APPLICATION OF EXTENDED ELEMENT-FREE GALERKIN METHOD TO MULTIPLE FLAWS UNDER BRITTLE FRACTURE CONDITIONS

in PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASME PRESSURE VESSELS AND PIPING CONFERENCE - 2008, VOL 6, PT A AND B (2009)

The extended element-free Galerkin (XEFG) method incorporates cracks through partition of unity enrichment of the standard basis functions. Discontinuous functions are added to capture the jump through ... [more ▼]

The extended element-free Galerkin (XEFG) method incorporates cracks through partition of unity enrichment of the standard basis functions. Discontinuous functions are added to capture the jump through the crack faces and near-front enrichment is added to capture the asymptotic behaviour in the vicinity of the crack fronts. Depending on the material behaviour, these functions can be of various type. The method can treat initiation, growth and coalescence of cracks seamlessly in both linear elastic and non-linear settings. The method is a powerful tool for modelling and studying crack paths, which are a central feature in the assessment of multiple flaws.The method is applied to the problem of multiple non-aligned flaws in a ferritic plate under cleavage failure. Fracture paths from two nonaligned notches in a plate are modelled. Based on the observations of crack paths the critical flaw alignment distance is established for nonaligned through-wall flaws. [less ▲]

A new national flag for Luxembourg Struggeling over identity in a small multilingual society

in Cultural Identities and National Borders (2009)

Defensive configuration with game theory

in The 11th IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (2009)

Suspicion-driven formal analysis of security requirements

in SECURWARE 2009 (2009)

Increasingly, engineers need to approach security and software engineering in a unified way. This paper presents an approach to the formal analysis of security requirements that is based on planning and ... [more ▼]

Increasingly, engineers need to approach security and software engineering in a unified way. This paper presents an approach to the formal analysis of security requirements that is based on planning and uses the concept of suspicion to guide the search for threats and security vulnerabilities in requirements. The approach is tested and illustrated by conducting two experiments: one focussing on a system with a confidentiality security property, and another with an integrity security property enforced through the separation of duty principle. The paper shows that suspicion plays an important role in finding vulnerabilities and security threats in requirements. [less ▲]

Mondialisation du travail et pluralité des marchés du travail : L’exemple du Luxembourg

in XIIièmes Journées Internationales de Sociologie du Travail (2009)

Multiobjective Classification with moGEP: An Application in the Network Traffic Domain

in GECCO '09: Proceedings of the 11th Annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation (2009)

The paper proposes a multiobjective approach to the problem of malicious network traffic classification, with specificity and sensitivity criteria as objective functions for the problem. The ... [more ▼]

The paper proposes a multiobjective approach to the problem of malicious network traffic classification, with specificity and sensitivity criteria as objective functions for the problem. The multiobjective version of Gene Expression Programming (GEP) called moGEP is proposed and applied to find proper classifiers in the multiobjective search space. The purpose of the classifiers is to discriminate information about the network traffic obtained from Idiotypic Network-based Intrusion Detection System (INIDS), transformed into time series. The proposed approach is validated using the network traffic simulator ns2. Classifiers of high accuracy are obtained and their diversity offers interesting possibilities to the domain of network security. [less ▲]

Rational Play and Rational Beliefs under Uncertainty

in Proceedings of AAMAS'09 (2009)

Increasing the Energy Efficiency of Sewage Plants – Experiences of Energy Analysis carried out in Germany

in Proceedings of the IWA Conference ‘Water and Energy 2009’ (2009)

The power consumption of municipal and industrial sewage plants has increased over the last decade because of enhanced requirements on nutrient removal. In addition, the cost for external power provision ... [more ▼]

The power consumption of municipal and industrial sewage plants has increased over the last decade because of enhanced requirements on nutrient removal. In addition, the cost for external power provision has significantly increased in the last years. The portion of the energy cost today is about 5 to 10 % of the annual cost of wastewater treatment. However, compared with the operational cost of wastewater treatment a much higher portion must be related to power consumption. With the tool of an energy analysis the energy consumption related to wastewater treatment can be efficiently optimized. Energy analyses carried out by the authors on sewage plants in Germany show that an increased energy efficiency of sewage treatment can be achieved. [less ▲]

Integrating ICT in Pre-service Teacher Training

in Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2009 (2009)

The Bachelor in Educational Sciences at the University of Luxembourg is a four-year study program for students training to become nursery and elementary school teachers in Luxembourg. The program has ... [more ▼]

