Intense Applications Research Articles

Distributed Uniform Streaming Framework: An Elastic Fog Computing Platform for Event Stream Processing and Platform Transparency

The increase of Internet of Things devices and the rise of more computationally intense applications presents challenges for future Internet of Things architectures. We envision a future in which edge, fog, and cloud devices work together to execute future applications. Because the entire application cannot run on smaller edge or fog devices, we will need to split the application into smaller application components. These application components will send event messages to each other to create a single application from multiple application components. The execution location of the application components can be optimized to minimize the resource consumption. In this paper, we describe the Distributed Uniform Stream (DUST) framework that creates an abstraction between the application components and the middleware which is required to make the execution location transparent to the application component. We describe a real-world application that uses the DUST framework for platform transparency. Next to the DUST framework, we also describe the distributed DUST Coordinator, which will optimize the resource consumption by moving the application components to a different execution location. The coordinators will use an adapted version of the Contract Net Protocol to find local minima in resource consumption.

All-optical wavelength reservation for flexible spectrum networks using amplifier saturation and VCSEL injection

Advanced metro-access WDM optical fiber telecommunication networks use integrated wavelength switching nodes to provide efficient, flexible wavelength allocation along the link. Recent developments, together with the increase in bandwidth intense applications, have sparked great interest in flexible, grid-like optical network systems. Flexible spectrum optical network systems with nonstatic channel bandwidth, wavelength allocation, switching, and routing permit the optimum distribution of data with variable rates and modulation formats. We describe a unique technique for all-optical wavelength reservation at a forwarding flex spectrum node. The outgoing signal is locked to the incoming signal at the node, thereby guaranteeing automatic wavelength reservation and allocation. A saturated erbium-dope fiber amplifier (EDFA) is used to erase data from the incoming signal, which is then used to lock the wavelength of the forwarding node through vertical cavity surface emitting laser injection. The EDFA is shown to reduce the extinction ratio of the incoming signal from 7.3 dB to less than 1 dB (560 mdB). We show automatic wavelength reservation over 1.68 nm within the C-band, with 25.5-km transmission over G. 655 single mode fiber. Considering 50-GHz per-channel bandwidth allocations, this technique translates to four-channel operation in a typical metro-access type configuration.

Focal distribution of diflubenzuron resistance mutations in Culex pipiens mosquitoes from Northern Italy

Insecticide resistance is a major threat for vector control and prevention of mosquito borne diseases. In the Culex pipiens mosquitoes, resistance against diflubenzuron (DFB) was firstly detected in Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy), in 2015. The resistant phenotypes were associated with two mutations, I1043 M and I1043 L, at the amino acid 1043 of the chitin synthase gene. In this study, we monitored the presence, frequency and geographical distribution of the DFB resistant mutations in Cx. pipiens populations from Northern Italy, and in populations from Greece and France. In the Emilia-Romagna region, the resistant mutations were detected in 20 out of the 30 populations analysed, reaching allelic frequencies over 70%. The presence and distribution of the resistance mutations was highly focal, with a clear pattern of increasing resistant allelic frequencies moving from the Western towards the Eastern provinces of Emilia-Romagna. Contrary to Italy, DFB resistant alleles were not detected in the Cx. pipiens mosquitoes sampled from Greece and France. Following statistical, literature and bibliographical database analyses on the history of DFB insecticide use in the study areas, we suggest that the selection pressures from the intense agricultural DFB applications occurring throughout the’ 80-‘90 s against orchard pests, followed, from 2000s onwards by mosquito control DFB applications, may account for the high mutation frequencies observed in the Cx. pipiens populations of the Eastern provinces of Emilia-Romagna. The findings are of major concern for public health in Italy and Europe, as DFB remains a very important insecticide used for controlling arbovirus mosquito vectors, where alternative larvicides are extremely limited.

Multi-Parametric Analysis of Reliability and Energy Consumption in IoT: A Deep Learning Approach.

