bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Collaborative Approach to Study Policy Modelling Research and Practice from Different Disciplines
Authors: Majstorovic Dragana  , Wimmer Maria A.
Published: February 2025

An OECD study of 2009 argues that open and inclusive policy making helps to improve policy performance and to meet citizens rising expectations. An important aspect shaping the success of policy making is the use of appropriate tools and instruments to model (public) policy, i.e. to use theories, methods and tools that support the process of transforming data and information inputs into conceptual and formal models, which contribute to transparency, a better understanding of policy options (the causes and effects), and better informed decision-making to improve public performance. Accordingly, policy modelling has recently emerged as a multi-disciplinary research domain advancing distinct approaches to policy development and governance through the use of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT). The complexity encompassed with modelling public policies demands for different – often distinct – political, economic, social and technical disciplines to work together to leverage the benefits of different approaches of understanding policy and designing innovative policy. This paper presents an approach to scientific collaboration in advancing the research field and in collaborating across distinct disciplines, while performing comparative analyses in the area of policy modelling. The comparative analyses are organised in the context of an international network of policy modelling called eGovPoliNet, whose aim is to overcoming the existing research fragmentation between disciplines, thereby driving evolution in the field.
A Framework for Evaluating the Impact of E-Participation Experiences
Authors: Perez Espes Cristina  , Wimmer Maria A.  , Moreno-Jimenez José Mará
Published: February 2025

Over the past decade, the inclusion of citizens in political decision-making through electronic participation (e-participation) has received much attention. Many projects have been, and are continued to be executed at different levels of government. E-participation projects aim at providing a facilitating online environment, where citizens and other relevant actors can be involved in the processes of public decision-making. Up to now, the evaluation of the success and impact of such projects has not been addressed widely in research. This paper studies existing evaluation approaches and details the EF3-framework, which was developed to assess effectiveness, efficacy and efficiency of e-participation experiences. The EF3-framework has been reviewed, revised and applied to the e-cognocracy real-life experience of the municipality of Cadrete (Zaragoza) to provide a proof of concept for assessing impact of e-participation via the EF3-framework. Also, the EF3framework has been validated by international experts, who also assigned weights to individual indicators for each of the three criteria. The revised model with details of indicators, the proof of concept of Cadrete, and the results of expert reviews and assignments of weights to criteria are summarised in this paper.
Revisiting the Problem of Technological and Social Determinism: Reflections for Digital Government Scholars
Authors: Gil-Garcia J. Ramon  , Vivanco Leonardo F.  , Luna-Reyes Luis F.
Published: February 2025

There has been a long-standing debate over the best way to understand the relationships between technology, organizations, individuals, and the contexts in which they are embedded. One point of view proposes that technology can transform organizations and the way individuals behave in society. In contrast, another perspective argues that organizational and social variables influence the way technology is selected, managed, and used. These two perspectives are present in digital government research and both of them have important limitations that affect our understanding of government information technology initiatives. We argue that a more integrative perspective is needed. Moreover, some terms already available in the literature such as ensemble view, structuration, technology enactment, or socio-technical perspective could serve as starting points in this conversation. However, we also argue that a more integrative approach might not be enough and the development of new theoretical lenses based on concepts and variables from different disciplines should be a necessary next step in this process.
The Public Value of Social Media in the UK Public Sector
Authors: Osmani Mohamad W.  , Weerakkody Vishanth  , Sivarajah Uthayasankar  , El-Haddadeh Ramzi
Published: February 2025

Over time public sector organisations in the UK have invested heavily on ICT projects to transform their services. During the last couple of years, Social Media applications have been used by the public sector as a complementary tool to make services more effective and transparent. In this context, the implementations of ICT projects have followed private sector business models and principles. Yet research shows that many ICT enabled initiatives have failed to deliver the desired outcomes for public sector organisations. While the evaluation of ICT projects in the last two decades have been primarily based on quantitative measures that focused on economic and technical outputs, recent studies have emerged that highlights the significance of creating public value through ICT projects. In this respect, social media applications can play a significant role. The aim of this study is to use public value framework as a lens to understand the impact of Social Media applications in generating public value when used in a local government context.
Supporting ‘Participation’ in Mobile Participation
Authors: Ertiö Titiana-Petra  , Ruoppila Sampo
Published: February 2025

Mobile participation has been studied, so far, mostly from the perspective of emphasising human interaction with technology. The research question of our paper is, instead, how to support the ‘participation’ in mobile participation. We tackle this question by reviewing literature on inclusive participation and motivation in general, and discussing the significance for mobile participation. We begin the review with inclusiveness challenges of technology-mediated participation, followed by theories on motivation to participate and requirements of participation practices, and finally give our account of three ways in which mobile participation is already transforming the realm of participation. We conclude with concrete advice for those who seek to develop or implement mobile participation practices for citizen engagement.
“BiPart” of Participatory Budgeting. A Software Platform for New Political Practices
Authors: Stortone Stefano  , De Cindio Fiorella
Published: February 2025

