New insights into plant hydraulics by experimentally pulling instead of pushing water through plant segments

Doctoral thesis (2023)

Quantifying the abuse potentiality in the investor treaty protection regime (ICSID Convention): the investment fund case study

Doctoral thesis (2023)

DRL-Assisted Delay Optimized Task Offloading in Automotive-Industry 5.0 based VECNs

in Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences (2023)

The rapid growth of Automotive-Industry 5.0 and its emergence with beyond fifth-generation (B5G) communications, is making vehicular edge computing networks (VECNs) increasingly complex. The latency ... [more ▼]

The rapid growth of Automotive-Industry 5.0 and its emergence with beyond fifth-generation (B5G) communications, is making vehicular edge computing networks (VECNs) increasingly complex. The latency constraints of modern automotive applications make it difficult to run complex applications on vehicle on-board units (OBUs). While multi-access edge computing (MEC) can facilitate task offloading to execute these applications, it is still a challenge to access them promptly and optimally. Traditional algorithms struggle to guarantee accuracy in such dynamic environment, but deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods offer improved accuracy, robustness, and real-time decision-making capabilities. In this paper, we propose a DRL-based mobility, contact, and load aware cooperative task offloading (DCTO) scheme. DCTO is designed for both cellular and mmWave radio access technologies (RATs), and both binary and partial offloading mechanisms. DCTO targets delay minimization by opportunistically switching RATs and offloading mechanisms. We consider relative efficacy and neutrality factors as key performance indicators and use them to derive the DRL agent’s reward function. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that the DCTO scheme exhibits a substantial enhancement in task success rate, with an increase from 2.61% to 21.34%. It also improves the efficacy factor from 1.38 to 3.52 and reduces the neutrality factor from 4.99 to 0.76. Furthermore, the average task processing time is reduced by a range of 3.77% to 24.15%. Additionally, the DCTO scheme outperforms the other evaluated schemes in terms of reward and TFPS ratio. [less ▲]

Contributions of modifiable risk factors to increased dementia risk in depression

in Psychological Medicine (2023)

Molecular Factors Involved in Tick-Bite Mediated Allergy to the Carbohydrate Alpha-Gal

Doctoral thesis (2023)

Red meat allergy aka α-Gal allergy is a delayed allergic response occurring upon consumption of mammalian meat and by-products. Patients report eating meat without any problems for several years before ... [more ▼]

Red meat allergy aka α-Gal allergy is a delayed allergic response occurring upon consumption of mammalian meat and by-products. Patients report eating meat without any problems for several years before developing the allergy. Although children can develop red meat allergy, it is more prevalent in adults. In addition to a delayed onset of reactions, immediate hypersensitivity is reported in case of contact with the allergen via intravenous route. Galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-Gal) is the first highly allergenic carbohydrate that has been identified to cause allergy all across the world. In general, carbohydrates exhibit low immunogenicity and are not capable of inducing a strong immune response on their own. Although the α-Gal epitope is present in conjugation with both proteins and lipids, due to an overall accepted role of proteins in allergy, glycoproteins from mammalian food sources were first characterized. However, a unique feature of α-Gal allergy is the delayed occurrence of allergic symptoms upon ingestion of mammalian meat and an allergenic role of glycolipids has been proposed to explain these delayed responses. A second important feature of the disease is that the development of specific IgE to α-Gal has been associated with tick bites belonging to various tick species, depending on the geographical region. In this tick-mediated allergy an intriguing factor is the absence of an α-1,3-GalT gene in ticks, a gene coding for an enzyme capable of α-Gal synthesis, which raises questions on the source and identity of the sensitizing molecule within ticks, immune responses to tick bites, and effect of increased exposure. In this study, we sought to elucidate the origin of sensitization to α-Gal by investigating a cohort of individuals exposed to recurrent tick bites and by exploring the proteome of ticks in a longitudinal study. Furthermore, we analysed the allergenicity of glycoproteins and glycolipids in order to determine the food components responsible for the delayed onset of symptoms. The aim of the Chapter I was to determine IgG profiles and the prevalence rate of sensitization to α-Gal in a high-risk cohort of forestry employees from Luxembourg. The aim of Chapter II was to analyse the presence of host blood in Ixodes ricinus after moulting and upon prolonged starvation in order to support or reject the host blood transmission hypothesis. The aim of the Chapter III was to investigate and compare the allergenicity of glycolipids and glycoproteins to understand their role in the allergic response. Moreover, we have analysed the stability of glycoproteins and compared extracts from different food sources. This chapter is in the form of a published article. In Chapter IV, I have made an attempt to create mutant models with specified α-Gal glycosylation in order to study role of spatial distribution of α-Gal in IgE cross linking and effector cell activation. [less ▲]

Explorers presenter

Scientific Conference (2023, February 01)

ChatGPT: a pedagogical use case

Presentation (2023, February 01)

Energy-Efficient Backscatter Aided Uplink NOMA Roadside Sensor Communications under Channel Estimation Errors

in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2023)

This work presents non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) enabled energy-efficient alternating optimization framework for backscatter aided wireless powered uplink sensors communications for beyond 5G ... [more ▼]

This work presents non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) enabled energy-efficient alternating optimization framework for backscatter aided wireless powered uplink sensors communications for beyond 5G intelligent transportation system (ITS). Specifically, the transmit power of carrier emitter (CE) and reflection coefficients of backscatter aided roadside sensors are optimized with channel uncertainties for the maximization of the energy efficiency (EE) of the network. The formulated problem is tackled by the proposed two-stage alternating optimization algorithm named AOBWS (alternating optimization for backscatter aided wireless powered sensors). In the first stage, AOBWS employs an iterative algorithm to obtain optimal CE transmit power through simplified closed-form computed through Cardano’s formulae. In the second stage, AOBWS uses a noniterative algorithm that provides a closed-form expression for the computation of optimal reflection coefficient for roadside sensors under their quality of service (QoS) and a circuit power constraint. The global optimal exhaustive search (ES) algorithm is used as a benchmark. Simulation results demonstrate that the AOBWS algorithm can achieve near-optimal performance with very low complexity, which makes it suitable for practical implementations. [less ▲]

Policy Brief to the French Public Consultation on Influencers and Content Creators

Diverse speeches and writings (2023)

Arbitrage bots in experimental asset markets

in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2023), 206

Trading algorithms are an integral component of modern asset markets. In twin experimental markets for long-lived correlated assets we examine the impact of alternative types of arbitrage-seeking ... [more ▼]

Trading algorithms are an integral component of modern asset markets. In twin experimental markets for long-lived correlated assets we examine the impact of alternative types of arbitrage-seeking algorithms. These arbitrage robot traders vary in their latency and whether they make or take market liquidity. All arbitrage robot traders we examine generate greater conformity to the law-of-one-price across the twin markets. However, only the liquidity providing arbitrage robot trader moves prices into closer alignment with fundamental values. The reduced mispricing comes with varying social costs; arbitrage robot traders’ gains reduce the earnings of human traders. We identify factors which drive differences in human trader performance and find that the presence of an arbitrage robot trader has no disproportionate effect with respect to these factors on subjects’ earnings. [less ▲]