Digital Commons Network^™

Image-Based Malware Classification Hybrid Framework Based On Space-Filling Curves, Stephen O Shaughnessy, Stephen Sheridan

Articles

There exists a never-ending “arms race” between malware analysts and adversarial malicious code developers as malevolent programs evolve and countermeasures are developed to detect and eradicate them. Malware has become more complex in its intent and capabilities over time, which has prompted the need for constant improvement in detection and defence methods. Of particular concern are the anti-analysis obfuscation techniques, such as packing and encryption, that are employed by malware developers to evade detection and thwart the analysis process. In such cases, malware is generally impervious to basic analysis methods and so analysts must use more invasive techniques to extract …

Interconnection And Damping Assignment Passivity-Based Non-Linear Observer Control For Efficiency Maximization Of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor, Youcef Belkhier, Abelyazid Achour, Miroslav Bures, Nasim Ullah, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

The permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) has several advantages over the DC motor and is gradually replacing it in the industry. The dynamics of the PMSM are described by non-linear equations; it is sensitive to unknown external disturbances (load), and its characteristics vary over time. All of these restrictions complicate the control task. Non-linear controls are required to adjust for non-linearities and the drawbacks mentioned above. This paper investigates an interconnection and damping assignment (IDA) passivity-based control (PBC) combined with a non-linear observer approach for the PMSM using the model represented in the dq-frame. The IDA-PBC approach has the inherent …

Modeling And Sensitivity Analysis Of Grid-Connected Hybrid Green Microgrid System, Sumit Sharma, Yog Raj Sood, Naveen Kumar Sharma, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Rania A. Turky, Salah Kamel

Articles

The demonstrated research work analyses the technoeconomic modelling and sensitivity analysis of the available resources for the rural community in India. The various resources used in this study are solar, wind, hydro, battery and utility grid-connected system. The usefulness of the on-grid system in the rural sector is that excess amount of electricity produced through renewable energy sources (RES) could be sold back to the utility grid. A total of 12 possible configurations of various resources with and without a grid-connected system was analyzed for minimum Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Total Net Present Cost (TNPC). Further, sensitivity analysis …

Effect Of Cryogenic Treatment On Drill Tool For Enhancing Metal Cutting Operation Of Aluminium Alloy Is737.Gr19000, G. Navaneethakrishnan, B. Sureshkumar, R. Palanisamy, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

Drilling is the hole making process on the component face with the aid of a twisted drillbit. Normal drill bits easily wear out through penetration of drill bit into the workpiece material due to force generated in the drilling operation. So this work tries to investigate the machining parameters with cryogenically treated drill bits on various responses. Cryogenic treatment is one of the thermal engineering processes, which is used to cool the material from the temperature of −150 °C to −273 °C. This research work utilizes cryogenically treated drill tools for investigating the drilling performance on aluminium alloy (IS737.Gr19000) workpiece …

Using Feature Selection With Machine Learning For Generation Of Insurance Insights, Ayman Taha, Bernard Cosgrave, Susan Mckeever

Articles

Insurance is a data-rich sector, hosting large volumes of customer data that is analysed to evaluate risk. Machine learning techniques are increasingly used in the effective management of insurance risk. Insurance datasets by their nature, however, are often of poor quality with noisy subsets of data (or features). Choosing the right features of data is a significant pre-processing step in the creation of machine learning models. The inclusion of irrelevant and redundant features has been demonstrated to affect the performance of learning models. In this article, we propose a framework for improving predictive machine learning techniques in the insurance sector …

Investigation Of The Combustion Of Exhaust Gas Recirculation In Diesel Engines With A Particulate Filter And Selective Catalytic Reactor Technologies For Environmental Gas Reduction, Megavath Vijay Kumar, Alur Veeresh Babu, Ch. Rami Reddy, A. Pandian, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

The Diesel Engine, invented by the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, was a marvelous creation that changed the way the automobile industry worked. It is an internal combustion engine that compresses air to elevate its pressure and temperature so high that the atomized diesel fuel undergoes combustion almost instantaneously when it is sprayed into the combustion chamber. The Major advantage of a Compression Ignition (CI) engine compared to a Spark Ignition (SI) engine is the higher compression ratio achieved in the former, making it more efficient. This makes diesel engines more suitable for heavy-duty vehicles, which require more torque to overcome …