The Bachelor in Educational Sciences at the University of Luxembourg is a four-year study program for students training to become nursery and elementary school teachers in Luxembourg. The program has subscribed to an ICT-enriched study approach, meaning that students and teachers use a variety of (social) media tools for learning as well as for organizational planning. This best practice presentation will show how the tools used are intertwined. Furthermore, the presenters discuss the program's strategy of acquainting students with media tools, the support measures that are in place as well as the students' use and acceptance of ICT. The winter semester 2008/09 was important as the switch was made to a new ePortfolio system and increased inclusion of social media tools, especially with first-year students. The presentation will provide insight into first impressions of this change, touch upon pitfalls, and look at the plans for the coming semesters. [less ▲]

Attentional networks are differentially affected by baro-afferent feedback

in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (2009)

An Approach to Visualise Tensor Fields in Engineering

in Proceedings of Dagstuhl Seminar (2009)

Next steps in propositional Horn contraction

in Proceedings of the 21st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2009) (2009)

Four Ways to Change Coalitions: Agents, Dependencies, Norms and Internal Dynamics

in Proceedings of COIN (2009)

We introduce a new formal approach to social networks in order to distinguish four ways in which coalitions change.First, the agents in the network change. Second, dependencies among the agents change ... [more ▼]

We introduce a new formal approach to social networks in order to distinguish four ways in which coalitions change.First, the agents in the network change. Second, dependencies among the agents change, for example due to addition or removal of powers and goals of the agents. Third, norms can introduce normative dependencies for obligations and prohibitions. Fourth, coalitions can change due to internal processes. We propose a number of stability measures to identify each one of the four proposed sources of coalitions ’dynamics and the consequences they induce on the stability of coalitions. [less ▲]

Comorbid depression in elderly with type 2 diabetes

in Swiss Medical Weekly (2009), 139(33-34), 57

Aim: To evaluate the potential correlation between depression and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) in patients aged 65 years and over accessing primary health care (PHC) units. Methods: During the last ... [more ▼]

Aim: To evaluate the potential correlation between depression and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) in patients aged 65 years and over accessing primary health care (PHC) units. Methods: During the last semester of 2008, 109 elderly patients with DM2 (mean age 74.86, sd = 5.72) were examined by GP trainees in PHC practices. Demographics, BMI, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose (FBG), HbA1c and medicine treatment were queried. Dietary and drug therapy compliance and weekly physical activity in recreational time were investigated; expended energy was measured using Metabolic Equivalents (METs). Depression was assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and mental health was evaluated with the General Health Questionnaire – 12 (GHQ-12). For comparison purposes, a short interview comprising the GDS-15 and GHQ-12 was performed in 52 non diabetic, randomly selected patients. The two groups were properly adjusted for sex and age. Results: Moderate (GDS-15 scores 6–8) and severe depression (GDS-15 >9) were found in 33.9% and 17.4% of the diabetics respectively. Female patients seemed to have better FBG values (r = 0.33, p = 0.006) and more controlled HbA1c (<7%, r = 0.37, p = 0.003). However, only males with regular HbA1c showed significantly lower BMI (Mdn = 27.72, U = 128.00, p <0.001) and waist circumference (Mean = 91.84 cm, t = 3.32, p = 0.002). Diabetics without depression signs were triply likely to do moderate weekly exercise compared with depressed ones (OR = 3.01, 95%CI = 1.36–6.57). Lower GDS-15 and GHQ-12 scores were correlated with more scarce therapy compliance (r = 0.46, p <0.001; r = 0.43, p <0.001 respectively). Diabetics seemed to be 2.83 times more likely to suffer from moderate depression compared with the control patients (95%CI = 1.19–6.68). Conclusions: The findings of our study suggest that moderate depression is a common underlying comorbidity in DM2, affecting aspects of its management such as the physical activity and compliance of medical therapy. [less ▲]

Normative systems in computer science. Ten guidelines for normative multiagent systems

in Normative Multi-agent Systems (2009)

In this paper we introduce and discuss ten guidelines for the use of normative systems in computer science. We adopt a multiagent sys- tems perspective, because norms are used to coordinate, organize ... [more ▼]