Small-to-medium scale smart buildings are an important part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are the major enabler for smart control in such environments. Reliability is among the key performance requirements for many loss-sensitive IoT and WSN applications, while Energy Consumption (EC) remains a primary concern in WSN design. Error-prone links, traffic intense applications, and limited physical resources make it challenging to meet these service goals—not only that these performance metrics often conflict with one another, but also require solving optimization problems, which are intrinsically NP-hard. Correctly forecasting Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and EC can play a significant role in different loss-sensitive application environments. With the ever-increasing availability of performance data, data-driven techniques are becoming popular in such settings. It is observed that a number of communication parameters like transmission power, packet size, etc., influence metrics like PDR and EC in diverse ways. In this work, different regression models including linear, gradient boosting, random forest, and deep learning are used for the purpose of predicting both PDR and EC based on such communication parameters. To evaluate the performance, a public dataset of the IEEE 802.15.4 network, containing measurements against more than 48,000 combinations of parameter configurations, is used. Results are evaluated using root mean square error and it turns out that deep learning achieves up to 98% accuracy for both PDR and EC predictions. These prediction results can help configure communication parameters taking into account the performance goals.

Charging Of SmartPhone Through Self-Generated Heat

In this age of highly memory intense applications and increasing size of Random Access Memory (RAM), mobile Central Processing Unit (CPU) temperatures are bound to reach high values; the range can even extend up to 48 degree Celsius. In that case, it would only be logical to try and harvest that heat energy, which could help in the phone’s performance by actually cooling the device down and simultaneously it can be charged through converting this heat energy into electrical energy. When mobile phones are being charged by motion as well, heat should not be left behind because it is one of the most thermodynamically underappreciated sources of energy. In this paper, a Peltier Module has been used to capture heat from the CPU or the surroundings to generate a voltage that will supply power to the battery. The advantages of this method includes that a phone can be charged at anyplacewhere no power source is available. The only disadvantage in this method would be a low efficiency, because heat itself is of very low quality energy source.

Carbon and Core Shell like Molecular Nanostructures in Cancer diagnosis and Therapy

During the past years, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted considerable interest since their first discovery. Great progress has been made in the field of nanomaterials given their great potential in biomedical applications. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), due to their unique physicochemical properties, have become a popular tool in cancer diagnosis and therapy. They are considered one of the most promising nanomaterials with the capability of both detecting the cancerous cells and delivering drugs or small therapeutic molecules to these cells because of the unique structure, extremely high specific surface area to-volume ratio enable them to use in an intense real time applications such as detection and treatment of cancerous cells, nervous disorders, tissue repair. and excellent electrical and mechanical properties carbon nanotubes composed of excellent mechanical strength, electrical and thermal conductivities makes them a suitable substance toward developing medical devices., CNTs have been explored in almost every single cancer treatment modality, including drug delivery with small nanomolecules, lymphatic targeted chemotherapy, thermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and gene therapy and demonstrate a great promise in their use in targeted drug delivery systems, diagnostic techniques and in bio-analytical applications. Majority of the biomedical applications of CNTs must be used after successful functionalization for more potential applications than pristine CNTs. There are several approaches to modify pristine CNTs to potentially active. CNTs poised into the human life and exploited in medical context. Here in, we reviewed the following topics (i) Functionalization of CNTs (ii) CNTs in real time applications such as drug delivery, gene therapy, biosensors and bio imaging; (iii) CNTs 3D printed scaffolds for medicine and (iv) Biocompatability and Biodegradability. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were synthesized using the high-pressure carbon monoxide disproportionation process (HiPCO). The SWCNT diameter, diameter distribution and yield can be varied depending on the process parameters. The obtained HiPCO product present an iron nanoparticle encapsulated heteronanocarbon (core-shell nanoparticles) at low pressure (1 bar) after removing of iron metal catalyst nanoparticle and amorphous carbon by acid immersion and oxidation. The resulting therapeutic molecule in the form of coreshell nanoparticles and single walled carbon nanotubes after functionalization by filling of iron can be use as therapeutic nanomaterials in nanomedicine in diagnosis and treatment of cancer tumor. This paper describes the synthesis method and role of multifunctional nanoparticle in diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Therefore, the aim of this review is to provide basic information on nanoparticles, describe previously developed methods to functionalize nanoparticles and discuss their potential applications in nanobiomedical and mention the therapeutic nanoparticle large scale production and commercialization challenges. In the final part of the review, emphasis is given on the pharmacokinetic aspects of carbon nanotubes including administration routes, absorption mechanisms, distribution and elimination of carbon nanotubes based systems. Lastly, a comprehensive account about the potential biomedical applications has been given followed by insights into the future carbon nanotubes from synthesis to in vivo biomedical applications.

