We analyze the Google-Apple exposure notification mechanism designed by the Apple-Google consortium and deployed on a large number of Corona-warn apps. At the time of designing it, the most important issue was time-to-market and strict compliance with the privacy protection rules of GDPR. This resulted in a plain but elegant scheme with a high level of privacy protection. In this paper we go into details and propose some extensions of the original design addressing practical issues. Firstly, we point to the danger of a malicious cryptographic random number generator (CRNG) and resulting possibility of unrestricted user tracing. We propose an update that enables verification of unlinkability of pseudonymous identifiers directly by the user. Secondly, we show how to solve the problem of verifying the “same household” situation justifying exempts from distancing rules. We present a solution with MIN-sketches based on rolling proximity identifiers from the Apple-Google scheme. Thirdly, we examine the strategies for revealing temporary exposure keys. We have detected some unexpected phenomena regarding the number of keys for unbalanced binary trees of a small size. These observations may be used in case that the size of the lists of diagnosis keys has to be optimized.

Bridge inspections are a vital part of bridge maintenance and the main information source for Bridge Management Systems is used in decision-making regarding repairs. Without a doubt, both can benefit from the implementation of the Building Information Modelling philosophy. To fully harness the BIM potential in this area, we have to develop tools that will provide inspection accurate information easily and fast. In this paper, we present an example of how such a tool can utilise tablets coupled with the latest generation RGB-D cameras for data acquisition; how these data can be processed to extract the defect surface area and create a 3D representation, and finally embed this information into the BIM model. Additionally, the study of depth sensor accuracy is presented along with surface area accuracy tests and an exemplary inspection of a bridge pillar column.

The paper presents and sums up the research and technical aspects of the modernization of the cutting tool of the dredger. Improper adjustment of the cutting elements not adjusted to the characteristics of excavated material is not an uncommon situation, causing versatile geological conditions. Relocation of the machines from one pit to another may result in the significant influence on the excavation process (wear, output, etc.). Common practice is the field try and error approach to obtain desired machine performance. In the paper authors present the approach with aid of cutting-edge technologies. Coupled DEM and kinematic simulations supported by the reverse engineering technologies of laser scanning were the fundamental drivers for final adjustments of the cutting tool at its present operational conditions.

In times of the COVID-19, reliable tools to simulate the airborne pathogens causing the infection are extremely important to enable the testing of various preventive methods. Advection-diffusion simulations can model the propagation of pathogens in the air. We can represent the concentration of pathogens in the air by “contamination” propagating from the source, by the mechanisms of advection (representing air movement) and diffusion (representing the spontaneous propagation of pathogen particles in the air). The three-dimensional time-dependent advection-diffusion equation is difficult to simulate due to the high computational cost and instabilities of the numerical methods. In this paper, we present alternating directions implicit isogeometric analysis simulations of the three-dimensional advection-diffusion equations. We introduce three intermediate time steps, where in the differential operator, we separate the derivatives concerning particular spatial directions. We provide a mathematical analysis of the numerical stability of the method. We show well-posedness of each time step formulation, under the assumption of a particular time step size. We utilize the tensor products of one-dimensional B-spline basis functions over the three-dimensional cube shape domain for the spatial discretization. The alternating direction solver is implemented in C++ and parallelized using the GALOIS framework for multi-core processors. We run the simulations within 120 minutes on a laptop equipped with i7 6700 Q processor 2.6 GHz (8 cores with HT) and 16 GB of RAM.

The optimum combination of blade angle of the runner and guide vane opening with Kaplan turbine can improve the hydroelectric generating the set operation efficiency and the suppression capability of oscillations. Due to time and cost limitations and the complex operation mechanism of the Kaplan turbine, the coordination test data is insufficient, making it challenging to obtain the whole curves at each head under the optimum coordination operation by field tests. The field test data is employed to propose a least-squares support vector machine (LSSVM)-based prediction model for Kaplan turbine coordination tests. Considering the small sample characteristics of the test data of Kaplan turbine coordination, the LSSVM parameters are optimized by an improved grey wolf optimization (IGWO) algorithm with mixed non-linear factors and static weights. The grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm has some deficiencies, such as the linear convergence factor, which inaccurately simulates the actual situation, and updating the position indeterminately reflects the absolute leadership of the leader wolf. The IGWO algorithm is employed to overcome the aforementioned problems. The prediction model is simulated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed IGWO-LSSVM. The results show high accuracy with small samples, a 2.59% relative error in coordination tests, and less than 1.85% relative error in non-coordination tests under different heads.

In the ceramic industry, quality control is performed using visual inspection in three different product stages: green, biscuit, and the final ceramic tile. To develop a real-time computer visual inspection system, the necessary step is successful tile segmentation from its background. In this paper, a new statistical multi-line signal change detection (MLSCD) segmentation method based on signal change detection (SCD) method is presented. Through experimental results on seven different ceramic tile image sets, MLSCD performance is analyzed and compared with the SCD method. Finally, recommended parameters are proposed for optimal performance of the MLSCD method.