bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Computer Notebook with Thai and English Processing for the Visually Impaired
Authors: Tandayya Pichaya  , Suntiamorntut Wannarat  , Witosurapot Suntorn  , Jantaraprim Chatchai  , Chukumnird Worraprot  , Thinnagonsutibut Vorapol  , Limna Thanatip  , Madue Suppachai  , Niyompol Wiraman
Published: February 2025

This work concerns building a low-cost Thai Braille Computer Notebook for persons with visual impairments. It can enable opportunities for persons with visual impairments in Thailand to work or to be employed in the field of Information Technology by providing access to more powerful applications than those normally provided in general Braille notetakers. Therefore, a prototype of an inexpensive product has been developed using open source software, local-supplied parts and off-the shelf components, such as embedded PC and industrial Braille cells. Consequently, our developed system potentially yields high reliability, flexibility and compatibility with most commercial products. We developed both hardware and software for the system. Finally, our on-the-fly Thai and English processing capability is the key that allows the people with and without visual impairments to easily and simultaneously communicate with each other.
Day-Care Rehabilitation Support System for Higher Brain Dysfunction
Authors: Isobe Yukari  , Hirotomi Tetsuya  , Kobayashi Masato
Published: February 2025

People with higher brain dysfunction show executive impairments, attention deficits, and/or memory disorders. Monitoring and analyzing their activities during day-care rehabilitation is important to understand their individual needs. However, monitoring and analyzing these activities are cumbersome for clinicians. As a result, the rehabilitation is usually designed by the experiences of the clinicians and their interpretations of objective neuropsychological tests typically performed months earlier. For this reason, we developed a day-care rehabilitation support system. One of the real rehabilitation activities, a card game, has been implemented within the framework of this system. This system can record the user's interactions, such as mouse clicking and movements, and to analyze the results, for example, the number of correct and incorrect operations and the distance moved by the mouse can be determined. The system can be used to visualize these data via the following views: months, hours in a day, number of repetitions, and in a single game. The results of our case study conducted over several months suggest that quantitative observations using this system can be useful to understand individual characteristics.
Braille Reader Using Cellular Phone with Embedded Camera
Authors: Yoshino Kazuyoshi  , Zhang Shanjun
Published: February 2025

Braille, recently, has come to be written for the instructions of the elevators and the public place for blind people. However, only about 10% of people who are blind can read Braille. This paper describes a Braille reader system using a cellular phone embedded camera for people who are blind. The system extracts images of Braille dots from a photo taken by the phone camera according to Braille dot features using image-processing methods. The Braille dot features are the size and shape of areas extracted in the photo. Then, the system detects Braille cells by grouping the extracted images of dots according to the positional relation of the dots. After that, the system translates the detected Braille cells by searching a look-up table with the relationships between a Braille cell and a letter or a code, then reads aloud the translated text. In the evaluation experiment of the system, the successful translation rate was 67.5%.
Frontiers in Research on Human-Centered Dimensions of Disasters
Authors: Mendonça David
Published: February 2025

Multi-disciplinary research is needed on the human aspects of disaster management. Sociological research has been prominent in this field in recent decades Furthermore the tools available to do it have multiplied and improved in that time. There is a problem, however, with data access. Much of the data from these studies has yet to be digitized. Better organization and integration of researchers and technology is needed so as to maximize the outcomes of disaster research and minimize duplication of work.
Widespread Disastrous Events: The Case of the August 2003 Blackout and Other Electric Power Blackouts
Authors: Zimmerman Rae
Published: February 2025

Disasters that strike over a large area- such as large power blackouts-are especially hard to tackle since they preclude simply utilizing the resources of nearby unaffected areas. The number of such outages has been steadily rising in the US for decades, due to accidents and natural causes, but the possibility of relevant terrorist attacks must be considered too. Such events have cascading effects in a modern, technologically inter-connected state- transport, telecoms, water, and other infrastructure networks are soon affected by loss of power. These problems, and their solutions are multi-faceted and involve a number of agencies and institutions. Not only must electrical infrastructure be made more resilient so as to reduce the likelihood of large-scale failure, but procedures must be developed to make affected systems run again as soon as possible.
Security Expectations Today and Tomorrow: A Tangible List of Intangibles for a Safer World
Authors: Bader Anne
Published: February 2025