In this paper we introduce and discuss ten guidelines for the use of normative systems in computer science. We adopt a multiagent sys- tems perspective, because norms are used to coordinate, organize, guide, regulate or control interaction among distributed autonomous systems. The first six guidelines are derived from the computer science literature. From the so-called ‘normchange’ definition of the first workshop on nor- mative multiagent systems in 2005 we derive the guidelines to motivate which definition of normative multiagent system is used, to make explicit why norms are a kind of (soft) constraints deserving special analysis, and to explain why and how norms can be changed at runtime. From the so-called ‘mechanism design’ definition of the second workshop on nor- mative multiagent systems in 2007 we derive the guidelines to discuss the use and role of norms as a mechanism in a game-theoretic setting, clarify the role of norms in the multiagent system, and to relate the no- tion of “norm” to the legal, social, or moral literature. The remaining four guidelines follow from the philosophical literature: use norms also to resolve dilemmas, and in general to coordinate, organize, guide, regulate or control interaction among agents, distinguish norms from obligations, prohibitions and permissions, use the deontic paradoxes only to illustrate the normative multiagent system, and consider regulative norms in rela- tion to other kinds of norms and other social-cognitive computer science concepts. [less ▲]

Uso de Redes Hibridas para la Mejora de la Conectividad en VANETs

in Proceedings of national Conference on Metaheuristicas, Algoritmos Evolutivos y Bioinspirados(MAEB'09) (2009)

Prepulse inhibition of cardiovascular startle reaction

in Psychophysiology (2009), 46(Supplement 1), 76-77

Steel fiber reinforced concrete: Combining different fibers and amount of fiber reinforcement

in Abstract paper of 4th Saar-Lor-Lux Colloquium in Mechanics (2009)

The impact of cold pressor stress on voice pitch (F0)

in Psychophysiology (2009), 46(Supplement 1), 115-115

Selecting a fast air quality calculator for an optimization meta-model

in Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution (2009)

A Conviviality Measure for Early Requirement Phase of Multiagent System Design

in Normative Multi-agent Systems (2009)

Patterns of emotional relations and intergenerational support in families: A Three-Generation-Perspective

in Abstract paper of the 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), New Orleans (USA). (2009)

Bending Resistant Composite Joints for High Rotation Capacity.

in Proceedings of IABSE Conference (2009)

In the last years mixed structures in steel and concrete gain more and more importance. These structures combine the advantages of steel constructions with the advantages of the concrete. The typical slab ... [more ▼]

In the last years mixed structures in steel and concrete gain more and more importance. These structures combine the advantages of steel constructions with the advantages of the concrete. The typical slab construction for those buildings insists in a concrete slab, which is carried by a steel beam. Both elements together result in the composite beam. The composite beam is connected to the column with the composite connection. The presented analysing model is valid for fixed, pinned and even for semi-rigid composite connections. It is related to the model by the study group COST C1. The Model helps to determine computational values for the stiffness, the load-carrying capacities and the rotation ability of composite joints. The model is based on the evaluation of 56 experiments at composite connections. [less ▲]

Market study of improved heat-insulating masonry bricks.

in Concrete 21st Century Superhero (2009)

A web-based system for the evaluation of information processing strategies in the domain of scientific literacy

in XXIX International Congress of Psychology (2008)

Self Adaptive Coalitions in Multiagent Systems

in Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2008) (2008)

Coalitions are usually defined with respect to a static framework of dependencies among agents. In this paper we propose a dynamic view of dependence networks to enable dynamic coalitions which can self ... [more ▼]

Coalitions are usually defined with respect to a static framework of dependencies among agents. In this paper we propose a dynamic view of dependence networks to enable dynamic coalitions which can self adapt to a situation by exploiting the possibility to trigger other agentspsila goals. [less ▲]

E-business Outsourcing: a New Approach combining Information Rights Technologies and Agent-Based Theory on Norms

in Proceedings of the International Conference on Electronic Commerce in the 21th Century (ECIC-2008) (2008)

Luxembourg – a multilingual and multicultural population

in Abstract paper of the ESAW-ADAGE project meeting. Cardiff, Wales (2008)

Regulation of subjective well-being in the elderly

in Abstract paper of the Workshop “Well-being of the elderly”, ESF Forward Looks project “Ageing, Health and Pensions in Europe” (2008)

Evaluation of intensive blood glucose control using glargine in diabetic cats

in Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (2008), 22(3), 790

Factors predictive of non-insulin dependence in diabetic cats initially treated with insulin

in Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (2008), 22(3), 791

From belief change to preference change

in Proceedings of Eighteenth European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI2008) (2008)

