bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Computing longest increasing subsequences over sequential data streams
Authors: Li Youhuan , Zou Lei , Zhang Huaming , Zhao Dongyan
Published: January 2017

In this paper, we propose a data structure, a quadruple neighbor list (QN-list, for short), to support real time queries of all longest increasing subsequence (LIS) and LIS with constraints over sequential data streams. The QN-List built by our algorithm requires
O
(
w
) space, where
w
is the time window size. The running time for building the initial QN-List takes
O
(
w
log
w
) time. Applying the QN-List, insertion of the new item takes
O
(log
w
) time and deletion of the first item takes
O
(
w
) time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to support both LIS enumeration and LIS with constraints computation by using a single uniform data structure for real time sequential data streams. Our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both time and space cost, not only theoretically, but also empirically.
HubPPR
Authors: Wang Sibo , Tang Youze , Xiao Xiaokui , Yang Yin , Li Zengxiang
Published: January 2017

Personalized PageRank (PPR)
computation is a fundamental operation in web search, social networks, and graph analysis. Given a graph
G
, a source
s,
and a target
t,
the PPR query Π(
s, t
) returns the probability that a random walk on
G
starting from
s
terminates at
t.
Unlike global PageRank which can be effectively pre-computed and materialized, the PPR result depends on both the source and the target, rendering results materialization infeasible for large graphs. Existing indexing techniques have rather limited effectiveness; in fact, the current state-of-the-art solution,
BiPPR,
answers individual PPR queries without pre-computation or indexing, and yet it outperforms all previous index-based solutions.

Motivated by this, we propose
HubPPR,
an effective indexing scheme for PPR computation with controllable tradeoffs for accuracy, query time, and memory consumption. The main idea is to pre-compute and index auxiliary information for selected hub nodes that are often involved in PPR processing. Going one step further, we extend HubPPR to answer top-
k
PPR queries, which returns the
k
nodes with the highest PPR values with respect to a source
s
, among a given set
T
of target nodes. Extensive experiments demonstrate that compared to the current best solution
BiPPR, HubPPR
achieves up to 10x and 220x speedup for PPR and top-
k
PPR processing, respectively, with moderate memory consumption. Notably, with a single commodity server,
HubPPR
answers a top-
k
PPR query in seconds on graphs with billions of edges, with high accuracy and strong result quality guarantees.
Fast in-memory SQL analytics on typed graphs
Authors: Lin Chunbin , Mandel Benjamin , Papakonstantinou Yannis , Springer Matthias
Published: January 2017

We study a class of graph analytics SQL queries, which we call
relationship queries.
These queries involving aggregation, join, semijoin, intersection and selection are a wide superset of fixed-length graph reachability queries and of tree pattern queries. We present real-world OLAP scenarios, where efficient relationship queries are needed. However, row stores, column stores and graph databases are unacceptably slow in such OLAP scenarios.

We propose a
GQ-Fast
database, which is an indexed database that roughly corresponds to efficient encoding of annotated adjacency lists that combines salient features of column-based organization, indexing and compression. GQ-Fast uses a bottom-up fully pipelined query execution model, which enables (a) aggressive compression (e.g., compressed bitmaps and Huffman) and (b) avoids intermediate results that consist of row IDs (which are typical in column databases). GQ-Fast compiles query plans into executable C++ source code. Besides achieving runtime efficiency, GQ-Fast also reduces main memory requirements because, unlike column databases, GQ-Fast selectively allows dense forms of compression including heavy-weight compressions, which do not support random access.

We used GQ-Fast to accelerate queries for two OLAP dashboards in the biomedical field. GQ-Fast outperforms PostgreSQL by 2--4 orders of magnitude and MonetDB, Vertica and Neo4j by 1--3 orders of magnitude when all of them are running on RAM. Our experiments dissect GQ-Fast's advantage between (i) the use of compiled code, (ii) the bottom-up pipelining execution strategy, and (iii) the use of dense structures. Other analysis and experiments show the space savings of GQ-Fast due to the appropriate use of compression methods. We also show that the runtime penalty incurred by the dense compression methods decreases as the number of CPU cores increases.
Stochastic data acquisition for answering queries as time goes by
Authors: Li Zheng , Ge Tingjian
Published: January 2017

Data and actions are tightly coupled. On one hand, data analysis results trigger decision making and actions. On the other hand, the action of acquiring data is the very first step in the whole data processing pipeline. Data acquisition almost always has some costs, which could be either monetary costs or computing resource costs such as sensor battery power, network transfers, or I/O costs. Using out-dated data to answer queries can avoid the data acquisition costs, but there is a penalty of potentially inaccurate results. Given a sequence of incoming queries over time, we study the problem of sequential decision making on when to acquire data and when to use existing versions to answer each query. We propose two approaches to solve this problem using reinforcement learning and tailored locality-sensitive hashing. A systematic empirical study using two real-world datasets shows that our approaches are effective and efficient.
Bluecache
Authors: Xu Shuotao , Lee Sungjin , Jun Sang-Woo , Liu Ming , Hicks Jamey , Arvind
Published: January 2017

