If one takes a scientific and ‘positivist’ view (Popper 1959), then experimentation is part of a ‘hypothetico-deductive’ process. A hypothesis is formulated and then tested to see if it can be ‘falsified’. If falsified then that hypothesis must be discarded and replaced with a new, hopefully better one, which will, itself, then be tested. If a hypothesis resists falsification, and is supported ...

The open-source software RRDtool and Cricket provide a solution to the problem of collecting, storing, and visualizing service network time series data for the real-time monitoring task. However, simultaneously monitoring all service network time series of interest is an impossible task even for the accomplished network technician. The solution is to integrate a mathematical model for automatic...

In the contemporary UK policy context, multisectoral partnership initiatives and community participation are increasingly viewed as appropriate mechanisms for tackling health and social disadvantage. Such initiatives are often put into practice in contexts of industrial and economic decline, fragmented neighbourhoods, hard-pressed public services, and sustained under-investment in voluntary and...

During the 25 years of existence of the first protocol for Quantum Key Distribution, much has been said and expected of what came to be termed as Quantum Cryptography. After all this time, much progress has been done but also the reality check and analysis that naturally comes with maturity is underway. A new panorama is emerging, and the way in which the challenges imposed by market requiremen...

The need for semantics preserving integration of complex data has been widely recognized in the healthcare domain. While standards such as Health Level Seven (HL7) have been developed in this direction, they have mostly been applied in limited, controlled environments, still being used incoherently across countries, organizations, or hospitals. In a more mobile and global society, data and know...

Human activity and environment produces sounds such as, at home, the noise produced by water, cough, or television. These sounds can be used to determine the activity in the environment. The objective is to monitor a person’s activity or determine his environment using a single low cost microphone by sound analysis. The purpose is to adapt programs to the activity or environment or detect abnor...

A grid is a pattern of geometrical shapes used to segment a surface or region and which can be defined using a simple mathematical function or formula. Dividing a space in grids helps in better understanding of the space and location of objects. The grids are of great use in translating the spatial information stored in the maps. The shape, size and the type of grid varies depending on the need...

During the last decade, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications have been one of the dominant components of Internet traffic. Understanding BitTorrent, by far the most popular P2P protocol for data distribution, is extremely valuable to shed some light on the nature of distributed systems. This paper surveys the existing measurement studies and sets out to verify the acquired corpus of knowledge about ...

This essay on the nature of proof and progress in mathematics was stimulated by the article of Jaffe and Quinn, "Theoretical Mathematics: Toward a cultural synthesis of mathematics and theoretical physics". Their article raises interesting issues that mathematicians should pay more attention to, but it also perpetuates some widely held beliefs and attitudes that need to be questioned and examin...

Open Source Information (OSI) and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) are attracting enormous interest from the business, military and political intelligence communities. OSI and OSINT offer the prospect of delivering valuable intelligence, from so-called open sources such as newspapers, experts, and online databases. While OSI and OSINT may offer considerable potential when employed to produce in...