Let Trajectories Speak Out the Traffic Bottlenecks

Traffic bottlenecks are a set of road segments that have an unacceptable level of traffic caused by a poor balance between road capacity and traffic volume. A huge volume of trajectory data which captures realtime traffic conditions in road networks provides promising new opportunities to identify the traffic bottlenecks. In this paper, we define this problem as trajectory-driven traffic bottleneck identification : Given a road network R , a trajectory database T , find a representative set of seed edges of size K of traffic bottlenecks that influence the highest number of road segments not in the seed set. We show that this problem is NP-hard and propose a framework to find the traffic bottlenecks as follows. First, a traffic spread model is defined which represents changes in traffic volume for each road segment over time. Then, the traffic diffusion probability between two connected segments and the residual ratio of traffic volume for each segment can be computed using historical trajectory data. We then propose two different algorithmic approaches to solve the problem. The first one is a best-first algorithm BF , with an approximation ratio of 1-1/ e . To further accelerate the identification process in larger datasets, we also propose a sampling-based greedy algorithm SG . Finally, comprehensive experiments using three different datasets compare and contrast various solutions, and provide insights into important efficiency and effectiveness trade-offs among the respective methods.

Ransomware Mitigation in the Modern Era: A Comprehensive Review, Research Challenges, and Future Directions

Although ransomware has been around since the early days of personal computers, its sophistication and aggression have increased substantially over the years. Ransomware, as a type of malware to extort ransom payments from victims, has evolved to deliver payloads in different attack vectors and on multiple platforms, and creating repeated disruptions and financial loss to many victims. Many studies have performed ransomware analysis and/or presented detection, defense, or prevention techniques for ransomware. However, because the ransomware landscape has evolved aggressively, many of those studies have become less relevant or even outdated. Previous surveys on anti-ransomware studies have compared the methods and results of the studies they surveyed, but none of those surveys has attempted to critique on the internal or external validity of those studies. In this survey, we first examined the up-to-date concept of ransomware, and listed the inadequacies in current ransomware research. We then proposed a set of unified metrics to evaluate published studies on ransomware mitigation, and applied the metrics to 118 such studies to comprehensively compare and contrast their pros and cons, with the attempt to evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we forecast the future trends of ransomware evolution, and propose future research directions.

Low-code development and model-driven engineering: Two sides of the same coin?

The last few years have witnessed a significant growth of so-called low-code development platforms (LCDPs) both in gaining traction on the market and attracting interest from academia. LCDPs are advertised as visual development platforms, typically running on the cloud, reducing the need for manual coding and also targeting non-professional programmers. Since LCDPs share many of the goals and features of model-driven engineering approaches, it is a common point of debate whether low-code is just a new buzzword for model-driven technologies, or whether the two terms refer to genuinely distinct approaches. To contribute to this discussion, in this expert-voice paper, we compare and contrast low-code and model-driven approaches, identifying their differences and commonalities, analysing their strong and weak points, and proposing directions for cross-pollination.

Open Learning Experience Bingo

Definitions of openness and open education abound, but with so many, how can we use them effectively to explore the openness of assignments, activities, classes, or programs? Open Learning Experience Bingo is a game that a group of collaborators have created to give people a way to surface and discuss the many different ways that educational experiences can “open” beyond traditional practices. Each bingo card includes boxes containing possible “ingredients” in a learning experience, and radiating from the center of each box, “dimensions” of openness along which an ingredient might be opened. You “play” bingo by reading or hearing about a learning experience and marking areas on the bingo card that you think the experience opens. The game incorporates broad concepts of openness and seeks not to measure the openness of learning experiences, but to identify and spark discussion about areas in which experiences are opening — or might be opened further. As artifacts, completed bingo cards display a sort of “heat map” of openness that can be used to compare and contrast bingo evaluations of various learning experiences.

The Uniqueness of the Chinese Mission Movement—Past, Present, and Future

Using the World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd edition ( WCE-3) as the springboard, this article explores the uniqueness of the Chinese missions movement from China, not including the overseas Chinese diaspora or Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. First, we provide an overview, context, and backdrop of the Chinese missions movement. Second, we compare and contrast China’s missions sending with that of (1) the United States/United Kingdom and (2) Brazil. We then highlight the unique characteristics of the Chinese missions movement and conclude with a future outlook.

Development of Biorefineries in the Bioeconomy: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis among European Countries

This study aims to identify the configurational conditions that characterize the establishment of biorefineries in 20 European countries. After determining the conditions which support a bioeconomy transition, secondary data from national sources are used to represent their existing conditions within respective countries. Then, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis is employed to compare and contrast the effect of varying combinations of the selected conditions on the development of biorefineries. The conditions chosen include coherent bioeconomy strategies, network intensity of regional bioclusters, intellectual capital, and natural resource availability. Our results reveal that the configuration of a coherent bioeconomy strategy, sizable public spending on R&D, abundant biomass supply, and a high level of network intensity is sufficient to explain the pronounced biorefineries development among some European countries. We recommend that countries with fragmented approaches review and redesign the policy and regulatory framework to create a holistic and consistent bioeconomy strategy, taking into account the configurations of conditions as an important prerequisite. In particular, factors such as the lack of best practice examples, the low level of public spending on research and development, the economic capacities for a skilled workforce in addition to the sustainable supply of raw materials should be addressed as focal points.

