scholarly journals Source identification of infectious diseases in networks via label ranking

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245344
Author(s):  
Jianye Zhou ◽  
Yuewen Jiang ◽  
Biqing Huang
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Real World ◽  
Source Identification ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Ranking Algorithms ◽  
Label Ranking ◽  
Infection Source ◽  
And Control ◽  
Complete Observation

Background Outbreaks of infectious diseases would cause great losses to the human society. Source identification in networks has drawn considerable interest in order to understand and control the infectious disease propagation processes. Unsatisfactory accuracy and high time complexity are major obstacles to practical applications under various real-world situations for existing source identification algorithms. Methods This study attempts to measure the possibility for nodes to become the infection source through label ranking. A unified Label Ranking framework for source identification with complete observation and snapshot is proposed. Firstly, a basic label ranking algorithm with complete observation of the network considering both infected and uninfected nodes is designed. Our inferred infection source node with the highest label ranking tends to have more infected nodes surrounding it, which makes it likely to be in the center of infection subgraph and far from the uninfected frontier. A two-stage algorithm for source identification via semi-supervised learning and label ranking is further proposed to address the source identification issue with snapshot. Results Extensive experiments are conducted on both synthetic and real-world network datasets. It turns out that the proposed label ranking algorithms are capable of identifying the propagation source under different situations fairly accurately with acceptable computational complexity without knowing the underlying model of infection propagation. Conclusions The effectiveness and efficiency of the label ranking algorithms proposed in this study make them be of practical value for infection source identification.

Communicable and Other Infectious Diseases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Frischhut
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
And Control

This chapter discusses the most important features of EU law on infectious diseases. Communicable diseases not only cross borders, they also often require measures that cross different areas of policy because of different vectors for disease transmission. The relevant EU law cannot be attributed to one sectoral policy only, and thus various EU agencies participate in protecting public health. The key agency is the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Other important agencies include the European Environment Agency; European Food Safety Authority; and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency. However, while integration at the EU level has facilitated protection of the public's health, it also has created potential conflicts among the different objectives of the European Union. The internal market promotes the free movement of products, but public health measures can require restrictions of trade. Other conflicts can arise if protective public health measures conflict with individual human rights. The chapter then considers risk assessment and the different tools of risk management used in dealing with the challenges of infectious diseases. It also turns to the external and ethical perspective and the role the European Union takes in global health.

scholarly journals A Novel Rail-Network Hardware Simulator for Embedded System Programming

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Balaji M ◽  
Chandrasekaran M ◽  
Vaithiyanathan Dhandapani
Keyword(s):  
Embedded Systems ◽  
Embedded System ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Real World ◽  
Time Constraints ◽  
Network Simulator ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Rail Network ◽  
Knowledge Enhancement

A Novel Rail-Network Hardware with simulation facilities is presented in this paper. The hardware is designed to facilitate the learning of application-oriented, logical, real-time programming in an embedded system environment. The platform enables the creation of multiple unique programming scenarios with variability in complexity without any hardware changes. Prior experimental hardware comes with static programming facilities that focus the students’ learning on hardware features and programming basics, leaving them ill-equipped to take up practical applications with more real-time constraints. This hardware complements and completes their learning to help them program real-world embedded systems. The hardware uses LEDs to simulate the movement of trains in a network. The network has train stations, intersections and parking slots where the train movements can be controlled by using a 16-bit Renesas RL78/G13 microcontroller. Additionally, simulating facilities are provided to enable the students to navigate the trains by manual controls using switches and indicators. This helps them get an easy understanding of train navigation functions before taking up programming. The students start with simple tasks and gradually progress to more complicated ones with real-time constraints, on their own. During training, students’ learning outcomes are evaluated by obtaining their feedback and conducting a test at the end to measure their knowledge acquisition during the training. Students’ Knowledge Enhancement Index is originated to measure the knowledge acquired by the students. It is observed that 87% of students have successfully enhanced their knowledge undergoing training with this rail-network simulator.