SiCILIA—Silicon Carbide Detectors for Intense Luminosity Investigations and Applications

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a compound semiconductor, which is considered as a possible alternative to silicon for particles and photons detection. Its characteristics make it very promising for the next generation of nuclear and particle physics experiments at high beam luminosity. Silicon Carbide detectors for Intense Luminosity Investigations and Applications (SiCILIA) is a project starting as a collaboration between the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and IMM-CNR, aiming at the realization of innovative detection systems based on SiC. In this paper, we discuss the main features of silicon carbide as a material and its potential application in the field of particles and photons detectors, the project structure and the strategies used for the prototype realization, and the first results concerning prototype production and their performance.

Efecto de los insecticidas en el equilibrio natural de poblaciones de Rothschildia aroma Schaus (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) en El Salvador

A three year period of observations, collecting, and recording data on cocoons of Rothschildia aroma Schaus showed that parasitism is still high enough (63.1%) in areas free of insecticide applications to account for a good natural balance, with moth survival being only 11.4%. In contrast, in areas where intense and continuous applications have been going on for the last ten years, the percentages have been practically reversed, parasitism reaching only 18.1% and moth survival 68.4%. Emphasis is placed on this previously cryptic case of natural biological control, and others that may have been or are being disrupted in El Salvador and other countries oE Central America.

Monitoring Landsat vegetation indices for different crop treatments and soil chemistry

ABSTRACTThe timing and quantity of fertilizer and herbicide applications in agricultural systems are critical where maximizing vigour and yield is the ultimate goal. While fertilizers are applied to the soil to promote plant growth, herbicides are commonly used to control weeds in order to reduce the weeds’ competition for nutrients. Satellite imagery is frequently used to monitor agricultural activities and vegetation indices (VIs) are widely applied in temporal analysis of crop status. This study considers monitoring Landsat VIs for the period between 5 June and 27 October 2014 in agricultural systems under four different management treatments at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), in Michigan, USA. The results show that (1) fine-tuning conventional treatments by intense early herbicide applications in combination with no-tilled soil results in significantly higher VIs during the early growth stage, a more rapid maturity rate, and the highest crop yield; (2) nitrogen uptake from nitrate-based rather than from ammonium-based fertilizers might be more beneficial in terms of crop vigour and yield return; (3) organic treatments, with organic corn and no agricultural chemicals, keep higher VIs longer in the season at the cost of lower yield; and (4) genetically modified (GM) breeds under conventional or reduced-chemical treatments have synchronized early senescence. A positive correlation between VIs during the early growth stage and yield is observed for conventional no-till treatment (coefficient of determination, R2 = 0.70). The correlation becomes gradually weaker with each month from late June to October (29 June: R2 = 0.70; 16 August: R2 = 0.61; 17 September: R2 = 0.44; 27 October: R2 = 0.01). The analysis of variance (ANOVA)–Tukey–Kramer approach suggests significant differences in VIs between organic and GM corn (treated conventionally or with reduced chemicals) for the preharvest season (27 October 2014). The leave-out-one cross-validation analysis confirms the predictive accuracy of the model (mean square error (MSE) = 0.0014). The rapid evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds requires constant refinement of chemical inputs to agricultural systems, thus making the monitoring of (Landsat) VIs important in the years to come.

