Host Software Research Articles

Pangea: An MLOps Tool for Automatically Generating Infrastructure and Deploying Analytic Pipelines in Edge, Fog and Cloud Layers.

Development and operations (DevOps), artificial intelligence (AI), big data and edge–fog–cloud are disruptive technologies that may produce a radical transformation of the industry. Nevertheless, there are still major challenges to efficiently applying them in order to optimise productivity. Some of them are addressed in this article, concretely, with respect to the adequate management of information technology (IT) infrastructures for automated analysis processes in critical fields such as the mining industry. In this area, this paper presents a tool called Pangea aimed at automatically generating suitable execution environments for deploying analytic pipelines. These pipelines are decomposed into various steps to execute each one in the most suitable environment (edge, fog, cloud or on-premise) minimising latency and optimising the use of both hardware and software resources. Pangea is focused in three distinct objectives: (1) generating the required infrastructure if it does not previously exist; (2) provisioning it with the necessary requirements to run the pipelines (i.e., configuring each host operative system and software, install dependencies and download the code to execute); and (3) deploying the pipelines. In order to facilitate the use of the architecture, a representational state transfer application programming interface (REST API) is defined to interact with it. Therefore, in turn, a web client is proposed. Finally, it is worth noting that in addition to the production mode, a local development environment can be generated for testing and benchmarking purposes.

Extended Reality in Marketing—A Multiple Case Study on Internet of Things Platforms

This research highlights how cloud platform as a service technologies host extended reality technologies and convergent technologies in integrated solutions. It was only around 2019 that scholarly literature conceptualized the role of extended reality, that is, augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality, in the marketing function. This article is a multiple case study on the leading eleven platform as a service vendors. They provide the programming technology required to host software as a service in the cloud, making the software available from everywhere. Of the eleven cases, 10% integrate technologies in solutions. Research results show that extended reality technologies reinvent digital marketing; as part of this, they shape the customer delivery model in terms of customer value proposition; favor the choice of customer channel (the omnichannel); possibly lead to new customer relationships, such as cocreation; and reach global mass customers. Extended reality in the delivery model is complemented by other technologies in the operating model. These combinations provide the foundations of the business models, which are either network or platform business models. This study identifies a number of solutions enabled by extended reality, which have an integrated goal in the form of customer value contribution and are to be studied in further articles.

A High-Performance and Scalable NVMe Controller Featuring Hardware Acceleration

Nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) is a high-performance and scalable PCI express (PCIe)-based interface for the host software communicating with NVMs, including NAND Flash and the storage class memories (SCMs). NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs) have been deployed in cloud platforms and data-centers for a variety of I/O intensive applications due to their performance benefits compared to SATA/SAS SSDs. Considering the design flexibility, firmware-based NVMe controllers are typically used in Flash-based NVMe SSDs but may occupy a significant portion of processor resources and power consumption to achieve high performance. Moreover, the firmware component can be a critical performance bottleneck for SCMs that are an order-of-magnitude faster than Flash. To address these challenges, hardware-accelerated NVMe controllers have emerged in both industry and academia. The commercial hardware controllers are confidential, whereas current academic studies still spare much room for architecture innovations. In this article, we propose an opensource ultralow-latency and high-throughput NVMe controller with a highly parallel, pipelined, and scalable architecture that accommodates one admin controller and multiple fully hardware-automated I/O controllers. We perform extensive empirical performance evaluations concerning the NVMe I/O size, queue depth, queue number, read-to-write ratio, and access pattern. The maximum read/write bandwidth can achieve 7.0 GB/s, accounting for 89&#x0025; of the PCIe bandwidth. The 4-KB-sized read/write throughput can attain 1.7 million I/O operations per second (MIOPS), whereas the average latency is merely 2.4 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/3.2 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Compared to state-of-the-art NVMe controllers in academia, the 4-KB-sized read/write bandwidth of our controller reaches <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.2 \times /2.3\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> as high and the latency is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5.1 \times /4.9\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> lower.