Various tasks need to consider preferences in a dynamic way. We start by discussing several possible meanings of preference change, and then focus on the one we think is the most natural: preferences ... [more ▼]

Various tasks need to consider preferences in a dynamic way. We start by discussing several possible meanings of preference change, and then focus on the one we think is the most natural: preferences evolving after some new fact has been learned. We define a family of such preference change operators, parameterized by a revision function on epistemic states and a semantics for interpreting preferences over formulas. We list some natural properties that this kind of preference change should fulfill and give conditions on the revision function and the semantics of preference for each of these properties to hold. [less ▲]

A Normative View on The Blocks World

in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Normative Multiagent Systems (NorMAS'08) (2008)

Time and Defeasibility in FIPA ACL Semantics

in Proceedings of WLIAMAS 2008 (2008)

Inferences about speech acts are often conditional, nonmonotonic, and involve the issue of time. Most agent communication languages, however, ignore these issues, due to the difficulty to combine them in ... [more ▼]

Inferences about speech acts are often conditional, nonmonotonic, and involve the issue of time. Most agent communication languages, however, ignore these issues, due to the difficulty to combine them in a single formalism. This paper addresses such issues in defeasible logic, and shows how to express a semantics for ACLs in order to make nonmonotonic inferences on the basis of speech acts. [less ▲]

Partial goal satisfaction and goal change: weak and strong partial implication, logical properties, complexity

in Abstract book of 7th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2008), Estoril, Portugal, May 12-16, 2008, Volume 1 (2008)

Partial implication semantics in the context of a background theory has been introduced to formalize partial goal satisfaction in the context of beliefs. In this paper, we introduce strong partial ... [more ▼]

Partial implication semantics in the context of a background theory has been introduced to formalize partial goal satisfaction in the context of beliefs. In this paper, we introduce strong partial implication prohibiting redundancies and weak partial implication allowing side effects, we study their semantic as well as complexity properties, and we apply the three notions of partial implication to goal change in the context of beliefs. [less ▲]

Adding Organizations and Roles as Primitives to JADE Framework

in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Normative Multiagent Systems, NorMAS'08 (2008)

The organization metaphor is often used in the design and implementation of multiagent systems. However, few agent programming languages provide facilities to define them. Several frameworks are proposed ... [more ▼]

The organization metaphor is often used in the design and implementation of multiagent systems. However, few agent programming languages provide facilities to define them. Several frameworks are proposed to coordinate MAS with organizations, but they are not programmable with general purpose languages. In this paper we extend the JADE framework with primitives to program in Java organizations structured in roles and to enable agents to play roles in organizations. Roles facilitate the coordination of agents inside an organization and give new abilities in the context of organizations, called powers, to the agents which satisfy the requirements necessary to play the roles. As primitives to program organizations and roles we provide classes and protocols which enable an agent to enact a new role in an organization and to interact with the role by invoking the execution of powers, and to receive new goals to be fulfilled. Roles have state and behaviour, thus, they are instances of classes and are strictly connected with the organization offering them. Since roles and organizations can be on a different platform with respect to the role player, the communication with them happens via protocols. Moreover, since, besides using protocols, roles and organizations can have complex behaviours, they are implemented by extending the JADE agent class. [less ▲]

How Can Path Diversity Help Transmission Protocols in the Achievement of a Better Connection Qos?

in Proceedings of the 6th ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications AICCSA'08 (2008)

An Approach to Intrusion Detection by Means of Idiotypic Networks Paradigm

in IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, WCCI 2008, Congress on Evolutionary Computation CEC 2008, Honk-Kong, June (2008)

In this paper we present a novel intrusion detection architecture based on Idiotypic Network Theory (INIDS), that aims at dealing with large scale network attacks featuring variable properties, like ... [more ▼]

In this paper we present a novel intrusion detection architecture based on Idiotypic Network Theory (INIDS), that aims at dealing with large scale network attacks featuring variable properties, like Denial of Service (DoS). The proposed architecture performs dynamic and adaptive clustering of the network traffic for taking fast and effective countermeasures against such high-volume attacks. INIDS is evaluated on the MITpsila99 dataset and outperforms previous approaches for DoS detection applied to this set. [less ▲]

Monofermentation von NaWaRo - Untersuchungen der Abbaukinetik und Technologieentwicklung

in Poster presentation at Biogas 2008 - Innovationskongress (2008)