The shift from processor power consumption to performance variations: fundamental implications at scale

The Intel Haswell-EP processor generation introduces several major advancements of power control and energy-efficiency features. For computationally intense applications using advanced vector extension (AVX) instructions, the processor cannot continuously operate at full speed but instead reduces its frequency below the nominal frequency to maintain operations within thermal design power (TDP) limitations. Moreover, the running average power limitation (RAPL) mechanism to enforce the TDP limitation has changed from a modeling to a measurement approach. The combination of these two novelties have significant implications. Through measurements on an Intel Sandy Bridge-EP cluster, we show that previous generations have sustained homogeneous performance across multiple CPUs and compensated for hardware manufacturing variability through varying power consumption. In contrast, our measurements on a Petaflop Haswell system show that this generation exhibits rather homogeneous power consumption limited by the TDP and capped by the improved RAPL while providing inhomogeneous performance under full load. Since all of these controls are transparent to the user, this behavior is likely to complicate performance analysis tasks and impact tightly coupled parallel applications.

Changes of soil properties and carbon fractions after long-term application of organic amendments in Mollisols

Land degradation threatens soil fertility as well as environmental security. To assess the extent of degradation of black Mollisols in northeast China, chemical and microbial indicators of soil quality were determined after long-term application of organic amendments combined with chemical fertilizers. The application of high amounts of organic manure plus chemical fertilizer (NPK) significantly increased soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and mineral nitrogen (Nmin), as well as microbial biomass carbon (MBC), extractable dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial quotient (qMIC), carbon (C) in free light fraction (fLF) and its percentage of total soil C. Soil C/N ratio and C portion in heavy fraction (HF) both decreased significantly, which might have resulted from accelerated mineralization of stable C. Application of straw at a low rate plus NPK significantly increased Nmin and MBC concentrations and qMIC. Compared with the unamended control, no negligible differences were found for most of the selected parameters under the treatments NPK alone, high-rate straw plus NPK, and low-rate manure plus NPK. These results indicated that NPK along with either a high rate of manure or a low rate of straw profoundly changed certain key soil chemical and microbial properties. Despite these apparent benefits in soil properties, however, high rates of manure application is likely contributing little to soil C stabilization. Low rates of organic amendments, especially crop straw, are therefore recommended, as this practice can improve or at least maintain soil properties in degraded Mollisols, while minimizing the adverse impacts of more intense applications.

A gentle introduction to GPU programming

GPU programming provides many benefits in acceleration of computationally intense applications, with the potential of improving performance by an order of magnitude. However, despite these advantag...

Optimising laser cut-edge durability for steel structures in high stress applications

The integrity of steel beam components in high intense stress applications have been observed to be influenced by the condition of the cut edge properties. The cut-edge characteristic properties formed during laser-cutting processing have been over prolonged periods determined to have beneficial effects on fatigue life. During this study two high strength steel grades S355MC and DP600 have been examined. This is important in the case of high strength steels, these were shown to display an increased sensitivity to fatigue cracks initiating from cut-edge regions. It was determined that by controlling the interrelationship between power and traverse cutting speed during the laser cutting process can result in optimised fatigue lives being achieved. Optimal fatigue lives were attained by minimising the laser cut-edge surface damage, maintaining the formation of shallow striations and by controlling the near edge microstructural deformations during each cutting process. This was validated using a bespoke automotive component in which was tested under four-point loading.