Introduction To The Special Issue On Gala Conf 2021, Francesca De Rosa, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, Pierpaolo Dondio, Isa Marfizi-Schottman, Margarida Romero, Francesco Bellotti

Articles

This special issue of the International Journal of Serious Games is dedicated to the selected best papers of the 2021 edition of the GALA conference. This edition was organized by Francesca De Rosa and her team at NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimen-tation (CMRE), La Spezia, Italy. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was held online, for the second year. The three papers published in this special issue were first selected for a content exten-sion, so to make them suitable as journal papers, then underwent the regular IJSG peer-review process, which, on the other hand, discarded other three selected …

Human Mental Workload: A Survey And A Novel Inclusive Definition, Luca Longo, Christopher D. Wickens, Gabriella Hancock, P.A. Hancock

Articles

Human mental workload is arguably the most invoked multidimensional construct in Human Factors and Ergonomics, getting momentum also in Neuroscience and Neuroergonomics. Uncertainties exist in its characterization, motivating the design and development of computational models, thus recently and actively receiving support from the discipline of Computer Science. However, its role in human performance prediction is assured. This work is aimed at providing a synthesis of the current state of the art in human mental workload assessment through considerations, definitions, measurement techniques as well as applications, Findings suggest that, despite an increasing number of associated research works, a single, reliable and …

The Association Between Ambient Uvb Dose And Anca‑Associated Vasculitis Relapse And Onset, Jennifer Scott, Enock Havyarimana, Albert Navarro-Gallinad, Arthur White, Jason Wyse, Jos Van Geffen, Michiel Van Weele, Antonia Buettner, Tamara Wanigasekera, Cathal Walsh, Louis Aslett, John Kelleher, Julie Power, James Ng, Declan O’Sullivan, Lucy Hederman, Neil Basu, Mark A. Little, Lina Zgaga

Articles

The aetiology of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and triggers of relapse are poorly understood. Vitamin D (vitD) is an important immunomodulator, potentially responsible for the observed latitudinal differences between granulomatous and non-granulomatous AAV phenotypes. A narrow ultraviolet B spectrum induces vitD synthesis (vitD-UVB) via the skin. We hypothesised that prolonged periods of low ambient UVB (and by extension vitD deficiency) are associated with the granulomatous form of the disease and an increased risk of AAV relapse.

Modeling Cognitive Load As A Self-Supervised Brain Rate With Electroencephalography And Deep Learning, Luca Longo

Articles

The principal reason for measuring mental workload is to quantify the cognitive cost of performing tasks to predict human performance. Unfortunately, a method for assessing mental workload that has general applicability does not exist yet. This is due to the abundance of intuitions and several operational definitions from various fields that disagree about the sources or workload, its attributes, the mechanisms to aggregate these into a general model and their impact on human performance. This research built upon these issues and presents a novel method for mental workload modelling from EEG data employing deep learning. This method is self-supervised, employing …

Improving The Holographic Recording Characteristics Of A Water-Resistant Photosensitive Sol–Gel For Use In Volume Holographic Optical Elements, Brian Rogers, Tatsiana Mikulchyk, Mohamed Oubaha, Dervil Cody, Suzanne Martin, Izabela Naydenova

Articles

Continual improvements to holographic recording materials make the development of volume holographic optical elements increasingly more attainable for applications where highly efficient, lightweight diffractive optical elements can replace conventional optics. A fast-curing, water resistant photosensitive sol–gel capable of volume holographic recording has recently drawn attention for its extreme environmental and physical robustness, in particular its water/moisture and scratch resistance. However, to date, the refractive index modulation has been limited. While water-resistant properties are invaluable in the face of the weathering which many practical systems for outdoor applications will endure, high refractive index modulation is also important in order to facilitate …