Exercise and Rehabilitation of Chronically Ill Patients Assisted by Small Digital Bio-Pulse Sensors

With the continuous increase of the ageing population, the number of patients with chronic diseases has increased dramatically. The limited medical resources and the strong demand for high-quality medical services are in stark contradiction. Active rehabilitation training is one of the most effective rehabilitation methods, but it is difficult to achieve through traditional medical equipment. In this paper, aiming at effective clinical rehabilitation, an in-depth study was carried out on the exercise intention recognition experiment of patients, hoping to provide an effective rehabilitation treatment method for the recovery of patients with lower extremity motor function injury. This paper introduces the detection principle of the photoelectric pulse sensor and the design scheme that is used in physical education. In the experiment, through the hardware connection, programming, and the development of the host computer software, the pulse signal of the human body can be presented stably on the computer. The monitoring of the pulse of the students can help the physical education teacher to understand the situation of the students and prevent accidents. In addition, we believe that the acquisition of students’ pulse signals in physical education to build a database is of great significance for research and tracking of students’ health status and the research results will certainly promote the development of pulse diagnosis. In order to make the lower extremity exoskeleton rehabilitation system that can be applied in clinical rehabilitation, according to the Brunnstrom staging of patients with central nervous system injury, the needs of patients in different stages in the rehabilitation process were analysed and active and passive lower extremity rehabilitation strategies were formulated. Aiming at the problem of real-time and accurate identification of human motion intention, and to alleviate the mechanism motion delay caused by the delay of mechanical and control systems in the human-machine integrated system, a differential sEMG real-time feature extraction algorithm is proposed. The results show that the sensor and monitoring system have excellent stability, and the auxiliary system can accurately reflect the changing trend of the human biological pulse, achieve the expected effect, and effectively assist in the monitoring of exercise data for patients with chronic diseases. After treatment, the joint range of motion and muscle strength basically returned to normal levels, and the patient was able to walk independently. Compared with traditional treatment methods, the recovery time is shorter, the recovery of muscle strength is more effective, and the medical staff is more relaxed.

Design and testing of a digital twin for monitoring and quality assessment of material extrusion process

In this paper are illustrated conception, realization and validation of an original solution for the digital twin of a material extrusion 3D printer, the most popular additive manufacturing machine. The system is composed by three main modules: a core containing the simulation engine, a data interface managing incoming data and a graphical interface enabling user remote control. It receives as input the process data collected by several sensors and the same part program (G-Code file) used by the real machine; thus, the system provides various real time functions for process monitoring, condition monitoring and geometrical accuracy control. Alongside detecting load on critical components and checking wear and tear, it can also systematically sort data collected or calculated during operation to help in optimizing printing parameters. Through interaction with the print host software, the twin is able to intervene directly in the current process to pause printing in case of anomalies and to assist users along a recovery procedure. An index of quality of the printed piece is obtained by comparing the CAD model of the printed part and a 3D model of the deposited material powered by the data coming from the machine. The system has been tested on a custom-made Cartesian printer: a number of prints were made with different speeds and accelerations to assess the impact of these settings on the average quality, and a more in-depth study was carried out on the digital models of the prints to investigate the origin of the defects detected. The programs and devices used do not rely on commercial solutions, so that the system is easily replicable.

Embedded system for mobile interconnection control system of sports training cyclists

Indoor fitness training bicycles are popular among the general public. This paper mainly studies the application of embedded system technology in the mobile interconnected control system of sports training and cycling equipment. This article uses four sub-nodes and sets them on different channels. The dismounting of this bicycle is divided into ten resistance adjustment gears. Since the user is riding, its riding power is affected by two factors, and the three are not simply a simple linear relationship. After each signal acquisition module works normally, connect each module to the wireless body area network terminal node for system networking test. System testing includes signal acquisition test, network communication test and host computer software test. Combine load test and stress test to detect various performance indicators of the system. The results show that the application of embedded system technology can improve the performance of the bicycle.