A key-value store (KVS), such as memcached and Redis, is widely used as a caching layer to augment the slower persistent backend storage in data centers. DRAM-based KVS provides fast key-value access, but its scalability is limited by the cost, power and space needed by the machine cluster to support a large amount of DRAM. This paper offers a 10X to 100X cheaper solution based on flash storage and hardware accelerators. In BlueCache key-value pairs are stored in flash storage and all KVS operations, including the flash controller are directly implemented in hardware. Furthermore, BlueCache includes a fast interconnect between flash controllers to provide a scalable solution. We show that BlueCache has 4.18X higher throughput and consumes 25X less power than a flash-backed KVS software implementation on x86 servers. We further show that BlueCache can outperform DRAM-based KVS when the latter has more than 7.4% misses for a read-intensive aplication. BlueCache is an attractive solution for both rack-level appliances and data-center-scale key-value cache.
A general and parallel platform for mining co-movement patterns over large-scale trajectories
Authors: Fan Qi , Zhang Dongxiang , Wu Huayu , Tan Kian-Lee
Published: January 2017

Discovering co-movement patterns from large-scale trajectory databases is an important mining task and has a wide spectrum of applications. Previous studies have identified several types of interesting co-movement patterns and show-cased their usefulness. In this paper, we make two key contributions to this research field. First, we propose a more general co-movement pattern to unify those defined in the past literature. Second, we propose two types of parallel and scalable frameworks and deploy them on Apache Spark. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to mine co-movement patterns in real life trajectory databases with hundreds of millions of points. Experiments on three real life large-scale trajectory datasets have verified the efficiency and scalability of our proposed solutions.
Write-behind logging
Authors: Arulraj Joy , Perron Matthew , Pavlo Andrew
Published: January 2017

The design of the logging and recovery components of database management systems (DBMSs) has always been influenced by the difference in the performance characteristics of volatile (DRAM) and non-volatile storage devices (HDD/SSDs). The key assumption has been that non-volatile storage is much slower than DRAM and only supports block-oriented read/writes. But the arrival of new non-volatile memory (NVM) storage that is almost as fast as DRAM with fine-grained read/writes invalidates these previous design choices.

This paper explores the changes that are required in a DBMS to leverage the unique properties of NVM in systems that still include volatile DRAM. We make the case for a new logging and recovery protocol, called write-behind logging, that enables a DBMS to recover nearly instantaneously from system failures. The key idea is that the DBMS logs what parts of the database have changed rather than how it was changed. Using this method, the DBMS flushes the changes to the database before recording them in the log. Our evaluation shows that this protocol improves a DBMS's transactional throughput by 1.3×, reduces the recovery time by more than two orders of magnitude, and shrinks the storage footprint of the DBMS on NVM by 1.5×. We also demonstrate that our logging protocol is compatible with standard replication schemes.
The TileDB array data storage manager
Authors: Papadopoulos Stavros , Datta Kushal , Madden Samuel , Mattson Timothy
Published: January 2017

We present a novel storage manager for
multi-dimensional arrays
that arise in scientific applications, which is part of a larger scientific data management system called TileDB. In contrast to existing solutions, TileDB is optimized for
both
dense and sparse arrays. Its key idea is to organize array elements into ordered collections called
fragments.
Each fragment is dense or sparse, and groups contiguous array elements into
data tiles
of fixed capacity. The organization into fragments turns random writes into sequential writes, and, coupled with a novel read algorithm, leads to very efficient reads. TileDB enables parallelization via multi-threading and multi-processing, offering thread-/process-safety and atomicity via lightweight locking. We show that TileDB delivers comparable performance to the HDF5 dense array storage manager, while providing much faster random writes. We also show that TileDB offers substantially faster reads and writes than the SciDB array database system with both dense and sparse arrays. Finally, we demonstrate that TileDB is considerably faster than adaptations of the Vertica relational column-store for dense array storage management, and at least as fast for the case of sparse arrays.
DOCS
Authors: Zheng Yudian , Li Guoliang , Cheng Reynold
Published: January 2017

Crowdsourcing is a new computing paradigm that harnesses human effort to solve computer-hard problems, such as entity resolution and photo tagging. The crowd (or workers) have diverse qualities and it is important to effectively model a worker's quality. Most of existing worker models assume that workers have the same quality on different tasks. In practice, however, tasks belong to a variety of diverse domains, and workers have different qualities on different domains. For example, a worker who is a basketball fan should have better quality for the task of labeling a photo related to '
Stephen Curry
' than the one related to '
Leonardo DiCaprio
'. In this paper, we study how to leverage domain knowledge to accurately model a worker's quality. We examine using
knowledge base
(KB), e.g., Wikipedia and Freebase, to detect the domains of tasks and workers. We develop
Domain Vector Estimation
, which analyzes the domains of a task with respect to the KB. We also study
Truth Inference
, which utilizes the domain-sensitive worker model to accurately infer the true answer of a task. We design an
Online Task Assignment
algorithm, which judiciously and efficiently assigns tasks to appropriate workers. To implement these solutions, we have built DOCS, a system deployed on the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Experiments show that DOCS performs much better than the state-of-the-art approaches.
Two birds, one stone
Authors: Yu Jia , Sarwat Mohamed
Published: January 2017