Doppler-variant Modeling of the Vocal Tract: Stability Considerations

in Proceedings of 8th ITG Conference on Speech Communication (2008)

A common technique to deploy linear prediction to non-stationary signals is time segmentation and local analy-sis. In [1], the temporal changes of linear prediction coef?cients (LPCs) are modeled as a ... [more ▼]

A common technique to deploy linear prediction to non-stationary signals is time segmentation and local analy-sis. In [1], the temporal changes of linear prediction coef?cients (LPCs) are modeled as a Fourier series. This allows analysis and optimization of larger speech segments, i.e., virtually global analysis. Possibly resulting non-minimum-phase prediction error polynomials are subject to all-pass ?ltering. We show that introducing the stabilizing ?lter does not deteriorate the overall predictor performance. [less ▲]

Desirable Tie-breaking Rules in Collective Decision Making

in Annales du LAMSADE (2008)

Judgment aggregation (JA) studies how to aggregate individual judgments to form collective decisions. Examples are expert panels, legal courts, boards, and councils. The problems investigated in this new ... [more ▼]

Judgment aggregation (JA) studies how to aggregate individual judgments to form collective decisions. Examples are expert panels, legal courts, boards, and councils. The problems investigated in this new field are relevant and common to many situations. Nevertheless, the existing procedures are idealized and, likewise the related problems of preference aggregation in social choice theory, the field is plagued by impossibility theorems. In this paper, we extend standard JA in order to offer a more realistic framework and to escape the impossibility results. We propose to distinguish between abstainers and neutral judgment as well as to model the notion of confidence a group member may have in the decision rule by assigning to each criterion a normalized weight. We then show how this new framework may help us to avoid indecision in most cases. [less ▲]

Turbo Decoding: Why Stopping Criteria do Work

in Proceedings of 5th International Symposium on Turbo Codes & Related Topics (2008)

The convergence of iterative decoding schemes is considered. The class of dually coupled codes is recalled, being a super class to both Turbo and LDPC codes. It is proven that the output L-values of a ... [more ▼]

The convergence of iterative decoding schemes is considered. The class of dually coupled codes is recalled, being a super class to both Turbo and LDPC codes. It is proven that the output L-values of a Turbo decoder cannot grow to in?nity, while those of an LDPC decoder can. Finally, a new decoder parameter is introduced by which the convergence behavior can be controlled. [less ▲]

Network analysis of respiratory sensations during stress and sports using flowthrough centrality measurements

in International Journal of Psychology (2008), 43(3-4), 329-329

The association of respiratory symptom report with depressive mood is distinct from the association with anxiety

in Personality and Individual Differences (2008), 46

Hedaquin: A reputation-based health data quality indicator

in Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science (2008), 1997(2), 159-167

Nature inspired Algorithm-Based Fault Tolerance on Global Computing Platforms. Application to Symbolic Regression

in International Conference on Metaheuristics and Nature Inspired Computing (META'08) (2008)

Computer Based School System Monitoring with Feedback to Teachers

in Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2008 (2008), 2008(1), 5065-5070

Educational multimedia focuses traditionally on the design of computer aided learning environments. Evaluation has to be viewed as an essential part of the learning environment. Beyond opportunities ... [more ▼]

Educational multimedia focuses traditionally on the design of computer aided learning environments. Evaluation has to be viewed as an essential part of the learning environment. Beyond opportunities provided by its computerization (behaviours tracking, richer interactions, etc.), Computer Based Assessment provides teachers a measurement instrument where their students are put together with larger groups of students on the same assessment scale, using a unique competency model. It provides feedback to teachers that enable them to early detect shortcomings of their courses, pedagogical approach. ICT provides in this case a flexible way for the results collection, feedback reporting raising strengths and weaknesses, assurance of anonymity, data privacy. Moreover, it would give decision makers of the educational system information on the educational system steering efficiency. This paper describes ongoing assessment based on the TAO platform (http://www.tao.lu) with feedback to teachers done in Luxembourg. [less ▲]

L'influence du droit européen de la consommation sur le droit des contrats

in Droit & Patrimoine (2008)

Rights Management for Role-Based Access Control

in Fifth Annual IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference 2008 (CCNC'08) (2008)

Examining parental perceptions of family, child adjustment, and school risk factors during the transition to secondary school

in SRA 2008 Biennial Meeting (2008)