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is an yearly deliberative process for citizens to decide directly over the public expenditures. It was born in 1989 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and awarded in 1996 by the United Nations as one of the world's best practices of local governance. ICTs have been used to support PB initiatives and increase citizens participation. However, the so called Digital Participatory Budgeting (DPB) so far mainly focused to share information on the ongoing process and to carry on the voting phase. The paper outlines the evolution of BiPart, a software platform designed for accompanying the overall PB process, and strengthening the social ties. It also presents its application in seven instances of PB in four municipalities in Italy along five years, to test its actual use and its impact on citizens' participation.
Rationality of Internet Voting in Estonia
Authors: Kitsing Meelis
Published: February 2025

This paper discusses internet voting in Estonia on the basis of rational choice perspectives. It emphasizes particularly the importance of “bounded rationality” with emphasis on the Estonia – specific context in understanding the adoption of internet voting in the last seven elections. The key to the adoption process has been diffusion of ID card, which crucial for using wide range of online services offered by private and public sector organizations. Despite constantly increasing turnout the nature of internet voting is transactional. It has not made substantial contribution to online democratic participation other than making voting more convenient for certain segments of society.
Automatic Generation of Roadmaps for Open Data
Authors: Solar Mauricio  , Daniels Fernando  , Lopez Roberto
Published: February 2025

This article presents a model to assess maturity and capabilities of public agencies (PAs) in pursuing the Open Government Data (OGD) principles and practices. The OGD maturity model, called OD-MM, was piloted in seven PAs from three Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, and El Salvador), validating the web tool that operationalizes the model. The OD-MM is a valuable diagnosis tool for PAs, since it detects weaknesses and automatically generates a roadmap to evolve to higher maturity levels in the implementation of OGD. The automatic generation of optimal roadmap is detailed.
SNOMED CT adoption in Denmark – why is it so hard?
Authors: Højen Anne Randorff  , Elberg Pia Britt  , Andersen Stig Kjær
Published: February 2025

What prevents the National Health Care Terminology based on SNOMED CT from being implemented in the EHR systems and ongoing EHR implementations in Denmark? SNOMED CT was translated into Danish language from 2006-2009 and by 2013 it is not yet implemented in a clinical information system. Fourteen key persons broadly representing all major stakeholders in the process of system configuration accepted an invitation to discuss questions about what kind of challenges they experience in handling terminology in clinical information systems today and what they expect from a future implementation of a SNOMED CT based national terminology. Three types of challenges of terminology implementations resulted from two parallel focus group interviews: 1. Methods to manage terminology-implementation like preventing inconsistency and redundant representations of identical information. 2. The existing terminology and classifications used are sufficient to accommodate the required governance and 3. SNOMED CT is expected to be immature for system-implementation. These results suggest further research in methods to facilitate implementation of a complex terminology and studies that evaluate SNOMED CT in clinical use; but the results also support national and regional decision makers regarding what kind of challenges they must manage.
A Workflow Model to Analyse Pediatric Emergency Overcrowding
Authors: Zgaya Hayfa  , Ajmi Ines  , Gammoudi Lotfi  , Hammadi Slim  , Martinot Alain  , Beuscart Régis  , Renard Jean-Marie
Published: February 2025

The greatest source of delay in patient flow is the waiting time from the health care request, and especially the bed request to exit from the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) for hospital admission. It represents 70% of the time that these patients occupied in the PED waiting rooms. Our objective in this study is to identify tension indicators and bottlenecks that contribute to overcrowding. Patient flow mapping through the PED was carried out in a continuous 2 years period from January 2011 to December 2012. Our method is to use the collected real data, basing on accurate visits made in the PED of the Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU) of Lille (France), in order to construct an accurate and complete representation of the PED processes. The result of this representation is a Workflow model of the patient journey in the PED representing most faithfully possible the reality of the PED of CHRU of Lille. This model allowed us to identify sources of delay in patient flow and aspects of the PED activity that could be improved. It must be enough retailed to produce an analysis allowing to identify the dysfunctions of the PED and also to propose and to estimate prevention indicators of tensions. Our survey is integrated into the French National Research Agency project, titled: “Hospital: optimization, simulation and avoidance of strain” (ANR HOST).
Towards a Trial-Ready Mobile Patient Questionnaire System
Authors: Storck Michael  , Trinczek Benjamin  , Dugas Martin  , Fritz Fleur
Published: February 2025