Classic database indexes (e.g., B
+
-Tree), though speed up queries, suffer from two main drawbacks: (1) An index usually yields 5% to 15% additional storage overhead which results in non-ignorable dollar cost in big data scenarios especially when deployed on modern storage devices. (2) Maintaining an index incurs high latency because the DBMS has to locate and update those index pages affected by the underlying table changes. This paper proposes Hippo a fast, yet scalable, database indexing approach. It significantly shrinks the index storage and mitigates maintenance overhead without compromising much on the query execution performance. Hippo stores disk page ranges instead of tuple pointers in the indexed table to reduce the storage space occupied by the index. It maintains simplified histograms that represent the data distribution and adopts a page grouping technique that groups contiguous pages into page ranges based on the similarity of their index key attribute distributions. When a query is issued, Hippo leverages the page ranges and histogram-based page summaries to recognize those pages such that their tuples are guaranteed not to satisfy the query predicates and inspects the remaining pages. Experiments based on real and synthetic datasets show that Hippo occupies up to two orders of magnitude less storage space than that of the B
+
-Tree while still achieving comparable query execution performance to that of the B
+
-Tree for 0.1% -- 1% selectivity factors. Also, the experiments show that Hippo outperforms BRIN (Block Range Index) in executing queries with various selectivity factors. Furthermore, Hippo achieves up to three orders of magnitude less maintenance overhead and up to an order of magnitude higher throughput (for hybrid query/update workloads) than its counterparts.
Persistent hybrid transactional memory for databases
Authors: Avni Hillel , Brown Trevor
Published: January 2017

Processors with hardware support for transactional memory (HTM) are rapidly becoming commonplace, and processor manufacturers are currently working on implementing support for upcoming non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies. The combination of HTM and NVM promises to be a natural choice for in-memory database synchronization. However, limitations on the size of hardware transactions and the lack of progress guarantees by modern HTM implementations prevent some applications from obtaining the full benefit of hardware transactional memory. In this paper, we propose a
persistent hybrid TM
algorithm called PHyTM for systems that support NVM and HTM. PHyTM allows hardware assisted ACID transactions to execute concurrently with pure software transactions, which allows applications to gain the benefit of persistent HTM while simultaneously accommodating unbounded transactions (with a high degree of concurrency). Experimental simulations demonstrate that PHyTM is fast and scalable for realistic workloads.
Effortless data exploration with zenvisage
Authors: Siddiqui Tarique , Kim Albert , Lee John , Karahalios Karrie , Parameswaran Aditya
Published: January 2017

Data visualization is by far the most commonly used mechanism to explore and extract insights from datasets, especially by novice data scientists. And yet, current visual analytics tools are rather limited in their ability to operate on collections of visualizations---by composing, filtering, comparing, and sorting them---to find those that depict desired trends or patterns. The process of visual data exploration remains a tedious process of
trial-and-error.
We propose zenvisage, a visual analytics platform for effortlessly finding desired visual patterns from large datasets. We introduce zenvisage's general purpose visual exploration language, ZQL ("zee-quel") for specifying the desired visual patterns, drawing from use-cases in a variety of domains, including biology, mechanical engineering, climate science, and commerce. We formalize the expressiveness of ZQL via a visual exploration algebra---an algebra on collections of visualizations---and demonstrate that ZQL is as expressive as that algebra. zenvisage exposes an interactive front-end that supports the issuing of ZQL queries, and also supports interactions that are "short-cuts" to certain commonly used ZQL queries. To execute these queries, zenvisage uses a novel ZQL graph-based query optimizer that leverages a suite of optimizations tailored to the goal of processing collections of visualizations in certain pre-defined ways. Lastly, a user survey and study demonstrates that data scientists are able to effectively use zenvisage to eliminate error-prone and tedious exploration and directly identify desired visualizations.
Developing the Reconfiguration Method to Increase Life Expectancy of Dynamic Wireless Sensor Network in Container Terminal
Authors: Jurenoks Aleksejs
Published: January 2017

Nowadays control and management logistics solutions that are used in terminals apply sensor based technologies to identify and localize containers in the yard. Nevertheless, because of the limits in the existing sensor technical specification, the position of nodes is still affected by some errors or sometimes it cannot be determined in real-time systems due to battery fall.

The sensor nodes pertaining to information storage and processing are mainly equipped with an uninterrupted power supply, independent distribution network connectivity and low performance computing system. The capacity of data traffic near a coordinator node is much higher than in the distant points; as a result, the existing elements close to processing nodes faster than others stop operating due to a lack of electricity and, as a result, the network ceases its overall work.