Virtual sports rehabilitation and monitoring system for the elderly based on intelligent interaction and embedded system

This article uses medical electrode pads as the ECG sensor, introduces the signal into the subsequent conditioning circuit, sticks to the electrode pads on both sides of the human body's chest and abdomen, and ensures a firm fit. After each signal acquisition module works normally, connect each module to the wireless body area network terminal node for system networking test. System testing includes not only signal acquisition testing and network communication testing, but also host computer software testing. The BCG signal is collected by a piezoelectric film sensor, which converts the mechanical vibration in the human body into a variable voltage output. The results show that the system can accurately collect and process data, maintain good communication with the software platform, and has high reliability.

Design of double axis solar automatic light tracing device based on cloud platform

Solar energy is a widely distributed and inexhaustible "green" renewable new energy, which is one of the best solutions to the energy crisis in the world. However, the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells in large-scale solar applications is not high, and the cost is very high. Therefore, in order to increase the power generation capacity and efficiency of solar power generation, automatic tracking power generation devices should be used to replace fixed solar photovoltaic panels and other solar equipment. This design proposes a two axis solar tracking system based on the Internet of Things cloud platform. This system uses the sun viewing motion tracking method to drive photovoltaic panels in horizontal and vertical directions to track the sun. The preset tracking angle of the system is based on the sun azimuth angle and altitude angle operation rules calculated and collected by the sun angle calculation software, and combined with weather data to find the best angle for real-time tracking. This design will elaborate the design process from the aspects of system overall scheme design, hardware circuit design and host computer software development.

Design and Performance Simulation of Computer Control System for Automatic Monitoring of Upper Computer Communication Operation State

The upper computer communication operation state automatic monitoring system is mainly used to remotely monitor the equipment, obtain various parameter indexes in the operation process of remote equipment, realize remote monitoring and fault diagnosis, and improve the management efficiency of decentralized equipment. This paper completes the design of communication, data storage, query, and other subsystems of upper and lower computers. The lower computer establishes a data channel with the OPC server through the MPI protocol and uploads the collected data to the OPC server in real time. The upper computer reads the data through the OPC server and displays the changes of monitored parameters in real time through the monitoring interface, so as to give an alarm under abnormal conditions. In addition, since the default database of Kingview is access, considering that the Microsoft Access database can store up to 2G of content, in order to upgrade and expand the subsequent system, SQL Server database is selected for data query, backup, and saving. The parameter setting method of communication control system is analyzed, the simulation model of industrial boiler control system is established by using Matlab/Simulink, and the interface between host computer software (IBCCS-e) and the model is provided. This paper analyzes the results of communication parameter adjustment. The simulation results show that the industrial boiler computer control system (IBCCS) has stable performance, low cost, convenient operation, and good maintainability. After further improvement, it has certain application value in the operation transformation of new small- and medium-sized boilers and original boilers.

Design and Realization of Test System for Digital Input and Output Module

Aiming at the problems of the various types of digital input and output modules in the anti-harsh hardened computer, the lack of a dedicated test system and the incomplete testing, a dedicated digital input and output test system with a wide test range was designed. The system is based on single-chip microcomputer and FPGA and can provide 64 channels of digital output (0∼30V adjustable), 64-channel digital or voltage value input test, 64 channels of switch-type digital signal, and the status of the tested module can be read in real time through the host computer software. The digital input and output modules can solve the current situation of incomplete functional testing, and the test results are accurate, stable, and reliable, with a compact structure and multiple test channels.

