Kendall Transformation: A Robust Representation of Continuous Data for Information Theory

Kendall transformation is a conversion of an ordered feature into a vector of pairwise order relations between individual values. This way, it preserves ranking of observations and represents it in a categorical form. Such transformation allows for generalisation of methods requiring strictly categorical input, especially in the limit of small number of observations, when discretisation becomes problematic.In particular, many approaches of information theory can be directly applied to Kendall-transformed continuous data without relying on differential entropy or any additional parameters. Moreover, by filtering information to this contained in ranking, Kendall transformation leads to a better robustness at a reasonable cost of dropping sophisticated interactions which are anyhow unlikely to be correctly estimated. In bivariate analysis, Kendall transformation can be related to popular non-parametric methods, showing the soundness of the approach.The paper also demonstrates its efficiency in multivariate problems, as well as provides an example analysis of a real-world data.

Vyaapaar – B2B Outsourcing Platform

The project is a responsive Web application that will allow businesses from a variety of industries to register, upload, and bid on projects. Businesses on this platform will provide their project requirements and budget, and other businesses in that domain will be able to bid on their quote and provide their business profile. The project owner can then award their project to the company that best meets their budget and requirements. The primary goal of this project is to provide opportunities for businesses to assist one another during these difficult times due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This project provides registered businesses with a platform to outsource their projects at a reasonable cost with no or minimal workforce, and businesses that are out of business or trying to survive economically will be able to get enough business to sustain themselves by bidding and proposing to projects available on the Vyaapaar application's platform. Keywords: outsourcing, business-to-business, web application, mobile application

Review of Online Food Delivery Industry of India

Earlier people used to go to the hotel, but the scenario has changed drastically in last few years. Due to changes in lifestyle and recent pandemic situations the lifestyle of Indians has changed considerably. This has given tremendous boost to the online food delivery business. In recent time, India has witnessed rapid increase in number of food delivery startups, supporting the aspirations of millions of urban citizens of India. Currently Indian food delivery market is occupied by global, national as well as local business establishments in this food delivery industry. Zomato, Foodpanda, Swiggy, Uber Eats, Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Mc Donald’s are a few major names which are predominant. The users get wider choice of all the online available hotels through menu of the restaurants at a very reasonable cost and that too at their home. It saves time, travelling cost of the users. All this process of food delivery system comprises few fundamental components. Among that the first is the cooking of the food product as per the requirements of the online customers and delivering these food products through online platform is the basic business model which is used. As the customer’s choices are varying with time this system will be evolving with innovative ideas to meet the changing requirements and expectations of the customers. This business models uses basically requirement of the customers; motivating them for bringing the dynamism within the market as well as within the food industry and delivering the food through the delivery personal. For ensuring the success of this online delivery model the entrepreneurs has to ensure few things which includes certain features which will be; taking care of various aspects of market as well as technological aspects. Also the opportunities and challenges that will be faced by this online food delivery system will be more clear as the time will pass. The sustainability about this food delivery business models will be depending on the benefits which will be provided to the customers and user and how much it continues to attract the venture capitalist and various investors in this online food delivery business.

Crowd Workers' Continued Participation Intention in Crowdsourcing Platforms

The micro-task crowdsourcing marketplace, as a novel platform, has provided firms with a new way to recruit employees at a reasonable cost and with a fast turnaround. This research explores how different types of motivations affect individuals’ continued participation intention in compensation-based micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. Our theoretical model builds on expectancy theory, self-determination theory, organizational justice theory and self-efficacy theory. To validate the theoretical model, over 1,000 crowd workers participating in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk completed an online questionnaire. Distributive justice and self-efficacy were applied to moderate the relationship between different types of motivations and continued participation intention. The confirmed three-way interaction effects indicated that external regulation and intrinsic motivation on continued participation intention are contingent on distributive justice and the level of self-efficacy. The findings enrich the understanding of MCS communities and provide important guidelines for motivating crowd workers.

Design of global positioning system (GPS) networks using different artificial intelligence techniques

The selection of optimal GPS baselines can be realized by solving the geodetic second-order design (SOD) problem. Basically, there are two techniques to be used for selecting optimal baselines in GPS network, namely traditional techniques and artificial techniques. Traditional techniques include the method of trial and error and the analytical method, while artificial methods include both local and global optimization techniques. The global optimization techniques, such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs), Simulated Annealing (SA) method, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm, and Butterfly Optimization Algorithm (BOA) have been used recently in geodesy. In the current study, (BOA) has been used for the selection of the optimal GPS baselines to be measured in the field that will meet the postulated criterion matrix, at a reasonable cost. Ithas been tasted on a GPS network. The BOA is already designed and it determined the number of baselines that would be observed due to obtaining high accuracy. The results showed that the BOA method was more efficient than the traditional ones by 19.2%. It was better than the artificial methods in terms of length. Asit enhanced (SA) method by 21.7% and (PSO) method by 4.6% . Consequently, the use of the BOA is proven to be more effective and applicable.