The article describes the modification of network routing protocols for energy balancing in nodes, using the mobility of the coordinator node, which provides dynamic network reconfiguration possibilities.
Semi-Automatic Selection of Ground Control Points for High Resolution Remote Sensing Data in Urban Areas
Authors: Gulbe Linda , Korāts Gundars
Published: January 2017

Geometrical accuracy of remote sensing data often is ensured by geometrical transforms based on Ground Control Points (GCPs). Manual selection of GCP is a time-consuming process, which requires some sort of automation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present and evaluate methodology for easier, semi-automatic selection of ground control points for urban areas. Custom line scanning algorithm was implemented and applied to data in order to extract potential GCPs for an image analyst. The proposed method was tested for classical orthorectification and special object polygon transform. Results are convincing and show that in the test case semi-automatic methodology is able to correct locations of 70 % (thermal data) – 80 % (orthophoto images) of buildings. Geometrical transform for subimages of approximately 3 hectares with approximately 12 automatically found GCPs resulted in RSME approximately 1 meter with standard deviation of 1.2 meters.
Extensible Model for Comparison of Expressiveness of Object-Oriented Programming Languages
Authors: Batdalov Ruslan , Ņikiforova Oksana , Giurca Adrian
Published: January 2017

We consider the problem of comparison of programming languages with respect to their ability to express programmers’ ideas. Our assumption is that the way of programmers’ thinking is reflected in languages used to describe software systems and programs (modelling languages, type theory, pattern languages). We have developed a list of criteria based on these languages and applied it to comparison of a number of widely used programming languages. The obtained result may be used to select a language for a particular task and choose evolution directions of programming languages.
Development of Requirements Specification for Steganographic Systems
Authors: Grībermans Dāvids , Jeršovs Andrejs , Rusakovs Pāvels
Published: January 2017

The paper focuses on development of requirements specification for steganographic systems. The main concepts and fields of use of steganography are briefly explained. Criteria that can be used for various non-functional requirements are grouped and their possible metrics are given with examples and sample requirements. The authors provide an original systematic approach to develop requirements for steganographic systems based on the field of use and the importance of each criterion in the selected field. The approach also allows for automated selection of steganographic algorithms based on the requirements and is related to the concept of the Universal Stegoconstructor, which guarantees that clients receive the required steganographic system from the developers.
Experiment Plan as a Discreet System Equilibrium State
Authors: Kante Normunds , Kryshchuk Mykola , Lavendels Jurijs
Published: January 2017

The method of obtaining the plan of experiments in multidimensional space is considered in the paper. The method is based on assumptions of uniform distribution of charged particles in infinite space. To obtain the plan of experiments, the infinite multidimensional space is replaced with a hypercube whose surface models influence infinite space. The software is developed, and practical results in two-dimensional space are acquired. There are no basic problems to carry out calculations in multidimensional space.
Controlling the Distribution of Cold Water in Air Cooling Systems of Underground Mines
Authors: Szlązak Nikodem , Obracaj Dariusz , Swolkień Justyna , Piergies Kazimierz
Published: January 2017

In Polish underground mines in which excavations are subjected to high heat load, central and group cooling systems based on indirect cooling units are implemented. Chilled water, referred to as cold water and produced in chillers, is distributed through a pipeline network to air coolers located in mining and development districts. The coolers are often moved to other locations and the pipeline network undergoes constant modification. In such a system, parameters of cold water in different branches of the pipeline network need to be controlled.

The article presents the principles for controlling the cooling capacity of air coolers installed in an underground mine. Also, the authors propose automatic control of water flow rate in underground pipeline network and in particular coolers, depending on the temporary cooling load in the system. The principles of such a system, controlling cold water distribution, and the functions of its individual components are described. Finally, an example of an automatic control of water flow rate in a central cooling system currently implemented in a mine is presented.
Numerical Modeling of Exploitation Relics and Faults Influence on Rock Mass Deformations
Authors: Wesołowski Marek
Published: January 2017

This article presents numerical modeling results of fault planes and exploitation relics influenced by the size and distribution of rock mass and surface area deformations. Numerical calculations were performed using the finite difference program FLAC. To assess the changes taking place in a rock mass, an anisotropic elasto-plastic ubiquitous joint model was used, into which the Coulomb-Mohr strength (plasticity) condition was implemented. The article takes as an example the actual exploitation of the longwall 225 area in the seam 502wg of the “Pokój” coal mine. Computer simulations have shown that it is possible to determine the influence of fault planes and exploitation relics on the size and distribution of rock mass and its surface deformation. The main factor causing additional deformations of the area surface are the abandoned workings in the seam 502wd. These abandoned workings are the activation factor that caused additional subsidences and also, due to the significant dip, they are a layer on which the rock mass slides down in the direction of the extracted space. These factors are not taken into account by the geometrical and integral theories.
A Structural-Thermal Model of the Karkonosze Pluton (Sudetes Mountains, SW Poland) for Hot Dry Rock (HDR) Geothermal Use
Authors: Bujakowski Wiesław , Barbacki Antoni , Miecznik Maciej , Pająk Leszek , Skrzypczak Robert
Published: January 2017

The main objective of this study was to develop a spatial temperature distribution of the Karkonosze Pluton to indicate optimum locations for HDR systems at drillable depth.

