Search results for "support"
showing 10 items of 2310 documents
A machine learning approach for user localization exploiting connectivity data
2016
The growing popularity of Location-Based Services (LBSs) has boosted research on cheaper and more pervasive localization systems, typically relying on such monitoring equipment as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which allow to re-use the same instrumentation both for monitoring and for localization without requiring lengthy off-line training. This work addresses the localization problem, exploiting knowledge acquired in sample environments, and extensible to areas not considered in advance. Localization is turned into a learning problem, solved by a statistical algorithm. Additionally, parameter tuning is fully automated thanks to its formulation as an optimization problem based only on co…
XML-based Knowledge Discovery for Linguistic Atlas of Sicily (ALS) Project
2009
The identification of new useful patterns in data is a core process for intelligent systems. Information overflow is directly related to this problem. In this work we propose a knowledge discovery methodology to retrieve useful and novel information from raw data stored in a DBMS. We used ALSDB, a database that has been built suitably to access structured information obtained from the questionnaires produced in the Linguistic Atlas of Sicily (ALS) project. The ALS project is a decennal joint effort led by researchers at the Dipartimento di Scienze Filologiche e Linguistiche of the University of Palermo that has the purpose to track and study the geo-linguistic and lexicographic processes ab…
Investigating Proactive Search Support in Conversations
2018
Conversations among people involve solving disputes, building common ground, and reinforce mutual beliefs and assumptions. Conversations often require external information that can support these human activities. In this paper, we study how a spoken conversation can be supported by a proactive search agent that listens to the conversation, detects entities mentioned in the conversation, and proactively retrieves and presents information related to the conversation. A total of 24 participants (12 pairs) were involved in informal conversations, using either the proactive search agent or a control condition that did not support conversational analysis or proactive information retrieval. Data c…
Text localization from photos
2009
In this paper a new text extraction algorithm is proposed. In real scenes the text is usually overlapped or is part of the background. To identify the text regions, in complex conditions, a method exploiting a “multi-resolution feature based method” for extracting text with undefined dimension has been developed. Once identified, the multi-resolution information are merged and skimmed through a set of Support Vector Machines (SVM). The tests and the comparisons with other techniques, performed on heterogeneous images, have shown the effectiveness of the proposed.
Time-Constrained Node Visit Planning for Collaborative UAV-WSN Distributed Applications.
2022
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are often studied as tools to perform data collection from Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Path planning is a fundamental aspect of this endeavor. Works in the current literature assume that data are always ready to be retrieved when the UAV passes. This operational model is quite rigid and does not allow for the integration of the UAV as a computational object playing an active role in the network. In fact, the UAV could begin the computation on a first visit and retrieve the data later. Potentially, the UAV could orchestrate the distributed computation to improve its performance, change its parameters, and even upload new applications to the sensor network…
Il sostegno alle imprese
2021
Il capitolo indaga il variegato e complesso sistema del sostegno pubblico alle imprese. In questa ottica, innanzitutto si prende in considerazione l’impatto delle crisi economiche sulle politiche di ausilio pubblico alle attività produttive. Successivamente si descrivono gli elementi di contesto con cui le politiche di incentivazione dei poteri pubblici devono fare i conti, ossia le sfide della globalizzazione economica e il quadro di regolazione dell’Unione europea, con il ruolo preminente che può essere svolto dagli istituti nazionali di promozione. Si analizzano, poi, le agevolazioni per la creazione di imprese e i meccanismi e le procedure per facilitare l’imprenditorialità nei territor…
Predicting depression from illness severity in cardiovascular disease patients: self-efficacy beliefs, illness perception, and perceived social suppo…
2014
Background: Many studies have investigated the relationships between cardiovascular diseases and patients' depression; nevertheless, few is still known as regard the impact of illness severity on depression and whether psychosocial variables mediate this association. Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the putative mediating role of illness representations, self-efficacy beliefs, and perceived social support on the relationship between illness severity and depression. Methods: A total of 75 consecutive patients with cardiovascular disease (80 % men; mean age=65.44, SD=10.20) were enrolled in an Italian hospital. Illness severity was measured in terms of left ventricular ejectio…
The relation between emotional support, self-concept, and social functioning among school-aged children
2013
The study examined the relations between perceived emotional support from parents and peers, self-concept and social functioning among a sample of school-aged children. The study had three main purposes. Firstly, the study was aimed at evaluating the association between emotional support perceived from parents and peers, and self concept. Secondly, the study was aimed at inquiring the existence of different children’s profiles on the basis of the level of perceived emotional support from parents and peers, and their self-concept. Finally, the study was aimed at exploring any difference that could have emerged in their social functioning. The participants were 270 children (F = 137, M = 133)…
A study on maternal-fetal attachment in pregnant women undergoing fetal echocardiography
2017
Purpose: To investigate the possible effects of the fetal echocardiography experience on the prenatal attachment process. The predictive effect of specific women’s psychological variables will be explored as well. Design and methods: This between groups study involved 85 women with pregnancy at risk who underwent the fetal echocardiography, and 83 women who were about to undergo the morphological scan. The tools employed were: the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (P.A.I.) to explore the maternal-fetal attachment; the Maternity Social Support Scale to investigate the woman perception of being socially supported during pregnancy; both the Big Five Questionnaire and the FACES III to explore the p…
Psychological variables characterizing different types of adolescent gamblers: A discriminant function analysis
2013
Objective: The study examined the effects of attachment attitudes, social support, and psychological and behavioral problems on pathological gambling among adolescents. Method: A total of 268 male adolescents, from 15 to 17 years of age (M = 16.23, SD = .39) completed self-report measures on gambling behaviors, attachment styles, social support, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Results and Conclusions. At-risk and pathological gamblers reported lower level of social support and higher level of fearful attachment and internalizing problems than non problematic-gamblers. Results from a discriminant function analysis, in which two discriminant functions emerged, were consistent wi…