A Study Of Tax Lawyers Discussing Duties, Michael Hatfield, Michelle Kwon

Articles

This Article reports the first qualitative empirical study of U.S. tax lawyers. We interviewed women lawyers who were tax planning specialists. Though this is the first such study of U.S. tax lawyers, this methodology has been used often to study the professional ethics of other tax practitioners around the world. We had three research questions that we sought to answer through dynamic conversations on topics such as the distinctions between good and bad tax plans and good and bad tax lawyers and also the joys and stresses of tax practice. Our first research question was as to the make-up of …

Enhancing Work-Integrated Learning Through South-North Collaboration: A Comparative Contextual Analysis, Christine Winberg, Frances Finn, Irene Sheridan, Penelope Engles-Hills, Henri Jacobs, Eleanor Kent

Articles

This study contributes a perspective on work-integrated learning (WIL) through the lens of South-North collaboration. The research question was: How might sharing experiences of WIL in different contexts enhance WIL practice in a local context? The purposive sample of twelve case studies; South Africa (n=6) and Ireland (n=6), represented business, engineering, biopharma and health sciences disciplines. Activity theory was drawn on to analyze data on program content, mechanisms and processes, and outcomes and challenges across the case studies. Key findings include: student support requirements, curricular modalities and assessment practices, levels at which WIL is offered, resourcing for WIL and understandings …

“A Force Created”: The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce And The Politics Of Corporate Immunity, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

Upon its founding in 1912, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was conceived as a “force created” to exert “a beneficent influence upon our national life” by integrating the views of the business community into governmental policies and regulations. That a force was created is beyond question. Beneficence is a separate issue.

Responding To Mass, Computer-Generated, And Malattributed Comments, Steven J. Balla, Reeve Bull, Bridget C.E. Dooling, Emily Hammond, Michael A. Livermore, Michael Herz, Beth Simone Noveck

Articles

A number of technological and political forces have transformed the once staid and insider dominated notice-and-comment process into a forum for large scale, sometimes messy, participation in regulatory decisionmaking. It is not unheard of for agencies to receive millions of comments on rulemakings; often these comments are received as part of organized mass comment campaigns. In some rulemakings, questions have been raised about whether public comments were submitted under false names, or were automatically generated by computer “bot” programs. In this Article, we examine whether and to what extent such submissions are problematic and make recommendations for how rulemaking agencies …

Contracts In The Age Of Smart Readers, Yonathan A. Arbel, Becher, Shmuel I.

Articles

No abstract provided.

What Is Consumer Protection For?, Luke Herrine

Articles

When law and economics barreled its way into consumer protection scholarship two score years ago, it brought with it the consumer sovereignty framework: an approach to analysis in which actual markets are compared to an ideal market in which consumers optimize exogenous welfare functions by choosing between optimally competitive sellers. Even after two decades of behavioralist critique and even with increasingly critical perspectives taking root since the Global Financial Crisis, this consumer sovereignty ideal continues to serve as both a descriptive and normative baseline for consumer protection scholarship.

This Article argues that it is time to reconsider the consumer sovereignty …

Moonshots, Matthew Wansley

Articles

In the last half-century, technological progress has stagnated. Rapid advances in information technology disguise the slow pace of productivity growth in other fields. Reigniting technological progress may require firms to invest in moonshots—long-term projects to commercialize innovations. Yet all but a few giant tech firms shy away from moonshots, even when the expected returns would justify the investment. The root of the problem is corporate structure. The process of developing a novel technology does not generate the kind of interim feedback that shareholders need to monitor managers and managers need to motivate employees. Managers who anticipate these agency problems invest …

Modeling Through, Ryan Calo

Articles

Theorists of justice have long imagined a decision-maker capable of acting wisely in every circumstance. Policymakers seldom live up to this ideal. They face well-understood limits, including an inability to anticipate the societal impacts of state intervention along a range of dimensions and values. Policymakers cannot see around corners or address societal problems at their roots. When it comes to regulation and policy-setting, policymakers are often forced, in the memorable words of political economist Charles Lindblom, to “muddle through” as best they can.

