-related trauma is presented. He was admitted to our hospital with paraparesis, faecal incontinence and sensory loss below the level of the lumbar-2 dermatome. Magnetic resonance imaging of the spine displayed an intradural mass lesion at the level of the first lumbar vertebrae. The lesion was excised totally via dorsal midline approach. Histopathologic examination revealed grade-3 ependymoma with intratumoural haemorrhage. The patient's symptoms were relieved completely on postoperative day 7. The patient was given information about periodical examination for recurrence and discharged on the third postoperative week. Asymptomatic spinal lesions should be considered for operation whenever detected because of unpredicted complications.

Simultaneous determination of preventive maintenance and replacement policies in a queue-like production system with minimal repair

This paper addresses the joint effects of preventive maintenance and replacement policies on a queue-like production system with minimal repair at failures. We consider a policy which calls for a preventive maintenance operation whenever N parts have been processed. If a failure occurs and at least K preventive maintenance operations have been carried out, the system is replaced by a new one. Otherwise, a failure is handled by minimal repair. An analytical model is developed and the argument of renewal–reward theory is used to provide long-run expected profit per unit time for a given maintenance and replacement policy. Numerical examples are given to provide some managerial insights.

Spectral Theory of Perturbative Decays

We propose a complex approach to evaluating afunction sum of two noncommuting non-Hermitianoperators. We propose an explicit expansion of theevolution operator in the case of the neutral K-mesonsystem influenced by an external interaction. Theimportance is pointed out of considering the algebraicexpansion of the time evolution operator whenever thedynamics decouples the internal transitions andcenter-of-mass motion.