Government messaging about COVID-19 vaccination in Canada and Australia: a Narrative Policy Framework study

Background: Storytelling and narratives are critical components to public policy and have been central to public policy communicators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: This study applied the Narrative Policy Framework to compare and contrast the policy narratives of the Canadian and Australian Prime Ministers regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: Official media releases, transcripts and speeches published on the websites of Prime Minister Morrison and Prime Minister Trudeau between 31 August 2020 and 10 September 2021 relating to COVID-19 vaccines were thematically analysed according to the Narrative Policy Framework. Results: The policy narratives of Scott Morrison and Justin Trudeau tended towards describing both governments as heroes for securing and rolling out vaccines. Trudeau tended to focus on the villain of COVID-19 while Morrison regularly described other countries as victims of COVID-19 to position Australia as superior in its decision-making. These findings also demonstrate how narratives shifted over time due to changing COVID-19 case numbers, emergence of rare complications associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and as new information arose. Conclusion: These findings offer lessons for COVID-19 times as well as future pandemics and disease outbreaks by providing insight into how policy narratives influenced policy processes in both Australia and Canada.

Addressing Russian Threat. Changes to Defence Policies of the Nordic States After 2014

The substantial deterioration of the security environment after Russian aggression against Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 was a catalyst for significant changes in the Nordic states’ approach to security and defence. Common perceptions of the Russian threat focused defence policies of the Nordic states around rebuilding total defence capabilities, which would combine military and civilian efforts. Besides these efforts to reinforce national capacity to defend against an armed attack, the Nordic states increased regional security and defence cooperation, along with cooperation with NATO, the EU and the United States. The article explores the developments in defence policies of the Nordic states that were a result of changes in the security environment caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. It tries to discuss differences in national threat assessment, and then compare and contrast unique national approaches to defence policies that were adopted by the Nordic states. The conclusion conceptualizes unique features of the Nordic approach to defence stemming from the common threat to their security.

Comparing hospital-resource utilization by an enhanced pneumonia surveillance programme for COVID-19 with pre-pandemic pneumonia admissions – a Singaporean hospital’s experience

Introduction. During the early days of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Singapore, Tan Tock Seng Hospital implemented an enhanced pneumonia surveillance (EPS) programme enrolling all patients who were admitted from the Emergency Department (ED) with a diagnosis of pneumonia but not meeting the prevalent COVID-19 suspect case definition. Hypothesis/Gap Statement. There is a paucity of data supporting the implementation of such a programme. Aims. To compare and contrast our hospital-resource utilization of an EPS programme for COVID-19 infection detection with a suitable comparison group. Methodology. We enrolled all patients admitted under the EPS programme from TTSH’s ED from 7 February 2020 (date of EPS implementation) to 20 March 2020 (date of study ethics application) inclusive. We designated a comparison cohort over a similar duration the preceding year. Relevant demographic and clinical data were extracted from the electronic medical records. Results. There was a 3.2 times higher incidence of patients with an admitting diagnosis of pneumonia from the ED in the EPS cohort compared to the comparison cohort (P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the median length of stay of 7 days (P=0.160). Within the EPS cohort, stroke and fluid overload occur more frequently as alternative primary diagnoses. Conclusions. Our study successfully evaluated our hospital-resource utilization demanded by our EPS programme in relation to an appropriate comparison group. This helps to inform strategic use of hospital resources to meet the needs of both COVID-19 related services and essential ‘peace-time’ healthcare services concurrently.

“A Convenient Ventriloquist’s Dummy”: The “Christopher Isherwood” Character in Christopher Isherwood

<p>The “Christopher Isherwood” character first appears in Lions and Shadows (1938), Christopher Isherwood’s lightly fictionalised autobiography. Its foreword claims that “Isherwood” is merely a “guinea-pig” and asks us to read Lions and Shadows “as a novel” (xv). In the foreword to Goodbye to Berlin (1939), the author distances himself from his namesake once again: “‘Christopher Isherwood’ is a convenient ventriloquist’s dummy, nothing more” (np). This thesis examines Christopher Isherwood’s relationship with the “Christopher Isherwood” character in five texts: Lions and Shadows, Goodbye to Berlin, Prater Violet (1945), Down There on a Visit (1962), and Christopher and His Kind (1976). In doing so, I attempt to answer the question, ‘what happens when Christopher Isherwood gives his name to the narrator of his fiction?’ The second paragraph of Goodbye to Berlin begins, “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking” (1). The critical consensus is that this paragraph is indicative of a namesake narrator who acts as a detached observer, withholding judgment, existing only as a vessel through which the story can be told. I maintain, however, that as Isherwood and “Isherwood” have the same name, we are compelled to compare and contrast the two. Isherwood’s biographer, Peter Parker, claims that “Isherwood liked to imagine himself his own creation” (np). Through his construction of “Isherwood,” Isherwood creates a self – one that does not pre-exist his texts. Isherwood’s novels anticipate a new kind of autobiographical writing, transparent and aware in their fictionality, four decades before it is formally recognised as a genre; while contemporary writers all over the world are now publishing autofiction more than ever before, there was a writer, alone the English island in the 1930s who preceded them all. His name, and his character, is Christopher Isherwood.</p>