In today's ever more complex and interdependent world some ‘intangibles' of security are actually quite ‘tangible’. Understanding a wide range of relevant factors is essential if security is to be achieved and maintained. Whereas NATO's role is sometimes stated to be responding to conflicts it would surely be helpful if it also had a role in foreseeing and preventing conflicts. A good example of this would be an effort to curtail the selling (on the part of under paid soldiers) of surplus small arms in former Soviet states, which the author has herself witnessed. Networks of various parties- governmental, military, NGOs, etc.- can aid in this, and are indeed required for these efforts to be successful.
Being Muslim Being British: Preventing Extremist Violence Through Raising Integrative Complexity
Authors: Savage Sara  , Liht Jose  , Williams Ryan
Published: February 2025

Being Muslim Being British is a primary prevention initiative that raises participants' levels of integrative complexity (IC) as a means of preventing violent extremism and promoting social cohesion. The approach is based on changing ‘us-vs.-them’ perceptions of social reality by improving the quality of people's information processesing – achieving high Integrative Complexity (Suedfeld 2003), particularly in the domain of values, and is reputedly one of the first prevention programmes with empirically measurable outcomes benchmarked against extremist violence. Assessment research based on seven pilot courses around the UK (each course comprising eight modules) shows that IC rises significantly by the end of the course, in comparison with IC levels before the course, and that high IC significantly correlates with participants' choosing of pro-social activism rather than violent mobilisation. This chapter discusses the theoretical background for the intervention, and describes how the eight module course works, with illustrations from participant's verbalisations. Finally, the chapter positions this intervention with other forms of prevention in use around the world and details next steps in this work.
Knowledge Portal with Virtual Library on Security Studies
Authors: Shalamanov Velizar  , Semerdjiev Atanas  , Kalcheva Silvia
Published: February 2025

The current challenges facing security sector governance in the region make the development and implementation of vertical enterprise knowledge portals with focus on security, security sector and information technology (IT) studies imperative. Along with becoming an indispensable tool for security and IT experts, such knowledge portals also possess a solid potential to serve as tools for education and improvement of the qualification in the field. The article contains an overview on our approach to this problem, based on the integrated use of three advanced IT tools: knowledge management portal (KMP), Computer Assisted Exercise (CAX) environment and virtual library/ documentation.
Post-Wesphalian Statehood: The Case of Georgia
Authors: Jolicoeur Pierre
Published: February 2025

The State based on the Westphalian sovereignty is the foundation of the contemporary international system. However, in a time of failed states, globalization, military intervention justified on a humanitarian base, and increasingly relevant non-state actors, one can reasonably wonder: What is statehood? What affects statehood? And, what happens when a state comes up short?
Brain Perfusion and Neuropsychological Deficits in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Alegret Montserrat  , Vinyes-Junqué Georgina  , Boada Mercè  , Martínez-Lage Pablo  , Cuberas Gemma  , Espinosa Ana  , Roca Isabel  , Hernández Isabel  , Valero Sergi  , Rosende-Roca Maitée  , Mauleón Ana  , Becker James T.  , Tárraga Lluís
Published: February 2025

Visuoperceptual processing is impaired early in the clinical course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The 15-Objects test (15-OT), a visual discrimination task based on the Poppelreuter test consisting on 15 overlapping objects, detects such subtle performance deficits in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and mild AD. Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT) studies have reported reduced brain perfusion in temporal, parietal and prefrontal regions in early AD and MCI. The aim of the present study was to confirm the role of the 15-OT in the diagnosis of MCI and AD, and to investigate the brain perfusion correlates of visuoperceptual dysfunction in subjects with MCI, AD and normal aging. For this purpose, 42 AD, 42 MCI and 42 control subjects underwent a brain SPECT and separately completed the 15-OT. Results showed that the 15-OT performace was impaired in MCI and AD patients. In terms of SPECT scans, AD patients showed reduced perfusion in temporal-parietal regions, while MCI subjects had decreased perfusion in the middle and posterior cingulate. When MCI and AD groups were compared, a greater brain perfusion reduction was found in temporo-parietal regions in AD than MCI. In the whole sample, 15-OT performance was significantly correlated with clinical dementia rating scores, and with perfusion in the bilateral posterior cingulate and the right temporal pole, with no significant correlation in each separate group. Our findings suggest that the 15-OT performance provides a useful gradation of impairment from normal aging to AD, and it seems to be related to perfusion in the bilateral posterior cingulate and the right temporal pole.
Effects of Hypoperfusion in Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Austin Benjamin P.  , Nair Veena A.  , Meier Timothy B.  , Xu Guofan  , Rowley Howard A.  , Carlsson Cynthia M.  , Johnson Sterling C.  , Prabhakaran Vivek
Published: February 2025