HDR geothermal technology makes it possible to extract heat from the Earth in areas where no hydro-geothermal resources are present. To produce electricity in a binary cycle, system temperatures of > 100°C are usually required. In this paper, the authors have analysed the potential opportunities for applying HDR technology in the area of the Karkonosze Pluton, which is regarded as an optimum location for the application of the HDR concept (due to the potential for stimulation offered by the mechanical properties of the granites, radiogenic heat production, modern tectonic activity, and the thickness of the pluton). The model used in the analysis, which takes into account a hypothetical assessment of the manner and paths of fluid migration within the pluton, provides an insight into the spatial distribution of subsurface temperatures. It thus allows the location of relatively shallow high-temperature zones, which are optimal for the efficient application of HDR technology, to be identified. With respect to this technology, the Szklarska Poręba area and the NE part of the pluton seem to be better targets than the Cieplice central area, where the model indicated much lower temperatures (e.g. at a depth of 5,000 m, estimated temperatures in the vicinity of Szklarska Poręba were about 185°C and in the vicinity of Cieplice they were about 140°C).
Experimental Tests of Parameters Characterizing the Cooperation of Powered Roof Support Base and Floor of Low Bearing Capacity
Authors: Markowicz Józef , Rajwa Sylwester , Szweda Stanisław
Published: January 2017

Results of experimental tests aiming at determination of base pressure on the floor, carried out within “Geosoft” project, are presented. The tests included stand tests carried out with use of unique measuring instrumentation and special hydraulic cushion as well as tests of load of roof support set to load in operating longwall panel. The measurement results confirmed the necessity to consider the 3D model of cooperation of base and floor. Factors having impact on distribution of base pressure on the floor and its maximal value were identified, taking into account the test results.
Drawings are talking: Exploring language learners’ beliefs through visual narratives
Authors: İnözü Jülide
Published: January 2017

This paper reports on a study, which suggests an alternative use of drawings in language classrooms. The study uses young children’s drawings about learning English as an innovative way of investigating their perceptions of what it means to learn a foreign language. The images of language learning constructed by the children in their drawings may provide us with insights into their own personal experience of language learning. In order to understand what sense they have made of the language learning process, the participants were told to draw a picture of themselves as learners of English. A qualitative image-based interpretative research approach was used in the analysis of the drawings. In order to verify the interpretations of the drawings, informal interviews were conducted with each student individually following the drawing session. The findings provide us with a window into the students’ minds and help us to develop a framework for understanding young learners’ language learning beliefs. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings, the implications for language classrooms and suggestions for future research.
Children’s drawings as part of School Language Profiles: Heteroglossic realities in families and schools
Authors: Purkarthofer Judith
Published: January 2017

Child language development occurs in a given environment, complete with explicit and implicit regulations, intervening actors with their coherent or contradictory intentions, and specific resources for speakers. The main research question of this contribution is: What can drawings as parts of School Language Profiles tell us about the multilingual environments of bilingual families and schools? The analytical framework of spatial and language practices provides a means to talk about how and why certain expressions are chosen and which influences are mentioned in relation to school and family. In particular, the focus is on how heteroglossic spaces are constructed through local/spatial/language practices and how these constructions are represented in the drawings of children. The drawings were collected in a bilingual school in Austria, with Slovene and German as languages of instruction. Children’s drawings present a fine-grained perception of their multilingual surroundings and we see how children refer to home/school in their drawings and distinguish language realities. Findings indicate that language regimes and goals of families and school are in close relation to each other, have influence on each other but do not necessarily always complement each other. This means that in analyzing heteroglossic realities, both cannot be regarded as separate (or separable) spaces.
Transcending ‘Cold Intimacies’ in Veiko Õunpuu’s Works
Authors: Näripea Eva , Mazierska Ewa
Published: January 2017

This article examines five films by Veiko Õunpuu, Estonia’s most renowned contemporary director –Empty(Tühirand, Estonia, 2006),Autumn Ball(Sügisball, Estonia, 2007),Temptations of St Tony(Püha Tõnu kiusamine, Estonia/Finland/Sweden, 2009),Free Range: Ballad on Approving of the World(Free Range: ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest, Estonia, 2013) andRoukli(Estonia, 2015), focusing on his representations of neoliberalism and especially its effect on the emotional and intimate lives of the characters. We argue that the characters of his films typically reject the conventional romance promoted by neoliberal discourses, including Hollywood cinema, yet this does not make them happy, but disoriented and restless. The repudiation of ‘emotional capitalism’ also pertains to the way Õunpuu’s films are conceived and executed. Most importantly, he resists the conventions of Hollywood cinema, including a classical script and happy ending, and also sets and shoots his films in peripheral places. Our main theoretical framework is the concept of ‘emotional capitalism’ as elaborated by Eva Illouz.
Motives and barriers of migration to Saxony: the case of migrating health professionals from Czechia
Authors: Dolejš Martin , Glorius Birgit , Hruška Vladan
Published: January 2017