Intense transient electric field sensor based on the electro-optic effect of LiNbO3

Intense transient electric field measurements are widely applied in various research areas. An optical intense E-field sensor for time-domain measurements, based on the electro-optic effect of lithium niobate, has been studied in detail. Principles and key issues in the design of the sensor are presented. The sensor is insulated, small in size (65 mm × 15 mm × 15 mm), and suitable for high-intensity (<801 kV/m) electric field measurements over a wide frequency band (10 Hz–10 MHz). The input/output characteristics of the sensor were obtained and the sensor calibrated. Finally, an application using this sensor in testing laboratory lightning impulses and in measuring transient electric fields during switch-on of a disconnector confirmed that the sensor is expected to find widespread use in transient intense electric field measurement applications.

Temperature profile in apricot tree canopies under the soil and climate conditions of the Romanian Black Sea Coast.

The paper describes the temperature profiles determined by thermal imagery in apricot tree canopies under the semi-arid conditions of the Black Sea Coast in a chernozem of Dobrogea Region, Romania. The study analyzes the thermal vertical profile of apricot orchards for three representative cultivars during summertime. Measurements were done when the soil water content (SWC) was at field capacity (FC) within the rooting depth, after intense sprinkler irrigation applications. Canopy temperature was measured during clear sky days at three heights for both sides of the apricot trees, sunlit (south), and shaded (north). For the SWC studied, i.e., FC, canopy height did not induce a significant difference between the temperature of apricot tree leaves (Tc) and the ambient air temperature (Ta) within the entire vertical tree profile, and temperature measurements by thermal imagery can therefore be taken at any height on the tree crown leaves. Differences between sunlit and shaded sides of the canopy were significant. Because of these differences for Tc-Ta among the apricot tree cultivars studied, lower base lines (LBLs) should be determined for each cultivar separately. The use of thermal imagery technique under the conditions of semi-arid coastal areas with low range of vapor pressure deficit could be useful in irrigation scheduling of apricot trees. The paper discusses the implications of the data obtained in the experiment under the conditions of the coastal area of the Black Sea, Romania, and neighboring countries with similar climate, such as Bulgaria and Turkey.

Copper availability assessment of Cu-contaminated vineyard soils using black oat cultivation and chemical extractants.

Grapevines grown on acid soils with low fertility in southern Brazil are treated with intense foliar applications of copper (Cu) fungicides, resulting in an increased level of Cu in the soil and increased toxicity. The present study evaluated the accumulation and bioavailability of Cu, and soils with varying levels of Cu from the main producing regions of southern Brazil were collected. The forms of Cu present in the soil were assessed using chemical extractants; additionally, oat cultivation was performed, reflecting the use of the plant as an indicator of Cu bioavailability. Cu accumulated in the topsoil, mainly in bioavailable forms, and there was also an increase of Cu up to a depth of 0.4m. Cu was primarily found in the mineral fraction, with apparent saturation of the soil organic matter functional groups. Inceptisol and Alfisol soils with a long history of cupric fungicide application were found to have levels of Cu toxic to oat plants. Furthermore, accumulated copper in Alfisol soil from the Campanha Gaúcha region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul had higher bioavailability compared to Cu accumulated in Inceptisol soil from the Serra Gaúcha region. In addition, the copper concentration in roots was found to serve as an indicator of Cu bioavailability in soil, but not of copper phytotoxicity in plants.

Fast Energy Relaxation by Trap States Decreases Electron Mobility in TiO2 Nanotubes: Time-Domain Ab Initio Analysis.

Highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays can be grown by simple electrochemical anodization of a titanium metal sheet, stimulating intense research and applications to solar cells and fuels. TiO2 nanotubes were expected to exhibit better electron transport than nanocrystal films. However, experiments showed that nanotubes provided little advantage over nanoparticles. Using nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, we demonstrate that oxygen vacancies, which are common in TiO2, accelerate nonradiative energy losses by an order of magnitude. Oxygen vacancies produce localized Ti(3+) states hundreds of millielectronvolts below the TiO2 conduction band. The states lower the nanotube band gap, trap excited electrons, induce stronger electron-phonon couplings, and facilitate the relaxation. Our results rationalize the unforeseen experimental observations and provide the atomistic basis for improving the structure and charge transport by TiO2 nanotubes.