The role of hypoperfusion in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a vital component to understanding the pathogenesis of this disease. Disrupted perfusion is not only evident throughout disease manifestation, it is also demonstrated during the pre-clinical phase of AD (i.e., mild cognitive impairment) as well as in cognitively healthy persons at high-risk for developing AD due to family history or genetic factors. Studies have used a variety of imaging modalities (e.g., SPECT, MRI, PET) to investigate AD, but with its recent technological advancements and non-invasive use of blood water as an endogenous tracer, arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI has become an imaging technique of growing popularity. Through numerous ASL studies, it is now known that AD is associated with both global and regional cerebral hypoperfusion and that there is considerable overlap between the regions implicated in the disease state (consistently reported in precuneus/posterior cingulate and lateral parietal cortex) and those implicated in disease risk. Debate exists as to whether decreased blood flow in AD is a cause or consequence of the disease. Nonetheless, hypoperfusion in AD is associated with both structural and functional changes in the brain and offers a promising putative biomarker that could potentially identify AD in its pre-clinical state and be used to explore treatments to prevent, or at least slow, the progression of the disease. Finally, given that perfusion is a vascular phenomenon, we provide insights from a vascular lesion model (i.e., stroke) and illustrate the influence of disrupted perfusion on brain structure and function and, ultimately, cognition in AD.
The Merits of FDDNP-PET Imaging in Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Shin Jonghan  , Kepe Vladimir  , Barrio Jorge R.  , Small Gary W.
Published: February 2025

2-(1-{6-[(2-[fluorine-18]fluoroethyl)(methyl)amino]-2-naphthyl}-ethylidene)malononitrile (FDDNP) is the first positron emission tomography (PET) molecular imaging probe to visualize Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in living humans. The most unique features of FDDNP are that (1) it is the only currently available radiotracer to image neurofibrillary tangles, beside amyloid aggregates, in living humans; and (2) it is also the only radiotracer to visualize AD pathology in the hippocampal region of living humans. In this article, we discuss FDDNP's unique ability to image tau pathology in living humans. Emphasizing tau pathology imaging capability using FDDNP in AD, as well as other tauopathies, is timely and beneficial considering that (1) post mortem histopathological studies using human specimens have consistently demonstrated that neurofibrillary tangles, compared with amyloid plaques, are better correlated with the disease severity and neuronal death; and (2) recently reported clinical trial failures of disease-modifying drugs in development, based on the amyloid-cascade hypothesis, suggest that some of the basic assumptions of AD causality warrant reassessment and redirection.
White Matter Microstructure in Relation to Education in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Teipel Stefan J.  , Meindl Thomas  , Wagner Maximilian  , Kohl Thomas  , Bürger Katharina  , Reiser Maximilian F.  , Herpertz Sabine  , Möller Hans-Jürgen  , Hampel Harald
Published: February 2025

The reduced risk of dementia in high-educated individuals has been suggested to reflect brain reserve capacity. In the present study we determined the association between integrity of white matter microstructure and education separately in twenty-one patients with clinically probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 18 healthy elderly subjects. We used fractional anisotropy derived from high-resolution diffusion-tensor weighted imaging at 3 Tesla as in vivo marker of white matter microstructure. Based on multivariate network analysis, more years of education were associated with reduced white matter integrity of medial temporal lobe areas and association fiber tracts when age, gender and dementia severity had been controlled for (p < 0.001). In controls, higher education was associated with greater white matter integrity in medial temporal lobe areas and association fiber tracts (p < 0.001). In multiple regression models, education was the main factor accounting for fiber tract integrity even when occupation was taken into account. Reduced fiber tract integrity with higher education at the same level of cognitive impairment in AD patients and higher fiber tract integrity with higher education in similar white matter areas in cognitively healthy controls agrees with the hypothesis that white matter microstructure may contribute to brain reserve capacity in humans. A better understanding of the neurobiological basis of reserve capacity will be of high relevance for designing future studies on cognitive intervention approaches to prevent dementia in at risk subjects.
Validation and Pilot Application of [
Authors: Tzimopoulou Sofia  , Cunningham Vincent J.  , Nichols Thomas E.  , Searle Graham  , Bird Nick P.  , Mistry Prafull  , Dixon Ian J.  , Hallett William A.  , Whitcher Brandon  , Brown Andrew P.  , Zvartau-Hind Marina  , Lotay Narinder  , Lai Robert Y.K.  , Castiglia Mary  , Jeter Barbara  , Matthews Julian C.  , Chen Kewei  , Bandy Dan  , Reiman Eric M.  , Gold Michael  , Rabiner Eugenii A.  , Matthews Paul M.
Published: February 2025