Gathering patient-reported data enables physicians to know a patient and his/her health-related needs in a more comprehensive way. One method to collect these data is to let the patient fill out electronic questionnaires on a mobile device, e.g. a tablet. Although having successfully implemented a prototype, the mobile questionnaire system at this site has been stretched to its limits within both routine care and clinical trials. By collecting user feedback and analysing the capabilities and limits of the underlying framework, we identified key issues of the prototype. A new implementation addresses these obstacles while keeping the overall application logic and usability. This leads to a trial-ready mobile patient questionnaire system.
The Everyday Ethics of Field Work Research with Vulnerable Patients
Authors: Lichtner Valentina
Published: February 2025

Patients are increasingly involved in health informatics research. Researchers are always aware of the ethical dimensions of their research, but studies in the field with patients – especially among the frail, elderly, cognitively impaired – present specific additional ‘everyday moral dilemmas’. Reflecting on experiences of a hospital study of patients with dementia, this paper draws attention on the type and constant presence of this situated ethics, the immediacy of decision-making, and the importance of everyday ethics for health informatics.
An Evolutionary Algorithm for Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) With A New Fitness Function
Authors: Mahrami Mohsen  , Haron Habibollah  , Asadi Ali
Published: February 2025

In the robotic world, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) is a well-known and difficult problem. For solving this problem many solutions have been presented that are generally based on two methods (tools): EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) and Particle Filter. Each of these methods has some drawbacks, so researchers are looking for other ways for solve these problems. One of the major approaches to solve the SLAM problem is the approach based on evolutionary algorithm, and the algorithm proposed in this study is in the same category. Our final algorithm is hybrid Particle Filter and genetic algorithm for solving the SLAM problem but since one of the most important steps in genetic algorithm and our hybrid solution is fitness function, we want to introduce this step of our algorithm and show some of the results in a simulated environment.
Automated WiFi-based Localization and Visualization of Wireless Network
Authors: Kriz Pavel
Published: February 2025

Network topology discovery is a useful process for obtaining information about the interconnection of elements in the computer network. The resulting network map is then visualized in order to be presented to the user (network administrator). There are many established tools supporting this process in different types of networks. However, these tools do not respect the geographic coordinates of elements in the network map (as they are usually unknown) making the nodes poorly arranged in the map. Manual re-arrangement of the nodes is often required. In this paper, we present a new method of automated localization of network elements (specifically wireless access points) using their identifiers and utilizing public databases and/or services. The method also uses the suitable way of visualization that respects position of nodes and provides well-arranged map of the entire network. This method is focused on wireless metropolitan area networks and is particularly useful in self-built networks like wireless community networks or as a part of emergency management during disaster recovery. Implemented algorithms provide an option to balance the desired accuracy and success rate of localization. They were embedded into our existing network topology discovery and visualization software tool. Experimental verification demonstrates very good accuracy and satisfactory success rate of our proposed solution.
Applying Fuzzy-TOPSIS Algorithm in Prioritizing Software Requirements
Authors: Achimugu Philip  , Selamat Ali  , Ibrahim Roliana
Published: February 2025

Software prioritization is the act of ranking requirements with respect to their perceived relative importance in order to plan for software releases. This is a crucial task in software development because requirements could be ambiguous or over proportioned if appropriate techniques are not utilized in analyzing and prioritizing them. Consequently, to curb the possibility of delivering poor quality systems developed from vague requirements, a fuzzy-TOPSIS based model that is capable of comparing sets of elicited requirements is presented. To achieve the research aim, normalized fuzzy weights are computed for each criterion that makes up a requirement and a confidence function is determined to ascertain the prioritized requirements. An empirical case scenario is described to illustrate the adaptability processes of the proposed approach.
A Discourse Grammar for Processing Arguments in Context
Authors: Kang Juyeon  , Saint-Dizier Patrick
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we develop a linguistic and conceptual analysis of argument coumpounds, i.e. groups of closely related arguments and their related contexts expressed by means of discourse relations. An implementation in Dislog is presented with an indicative evaluation of the results.
ArgSemSAT: Solving Argumentation Problems Using SAT
Authors: Cerutti Federico  , Giacomin Massimiliano  , Vallati Mauro
Published: February 2025

In this paper we describe the system ArgSemSAT which includes algorithms which we proved to overcome current state-of-the-art performances in enumerating preferred extensions.
Asynchronous Argumentation System PIRIKA for Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere, with the Balanced Semantics
Authors: Oomidou Yutaka  , Katsura Yuki  , Sawamura Hajime  , Riche Jacques  , Hagiwara Takeshi
Published: February 2025