A Study And Analysis Of Forecasts In Resource Allocation Using ARIMA In Cloud Environment

Cloud computing refers to the delivering or usage of hosted services over internet rather than a traditional data center. Hosted services can be renting infrastructure/resources on demand or using the cloud as a platform to develop applications or using the cloud to host software that are accessed by clients. The bottom line is to obtain affordable resources from a provider and pay as you go in a flexible manner. In doing so, not all resources need to be obtained upfront. The initial capacity can be rented out and the remaining can be scaled as per the need. To handle such scalability, auto-scaling systems helps tackling the need to maintain the finite set of resources that can serve the current need and on the other hand also reduce the resources when the current need decreases. Very often in a cloud based environment it makes sense to adapt proactive strategies to scale the resources than to react after the surge had occurred. The proactive strategies use a quantified metric as a input to provision resources on demand that could meet the future expectations. This metric is obtained by carefully analysing the historical data of the application and in turn can influence the scaling decisions. Conclusions are drawn about the accuracy of the metric based on different timelines of historical information along with the confidence levels with which the prediction is done.

Pythonic Black-box Electronic Structure Tool (PyBEST). An open-source Python platform for electronic structure calculations at the interface between chemistry and physics

Pythonic Black-box Electronic Structure Tool (PyBEST) represents a fully-fledged modern electronic structure software package developed at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The package provides an efficient and reliable platform for electronic structure calculations at the interface between chemistry and physics using unique electronic structure methods, analysis tools, and visualization. Examples are the (orbital-optimized) pCCD-based models for ground- and excited-states electronic structure calculations as well as the quantum entanglement analysis framework based on the single-orbital entropy and orbital-pair mutual information. PyBEST is written primarily in the Python programming language with additional parts written in C＋＋, which are interfaced using Pybind11, a lightweight header-only library. By construction, PyBEST is easy to use, to code, and to interface with other software packages. Moreover, its modularity allows us to conveniently host additional Python packages and software libraries in future releases to enhance its performance. The electronic structure methods available in PyBEST are tested for the half-filled 1-D model Hamiltonian. The capability of PyBEST to perform large-scale electronic structure calculations is demonstrated for the model vitamin B12 compound. The investigated molecule is composed of 190 electrons and 777 orbitals for which an orbital optimization within pCCD and an orbital entanglement and correlation analysis are performed for the first time. Program summaryProgram title: PyBESTCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/xf9kb7yfwr.1Developer’s repository link:https://zenodo.org/record/3925278#.X5KAZS8Rq6sLicensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3Programming language:Python, C＋＋Nature of problem: Efficient and reliable modeling of electronic structures featuring both weakly- and strongly-correlated electrons. Small- and large-scale quantum-mechanical problems at the interface between chemistry and physics comprising both quantum chemical and model Hamiltonians. Specifically, modeling potential energy surfaces of complex electronic structures including bond breaking/formation, elucidating complex electronic structures through the picture of interacting orbitals, describing noncovalent interactions, ultra-cold trapped quantum gases, and a variety of applications in interdisciplinary quantum mechanical-based problems.Solution method: Modular implementation of a series of unconventional (and conventional) electronic structure models based on the pCCD ansatz to solve the electronic Schrödinger equation. These include the description of both ground- and excited-states, the determination of interaction energies, and the analysis and interpretation of electronic wavefunctions. All modules are implemented in the modern Python programming language, where bottleneck operations are handled by C＋＋ code interfaced by the Pybind11 header-only library. The implemented (wavefunction) modules and modular code structure make PyBEST a very efficient alternative to existing electronic structure packages.Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features:PyBEST features unconventional electronic structure methods (pCCD and post-pCCD methods) that are not available in any other quantum chemistry/physics software package. It also includes a general orbital entanglement and correlation module that supports both pCCD and selected post-pCCD methods. PyBEST is designed to be easy to use and code in. Due to its modularity (for instance of the tensor contraction engine), new Python modules and features can be straightforwardly imported and exploited without changing any wavefunction modules directly.