The regime change in the former German Democratic Republic and its reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany at the beginning of 1990s launched significant social and economic changes which resulted i.a. in high out-migration rate and secondary also rapid demographic ageing of the populations of the states of former Eastern Germany including Saxony. As a consequence, there is a lack of health professionals in Saxon hospitals which is going to be solved by the in-migration of medical staff from abroad. The geographical location of the Federal state of Saxony predetermines representatives of Saxon hospitals to look for missing health care labour in Czechia and latest statistics demonstrate that this could be a successful way to stabilize or even increase the personnel numbers of Saxon health care providers. The aim of this article is not only to bring some basic data about the migration of Czech health professionals to Germany, but especially to focus on processes which facilitate or hinder such kind of mobility, influence the rate of success of their integration both into the work team and German society and form the prospects of their permanent stay in Germany. Ten interviews with Czech health professionals were conducted in order to fulfill these ambitions. As a result, crucial barriers and recommendations for improvements concerning the migration decision making, their integration and sustaining in the migratory destination are presented.
The Cost of the Dismissal, and the Predictability of Firing Costs: an Employment Solution to the Financial Crisis?
Authors: Carrà Simone
Published: January 2017

This paper seeks to contrast the prevailing economic justifications in favour of the ongoing deregulatory reforms (based on the need for greater certainty in terms of firing costs for businesses) with an alternative “liability based” economic approach. Eventually the scope is to ascertain whether, from a purely juridical viewpoint (and also from a Law and Economics perspective), the current legislative trend in labour law is consistent with the initially declared purposes or not. More specifically, the comparison between two very different employment protection systems (i. e., the Italian and the British ones) can show how the current legislative trend based on the predictability of firing costs is only partially consistent with the declared objectives, whereas it could play a much larger role as a hermeneutical tool used in a more business-oriented interpretation of traditional legal notions (among Italian scholars, so-called “categorie”), such as the one of dismissal on “subjective” grounds.
A Hybrid Multi-feature based Islanding Detection Technique for Grid Connected Distributed Generation
Authors: Sareen Karan , Bhalja Bhavesh R. , Maheshwari Rudra Prakash
Published: January 2017

This paper presents a hybrid islanding detection technique for grid connected Distributed Generations (DGs). The proposed scheme is based on three different decisive factors which are derived from negative sequence voltage (NSV) by applying Hilbert transform, Wavelet transform and standard normal distribution function. Different types of non-islanding and islanding events have been simulated by modeling IEEE 34-bus system using PSCAD/EMTDC software package. The performance of the proposed scheme has been evaluated on large number of cases which are generated by varying load and fault parameters. The simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme is able to detect islanding situation accurately even under perfect power balance condition. Moreover, the proposed scheme provides better stability in case of specific type of non-islanding event i. e. fault on adjacent feeder during which most of the existing scheme issues nuisance tripping. Furthermore, it provides satisfactorily results during change in network topology and also at different values of X/R ratio of DG. At the end performance of the proposed technique is also comprehensively compared with the schemes currently reported in the literature. This comparison apparently demonstrates the advantages of the proposed technique over existing schemes.
The Effects of Amyloglucosidase, Glucose Oxidase and Hemicellulase Utilization on the Rheological Behaviour of Dough and Quality Characteristics of Bread
Authors: Altınel Burak , Ünal S. Sezgin
Published: January 2017

Wheat flour, whole wheat flour, 25 and 50 % rye flour substituted wheat flour blends, 15 and 30 % wheat bran substituted wheat flour blends were supplemented with amyloglucosidase (at 0.000875 and 0.001 %), glucose oxidase (at 0.0003 and 0.001 %) and hemicellulase (at 0.001 and 0.005 %). The effects of enzymes on the extensographic properties of dough and quality characteristics of bread (specific volume, baking loss percentage and final moisture content) were studied. The interaction between type of flour/blend, type of enzyme and dosage of enzyme affected resistance to extension, extensibility and ratio of resistance to extensibility of doughs significantly. The interactions between type of flour/blend, type of enzyme and dosage of enzyme affected specific volume, baking loss percentage and final moisture content of breads significantly. The findings in this study indicated that enzymes can exhibit unexpected effects on dough and bread properties depending on type of flour and dosage of enzyme.
Effect of Different Drying Techniques on Physicochemical, Micro-structural and Bioactive Characteristics of Barberry Milk Smoothie Powder
Authors: Tahsiri Zahra , Niakousari Mehrdad , Mesbahi Gholam Reza
Published: January 2017