PIRIKA (an acronym for PIlot for the RIght Knowledge and Argument) is an argument-based communication tool for humans and agents, which supplements and alternates the current communication systems such as Twitter, Line, etc. It allows for asynchronous argumentation for anyone, anytime, anywhere on any issues, as well as synchronous argumentation and stand-alone argumentation. In addition to the Dungean semantics, it also incorporates a recently devised argumentation semantics: the balanced semantics for argumentation based on Heider's socio-psychological balance theory.
A Tool for the Generation of Arguments from Bayesian Networks
Authors: Timmer Sjoerd T.  , Meyer John-Jules Ch.  , Prakken Henry  , Renooij Silja  , Verheij Bart
Published: February 2025

This demonstration shows how arguments, formalised in a well defined framework, can be automatically constructed from a given Bayesian network.
Newtonian Forces and Causation: A Dispositional Account
Authors: Barton Adrien  , Rovetto Robert  , Mizoguchi Riichiro
Published: February 2025

We present a model of Newtonian forces and the causal relations they are involved in, applying Röhl & Jansen's model of disposition (extended with a relation between dispositions and their existential conditions), and show that this model fits with the intuition that force is the result of an interaction. We formalize forces as dispositions, dissociating field forces (which have local fields as existential conditions) from composite forces (which encompass contact forces). Finally, we hint at how this model could answer some classical philosophical difficulties concerning forces and dispositions.
Conceptual Models of Energy Transfer and Regulation
Authors: Chaudhri Vinay K.  , Dinesh Nikhil  , Heymans Stijn
Published: February 2025

Biological processes can be expressed from multiple perspectives. One basic perspective involves specifying the process steps, how they are ordered, their participants, and how participants are involved in different steps. Two additional perspectives on processes are how energy is transferred and how the processes are regulated. Such perspectives are essential for understanding the basic mechanisms of biology. We consider a representation of energy transfer and regulation for biological processes, and consider several example questions that can be answered using this representation. Our work is driven by the description of processes in an introductory biology textbook and provides the ontology design for an education application.
Interdependence among material objects and voids
Authors: Hahmann Torsten  , Brodaric Boyan  , Grüninger Michael
Published: February 2025

Material-spatial interdependence (mat-dep) is a type of dependence in which the physical extents of two entities are necessarily and mutually contingent, e.g. an object and its matter, or a hole and its host. Such dependence is commonly found amongst arrangements of physical entities, particularly in models of the natural environment. In this paper, we analyze and formally characterize mat-dep, and show how it augments the physical characterization of the containment, constitution, and hosting relations, primarily for development of a hydro ontology.
A randomized algorithm for exact transduction
Authors: Esposito Gennaro  , Martin Mario
Published: February 2025

Random sampling is an efficient method dealing with constrained optimization problems. In computational geometry, it has been applied, through Clarkson's algorithm [10], to solve a general class of problems called violator spaces. In machine learning, TSVM is a learning method used when only a small fraction of labeled data is available, which implies solving a non convex optimization problem. Several approximation methods have been proposed to solve it, but they usually find suboptimal solutions. Global optimal solution may be obtained using exact techniques, costing an exponential time complexity with respect to the number of instances. In this paper, an interpretation of TSVM in terms of violator space is given. Hence, a randomized method is presented extending the use of exact methods now reducing the time complexity to sub-exponential in particular exponential w.r.t. the number of support vectors of the optimal solution instead of exponential w.r.t. the number of instances.
Parametric study of non-uniform thickness rectangular concrete filled steel tube in pure bending
Authors: Gupta P.K.  , Katariya S.K.
Published: February 2025

This paper presents a parametric study using fiber element analysis method to investigate the effect of increasing steel area in tension side of concrete filled steel tube (CFST) beams. A computer code for fiber element analysis method has been written using Oracle-10g form-6i database. The developed code was validated by comparing its results with the experimental results from available literature for CFST beams having uniform thick steel tubes [1] and non-uniform thick steel tubes. After validation, the code is employed to perform a parametric study. The study will be helpful to decide the dimensions of steel tube thickness to obtain the balanced section. To obtain a balanced section in CFST flexural members having depth ranging from 150 to 230 mm, the area of steel in tension side should be approximately 3 to 7 times the steel area in compression side. Moreover, steel percentage area was found to be 9% to 15% of the composite sectional area to obtain balanced section.
Understanding the influence of marine microclimates on the durability performance of RC structures
Authors: Alao Olukayode O.  , Alexander Mark  , Beushausen Hans
Published: February 2025

Innovative research in the use of concrete has made it one of the most commonly used materials in the construction industry globally, with about 25 billion tons consumed annually. The durability of concrete is strongly dependent on the interactions of its constituent materials with the environment, and determines its performance during the service life. Reinforced concrete (RC) structures in marine environments are subjected to chloride-laden exposure conditions which affect their durability. This paper reports on an investigative study that seeks to understand the influence of climatic conditions such as temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and wind speed etc. on the exposure of RC structures to airborne chloride deposition and ingress. The focus of the study is the marine environment of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. The study showed that the durability of a RC structure is location-specific, and the microclimate of the location influences the severity of exposure.
Structural and mechanical characterization of high alumina additivated cement based on high refractory mineralogical compounds
Authors: Angelescu Nicolae  , Stancu Cristina  , Bratu Vasile
Published: February 2025