Here we describe methods for application of quantitative fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ([18F]FDG-PET) measures of brain glucose metabolism in multi-centre clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease. We validated methods and demonstrated their use in the context of a treatment trial with the PPARγ agonist Rosiglitazone XR versus placebo in mild to moderate AD patients. Novel quantitative indices related to the combined forward rate constant for [18F]FDG uptake \(({K}_{i}^{index})\) and to the rate of cerebral glucose utilization \((CM{R}_{glu}^{index})\) were applied. Active treatment was associated with a sustained but not statistically significant trend from the first month for higher mean values in both. However, neither these nor another analytical approach recently validated using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative suggested that active treatment decreased the progression of decline in brain glucose metabolism. Rates of brain atrophy were similar between active and placebo groups and measures of cognition also did not demonstrate clear group differences. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of using [18F]FDG-PET as part of a multi-centre therapeutics trial and describes new measures that can be employed. It suggests that Rosiglitazone is associated with an early increase in whole brain glucose utilisation, but not with any biological or clinical evidence for slowing progression over the period of study in the selected patient group.
Impact of Vascular Risk Factors on Brain Structure
Authors: Knopman David S.  , Roberts Rosebud
Published: February 2025

The major vascular risk factors such as diabetes and impaired glycemic control, hypertension, obesity and hyper- or dyslipidemia have been associated both with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. The purpose of this review is to consider how vascular risk factors impact the expression of cognitive impairment in the elderly. The review will focus on how vascular risk factors are associated with changes in brain imaging and neuropathological changes. Midlife diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity are the most important vascular risk factors on the basis of their prevalence and associations with late-life cognitive impairment. The basis for their relationships to changes in brain integrity could either be through microvascular brain disease, Alzheimer pathology or both. Midlife vascular risk factors represent potentially modifiable conditions that could mitigate disease in the future.
Imaging in Alzheimer's Disease and Its Pre-States
Authors: Smith Charles D.
Published: February 2025

This review uses an image-indexed framework for describing findings at key points during the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), emphasizing recent contributions to the literature. Modalities considered include morphometric, diffusion tensor, and functional magnetic resonance imaging, resting and functional metabolic imaging and amyloid-label positron emission tomography. The major focus is on the AD pre-states (normal but high future AD risk, and mild cognitive impairment - MCI), and transition from MCI to mild AD. Imaging results relevant to the conduct of future prevention and early intervention trials are emphasized.
Principles of Classification Analyses in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease
Authors: Haller Sven  , Lovblad Karl O.  , Giannakopoulos Panteleimon
Published: February 2025

The majority of advanced neuroimaging studies implement group level analyses contrasting a group of patients versus a group of controls, or two groups of patients. Such analyses may identify for example changes in grey matter in specific regions associated with a given disease. Although such group investigations provided key contributions to the understanding of the pathological process surrounding a wide range of diseases, they are of limited utility at an individual level. Recently, there is a trend towards individual classification analyses, representing a fundamental shift of the research paradigm. In contrast to group comparisons, these latter studies do not provide insights on vulnerable brain areas but may allow for an early (and ideally preclinical) identification of at risk individuals in routine clinical setting. One currently very popular method in this domain are support vector machines (SVM), yet this method is only one of many available methods in the field of individual classification analyses. The current manuscript reviews the fundamental properties and features of such individual level classification analyses in neurodegenerative diseases.
When Authors and Scientists Collide Invited Talk
Authors: Appleby Robert
Published: February 2025

‘When it changed’ and ‘Litmus’ have been two recent book projects from Comma Press, which brought together authors and scientists to produce anthologies of science-based short stories. Each story arose from the direct collaboration of one author and one scientist, and each was followed by a discussion of the motivating science. In this talk I will describe the interaction between myself as a scientist and two of the authors, our process of figuring out how to work together and the science of the two stories produced.
Song of Iliad
Authors: Kymäläinen Tiina
Published: February 2025

The short story “Song of Iliad” describes a future music therapy “performance space” in which children around the globe create music together, form a band and perform for others. The story encapsulates the human-driven design approach and presents an example of how future design processes might exploit emotion-driven design in creating highly personified products and services.
Internet of ‘Mysterious’ Things
Authors: McCulllagh Paul
Published: February 2025