EP.TU.713A review of mobile device stands to facilitate virtual surgical skills teaching

Aims To assess optimal overhead video camera stand for virtual surgical skills teaching. Methodology Based on the assumption that most surgical trainees have an internet-enabled mobile device with a camera, an overhead device mounted on a phone stand is a ubiquitous set-up for trainers and trainees to demonstrate surgical skills to each other virtually. On 4th December 2020, to reflect affordability and accessibility, phone stands under £15 were purchased from an online retailer, Amazon. Data regarding their design characteristics were collected and studied. Each product was independently reviewed in a simulated setting by two investigators. Results 11 stands were identified with prices ranging from £5.99 to £14.99, with an average of £9.20. Clamp phone holders were the most secure in camera stability but were less adaptable to a variety of device sizes. Table-clamp and broad-based phone stands were sturdier than tripod-based holders. Fit-for-purpose phone stand designs were linked with smaller space occupied at set-up, greater maximum height for camera and more intuitive set-up. Products with smaller box dimensions, which were associated with storability, allowed them to be portable and have lower costs of delivery. Conclusion The ideal features for a phone stand are a clamp or stand for the base and a clamp phone holder, with reasonable cost and storability. Phone stand 4 was the most favourable candidate based on this review; however, further user feedback is required from trainees and trainers to select an ideal design suited for virtual surgical skills teaching.

Expanding Health Equity in Wisconsin Prisons and Jails through Access to Menstrual Products

The population of incarcerated people who menstruate in the Wisconsin correctional system has increased significantly over the last decade. Though necessary for the health and wellbeing of these individuals, menstrual products are not guaranteed at a reasonable cost throughout the Wisconsin correctional system, making them inaccessible, particularly to individuals from marginalized communities. The current system causes extreme physical and mental health problems, as many incarcerated individuals may go without these necessary products or attempt to make their own. Thirteen states have enacted legislation to provide menstrual products at no cost to citizens in prisons and jails. We advise that the Wisconsin State Legislature pass similar legislation that requires prisons and jails to provide free menstrual products to incarcerated Wisconsinites.

Sustainable bioproducts through thermoplastic processing of wheat gluten and its blends

Proteins are unique biopolymers extensively used for food and non-food applications. In addition to animal proteins such as poultry feathers that are generated as byproducts, plant proteins such as wheat gluten and soy proteins are also available in large quantities at reasonable cost. Since proteins are inherently non-thermoplastic, they cannot generally be processed by thermal treatments. Further, most proteins do not dissolve in common solvents either. Hence, most of the non-food applications of plant proteins require extensive chemical and physical modifications which increases cost and also reduces the biodegradability of the products developed. However, studies have shown that proteins including wheat gluten and keratin can become thermoplastic under specific conditions, when adequate pressure, heat and moisture are applied. Similarly, proteins can be made thermoplastic after physical or chemical modifications or by using plasticizers and compatibilizers. Based on such modifications, completely biodegradable composites with proteins as matrix and natural fibers as reinforcement and even all protein composites have been developed. Proteins as matrix offer new avenues to obtain sustainable, green composites with unique properties. Wheat gluten is a novel protein that has many distinct properties and characteristic behavior. Wheat gluten has been used for several non-food applications mostly by dissolving and solution casting which is a cumbersome process and restricted to only a few types of materials that can be developed. Alternatively, wheat gluten has been made thermoplastic using chemical, physical modifications or a combination of both. Several organic and inorganic additives, crosslinkers and plasticizers have also been added to ensure thermoplastic processing of wheat gluten and to obtain products with properties suitable for commodity applications. In this review, we discuss the processes and possibility of converting wheat proteins into thermoplastic products and as matrix for composites and the properties and applications of the wheat gluten based thermoplastics.

Ferries and Environmental DNA: Underway Sampling From Commercial Vessels Provides New Opportunities for Systematic Genetic Surveys of Marine Biodiversity

Marine environmental DNA (eDNA) is an important tool for biodiversity research and monitoring but challenges remain in scaling surveys over large spatial areas, and increasing the frequency of sampling in remote locations at reasonable cost. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of sampling from commercial vessels (Mediterranean ferries) while underway, as a strategy to facilitate replicable, systematic marine eDNA surveys in locations that would normally be challenging and expensive for researchers to access. Sixteen eDNA samples were collected from four fixed sampling stations, and in response to four cetacean sightings, across three cruises undertaken along the 300 km ferry route between Livorno (Tuscany) and Golfo Aranci (Sardinia) in the Ligurian/Tyrrhenian Seas, June-July 2018. Using 12SrDNA and 16SrDNA metabarcoding markers, we recovered diverse marine vertebrate Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) from teleost fish, elasmobranchs, and cetaceans. We detected sample heterogeneity consistent with previously known variation in species occurrences, including putative species spawning peaks associated with specific sea surface temperature ranges, and increased night time abundance of bathypelagic species known to undertake diel migrations through the water column. We suggest commercial vessel based marine eDNA sampling using the global shipping network has potential to facilitate broad-scale biodiversity monitoring in the world’s oceans.

Dense Matrix Multiplication Algorithms and Performance Evaluation of HPCC in 81 Nodes IBM Power 8 Architecture

Optimizing HPC systems based on performance factors and bottlenecks is essential for designing an HPC infrastructure with the best characteristics and at a reasonable cost. Such insight can only be achieved through a detailed analysis of existing HPC systems and the execution of their workloads. The “Quinde I” is the only and most powerful supercomputer in Ecuador and is currently listed third on the South America. It was built with the IBM Power 8 servers. In this work, we measured its performance using different parameters from High-Performance Computing (HPC) to compare it with theoretical values and values obtained from tests on similar models. To measure its performance, we compiled and ran different benchmarks with the specific optimization flags for Power 8 to get the maximum performance with the current configuration in the hardware installed by the vendor. The inputs of the benchmarks were varied to analyze their impact on the system performance. In addition, we compile and compare the performance of two algorithms for dense matrix multiplication SRUMMA and DGEMM.