High alumina cements are widely used in refractory industry, mainly for the manufacture of refractory concrete. It is known fact that from the components of refractory concrete, high alumina cement is the fondant component of the system due to the lower melting point of the mineralogical compounds contained, compare to the refractory aggregates used. To improve the behaviour at high temperature of high alumina cement, we will try to obtain high alumina cements based on calcium-aluminates compounds with higher refractory toward the usual high alumina cement based on monocalcium monoaluminate and dicalcium monoaluminate. However, because with the improvement of refractoriness of calcium-aluminates compounds form high alumina cement, the hydraulically properties decrees, we will try to increase the hydraulically properties with an accelerator additive, such as calcium sulphoaluminate. This paper aims to present the structural and mechanical behaviour of high alumina additivated cement based on high mineralogical refractory compounds such as dicalcium monoaluminate and monocalcium hexa aluminate in comparison with the usual high alumina cement, at normal temperature and after treatment at high temperature heat, too.
Neural network model for predicting deterioration of bridge components using visual inspection data
Authors: Hasan Md Saeed  , Setunge Sujeeva  , Law David W.
Published: February 2025

As a primary component of a Bridge Management System (BMS), prediction models are crucial for planning the maintenance work, making budgetary decisions, life-cycle analysis and optimization of future maintenance works programs. In a BMS, planned decisions for conducting repairs and rehabilitation are based on inspection data collected for the bridges by trained inspectors following a condition rating method developed by the authority. There is a significant need to produce a practical system where these visual inspection data can be converted into a decision tool. To address this need, a study has been conducted to forecast deterioration of reinforced concrete bridge components using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Visual inspection data was sourced from Victoria, Australia and utilized to develop an ANN model using Levenberg-Marquardt optimization with the help of Bayesian regularization process. A neural network based model for prediction of bridge condition rating is proposed. The back-propagation algorithm was used to train the network to recognize the pattern of deterioration of bridges. The various factors which influence the deterioration rate are considered as input to the system. Deterioration of three major structural components was modeled and presented in this paper.
Concreting method that produces sustainable concrete
Authors: Abdelgader H.S.  , Othman A.M.  , El-Baden A.S.  , Angelescu N.
Published: February 2025

For the last decades, concrete materials and technology have been widely developing in many ways in order to achieve an economic and high quality product. But from the other hand concrete offersa wide range of capabilities to achieve a good balance between human needs and earth's capacity which is known as the sustainability. Two stage concrete (TSC) known sometimes as preplaced aggregate concrete (PAC) is a relatively as a new concrete type which has ability to satisfy the requirements of performance and sustainability. Its main concept depends on pre-packing the coarse aggregates in the formwork, then injecting cement mortar grout into the voids in between the aggregates. TSC differs from conventional concrete in having a higher percentage of coarse aggregates which are placed in direct contact with each other resulting in fewer voids that are to be filled with the cement mortar/grout. This low percentage of voids should have a positive impact on the concrete properties both on short and long term basis.The behaviour of TSC in compression has been well documented, but there are little published data on its behaviour in tension and modulus of elasticity. This paper presents results of experimental testing of TSC made with two types of coarse aggregates and three different mix proportions of grout. It was found that the modulus of elasticity of two-stage concrete is equivalent or higher than that of conventional concrete for the same compressive strength. Relationships of stress versus strain and modulus of elasticity versus compressive strength were statistically derived and elaborated.
The effect of steel and polypropylene fibres in the mechanical properties of structural lightweight concrete
Authors: Yap S.P.  , Alengaram Ubagaram Johnson  , Jumaat Mohd Zamin
Published: February 2025

The effect of fibres in the structural lightweight concrete made from palm kernel shell (PKS) as coarse aggregate and to enhance the mechanical properties of palm kernel shell concrete (PKSC) was investigated. The crushed PKS was used to replace the conventional crushed granite wholly and thus it falls under the category of sustainable construction; the use of PKSC as the structural lightweight concrete could lead to a reduction in the construction cost and also environmentally beneficial as PKS causes land pollution. In this paper, steel fibres of aspect ratio 65 and fibrillated polypropylene (PP) fibres were added in the PKSC. The compressive and flexural strengths of palm kernel shell fibre-reinforced concrete (PKSFRC) were evaluated. The experimental results show that steel fibres produced significant improvement on the mechanical properties of PKSFRC. The enhancement on compressive and flexural strength are 23% and 27%, respectively higher than control mix. However, the compressive strength and the tensile strength increment in PKSFRC containing PP fibres was lower than the steel fibres. In addition, the addition of fibres in PKSFRC reduced the brittleness of the PKSC significantly. Hence the role of fibres in enhancing the mechanical properties and brittleness of PKSC is evident.
Behavior of high-volume fly ash concrete in mass concrete applications
Authors: Schindler Anton K.  , Keith Kevin P.
Published: February 2025