Software Design of Motor Controller Test System for New Energy Vehicles

In order to read and write the motor controller parameters, download the motor controller program and make the upper computer interface display the running state of the new energy vehicle drive system. This paper designs a serial communication host computer software using Modbus communication protocol and Ymodem communication protocol. The CAN bus interface is provided by the motor controller. The PC is connected to the CAN bus interface of the controller through USB to realize the communication hardware connection between the upper computer and the lower computer. MFC development framework and C + + programming language are used to complete the development of the upper computer software in Visual Studio 2015. Through the analysis of CAN Bus Analyzer and motor test bench, it shows that the upper computer software runs stably and can correctly read the motor controller parameters and send data to it. The design meets the expected requirements.

Annotation and curation of human genomic variations: an ELIXIR Implementation Study

Background: ELIXIR is an intergovernmental organization, primarily based around European countries, established to host life science resources, including databases, software tools, training material and cloud storage for the scientific community under a single infrastructure. Methods: In 2018, ELIXIR commissioned an international survey on the usage of databases and tools for annotating and curating human genomic variants with the aim of improving ELIXIR resources. The 27-question survey was made available on-line between September and December 2018 to rank the importance and explore the usage and limitations of a wide range of databases and tools for annotating and curating human genomic variants, including resources specific for next generation sequencing, research into mitochondria and protein structure. Results: Eighteen countries participated in the survey and a total of 92 questionnaires were collected and analysed. Most respondents (89%, n=82) were from academia or a research environment. 51% (n=47) of respondents gave answers on behalf of a small research group (&lt;10 people), 33% (n=30) in relation to individual work and 16% (n=15) on behalf of a large group (&gt;10 people). The survey showed that the scientific community considers several resources supported by ELIXIR crucial or very important. Moreover, it showed that the work done by ELIXIR is greatly valued. In particular, most respondents acknowledged the importance of key features and benefits promoted by ELIXIR, such as the verified scientific quality and maintenance of ELIXIR-approved resources. Conclusions ELIXIR is a “one-stop-shop” that helps researchers identify the most suitable, robust and well-maintained bioinformatics resources for delivering their research tasks.

Pengaruh Densitas Isi terhadap Ketelitian Dimensi pada Produk Mesin 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing is a very important technology in industrial manufacturing 4.0 era. It is because this technology can change an object from a virtual form into a physical model quickly and easily. One of additive manufacturing type is the FDM rapid prototyping machine. A machine has modified from a single nozzle to a dual nozzle so the printing process can be faster and can be used for different color filaments. This study compared 3D models made in the CAD software and the result of test specimens that have been printed using MakerGear M2 3D machine by measuring using a measurement tool profile projector. The host software of the machine was set up at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% infill density. The results of analysis on test specimens show the best accuracy at 20% infill density.

DSTL

Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) is regarded as a promising technology for resolving the areal density limitation of conventional magnetic recording hard disk drives. Among different types of SMR drives, drive-managed SMR (DM-SMR) requires no changes on the host software and is widely used in today’s consumer market. DM-SMR employs a shingled translation layer (STL) to hide its inherent sequential-write constraint from the host software and emulate the SMR drive as a block device via maintaining logical to physical block address mapping entries. However, because most existing STL designs do not simultaneously consider the access pattern and the data update frequency of incoming workloads, those mapping entries maintained within the STL cannot be effectively managed, thus inducing unnecessary performance overhead. To resolve the inefficiency of existing STL designs, this article proposes a demand-based STL (DSTL) to simultaneously consider the access pattern and update frequency of incoming data streams to enhance the access performance of DM-SMR. The proposed design was evaluated by a series of experiments, and the results show that the proposed DSTL can outperform other SMR management approach by up to 86.69% in terms of read/write performance.

A Simplified Design of Automatic Energy Consumption Measuring Platform for Embedded Systems

In this paper, a simplified design of automatic energy consumption measuring platform for embedded systems is proposed. A straightforward device named USB-TTL replaces the intermediate device in the original design and becomes the link between the host computer and the target board. The simplification makes the design of host computer software simpler and the whole platform more reliable. It also eliminates the need to design software for the intermediate device. In general, it has features similar to the original design. A series of test sets are also designed to verify its capabilities and accuracy. Compared to the original design, the simplified one has almost consistent accuracy, is easier to deploy, and requires less wiring and devices.