This fictional story uses technological advances in the fields of sensor technology, personal area network communications, and ambient assisted living, to explore the possibilities for future assisted health and wellbeing. It occurs in three time frames: past, present and slightly into the future (Sept 2011). Most of the hardware mentioned in the story is working, either in everyday life or is under development by companies for specialist sports and leisure applications. However the sensor to predict acute myocardial infarction is speculative and may be seen as the ‘holy grail’ of sensors, facilitating prediction of adverse events, and allowing preemptive treatment. Communication within the personal area network and to/from the Internet, realizes the concept of an “Internet of Things”. As always the software struggles to catch up with the hardware, in order to provide a usable and reliable system. The software is depicted as a set of communicating intelligent agents, under the control of a dubious ‘virtual’ coach, and this introduces uncertainty and mystery. The story unwinds during the Berlin marathon 2011, a fitting setting to test whether stress can be assessed using ambulatory technology. Hans Fallada's novel, “Alone in Berlin” set in the 1940's and David Bowie's Berlin trilogy of alternative music recordings, produced in the late 70's, provide ominous and foreboding backdrops to the story.
A Layered Architecture for Situation Aware Home Environments
Authors: Ferilli Stefano  , Cavone Davide  , De Carolis Berardina  , Novielli Nicole
Published: February 2025

This paper illustrates our work concerning the development of a layered architecture for deciding the situation-aware behavior of a Smart Home Environment (SHE). In the proposed approach, the surface level is directly embedded in the environment, while deeper levels represent the control software and perform progressively abstract and conceptual activities whose results can be fed back to the outside world (environment, user, supervisor). In particular, the reasoning layer is in charge of interpreting and transforming the data, collected through sensors of the smart environment, into high level knowledge about the situation. On the other hand, the learning layer, based on Inductive Logic Programming, suitably exploits the interaction of the user with the system to refine the user model and improve its future behavior. Finally, we provide the description of a typical scenario in which the proposed architecture might operate, along with a practical example of how the system might work.
Creating Adaptive Intelligent Environments by means of Multimodal Dialogue and Learning Systems
Authors: Espejo Gonzalo  , Azitiria Asier  , Augusto Juan Carlos  , Lopez-Cozar Ramon
Published: February 2025

Intelligent Enivironments are suppose to provide easy-to-use interaction systems in order to allow the users to communicate their desires in a natural way. Besides, Intelligent Environments should act proactively anticipating user's needs and preferences in order to provide effective support. For that, we have created two complementary systems. On the one hand, a multimodal dialogue systems to provide more than one option on interactions, whilst on the other, a learning system to discover user's frequent behaviors
The VoiceApp System: Speech Technologies to Facilitate Web Access
Authors: Griol David  , Corrales Víctor  , Callejas Zoraida  , López-Cózar Ramón  , Espejo Gonzalo  , Ábalos Nieves
Published: February 2025

The main objective of maximizing accessibility is not always taken into account in the design of web applications, specifically to facilitate access for disabled people. In this paper we present a multimodal dialog system that demonstrates the potential of the XHTML+Voice standard for the access to Internet by means of speech. The system consists of several modules to access web information. This contribution is focused on three of them. Voice Dictionary allows the multimodal access to the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Voice Pronunciations has been developed to facilitate the learning of new languages by means of games with words and images. Voice Search Engine is a complete, fast and effective multimodal web search engine. All the applications in the system can be accessed using the keyboard and mouse, or through the users' speech, using also multimodality to present the results.
Camera Based Fall Detection Using Multiple Features Validated with Real Life Video
Authors: Debard Glen  , Karsmakers Peter  , Deschodt Mieke  , Vlaeyen Ellen  , Van Den Bergh Jonas  , Dejaeger Eddy  , Milisen Koen  , Goedemé Toon  , Tuytelaars Tinne  , Vanrumste Bart
Published: February 2025

More than thirty percent of persons over 65 years fall at least once a year and are often not able to get up again unaided. The lack of timely aid can lead to severe complications such as dehydration, pressure ulcers and death. A camera based fall detection system can provide a solution. In this paper we compare four different fall features extracted from the dominant foreground object, as well as various combinations thereof. All tests are executed using real life data, which has been recorded at the home of 4 elderly, containing 24 falls. Experiments indicate that a fall detector based on a combination of aspect ratio, head speed and fall angle is preferred. The preliminary detector, which still has a substantial false alarm rate with a precision of 0.257(±0.073) and a promising recall of 0.896(±0.194), gives insights for further improvement as is discussed.
Towards affection integration on context-aware recommendation of semantically annotated routes
Authors: Mocholi Jose A.  , Jaen Javier  , Catala Alejandro
Published: February 2025

Modern technology has brought many changes to our everyday lives. Our need to be in constant touch with others has been met with the cellphone, which has become our companion and the convergence point of many technological advances. The combination of capabilities such as browsing the Internet and GPS reception has multiplied the services and applications based on the current location of the user. However, providing the user with these services has certain drawbacks. Although map navigation systems are the most meaningful way of displaying this information, the user still has to manually set up the filter in order to obtain a non-bloated visualization of the map and the available services. To tackle this problem, we present here a semantic multicriteria ant colony algorithm capable of learning the user's routes, including associated context information, and then predicting the most likely route a user is following, given his current location and context data. We also propose an affective component for the algorithm that will add a value to routes likelihood score so it will emphasize those predicted routes that could affect positively user experience or emotional state. This knowledge could then be used as the basis for offering services related to his current (or most likely future) context data close to the path he is following.
Similarity Pattern Mining in Intelligent Office Environments
Authors: Puteh Saifullizam  , Langensiepen Caroline  , Lotfi Ahmad
Published: February 2025