Concrete produced with high fly ash replacement levels is considered high volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete. One of the main limitations to the increased usage of HVFA concrete is the lack of familiarity with its setting time and strength development at various curing temperatures. A laboratory testing program was developed to quantify the effect of fly ash dosage, fly ash chemical composition, cement chemical composition, and environmental conditions on the hydration development, setting times, and compressive strength development of HVFA concrete. Concretes were made with 35% and 50% fly ash replacement levels (by volume) with four fly ash sources (two Class C and two Class F). Setting times are delayed with an increase in fly ash dosage and when the fly ash CaO content is increased for a given fly ash dosage. As the fly ash dosage is increased, the heat generated per volume of concrete decreases. An increase in the fly ash CaO content for a given fly ash dosage, results in increased in-place temperatures. HVFA concrete made with Class C fly ash exhibits a higher rate of early-strength development when compared to the Class F fly ash concrete. HVFA concrete can be produced to have comparable setting times and early-age compressive strength development to conventional concrete.
The stress-related material damping of rigid frame bridge with corrugated steel webs
Authors: Baodong Liu  , Weilong Li  , Pengfei Li  , Wenjuan Lv
Published: February 2025

The inelastic behavior of the materials leads to the energy dissipation. The amplitude of the stress is the main affect factor for the energy dissipation capacity of solid materials such as metal and concrete. Based on the loss energy per unit volume of the metal material and reinforced concrete material, the stress-related material damping of the steel concrete composite structure are calculated. Combined with the finite element methods, an iterative algorithm is proposed to calculate the material damping of the rigid frame bridge with corrugated steel webs. Based on a model of rigid frame bridge with corrugated steel webs and the equivalent concrete web bridges, the material damping of the structure under different seismic intensity are calculated and compared. The analysis and comparison show that the stress-related material damping increased with the seismic intensity. Different damping ratios should be considered under different seismic intensities for the seismic response analysis of the bridge.
Development of the eLen Regulation Database to Support Legislation of Municipalities
Authors: Nakamura Makoto  , Kakuta Tokuyasu
Published: February 2025

This paper shows the implementation and operation of our eLen regulation database system provided for all of municipalities in Japan. The system is to support legislation of the municipalities with various functions, for instance, cross-searching among many municipalities and automatic composition of comparing tables, which are based on requests obtained by the direct hearing for many municipalities. So far about 700 out of 1,790 municipalities in total have already used the system. Since many municipalities have similar regulations, almost results of search in the system involve many outputs. Therefore, the system has a function to classify the results after preprocessing with using a supercomputer.
Validation of a Computerized Technique for Automatically Tracking and Measuring the Inferior Vena Cava in Ultrasound Imagery
Authors: Bellows Spencer  , Smith Jordan  , Mcguire Peter  , Smith Andrew
Published: February 2025

Accurate resuscitation of the critically-ill patient using intravenous fluids and blood products is a challenging, time sensitive task. Ultrasound of the inferior vena cava (IVC) is a non-invasive technique currently used to guide fluid administration, though multiple factors such as variable image quality, time, and operator skill challenge mainstream acceptance. This study represents a first attempt to develop and validate an algorithm capable of automatically tracking and measuring the IVC compared to human operators across a diverse range of image quality. Minimal tracking failures and high levels of agreement between manual and algorithm measurements were demonstrated on good quality videos. Addressing problems such as gaps in the vessel wall and intra-lumen speckle should result in improved performance in average and poor quality videos. Semi-automated measurement of the IVC for the purposes of non-invasive estimation of circulating blood volume poses challenges however is feasible.
Artificial Agents: Some Consequences of a Few Capacities
Authors: Laukyte Migle
Published: February 2025

In this paper I offer a way to think about artificial agents in terms of their capacities, or competence, and I work out what this approach means for their status and for the way we ought to treat such agents. The discussion draws largely on the work that Christian List and Philip Pettit have done on group agency.
Introduction to Moral Induction Model and its Deployment in Artificial Agents
Authors: Hromada Daniel Devatman  , Gaudiello Ilaria
Published: February 2025