Scheduling intense applications most ‘surprising’ first

Certain streaming applications are required to perform sophisticated analytics within bounded time on arriving streams of data. Such applications have the interesting characteristic that the total amount of work that could be performed is unbounded. We show how recent results from algorithmic theory are useful in scheduling such applications as they allow the efficient creation of synopses of unprocessed data. These synopses can then be used to schedule the processing of the stream. In particular, we describe a preliminary implementation of a scheduler that optimizes the information rate available to applications by estimating the entropy of arriving streams. We describe the theory underlying such a scheduler and motivate how existing programming models can be extended to accommodate it by outlining a basic but functional implementation in the Java programming language.

Evolution of Reactive mPEG Polymers for the Conjugation of Peptides and Proteins

The covalent attachment of methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) is a well established strategy used to improve the pharmaceutical properties of several biomolecules. Since the pioneering work of Abuchovsky, PEGylation has emerged as a powerful technology of significant relevance, not only for the development of new and better drugs, but also for application in material science. Peptides and proteins are the most traditional targets for PEGylation due to their intense and diverse biotechnological applications. The terminal amino group, as well as the ε-amino group of lysine and the thiol group of cysteine, are all well known nucleophilic sites that have traditionally been used to couple peptides and proteins to mPEG derivatives. Advances in the methods for preparation of the mPEG starting materials, together with a careful selection of new mPEG functional end-groups have allowed new reactive mPEGs to emerge, which show narrow polydispersity and controlled reactivity, providing more homogeneous conjugates. In the last few years the trend has moved towards site-selective, reversible and enzymatic PEGylation using a new generation of tailor-made reagents and strategies. The main goal of this article is to present some of the most relevant achievements obtained in the PEGylation of peptides and proteins. The chemistry underlying the current methods used for the preparation of mPEG reagents, as well as the chemistry involved in the PEGylation reactions are presented in detail, in order of stimulating the synthetic and polymer chemist to turn their attention in this fascinating multi and interdisciplinary field of research. Keywords: PEGylation, Poly(ethylene glycol), PEG reagents, Conjugation, Protein PEGylation, Controlled drug release, Activated PEG.

Optical method for characterization of nanoplates in lyosol

In the recent years, two-dimensional nanoparticles (the nanoplates) have become a subject of intense scientific researches and industrial applications. The liquid exfoliation of layered crystals becomes the most simple and efficient manufacturing method of graphene and layered compounds nanosheets. The primary product of the liquid exfoliation is a lyosol – a colloidal suspension of desired nanoparticles in a fluid. The shape of the produced nanoparticles may be determined with the use of an electron microscopy (SEM). In the case of spherical particles the concentration and the particles size can be assessed by the light absorption and the dynamic laser light scattering (DLS) measurements respectively. We propose an optical method for fast and comprehensive characterization of shape and size of nanoplates in a lyosol. The system makes use of an optical goniometer. It allows to measure angular distribution of intensity of the light scattered on the lyosol sample. The distribution of the intensity (indicatrix) depends on the shape and size of the nanoparticles. We developed a method of theoretical indicatrix calculation of the nanoplates with the use of Amsterdam Discrete Dipole Approximation method. The experimentally measured indicatrix is compared with the theoretical calculations (standardized indicatrices). We observed that the nanoplate has a dual character of light scattering. It can scatter light as a “small” or “big” particle according to the direction of the incident light beam. We have applied the proposed method of characterization for a water suspension of graphene nanosheets. Results of the measurements are in good agreement with particles dimensions assessed with the SEM images and do not fit with the graphene dimensions estimated with the DLS method. It leads to a conclusion that the two-dimensional particles size estimation with the DLS is highly inaccurate.