This paper discusses the issues associated with maintaining an office workplace that increases worker comfort while still minimising power use. We use a range of non-intrusive sensors to monitor office worker behaviour and categorise it so that predictions may be made of the likely behaviour of the office user over a period of time. Similarities in behavioural pattern of different users are investigated. Binary distance and similarity measures, fuzzy distance measure and the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm are used to measure the difference between user patterns and subsequently categorise activities for subsequent energy and comfort optimisation.
Biological Immune System as Metaphor for Ambient Intelligence Systems
Authors: Husáková Martina
Published: February 2025

A biological immune system ensures the stability and the integrity of an organism. Living without it is not conceivable. The paper explains why the deeper study of a biological immune system in relation to ambient intelligence systems is relevant. It answers the question whether the properties and mechanisms of biological immune system can serve as inspiration in ambient intelligence systems design and development. The paper investigates the usage of the clonal selection-based algorithm for identification of unauthorized persons in workplaces.
Model-Fitting for Automated and Robust Determination of Pulmonary Oxygen Exchange
Authors: Fung Nick  , Lasenby Joan  , Jones J. Gareth  , Ross Russell Rob
Published: February 2025

A methodology was created for quantifying a subject's pulmonary oxy-gen exchange from PIO2and SaO2measurements, where PIO2is the partial pressure of inspired oxygen and SaO2
Love and God and Robots: The Science Behind the Science Fiction Prototype “Machinery of LoveGrace”
Authors: Johnson Brian David
Published: February 2025

This paper is an introduction to the short story and science fiction prototype The Machinery of Love and Grace. We cover a brief overview of the goals of science fiction prototyping as well as an example for how both Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud used a very similar process to achieve greatness in their work. Finally we look into the specific science behind the story The Machinery of Love and Grace and conclude with the full story.
Generic Brain-computer Interface for Social Networks and Rehabilitation Assistance
Authors: Guger Christoph  , Hintermüller Christoph  , Edlinger Günter
Published: February 2025

After suffering from a severe disease like spinal cord injury or stroke, patients are often unable to interact or even communicate with their environment anymore, especially at the beginning of rehabilitation. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can substitute these temporarily lost communication channels. They also might support rehabilitation by providing an alternative way to control a computer: by thoughts without any muscle activity. This enables the patient to communicate by writing letters on the screen, and stay in social contact with friends or people outside of the rehabilitation facility by participating in games like Second Life©where they may appear as healthy people. Another application is to control items in their room that are connected to the BCI system, like the lights, which can be turned on and off (as can be done in a virtual smart home without leaving the bed). In this paper, the technology of such BCIs and the mentioned applications are described utilizing the P300 approach. A generic BCI interface is presented which allows concurrent control of the different applications and the ability to switch transparently among them. The results of a recent study show that a BCI can be used by patients suffering from cervical spinal cord injury almost as well as by healthy people. This encourages us to think that by enabling the user to socially interact and communicate easily, these applications may assist in rehabilitation and slow down the progress of late syndromes.
Do Persistent Postconcussive Symptoms Exist? Evidence from Epidemiological and Laboratory Studies
Authors: Spira James L.
Published: February 2025

There is little doubt as to the existence of persistent post concussive symptoms (PPCSx) more than three months post concussion. However, much controversy exists as to the cause of such persistent symptoms, with some claiming that they are not directly due to concussion per se, but instead from psychological disorders such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression. Data from 12,000 recently deployed service members reveal that the strongest predictor of PPCSx is indeed PTSD and depression. However, a subset of service members complaining of PPCSx cannot be explained by psychological variables. Additional research revealed that post-deployment service members with PTSD who also suffered from concussion have greater autonomic dysregulation than those with PTSD alone. Together, this research suggests that it is preliminary to discount the possibility that a subset of those complaining of PPCSx have persistent problems due exclusively to PTSD and depression.
Traumatic Stress and Injury of the Brain: the Dangerous Liaisons – a Case Study
Authors: Tworus Radosław  , Ilnicki Stanisław  , Zbyszewski Maciej
Published: February 2025