Individual specificity and autonomy of a morally reasoning system is principally attained by means of a constructivist inductive process. Input into such process are moral dilemmata, or their story-like representations; its output are general patterns allowing to classify as moral or immoral even dilemmas which were not represented in the initial “training” corpus. Moral inference process can be simulated by machine learning algorithms and can be based upon detection and extraction of morally relevant features. Supervised or semi-supervised approaches should be used by those aiming to simulate parent->child or teacher->student morality transfer processes in artificial agents. Pre-existing models of inference – e.g. the grammar inference models well-studied in the domain of computational linguistics – can offer certain inspiration for anyone aiming to deploy a moral induction model. Historical data, mythology or folklore could furnish a basis for the training corpus which could be subsequently significantly extended by a crowdsourcing method exploiting the web-based “Completely Automated Moral Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Such a CAMTCHA approach could be also useful for evaluation of agent's moral faculties.
Social Robots and Sentimentality
Authors: Rodogno Raffaele
Published: February 2025

In this paper I discuss the objection that we are deplorably sentimental, i.e., we misrepresent the world in order to indulge in certain feelings, whenever we feel affection and act in an affectionate way towards certain social robots. I will focus my discussion on documented behaviors typically of elderly people towards pet robots such as Paro. I begin by engaging the very claim that elderly people are correctly described as being sentimental whenever emotively responding to pet-robots. Doubts to that effect are raised by consideration of the Paradox of Fiction: subjects regularly exhibit apparently genuine emotional responses to characters and situations that they explicitly represent as being merely imaginary. The argumentative strategy is that, if we can admit in a non-paradoxical way of emotional reactions towards fictional objects, we may thereby admit of genuine emotional reactions towards pet robots that are not sentimental. In the final part of the paper, however, I grant that there may be some sentimentality involved in at least some of the cases and examine the alleged wrongness of its nature. I conclude that sentimentality is not always wrong but may at times be vicious. When it is so, it is due to features that go beyond sentimentality itself.
Dombots: An Ethical and Technical Challenge to the Robotics of Intimacy
Authors: McKnight John Carter
Published: February 2025

Questions of emotional and sexual intimacy with robots are often framed around images of the feminine submissive. However, the history of technology as replacement for labor, including sexual labor, and sexual practices in computer-mediated environments, suggests that BDSM, involving psycho-sexual submission mediated by software, is both more likely and less ethically fraught. BDSM relies on the consensual and negotiated transfer of agency from the submissive: such transfer to an object is possible in theoretical, ethical and engineering terms. Dominant robots implicate broad ethical and practical challenges in the development of autonomous robotic systems, but in a more narrow and approachable manner than, for example, those associated with lethal autonomous weapons. Such “Dombots” also offer a range of social and sexual therapeutic advantages, and development of such systems should be pursued.
A fully automatic method to mammary gland segmentation
Authors: Ko Chien-Chuan  , Lin Chun-Hung  , Liao Kai-Sheng  , Chen Chi-Yang
Published: February 2025

Grading of breast carcinoma plays an important role for identification of severity of the disease and prognostic treatment in histopathology. It depends on three indices: tubule formation, nuclear plemorphism, and mitotic count by scoring based on degrees of differentiation. However, scoring on these indices often subject to intra- and inter-observer variability due to its complexities and manual classifications by pathologists.
A System for Front Vehicle Detection and Fast Indexing Using a Single Car-Mounted Camera
Authors: Hsu Chun-Chieh  , Wu Yi-Chien  , Chen Hua-Tsung  , Lee Suh-Yin
Published: February 2025

Video safety becomes a recently arising issue in the automobile industry due to the rapid expansion of car ownership worldwide. Increasing driver assistance systems have been developed for security and accident prevention by continuously monitoring the vehicle surroundings and the driving behaviors to detect potential problems in advance. Since most traffic/criminal accidents are caused by vehicles, recognizing and tracking the fleeing vehicles on the roads are of vital importance. In this paper, we propose a vision-based front vehicle detection and fast indexing system using a single car-mounted camera, which tends to be widespread deployed. First, front vehicle candidates are detected by a cascade of Gentle Adaboost classifiers utilizing Histogram of Oriented Gradients features. To improve the detection accuracy, symmetry of taillights are further employed to filter out the false detected candidates. Once a vehicle is detected, the GPS locations are reported to a central server, so that a database of detections can be maintained and can be provided to the related departments for timely retrieving and quickly indexing the searched vehicles on the maps. Experiments conducted on real videos demonstrate that satisfactory results can be obtained by the proposed detection scheme.
A Study of User Experience for Enterprise Applications
Authors: Lee Jamie  , Jwo Jung-Sing
Published: February 2025

Enterprises are starting to realize the potential of good user experience in enterprise applications. Somehow they do not know what and how to adopt to pursue lower turnover rates, less training time and more satisfaction among their users. The study of this research proposes essential usability metrics to identify good user experience for enterprise applications. Under a long-term observation, we also discover some problems that may help enterprises discover the nature of metrics while application undergoes a measurement.
VLSI Implementation of 8051 MCU with In-System Programming
Authors: Yen Mao-Hsu  , Maa Yeong-Chang  , Lin Yih-Hsia  , Lai Chih-Chen  , Zheng Shu-Ping
Published: February 2025