scholarly journals The impacts of COVID-19 preventive and control interventions on other infectious diseases in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Xiujuan Meng ◽  
Xun Huang ◽  
Feng Zhou ◽  
Yaowang Wang ◽  
Chunhui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
And Control

Animal Pain Scales in Public Policy

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (1_part_1) ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
F. Barbara Orlans
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pain Scale ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Animal Pain ◽  
Pain Scales ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control

Pain scales classify the severity of pain inflicted on laboratory animals from little or none up to severe. A pain scale as part of public policy serves beneficial purposes that promote animal welfare. It can be used to educate people about the two alternatives of refinement and replacement, and the need to reduce animal pain. Furthermore, a pain scale has practical applications: 1) in review procedures for animal welfare concerns; 2) in developing policies on the use of animals in education; and 3) as a basis for collecting national data on animal experimentation, so that meaningful data can be collected on trends in reduction and control in animal pain. So far, only a few countries (including Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada and New Zealand) have adopted pain scales as part of their public policy. Most countries, including the United States, have not yet done so. The history of the development and adoption of pain scales by various countries is described and the case is presented for wider adoption of a pain scale in countries not currently using one.

scholarly journals Real-World Implementation of an ICT-Based Platform to Promote Energy Efficiency

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2416
Author(s):  
Marina Dorokhova ◽  
Fernando Ribeiro ◽  
António Barbosa ◽  
João Viana ◽  
Filipe Soares ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Real World ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Flexible Devices ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Energy Consuming ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
And Control

The energy efficiency requirements of most energy-consuming sectors have increased recently in response to climate change. For buildings, this means targeting both facility managers and building users with the aim of identifying potential energy savings and encouraging more energy-responsible behaviors. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform developed in Horizon 2020 FEEdBACk project intends to fulfill these goals by enabling the optimization of energy consumption, generation, and storage and control of flexible devices without compromising comfort levels and indoor air quality parameters. This work aims to demonstrate the real-world implementation and functionality of the ICT platform composed of Load Disaggregation, Net Load Forecast, Occupancy Forecast, Automation Manager, and Behavior Predictor applications. Particularly, the results obtained by individual applications during the test phase are presented alongside the specific metrics used to evaluate their performance.

Percolation phase transition of static and growing networks under a weighted function

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (07) ◽  
pp. 1650082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Jia ◽  
Jin-Song Hong ◽  
Ya-Chun Gao ◽  
Hong-Chun Yang ◽  
Chun Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Continuous Phase ◽  
Weighted Function ◽  
Percolation Process ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Network Intervention ◽  
Growing Networks ◽  
Discontinuous Phase ◽  
And Control ◽  
Growing Network

We investigate the percolation phase transitions in both the static and growing networks where the nodes are sampled according to a weighted function with a tunable parameter [Formula: see text]. For the static network, i.e. the number of nodes is constant during the percolation process, the percolation phase transition can evolve from continuous to discontinuous as the value of [Formula: see text] is tuned. Based on the properties of the weighted function, three typical values of [Formula: see text] are analyzed. The model becomes the classical Erdös–Rényi (ER) network model at [Formula: see text]. When [Formula: see text], it is shown that the percolation process generates a weakly discontinuous phase transition where the order parameter exhibits an extremely abrupt transition with a significant jump in large but finite system. For [Formula: see text], the cluster size distribution at the lower pseudo-transition point does not obey the power-law behavior, indicating a strongly discontinuous phase transition. In the case of growing network, in which the collection of nodes is increasing, a smoother continuous phase transition emerges at [Formula: see text], in contrast to the weakly discontinuous phase transition of the static network. At [Formula: see text], on the other hand, probability modulation effect shows that the nature of strongly discontinuous phase transition remains the same with the static network despite the node arrival even in the thermodynamic limit. These percolation properties of the growing networks could provide useful reference for network intervention and control in practical applications in consideration of the increasing size of most actual networks.

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