We present the case of a soldier evacuated from Iraq because of traumatic stress symptoms with accompanying somatic syndromes. The symptoms occurred after explosion of a rocket that exploded approximately 40 meters away from him. Immediately after evacuation back to Poland, upon admission to the Clinic of Psychiatry and Combat Stress in Warsaw, he reported continuous internal anxiety, as well as many somatic symptoms. Psychological examination showed symptoms suggesting developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) without any other irregularities including disorders connected with micro-damage of the central nervous system. During a prolonged stay in the clinic, despite medication and applied psychotherapy, the PTSD symptoms remained. With further observation it was found out that the patient suffers from a hearing disorder dissimulated by him by means of lip reading. The examination showed a significant double hearing loss, as well as a deformed nasal septum, and a longitudinal hypodensic area of a scar, located at the base of the left frontal lobe. The case presented shows that there may be comorbidity of PTSD symptoms and mild organic brain damage (mTBI), and disorders of some of the receptors (in this case, hearing).
High-Performance Computing on Heterogeneous Systems: Database Queries on CPU and GPU
Authors: Ilić Aleksandar  , Pratas Frederico  , Trancoso Pedro  , Sousa Leonel
Published: February 2025

Current desktop computers are heterogeneous systems that integrate different types of processors. For example, general-purpose processors and GPUs do not only have different characteristics but also adopt diverse programming models. Despite these differences, data parallelism is exploited for both types of processors, by using application processing interfaces such as OpenMP and CUDA, respectively. In this work we propose to collaboratively use all these types of processors, thus increasing the amount of data parallelism exploited. In this setup, each processor executes its own optimized implementation of a target application. To achieve this goal, a platform has been developed composed of a task scheduler and an algorithm for runtime dynamic load balancing using online performance models of the different devices. These models are built without relying on any prior assumptions on the target application or system characteristics. The modeling time is negligible when several instances of a class of applications are executed in sequence or for iterative applications. As a case study, a database application is chosen to illustrate the usage of the proposed algorithm for building the performance models and to achieve dynamic load balancing. Experimental results clearly show the advantage of collaboratively using a quad-core processor along with a GPU. In practice, a performance improvement of about 42% is achieved by applying the proposed techniques and tools to Query Q3 of the TPC-H Decision Support System benchmark.
The History of the Grid
Authors: Foster Ian  , Kesselman Carl
Published: February 2025

With the widespread availability of high-speed networks, it becomes feasible to outsource computing to remote providers and to federate resources from many locations. Such observations motivated the development, from the mid-1990s onwards, of a range of innovative Grid technologies, applications, and infrastructures. We review the history, current status, and future prospects for Grid computing.
Shaping the Petaflop-Era in Europe – Supercomputing Made in Jülich
Authors: Eicker Norbert  , Lippert Thomas
Published: February 2025

Recent developments in the field of supercomputing in Germany and Europe are presented. JUGENE, the highly scalable IBM Blue Gene/P system at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), the first Petaflop-supercomputer in Europe, started operation in July 2009. Additionally, the JSC has installed a 300 Teraflop supercomputer, JUROPA, a next-generation general purpose cluster system following JSC's p690 JUMP. JSC designed and constructed JUROPA in a two-years effort, supported by its industrial partners Bull, SUN, INTEL, Mellanox, Novell and ParTec. One third of JUROPA is named HPC-FF, a system for fusion research. After achieving the high rank 10 in the TOP500 list and number 2 in Europe, JUROPA/HPC-FF became operational in August 2009. With these systems, the JSC has finally realized its concept of a dual system complex, which is adapted to meet the requirements of the NIC application portfolio, both flexibility and scalability, as effective as possible. Additionally, the JSC was co-designing, benchmarking and is now hosting a 100-Teraflop/s QPACE system developed by the SFB/TR 55 “Hadron Physics”, the most energy efficient supercomputer as to 2009 and 2010. Coordinated by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, the preparation phase project for the European supercomputing infrastructure managed by the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe was finalized by mid of 2010. It is followed by the first implementation phase project, again coordinated by the JSC, which started mid of 2010. In spring 2010 the statutes of the European Supercomputing Research Infrastructure were signed and JUGENE started contributing as the first supercomputer to PRACE in August 2010.
Crosscloud Computing
Authors: Matsunaga Andréa  , Riteau Pierre  , Tsugawa Maurício  , Fortes José
Published: February 2025

The growing number of commercial and scientific clouds strongly suggests that in the near future users will be able to combine cloud services to build new services, a plausible scenario being the case when users need to aggregate capabilities provided by different clouds. In such scenarios, it will be essential to provide virtual networking technologies that enable providers to support crosscloud communication and users to deploy crosscloud applications. This chapter describes one such technology, its salient features and remaining challenges. It also makes the case for crosscloud computing, discussing its requirements, challenges possible technologies and applications.
Semantic Space in Electrical Wheelchairs and Scooters from Users
Authors: Chicote Juan C.  , Durá Juan V.
Published: February 2025

