Search results for " service"
showing 10 items of 2936 documents
Choosy beetles : How host trees and southern boreal forest naturalness may determine dead wood beetle communities
2021
Wood-living beetles make up a large proportion of forest biodiversity and contribute to important ecosystem services, including decomposition. Beetle communities in managed southern boreal forests are less species rich than in natural and near-natural forest stands. In addition, many beetle species rely primarily on specific tree species. Yet, the associations between individual beetle species, forest management category, and tree species are seldom quantified, even for red-listed beetles. We compiled a beetle capture dataset from flight intercept traps placed on Norway spruce (Picea abies), oak (Quercus sp.), and Eurasian aspen (Populus tremulae) trees in 413 sites in mature managed forest…
Thorough analysis of Raspberry Pi devices in outdoor/indoor communications in terms of QoS
2020
The proliferation of commercial low-cost Small Board Computers (SBC) devices have allowed the deployment of many Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) focused on different applications, mainly based on monitoring issues. These networks are characterized by a set of these SBCs devices working in a collaborative way where each device is sensing, processing and later sending out the data to the sink. These devices are equipped with power supply, a processing unit and communications capabilities (in particular WiFi), making themselves very interesting to fit in many topologies. However, their performance in terms of communications basically depends on the environment and usually heuristic techniques a…
Broker and Federation Based Cloud Networking Architecture for IaaS and NaaS QoS Guarantee
2016
International audience; Today, the Cloud networking aspect is a critical factor for adopting the Cloud computing approach. The main drawback of Cloud networking consists in the lack of Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee and management in conformance with a corresponding Service Level Agreement (SLA). This paper presents a framework for resource allocation according to an end-to-end SLA established between a Cloud Service User (CSU) and several Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in a Cloud networking environment. We focus on QoS parameters for Network as a Service (NaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services. In addition, we propose algorithms for the best CSPs selection to allocate Vi…
Cost-Effective eHealth System Based on a Multi-Sensor System-on-Chip Platform and Data Fusion in Cloud for Sport Activity Monitoring
2018
eHealth systems provide medical support to users and contribute to the development of mobile and quality health care. They also provide results on the prevention and follow-up of diseases by monitoring health-status indicators and methodical data gathering in patients. Telematic management of health services by means of the Internet of Things provides immediate support and it is cheaper than conventional physical presence methods. Currently, wireless communications and sensor networks allow a person or group to be monitored remotely. The aim of this paper is to develop and assess a system for monitoring physiological parameters to be applied in different scenarios, such as health or sports.…
Developing a Serious Game for Nurse Education.
2018
Future nursing education is challenged to develop innovative and effective programs that align with current changes in health care and to educate nurses with a high level of clinical reasoning skills, evidence-based knowledge, and professional autonomy. Serious games (SGs) are computer-based simulations that combine knowledge and skills development with video game–playing aspects to enable active, experiential, situated, and problem-based learning. In a PhD project, a video-based SG was developed to teach nursing students nursing care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in home health care and hospital settings. The current article summarizes the process of the SG devel…
Exploring how social interactions influence regulators and innovators: The case of regulatory sandboxes
2020
Like incubators, regulatory sandboxes constitute a prominent mechanism to enable entrepreneurial activities that guide financial technology (FinTech) firms through regulatory frameworks in the financial industry. Because they are new, there is a lack of research on regulatory sandboxes; most studies have investigated legal aspects while overlooking the management perspective. To address this gap, this paper builds on incubation research studies to explore how social interactions within regulatory sandboxes influence the practices of regulators and regulatees, using social capital theory. An exploratory-abductive approach is adopted, using data collected from 16 semi-structured interviews. T…
Reviewing the role of ecosystems services in the sustainability of the urban environment: A multi-country analysis
2020
The urban environment is characterised by many pressures caused by population growth, transport (and its related emissions), and the damage to green areas. Yet, there is a variety of ecosystem services available in urban areas, which may be deployed to ameliorate the current problems and foster their sustainability. This paper reviews the role of ecosystem services as tools for sustainability, based on an urban setting. It also describes a series of multi-country case studies, where an assessment of their functions using a set of benefits valuation approaches such as health benefits, economic benefits, social benefits and benefits to climate resilience, are provided, along with an appraisal…
Soil genetic erosion: New conceptual developments in soil security
2019
In the last decades, in some Mediterranean areas, pedodiversity decreased mainly due to pedotechnique application in large-scale farming that transformed original soils into Anthrosols. Supporting the consideration that soils can be considered as living systems, the original concept of 'soil genetic erosion' is re-proposed. Data, extrapolated and modeled from a Soil Information System in a study case representative of a Mediterranean landscape, predicted that most of the soil types would disappear in few years leading to a decrease of the soil diversity and originating soil genetic erosion. This circumstance is intentionally here told in form of a story where the fairy tale characters are s…
Learning of Cooperative Behaviour in Robot Populations
2016
This paper addresses convergence and equilibrium properties of game theoretic learning algorithms in robot populations using simple and broadly applicable reward/cost models of cooperation between robotic agents. New models for robot cooperation are proposed by combining regret based learning methods and network evolution models. Results of mean-field game theory are employed in order to show the asymptotic second moment boundedness in the variation of cooperative behaviour. The behaviour of the proposed models are tested in simulation results, which are based on sample networks and a single lane traffic flow case study.
Leveraging Partnerships with Logistics Service Providers in Humanitarian Supply Chains by Blockchain-based Smart Contracts
2019
As humanitarian organizations are struggling to reach an increasing number of beneficiaries, humanitarian-business partnerships, such as the use of logistics service providers (LSPs), promise to improve effectivity and efficiency of humanitarian assistance. Blockchain-based smart contracts which ensure automation, transparency, and efficiency promise to facilitate partnerships, particularly if trust is low. In this paper, blockchain-based smart contracts are critically examined for their application to humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). We identify various adoption barriers which we categorize into organizational, technological, and environmental. As the use of blockchain-based smart contra…