In this study, new smoothies were formulated based on low fat milk and barberry concentrate, and their physicochemical and bioactive properties were investigated. Physicochemical parameters of functional smoothie powders were obtained by applying low and high temperature drying methods, and by a combination of procedures programmed to process smoothie powders. The effect of spray drying (SP), refractance window (RW), foam mat drying (FM), spouted bed drying (SB) and a combination of spouted bed drying were studied herein, while the infrared lamp system (SBIR) shows how these methods affect the smoothie’s physical properties (such as bulk density, porosity, color) and its chemical properties (such as total anthocyanin content and antioxidant capacity measured by the DPPH method). The study also proved that an increase in the speed of rotation from 10 rpm to 100 rpm would lead to a diminished apparent viscosity from 642.39 mPas to 381.98 mPas regarding all reconstituted dried powders, which thus verifies their shear thinning behavior. The work highlighted that this new approach to combining the drying methods for the production of functional smoothie powders at an inlet temperature of 80 °C can result in the best maintenance of antioxidant activity (11.67 %) with the least moisture content (3.19 %).
Measuring Nominal and Real Convergence of Selected CEE Countries by the Taylor Rule
Authors: Böing Tobias , Stadtmann Georg , Sydykova Meerim
Published: January 2017

We propose using a simple Taylor rule to evaluate business cycle convergence of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland with the Eurozone. Our findings indicate an ongoing convergence of those CEE countries to the Eurozone, but with instabilities and heterogeneity between the countries. Especially Poland has shown a high degree of convergence in recent years. But there are still relevant differences in Taylor rates of each country to the Eurozone of about two percentage points.
Salmonella Species On Meat Contact Surfaces and Processing Water in Sokoto Main Market and Abattoir, Nigeria
Authors: Faleke Olufemi Oludayo , Jolayemi Kelvin Olatimilehin , Igoh Yvvone Ogah , Jibril Abdurrahman Hassan , Ayedun Julius Olaniyi
Published: January 2017

This study was carried out to determine Salmonella contamination of food contact surfaces and processing water in meat, fish and poultry processing units in Sokoto State, Nigeria. A total of 200 swab (100 from abattoir and 100 from poultry and fish markets) and 60 processing water samples (30 from abattoir and 30 from poultry and fish markets) were collected between May to August 2015. Cultural isolation, bio-typing and sero-grouping using Salmonella Sero-Quick Group Kit was conducted to analyse the samples. Seventy-five (75/260, 28.8 %) of the total samples were positive to Salmonella by cultural isolation and bio-typing. Thirty (30/130; 23.1 %) of samples collected in abattoir and 45 (45/130; 34.6 %) of those collected from poultry and fish markets were positive for Salmonella respectively. Sero-groups D+Vi (Salmonella Typhi), B (Salmonella Paratyphi B, Salmonella Typhimurium) and C (Salmonella Paratyphi C, Salmonella Cholerae suis) were identified as the prevailing sero-groups in this study. Sero-group D+Vi has the highest prevalence (73.3 %; 55/75) from the positive bio-typing isolates. This study revealed the presence of contaminating and pathogenic Salmonella on food contact surfaces and processing water in the meat retail markets, indicating there is an urgent need to improve on the hygienic status of retail meat, poultry and fish markets.
Design of a Test Rig for the Examination of Mechanical Properties of Rolling Bearings
Authors: Jurecki Rafał , Pokropiński Edward , Więckowski Dariusz , Żołądek Łukasz
Published: January 2017

The paper presents a design basis adopted for the construction of a test facility for the rig testing of rolling bearings. One of the methods of inspection of the bearings is the testing of the bearings as components having already been mounted in a specific machine component unit and tested in the conditions of operation of the unit as a whole. This article presents preliminary engineering requirements and the design of a special test rig for the examination of rolling bearings without the necessity of mounting the bearings in a specific machine component unit. The rig testing is widely used in consideration of numerous good points of such a method. The simulation testing of bearings (on test rigs) consists in reproducing as accurately as possible the real conditions of operation of the bearings when mounted in the device for which they are intended. The rigs used for such tests are complicated and expensive, but the results of such tests are more “reliable” and more accurately represent the impact of various operational factors (loads) on the durability of the bearings under test.
On the Necessity of Changes in the Strategy of Utilization Ship Boiler Technical Condition Maintenance in the Aspect of LNG Applied as Fuel
Authors: Adamkiewicz Andrzej , Zeńczak Wojciech
Published: January 2017

Heavy oils (HFO fuels) used on ships play a part in degradation of technical condition of heat exchange surfaces of utilization boilers especially on the exhaust gas side. Presence of sulphur in these fuels is the main factor favouring degradation. The upper limit for sulphur content in the fuel used outside the SECA areas equal to 3.5% is currently in force, at least until the year 2020 or 2025. The recommended by classification societies overhauls of utilization boilers are, therefore characterized by a specially chosen strategy thanks to which it is possible to maintain their appropriate technical condition. The requirement to use fuels with low sulphur content (LSFO), which are significantly more expensive than MDO fuels, in the areas of controlled sulphur emissions also led to a further introduction of alternative fuels, such as methanol and above all liquefied natural gas (LNG), onto ships. That is especially valid for the ship owners whose vessels e.g. ferries sail mainly within SCECA This article analyses the consequences of the introduced fuel change on utilization boiler maintenance. A change in the technical condition maintenance strategy for utilization boilers has been suggested.
Comparative Study of Light Sources for Household
Authors: Pawlak Andrzej , Zalesińska Małgorzata
Published: January 2017