Powerful new affordances, from supercomputing to artificial intelligence, have arisen in the decades since Lindblom’s 1959 article …

An Improved Wild Horse Optimization Algorithm For Reliability Based Optimal Dg Planning Of Radial Distribution Networks, Mohammed Hamouda Ali, Salah Kamel, Mohamed H. Hassan, Marcos Tostado-Véliz, Hossam Zawbaa

Articles

This paper introduces a novel technique for optimal distribution system (DS) planning with distributed generation (DG) systems. It is being done to see how active and reactive power injections affect the system’s voltage profile and energy losses. DG penetration in the power systems is one approach that has several advantages such as peak savings, loss lessening, voltage profile amelioration. It also intends to increase system reliability, stability, and security. The main goal of optimal distributed generation (ODG) is a guarantee to achieve the benefits mentioned previously to increase the overall system efficiency. For extremely vast and complicated systems, analytical approaches …

Examining The Size Of The Latent Space Of Convolutional Variational Autoencoders Trained With Spectral Topographic Maps Of Eeg Frequency Bands, Taufique Ahmed, Luca Longo

Articles

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a technique of recording brain electrical potentials using electrodes placed on the scalp [1]. It is well known that EEG signals contain essential information in the frequency, temporal and spatial domains. For example, some studies have converted EEG signals into topographic power head maps to preserve spatial information [2]. Others have produced spectral topographic head maps of different EEG bands to both preserve information in The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Ludovico Minati . the spatial domain and take advantage of the information in the frequency domain [3]. …

Investigation Of The Suitability Of A Commercial Radiation Sensor For Pretherapy Dosimetry Of Radioiodine Treatment Patients, Janet O'Callaghan, Dervil Cody, Jennie Cody

Articles

Radioiodine (I-131) therapy is routinely used to treat conditions of the thyroid. Dosimetry planning in advance of I-131 therapy has been shown to improve patient treatment outcomes. However, this pretherapy dosimetry step requires multiple outpatient appointments and is not feasible for patients living at greater distances. Here, the feasibility of a commercially available smartphone-operated radiation sensor (Smart Geiger Pro, Technonia) for at-home patient pretherapy dosimetry has been investigated. The influence of both treatment-specific parameters (radioisotope activity, gamma photon energy, patient size) and external factors (sensor placement and motion) on the ability of the radiation sensor to accurately quantify radiation dose …

Deep Residual Policy Reinforcement Learning As A Corrective Term In Process Control For Alarm Reduction: A Preliminary Report, Ammar N. Abbas, Georgios C. Chasparis, John Kelleher

Articles

Conventional process controllers (such as proportional integral derivative controllers and model predictive controllers) are simple and effective once they have been calibrated for a given system. However, it is difficult and costly to re-tune these controllers if the system deviates from its normal conditions and starts to deteriorate. Recently, reinforcement learning has shown a significant improvement in learning process control policies through direct interaction with a system, without the need of a process model or the system characteristics, as it learns the optimal control by interacting with the environment directly. However, developing such a black-box system is a challenge when …

In-Flow Dynamics Of An Area-Difference-Energy Spring-Particle Red Blood Cell Model On Non-Uniform Grids, Brendan Walsh, Fergal Boyle

Articles

In this paper the area-difference-energy spring-particle (ADE-SP) red blood cell (RBC) structural model developed by Chen and Boyle is coupled with a lattice Boltzmann flux solver to simulate RBC dynamics. The novel ADE-SP model accounts for bending resistance due to the membrane area difference of RBCs while the lattice Boltzmann flux solver offers reduced computational runtimes through GPU parallelisation and enabling the employment of non-uniform meshes. This coupled model is used to simulate RBC dynamics and predictions are compared with existing experimental measurements. The simulations successfully predict tumbling, tank-treading, swinging and intermittent behaviour of an RBC in shear flow, and …

Tidal Current Turbine Blade Optimisation With Improved Blade Element Momentum Theory And A Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm, Eng Jet Yeo, David Kennedy, Fergal O'Rourke

Articles

Tidal current energy has the advantage of predictability over most of the other renewable energy resources. However, due to the harsh operating environment and complicated site conditions, developments in this domain have been gradual. Paramount to these points is device design and optimisation of hydrodynamic performance. Recent developments in the correction models of BEM theory have further improved the accuracy of the prediction model. Using an improved blade element momentum theory model that is capable of accurately capturing the downwash angle and combining it with a well-developed and reliable non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm model, an effective and efficient tidal current …