Role of 3D printing in surgical education for robotic urology procedures.

During the past 5 years, the body of literature surrounding the utilization of three-dimensional (3D) printing in the field of urology has grown exponentially. Incentivized by work hour restrictions, patient safety initiatives, and inspired by technical advances in biomaterials and rapid printing strategies, this emerging, and fascinating area of research has begun to make headway into clinical practice. However, concerns about cost, limited understanding of the technical processes involved, and lack of its potential uses remain barriers to its widespread adoption. We examined existing published literature on how 3D printing technologies have been utilized in the field of Urology to enhance pre-operative planning, revitalize surgical training, and modernize patient education, with particular focus on, robotic surgery. To date, 3D-printed models have been used and studied most commonly in the preoperative planning for nephron-sparing surgeries during the treatment of renal masses, where the challenges of complex renal anatomy and benefits of reducing renal ischemic injury create the most intuitive value. Prostate models are the second most common, particularly in the planning of nerve-sparing procedures. Early studies have demonstrated sufficient realism and educational effectiveness. Subsequent studies demonstrated improved surgeon confidence, operative performance, and optimized patient outcomes including high levels of patient satisfaction. Realistic, accurate, and reasonably priced models can currently be generated within hours using standard desktop 3D printers. While primarily utilized as anatomic replicas of diseased organs that restore a sense of haptic feedback lost in robotic procedures, innovations in polymers, improvements in 3D printer host and modeling software, and upgrades in printer hardware allow this technology to serve as a comprehensive, interactive, simulation platform that can be a critical surgical decision making as well as an effective teaching tool. As Urologists continue to rapidly diversify and iterate upon this adaptive modality, the benefits in patient outcomes will likely outpace the diminishing drawbacks, and we may well see the next revolution in surgical education, robotic techniques, and personalized medicine concurrently.

Software Design of High Precision Filling Test System Based on LabWindows / CVI

Filling technology has a large number of applications in the chemical, food, pharmaceutical and other industries. Filling repeatability is an important indicator in the field of flow measurement. Because of its powerful data analysis capabilities, virtual instrument technology is playing an increasingly important role in the field of automated detection. This paper designs the host computer software based on LabWindows / CVI for a high-precision filling test system. LabWindows / CVI combines a powerful and flexible C language platform with professional measurement and control tools so it can realize the requirements for designing filling system software. The main functions of the software are hardware communication, data acquisition and processing, and export of test results then a user-friendly interface is designed. This article explains the basic program design process, data structure and introduces program functions. The software can run stably and can provide filling test solutions for different test devices.

Implementation of the regularized extended finite element method in Abaqus framework for fracture modeling in laminated composites

The Regularized eXtended Finite Element Method (Rx-FEM) is a fracture mechanics based technique for progressive failure simulation when multiple damage events such as matrix cracks and delamination are introduced into the finite element model via mesh independent displacement discontinuities. In the Rx-FEM, the Heaviside step function that is used in the eXtended Finite Element Method (x-FEM) is replaced by a continuous function approximated by using the FE shape functions. This regularization offers unique possibility for the implementation of the Rx-FEM methodology in commercial FE software as a superposition of native elements as opposed to a single user defined element which is the approach taken by x-FEM implementation to date. The advantages of the novel Rx-FEM implementation lie in the ability to utilize the capabilities of the host software including contact, geometric nonlinearity as well as post-processing, and visualization. The proposed implementation of the Rx-FEM methodology is illustrated for commercial software Abaqus on a number of examples of mesh-independent crack modeling in composite laminates, and delamination between plies. The validity of the proposed implementation is demonstrated by comparing with experimental data and benchmark solutions.