Semantic Differential technique has been applied to a group of 28 people, and sample consists of 28 products. The semantic space is formed by 5 semantic axes: safe, fashionable, light, mobile and customized. There is a relation between the intention to purchase and the semantic axes, and they take up to 31.4% of the total purchase intention. The semantic axis “safe” is the most related to the intention to purchase. All product analyzed have a good assessment in the semantic axis “mobile”. However, some wheelchairs have poor assessment in the axes “fashionable”, “light”, and “customized”. Then, these axes could be encouraged in order to have a major impact on the users' perception.
Home services over a flexible platform
Authors: Fagerberg Gunnar
Published: February 2025

Objective. The field of ambient assisted living (AAL) is attracting increasing attention from policymakers, industry and the general public. The reason is the growing number of elderly persons and the opportunities provided by new technological advances. The objective of MonAMI (Mainstreaming on Ambient Intelligence) is to demonstrate that accessible and useful services for elderly and disabled persons at home can be delivered on a mainstream, open-standard, flexible platform. A number of issues related to the market, exploitation, policies and business opportunities are also being addressed.
Development of an integrated telehealth system to facilitate self management of long term conditions
Authors: Haywood Annette  , Brownsell Simon  , Hawley Mark S.  , Mountain Gail A
Published: February 2025

Objective. This paper describes the user-centred specification, development and evaluation of a prototype telehealth system, capable of enhancing self management for people with congestive heart failure (CHF). The overall aim is to produce a system to enable people with a range of long term conditions to self manage. CHF is one of three exemplar conditions under investigation in the SMART2 (Self Management supported by Assistive, Rehabilitative and Telecare Technologies) project.
The ICT Question Project – Web surveys on ICT and telecom for people with disabilities
Authors: Karlsson Jessica
Published: February 2025

Objective. The ICT Question Project is a national project based on cooperation between the Swedish Institute of Assistive Technology (SIAT) and the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). The aim of the project is to create a dialogue with people with disabilities and systematically acquire knowledge about how users of the different groups perceive today´s technology, how services and applications are working in their daily lives and disseminate the result to the outside world like organizations, community agencies, industries and users groups.
Services for seniors - experience of testing in Slovakia field trials
Authors: Šimšík Dušan  , Galajdová Alena  , Siman Daniel  , Novák Marek  , Galajda Pavol
Published: February 2025

Objectives. At present, ICT technologies may support independent living and improve the quality of life of elderly and disabled people, though they are currently available on a market as autonomous solutions with specific tasks. The goal of MonAMI project is to demonstrate that accessible and useful services can be delivered in mainstream systems and platforms, combining available technology in a system with additional user experience value. Supportive systems like MonAMI are not very used and available in Slovakia nowadays. The paper focuses on MonAMI system architecture and evaluates field trials in Slovakia, running by the Technical University of Košice.
From cognitive ergonomist to psychotechnologist: a new professional profile in a multidisciplinary team in a centre for technical aids
Authors: Federici Stefano  , Corradi Fabrizio  , Mele Maria Laura  , Miesenberger Klaus
Published: February 2025

Objective. The aim of this work is to introduce the professional figure of the psychotechnologist, with particular reference to the specific contexts of application of the assistive technology assignation process in a centre for technical aids.
The Why and How of training staff in Person Centred Technology
Authors: Lembrechts Dirk  , Hoogerwerf Evert-Jan
Published: February 2025

Objective. The overall aim of the ImPaCT in Europe project (co-ordinated by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) and funded through the EC-Lifelong Learning Programme) is to facilitate the development and implementation of Person Centred Technology (PCT) for the benefit of key stakeholders within the health and social care sectors in Europe, namely service providers, care staff and end users. One of the tasks of the project is to provide a background study concerning the need for training of staff belonging to health and social care providers.
Assistive Technology Service Method (ATSM)
Authors: Elsaesser Linda  , Bauer Stephen  , Scherer Marcia
Published: February 2025

Objective. This paper presents the assistive technology service method (ATSM), an evidence-based framework based in part on the WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), to improve international assistive technology services. Introduction of the Assistive Technology Device Classification (ATDC) into this method provides a connection between devices and function. The Matching Person and Technology (MPT) model demonstrates the impact of contextual factors on achieving satisfaction with and benefit from these services. The ATSM, ATDC and the MPT support the principles of Design for All (DfA) as the most effective and efficient approach for advancing the independence of all people regardless of their age, size or abilities.