Building Performance - Societal Drive, Programme And Symposium, Joseph Little, Patrick Daly

Articles

Society is increasingly looking at the construction industry to mitigate the environmental crisis and solve the housing crisis through wholesale embrace of three broad sets of challenges. The MSc in Building Performance (Energy Efficiency in Design) (MSc BP(EED)) was created in 2017 to provide significant upskilling in the knowledge, skills, and software applications of building design professionals so that they can meet these challenges, while creating compliant, sustainable, super-low energy, new and renovated buildings. The delivery of the programme supports upskilling of employed building design professionals at Masters level, encouraging a minority to develop their capacity and interest in research …

Determining Realistic U-Values To Substitute Default U-Values In Epc Database To Make More Representative; A Case-Study In Ireland., Kumar Raushan, Ciara Ahern, Brian Norton

Articles

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are the foremost source of information on the energy performance of the EU’s building stock. Inherent in all EPC methodologies are trade-offs between reproducibility, accuracy, assessor expertise and costs. During an assessment, where accurate building data acquisition would be excessively invasive or costly, nationally specified default values are used.

Default values are necessarily pessimistic to; avoid a better-than-merited rating, enable homeowners to know the advantage of energetic refurbishment, encourage homeowners to record upgrades informing EPCs, and propel assessors to seek-out information to provide an accurate rating.

This work reviews default U-value use across Europe and the …

Mapping The Dna Damaging Effects Of Polypyridyl Copper Complexes With Dna Electrochemical Biosensors, Anna Banasiak, Nicolò Zuin Fantoni, Andrew Kellett, John Colleran

Articles

Several classes of copper complexes are known to induce oxidative DNA damage that mediates cell death. These compounds are potentially useful anticancer agents and detailed investigation can reveal the mode of DNA interaction, binding strength, and type of oxidative lesion formed. We recently reported the development of a DNA electrochemical biosensor employed to quantify the DNA cleavage activity of the well-studied [Cu(phen)₂]²⁺ chemical nuclease. However, to validate the broader compatibility of this sensor for use with more diverse—and biologically compatible—copper complexes, and to probe its use from a drug discovery perspective, analysis involving new compound libraries is …

Characterisation Of Holographic Recording In Environmentally Stable Photopolymerisable Glass, Tatsiana Mikulchyk, Pamela Stoeva, Alicja Kaworek, Mohamed Oubaha, Brian Rogers, Suzanne Martin, Dervil Cody, Izabela Naydenova

Articles

Photopolymerisable glasses are holographic recording materials which provide good recording capability, improved dimensional stability, and negligible shrinkage. Recently, a novel photopolymerisable hybrid sol-gel (PHSG) for holographic recording of volume gratings has been reported. The PHSG has significantly improved gelation time and high water resistance, both of which make it an attractive material for mass production of holographic optical elements (HOEs) with no sensitivity to ambient humidity. In order to achieve full control over the performance of the material and further improve its properties, a study of grating formation under holographic patterning is essential. This paper reports characterisation of the grating …

Charge Transfer Mediated Triplet Excited State Formation In Donor-Acceptor-Donor Bodipy: Application For Recording Of Holographic Structures In Photopolymerizable Glass, Tatsiana Mikulchyk, Safakath Karuthedath, Catherine S.P. De Castro, Andrey A. Buglak, Aimee Sheehan, Aaron Wieder, FréDéRic Laquai, Izabela Naydenova, Mikhail Filatov

Articles

Donor–acceptor–donor BODIPY triads bearing anthracene or pyrene as electron donating subunits were prepared through a stepwise synthesis. Photoinduced electron transfer and formation of long-lived triplet excited states via spin–orbit charge transfer intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC) was studied by steady-state and ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy and further supported by DFT computations. New BODIPYs were found to form triplet states and sensitize singlet oxygen in both polar and non-polar solvents which is unusual for photosensitizers operating via SOCT-ISC. BODIPY-anthracene triad (ABA) was used as a photosensitizer component in a photopolymerizable glass that was prepared by a four-step sol–gel process. ABA in combination with N …