The article describes test results that provided the ground to define and evaluate basic photometric, colorimetric and electric parameters of selected, widely available light sources, which are equivalent to a traditional incandescent 60-Watt light bulb. Overall, one halogen light bulb, three compact fluorescent lamps and eleven LED light sources were tested. In general, it was concluded that in most cases (branded products, in particular) the measured and calculated parameters differ from the values declared by manufacturers only to a small degree. LED sources prove to be the most beneficial substitute for traditional light bulbs, considering both their operational parameters and their price, which is comparable with the price of compact fluorescent lamps or, in some instances, even lower.
Digital optical processing of optical communications: towards an Optical Turing Machine
Authors: Touch Joe , Cao Yinwen , Ziyadi Morteza , Almaiman Ahmed , Mohajerin-Ariaei Amirhossein , Willner Alan E.
Published: January 2017

Optical computing is needed to support Tb/s in-network processing in a way that unifies communication and computation using a single data representation that supports in-transit network packet processing, security, and big data filtering. Support for optical computation of this sort requires leveraging the native properties of optical wave mixing to enable computation and switching for programmability. As a consequence, data must be encoded digitally as phase (M-PSK), semantics-preserving regeneration is the key to high-order computation, and data processing at Tb/s rates requires mixing. Experiments have demonstrated viable approaches to phase squeezing and power restoration. This work led our team to develop the first serial, optical Internet hop-count decrement, and to design and simulate optical circuits for calculating the Internet checksum and multiplexing Internet packets. The current exploration focuses on limited-lookback computational models to reduce the need for permanent storage and hybrid nanophotonic circuits that combine phase-aligned comb sources, non-linear mixing, and switching on the same substrate to avoid the macroscopic effects that hamper benchtop prototypes.
“The Muslim World” Question during the Interwar Era Global Imaginary, 1924–1945
Authors: Aydin Cemil
Published: January 2017

Any study of the League of Nations should pay close attention to the minimal representation of the imagined “Muslim world” in this organization during its first decade. While the Eurocentric imperial internationalism of the League was criticized by interwar Pan-Islamic internationalist networks, there were frequent attempts by Muslims to engage the League, make it hear Muslim demands and discontents, and, later on, to make it more inclusive of Muslim polities. The Muslim global imaginary of the world order then lacked any dominant unitary pattern. In this chaotic political space, subaltern Muslim networks tried to revive earlier Pan-Islamic notions of solidarity to empower the demands of weak Muslim populations. When the Axis empires of the Second World War tried to utilize some of these Pan-Islamic networks for propaganda purposes, their failures revealed the illusion of Muslim unity. It was the eventual failure of a global illusion of a Pan-Islamic alliance with an imperial sponsor during the Second World War that made the United Nations the international venue of choice for post-war global Muslim political imaginaries.
International Experts or Fascist Envoys? Alberto Theodoli and Pietro Stoppani at the League of Nations
Authors: Tollardo Elisabetta
Published: January 2017

This article seeks to shed new light on the complex nature of Italian agency in the League of Nations (LoN) and the Italians’ involvement in the international community that characterised Geneva in the interwar period. By analysing the actions and the networks of the Italians who worked in the League’s machinery, this article reveals the extent to which they were part of an international society emerging in Geneva. Through the experiences of Alberto Theodoli, chairman of the Permanent Mandates Commission, and Pietro Stoppani, director of the Economic Relations Section, this study concludes that Italian experts were fully part of the international society that flourished in interwar Geneva, being members of international networks and using their position to promote their agendas. However, these Italians were influenced in different ways by the Fascist regime and their attachment to the League’s internationalism varied. The article shows how the Fascist government realised the potential of the LoN world for promoting its foreign policy goals and legitimising the regime. Fascist Italy valued Geneva as a central forum for international relations and as a place where it could further its imperial ambitions.
The Red Swastika Society’s Humanitarian Work: A Re-interpretation of the Red Cross in China
Authors: Pfeiff Alexandra
Published: January 2017

This article examines the emergence of the Red Swastika Society, a Chinese faith-based humanitarian organization, and its development during the 1930s when political changes and war enforced a transformation of the organization and saw a strengthening of its adherence to Red Cross relief activities and Red Cross principles. This article suggests that despite growing similarities with the work of a national Red Cross Society throughout the 1930s, the organization retained its religious founding principles and practices, which distinguished its faith-based humanitarian mission from the larger Red Cross Movement.