8051 microcontroller units (MCUs) have the characteristics of widespread applications, ease-of-use, and high reliability, so they have been used in various kinds of embedded system. The small controllers, for example, in electronic voting machine, spring machine, automatic machine, washing machines, etc. make our lives more convenient. In this paper, we propose a new 8051 MCU (ISP51) with in-system programming via a commonly available RS-232 serial interface based on the MC8051 architecture. In-system programming is a valuable feature that allows system firmware to be upgraded without disassembling the embedded system to physically replace memory. Thus, the ISP51 microcontrollers can be reprogrammed from a PC or laptop via an inexpensive RS-232 serial interface. Furthermore, in order to investigate how to evaluate the characteristics of electromagnetic emission of ISP51 chip and improve the situation for future relative references in VLSI design, we manufactured, according to IEC 61967-2 and IEC 61967-4 standard rules, the testing board and ISP51 chip for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) measurement.
Approximate String Matching Problem under Non-Overlapping Inversion Distance
Authors: Huang Shih-Yuan  , Yang Chung-Han  , Ta Toan Thang  , Lu Chin Lung
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we introduce and study the approximate string matching problem under non-overlapping inversion distance. Given a text t, a pattern p and a non-negative integer k, the goal of the problem is to find all locations in the text t that match the pattern p with at most k non-overlapping inversions. As a result, we use the dynamic programming approach to design an algorithm that solves this problem in O(nm2) time and O(m2) space, where n is the length of the text and m is the length of the pattern.
WiFi-based Floor Estimation for Multi-Storey Building: A Case Study for a Crowded AP Environment
Authors: Liu Hung-Huan  , Liao Chung-Wei  , Lo Wei-Hsiang
Published: February 2025

This paper performs a field experiment to verify the availability of the proposed floor estimation algorithm for determining of mobile target in multi-storey buildings. The proposed algorithm is based on the use of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) obtained from Android smartphone which is simple and can be performed in a smartphone quickly. Besides, due to the dramatic increasing number of AP in a building, the test environment has huge number of AP been installed. The proposed algorithm has the capability of adopting the change of AP presenting to the mobile target and AP's signal variation. Experiment results show it get almost 100% accuracy in corridor and center region, but with much lower accuracy in the staircase area because there is not significant of strong enough RSSI there.
Anomaly Detection in Hadoop Clusters Using PCA and DBSCAN
Authors: Yang Xiao  , Liu Yan  , Liu Zunhe  , Cao Buyang
Published: February 2025

With the widely adoption of Hadoop-based big data platfom in industry, monitoring and maintaining Hadoop clusters has become increasingly critical, which also brings high demands on automatic or semi-automatic health checking and diagonostics. Anomaly detection plays an essential role for monitoring Hadoop clusters and provides basis for automatic alerts generation. Most existing methods for anomaly detection for Hadoop clusters are rule-based and relies on characterizing of anomalies with domain-knowledge and understanding of the specific target system, which bring barriers for practical application in complex business platform. In this paper, we leverage statistical analysis to discover critical components in execution data collected through Hadoop JobTracker. A two-stage anomaly detection method is proposed by integrating PCA and DBSCAN. This new method has no requirements on prior knowledge of target nodes and jobs. Experiments are conducted to detect buggy jobs based on real execution data collected from three Hadoop clusters provided by one of the largest E-Commerce company in the world. The results show our method is effective to detect anomalies without specifying the features of anomalies in advance.
Heap Spraying Revelation: Heap-spraying Detection based on Minimal Length Sequence and Argument Analysis
Authors: Yeh Pei-Chen  , Lee Hahn-Ming  , Tyan Hsiao-Rong  , Wu Kuo-Ping
Published: February 2025

The heap-spraying attacks through the composition of malicious JavaScript and depend on the exploited vulnerabilities of browser or plug-in of installed to trigger. The attackers commonly use obfuscated techniques to make obfuscated malicious JavaScript in order to evade mechanism of detection. In this work, we propose a novel system that is Heap Spraying Revelation based on minimal length sequence finding and argument analysis. The fundamental observations behind the design of Heap Spraying Revelation are that combine static analysis and dynamic analysis in order to raise the accuracy of detection and efficiency. On the other hand, the minimal length sequence focus on the characteristic of heap-spraying which is NOP-sled. The action of NOP-sled will create a lot of instructions. Hence, we capture this distinguishing feature for analysis. Our work also presents an idea to find out the minimal length sequences and analysis their argument. In our experiments, we use SVM (Support Vector Machine) to be a classifier and the accuracy of result up to 95.7 %.